CEO Winter 2015

STORYTELLER

Sarah Hill Draws Inspiration From A Passionate Cause

STARTUP STRATEGY

Bill Turpin Takes Over At The MU Life Science Business Incubator

WINTER 2015

www.ColumbiaCEO.com

Women of Influence

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CONTENTS

Inside Columbia’s CEO • www.ColumbiaCEO.com • Volume 6, Issue 2

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Opening Bell: The Buzz on CoMo Biz

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Business Basics: How To Build A Strong Online Presence

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Regional Roundup

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The Ladder Report: Who’s On The Move In CoMo

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Startup Strategy: Bill Turpin Takes Over At The MU Life Science Business Incubator

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Data Bank: Value Proposition

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CEO Roundtable: Columbia’s Women Of Influence Speak Out

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Inspiration: Sarah Hill Finds Her Muse In Helping Veterans

Top Tech: CEO’s Executive Gift Guide

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Business Unusual: Zou Cab

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The Conference Room: A Conversation With New UM CFO Brian Burnett

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CEO At Play: 3 Questions

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Networking

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Publisher’s Note

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Coach’s Clipboard: 5 Keys To Creating A Winning Culture

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Closing Quotes

on the cover: A group of Columbia businesswomen gathered at the CEO Roundtable to discuss the city’s most pressing issues. Read more on Page 46. Photo by L.G. Patterson 6

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION 54 Real Women.

Real Business.

STAFF

INSIDE COLUMBIA’S CEO

Publisher Fred Parry fred@insidecolumbia.net Associate Publisher Melody Parry melody@insidecolumbia.net

MEET OUR EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Associate Publisher & Executive Editor Sandy Selby sandy@insidecolumbia.net Managing Editor Kathy Casteel kathy@insidecolumbia.net Editorial Assistant Peg Gill peg@insidecolumbia.net Contributing Writers Anita Neal Harrison, Kate Hrdina, Morgan McCarty, Gary Pinkel

TOM ATKINS President, Tom Atkins Investments

RANDY COIL President, Coil Construction

GARY DREWING President, Joe Machens Dealerships

JOAN GABEL Dean, Trulaske College of Business, University of Missouri

Graphic Designers Alyssa Blevins alyssa@insidecolumbia.net Trever Griswold trever@insidecolumbia.net Joe Waner joewaner@insidecolumbia.net Photo Editor L.G. Patterson lg@insidecolumbia.net

BOB GERDING President, Gerding, Korte & Chitwood CPAs

PAUL LAND Principal/Owner, Plaza Commercial Realty

DIANNE LYNCH President, Stephens College

GEORGE PFENENGER CEO, Socket

Social Media/Website Editor Drew Van Dyke drew@insidecolumbia.net Operations Manager Kalie Clennin kalie@insidecolumbia.net Marketing Representatives Samantha Cook samantha@insidecolumbia.net Rosemarie Peck rosemarie@insidecolumbia.net

BOB PUGH CEO, MBS Textbook Exchange

GREG STEINHOFF President of Strategic Operations, Veterans United Home Loans

JERRY TAYLOR Former President & CEO, MFA Oil Co.

TIM WOLFE President, University of Missouri System

Joe Schmitter joe@insidecolumbia.net

Director of Customer Retention Gerri Shelton gerri@insidecolumbia.net Finance Manager Brenda Brooks brenda@insidecolumbia.net Distribution Manager John Lapsley

Inside Columbia’s CEO magazine 47 E. Broadway • Columbia, MO 65203 • Office: 573-442-1430 • Web: www.ColumbiaCEO.com Inside Columbia’s CEO is published quarterly by OutFront Communications LLC, 47 E. Broadway, Columbia, Mo. 65203, 573-442-1430. Copyright OutFront Communications, 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of any editorial or graphic content without the express written permission of the publisher is prohibited.

Postage paid at Columbia, Mo. The annual subscription rate is $19.95 for four issues.

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OPENING BELL

the buzz on como biz

photo by L.G. PATTERSON

PARK PLACE

These Hitt Street parking meters are sporting new head gear that allow motorists to pay for parking with plastic as well as metal tender. The city installed new meter heads on Hitt and University Avenue last fall that take credit cards (Visa and MasterCard), as well as debit cards and coins. The meters do not accept EZ Park prepaid cards, and credit/debit card purchases require a two-hour minimum. The 50 new meters are similar to ones already on South Ninth Street and East Broadway.

Other changes are coming with the New Year to downtown parking. On Jan. 1, permit rates go up $5 — to $65 a month — at all city-owned surface lots; Short Street Garage permits will be $75 a month. Enforcement hours at meters will extend to 7 p.m. Parking fines have already increased; since Oct. 1, tickets have been $15.

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the buzz on como biz

MU HEALTH CARE: SMOKERS NEED NOT APPLY

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niversity of Missouri Health Care has adopted a nicotine-free hiring policy, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Current MU Health Care employees are exempt.

According to spokeswoman Mary Jenkins, MU Health Care will begin the application process by asking job applicants if they use nicotine products. If applicants answer “yes,” they will be given tobacco-cessation information and an offer to re-apply for jobs within 90 days. If the applicant answers “no” to the nicotine question, the application process will proceed.

All new hires at MU Health Care undergo pre-employment drug screenings, Jenkins says; nicotine will be added to the drug screening list on Jan.1. The new policy covers nicotine products including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, snuff, clove cigarettes, electronic cigarettes and similar products.

BioPharma Services Finds U.S. Home In Columbia

BioPharma Services Inc. opened its U.S. operations in Columbia last fall with a 48-bed Phase 1 clinical research facility on Portland Street. The Canadian contract research organization conducts clinical trials for various pharmaceutical companies, specializing in bioequivalence studies comparing brand-name drugs against generic formulations.

The Columbia facility, which can be expanded to 140 beds, complements BioPharma’s established Phase 1 clinical and bioanalytical facility in Toronto, Canada. The 40 employees at the U.S. site already have completed several clinical trials for BioPharma clients; based on projected demand, the company will begin expansion plans for the 140-bed capacity, according to CEO Renzo DiCarlo.

“This new facility will help us meet our expanding client base’s needs for increased access to BPSI services and allow BPSI to expand into unmet areas of expertise,” says Ilan T. Rose, vice president for business development.

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Cash Cow

A study has calculated the economic impact of the University of Missouri Department of Intercollegiate Athletics as $247 million. The figure accounts for direct, indirect and induced revenue produced as a result of MU athletic and related activities. The study, conducted by a team of graduate students from MU’s Trulaske College of Business Crosby MBA program, found that out-of-town fans contributed more than $31 million to the Columbia and mid-Missouri economy in fiscal year 2013; local fans contributed a little less than $13 million. The MBA group conducting the study included Ben Becker, Ryan Leer, Lauren Himmelberg, Parker Leppien, Nathan McCormick, Aaron Senne and Heather Webster.

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Columbia Garners eCity Honors From Google Columbia has made Google’s 2014 list of top cities in the digital economy.

Google’s eCity Awards recognize the strongest online business community in each state, where businesses are using the Web to find new customers, connect with existing customers and fuel their local economies.

Google and independent research firm Ipsos MORI analyzed the online strength of local small businesses in cities in all 50 states. The city with the highest score in each state was designated a Google eCity. Columbia scored highest in Missouri.

Rankings are based on highest AdWords penetration relative to population size and online business activity such as directory listings, websites, e-commerce, social media presence and blogs.

Google’s 2013 economic impact report noted that 21,000 Missouri businesses and nonprofits used the search engine’s advertising tools, AdWords and AdSense, last year. Google also provided $651,000 of free advertising to Missouri nonprofits through the Google Ad Grants program.

the buzz on como biz

Missouri Minimum Wage Up, Workers’ Comp Rates Flat The Missouri Department of Labor has set the state minimum wage for 2015 at $7.65 an hour, a 15-cent increase. The wage goes into effect on Jan. 1. All Missouri employers must pay their employees no less than the minimum wage except those engaged in retail or service businesses whose annual gross income is less than $500,000.

