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Associations

Erika Gault

Erika Gault is a Senior Partner and President of Mentavius Designs, LLC, a title that she has now held for the first five years of its lifetime. During that time, revenue has increased steadily year after year, despite market downturns, 'bursting-bubble' mentality, and the globalization and commoditization of Information Technology outsourcing functions. "The market for Information Technology services is again growing, but this time, its coming from the small guy as well as the billion-dollar behemoths and all the folks in between. Information Technology is all about adding value to the customers' bottom line."

Erika began her career in Information Technology in her parents' living room; she began programming the day her family decided to invest in the future and buy a strange new appliance called an 'Apple'. Despite her immediate talent at learning the ins-and-outs of personal computing, she never felt guided during her school years, and assumed that she would go into another field: education. "...that [IT] career track was never even a considered option for girls in my area when I grew up: I can remember sitting in a programming course in my local High School as the only female student, and, coincidentally, the only student without a computer! [Laughs] When I went to college, it kind of manifested itself when I chose music as my major. I think most good programmers are musicians; the math, structure, and joy of creating all are experiences you get from programming and music. Of course, you also get the accompanying headaches. [Laughs] But I always had a 'thing' for programming, and while my teenage years where not filled with technology, in my adult years I made up for lost time."

"One of my first jobs was, of course, in retail; but I found a niche that allowed me to tinker and learn. I ended up working at a national mall-based software store. Now as an adult, I could tweak this stuff [software], in fact, I HAD to to make sales and keep my job. Well, that rekindled my love for programming and I went back to school."

In 1997, Erika returned to college, this time determined to follow her instincts and obtain a degree in the IT field. She enrolled full-time while maintaining two jobs to help support her family. During her first year in school, she was offered an internship with Owens Corning which she accepted. Showing an uncanny ability to build innovative, unique, and productive web-based applications on the fledgling company intranet, she was offered a career position immediately. She accepted and spent her career at that company building state-of-the-art Human Resource Management tools, resource allocation systems, and product development process systems.

In 2001 Erika was considering a change. "By that time, I was strongly considering a career move. Owens Corning was a wonderful employer, but I had always wanted to 'be my own boss'. When [Owens Corning] filed for bankruptcy, I took it as an opportunity to launch my own firm, which would eventually become Mentavius. I guess I'm one of those 'crazy people' that love the challenge of being able to interact with the customers I serve completely and from end-to-end."

Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee is a Senior Partner in Mentavius Designs, a company that he helped formally found in 2001. He spearheads new product development and new service development, as well as internal business flow. "Information Technology (especially thin-client tools) will become crucial to businesses in the coming years. Centralized data management, zero deployment, and low per-seat costs make web-based technologies attractive to businesses looking to streamline their processes. The systems that we have created and/or implemented, return maximum ROI to our customers with minimal cost. That is what I love about Mentavius Designs."

Christopher graduated from The University of Toledo with a degree in Marketing Management. As with all business grads, he began in sales, selling high-ticket business equipment. "While I enjoyed the customer interaction, I always had a vague sense of unease. I felt that my career had become a job, and that selling wasn't the calling I thought it would be. I wanted to make more than money, so I ended up enrolling in college once again. This time, I chose another passion: teaching history."

As with all college students, Christopher found a job to support him during his lean times in school. "Erika and I first met when we were managing that software store. I was an assistant manager, as it would better fit my school schedule, and she had just gotten a job there as an assistant too. Well, her manager left, and then my manager left, and there she is managing two stores, not being there more than two months!"

"Management knew they had a good one in her, as her two stores steadily increased sales quarter after quarter. By the time she decided to leave, she was creating process flows for business practices [that's a mouthful; back then we called it 'tracking stuff'] and I knew that she had a great career ahead of her in business. Well, she decides its time to make a change and move out of retail. So she enrolls in school again and wouldn't you know? Owens Corning picks her up in her first year!"

Christopher continues: "by that time, we had become friends and had worked together pretty steadily for some time. When she left, I made the decision to increase my workload at college and decrease my workload in my job. Well, our circle of friends had been some of the first to build personal web sites, and we had quite a following back then, with some of those sites. When Owens Corning offered her the position, they needed someone to fill her old 'catch-all' job. She recommended me, since she knew my track record and knew that I could perform the basic maintenance that the job required."

"But the environment there was so state-of-the-art, that I found that I could experiment and could create some very engaging applications (and enjoying myself all the while). Evidently, my supervisor noticed as well, as I was offered a career position with the company. It was a tough decision, since I had not yet completed my second degree, but I was having such a good time with the technology, that I felt it was too good an opportunity to pass up!"

"When bankruptcy hit and our division liquidated, I was bitten with the entreprenurial bug. I wanted to create solutions 'my own way'. When Erika offered to combine both of our ventures to form what would eventually become Mentavius Designs, LLC, I absolutely said yes. Everything in this company is a collaboration, even the name. We came up with the name to represent how we feel every day: mentally soaring, doing something we both feel strongly about: maximum value with personal attention to every customer, no matter their size."