VALERIE NICHOLS

For Valerie Nichols, the commercial real estate crisis is not so much crisis, as opportunity. Against that backdrop, Nichols showcases her skills as vice president for real estate solutions with Midland Loan Services, the nation’s second-largest commercial real estate servicing company. And she’s up for it. “The key to her success is not simply the number of hours worked, but the productivity that she achieves in those hours,” said her supervisor, Chuck Ahner. But as much as Nichols has achieved on the loan-management side, she has earned a reputation for deepening the company’s leadership talent pool. She was among the four founding members of the Midland Women’s Network in 2007, and says, “I am most proud of the fact that I am able to serve my company well and work to provide growth opportunities for our women.” That commitment applies outside the office, as well, with Nichols serving as a volunteer with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and for St. Vincent’s Operation Breakthrough, and on the grant allocation committee for the Women’s Foundation of Greater Kansas City. Now 37, Nichols and her husband, Chad, are also raising two young children.

MELISSA NOVAK

Seven months pregnant, on the golf course, carrying her own bag. And winning the Mission Hills Country Club’s women’s scratch championship doing it. Anyone want to get in the way of Melissa Novak and her goals? … Anyone? Thought not. “Gotta love determination,” Novak cracks. That same quality was on display two weeks after the birth of her daughter, when she was back in the gym for her 5 a.m. workouts. That grit left an impression on another woman working out there, and to a job offer, which eventually led her to public-relations consultant Fleishman Hillard. Novak is senior vice president for the food and agribusiness group, balancing those duties with the roles of wife and mother. She credits her husband John (himself a 40 Under Forty alum), with making it all work for everybody at home. “Instead of date night, we have head-to-head Sunday golf matches,” she says. Novak, 35, also serves on the board of directors and committees for Children’s TLC, has logged two years on the Small Business Council’s executive committee for the Kansas City Chamber, and two more on the board of the Alzheimer’s Association. And, of course, she’s fitness committee chair at the country club—as if she needed a convenient excuse for being near the course.

DOUG O'NEILL

Growing up in Nebraska, Doug O’Neill easily absorbed what it meant to be a winner. What Cornhusker didn’t? “Football has always been a thread in the fabric of my life,” he says. “Being part of a team and tackling all obstacles describes my approach to my business and personal life.” So it’s natural that O’Neill, 39, is building a winning team as a vice president with J.E. Dunn Construction Co. He’s helped build Dunn’s military division into a $100 million business unit. “I’m honored to play a role in projects that will mean so much in the life of the U.S. soldier,” said O’Neill. The team-building doesn’t stop at the end of his shift: “My goal to succeed translates outside of my profession,” says O’Neill, who is actively participating in five civic, leadership or youth sports ventures, including assistant basketball coach in the Catholic Youth Organization and Bowl-A-Thon fundraiser for Junior Achievement. And, of course, there’s the A-Team at home. “According to some,” he says, “I take college football a little too seriously. So to balance this obsession, I spend as much time as I can with the head coach of my family, my wife, Amy. Flanked by my linebacker son Sam and wideout daughter Maggie, I try my best to balance work, vacations and dinner every evening at 6 p.m. sharp!”

CRAIG PERRIGO

You know the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ as the nation’s two biggest securities exchanges. If you know No. 3 on that list—BATS Global Markets, Inc., based in Lenexa—it’s in part because of what Craig Perrigo has done to help this five-year-old startup build a global presence. As chief financial officer, Perrigo leads the team responsible for all of BATS’ financial functions. Before joining the company as an assistant controller in 2007, he worked as an audit supervisor for the BKD accounting firm and as a financial services specialist at DST Systems. BATS allowed him to get in on the early stages of a growth company, and Perrigo, 32, has responded to the challenge, rising quickly to take the financial helm. But, he says, much as he’s enjoyed that, “maintaining a healthy work-life balance has been my greatest accomplishment.” Time with his wife and daughters, he said, “is extremely important to me.” In addition to simply “watching them learn and enjoy being a kid,” he is already infusing them with the understanding that they are part of something bigger than themselves. “I find community involvement to be fulfilling,” he says, “and am active through my church, where I work to show my young daughters to give back in ways such as donating to Toys for Tots or packaging health kits to send to Haiti.”