State workers’ compensation rates will remain the same for 2015. The workers’ compensation administrative tax and administrative surcharge will remain at 1 percent each; both the Second Injury Fund surcharge and the Second Injury Fund supplemental surcharge will be 3 percent.

Social Time Ever wonder how much time your customers are spending on social media sites? According to a Cowen and Company poll of U.S. adults, users across all age groups spend an average of 42.1 minutes per day on Facebook. Tumblr comes in second overall, with 34.2 minutes, ahead of Instagram (21.2 minutes). Pinterest (20.8 minutes) and Twitter (17.1 minutes) round out the top five sites. Snapchat grabs 17 minutes a day, followed by Tinder (14.9 minutes), Ello (13.2 minutes) and LinkedIn (9.8 minutes). The 18–29 age group reported the greatest amount of time spent daily on all social media sites except Ello and LinkedIn.

Nanotechnology Startup Expands With New Plant Biotech startup Nanova Biomaterials Inc. has moved into its new 6,000-square-foot facility on Mojave Court in Columbia. The $1.5 million facility includes a research and development lab, production area and office space. NBI uses nanotechnology to manufacture orthopedic and dental products, such as dental fillings and bone screws. The company expects to create up to 50 new jobs within the first five years.

NBI manufactures StarBright 5% Sodium Fluoride Dental Varnish — recently approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration — at the Columbia facility. The company has three additional products pending FDA approval. NBI’s parent company, Nanova Inc., was founded in 2007 by four researchers: Hao Li and Qingsong Yu, both associate professors of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Missouri, electrical engineer Meng Chen and orthopedist Kenneth Lambert. Nanova spun off NBI in 2013 to focus on nanotechnology research. An infusion of Chinese venture capital launched the company’s expansion and funded the construction of the manufacturing plant.

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Saint Francis System Joins Health Network The Health Network of Missouri has added Saint Francis Healthcare System in Cape Girardeau as the network’s sixth member.

Saint Francis joins health care systems in Sedalia, Jefferson City, Hannibal, Osage Beach and Columbia in the network. The group now offers more than 1,000 hospital beds, more than 10,700 employees and approximately 1,200 affiliated physicians; the Saint Francis addition expands the areas served by network hospitals to include 18 counties in southeastern Missouri.

Westminster Celebrates The Year Of WOW Westminster College in Fulton is marking its 35th anniversary of coeducation with its Women of Westminster celebration.

The college kicked off its Year of WOW in October with a year’s worth of events planned.

Betsy Schultz Humphreys was the first woman admitted to Westminster in 1979. The daughter of a Westminster professor and administrator, Humphreys grew up in Fulton. She graduated from Westminster in 1983 with a degree in computer science and mathematics. She currently works for AT&T in St. Louis as a principal program manager.

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regional roundup

St. Mary’s Wins Missouri Quality Award SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital – Jefferson City recently received its second Missouri Quality Award, presented by the Excellence in Missouri Foundation. St. Mary’s first won Quality Award honors in 2009.

The Missouri Quality Award recognizes the bestrun businesses in the Show-Me State, based on criteria modeled after the national Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.

SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital opened its brand-new Jefferson City facility at Highway 179 and Mission Drive on Nov. 1. The 366,000-square-foot hospital boasts such amenities as spa-like birthing suites, rooftop gardens, iPod docking stations and free Wi-Fi.

MFA Oil Begins Moberly Construction MFA Oil Co. has begun construction on the 33acre commercial site that will house its business support campus in Moberly. The Columbiabased farmer-owned cooperative purchased the half-finished site of the failed Mamtek artificial sweetener factory early in 2014.

The first phase of construction — scheduled for completion in May — will include the main office, maintenance department, parts and packaged goods warehouses, a training center, and the product development and quality control department. A second phase will include the truck maintenance department and bulk lubricant storage. The 96,000-square-foot facility should be fully operational by the end of 2015.

Little Dixie Construction is the general contractor for the project.

CMU Receives Largest Gift In History Central Methodist University has received a $3.6 million gift from Jay and Kelly Jacobs of Laguna Niguel, Calif. The gift is the largest donation in the 160-year history of the Fayette school.

The couple’s gift will go toward CMU’s $20 million fundraising effort, which includes construction of a $6.5 million allied health building. The donors requested the building be named the James and Helen Thogmorton Center for Allied Health.

Jay Jacobs is president and managing director of PIMCO, a global investment solutions provider. Though not a CMU alumnus, Jacobs served for eight years on the Central Methodist University Board of Trustees. He grew up in Fayette, a neighbor of the Thogmortons, who both died in 2009. James Thogmorton served in the CMU administration as dean of men, dean of students and dean of alumni affairs.

Lake Ozark Orders Halt On Cell Towers Lake Ozark has issued a six-month moratorium on building cell towers and other telecommunication facilities. The Board of Aldermen took unanimous action on the issue as the city awaits new state regulations governing cell tower construction and safety requirements.

The moratorium expires March 1.

Tourism Division Joins Travel South The Missouri Division of Tourism has joined Travel South USA, the largest and oldest regional tourism-marketing alliance in the country. Missouri is the 12th member of Travel South USA, which in 2015 celebrates its 50th year of marketing member states as tourism destinations to both national and international audiences.

The Southern Governors’ Association chartered Travel South USA in 1965 to support state tourism offices in member states, which now include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

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up & coming

THE LADDER REPORT Look Who’s Moving Up In Columbia GOV. JAY NIXON has named Columbian CHRIS PIEPER as his chief of staff, replacing longtime Nixon aide JOHN WATSON. Pieper previously served as the senior legal and policy adviser in the governor’s office.

A graduate of the University of Missouri and its law school, Pieper has also served in the state’s Economic Development, Natural Resources and Revenue departments and attorney general’s office.

KATHLEEN BRUEGENHEMKE is the new Columbia market president of HAWTHORN BANK. She replaces MATT WILLIAMS, who left in October.

Bruegenhemke has been with the company since 1992, serving as senior vice president and secretary since 1997. Before joining Exchange National Bank/Hawthorn Bancshares, Bruegenhemke worked as a commissioned bank examiner for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

CURTIS CHANEY has joined MFA OIL CO. as senior vice president of retail. He will be responsible for the Break Time convenience stores as well as MFA Oil’s Jiffy Lube franchise locations.

Chaney previously served as vice president and chief

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operating officer of Illinoisbased Tri Star Marketing Inc., which operates Super Panty convenience stores. His 30 years of convenience store experience include work with Tri-Star and Speedway SuperAmerica.

The American Land Title Association has appointed DAVID TOWNSEND to a three-year term on its Title Insurance Underwriters Section Executive Committee. Townsend is president and CEO of AGENTS NATIONAL TITLE INSURANCE CO., a Columbiabased regional title insurance underwriter. ALTA is the national trade association representing nearly 5,400 title insurance companies, title and settlement agents, independent abstracters, title searchers and real estate attorneys.

MISSOURI CORE has hired its first director in more than two years.

JOEL McNUTT replaces GARY LAFFOON, who resigned in 2012. McNutt has worked previously for Jefferson City’s Central Bank and St. Mary’s Health Center. From 2008 to 2013, he served as a central Missouri project manager with the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Missouri CORE, which stands for Connecting Our Regional Economy, is a nonprofit economic development

agency representing Audrain, Boone, Callaway, Cole and Cooper counties. In his new role at CORE, McNutt will collaborate with area economic development organizations, serve as a central contact, and enhance marketing and branding efforts in the fivecounty region.

JERRY KENNETT will step down as chief medical officer and vice president of BOONE HOSPITAL CENTER on Jan. 1, after five years in the position. He will return full-time to the practice of cardiology. Kennett is a founding member and

senior partner of MISSOURI CARDIOVASCULAR SPECIALISTS and has practiced as a cardiologist for nearly 36 years with MISSOURI HEART CENTER, Boone Hospital’s affiliated heart care provider.

TOM MAY, director of employee/public relations at MFA OIL CO., has been elected to a second term on the board of directors of the Missouri Propane Education and Research Council. MOPERC is a not-for-profit organization authorized by the Missouri Legislature to administer a statewide checkoff program.

Proceeds are used for industry training, consumer safety, appliance rebates and market development programs.

