The Brilliance Team

The lessons that guide Brilliance Business Solutions’ success began on a launching pad, when company founder Lori McDonald served as part of the team that put NASA’s Space Shuttle missions into orbit. McDonald leads Brilliance Business Solutions with over 20 years of computer engineering and software development experience.

While performing the technical task of managing the Shuttle’s in-flight data recorders at Mission Control in Houston, Lori also gained an invaluable personal insight from the dedicated NASA professionals working around her. It’s only natural that when McDonald transitioned from space science to web development and from Houston Texas to Milwaukee Wisconsin, a focus on creativity and reliability continued as a common thread. “Everybody loves an impressive, exciting web site,” she said, “but unless it achieves its practical business goals it’s like a rocket that never gets off the ground.”

Lori graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer-Electrical Engineering. She is a Microsoft Certified Professional. Her status as a recognized industry expert has resulted in regular speaking engagements at business conferences. Lori has been working with ACTION Business Coaching since December 2007 as she believes that improving herself, her leadership and her focus are critical for the ongoing success of Brilliance Business Solutions.

When Lori is not at work, she enjoys her family. She is married to David and has two boys. She enjoys living out her faith through service at her church, Transformation City Church, and in her community. She has a passion for making a difference in the lives of those in need and has worked with Milwaukee foster care as well as work on over 10 mission trips focused on home repair projects throughout the United States. Lori believes that those who lead best serve others first and she hopes this servant-based leadership is evident to every client of Brilliance Business Solutions.

David McDonald guides the daily operations of Brilliance Business Solutions with over 25 years of software development experience with an emphasis on business intelligence, data warehousing and database management. McDonald graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and during college he worked for NASA - Johnson Space Center as a Shuttle Operations team member on 7 shuttle flights. David left NASA to pursue a career outside of the Aerospace industry and began working for Rockwell Automation.

Dave worked for Rockwell Automation for 15 years. During this time, he worked for 3 years as a field application engineer helping Rockwell customers implement their automation systems. He then joined a group for 12 years designing, architecting, and program managing a 15 person team that built and maintained the largest custom eCommerce and marketing system and database at Rockwell.

David serves as the Development Director at Brilliance Business Solutions. He is an Episerver Certified Developer. David enjoys finding ways to create a better world by:

1. Helping customers succeed through websites and software technology
2. Growing the Brilliance team
3. Giving back to the community

Before Jared started his professional career, he obtained a Bachelor's in Business Administration from St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI. After quick stints in the banking and construction industries, Jared found himself employed by Canon Solutions of America (formerly Canon Business Solutions). At Canon, Jared put his love of technology to practice and focused on selling software to manage printing within large organizations. Despite his love for software, an opportunity to advance his sales career and begin selling into the mobile app/web development arena came from the Ken Cook Co. For several years, Jared worked with manufacturing companies on utilizing technology in the workforce.

When Jared is not at work he loves spending time with his wife, boys and their dog Bernard. He also loves the outdoors, boating, movies and food (especially if he’s on the grill).

With over 10 years of business analyst experience, Eric helps Brilliance clients turn their vision into a workable solution.  Eric holds a Management Information Systems degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  Prior to joining Brilliance Business Solutions Eric spent 9 years with Rockwell Automation.  During his time there, he ascended from data technician to program/data lead within the Global Customer Information group where he used global sales data to improve customer data management and reporting.  After Rockwell Automation, Eric spent three years with Kohl’s Corporation as a program/project manager in the Technology department, where he led the 2018 returns program managing the development of several cloud based applications.

Eric is a fan of all Wisconsin sports teams, especially the Green Bay Packers.  He spends his free time competing in obstacle races and mastering vintage video games.

Angela serves as the People Operations Manager at Brilliance Business Solution and prior to joining our team, she worked at Troubadour Bakery as a production baker and office manager. At Troubadour, she had the opportunity to develop recipes and create new products to be sold at Colectivo and other cafes around Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Before moving to Milwaukee, Angela's career included being a summer camp office manager, art student, AmeriCorps volunteer, and classroom tutor.

When she is not at Brilliance, Angela enjoys spending time with her husband, Chris, baking at home, reading a book with her cat, Panza, on her lap, or making new art or craft.

Amy joins Brilliance with more than 15 years of Ecommerce and web content experience.  From Harley-Davidson to Bon-Ton Stores, she oversaw implementation of integration with Amazon and enabled product daily uploads while monitoring: customer service processes, shipment and deliveries processes, inventory levels, warehouse concerns, and promotions. She enjoys facing challenges head on and using them to learn and grow, both professionally and personally.

