Ownership
Brian Dumas
Chief Executive Officer
Brian Dumas has been at the helm of Victory Enterprises for 20 years and has been a dedicated and influential leader, establishing Victory’s strength and lasting power. As an adept salesman and visionary, he has improved many aspects of Victory’s overall approach to politics, advocacy, and corporate work. Brian’s expertise in politics, campaigns and marketing has led to hundreds of successful efforts over the last two decades.
Dave Hageman
President
Dave is a Partner and President of Victory Enterprises. He has worked as a Senior Consultant to Protect the Harvest. He managed the state-wide campaign for U.S. Senator John McCain in 2008 and was the Executive Director of the Missouri House Republican Committee from 2003-2007. Dave and his wife Kylie were married in 2004 and have four children.
Joe Lakin
Chief Development Officer
Joe is a product of the Missouri legislature, having served in numerous capacities for a number of Speakers of the House, the Majority Leader, Rules Chairman and Redistricting Chairman dating back to 2009. He has been a strategist with the Missouri House Republican Campaign Committee ever since and advises dozens of other candidates across the country.
Following his time in the legislature, Joe oversaw the launch of VE’s digital division which twice won the top Pollie Award for Best Digital Media Campaign for a GOP firm. Joe lives in St. Louis with his wife, Emilee, and daughter Georgia Mae.
Wayne Yocum
Chief Creative Officer
With nearly 20 years of campaign experience, Wayne Yocum leads the writing, graphic design, and multimedia production teams at Victory Enterprises. Wayne completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at Truman State University in 2003, and earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in 2006. After working with the Missouri House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) during the 2004 and 2006 elections, Wayne teamed with David Hageman to launch Victory Enterprises-Missouri in September 2007. Mr. Yocum became a full partner at Victory Enterprises in 2013.
Kelli Grubbs
Chief Financial Officer
She began her career in Davenport in 1990 as an Associate attorney with the Stanley, Lande & Hunter law firm. Nine years and four children later, she left the firm to enter the world of small businesses with her husband, Steve. Originally operating out of the couple’s basement, Victory Enterprises, VictoryStore.com, and VictoryVR now occupy a renovated Davenport elementary school and employ 90 people across multiple states. The flexibility of working around the needs of her children and her community involvement has been a key factor in successfully managing the work/life balance. She currently manages the financial and legal aspects of the three companies and oversees the operational divisions of VictoryStore.com.
Steve Michael
Chief Political Officer
Steve Michael’s long history as a political operative has given him the chance to work in 12 states and consult on hundreds of races all across the country. He got his start by interning for Senator Grassley, going on to be the regional field director for the Missouri Victory Campaign. In 2014 he served as the Political Director for Senator James Lankford. He has consulted on Congressional races, statehouse races, and everything in between. Currently, when he isn’t managing Victory’s political operations, he is working as the South Carolina Victory Director.
Consultants
Brett Dinkins
Missouri State Director
Brett has been involved with politics across the state from the time he was in college, volunteering for campaigns in 2008 and eventually serving as a campaign manager in many high-stakes races in a diverse group of districts. After working with the VE team on a special election in 2017, he joined Victory as a full time consultant. He has been part of two, Pollie-award winning campaigns and holds his BA in Communications with a minor in political science and sociology from Mizzou.
Whitney Michael
Oklahoma State Director
Whitney joined the Victory Enterprises team in 2016, after working alongside a state ballot initiative. She is an energetic and powerful advocate for her clients, making sure every need is met. Her lifetime of experience in Oklahoma politics and familiarity with their unique culture makes her a valuable asset to any team. In 2018, 100% of her clients were elected to office, many with wide margins. If you’re looking for a winning leader and an experienced consultant, Whitney adds value to every team. She is married to Steve Michael and they have two dogs, Aspen and Mac.
Brit Schiel
Wisconsin State Director and Digital Communications Strategist
Along with his regular duties as Wisconsin State Director, Brit lends his talents to many aspects of the VE machine, working with digital clients, marking, and messaging. He has been with the company since 2014. He enjoys the unexpected nature of the work Victory does and has learned to adapt to new challenges in our ever evolving industry through continued research and education. He and his daughter Lydia, 4, live in Milwaukee and cheer on the Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Brewers.
