The Northwoods Team

Gary Heinze’s mission is a simple one: leave the world a better place than when he got here. Building a company that’s dedicated to shaping the future of social care is just one way Gary fulfills that mission.

Gary founded Northwoods in 2003 to provide software solutions that empower human services agencies and workers to focus on what matters—the people who need help. As chairman of the board, he provides strategic counsel to guide Northwoods’ future while focusing on new and different ways to help social workers in their important work.

Gary is always looking for ways that Northwoods can do more, give more, and grow more to be not just a software company, but a place that leaves a lasting and meaningful impact on the world.

After two decades of leadership in industrial, healthcare, and medical technology companies, Dave Minning was drawn to Northwoods' focus on human services and purpose to elevate humanity. His goal is to encourage everyone at the company to live that purpose, while also translating it into business outcomes.

As CEO, Dave is leading Northwoods into our next phase of growth within human services by creating an environment that fosters innovation and creativity, while holding people accountable to their commitments to our stakeholders. He does this by promoting a culture of ownership and trust that empowers every individual and team to leave a measurable mark on Northwoods’ success.

Dave isn’t afraid to take risks, embrace new ideas, and step outside his comfort zone to achieve great things. Pairing this growth mindset with his “get-it-done” mentality, Dave will help Northwoods make the lasting impact its founders set out to achieve 20 years ago.

The world doesn’t just need companies that build technology; it needs companies that can find a purpose for the technology they build. That’s why Rich Diers comes to work every day.

Rich believes in “falling in love” with customers’ problems—watching what they do, how they do it, and where they struggle—and then using the insights he collects to create software that helps solve those problems in new and unique ways.

Brian LaMee loves technology almost as much as he enjoys showing people how it can change their lives for the better. He works at Northwoods because he can see the impact our solutions have on social services agencies and knows that their clients can get the care they need faster because of what we do.

Brian is constantly learning, asking questions, and finding new ways to solve problems. He thrives on understanding how people communicate, learn, and research so he can break down complex topics in a way that makes them make sense to anyone. This all comes in handy in the technology world, which can be intimidating and hard to understand (often when it doesn’t have to be).

Bringing together his passion and prowess as Northwoods’ chief marketing officer, Brian oversees marketing, advocacy, services, customer success, and technical communication and training. His goal is to continuously adapt our channels and messages to help organizations find us, learn about our solutions, and understand how we can help them realize the benefits of our technology.

Nick Patel has spent the past 17 years helping large and small businesses make informed, smart financial decisions. What attracted him to Northwoods is our commitment to collaboration and working together toward a common, meaningful mission. More importantly, working here gives Nick the ability to combine his business and technically savvy with his own personal goal of making sure all children are healthy, cared for, and safe.

As chief financial officer, Nick is responsible for overseeing Northwoods’ financial health to ensure the business is in a position for continued growth, while investing in our people, products, and mission. He focuses on providing Northwoods’ leadership team with the insights and information they need to make data-driven decisions that help to push the company forward.

Steve Roth thrives working with smart, passionate people to build great technology products that make the world a better place. He gravitates toward mission-driven companies and joined Northwoods because of our people, purpose, and culture.

As chief product officer, Steve oversees product delivery, product management, and customer support. He combines deep technical, product, and business acumen with customer input to make sure we build products that deliver value, solve problems, and help human services agencies achieve their goals.

Steve knows it takes a village to create great software that users love. He focuses on removing obstacles, asking questions, and setting goals so his team can realize their best results and focus on what matters most—improving the lives of customers who are doing incredibly valuable work.

Debra Voss is a connector. Whether it’s people, products, or ideas, she thrives by finding the similarities between two things and bringing them together to achieve greatness. This passion for connecting the dots is rooted in her innate ability to put people at ease by talking, sharing struggles, and collaborating to solve problems.

As vice president of sales, Debra leverages these superpowers to identify opportunities to impact outcomes for human services agencies in new and better ways. She’s here to help our sales and leadership teams develop and execute on a growth strategy that empowers us to go further faster.

Debra previously spent more than 20 years working with hospitals and health systems to innovate and improve patient engagement. Now, she looks forward to making this same mark in human services—helping agencies leverage emerging technology and automation to increase efficiency and client engagement. Her ability to connect, lead, and inspire will allow Northwoods to have greater impact on both the people who use our technology and those they serve.

Success at Northwoods isn't about the software we sell, it's about the people whose lives we impact by selling it. Michael Drabek thrives on knowing we offer solutions that empower the human services workforce to provide holistic benefits, treatment, and services to the vulnerable people they help.

