30 Julia Irene Kauffman

The Chairperson and CEO of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation, daughter Julia Irene Kauffman is putting family money to good use. The most public of those uses is the construction of a sparkling new performing arts center that Julia Irene oversees in her role as Chairman of the Board of the eponymous Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Julia also serves as chairman of the Kansas City Ballet board, and as a board member of the Kansas City Symphony Foundation, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and the Heart of America Council/Boy Scouts of America.

29 Emanuel Cleaver

Two recent elections have helped boost the power of Fifth District Missouri congressman Emanuel Cleaver. One was the national November election in which his party regained control of the house. The second, ironically, was the Kansas City mayoral election in which Cleaver’s candidate, Alvin Brooks, lost. Brooks’ defeat leaves Cleaver as the undisputed go-to guy for the black community. It remains to be seen, however, whether the reverend’s new role as international evangelist for global warming is a productive use of that power.

28 Bob Bernstein

As testament to the depth of Bernstein-Rein, the ad agency shrugged off the loss of the Wal-Mart account without a layoff. CEO Bob Bernstein, along with son Steve and a talented team, has built Bernstein-Rein into the nation’s sixth-largest independent advertising agency and easily the most formidable in Kansas City. Now, Bernstein is developing the Plaza’s high profile, mixed-use $116 million West Edge project. Internationally celebrated architect Moshe Safdie, who designed the project, is also designing the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

27 David Lockton

With the recent acquisition of Alexander Forbes Inter-national Risk Services for $170 million, Chairman David Lockton established the Plaza-based Lockton Companies as the world’s largest privately owned global insurance broker and the tenth largest overall with nearly half of its 1,900 employees in the area. Just 40 years earlier, Jack Lockton, David’s late brother, started the company as a home-based business. Jack’s son Ron is now president of Lockton’s Kansas City Property & Casualty business and a person to watch among others at the rapidly growing home-based insurance giant.

26 Dr. William Neaves

As CEO of the Stowers Institute for Medical Re-search, Bill Neaves put his reputation and perhaps even his job on the line in securing passage of Missouri Amendment Two. Passage keeps Missouri in play as a site of the Institute’s planned second campus. The pursuit of that project will energize just about every power broker on either side of the state line and put Neaves right in the middle of the decision-making. Neaves also serves as president of the board of directors of the Stowers Medical Institute, as vice chairman of the board of Midwest Research Institute, and a board member of the Cerner Corporation.

25 David Glass

The Kansas City Royals owner and his son, Royals president Dan Glass, back-ed the (barely) successful effort to secure public support for stadium renovations. A former Wal-Mart Stores CEO, Glass seems to be changing his tune a bit from the discounter’s mindset and has invested a little more this year in the Royals’ payroll, which is 22 percent higher than last season. It remains to be seen, however, whether this investment makes a difference. Glass would be much higher on the list if he chose to invest not only in a winning franchise, but also in a contender, and if he involved himself in the community the way Ewing Kauffman did.

24 Crosby Kemper, Jr. 

Although he retired as chairman in 2004, the eighty-something R. Crosby Kemper, Jr. still casts a long shadow and not just literally. He has not entirely relinquished the power implicit in the family controlled, but publicly owned, UMB Financial Corporation. Thirty-something Mariner Kemper now serves as its chairman and CEO, but as long he remains primarily in Denver—and his father remains healthy—Mariner may not carry the kind of regional clout that his father enjoyed for half a century.

23 Len Rodman

The chairman, president, and CEO, Rodman flew in-to his new job at Black & Veatch when our primary airport was still downtown. Forbes lists the engineering giant among the 250 largest privately held companies in America, and it is surely among the more quiet companies of this size. After a rough first few years in the 21st century, Black & Veatch has been going great guns, growing to $2 billion in revenues in 2006 with more than 8,000 employees worldwide and 3,000 in greater Kansas City.

22 Jonathan Kemper

The Commerce Bank, Kansas City, chairman and CEO, Jonathan Kemper has emerged as the most influential bearer of that notable Kansas City name. This is due as much to his steady helmsmanship as to the volatility of family affairs at his cousins’ bank. Under Jonathan Kemper’s leadership Commerce Bank has continued to build a solid regional banking empire. The spectacular, neoclassical new central public library is among other historic preservation projects testament to Kemper’s ability to get things done.

21 Michael Chesser

Michael Chesser is the chairman and CEO of the downtown KC-based Great Plains Energy, the parent company of Kansas City Power & Light, of which he is also chairman. With its strong cash flow and highly reliable delivery system, the 500,000-customer strong KCP&L is an in- exorable source of power, literally and figuratively. With aspirations to acquire Aquila and other utility companies it appears that Chesser and colleagues at Great Plains Energy hope to expand the company’s footprint. Chesser recently settled a niggling dispute sparked by the Sierra Club and will proceed with construction on a new plant near Weston.

«April 2007 Edition