Our team comes from a wide variety of exceptional backgrounds in the financial services industry. As a group, majority hold advance degrees in all disciplines, from corporate banking to business administration, marketing, finance, english, engineering and law. We value and utilize the unique talents that each individual offers.

Our team consists of seasoned specialists with years of financial services industry or functional expertise.

Management Team

Paul Schaus Paul Schaus, President

Paul Schaus brings to his position as President of CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, more than thirty years of bank management and consulting experience within the financial services sector.

Prior to forming CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Paul was Executive Vice President for an international consulting firm, where he built the firm's highly successful strategy and project management consulting practice. His move into the consulting world was preceded by a position as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for a regional bank in Washington, DC.
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Susan Connor Susan Connor, Senior Vice President & COO

Susan Connor is Senior Vice President & COO at CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, with primary responsibilities in daily operations, marketing, and public relations. With fifteen years’ experience in the financial services consulting, Susan also directs the company’s business development practice, working with financial organizations to develop and implement sound CRM strategy.
read full bio », Senior Vice President & COO

Dominic Langteau Dominic Langteau, Senior Vice President of Sales

As CCG Catalyst Senior Vice President of Sales, Dominic Langteau responsibilities focus on business development, operations, account management, contact expansion and negotiation as well as establishing increased executive-level relationships. He joins CCG Catalyst with more than 12 years of experience directly serving the financial industry as a client relationship manager and sales professional.
read full bio », Senior Vice President of Sales

Richard Caldwell Richard Caldwell, Senior Vice President of Sales

As CCG Catalyst Senior Vice President, RickCaldwell is responsible for business development and account management in the western United Sates. Rick brings with him more than 40 years of combined banking, consulting and outsourcing experience in the financial services industry.
read full bio », Senior Vice President of Sales

Lily Fish Lily Fish, Vice President, Business Development

Lily brings to her position as Vice President, Business Development, more than 10 years of senior executive sales and marketing experience in various financial services environments including credit unions, banks and thrifts.
read full bio », Vice President, Business Development

Lola Brin Lola Brin, Corporate Senior Vice President

As Corporate Senior Vice President at CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Lola Brin responsibilities focus on managing and developing the company’s business relationships with bank technology providers in the financial industry. Lola has a proven record of developing strong business relationships with key influencers and clients' senior managers.
read full bio », Corporate Senior Vice President

Practice Group Managers

James Defrantz James Defrantz

James brings to his position, as Practice Group Manager of Risk and Compliance, over thirty years of strategic counsel to help banks improve risk and compliance control in today’s ever-changing regulatory landscape. James is an acknowledged subject matter expert in risk management consulting, compliance consulting including BSA; CRA; Fair Lending; Consumer Operations; Non-Deposit Investment Products; Note Department Operations; Assessment of ALL and Credit Approval Process.

Prior to joining CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, James served as consultant to the banking industry in the area of Risk and Compliance. James was a senior compliance examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, analytical manager at the Office of Thrift Supervision and a commissioned national bank examiner at OCC. James advised executive management and board of directors on areas of risk and compliance. His knowledge covers a full range of bank risk and compliance services including program structure, tools, policies and procedures, training and regulatory examinations.
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Lawrence E. Echelmeyer, JR. Lawrence E. Echelmeyer, JR.

As a Practice Director, Larry brings to his position at CCG Catalyst more than thirty years of senior banking executive and consultant experience, with expertise in lines of business, finance, credit, operations and technologies. This comprehensive experience as management consultant and project executive has led to the successful delivery of numerous business transformation, merger integration, operations and information technology projects for financial institutions in the United States and abroad.

Prior to his consulting career, Larry held various senior executive positions with multi-state banks headquartered in California. His chief responsibilities in these roles included strategic planning, internal consulting and project management, general business and risk management, business development, relationship management, credit, treasury services, operations, technology, and community involvement.
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William Fitting William Fitting

William (Bill) Fitting brings to his position as Group Practice Manager, more than thirty years of executive operations experience in the financial services industry. Bill’s background includes several of the industry’s largest institutions, including SunTrust Bank, M&T Bank, and Bank of America, where he managed a broad range of operational areas. He has been an active participant in technology management and global outsourcing.

Prior to joining CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Bill was employed at SunTrust Bank in Atlanta, where he was the Senior Vice President of External Labor in the bank’s technology organization. In this capacity he had responsibility for the acquisition and management of 400+ global resources, as well as for the acquisition of domestic contract programming and consulting resources. While at SunTrust, he also directed a multi-year program to upgrade or replace a significant portion of the institution’s key Treasury Management systems.
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Brian J. Hagan Brian J. Hagan

Brian Hagan is a results oriented financial professional who brings over 30 years of experience advising organizations how to maximize their profitability to his role as Group Practice Manager for CCG Catalyst Consulting Group.

Previous to CCG Catalyst Consulting Group Brian served for the past eighteen years in various financial roles with Brookfield, WI based Fiserv and most recently as Senior Vice President Finance for the Cleartouch and Premier Product groups. Brian has a well-defined knowledge of community banks and their current challenges through his interaction with the client base at Fiserv. In his role with Fiserv Brian was the principal business liaison for all client contracts and brings a wealth of experience in change management, product selection, vendor selection, contract negotiation, vendor management, revenue generations, process re-design and profit improvement to his role at CCG Catalyst Consulting.
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Tripp Johnson Tripp Johnson

Tripp Johnson has been a trusted advisor for over 17 years to banks and credit unions throughout North America. As Group Practice Manager, he advises CIOs/CTOs and other senior executives on strategic issues including the optimal leverage of their remote delivery channels, organizational governance, optimization of their technology platforms, and the strategic use of technology to achieve business and growth objectives.