As vice president of sales for local government, Michael coaches and mentors Northwoods' business development representatives so they can grow and nurture business at the county level.

One of the original members of our sales team, Michael knows the challenges of government buying better than anybody in the business. He uses this insight to lead his team in developing more structured and proactive approaches to selling, while providing agencies with the information they need to make technology decisions that support their mission and position them to achieve long-term success.

A former social worker in public child welfare, Laura Haffield has seen first-hand how social workers quietly do what needs to be done to help and heal those in need, often while receiving little recognition or community support. Social work is an underserved profession in many ways, but Laura will never stop trying to change that.

Laura excels amplifying voices of those long gone unheard, getting curious and asking questions to understand problems, and communicating in ways that make sense to each person based on what motivates them. This combination serves her well as director of advocacy, where she’s the bridge between Northwoods’ internal and external audiences. Laura’s job is ensuring that the needs, challenges, and voice of human and social services agencies are known and listened to by everyone at Northwoods. She also engages industry groups and associations to share how Northwoods’ solutions and approach to business can help solve important problems.

Laura thrives knowing that working for Northwoods means working for a company that makes the social worker the most important person in every decision, from what we build, to how we implement, to how we support our partners along the way.

Jonathan (Jon) Eakins thrives knowing every day he’s counted on to contribute to a company that helps not only the workers who rely on its software, but also the communities in which those workers serve. As Northwoods’ director of services, Jon is able to do just that.

Jon has been a key contributor and leader during Northwoods’ expansion in human services sector. He draws on nearly two decades of experience integrating our technology with agencies’ business processes to provide a complete and comprehensive solution.

Jon has a knack for looking at a project from all sides to understand the key customers involved—How are they wired? What motivates them? Then, he identifies the right team at Northwoods and what skills, support, and tools they need to implement the project successfully and ensure customers are happy. Jon combines his people skills and business acumen in a way that makes the most impact on both the customer and the community.

Collaboration and a love for our customers are two of the key things that keep Lauren Hirka coming back to work every day. She values the opportunity to form meaningful partnerships with the agencies we serve and have ongoing dialogue around how to continuously improve our products to support their incredible work.

Lauren’s passion for making a difference drives her role as director of product marketing, where she’s responsible for making sure that both customers and employees have what they need to realize the impact of new products and functionality as changes roll out. Lauren also works with partner agencies across the country to understand challenges and insights to inform future features.

Lauren has spent hundreds of hours with human services professionals to research and develop our products. In doing so, she’s learned how to translate feedback from the field into something that makes sense to our technical teams, and vice versa. This loop, with Lauren at the center, ensures that both our internal and external audiences are on the same page and moving forward together.

It’s easy to make assumptions and judgments about what social workers and caseworkers do. Movies, newspapers, and other forms of media tend to focus on the negative, fueling misperceptions as a result. Tiffany Himmelreich knows for every negative story or outcome shared, there’s an equally positive one that wasn’t … so it’s her job to help tell those stories.

Whether it's using raw materials, team members, or code, Jeff Turner likes to put things together that solve real-world problems. He also tries to learn something new every day that might have an impact on what we build in the future. Jeff's figure-it-out mentality and passion for always thinking beyond the status quo are the driving factors of his work.

As director of software engineering, Jeff empowers Northwoods' development teams to build quality, scalable software without sacrificing security or performance. He also spearheads our ongoing efforts to address customer feedback and add value to our solutions through new features and functionality.

One of the most seasoned members of Northwoods' product delivery team, Jeff knows the intricacies of developing and deploying software for human services agencies better than anybody in the business. He thrives knowing that every minute we can give back to caseworkers through our solutions compounds their ability to find balance and create positive outcomes for underprivileged kids and families. 

Noah Pugh thrives by empowering other people to succeed. Whether it’s his own team or the whole company, he knows that each of us needs to do our best work to help Northwoods impact the most agencies and families.

Noah’s goal as IT director is using technology to improve Northwoods’ mission through quick resolution and the right solution while being fiscally responsible and mitigating risk. He does this by always asking questions, listening to the needs of the business, and probing at technology issues to guide employees to the best decisions, while making sure everyone learns something along the way.

Having worked in several different business units within Northwoods, Noah pairs his deep understanding of our past and vision for the future to make sure we continue heading in the right direction. By providing top-notch service to employees, they can do the same for our customers.