STEPHEN HOPKINS

Every day must be like Christmas for Stephen Hopkins, director of the Innovation Lab for Dimensional Innovations. The Overland Park design and fabrication firm that brought you the Downtown library’s “book shelf,” the distinctive Children’s Mercy Hospital clock tower and the jaw-dropping interactive video display for the K-State basketball program—among many others. Hopkins directs efforts to create unique, eye-catching and innovative ways for companies and organizations to reinforce their brands, often in ways that produce a common one-word response from people who see them: “Cool . . . ” After starting his career with Gould Evans and Populous—and factoring in the startup of his own a concrete countertop business—Hopkins landed at Dimensional Innovations in 2011. He earned his degree in architecture from the University of Kansas, and is finishing his MBA from the Bloch School of Management at UMKC. That, according to company President Tucker Trotter, has made Hopkins an exceptional business strategist as well as a talented designer.

And did we mention that Hopkins has all of this going for him at the age of 32? In addition to his design work, Hopkins served for 4½ years on the Environmental Management Commission for Kansas City, reviewing policies and activities for the way they impact the regional environment. That interest dovetailed with his own goals of promoting sustainability in his design work. He also served for three years as co-chairman for fund-raising and planning of the Community Treasures Fund-Raising Gala at Community Christian Church.

JAKE JACOBSON

June 2008. Barely a year after a company called Twitter gains traction in an emerging field called social media, Jake Jacobson is in the back of a van in rural France. A manager in the communications department for Garmin International, he needs a way to promote the company’s pro cyclists on tour there. And inside that van, @Garmin is born, and the company enters the Twitterverse. A little more than four years later, Jacobson had been given the keys to Garmin’s social media hot rod, Runner’s World had designated Garmin as one of just four brands to follow, and the concept was no longer just a digital shot in the dark on a little-known platform. “That evolution marks my proudest career achievement: Building a voice for a global corporation, representing its employees and helping its customers,” says the 39-year-old Jacobson. From zero to 32,000 @Garmin followers, from a dormant Facebook page to one with 165,000 people interacting, from a blank slate on YouTube to more than 100 tutorial videos—the top five yielding nearly 2 million views—Jacobson’s work has defined what it means for companies to engage in social media and make it work. “I’ve enjoyed bringing my passion for authentic interaction to our evolving channels,” he says.

He shares that enthusiasm for other causes, such as his work on the boards of the Arthritis Foundation, the MS Society and the YMCA’s brand advancement council. Jacobson, who earned his bachelor’s degree in advertising art and design, and a masters in professional communication, both from Iowa State, makes his home in Leawood with his wife, Jocelyn.

MATT JENNINGS

Husband. Father. Salesman. Coach. Volunteer. Co-worker. No matter what he is—and he’s every one of those—Matt Jennings believes that “today is the best day to be the best you can be at whatever you’re doing.” That philosophy, says the 39-year-old, serves him well as senior account executive for MedTrak Services, the pharmacy benefits manager from Overland Park. His unbridled optimism and positive energy, no doubt, correlate to his success there. He was MedTrak’s 2011 Account Executive of the Year, generating roughly $35 million in top-line revenues.

Impressive as that is, Jennings says his greatest achievements can be found at home, in both family and friends. “I am lucky enough to be the husband of Katy Jennings and the father of Ally, 9, and Grant Jennings 7,” he says, and his feelings for them are never hidden. “Life’s too short to hold anything in or to wish you could’ve said something or done something,” he said. “My late mother”—Sue Jennings—“taught me this, and I now know why she had such a magnetic personality, and why she always seemed to be smiling not only on the outside, but on the inside.” Jennings has an impeccable business pedigree; his wife Katy was a 40 Under Forty honoree in 2010, and his father is Drue Jennings, the former CEO of Kansas City Power & Light. Jennings serves on the corporation board for the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity at KU, his alma mater, and volunteering with both his church, Rolling Hills Presbyterian, and at Mission Hills Country Club.

BEN JONES

Winston Churchill died in 1965, nearly a decade before Ben Jones was even born. But the English statesman’s influence on Fulton, Mo., was strong enough to reach Jones as a student there, at Westminster College, and it stays with him today: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen,” Jones says, citing the man who delivered the historic Iron Curtain speech at Westminster in 1946. That’s where Jones’ own interest in politics took shape. Since graduating and moving to Kansas City, Jones has worked in various government or political venues, but most recently took those skills to the private sector as director of public affairs for Union Pacific Railroad.

He has a passion for public policy—and for understanding the divergent viewpoints that can lead to conflict in it. Jones honed those skills by completing the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University’s prestigious Kennedy School of Government. What he learned there also helps, he says, in his dealings as president of the Missouri Railroad Association.

“At the end of the day,” says the 38-year-old, “I hope to set the best example possible” for Roger and Warren, the two boys he has with his wife, Susan. “I want them to grow up and understand the importance and an education an actively seeking additional opportunities for personal growth. I want them to be able to follow the principals of the Churchill quote I learned in college.”