Our Leadership Team
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Jay Bruber, CEO
Jay Bruber joined Simek's Quality Foods in 1980 and with his strong entrepreneurial spirit put the frozen, prepared-food company on the retail map. Jay developed a solid growth plan to expand Simek's footprint first in the Twin Cities market and then throughout the broader Upper Midwest market. Simek's currently supplies frozen meats, side dishes and meals to more than 900 grocery and convenience stores in five states, including the Twin Cities and Chicago areas. In 1999, Jay brought his retail skills and understanding of customers to BankCardServices Worldwide (BCSW), creating an online application process widely respected in the field. Jay has helped BCSW become a major player in the merchant account provider industry. His focus on continuous improvement and superior customer service, as well as his outstanding marketing skills, helped BCSW attain a 250 percent growth rate in 2007.
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Julie Bruber, President
Bringing more than 15 years of credit card processing experience with her, Julie Bruber founded BCSW in 1993. Since then, she has helped create relationships with five domestic banks and four international banks-enabling BCSW to provide credit card processing services to a wide variety of businesses in the United States and around the world. Under Julie's direction, BCSW has more than quadrupled its customer base and gross profits. She continues to lead BCSW through a planned growth cycle by developing new business relationships and working with customers in a "Partners for Profit" program that supports them in their efforts to grow their business.
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Vince Arnoldi, Vice President of Operations
Vince's professional career includes extensive experience in retail and project management involving point-of-sale efforts for a Fortune 500 company. His current role with BCSW includes managing day-to-day operations, overseeing internal technical infrastructure, and managing BCSW's top partners and clients. Vince has helped implement one of the most technologically advanced application processes in the industry and has assisted in integrating payment processing for one of the largest school lunch websites in the country. Along with technology support, Vince and his team are responsible for providing extensive reporting and margin analysis to both BCSW and its clients. Vince has a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.
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Warren Mack, Advisory Board
Warren is an attorney at the Minneapolis law firm of Fredrikson & Byron, P.A., where he concentrates his practice on corporate, health and tax law. His clients include business owners and managers, clinics and hospitals. Warren has held leadership positions at Fredrickson & Byron, serving as chairman of the board from 1997-2002 and president and CEO from 1985-1997. Warren writes and lectures frequently on health, tax, and corporate law topics and has taught business law as an adjunct professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Warren currently serves on three charitable boards and five business corporation boards, both public and private. He was recognized as one of Minnesota's Outstanding Directors by Twin Cities Business in October 2006.
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Ken Kroening, Advisory Board
Ken has over 30 years of leadership experience as a financial executive, including CFO and vice president roles in the retail financial services industry involving large grocery retail chains and insurance subsidiaries. He also has a background in finance and accounting, serving in controller and corporate accounting leadership roles in retail financial services settings. His proven success in achieving profitable, sustainable and rapid growth in the areas of strategic financial planning, IT, brick-and-mortar expansion and annual revenue are highly valuable to BCSW. Ken also participates in ongoing education within the retail financial management world as an Adjunct Faculty Member at University of St. Thomas Center for Business Excellence-College of Business.
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Craig Bollum, Advisory Board
Craig Bollum is a principal with Solutions for Businesses, LLC, a consulting firm based in Apple Valley, Minn., that he founded in 2002. He has many years experience assisting clients with financial management, strategic planning, growth strategies, general management, and turnarounds spanning a broad spectrum of companies, industries and sizes. Craig came to Solutions for Businesses from U.S. Bank, where he served as a senior vice president of business banking, bank president and senior credit officer. One of his last assignments with U.S. Bank, before leaving to start Solutions for Businesses, was managing a billion-dollar loan portfolio of small to mid-market business customers in the Minneapolis area. Craig grew the portfolio by more than 20 percent annually for five consecutive years by helping under-performing businesses succeed in implementing new growth strategies. He has been active with the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce and has served on several charitable and business boards in the Twin Cities.
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