Carol Pecoraro
General Manager
Kansas City Marriott Downtown

Responsible for nearly 1000 rooms and 650 associates in the largest hotel in the region, Carol Pecoraro makes this 24/7 people business seem almost easy. Working in the same hotel for 28 years, she credits Phil Pistilli for believing in her, starting when she was a front desk clerk—and her dad who got her used to working long hours by taking her to work with him on Saturdays when she was a kid.

Pecoraro knows it’s important to be involved with the community with which you work, and consequently works diligently for the CVB and Downtown Council. She’s a passionate advocate for downtown and sees much good happening there. She also is crazy about her great niece, her garden, and exercising—all helpful in counteracting a hectic work life. She is part of a close knit family that still has dinner together every Sunday, a tradition started by her grandmother.

Her belief that a person’s character follows her through life and beyond helps her always remain ethical and fair. A long-time colleague says what is perhaps most impressive besides her ethics and clarity of thought is “. . . she works as hard as any one at the hotel and is thus highly respected.”

Karen L Pletz
President & CEO
University of Health Sciences

It’s been a bit of an unconventional road. Karen Pletz began as a partner in a law firm specializing in business and estate planning. Then she went to banking. In 1995, she was selected as president for the University of Health Sciences, the largest medical school in Missouri. The unusual path has led to happiness.

“Positive energy and a genuine belief in the ability of others to achieve will make that achievement happen. If we, as leaders, practice humility, faith and ‘positivity,’ integrity, compassion and service, all else will find its right level,” she says. That level is apparent, too, in her many contributions to the community, including a huge number of leadership positions in a variety of venues, including Chair Elect of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. She believes that it is “necessary and important to give back to the community in which we live and work . . . as important for organizations as it is for individuals.” Her list of activities, awards, and chairmanships, validates that belief.

The maker of a “killer pie crust” is always busy, always active, always trying to make her hospital and her community better. It’s a journey that has required, and given, much.

After seven years in hospital administration as CFO, Debbie Smith went on to 18 years with Humana. When she moved from Corpus Christi to take the job here, she knew she was taking on another challenging role. That she’s succeeded is testified to by Jim Denning, CEO of Discover Vision Centers who says she’s “turned a battleship and made Humana into a dominant player once again.”

He, like the others she works with, is also most appreciative that “You always know where you stand. It’s either yes, no, or why not. She provides results, not lip service. Her type of leadership is sorely needed in the health care industry.”

Smith is more modest, uncomfortable with personal horn tooting. But she does say that she has a passion for “solving business issues and blending the talents and skills of a team to accomplish goals for a particular project, building sustainable success within an organization” —whether it’s hers or one of the many she volunteers for. She takes some of those same skills to create memorable, gourmet meals, too—no doubt along with the quote she always remembers when faced with personal or business adversity: “Persistence prevails when all else fails.”

Beginning years ago as office
manager for Robert D. O’Byrne and Associates, Carolyn Watley was appointed president in 2002 of the renamed firm. When she began, there were 12 associates; now there are over 100 at the largest employee benefits consulting firm in Kansas City.

Watley looks back to her early years when she went to work for Bob O’Byrne and an organization she says had all the ingredients for success. In the last 21 years, she’s remained loyal to building the organization and feels rewarded that she was chosen its president. A strong work ethic, duplicated by the other employees there, and long lasting client relationships have created success. She’s taken those principles to her work as a community volunteer and board member for such organizations as the National Kidney Foundation, Union Station, and Kansas City Public Television.

A devotee of books about successful people and companies, Watley says she continues to enjoy raising four children, the Kansas City Chiefs, and playing golf. She aspires to “be the mentor to others that Bob O’Byrne was to me.” And her favorite words? They’re by William Arthur Ward: “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”