Three UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI HEALTH CARE nurses have been named March of Dimes 2014 Nurses of the Year.

LORI LAMPE, a pediatric nurse and lactation consultant at MU Women’s and Children’s Hospital, won the 2014 Pediatric Nurse of the Year award. She has worked for MU Health Care for 27 years and is the full-time lactation consultant in the Breastfeeding Outpatient Clinic.

SUSAN SCOTT, manager of patient safety and risk management, won the 2014 Infection Control and Quality Risk Management Nurse of the Year award. Scott has been a nurse with MU Health Care for 31 years, serving in the neonatal intensive care unit, the NICU transport team and the quality improvement department.

JEAN SWORD, a staff nurse in the operating room at MU Women’s and Children’s Hospital, won the 2014 Surgical Services Nurse of the Year award. An operating room nurse for 30 years (eight at MU Health Care), Sword is the nurse liaison for surgical services at Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where she keeps families informed and updated on the surgical process.

AMY HENDERSON, assistant vice president and relationship manager with CENTRAL TRUST & INVESTMENT CO., recently received the Certified Trust & Financial Advisor designation from the Institute of Certified Bankers. Henderson is a graduate of Columbia College and the University of Missouri School of Law. She joined Central Trust (affiliated with Boone County National Bank) in 2012. The ICB awards the CTFA designation to individuals who demonstrate excellence in the field of wealth management and trust. The CTFA exam covers such areas as fiduciary and trust activities, financial planning, tax law and planning, investment management and ethics.

KATE STULL has returned to her duties as marketing and communications specialist for COLUMBIA INSURANCE GROUP after serving for five weeks in the Heart of Missouri United Way Loaned Executive program.

Stull lent her expertise to a successful fundraising campaign for the United Way’s Community Impact Initiative. Other businesses contributing loaned executives included MFA Inc., Shelter Insurance Cos., Landmark Bank, First State Community Bank, Central Trust & Investment Co. and Commerce Bank.

BJC HEALTHCARE President & CEO STEVEN LIPSTEIN has been elected to the Institute of Medicine.

New IOM members are elected by current active members through a selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health. Lipstein has led BJC HealthCare since 1999. The nonprofit health care organization is one of the largest in the United States with a network of 12 hospitals — including BOONE HOSPITAL CENTER — and multiple community health locations.

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DATA BANK

Value Proposition

Columbia’s Gross Domestic Product Columbia’s Gross Domestic Product last year accounted for 2.7 percent of Missouri’s $276.3 billion GDP. Here’s a look at the value of Columbia’s goods and services and the industries that make up Columbia’s $7.58 billion economy.

Columbia’s Economic Value (in millions of dollars) Government (federal/state/local) $2,336 Real estate & rental/leasing $733 Health care & social assistance $647 Retail trade $615 Finance & insurance $589 Manufacturing $409 Professional/scientific/technical services $381 Wholesale trade $274 Construction $256 Accommodation & food services $250 Management of companies & enterprises $233 Information $223 Administrative services $173

Public-Private Balance

Transportation & utilities $173 Other nongovernment services $158 Private educational services $69 Arts, entertainment & recreation $49 Private services-providing industries $4.567 billion

Mining $9 Agriculture/forestry/fishing/hunting $6

Public services $2.336 billion Private goods-producing industries $681 million

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau, Missouri Department of Economic Development

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INSPIRATION

STORYTELLER

Sarah Hill Finds Her Muse In Helping Veterans

by ANITA NEAL HARRISON photos by L.G. PATTERSON

T

he phone calls were what pushed Sarah Hill over the edge. Those voicemails from women in their 80s and 90s telling her that their veteran husbands didn’t have long to live, asking was there any way she could get them to Washington, D.C., to see their memorials …

“Who could say no to that?” Hill asks.

At the time an Emmy-winning anchor for KOMU-TV 8, Hill had faith that if she shared the veterans’ stories, mid-Missourians would respond with donations to get the veterans to their memorials, before it was too late.

“And that’s exactly what they did,” she says.

A PASSION FOR VETERANS That was in 2009. By the time Hill moved to Veterans United Home Loans to be the company’s chief storyteller in 2012, she had put together dozens of “Sarah’s Stories” for KOMU about veterans and

Central Missouri Honor Flight, the organization her stories helped launch three years earlier. She developed an affinity with veterans and a passion for telling their stories.

“So naturally, the opportunity to come here to Veterans United where that was my job description was highly appealing to me,” she says.

Hill’s move to Veterans United, the Columbia-based lender specializing in VA-backed mortgages, came at a time when the company was drawing both national attention for its growth — earning recognition on the Inc. 500 list as one of the country’s fastest-growing companies — and local attention for snatching up several big names in the local business community as it expanded its personnel.

In announcing her hire, Kris Farmer, Veterans United chief marketing officer, called Hill “an incredible storyteller”

and “a social media visionary,” citing her national and global following on Google Plus, but he also noted her devotion to veterans as a main reason Veterans United “couldn’t be more thrilled to have her on the team.”

“Sarah’s vision, talents and passion for helping veterans are a perfect fit for Veterans United,” Farmer said.

For Sarah, the offer was a “fist pump” moment.

“I was really excited to have a more flexible schedule that allowed me more time with my husband, teenagers and mother-in-law, who now lives with us,” says Hill, a 43-year-old mother of two.

“I wanted to work with people who push the boundaries of what’s possible, and I knew the innovators at VU could teach me things. Add in the charity work that Veterans United Foundation does, and it was meant to be. They had me at ‘Veterans.’ ”

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CLOSE TO HER HEART

THE HUMAN MEDIA SHIFT

As chief storyteller, Hill produces, writes, reports and edits video stories of military men and women throughout the country.

She’s also a “human media” strategist, building relationships through face-toface online communication, particularly through group video chat. In both roles, she spends much of her time interacting directly with veterans and their families, and that interaction with the nation’s heroes keeps her in love with her job.

“After spending all that time telling veterans’ stories, talking with them day in and day out, how could I not be inspired by what they do?” she asks. “You don’t need a personal connection to be inspired by the fact that they fought for our freedom and now it’s our turn to give back to them and to fight for some of their needs, housing being just one of them.”

Although she might not need a personal connection, Hill does have one. Her maternal grandfather, Russell Hellwig, was a staff sergeant and bombardier in World War II, serving in France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Hill’s mother was born while Hellwig was overseas, and he didn’t see his daughter until she was 2 years old.

“I think about that and what that would be like, and that’s just one sacrifice he made,” says Hill, who wears her grandfather’s dog tags on her bracelet every day. “These guys wrote out blank checks — payable up to and including their lives — and we as civilians need to recognize that effort and do everything we can to make sure they have everything they need.”

Sarah Hill is known nationwide for her social media prowess. When she came to Veterans United, she brought with her the 45th-largest following on Google Plus. She’s a pioneer of the “human media” movement, which is shifting user interaction on social media from text-based engagement to face-to-face contact via webcam, and at Veterans United, she hosts Google Plus Hangouts (webcasts) and live YouTube events.

Hill shares some insights into her social media world.

How were you able to gain such an enormous following on Google Plus?

It was dumb luck really. We gained the following by interacting with a lot of people in Hangouts. Google found it interesting how we were using its tools, so it put us on a suggested user list for Google Plus.

How are you using social media to connect with veterans in meaningful ways?

With a group of tech-interested volunteers, we host “Hero Tours” for terminally ill and aging veterans who are not able to physically travel on Honor Flights to see their memorials. Over the last couple of years, thanks to a grant from Veterans United Foundation, we’ve taken hundreds of veterans on virtual tours to the World War II, 9/11 and even the Korean Memorial in Korea.

A veteran in Laddonia desperately wanted to go back to the beaches of Normandy, where he lost buddies on D-Day. Using live video and a volunteer videographer in France, this veteran was able to hear and see the sound of the waves in France from a computer in his dining room. In the future, I’d love for someone to grow that program to include veterans in other states.

You hosted the first Hangout on broadcast television just three years ago for KOMU and talk a lot about the shift to human media. Why is it important for businesses to catch this shift?

