Leadership
Meet The Team
We are a deeply experienced, multidisciplinary team with a passion for Gift Cards. We are disrupters, entrepreneurs, and professionals with over 100 collective years in the gift card industry that have come to together to build a company we can be proud of and you can be confident in, TOTUS.
We also really enjoy working together, and when you match great chemistry with drive, talent, and knowledge...Great things are going to happen!
David’s background has been primarily in the payments and electronic commerce industries in which he has over twenty years of experience and three successful entrepreneurial exits. David’s most recent role was serving as the General Manager of the Digital and Incentives Divisions of Blackhawk Network, a leading global gift card provider acquired by Silverlake Private Equity in 2018.
David’s previous company CardLab, a leading online retailer of gift cards, was acquired by Blackhawk Network in August 2014. Before founding CardLab, David served as Vice President of Corporate Development for Fiserv. Prior to Fiserv, David served as Vice President of Payment Strategy for JP Morgan Chase leading the consumer payments group, a $120MM business unit providing payment products to large corporate clients of the bank.
Prior to joining JP Morgan Chase, David founded and served as the Executive Vice President of billserv, Inc., a publicly traded electronic bill presentment and payment company later acquired by American Express. During his tenure at billserv, David also served as President of bills.com, a consumer bill presentment and payment portal.
David holds a MBA from Southern Methodist University, enjoys travel, gaming and mixed martial arts. David is the proud father of Chase (Eckerd College ’20) and Sterling (UCLA ’21), who both picked up the entrepreneurial bug.
Mike has over 20 years of experience building organizations in the FinTech and Gift Card space, with expertise in building teams to execute Strategy, Business Development and Client Success. Most recently, Mike spent 10 years in a senior leadership role at SVM developing and launching the first fully outsourced Gift Card Issuance + Program Management Model for Small and Mid-Tier retailers, having successfully launched programs for Untuckit, The Honest Company, CuriosityStream and ThredUP among others. After the acquisition of SVM by Blackhawk Network, Mike built the Issuance + Program Management product and sales team for Blackhawk Network while overseeing brand management and B2B sales teams. Mike also spent a year as Vice President with WeGift, a digital-first global gift card distribution platform, leading the Global Partnerships team and managing over 1,000 global retail partners across 30 countries.
Prior to working in the payments industry, Mike spent 7 years in the B2B lending space as a senior leader of the Client Success and Operations teams for Nationwide Funding. Under his leadership, Mike helped build this start-up business from 7 employees to over 150, leading to an acquisition by industry leader American Capital Group in 2008.
Away from the gift card industry, you can usually find Mike doing one of two things: finding excuses to travel back to Hawaii with his wife and two daughters, or following Pearl Jam around the globe (63 shows and counting!) while re-living the glory days of playing guitar and touring with his own band.
Brian has spent 20 years in the payments industry, founded 5 different payment companies, holds 2 patents and is considered by many to be a leading tech innovator in the payments startup space. Before joining Totus Brian was SVP of Engineering at BillGO where he ran the Integrations team which is responsible for all of BillGO’s 50,000 integrations to Billers, the Prism App which enabled over 300,000 consumers to be able to pay bills and co-founded Godev which is BillGO’s go to market Fintech solution. Prior to BillGO Brian co-founded GiftDeals which enabled third-party GiftCard exchanges and CardNow which is an industry first B2C solution which enables an on-hand box of GiftCards that allows consumer to load cards using a mobile app. Brian also worked at Blackhawk Network where he ran engineering for eCommerce and managed a $1.5 billion Incentives business unit. Before Blackhawk Brian co-founded Cardlab which enabled B2C and B2B for GiftCards which was acquired by Blackhawk for company valuation of $70MM.
In his spare time Brian is married with 3 kids (8, 15, 17), 2 standard poodles (Magneto & Maximus) and a Paint Horse called Macho. He attempts to do oil-painting, long walks in the Colorado mountains and Line dancing with his wife.
Julie has over 20 years of experience building teams dedicated to providing white-glove order fulfillment, program design, client services, product management and fraud prevention. She joined the SVM team in 2005 when the business had a small-but-mighty B2B focused operation. In the following years, Julie successfully managed SVM’s rapid operational growth in the incentive and issuance markets; experiencing a ten-fold increase in order volume while maintaining SLAs and exceeding client expectations.
Over the years, Julie’s eye for fraud detection became instrumental in mitigating risk; working with processors, clients, and retailers alike to identify fraudulent behavior and implement prevention measures to reduce loss. She participated in several industry risk forums including an invitation to join a fraud panel at an industry conference. After SVM’s acquisition by Blackhawk Network in April 2020, Julie worked to successfully migrate SVM’s operation to NGC in August 2021.
