Management Team
Joseph W. Waechter | President & Chief Executive Officer
Joseph W. Waechter is Chief Executive Officer for WineDirect, bringing an extensive background in logistics, fulfillment and business management to the position. Waechter joined DHL Worldwide Express in 1973 where he held a number of positions including President and Chief Executive Officer from 1983 to 1987. He joined Air Micronesia, Inc. where he served as President and CEO from 1989 through 1996. He also served as Chairman and CEO of United Micronesia Development Association, Inc, and from 1994 to 1997 was Chairman and CEO of Danao International Holdings, a developer of golf, hotel, and resort projects in Vietnam. From 1998 through 2009 Waechter was Managing Partner of California Pacific Capital, an investor in early stage companies.
J. Roy Martinez | Chief Financial Officer
As WineDirect’s Chief Financial Officer, Roy leads the financial, legal, and human resource functions of the company. His extensive finance and administration background with small private emerging companies and his venture capital experience provide him with the experience and perspective to help Wine Direct maintain and extend its leadership as a market maker and technology innovator within the wine industry.
Prior to joining WineDirect, Roy was CFO at Todocast, Inc., an over-the-top video-streaming startup. In that position Roy oversaw all finance and human resources activities. Additionally, he managed the spin-out of Todocast from its parent, IP Access International, and played a key role in raising equity and debt to finance the company. Prior to Todocast, Roy was a venture capital principal at American River Ventures and a Senior Strategic Investing Manager at Intel Capital.
Steve Waller | Chief Operating Officer
As Chief Operating Officer, Steve oversees the areas of transportation, direct-to-consumer and direct-to-trade distribution and logistics, warehousing and storage, and business process optimization. With more than 30 years of experience in the transportation and logistics industry, Steve possesses the strategic vision necessary to deliver best in class fulfillment service to WineDirect's customers while at the same time maximizing operational efficiencies and reducing costs.
Steve’s extensive background includes a twenty-six year tenure at DHL, where he held various senior management positions in Europe, the Middle East, and the US. Most recently, he held the CEO role at Midnite Express, a Los Angeles based international express logistics group, and the role of President at Global Delivery Systems – SureWay Worldwide, an express transportation and logistics group based in New York City.
Mark Parton | Vice President, Telesales
Mark is the founder of Call for Wine and oversees all telesales services for WineDirect. Mark has 19 years of sales and marketing experience with 15 of those years spent developing and growing inside sales teams. For Call for Wine, Mark spent the last 7 years building and managing inside sales teams for wineries, helping them harness one of their most important assets, a database of longstanding loyal customers. Before that, Mark managed call centers in the technology industry; for Elek-Tek, selling computer hardware and software, Arlington Industries selling wholesale print consumables and The Telemarketing Company (TTC), managing inbound and outbound calling campaigns for various clients and industries. While in the computer industry, he was responsible for growing a business unit from $32 million to $45 million in a two year period. His current passion is introducing this style of direct marketing to the wine industry, allowing wineries to experience the true potential of their customer database. While he was at The Telemarketing Company (TTC), his passion for wine started to take root; and began to meld his two passions: great wine and marketing. As Mark believes, "Why shouldn't the wine industry see the same types of success other industries have had for many years using this type of marketing? With us, they will."
Mark is originally from Chicago, has a BA in Economics from Southern Illinois University and is an avid Cubs fan. He still has season tickets to this day and says that “The Cubs will win the World Series one day and when they do I will be there.” He lives in Oakland with his wife, two daughters and hopes to someday be able to travel again. Over a 15 year period he and his wife traveled through wine country in the United States as well as Europe and South America, visiting wineries in France, Italy, Spain and Chile.
Directors
Dave Manougian: Chairman of the Board
Former CEO | Golf Channel
Robert Ackerman
Managing Director | Allegis Capital
Paul Pappajohn
Partner | Sid R. Bass Associates
Gunnar B. Fremuth
Managing Director | PEI Funds
Joseph W. Waechter
President & CEO | WineDirect
Investors
Allegis Capital
Allegis is a seed and early stage venture capital firm focused on the digital economy. The venture firm has five funds and invested in more than 70 companies including WineDirect, Ironport Systems, RIBBIT, Rent.com, Shopzilla, CompareNet and StepUp Commerce. Based in Palo Alto, California, Allegis has assets under management of $500M. For more information, visit: www.allegiscapital.com.
Sid R. Bass Associates
Sid R. Bass Associates is a venture capital and value added investor, providing capital and access to resources and industry contacts to high growth early-stage and late-stage companies. With $300 million in committed capital, the firm focuses its investments in the software, communications, wireless, security, storage, network infrastructure, media, and consumer and business services sectors. With a long term horizon, the firm partners with seasoned entrepreneurs to grow successful growth businesses through all phases of a company’s development.
PEI Funds
Founded in 1992, PEI is a specialist in small private equity secondary purchases and a primary investor in venture capital, growth equity and buyout funds. PEI is headquartered in New York and has regional partners in Chicago, San Francisco and Tokyo. For more information, visit: www.peifunds.com.
