Joe Welu fosters a culture of learning and innovation at Total Expert, a customer engagement platform for financial enterprises. Under his leadership, the St. Louis Park company expanded its offerings in 2023 to include tech solutions for the insurance industry. Its latest platform innovation, Customer Intelligence, combines borrower-intent data with automated marketing and sales. This has helped drive growth and build lasting customer relationships through personalized communication, resulting in a 10% increase in lead to application and doubling customer retention for financial institutions. In just 10 months, 27 institutions using Customer Intelligence were able to uncover more than $9 billion in application volume, amounting to more than $4 billion in funded loans. Welu also believes in giving back. In the past year, Total Expert raised nearly $4,000 in a virtual food and fund drive for Second Harvest Heartland.