Julie loves to travel to Paris but has yet to find a comparable baguette Stateside. She holds a B.S. in Hotel Administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Keith brings over 20 years of gift card industry expertise to the TOTUS team. Keith has led gift card teams for major brands (Circle K, ConocoPhillips, 76, Sears, Kmart), developed “gift card mall” programs in the US and Europe, consulted for gift card industry service providers, spoken at gift card and prepaid conferences globally, and founded TheGiftCardCentre.co.uk – the UK’s first online gift card mall.
For the past 4+ years Keith has focused his energies on gift card Issuance and Program Management, heading up business development for SVM and Blackhawk Network, working with major brands to develop outsourced solutions. Keith’s passion is gift cards, and in helping brands fully maximize their multi-channel gift card potential.
Keith is a University of Michigan graduate, a die-hard Cubs fan, and hopes to re-earn his airline elite status soon.
Dan has 25 years of experience from both large enterprises and startups across many fields including business strategy, product management, product marketing, channel management and sales.
He recently worked at BillGO as SVP of Bill Pay, developing their API and hosted bill pay solutions for banks and fintechs. Previously, he was at Workstride as Chief Product Officer developing Channel and Employee Incentive Platforms. Earlier, Hawtof held the role of Vice President of Product & Business Strategy at Blackhawk Network in which he was responsible for prepaid reward products and platforms, consumer and B2B eCommerce platforms, and Consumer Rebate / Channel Incentive platforms.
Dan’s expertise in designing, building, and implementing solutions across a variety of industries including retail, consumer, technology, industrial and medical markets has helped numerous clients develop effective and high-quality platforms to deliver on the solution promise.
Dan holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Michigan and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. In his free time, he enjoys snow skiing, sailing, hiking, and dining with friends and family.
Hollis brings 20 years of experience in the gift card industry as a transformational leader helping dozens of major brands in beauty, entertainment, fashion & apparel, dining, and more improve their gift card programs and the marketing of their brands. Prior to the gift card industry, she worked in the marketing/promotions industry. Hollis recently was awarded by her peers the Incentive Marketing Association’s inaugural “Incentive Industry Influencer” award for her level of influence on the professional development and advancement of the incentive industry. She is currently the Incentive Gift Card Council President and sits on the board of the Incentive Marketing Association.
With experience leading teams through rapid growth, Hollis has previously held senior roles with Blackhawk Network, assisting partners with strategically growing their gift card programs, and with MetaBank (now Pathward) as a Partner Account Director.
Hollis has been active for many years as a volunteer in the gift card industry – serving on boards, committees and presenting at various events and webinars. She has a BS in Communications from Regents College. Having lived in several cities over the years, Hollis enjoys traveling and seeing old friends and exploring new places. She also enjoys time with her three children and golden retriever, Maggie.
Nicole has over 13 years of experience in the gift card industry, most of which were spent with SVM managing the gift card programs of top tier clients in the oil, retail and travel industries. Alongside her client management responsibilities, Nicole was instrumental in successfully launching new gift card programs, innovative digital product offerings and fraud mitigation tools.
After SVM’s acquisition by Blackhawk Network in 2020, Nicole joined their brand relations team responsible for implementations and ongoing program management. She was responsible for onboarding new clients, enhancing existing gift card programs and ensuring client satisfaction. Nicole takes pride in a be-the-brand mentality and building long-lasting relationships with partners and clients.
In her free time, Nicole enjoys spending time with her husband and three children bouncing from gyms to fields at various sporting events. She holds a B.A. in Marketing from Saint Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.
CJ has over 10 years of experience in the gift card industry. Eight of those years were spent with SVM helping build world class, white glove customer service. CJ was instrumental in the integration and management of SVM’s B2B online ordering platform, supporting over 100 million dollars in closed and open loop sales annually. He also assisted in managing the compliance of SVM.
After SVM’s acquisition by Blackhawk Network, CJ spent time in compliance assisting with due diligence and supplier risk management. Both at SVM and Blackhawk Network CJ streamlined internal processes and procedures to reduce cost and improve efficiency. In his free time CJ enjoys spending time with his two children, visiting family, and the outdoors. Additionally, CJ works to educate the world of accepting individuals with disabilities.
Emily has over 10 years of experience in the gift card industry, most of which were spent with SVM spearheading the Implementation department and processes for issued clients. She also managed the Program Services department which performed daily customer service for the B2B fulfillment programs. After SVM’s acquisition by Blackhawk Network, she continued to implement and advocate for the issued brands and ensure successful launches in the B2B and 3rd Party Retail spaces.
Emily spends her free time with her husband, daughter and rescue dog in Milwaukee exploring beer gardens, coffee shops and running trails. She earned a B.A in Economics from DePauw University and serves on boards for Best Buddies, Kappa Alpha Theta, DePauw and her local library.