Human media is fueling a “seecommerce” evolution that’s unfolding before our very eyes. It’s like companies are meeting their online customers and social media followings for the first time. Columbia — the heart of the Silicon Prairie — is on the forefront of this shift.

Look at how Coach Gary Pinkel is using Hangouts. The Boone County Courthouse already uses a live video feed to bring defendants into the courtroom. Even politicians like Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander recently used human media to talk about veterans in transition.

Live group video chat is a powerful tool to humanize your brand. Now with a new feature called “Google Helpouts,” people are able to provide services in a video chat room and get paid for them with a Google Wallet transaction. So someone in Columbia, Mo., could teach guitar lessons to someone in New Zealand and get paid to do it. You hear that? It’s the world shrinking!

This global de-spatialization means industries can crowd source for customers from around the world and do business with them face-to-face. I’m geeked to see how the Silicon Prairie might leverage these tools for finance, medicine and education.

VETERANS UNITED FOUNDATION Along with homeowner videos, Sarah Hill also creates videos documenting the work of the Veterans United Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization funded and driven by Veterans United employees. Those videos appear on the foundation’s website, www.enhancelives.com.

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MISSION: RAISE AWARENESS The video stories Hill creates for Veterans United do both — recognize and offer help. Hill explains the videos get the word out that a VA home loan benefit exists, something even many veterans do not know.

“You say, ‘G.I. Bill,’ and people think education,” she says. “So it’s up to us, not only to educate veterans but also to talk with civilians who have the ability to share this with veterans: ‘Hey, did you know that you have a VA home loan benefit that you earned through your service? Did you know you have the ability to take advantage of it with no down payment and other benefits that come with the VA Home Loan Program?’ ” Hill produces videos profiling Veterans United homeowners and posts them on www.vu.com/inside. The poignant stories have such titles as “Military Child with Brain Disorder Finds Comfort at Home” and “Veterans United Helps Oklahoma Tornado Survivor Rebuild Her Life.”

PHOTOS BY MICHELE SPRY

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“We did a story recently about a borrower who was homeless, living on the streets of San Francisco, and now he has a home, thanks to Veterans United,” Hill says. “That happens all the time. We were in Michigan not too long ago, talking with a veteran who had throat cancer and had

With more than 4 million social media followers, Veterans United is the most followed mortgage brand in the world.

to declare bankruptcy due to medical bills.

Veterans United was able to put him in touch with the resources that allowed him to rebuild his credit profile and purchase a home …

“It’s all about educating both veterans and real estate agents on this amazing benefit,” she says. “These veterans and service members deserve to understand how this benefit works. It’s our job to help them. I’m honored to do it.”

LOVE & JOURNALISM Sarah Hill grew up in the small northeast Missouri town of Canton. She met her husband, Rob Hill, when he came into her seventh-grade science class looking for someone to write about sports for the high school newspaper. He was already in high school, and Sarah was smitten.

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“I was like, ‘Yeah, I like sports’ — and I didn’t care for sports at the time,” she says. “So he likes to joke that he launched my journalism career.”

Sarah and Rob have been married 22 years. Their 19-yearold son, Tyler, is a college sophomore, and their 17-year-old daughter, Ally, is a Rock Bridge High School junior.

BUSINESS UNUSUAL

Pedal Pusher

A Student Starts His Own Free-Wheeling Business story & photos by MORGAN MCCARTY

T

he late-night scene in downtown Columbia is rife with opportunity for the determined entrepreneur, and last summer Michael Weinstein took his shot. The University of Missouri senior finance student put some muscle into his business idea and founded Zou Cab, a pedicab service that takes customers to and from The District, within Zou Cab’s service territory.

“We say we don’t go south of Stadium Boulevard, north of Wilkes Boulevard, east of Old 63 and west of Providence Road,” Weinstein says, “but everything is negotiable!”

Weinstein found inspiration for Zou Cab in his hometown of Austin, Texas, where according to Forbes magazine, there are more than 400 registered pedicabbies. “Pedicabs are a huge part of how people get around the entertainment districts — Dirty Sixth, Rainey Street, West Sixth — and I thought they were a cool and fun way of getting around,” he says.

Weinstein thought pedicabs would be well-received by what he calls a “vibrant downtown” in CoMo. It isn’t a foreign concept to Columbia. Eight years ago, Shakespeare’s Pizza used a pedicab to deliver pizzas; it eventually became a downtown transportation service, but over the years it stopped running.

Weinstein connected with Columbian Jon Beahan, who had purchased a number of three-wheeled pedicabs for football game days from Main Street Pedicabs of Denver two years ago.

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and turn signals.

Last June, Weinstein acquired a Columbia business license for Zou Cab. The setup process with the city was very simple, he says.

“It was honestly really easy and painless, and a great testament to the entrepreneurial culture of Columbia.”

Most cities with pedicabs — New York, Austin, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco — require pedicabbies to have chauffeur licenses. But because pedicabs don’t have motors, Weinstein only needed a business license in Columbia. He believes the ease with which he was able to start Zou Cab here is part of the reason Columbia has seen so many new businesses opening recently.

Weinstein doesn’t do all of the pedaling himself. During his peak season (June through November), Zou Cab employs seven drivers, each working about one shift a week.

Weinstein found most of his drivers through friends, Craigslist and HireMizzouTigers.com. Others he found by pedaling his pedicab around downtown and attracting interest.

Eventually, the number of applicants grew to the point where Weinstein could be selective about who he hires.

“The beauty of my business model is that drivers are considered independent contractors, so anyone

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can determine when they work, and for how long,” Weinstein says. “Most go from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., Thursday through Saturday.”

A Zou Cab trip costs $3 per customer, plus tip. Weinstein says each pedicab has about 10 to 15 fares a night. It’s hard work hauling customers around downtown Columbia — with tow weights reaching an estimated 1,150 pounds of combined weight.

“I had some friends in Austin who rode for some of the pedicab businesses, but I’d never operated or driven one before starting up Zou Cab,” Weinstein says. “It is definitely harder than it looks.”

The customers are easier to come by, he says. “The typical customer walks out of a bar with a plan to go home, but sees pedicabs as a fun and entertaining alternative,” he says.

The service is also popular for transporting customers from one nightspot to the next, Weinstein says.

Business really picks up when the bars are closing and people are heading home — between 1 and 2 a.m.

“I’ve had people tell me they think it adds to the vibrancy and culture of downtown Columbia,” he says. “That really is an amazing compliment, and I definitely agree with them.”

On Oct. 4, a Zou Cab was the

victim of a hit-and-run accident when Brian Hayes was pedaling a pedicab north on College Avenue and was struck from behind by what Weinstein describes as “a black, late-year Hyundai.”

“The passenger got out to make sure he wasn’t dead and then they sped off,” Weinstein says.

The accident shut down the business for the winter months to get the bike fixed. Weinstein hopes to reopen in the spring.

Not many college seniors run a business of their own while finishing their degree, and while Weinstein has enjoyed his Zou Cab venture, he plans to take a job with a financial services firm after graduation.

“I’ve met tons of awesome people, whether they are Zou Cab drivers, passengers, or business owners,” Weinstein says. “It’s been an awesome experience with managing people, managing my own time, and learning the ins and outs of running a business.”

He won’t lose his entrepreneurial drive when he graduates. Owning and operating Zou Cab has been such a great experience that “hopefully, I can start [another] business of my own at some point down the line,” he says.

Learn more about Zou Cab at www.facebook.com/ZOUCAB.

THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!

New smartphone applications for transportation services give new meaning to the phrase “call a cab.” uAlternative transportation network Uber arrived in Columbia in October. The service employs local drivers, who pick up customers upon request via the Uber GPS application. Uber fares run at least 30 percent less than traditional taxi fares; for example, an Uber ride from the University of Missouri campus to the Columbia Mall costs $15. The app allows passengers to pay via their cellphones and split fares on credit cards; there is no tipping. uIn November, the city proposed regulations to treat app-based taxi services more like traditional taxi services. The proposed rules would require Uber to pay a fee based on how many drivers it employs and would mandate that drivers get a permit from the city.

