(front row, left to right)
Bob Dunn, J.E. Dunn Construction, Dunn Family Foundation
Debbie Wilkerson, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation

Angelo Trozzolo, Trozzolo Communications Group
Courtney Kounkel, Centric Projects

Debbie Bass, The Foundation for Shawnee Mission Medical Center
Julie Browne, Government Employees Health Association

Troy Stremming, Ameristar Casinos
Courtney Goddard, Park University

Christine Kemper, Kemper & Company
Peter Brown, Grassmere Partners

Chris Isaacson, BATS Global Markets

(back row, left to right)

Richard Wetzel, Centric Projects

Cliff Stubbs, McAnany Van Cleave & Phillips

Rich Reda, Lockton Companies

Dennis Boone, Ingram's Magazine

Blake Williams, Assurant Employee Benefits

Adam Taff, Jeff Smith Consulting

Kevin Kramer, Bank Midwest

Joe Sweeney, Ingram's Magazine

Tom Proebstle, Generator Studio

Michelle Sweeney, Ingram's Magazine

A Smorgasbord of Views on Leadership in Kansas City

Since its inception in 1998, Ingram’s 40 Under Forty business recognition program has identified 600 of the most accomplished and civic-minded young business executives in the Kansas City region. A score of them gathered at The American Restaurant on April 3 as Hallmark Cards and Crown Center graciously hosted a unique assembly of past 40 Under Forty honorees, who discussed the vital quality of leadership in both business and public sectors.

Their two-hour roundtable was a verbal tour of the tremendous assets Kansas City has in place, as well as a mental exercise in what innovative approaches might help the region foster the next generation of leaders. Throughout the assembly, family names like Bloch, Stowers and Hall came up again and again, almost always in the context of: Whose names will the city come to revere and rely on in the decades to come?

The assembly was a powerful reminder that the interests of the business community and the broader region are inextricably linked, and that our best hope for a better Kansas City lies in strengthening the bonds between the two.