JEFF TERRY

Meet a true Warrensburg business icon, and one who’s just warming up: Jeff Terry. He’s been a real estate broker, a banker, a former mayor and a cheeseburger entrepreneur, all by the age of 38. For five decades, the Terry family and relatives owned and operated Bank Holden, with Jeff Terry rising to executive and director before selling to Central Bancompany in 2008. That gave him a chance to test his entrepreneurial skills in a new venue, and he opted for co-ownership of a Dairy Queen Grill & Chill. His local DQ store’s customer service made it one of the chains top five locations in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Arkansas.

Terry also decided to try out another family business—his wife’s. He joined his father-in-law’s real estate company, Action Realty Co. in 2010, and has become both a broker and co-owner of the firm. Last year, Action Realty’s team closed more transactions than any other real-estate company in the Warrensburg area.

In addition to his repeated successes in other professional endeavors, Terry says “community service and involvement was instilled in me by my grandparents, mother and father,” which is why he considers his greatest success being the mayor of Warrens-burg from 2009 to 2010. Under his leadership, Warrensburg was the 14th community to ban smoking in public locations and worked to enforce under-age drinking laws.

BRETT VOTAVA

“The best part of my job,” says Brett Votava, “is helping people get through the worst situations of their lives.” He does that as a trial lawyer for the Overland Park law firm of Bartimus, Frickleton, Robertson & Gorny, representing victims and their families in cases of severe injury and wrongful death. “The loss of a spouse or permanent injury to a parent can be devastating to the victim and their family,” he says. “As a consequence, I’m invested both professionally and emotionally in each case.”

After graduating magna cum laude from the University of Missouri with a degree in biochemistry, Votava earned a degree from UMKC’s School of Law in 2001. Votava was part of the firm’s team that won a $7.5 million medical malpractice verdict, one of the largest ever returned in the state, in the case of a woman who died after gastric bypass surgery. He also helped secure a multi-million-dollar verdict in the case of a premature baby girl rendered blind after a doctor failed to prescribe needed treatment.

For himself, the biggest source of pride may have been when he made partner at a firm known for its skilled litigators. For his clients, though, the outcomes are paramount. When a verdict comes in their favor, the 36-year-old Votava says, “it truly is vindication and closure for them.”

He and his wife, Bridgette, live in Overland Park.

ABBY WENDEL

After 12 years with the Federal Reserve System at its offices in Denver and Kansas City, Abby Wendel was ready to move from the public side of banking to the money-making side. Score one for UMB Financial Corp. Four years later, she’s senior vice president for the Kansas City bank, overseeing the Enterprise Sales and Service unit. Before that, she had responsibility for leading the holding company’s operations involving government relations, corporate strategy, and investor relations. Note the starting point: 2008. Anyone recall the significance of that year in banking? Since the financial meltdown of ’08, Wendel has worked lines of communication open with regulators and investors alike.

Wendel, 38, is married to Alex Wendel, and she is a whirlwind of civic activity. She sits on the boards of the Central Exchange and the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, she’s on the finance committee for the Ronald McDonald House, and she previously served on the board of the Kansas City Free Health Clinic and the steering committee for the United Way Young Leaders Society. Topping it all off, she’s become an avid runner, an experience that serves career interests as well as fitness needs. “When faced with a challenge,” she says, “I often recall the training process to remind myself that getting outside of my comfort zone is a good thing. It’s in that place where one really grows, both personally and professionally.”

COREY ZIEGLER

If you have to pick Corey Ziegler out of a crowd, find those who are leading the pack. She’ll be right there with them. From Top 10 in her high school class to Top 10 percent in her class at the University of Kansas School of Law, where she was also managing editor of the law review, the 38-year-old Ziegler has been all about achievement.

That goal-driven mindset now benefits the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, where she has served as corporate counsel since 2004. Before that, she spent seven years at the former Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin law firm [now Husch Blackwell], with a practice concentration on estate planning and taxation. Her role at the foundation, she says, has helped foster relationships with donors who have set records for giving even amid the economic tumult of recent years.

Away from the office, her passion for children goes far beyond the two she has with her husband, Joe, at their home in Leawood. Following a six-year stint on the board for Spofford Home, which provides treatment for abused and neglected children, Ziegler now sits on the planned giving panels for Children’s Mercy Hospital and Ronald McDonald House, services she also has contributed to the United Way’s planned giving advisory committee. And she’s currently president of the Brookwood Education Foundation, an all-volunteer effort that benefits Brookwood Elementary School.