Currently, Uber’s only requirements for drivers include passing a background check, showing proof of insurance and providing a driving record. The City Council will consider the proposed regulations later this winter. uLearn more at www.uber.com.

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THE CONFERENCE ROOM

WORKING CAPITAL

A Conversation With The University Of Missouri’s New Financial Officer

by KATHY CASTEEL

B

rian Burnett may be a newcomer to Collegetown, USA, but he’s no stranger to college towns. The University of Missouri system’s new vice president for finance and chief financial officer arrived in Columbia last August from Colorado, where he had built his career in The Centennial State’s university system. He replaces Nikki Krawitz, who retired in June 2013.

A Colorado Springs native, 51-yearold Burnett earned all of his academic degrees in the University of Colorado system. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UC-Boulder, a master’s degree in finance from UC-Denver and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from UC-Colorado Springs. Burnett comes to the UM system after serving as senior executive vice chancellor for administration and finance at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

He also filled a concurrent role with the University of Colorado system as associate vice president for administration and foundation relations.

“The Colorado and Missouri systems are very similar,” he says, “except here you have appointed curators and in Colorado the regents are elected.”

The move to Missouri brought Burnett closer to family, he says. His son, Derrick, is studying finance at New York University and his daughter, Tori, is a chemistry student who plays soccer for the University of Minnesota “I am truly a soccer dad,” he says. “I spent one Sunday watching the Mizzou women play Alabama rather than watch NFL football.” Burnett’s wife, Marilyn, is an administrator with two specialty courts in Colorado Springs. She plans to join him in Columbia after she wraps up her work there next year.

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Working directly under system President Tim Wolfe, Burnett is responsible for bringing together the financial resources for the University of Missouri’s four campuses, MU Health Care and Extension.

“Not much gets done without financial resources,” he says. “Financial resources provide the fuel to get objectives done.”

He has two priorities for strengthening the university’s financial underpinnings:

1. Diversify the revenue base. “We need to get in a solid position,” he says.

2. Improve efficiency. “I want us to be best-in-class among public universities for our business practices,” he says.

“We can become an efficient, effective resource.”

Burnett is settling in at University Hall, and is ready to share some insight into the financial picture for the university.

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As chief financial officer of Columbia’s largest employer and the city’s most significant economic engine, explain how your job impacts the Columbia business community.

As the CFO of the University of Missouri system and its many campuses and operations statewide, my role will be to work with the MU campus leaders on ways to grow the research, education and positive economic impact that the campus has on the Columbia and Boone County economy.

The university’s traditional options for revenue include state support, tuition, grants and donations. The balance of that mix has changed in recent years. What additional revenue opportunities do you plan to pursue? Is there an ideal formula for revenue sources?

I do not believe that there is an “ideal” formula for revenue sources for any college or university in the country, and the four campuses of the UM system have unique mixes of revenue streams to support their teaching, service and research functions.

Most public colleges and universities across the nation have increased their reliance on tuition in the face of, in many cases, flat or declining state support. I believe our campuses will be more tuition-dependent while working to develop philanthropic and other entrepreneurial sources of revenue to further diversify the revenue base.

The UM system and its campuses need to look at potential joint ventures and commercialization of intellectual property, taking advantage of our collective size and scale to creatively find

new funding for operations other than tuition and state support.

Enrollment at the university has increased to record levels this century, resulting in more tuition dollars flowing into university coffers. Is there a tradeoff between the added tuition revenue and the added expenses of hiring more faculty and staff, and building more facilities to serve those students? Has the university achieved a cost-efficient balance for student enrollment?

Anytime you add students to a college campus, these additional students come with increased marginal costs. I believe that each UM campus has to examine the marginal revenue generated compared to the marginal costs of adding students to their specific programs and colleges.

At some point, more and more students added will drive the need for additional resources such as classrooms, laboratories and parking facilities, thus it is imperative that each campus use its space efficiently and prudently to maximize the value of these contributions to the teaching environment.

Where do your priorities lie — increasing revenue or cutting expenditures? What type of balance do you aim to achieve?

I believe a balance of increasing revenues and looking for efficiencies wherever possible is the part of any CFO role, whether it is in the public or private sector. That said, the state of Missouri’s ability to financially support its public universities is challenging in the face of all of the other demands on the revenues of the state in health care, K-12 education, criminal justice and other state services that are important to the citizens of the state.

Thus, while working with the governor and legislative leaders on the importance of continuing to invest in public higher education is critical, we The Columbia campus claims nearly half of the must also do our part to University of Missouri system’s $3.1 billion budget. explore alternative ways of developing revenue UM System sources to support — $160 million UMSL University of Missouri (Columbia campus) through our strategic $210 million plans, our teaching, MS&T research and service University of Missouri Health Care $220 million missions across the state.

I recognize a great deal University of Missouri-Kansas City of cost-cutting occurred prior to my arrival on all UMKC MU $1.4 billion Missouri University of Science & Technology of the UM campuses and $370 million system so at this point, we will be more focused University of Missouri-St. Louis MU Health Care on growing revenues to $760 million stabilize our operations University of Missouri system while continuing to (includes $80 million for systemwide divisions and revenues) examine potential Total: $3,129,218,673 efficiencies across the system to make our funds stretch even further.

THE TIGER’S SHARE

SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM

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I think the leaders of all four UM campuses are looking at that balance each year when goals are set for enrollment, but in the end, it is likely that all four of our campuses will continue to grow as more students see the value of a University of Missouri degree for their future.

What options will the university system pursue to cut expenditures? Will the current early retirement offer to eligible faculty and staff result in significant savings for the system? How does infrastructure — funding for new buildings and renovation plans — fit into current budget parameters?

The UM system continues to work with the campuses to look at cost-effective ways of providing our services and support services in a number of areas. There are no specific areas targeted at present, other than to say that we look at a number of potential ways to make our funding more efficient and effective in supporting our faculty and students.

The voluntary separation program on the MU campus was not offered as a cost-cutting move, but rather to increase budget flexibility for funding salary increases and new positions.

Infrastructure funding is challenging in the current fiscal environment and each campus has unique challenges and opportunities to solve within budgeted funds.

What is your assessment of the financial health of the University of Missouri system?

My assessment would mirror what Moody’s and S&P stated publicly within the past few weeks: The system is well-managed and has tremendous opportunities to leverage its resources to continue to grow and serve the citizens of Missouri with high-quality postsecondary educational opportunities. Both of these rating agencies affirmed the system’s bond rating, Aa1 and AA+ for a recent $150 million debt issuance; these are some of the highest ratings among public universities in the nation. Prior leaders of the system and campus have put in a great deal of work in the face of challenging economic times over the past decade and beyond, and we will work to maintain and strengthen the financial health of the university during my time in this role.

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COACH’S CLIPBOARD

Turnaround

5 Keys To Creating A Winning Culture

by GARY PINKEL

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ollege football is a business with a major emphasis on winning and losing. It’s one of the principal factors in how teams, players and coaches alike are evaluated. But a win isn’t just a win, and a loss isn’t just a loss. Like any business, successes and failures shape the team’s organizational culture, and having a losing culture is incredibly detrimental to the organization and everyone involved in it.

Creating a losing culture is not difficult. Reversing one, though? Well, to call it a challenge would be a gross understatement. Prior to my joining the University of Missouri football family in 2000, the program had recorded just two winning seasons in 17 years. Not exactly conducive to turning around a losing culture, is it? But that’s exactly what we’ve done with Mizzou football. It’s not easy, but it is doable — and it’s absolutely essential. Here are five keys to turning a losing culture into a winning one.

1. Trust is everything.

Without trust, nothing will work. Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way: “Our distrust is very expensive.” When people are unable to trust their leader, it puts the entire organization in jeopardy.

Distrust within an organization slows down the process, costing you precious time, money and credibility.

Developing a comprehensive plan instills trust in your staff, a vital component of any organization. The

best teams, both in sports and in business, are cohesive units that work together and are well-informed about the organization’s goals. As a leader, you are in charge of commanding that group effort. Be a good communicator, stay organized and efficient, and the trust will follow.