His specialties include identifying leading edge technologies, as well as defining and justifying strategies for applying technology. He has deep experience in information management, business platform selection, IT Strategy, enterprise architecture, IT assessments, organizational design, multi-channel management and integration, customer relationship management initiatives, as well as, project management and execution. Tripp regularly assists clients with the definition of their technology organization, skills, and governance processes, in addition to the development of business and technical roadmaps that enable strategic business initiatives.
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Lee A. Kidder Lee A. Kidder

Lee brings to his position, as Group Practice Manager, over twenty-five years of senior banking and strategic advisory experience, thought leadership and visibility. Lee is an acknowledged subject matter expert in strategic planning, banking operations, bank technologies and bank delivery. Lee is an innovative leader in the methodology, delivery and execution of strategic planning, combined with expert detailed knowledge of banking operations in branch delivery, commercial lending, mortgage lending, payments, product management and risk management. Lee is skilled in organizational development, learning, team building and change management.

Prior to joining CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Lee was founder of a successful bank advisory consulting firm, BrynMaple Strategies dedicated exclusively to strategic planning consulting. Before forming BrynMaple Strategies, Lee was a Chief Strategy Officer for Fiserv, responsible for strategic planning methodology and annual planning programs for all business units in major operational groups. Lee advised executive management and unit presidents on market analysis, business development, strategic growth planning, execution plans and alignment. Before Fiserv, Lee was Research Director at Needham, MA based TowerGroup, responsible for delivery of strategic thought leadership in banking technology, evidenced through written research papers, articles in industry media, presentations at industry and client conferences, and primary research and advisory consultations for clients. At BankBoston/FleetBoston Financial now Bank of America, Lee held the position of Senior Vice President, Technology & Operations.
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Robert P. Kordus Robert P. Kordus

As a Program Director for CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Bob has over twenty-five years as a subject matter expert with a proven track record in bank project/program management. Bob is proficient in executing complex technology solutions to support business goals and deliver ROI through better technology decisions.

Prior to joining CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Bob was at Talmer Bank & Trust (formerly First Banking Center) and Thrivent Financial Bank (formerly AAL Bank and Trust), Appleton, WI. Bob was the founder of a successful bank advisory consulting firm, Kordus Financial Services. A few of his clients included Metavante Corporation, M&I Mortgage Corp, Northern Trust, Peoples State Bank and Ray Cliff Capital. Before forming Kordus Financial Services, Bob was employed at Atlantic Data Services, Boston, MA; Metavante (now FIS), Milwaukee, WI and Fiserv, Inc., Milwaukee, WI.
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Michael J. Langenkamp Michael J. Langenkamp

As a Group Practice Manager for CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Michael (Mike) Langenkamp has more than twenty-five years of experience as a successful and proven business executive within community banks, super-regional and tier-one financial institutions. Mike is experienced in system evaluations, business development, operations, account management, complex solution sales, team selling, contract expansion and negotiation, and new business unit start-up. An effective Senior Executive who practices a hands-on approach, is comfortable at all levels of an organization, oversees quality delivery, and promotes teamwork while still keeping a close eye on the bottom-line with integrity.

Prior to joining CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Mike served as Acting President and the Senior Vice President of Relationship Management at Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv where he built a team of professionals focused on relationship management, revenue growth and expense control for a base of more than 350 outsourced clients and was responsible for the entire business unit client base of banks, credit unions, savings banks and thrifts across the United States.
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Deborah Potter Deborah Potter

As a Group Practice Manager for CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Deborah leads many of the firm's project management engagements. She brings to the firm her outstanding skills in Project Management, Systems Development and Delivery Methodology, Organizational Change Management, and Business Requirements Analysis. She is also involved with CCG Catalyst bank vendor evaluation, process improvement and strategic planning projects.

Prior to joining CCG Catalyst, Deborah held executive positions in both Operations and Change Management. With her over thirty years in the financial services industry she has developed strong management expertise in information technology, deposit operations, cash management and loan administration.
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Mike Scheuerman, MCP Mike Scheuerman, MCP

Michael (Mike) Scheuerman, as Group Practice Manager brings to CCG Catalyst Consulting Group an extensive over thirty year background as an Information Technology Executive Management professional with widely diversified experience from the computer room to the boardroom. A proven leader in applying technology to business problems, Mike gets results by combining strong interpersonal skills with the ability to implement a vision through practical solutions.

Mike brings systems development and administration as well as a hands-on, leading edge understanding of technology and e-Business / e-Commerce trends within the financial sector. His broad range of experience spans strategic business and technology planning, with a focus upon multi-channel integration that leverages the customer relationship.
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Wes Ware, CFA Wes Ware, CFA

Wes brings to his position, as Practice Group Manager of Risk and Compliance, over twenty-five years of strategic counsel to banks in the area of risk and compliance control in today’s ever-changing regulatory landscape.

Prior to joining CCG Catalyst Consulting Group, Wes served as consultant to the banking industry in the area of Risk and Compliance. Wes was a Senior Bank Examiner and Fiduciary Risk Management Specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; a Senior Bank Examiner and Credit Risk Specialist in the Discount Window Unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City; and a Safety and Soundness Bank Examiner at both the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. He is a specialist in regulatory compliance; risk management; internal audit; business planning; bank lending; financial analysis; due diligence; registered investment advisors; mortgage banking subsidiaries; asset management; hedge funds; and broker dealers.
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