Key Management & Leadership
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Michael Basler serves as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President - Finance & Business Administration for Whelan Security. In this role, he is responsible for managing all accounting, finance, treasury services, risk management, business administration, management information systems, benefit administration, and corporate support activities of the company including all subsidiaries.
Basler has more than twenty-two (22) years of finance and management consulting experience. Prior to joining Whelan Security, Basler spent more than sixteen (16) years at Anheuser-Busch Companies, one of the world's largest brewers, working in Treasury and directly for the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He most recently served as Director, International Treasury and Risk Management where he was responsible for international credit facilities, currency hedging, banking systems and services, and cash controls. Before this position, he directed the company's U.S. based banking systems and services. He also has extensive capital markets and capital investment analysis experience. Before joining Anheuser-Busch, Basler was a management consultant with Deloitte & Touche and Arthur Andersen & Co.
Basler has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia and a Master of Business Administration from Washington University. He is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP).
Mark Porterfield brings twenty-five (25) years of leadership experience in contract security services and law enforcement to Whelan. In his role, Porterfield oversees all contract security operations and service delivery programs. Porterfield leads, manages, and supports all existing regions within the organization and ensures that Whelan maintains consistent, high-quality service delivery to its customers while the company continues its aggressive geographical and vertical market expansion.
Most recently, Porterfield spent the last four (4) years in key roles with AlliedBarton Security Services. From 2006 to 2008, he served in a dual role as Vice President and General Manager of Government Services, a division he started for AlliedBarton, and Vice President and General Manager of the Mid-Atlantic Region. In these roles, he steered the company through the Safety Act Certification and GSA Service Schedule processes, while simultaneously adding significant volume to both divisions. Porterfield also served as South Atlantic Region Vice President - Operations & Training and Vice President of Operations. In these roles, he managed all aspects of the daily operations of a $400 million division spread across a seven (7) state region.
Before joining the contract security industry, Porterfield spent almost nine (9) years as a police officer and was appointed as the youngest Police Chief in Florida in 1992, a post he held through 1998.
Porterfield is actively involved in numerous organizations, including the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), the International Foundation of Protection Officers (IFPO), the American College of Forensic Examiners, the Coalition of Government Procurement, and the National Association of Security Companies (NASCO). He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Columbus University and an Associates of Science degree in Management with Applied Principles in Marketing and Technology from Kaplan School of Business.
Guy Stiebing serves as Senior Vice President – Sales & Marketing for Whelan Security. In this role, Stiebing focuses upon sales management, marketing, brand development and public relations for the company. He is responsible for driving profitable organic sales growth throughout the organization.
With over twenty-five years of sales, marketing and leadership experience, Guy Stiebing brings a tremendous amount of knowledge, expertise and discipline to his role as Senior Vice President – Sales & Marketing. Prior to joining Whelan, Stiebing spent twelve (12) years with Securitas Security Services, USA, most recently in the role of Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing (2003 - 2011). In that role, reporting directly to the CEO, he was the senior executive responsible for all sales and marketing functions and strategies of the North American Division of Securitas with annual revenues exceeding $3 billion USD, over 450 local branch offices, and more than 100,000 security officers. Prior to his executive role at Securitas, Guy served that organization as a Regional Director of Business Development in a Midwestern region that included Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. Stiebing joined Securitas as a result of the acquisition of Burns International in 1999. At the time of that acquisition, Stiebing was Vice President – Sales & Marketing for Burns International responsible for a four state region that included Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Stiebing has a strong background in sales training and is a certified instructor for Professional Selling Skills, Professional Presentation Skills, and Professional Negotiation Skills. Professionally, he is a member of several industry organizations including the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), and the International Facility Managers Association (IFMA).
David Justice brings over sixteen (16) years of management experience in the private sector to Whelan and has nearly ten (10) years of professional law enforcement experience as well. After graduating as salutatorian and class president of his Police Academy class, he worked a variety of uniformed assignments. He was promoted to detective with the Austin Police Department in 1997, where he worked stalking/domestic violence cases and officer involved criminal cases. He also had training responsibilities and conducted training classes at both the Austin and Texas Department of Public Safety's law enforcement training academies. Justice left the public sector in late 1999 to pursue his security consulting business full-time. Before joining Whelan in 2002, he focused his efforts on the third party recruitment of data and network security professionals.
Justice is a Board Certified Protection Professional (CPP) and is active in several industry organizations, including the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) and the International Facility Managers Association (IFMA). Justice was named the recipient of the 2004 ASIS Foundation's Allan J. Cross award and serves as a member of the prestigious Security Services Council at the international level with ASIS, a council that is responsible for determining best practices for the security industry. Additionally, Justice is certified as an Advanced Peace Officer, Private Investigator, Personal Protection Officer, and has law enforcement training in Hostage Negotiation, Interview and Interrogation, Collision Reconstruction, Narcotics Investigation and Workplace/Domestic Violence.
In his role as Vice President, Justice is responsible for full profit and loss management for the South-Central Region, which currently includes branch offices located throughout Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. In addition, Justice is responsible for operational project management, special services, quality assurance, and major account management.