Creative and Support Staff
Leslie Owens
Office Manager
Nothing in this company would happen if it wasn’t for Leslie Owens. As the office manager, Leslie is responsible for overseeing all of our accounting information, keeping us above board on state and federal law, and keeping ownership and consultants up to date with the account information of clients. All shipping goes through her and all HR work as well. Leslie enjoys wearing Packers green and gold into the office on Fridays before a game and plays with a roller derby team in her spare time. We’re incredibly proud of Leslie and her work with this company and thankful she has stuck with us so long.
Cory Done
Research Director
Since May of 2010, Cory has been a valuable member of our team, doing a little bit of everything before he officially took over the role of Research Director. Because we have such a talented researcher in house, clients get the benefit of high-quality work without the cost of outsourcing to another firm. Cory enjoys the challenge of fact-finding and making sense of all the information to help inform our client’s actions throughout their campaign. Whether you have a candidate to research or policy and legislative history to investigate, Cory is the man for the job.
Ben Muehleisen
Head of Production
Ben has been with Victory Enterprises for two years after working as a contractor for the company for four years. He loves the whole process of being on location to film with clients and their families, bringing their stories and ideas to life. As an experienced cameraman and production specialist, he knows how to make people feel comfortable on set and turn hours of footage into a streamlined and effective TV or Web ad. We’re lucky to have such a high-quality media master on the team!
Briana Langlois
Technology Director
Briana started with Victory in 2012 and has helped make our technology and website development team the powerhouse it is today. In an ever-changing field, Briana stays up to date on the latest tech and how we can implement it effectively into our client’s lives and campaigns. She works directly with our clients to make sure they’re satisfied with their project and solving problems all along the way. She is a valuable asset and a strong leader for our tech division.
Kevin Cartwright
Creative Director
Although he started as an Intern in 2012, Kevin has quickly proven that he is an indispensable part of what we do. Now, serving as our Creative Director, he works on the branding and graphic design behind all our collateral, print, digital, web, VR, and media projects. Yes, he really does it all. The opportunity to work in so many departments and try so many different things gives him the ability to create cohesive branding all across a client’s catalog. Having Kevin on staff means we have professional, competitive work every time and we couldn’t do it without him.
Charlie Puyear
Digital Director
In early 2016, Charlie came to Victory ready to fight. His work in 2016 helped win Victory Enterprises a Pollie Award for best digital campaign, effectively setting the tone for how he would manage the digital office. Leadership comes naturally to Charlie as he is the tallest person in our company. As the digital director, Charlie has to deal with the rapid evolution of online spaces and enjoys finding the cutting edge, innovating creative approaches that ensure our client’s strategies are relevant, effective, and impactful.
Josh McInnes
Web and Virtual Reality Developer
Since August 2017, Josh has been a key player in our web and virtual reality space. As tech continues to evolve, Josh is passionate about finding unique solutions to the challenges a growing market brings. Giving our clients a platform to present their ideas is a huge part of what we do and Josh is an incredibly valuable part of making that happen. Whether you need a web presence developed or an entire world built for virtual reality, you can trust Josh to get it done!
Danielle Savage-Hobbs
Senior Communications Consultant
Danielle started in 2017, quickly graduating from intern to full time employee. In her first cycle with the company she worked on hundreds of campaigns across the U.S. and oversaw more than 700 unique mail pieces. In addition to writing for mail and campaign literature, she handles the day to day management of the workflow, political writing for clients, and assists with our marketing team. She covers a lot of bases and we are lucky to have such a versatile writer on our team!
Cynthia Winschel
Digital Ad Operations Specialist
Joining the team in 2018, Cynthia has quickly made herself invaluable placing social media ads and managing digital ad placement budgets. She loves learning about the clients and their stories, finding effective ways to communicate them to voters. She loves pizza so much she could eat it for every meal of every day and has two dogs that she adores more than anything. Every day she comes into work, Cynthia makes a remarkable difference in the lives and online strategy of our clients.