KYLE DONALDSON | H&R Block

Is any one of us truly indispensable? Kyle Donaldson just might be. After all, how many people can boast $28.8 million in cost reductions for their firms since 2008, along with 27 percent increase in client growth on the revenue side over the past year? That’s the kind of impact this 29-year-old is having as Director of IT for H&R Block’s Digital Tax Solutions unit. He implemented Block’s first Interactive Voice Response System in 2009, taking it from nothing to the nation’s highest-volume IVR system [90 million calls] in less than four months. Block turned to him to lead the re-platform of Digital Tax’s online system midway through that challenging project, with tax season just six months away. Again, he delivered. “Innovation, entrepreneurship and client experience all have one thing in common,” Donaldson says. “They are all centered on the consumer. It’s all about the process of formulating, vetting and bringing to life good ideas that can drive new value proposition to clients at the right time.”

EVAN DURNAL | MRIGlobal

The grounds of MRIGlobal are just yards away from the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurship, but the two organizations are connected in ways not immediately apparent to many people. Evan Durnal is not among them. The entrepreneurial spirit at MRIGlobal “exists in many forms outside the traditional ‘start-your-own-business’ sense,” says the 29-year-old chemist for the Kansas City research institute. “The development and application of fresh and existing concepts to never-before-thought-of situations is abundant” in his work. A master’s degree in criminal science from the University of Central Missouri overlaid a bachelor’s in molecular biology from Baker University, setting him on a path that includes half a dozen federal certifications—including Top Secret/SCI Clearance. A chemist in this world, not the one portrayed on TV, Durnal achieved a measure of international exposure in 2010 when the British newspaper The Economist picked up an academic journal’s paper he’d authored to demonstrate that the “CSI Effect,” was indeed creating among juries unrealistic expectations of what forensic science can produce.

BOB GRANT | SelectQuote

He’s the hands-down winner of this year’s 20 in Their Twenties business
pedigree. Bob Grant’s great-grandfather founded Business Men’s Assurance in 1909, passing on a spirit of entrepreneurship to Grant’s grandfather and father, Tom. The latter purchased LabOne after the sale of BMA, then grew it into a company with 4,000 employees and nearly $600 million in revenues. Today, the family’s entrepreneurial spirit lives on in this 27-year-old, who’s making his own name in business as director of sales for SelectQuote Senior, improving the way seniors access Medicare products. “My whole life, I have dreamed of impacting the Kansas City business community in a positive way,” says Grant. He’s also attempting to do so with his brothers, with whom he started Haakon Capital, a private-equity fund, in 2008. Since then, that venture has started or invested in more than 20 companies, generating more than 100 jobs in the region. “Having the opportunity to create both jobs and a positive work environment for employees is truly a special feeling,” he says.

JUSTIN GRAVES | Infegy

Back in 2004, almost nobody had heard the term “social radar.” The huge explosion of social-media technologies and platforms since then has made it a foundational element for marketing professionals, and one reason for that is Infegy. Justin Graves co-founded it eight years ago, scraping together a share of the $50,000 that he and Adam Coomes used to launch it—the proceeds from selling another digital venture. Coomes has since moved on to new challenges, but Graves’ company is a vital resource for advertising agencies, market research firms and companies who want to know how their names are being invoked on-line. Among its clients, Infegy has been able to count Viacom, 3M, Pizza Hut, Sony and DirecTV, and closer to home, Sprint and VML. Still only 28, Graves is working on ways to improve and extend the research of digital research. “Since 2010, we’ve seen a growth in revenue of approximately 200 percent,” he says, and the FTE count is up by half. “We’ve launched a new product, and are now expanding to target new verticals,” and he’s been named a 2012 Pipeline Innovator, the spinoff from the former Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp. for high-potential start-ups.