Rodger Riney SCOTTRADE, ST. LOUIS

Rodger Riney is all about respect. Three decades ago, he saw a disconnect between the concept of respect for clients and the full-commission brokerage fees being charged to those who didn’t require full services. That’s how the company that would become Scottrade was born.

A St. Louis native, he founded Scottsdale Securities in Arizona before coming back home in 1981 and rebranding. His own respect for the value of investing for the long-term was inspired by his grandfather, who introduced him to stock ownership with a gift of a few shares when Riney was still a boy. Daily reviews of newspaper stock tables helped him track the performance of that investment, inspiring a curiosity and a passion that would set young Rodger on his life’s course. After earning an MBA from Mizzou and working for Edward D. Jones & Co., he went into business himself. Today, Scottrade has more than 500 branch offices, making it one of the nation’s biggest online investing firms.

He’s twice been named a regional finalist for Ernst & Young’s Financial Services Entrepreneur of the Year, winning it in 2000, and was a national finalist for that honor in 2008.

Pete Smith MCDOWELL RICE SMITH & BUCHANAN, KANSAS CITY

Kansan by birth, Missouri resident by choice, Pete Smith thinks this Border War stuff is a load of—well, let’s just say he owns a horse farm in western Wyandotte County and leave it at that. He’s CEO and president of the McDowell Rice Smith & Buchanan law firm, based in the Country Club Plaza, but Smith is no button-down lawyer. Outside of the courtroom, this Harley-riding horseman is a straight-shooter who lives large and loves it. At work, he’s known for his voracious appetites in research and preparation, specializing in commercial transactions, bankruptcy, financial restructuring, and labor and employment law. But back to that border business: “I think the alleged ‘grudges’ are remarkably overstated,” he says. “I have both friends and business associates on both sides of the state line; other than during basketball season, I never notice any angst resulting from that state of origin.” A University of Kansas graduate who earned his law degree at UMKC, Smith is like many folks who have moved past the historical differences to relish the best of what the broader Kansas City has to offer. As a biker, Smith opens up the throttle to take on Missouri’s topography, particularly the run from Sedalia to the Lake of the Ozarks, he says: “And LesLee and I also like to ride from the Lake of the Ozarks to Hermann, Mo., for Oktoberfest—once again for the hills and curves.”

Neal Patterson CERNER CORP., NORTH KANSAS CITY

His critics—still— point to the infamous March 2001 e-mail to his managers at Cerner Corp. as evidence of Neal Patterson’s executive shortcomings. But know this: Cerner’s market capitalization today is nearly 10 times where it stood when Patterson hit that “send” button more than a decade ago.

Shortcomings? Hardly. A co-founder of the North Kansas City-based medical software giant, Cerner continues to defy the imperatives of large-company growth. It’s easy to hit double-digit revenue increases for a few years when your baseline is small, but Cerner has been doing it for decades. Last year, in fact, it tied longtime leader Lockton Cos., for No. 1 in all-time appearances in Ingram’s Corporate Report 100 list of the region’s fastest-growing headquarter companies.

Patterson’s vision extends well beyond health-care IT. In 2006, he partnered with four others to purchase the Kansas City Wizards from Lamar Hunt. Patterson’s mentoring influence on the club’s CEO, Robb Heineman, has produced an organization that today is hailed as the most forward-thinking, fan-focused team in professional soccer, if not all of professional sports. Sporting Kansas City’s new $200 million stadium—which entertained sell-out crowds throughout its inaugural season—is testament to execution of that managerial vision.

And Cerner continues to grow at an astonishing rate. A good free-kick away from LiveStrong Sporting Park is the site of Cerner’s new twin-towered office complex in Kansas City, Kan. When completed in 2015, its 4,000 employees will have changed the face of the job market in Wyandotte County.

The critics? They don’t seem to be cackling any more.

George Paz EXPRESS SCRIPTS, ST. LOUIS

As much as he was known for innovation, the late Steve Jobs was known for the value he created for Apple, Inc. and its shareholders. But even the iLegend himself, before his death, ranked only fifth on the list of 2011’s Most Valuable CEOs, produced by ChiefExecutive.net. No. 1 on that list? George Paz of Express Scripts in St. Louis, the pharmaceutical benefit management company. The Web site elevated Paz to that lofty status based on the growth he’d orchestrated through acquisitions.

And he just pulled off another. Earlier this month, Express Scrpits completed a $29.1 billion takeover of Medco, its chief rival and an even bigger pharmaceutical heavyweight. That will create a giant in the field, controlling anywhere from 30 percent to 40 percent of the meds-by-mail market, depending on which business analyst you ask. How big is that deal? The two companies had combined revenues of $111 billion in 2011. The new company will be known as Express Scripts Holdings.

Paz came to Express Scripts in 1998 as chief financial officer and vice president, and was elevated to president five years later, then chairman in 2006. He's a certified public accountant by training, with degrees in both accounting and business from Mizzou.

A first-generation American whose father immigrated from Mexico, Paz is married and has three daughters.