2. Forge a plan — and stick to it.

Your staff members (or in my case,

players) look to you, their leader, to have a plan. If you don’t know how you’re going to get where you want to be, it’s hard for people to put their faith in you. Put your plan in place, demand excellence and ensure that things are done the way you want them to be done by everyone in the organization. Even though you might take a few steps back on occasion, day-by-day, you start to make progress.

It is not enough, however, to simply have a plan — you must steadfastly follow it. It’s tempting to stray when things get tough. But when the Tigers lose a game, you won’t find them doing different drills or lifting heavier weights. If you change your plan every time you hit adversity, it’s not really a plan at all.

3. Push past adversity as a team.

One of the biggest roadblocks to overcoming a losing culture is facing adversity. When adversity hits, it’s easy for people to retreat from a group mentality and focus on themselves. This is a struggle within athletics especially because, after a loss, players often go back to an individual mentality. It’s no longer about the team, and that’s a big problem.

Accept that hardships happen.

Be persistent, stick to your plan, and maintain a positive attitude. When we lose, we don’t tear up the playbook and start from scratch. We press on and try to get better.

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4. Pursue a clear vision.

Within Mizzou football, we set academic goals, personal goals, season goals, position-specific goals, team goals … the list goes on.

Goals are important. Without an idea of where you want to be, how do you expect to get there? Purpose drives vision, and vision drives goals. When you have a concrete purpose, you can set your sights on a vision. Once you have a vision, you can set goals for yourself and for the organization.

You have to set a mark for where you want to be, whether it’s two months from now or five years out. It’s helpful to set your goals just a little bit higher than you think is realistic; make it a little bit tougher on yourself and compete to get to where you want to be. Leave your excuses at the door and work steadfastly to get to that point.

5. Constantly evaluate.

We evaluate everything at Mizzou football — and I do mean everything. From fan appreciation events to practices, we’re always looking at how we can be better.

Constant evaluation keeps you on the cutting edge of what’s going on within your organization and keeps everybody moving in the correct direction.

It took about five years to reverse Mizzou football’s losing culture. It required persistence, dedication and a positive attitude, as well as the absolute commitment of everyone in the organization. Mizzou football is now the only program in the nation that ranks in the top five for Academic Progress Rate, top five in first-round NFL draft picks and top 10 in wins. Our players are a family, and 97 percent of our seniors left the University of Missouri with a diploma in the past five years.

The process never ends, though — now we’re maintaining a winning culture, and that’s just as important. A winning culture, both in athletics and in business, is essential to a solid organization.

Gary Pinkel is in his 14th year as head coach of the University of Missouri football team. Pinkel collected his 102nd win in the 2014 AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, which made him the winningest coach in Mizzou football history.

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BUSINESS BASICS

Stay Connected How To Build A Strong Online Presence

by KATE HRDINA

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ou’ve heard it before: It’s the age of communication.

Look around a crowded room, and chances are you’ll see at least a few faces aglow with a bright light. They are reading tweets, typing texts, sorting emails, sharing posts, googling questions — doing any number of things, really — on their devices of choice. To your customers, these little screens are where your business lives the majority of the time.

There are statistics upon statistics about how long users stay on a Web page and how much information they actually ingest from said page.

A 2009 study by Akamai, a cloud service company, found that 40 percent of viewers will leave a page if it takes more than three seconds to load. Past that, according to consulting firm Nielsen Norman Group, “To gain several minutes of user attention, you must clearly communicate your value proposition within 10 seconds.”

Most of the other statistics out there are equally shocking, and they all boil down to one challenge for you as a business owner — getting your message across online and getting it across quickly.

OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE No matter how large or small your business, you should have a functional, aesthetically pleasing website that aligns with your brand image.

Make your website user-friendly, advises Angela Huhman of Caledon Virtual, a local marketing firm that offers website design and online marketing tools for businesses. As an account executive, Huhman works with business owners to find the best avenues to grow awareness and ultimately draw in more customers for their company.

The online tactic Huhman stresses most to her clients is “make sure to optimize your site to be responsive on multiple-sized devices.” Don’t make viewers of your website zoom in and scroll left to right to read the text or see a picture, she says. Someone who wants to call your business but can’t find your phone number on your website is a lost potential customer, she adds.

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as soon as something changes. Links to your social media pages should be obvious and located at the top of the page. You might even consider adding widgets of your Facebook and Twitter feeds to entice people to connect with you on those pages.

Above all, “content is still king,” Huhman says. Tell customers about your history, and explain why you chose to work in your field. Don’t bog down readers with large chunks of text, though. Concise, meaningful content increases your credibility because customers begin to feel as if they know you personally.

Use real photos of your business, not stock photos of your industry. Simple additions to your website are what make it personal, and ultimately, what bring customers into your store.

The content on your website also determines where you show up in search results on sites such as Google and Yahoo. These search engines read your website and prioritize your page based on keywords, backlinks, updated content and much more.

Add a blog if you can commit to consistent posting, or include videos. Check out Google AdWords Keyword Planner to get an idea of what keywords will work best for you, or read through www.moz.com for a detailed guide on search engine optimization.

ENGAGE CUSTOMERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA With so many sites in use for so many different reasons, it can be daunting to dive into social media. The first thing you must decide is which sites your target demographic is using. You want to meet your customers where they already are.

Adult females dominate the world of Facebook and Pinterest, while Twitter

ceo’s how-to guide

tends to have a younger, mostly-male user base. If you’re looking to make businessto-business connections, LinkedIn and Google+ are your best outlets.

That said, social media is not for attracting new customers, Huhman says.

These interactive sites are most useful as secondary destinations after someone has looked at your website or passed by your store. Focus your social media strategy on your existing customers.

“If someone has liked your page, you can stop selling to them,” she says.

Social media visitors are already your customers, and your job there is to keep them happy. Spend your time thanking them and rewarding them with exclusive specials; keep them informed about your industry. Engaging interactions online keep you top of mind and get your customers talking about your business.

The same rules that apply to your website content apply to social media strategies — make a plan, and don’t bore users. Remember, people scroll fast through social media sites, so use photos and visually stimulating graphics to grab viewers’ attention.

Know what you’re trying to accomplish with your social media sites, and create a posting schedule so you’re consistently delivering fresh content to your followers. Post pictures of events you host, and sprinkle in some humor every once in a while. Above all, create online conversations.

“Either you can control the conversation and put content out, or people are going to talk about your business anyway,” Huhman says. “So you might as well jump in and control it.”

Managing a strong online presence is a time commitment. Assess your skills and the skills of your staff. If you don’t already have someone in your company who is an expert in online strategy, consider outsourcing your website and social media. The marketplace is full of companies that offer everything from basic consulting to full do-it-for-you approaches; choose one that best aligns with your company goals.

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STARTUP STRATEGY SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR BILL TURPIN TAKES OVER AT THE MU LIFE SCIENCE BUSINESS INCUBATOR

u by KATHY CASTEEL photos by L.G. PATTERSON

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If practice makes perfect, Bill Turpin ought to have his entrepreneurial skills honed to an impeccable edge.

The 58-year-old native Missourian rode out the technology wave in Silicon Valley, taking ideas and building businesses out of them. He didn’t invent the Internet, but his products helped pave the way for the ease with which we navigate the World Wide Web. “I’ve been in the right place at the right time … and sometimes the wrong place at the wrong time,” Turpin says.

It was Turpin’s track record for right place/right time that piqued the interest of the Missouri Innovation Center Board when it set out to replace retiring president and CEO Jake Halliday.

“Mr. Turpin brings the experience of a serial technology innovator and entrepreneur, providing perspectives and leadership that will take Missouri Innovation Center and the business incubator at MU to the next level,” said Board President David Keller in announcing Turpin’s hire last summer.

“In particular, we expect Bill to intensify MIC’s services and business mentoring for software entrepreneurs, bringing that support into balance with the strong program in place for life science ventures.”

Now, after 36 years in the cradle of the technology revolution, Turpin has returned to his home state and his alma mater as president and CEO of Missouri Innovation Center and leader of the MU Life Science Business Incubator. He hopes to stimulate the entrepreneurial community here and accelerate the startup success rate.

“Success feels pretty good,” he says.

