WES GRAMMER

Wes Grammer loves his work. Really. So no disrespect is intended to the boss when he tells you: “I can’t wait to get home every day.” The reason for that has to do with his wife, Jennifer and their 1-year-old son, Grant. Of fatherhood, Grammer says, “It’s the best.”

But Dad still has to go to work in the morning, and Grammer does that as managing partner at RED Legacy, the retail real-estate development company spawned by RED Development. He’s been part of the team there since 2004. “I walked away from a comfortable six-year management consulting career to enter the commercial real-estate world,” Grammer recalls.

Leaving a predictable paycheck for a commission-only brokerage was a gamble. “But I felt passionate about the opportunity and the resulting experience has been rewarding,” he says, and what he’s found there has been a family of sorts. “I come from a large family, and have been fortunate to meet a fantastic group of friends,” he says. Grammer helped establish RED’s office division, completing transactions totaling over $100 million, and has traveled throughout China and the Pacific Rim—more than 45 countries in all—pursuing development opportunities.

Grammer holds a master’s degree in entrepreneurial real estate from the Bloch School of Management’s Lewis White Real Estate Center at UMKC, and he’s a licensed real estate broker in Missouri and Kansas.

KEITH HARRINGTON

No assessment of Kansas’ emergence in the field of life sciences would be complete without recognizing the contribution made by the Kansas Bioscience Authority, which has committed $272 million to nearly 90 bioscience companies and institutions in the decade since it was formed. Its maturation has been marked by a move from a grant-making organization to a venture-funding model, and that’s where 39-year-old Keith Harrington has done his heavy lifting.

The KBA’S managing director previously served as its director of commercialization and played a key role in transforming the funding model. “I’ve been fortunate to play a part in the pivot toward a more focused venture-investment model,” he says. “I get to work with smart and talented people with big ideas and ambitions that are changing the way business is done in health care, agriculture and animal health.” A lot is riding on that success for the state; the average job created through KBA’s involvement pays more than $73,000—roughly twice the state’s average salary. “I’m passionate about fostering innovative companies in Kansas, and I thrive on helping entrepreneurs in any way I can,” says Harrington, who previously worked at Quintiles and Birch Telecom.

A single dad, he’s deeply involved in school and extracurricular activities for his 11-year-old son Jack, volunteering with him at Heart to Heart International, and he also works on behalf of various youth mentoring and entrepreneurship-development programs.

HUNTER HARRIS

At $40 million, it’s not the biggest redevelopment deal that the Kansas City region will ever see. But for sheer neighborhood-changing impact, does anything top the 39Rainbow mixed-used development? It’s completely altered the character around the University of Kansas Hospital and the Rosedale district in Kansas City, Kan., thanks to Hunter Harris and his team from LANE4 Property Group. Harris has been the tip of the developmental spear that has changed Rainbow Boulevard from a collection of fast-food outlets and marginally successful retail ventures into a thriving commercial district that is also fueling growth across nearby State Line, along the 39th Street corridor in Kansas City’s Midtown section. He has also played key roles in the Mission Crossing project and the development of Woodside Village, a mixed-use development not far south of 39Rainbow.

“I take great pride in taking these projects from conception to completion and making Kansas City a better place,” says the 34-year-old. “What is most rewarding is being able to dream big and work diligently to make those dreams a reality.” Last fall, he was named partner at LANE4, where he serves as vice president of development and acquisitions. Harris and his wife, Annie, have a 3-month-old son, Hayes, and have logged volunteer hours with Harvesters-The Community Food Network. He’s also a board member with the Friendship Inn, a not-for-profit that gives families free or reduced-cost lodging while their loved ones are being treated at the nearby medical center.

LIZ HAWKS

For a lot of working mothers—OK, some working dads, too—the whole work-life balance riddle is simply impossible to crack. Not for Liz Hawks. She feasts on the dual challenges of executive and parental duties, and makes it all work for FleishmanHillard, one of the world’s biggest public-relations agencies. Hawks is not just a partner and senior vice president; she invented the communications space she inhabits there as founding chair of the Global Marketing-to-Moms Practice.

“I researched and wrote the business case to launch a global practice focused on the $2 trillion ‘moms market’ while on maternity leave,” Hawks says. In that role, she provides strategic counsel to big-name brands like Tropicana, Google, Dow and EA Sports, trying to connect them with moms responsible for an estimated 85 percent of household spending decisions. The practice she created now accounts for 100 communications professionals at the agency. She and her husband, Thomas, have three children—Graham, 7; Reid, 6; and Blair, who’s not quite a year old.

Outside the office, Hawks applies her marketing acumen to non-profits like Children’s TLC (creating the organization’s first marketing and public-relations committee), the Foundation for Inclusive Religious Education and the PTA at school, where she’s chaired the birthday books and health and wellness committees. “Motherhood,” Hawks says, “fuels my personal priority to model goal-setting and achievement for my children.”