The Generators
These individuals generate power through commerce, if not at the level of the power plants, still enough to keep a lot of home fires burning.
Bob Honse. At Farmland Industries, Honse has the base to ascend the power hierarchy once he finds his footing. Farmland is, after all, the largest privately owned company in the area. Honse became Farmland's CEO in September. One way to secure his power would be to return Farmland to profitability. Last fiscal year the giant agricultural cooperative lost almost $30 million, Farmland's first loss in years.
Carl Peterson. Peterson, the Chiefs' president and general manager since 1989, rescued the town's most prominent business from both a financial and competitive malaise. Complacent fans may fault him for not producing a Super Bowl victory, but only two teams won more games than the Chiefs did in the 90's, and no team has put more fans through the gates.
Bernard Beaudoin. Upon Drue Jennings retirement, Beaudoin took over as CEO at Kansas City Power & Light Co., one of the city's most visible companies. Beaudoin will be responsible for making sense of a deregulated environment in the wake of failed merger with Western Resources. Let's hope he has better luck than his California peers. KCP&L has nearly 2,500 employees in the Kansas City area.
W. Thomas Grant II. As Chairman, President and CEO of LabOne Inc., Grant has helped turn a national problem into a business opportunity, building LabOne into a major force nationwide in drug screening. Headquartered in Lenexa, LabOne employs about 1,000 folks in the Kansas City area alone, very few of whom, we imagine, toke up in the parking lot.
Timothy S. Webster. Although the name may suggest steak and potatoes, Webster serves as President and CEO of American Italian Pasta Co. Founded only 13 years ago, this Northland enterprise is churning out dollars like so many meatballs. The company now employs more than 350 people in the Kansas City area alone.
Lloyd L. Hill. Hill now serves as chairman, president and CEO of this 20 year-old restaurant business first brought to KC by Applebee's patriarch Abe Gustin in 1986. Gustin bought out the business from W. R. Grace two years later. If these restaurants seems to be everywhere, they are. There are roughly 1,300 Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar restaurants in 49 states and eight countries.
Len Rodman. As President and CEO of Black & Veatch, the area's largest engineering firm, Rodman has helped make Kansas City the slide rule capital of the western world. Though not all of them in Kansas City, Black & Veatch employs more than 1,600 registered engineers.
Barry Brady. J.C. Nichols is a hard act to follow as its successor, the North Carolina-based Highwoods Realty Limited Partnership, has learned the hard way. Still despite PR problems on the Plaza and in Brookside, Barry Brady, Highwoods' man in KC, has exceeded expectations.
Jack & David Lockton. Jack Lockton, the Chairman of the Lockton Companies, has come a long way from the Overland Park basement where he and his parents launched his business in 1966. Today, with the company's name is featured in prominent letters high above the Country Club Plaza. David Lockton is now at the operational reigns and the Lockton Companies is now the largest independent insurance broker in the nation.
Keith A. Tucker. From his Overland Park digs Chairman and CEO Tucker has helped turn Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. into a serious Kansas City presence with more than 575 employees in the area. The company also employs nearly 2,500 financial advisers as independent contractors nationwide.
Bob Bernstein. Bernstein has created not only the largest and most influential advertising agency in Kansas City, Bernstein-Rein, but also one of the area's top 20 private companies. Can anyone say "Happy Meal?" Bernstein is also highly visible in civic and charitable causes.
Dave Ruf. Engineering firm Burns & McDonnell turned 100 under Ruf's watch as Chairman and CEO and is still going strong. Ruf has put his distinct personal touch on the company. A Westport High grad, Ruf also got the company involved big time in KC's Sesquicentennial.
Tom W. Olofson. Olofson, Chairman and CEO of EPIQ Systems Inc., quietly employs more than 100 people in a high-tech industry, and that in KCK translates into power. EPIQ Systems provides solutions for software-based e-commerce communications and specializes in software for bankruptcy management.
Michael W. Gullion. The Chairman and CEO of Leawood-based Gold Banc Corp. Guillon has focused on acquiring community banks primarily in growing mid-western markets. Gold Banc now has 70 of them and about 400 employees in the Kansas City area alone.
Charles A. Sullivan. How many locals know that Kansas City is the home of Wonder Bread? The Chairman and CEO of Interstate Bakeries Corp., Sullivan keeps a relatively low profile for a guy who heads the largest wholesale bakery company in the United States. Nearly 500 employees in Kansas City, 35,000 nationwide.
R. Philip Bixby. If few people identify Wonder Bread with Kansas City, everyone knows the location of Kansas City Life Insurance Co. President and CEO Bixby manages some 650 home office employees from the company's classic headquarters on Broadway. Pendergast was still boss when the Bixby family first took control of Kansas City Life.
Hugh Zimmer. The chairman of Zimmer Cos., Zimmer has been a force upon the land for three decades. As a real estate developer largely in Johnson County, he has added a good deal of weight to the Tourism District unfolding in western Wyandotte County around the new Kansas Speedway. Developing the Sprint campus was no small potatoes either. A past co-chair of the KCADC.
Bill Clarkson. Clarkson's role as president of Clarkson Construction Co., one of the KC area's largest general contractors and the most prolific builder of highways, often places him at the nexus of politics and commerce. He doesn't shy from putting his money where his political interests lie. Soon to merge with Bowen Construction, the firm will become among the nation's leaders.
David H. Hancock. Grandview is not only the original home of rapper, Eminem, it is also home to NASB Financial Inc., of which Hancock is Chairman and CEO. This 75-year-old, one-bank holding company operates a mortgage business in several states and employs more than 300 people in the Kansas City area.
H. Harry Bresky. Unusually reclusive, the septuagenarian Bresky makes J.D. Salinger look like a party animal. As president, Bresky has helped shape the Seaboard Corporation into an international force with more half of its 10,000 or so employees working outside the United States Ð 175 of them work in Merriam, Bresky rarely among them. Seaboard works in fields that Kansas City knows well: agribusiness and transportation.