“Aside from the financial aspect, there is the satisfaction of creating something where there was nothing before — like art from a blank canvas.”

Turpin’s feel-good brush strokes are beginning to fill in the picture on the entrepreneurial canvas of Columbia.

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BORN IN Louisiana, Mo.

—“because that’s where the hospital was in Pike County” — Turpin grew up in the northeast Missouri town of Bowling Green. His father, Circuit Court Judge Bill Turpin Sr., moved the family to St. Charles in 1970. After graduating from Francis Howell High School, Turpin arrived in Columbia in 1974 to attend the University of Missouri.

“MU was the only college I considered,” he says. “My grandfather, my parents and my sister had all gone here.”

He began his studies as a mechanical engineering major — “I enjoyed building things and tearing them down to see how

“AT IBM, I WOULD HAVE BEEN WORKING ON A MAINFRAME …

THAT DIDN’T REALLY EXCITE ME.” they worked” — but soon fell in love with computer programming. He switched to electrical engineering, where MU housed its budding computer science department.

“Those were the days of punch cards and big mainframe computers,” he recalls. “We were just starting to get cabinet-size computers. I would walk down the hall and ask, ‘Who owns that computer?’ And then I’d get on the project so I could work with it. I was at the right place at the right time.”

Armed with his engineering degree, Turpin entertained two job offers in 1978, from IBM in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Texas Instruments in Houston.

“At IBM, I would have been working on a mainframe, he says. “That didn’t really excite me. Then I visited Houston, where TI was building PCs. Now that was exciting.”

Turpin spent two years in Houston before moving to Austin, where TI sent him to get an MBA at the University of Texas. “This was the tech corridor,” he notes. Austin proved to be a love match as well, where he met and married his wife, Josephine, who worked at Advanced Micro Devices.

While working at TI, Turpin created artificial intelligence software products, including an expert system tool that Boeing used to design wing flaps.

uTHE

ENTREPRENEUR BUG BIT

in 1988. Turpin quit TI to head up his first startup, Point Technologies, which produced a software product that could take any business form and reproduce it.

“We were using Windows 2.0 to put in decision trees,” he says. “The computer could fill out the form and tie it to the database. It was the first graphical database front-end on Windows.”

In 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0 and Borland International bought Turpin’s Windows-based Point Technologies. “We had one of the few Windows programs on the market,” he says. “Right time, right place.” By summer, he was headed to California — the Silicon Rush was in full swing.

“They paid us enough to buy a house out there,” he recalls.

Borland renamed the program ObjectVision, one of the first popular applications written for Windows 3.0.

The company shipped 300,000 copies and won industry awards from Byte magazine and Software Publishers Association.

In less than five years at Borland, Turpin rose to vice president of dBASE development, another popular Windows-

“WE SAID, u ‘LET’S DO THIS INTERNET THING,’ ” based application that provided database functionality and server connectivity. By the end of 1994, though, the startup bug was biting again. Turpin and four friends quit Borland to start Commerce Tools in Santa Cruz.

“We said, ‘Let’s do this Internet thing,’ ” he recalls with a smile.

The Web was a place of static websites and documents in the mid-’90s.

Commerce Tools developed a way for websites to dynamically generate HTML code, Turpin says. The scripting language the company pioneered became known as JavaScript. Within months, Turpin and his team had joined Netscape, where they developed and marketed products and engineered Netscape’s emerging Internet portal. In 1999, AOL bought Netscape, and Turpin — now senior vice u

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president for Netcenter development — took his stock options and left to start yet another company, Themestream.

“It was going to be even bigger and better,” he says. “In those days, it was easy to get venture capital. We raised more than $10 million from Silicon Valley companies.”

Themestream was an early blogging venture, a forerunner to RSS feeds. “We had original articles — indexed, weighted and rated — that we sent out in digests,” he says. “It was specialty media and we were publishers.”

Themestream grew to 1 million subscribers and 40,000 contributors in a year. William Hearst sat on the company’s board of directors. But the ad-based revenue model ran amok. “The ad-supported websites became like no one wanted,” Turpin says. Themestream went out of business in 2001.

“I had such big expectations,” he says.

“Before it tanked, I actually had visions of buying a jet plane. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time is bad. In two years, I hired 50 and laid off 50.”

Turpin stopped out for a few years.

Instead of a plane, he bought a sailboat and took up racing. In 2003, things began looking up in the tech world so he edged his way back in as a consultant to Sun Microsystems and then took a position with Redpoint Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence, performing due diligence on emerging ventures such as MySpace and Keyhole (which became Google Maps).

The bug bit again in 2004. Turpin left Redpoint to start The Multiverse Network, a gaming network of interconnected 3-D virtual worlds and massively multiplayer games. He raised $8 million in seven years and built the company to more than 25 employees but Multiverse never turned a profit. Turpin

shut it down in 2011.

“Again, bad place, bad time,” he says.

Another sabbatical left him recharged in 2012 to start Scale Advisors, which created RoShamBo, a rock-paperscissors game for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. After a few months, Turpin was off to OT Mobility for a short stint developing a mobile app for navigation.

And then, University of Missouri Engineering Dean Jim Thompson sent Turpin an email, asking for referrals of applicants to replace Jake Halliday at MIC and the incubator.

“I thought, ‘I could do this,’ and the more I thought about it, the more interested I was. I was attracted to the incubator. I’ve got all this experience in startups and all these stories. This is my chance to help — I enjoy helping people.”

Another case of the right place at the right time.

uTURPIN CAME ONBOARD WITH

business boutiques to reach a consumer base outside of their community along with creating a community within the app of sharing and interacting with fellow users.

“My pitch was one of the ideas that got picked to work on throughout the weekend,” Morin says. “That was the start to my company and now I have been able to get in touch with other people that have helped me build my startup slowly. I was and still am so new to the entrepreneurship community, and if it wasn’t for Bill I would not be where I am today.”

Morin and her team are now working with Regional Economic Development Inc. in the downtown incubator to develop her company. She’s grateful for Turpin’s help.

“We are still in the very early stages of the startup but if it wasn’t for my meeting with Bill and his amazing advice, I don’t think I would have continued to pursue my startup idea post-Startup Weekend.”

Connor Hall already had his company up and running when Turpin reached out to him. The University of Missouri student founded HallExchange, a college classifieds service available only to students with valid email addresses from the college or university they attend.

“Although we didn’t work much

on my own startup, we have worked together on offering guidance to student entrepreneurs at the university,” Hall says. “As I’m helping others in my MU Entrepreneurs group learn entrepreneurship, Bill has provided his own insight on what I’m currently doing in Columbia and has helped me grow into a business professional.”

A NEW MANDATE for the Missouri Innovation Center.

“The board wants to expand our ventures into technology and software applications,” he says. “So right now, we’re developing programs in journalism and education. We’re doing well with life sciences companies — we’re starting to look at radiopharmacology and cancer detection — and we will continue to expand, although we need to figure out how to get more space. The incubator is currently 100 percent leased out.”

Incubator expansion is predicated on building another wing to the building at Monsanto Place. And before the first shovelful of dirt is turned over, Turpin will have to raise the money to finance it.

“I’m spending a lot of time shaking the bushes and meeting people,” he says. “It’s a three- or four-year process.”

He also meets with fledgling entrepreneurs who bounce their startup ideas off him.

“I want to create a system of financial support and real mentoring,” he says.

The system has already taken root. For University of Missouri senior Maghan Morin, an encounter with Turpin last fall led her to Startup Weekend, where she pitched her idea for Posh’tique, an iOS app that serves as a platform for small-

u“I WANT TO CREATE A

SYSTEM OF FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND REAL MENTORING.” Turpin enjoys the mentoring process.

“There’s a lot of cool stuff going on in this town that could be turned into businesses,” he says.

An accelerator is also on his wish list.

“I would like to create an accelerator to keep people here and bring others here to build their businesses,” he says. “It’s keeping the Midwest relevant. We are perfectly situated to grow the Midwest into a health and technology center. This whole biomedical thing is ours to lose.”

But Turpin doesn’t intend to lose.