George has played many roles in the project life cycle including Systems Analyst, Systems Developer, Project manager, Strategic planner, Agile using Scrum manager, Disaster planning and recovery planner, Data analyst, and ETL and Data Mapping developer and analyst.  Now he is bringing his 18+ years of experience to Brilliance as a Business Analyst helping our customers achieve their goals in e-commerce.

Jon Elslager is a seasoned Business Analyst with over a decade of experience in the E-Commerce industry, including more than 5 years specializing in BigCommerce. He has a proven track record of managing e-commerce projects and teams, delivering solutions that meet business objectives and customer expectations. Jon is known for his creative problem-solving skills and continuous learning approach.

Jon holds a degree in Theatre from North Central College and a degree in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Experience Highlights:

• Senior Manager of Digital Operations, Chamberlain Group (Aug 2021 - Feb 2024): Led cross-functional initiatives, developed strategic roadmaps, and optimized workflows.
• Senior Project Manager and BigCommerce Department Manager, Americaneagle.com (Aug 2017 - Aug 2021): Managed multidisciplinary teams, improved platform relationships, and drove project success.

Jon is dedicated to advancing e-commerce strategies and is eager to connect with others in the industry to discuss trends and innovations.

Kim graduated from Lewis University with a degree in Marketing. She is a skilled marketing professional, passionately focused on exceeding goals and maintaining quality customer service. She has years of experience as a customer service coordinator in eCommerce, performing UAT for site changes, supporting IT in JIRA testing and new site implementations, and managing eCommerce customer support.

When Kim is not at work, she enjoys cooking new recipes and spending time outdoors whether it be exploring new places or relaxing with family and friends on a patio. She also enjoys watching the Milwaukee Bucks!

Kayleigh graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Digital Studio Practice. She has over seven years of experience in design and front-end development with a focus on user experience and marketing. Kayleigh is passionate about creating work that both looks great and is user friendly.

When Kayleigh isn't at work she enjoys spending time with her husband, reading, painting and hanging out with her cat and dog. 

Drew graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a Master of Science degree in Computer Science with a focus on programming languages and compiler technology. During his career, his development work has utilized many technologies, including ASP.NET Forms and MVC, NServiceBus and REACT.

He specializes in B2B eCommerce development with ERP integration and is a Episerver Certified Developer, as well as a Microsoft Certified Professional (Microsoft HTML5 with JavaScript & CSS3 Certification). As a Lead Developer at Brilliance, Drew serves as a technical lead and architect on Episerver projects.

Drew lives in Milwaukee with his wife, boys and their terrier/beagle/whippet, Lucy.

Mike graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in Computer Science and specializes in B2B eCommerce development at Brilliance.  Before joining the Brilliance team, he worked at Direct Supply in IT Support and moved on to Entech as a PHP Programmer.

He is an Episerver Certified Developer with experience in CMS and FIND, as well as a Microsoft Certified Professional (Microsoft HTML5 with JavaScript & CSS3).

When not at work, Mike enjoys spending time with his fiancé and friends.

Clay graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a BBA in Management Information Systems. Prior to joining the Brilliance team, Clay worked at Advicent Solutions as a Quality/Automation Developer on Financial Advising software and more recently worked on IoT Monitoring applications at Generac Power Systems.

When Clay isn't at work, he enjoys tinkering with new programming languages, playing games, and spending time with friends.

Caleb graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stout with a B.S. in Game Design and Development focused in Computer Science. Before joining Brilliance, he worked for the Marshfield Clinic Health System creating their new EHR software and maintaining various affiliated websites.

Graduated from UW - La Crosse and started working as a software developer in 2014 at a financial software company. Before coming to Brilliance, Sam worked at National Business Furniture developing full stack features for their ecommerce site.

Petr graduated from the Brno University of Technology with a Master of Science degree in Bioinformatics and Biocomputing.  He specializes in B2B eCommerce development, mostly working on Episerver projects as an Episerver Certified Developer. Before focusing on eCommerce development he worked on logistics softwares and also automated warehouses for an Austrian company.

Petr currently lives in small village near Brno in Czech Republic.

Will knew he wanted to be a developer ever since he was a kid. At the age of 10 years old, he tinkered around in the Scratch programming language and batch scripts. When he got a CNC Programming job at The Prestwick Group in high school, he created macros in VBA for Excel to increase efficiency resulting in saved time and money for the company. Will obtained an Associate’s in Computer Science from Waukesha County Technical College in Waukesha, WI. He remained at The Prestwick Group for the following 4 years in the IT department gaining extensive knowledge in the manufacturing industry, Salesforce, KBMax, and implementing NetSuite ERP.

Enjoys designing and developing web applications, RESTful API, databases, and Azure. Also works on the development of the front-end or client side of the application using Angular and React.