Management Team
David Nelsen (CEO / Director)
David Nelsen has been a visionary and entrepreneur and has a track record of leading large teams to build business critical solutions with a focus on scalability and system security. He has consistently delivered on multi-million dollar efforts ahead of time and under budget. David has filed 8 patents in fields ranging from data streaming to virtual stored value solutions on mobile devices.
David has put together a synergistic management team and board that include talent from InComm, Blackhawk, Chockstone, First Data and CoinStar. He has a combination of banking experience, operational excellence, and systems and security expertise to take stored value to another level.
Leslie Arifin (CTO)
Leslie Arifin has over 14 years of IT experience building, leading and architecting large projects. He brings the ability to manage teams to implement high-end software solutions using Microsoft’s latest .NET products. He understands the full life cycle of enterprise application development and has delivered for companies like Intel, Tek Systems and Providence Health Plan, while also being skilled in multiple programming languages.
Leslie has successfully architected virtual solutions on over a half dozen card processing platforms in the stored value marketplace. He is a pioneer in the field of virtual stored value and represents a knowledge-base that is unmatched in this industry, with many of the card processors requesting his time to solve key technical hurdles with their own platforms.
Christian Casebeer (COO)
Christian Casebeer oversees Giftango’s operations, customer implementations, and support functions. He has over 12 years of management experience with industry leading technology organizations. Christian has managed multi-million dollar technical project teams and helped build viable profit centers that have led to successful acquisitions by companies like Microsoft.
Christian has a Master’s Degree focused on Management of Technology Start-Ups and is a certified Project Management Professional with a track record of using Best Practice Operational Management concepts to foster sustainable relationships and drive projects to successful and profitable completion.
Michael Fletcher (CMO)
Mike Fletcher has 13 years of business, marketing and financial experience. Most recently, as COO of Point West Credit Union, Mike was responsible for marketing, business development, financial services, member services, lending and product development. Mike brings Giftango an understanding of industry initiatives in alternative payments systems as well as financial and banking experience alongside his career-long focus in marketing, branding and sales.
Prior to Giftango mike spent time analyzing mobile payment initiatives on behalf of the Credit Union industry. Mike’s effort in this field and experience in banking, sales and business development made him a perfect fit for Giftango’s innovative efforts to change the stored value industry.
Bob Greenberg (Director)
Bob is a high-tech entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in growing companies and bringing complex technologies to market. He is a founder and former CTO of Pixelworks, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company that produces image-processing, system-on-chip ICs for high-definition, flat-panel displays. Prior to Pixelworks, Bob was an engineering manager at InFocus, Inc., a leading manufacturer of business and home theatre projectors. While at InFocus, Bob was responsible for many of the breakthrough projector products that made the company a market leader.
Bob has also held electrical engineering positions at Integrated Measurement Systems (now part of Credence), Floating Point Systems (now part of Sun) and Sperry Univac (now Unisys). Bob received his engineering degrees, B.S.E.E. & B.S.Comp.E., from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Richard Wollenberg (Director)
Rick is the former CEO and Chairman of the Board at Longview Fibre. Longview Fibre was publicly traded on the NYSE, with approximately $1 Billion in sales, operations in pulp and paper with 15 corrugated box plans in 12 states, and 589K acres of timberland in Washington and Oregon. The company converted from a C Corp to a REIT in 2007, before the successful sale to Brookfield Asset Management. Rick earned a B.A in Philosophy from Reed College and a J.D. at Willamette University before running a private Law practice for ten years.
Glen Taylor (Director)
Glen Taylor is chairman and CEO of the multinational Taylor Corporation, based in Mankato, MN. Taylor purchased the company in 1975, growing it into one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, providing business and personal communications products, technologies and services. Mr. Taylor is also an active owner in agriculture, medical device and investment businesses and is general partner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx.
Glen earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato. He continued his education at the Harvard Graduate School of Business and served 10 years in the Minnesota Senate, serving as Minority Leader of the Senate from 1984 to 1986.
Larry Lorenzen (Director)
Larry Lorenzen is the Vice President of Corporate Development of Taylor Corporation. Mr. Lorenzen has been leading Taylor’s merger and acquisition efforts for over 20 years, playing a significant role in Taylor’s growth. In this role he oversees corporate services, which includes mergers and acquisitions and business and financial analysis. Prior to joining Taylor Corporation, Lorenzen held positions within the corporate and operational finance functions of several companies involved in the manufacturing of capital goods. Lorenzen earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato.