Steven Lisle started his career in the security industry as a Security Consultant working for Wells Fargo Guard Services in Des Moines, Iowa after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Marketing from Iowa State University in 1995. In this role, Lisle was responsible for growth in Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska and Western Illinois. In 1998, Lisle relocated to Minneapolis where he represented Burns, Pinkerton, and ultimately Securitas servicing Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa. After ten (10) successful years, representing his company through mergers, acquisitions, structure changes, and re-branding, Lisle was recruited to Cincinnati, Ohio to become Director of Sales for CBS Personnel - Venturi Staffing Partners, a national human resource and professional placement service where he managed a team of sales professionals in multiple states throughout the Midwest.
During Lisle's career, he has earned multiple "Winners Circle" and "Gold Club" awards and has been consistently ranked amongst the top producing Business Development Managers to include earning the #1 revenue producing spot at the world's largest security corporation.
Lisle is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), and the International Association for Healthcare Security Services (IAHSS). He is also trained in Professional Selling Skills and has been certified as a skilled negotiator by both The Bay Group and Achieve Global.
In his current role with Whelan, Lisle oversees the National Account Program, with a primary focus on sales management, financial management and quality assurance of major multi-regional and national account prospects and customers.
James Schwartz joined Whelan Security in 2001 as a Business Development Manager in St. Louis, Missouri. In that role, he was responsible for sales and marketing as well as management of a portfolio of key accounts located throughout the Midwest. Today, working from our Kansas City regional office, he serves as a Vice President. Prior to joining Whelan, Schwartz was a Client Services Manager and Assistant General Manager of an international contract security company. He has more than sixteen (16) years of experience in private security in the areas of operations management, customer service, financial accountability, training and development, and quality assurance.
Schwartz earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Southeast Missouri State University. In addition, he holds state licenses as a Private Security Contractor in Iowa and Arkansas; and he is an active member of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), the International Facility Managers Association (IFMA), and the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS).
In his role as Vice President, Schwartz is responsible for management of our Kansas City region which includes Western Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas.
Patrick Smith brings over fifteen (15) years of experience in the contract security field to Whelan. Prior to joining Whelan, Smith held several key management roles with local, national, and international contract security companies. Smith began his contract security career working for a locally owned firm in Minneapolis and then later moved to the Kansas City market with an international contract security agency. Smith's most notable position was that of Regional Vice President for Barton Protective Services where he was responsible for the northern California region which included more than 2,500 security officers. While in that position, Smith developed expertise in downtown high-rise and corporate campus markets.
Prior to entering the security industry, Smith served six (6) years of honorable service in the United States Army Special Forces with multiple overseas deployments including a six (6) month combat tour of duty in Somalia.
In his role as Vice President, Smith is responsible for all contract security operations and service delivery programs in our north-central region which currently includes branch offices located throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, Northern Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio. He leads, manages, and supports all existing branch offices within the assigned region and ensures that Whelan maintains consistent, high-quality service delivery to our customers while the company continues its aggressive geographical and vertical market expansion. In addition, Smith also assists with major account transitions and flagship account management.
Dan Twardowski is a graduate of Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, where he earned dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Economics.
In his role as Vice President, Twardowski is responsible for management of our St. Louis, Kansas City, Arkansas, and Tennessee regions including senior management of our flagship office in St. Louis, Missouri. In addition, he has an active and influential role in any and all strategic, financial, and corporate governance issues and/or decisions within the company.
Working in the contract security industry for more than eighteen (18) years, Twardowski brings a wealth of experience to the organization. Under his leadership and guidance, the flagship office in St. Louis has grown by more than 200% and operates as the largest contract security office in the St. Louis Metropolitan area and one of the largest in the Midwestern United States.
Twardowski is an active member of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) and the International Facility Managers Association (IFMA); and he represents Whelan Security within the National Association of Security Companies (NASCO). In addition, Twardowski is an active and current member of the Board of Trustees of Fontbonne University where he serves on multiple committees.
Carlos Villarreal serves as Senior Vice President - Commercial Real Estate Services for Whelan Security. In this role, he directly manages and oversees all high-rise security programs for Whelan's commercial real estate customers throughout the country.
Prior to joining Whelan, Villarreal served as Vice President of National Security and Life Safety at Trizec, a real estate investment trust which owned and managed a portfolio of sixty-one (61) Class "A" office buildings totaling approximately forty (40) million square feet of space concentrated in seven (7) major markets in the United States. As Vice President of National Security and Life Safety, Villarreal was instrumental in developing proactive and comprehensive security programs, policies, and procedures designed to promote the safety and security of Trizec's building tenants and properties. Villarreal also demonstrated his expertise, professionalism, and sensitivity as the Director of Security for Trizec Properties at the Sears Tower - before, during and after 9/11. At the Sears Tower, he was responsible for providing a comprehensive security and life safety program to more than 10,000 occupants of a mixed-use Class "A" super structure.
A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Villarreal is a certified Health and Safety Instructor with the American Red Cross, a member of the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), and a Certified Security Trainer (CST) with the Academy of Security Educators and Trainers. Villarreal served four (4) years as a Board member for the Illinois Security Chiefs Association and currently serves as the Vice Chair for the ASIS Commercial Real Estate Council.
Additionally, Villarreal developed "Corporate Security Officers' Training," which received accreditation from the Illinois Community College Board in 1994 and "The Property Management Security Professional," which received state accreditation in 1998. Villarreal has an extensive background in emergency preparedness and response planning. Given his years of industry experience and his involvement in numerous real estate, security and related trade associations, Villarreal is a widely acclaimed and frequent speaker and media resource on matters related to national security and life safety, from terrorist attacks to natural disasters.