“We’re at the tipping point,” he says. “A lot of the hard stuff ’s already been done. I’m here to make a difference. This role allows me to do that.”

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Women Of Influence

Local Businesswomen Share Insights On The City’s Most Urgent Issues

by SANDY SELBY photos by L.G. PATTERSON

Front, left to right: Kim Barnes, Jodi Bales, Sheri Radman, Debbie LaRue Middle, left to right: Kate Grant, Nancy Allison, Ann Echelmeier, Nancy Galloway Back, left to right: Heather Hargrove, Jan Beckett, Anne Moore, Gloria Gaus, Elizabeth Mendenhall, Gina Gervino, Keri Tipton WINTER 2015

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CEO ROUNDTABLE

T

here was no talk of glass ceilings or “having it all” when some of Columbia’s most powerful women gathered at the CEO Roundtable. These women, all highly engaged in their community, were eager to share their thoughts on the issues affecting all local businesses.

Inside Columbia’s CEO Publisher Fred Parry began the discussion by asking the panel to give their assessment of the Columbia economy.

Shelter Insurance Agent Nancy Allison said that from her perspective, Columbia is in a better economic position than many other cities. “I work with people who are moving to Columbia, so I hear a lot of stories — some stories as far away as Michigan, but some stories are as close as Blue Springs, Missouri. I really think that while we have people here who have suffered, we haven’t seen a lot of the ill effects that other communities have and are still having.”

“On the local level, we did definitely rebound,” said Elizabeth Mendenhall, CEO of Re/MAX Boone Realty. “But this year we’re not seeing another substantial increase. One of the things we have to be very conscious of is that it’s easy to commute from some of the outlying communities. Our average sales price is high in Columbia. One of the things we try to analyze is, can you work at Boone Hospital as a nurse and own a home in Columbia? Can you be in the fire protection business and own that average sales price home? As that gap widens, we run the risk of having a lot of commuters because we can’t actually house the people we trust to take care of the community. We’ve kind of weathered the storm, but we all have to be involved to make sure we can maintain that and don’t distance ourselves from the norm.”

Kate Grant, CFO of Fresh Ideas Food Service, said her 48

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company measures the health of the economy using the number of college students it serves. “We stay really well in tune with the college student population. We budgeted for a very flat year this year in student growth locally. We were pleasantly surprised to see rising numbers. Overall, we had a higher growth in student population in the higher ed schools we serve. That was nice to see.”

D&M Sound CEO Anne Moore said that her company, which specializes in audio, video and electronic technology, had to be nimble when the bottom fell out of the economy and new home construction languished. “We really turned to business-to-business types of things and that has grown considerably. We noticed in the last six to eight months, businesses are very willing to get out there and invest in their business.” Moore said she also is seeing the homebuilding industry on the rebound, and individual consumers more willing to invest in technology upgrades for their current homes.

A DANGEROUS WEB Even with an improving economic picture, Moore said there’s a growing problem that plagues many local retailers: online shopping. “Who does not buy from the Internet around this table?” she asked.

Gloria Gaus, founder and CEO of Creative Surroundings, understands the allure of Internet shopping. “I go to places to shop in Columbia — places that are large and require a sales staff of people to manage their stores — and there aren’t enough people to employ nowadays to be able to take care of the customers when they do come into the store. As we add more and more stores and retail shops and big box stores, the

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CEO ROUNDTABLE

ROUNDTABLE ROLL CALL NANCY ALLISON Agent Shelter Insurance

HEATHER HARGROVE General Manager Holiday Inn Executive Center

JODI BALES Partner Miller, Bales & Cunningham

ELIZABETH MENDENHALL CEO Re/MAX Boone Realty

JAN BECKETT Trustee Boone Hospital Center

ANNE MOORE Owner/CEO D&M Sound

ANN ECHELMEIER Financial Advisor Edward Jones

SHERI RADMAN Realtor Re/MAX Boone Realty

NANCY GALLOWAY Partner Callahan & Galloway

KERI TIPTON President & CEO Bucket Media Hosted By The Callaway Bank, Represented By:

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GLORIA GAUS Founder & CEO Creative Surroundings

KIM BARNES President & CEO

GINA GERVINO Vice President/ General Counsel Columbia Insurance Group

DEBBIE LaRUE Director of Marketing/ Public Relations

KATE GRANT CFO Fresh Ideas Food Service

GARY MEYERPETER Boone County Market President The Callaway Bank

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service just seems to go down. Why wouldn’t you buy on the Internet, if it’s easier to get what you need without the hassle? It comes to your door almost the next day. So I’m concerned with what’s going to happen with all the stores.”

Kim Barnes, president & CEO of The Callaway Bank, said many people she talks to don’t realize the repercussions of their online shopping habits.

“Sometimes they look at me with a blank look and they haven’t even thought about why it’s important to shop local. So by me raising the question, they get this thoughtful look and go, ‘Huh. I probably should shop local a little more. Maybe I’ll shop Small Business Saturday instead of Black Friday online.’ Sometimes it’s an awareness issue.”

“I think it’s really looking at everything we do,” said Keri Tipton, CEO and president of Bucket Media. “It’s not just buying clothes on the Internet; it’s everything we do in our daily lives with business, and thinking about how we support our community and all the businesses in this community in multiple ways.”

Debbie LaRue, director of marketing and public relations for The Callaway Bank, said local support is a two-way street. “How many times do our children walk into a local store and say they are selling yearbook ads or popcorn or T-shirts or posters for their athletic programs? If those students have never walked in that store before and the merchant is put on the spot to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay,’ there’s only so much the local merchants can do to give back if we’re not supporting them.”

Re/MAX Realtor Sheri Radman pointed out that for many consumers, saving money is the No. 1 priority and that’s the magnet that draws them to online retailers. “If they can go to a bigbox site and buy there, as opposed to going to some of our local businesses, they’re going to opt for that because they’re going to save money.”

That savings is often realized through the avoidance of sales tax, making Internet shopping a concern for the entire community, not just local retailers.

“Sales tax revenue from, say, dining out is up, but not from retail sales,” Moore said. “You will find that especially the people who are under 30 will buy almost everything on the Internet. We

used to get that sales tax revenue from students, and of course students use a lot of public services in Columbia, but we aren’t getting any revenue from them.”

According to Moore, the answer may lie in a use tax that would allow the city to collect revenue from those online sales that currently go untaxed.

“If you purchase something from a Dillard’s online, for example, and have it shipped to your home, you are then charged state sales tax because they have a presence in the state, but the city cannot charge any sales tax on it,” Moore said.

“But if you have a use tax, then you can collect the sales tax.”

GRADING THE SCHOOLS

Parry moved to the next topic, and asked the women to share their thoughts on the quality of Columbia’s schools: What’s going right and where is there room for improvement?

“I think our public schools are great compared to other communities I’ve lived in or been involved with,” said Jodi Bales, a partner with the accounting firm of Miller, Bales & Cunningham. “The public schools are tremendous. It’s easy to be a public school supporter in Columbia, Missouri. One thing I think we can do better — sometimes I think mediocre is OK in terms of performance for our kids. On the other hand, I think everything in the world for these kids is so competitive anymore. They have to have the best grade point, they have to be involved in 10 different activities to be accepted to the state school in their own town.”

Jan Beckett, a Boone Hospital Center trustee, praised the schools, particularly the high schools, for embracing diversity in their student populations. “I think that’s important for all our children as they graduate and go into the real world.”

“I think the Columbia Public Schools do a really good job with special needs children,” Allison said. She shared that she had a family member who went through that program and is now successfully employed as a law enforcement officer. “I’m a little frustrated about kids who are not in special needs. Where in life do you get to take the exact same test over? I think we’re doing our kids a great disservice and I know teachers are nurturing people, but you are not setting kids up to succeed when you let them take the exact same test over.”

What about kids who aren’t college-bound? Parry asked the group to comment.

“I love that Battle [High School] has the career center concept built into the school, because they teach welding, they teach auto mechanics, and we all need all those services. You don’t necessarily need a college degree. You need some technical training.”

“And remove the stigma,” Barnes said. “When we talk and think about our young people, everyone thinks about the kid going to college and not every kid is going to college. Not every child should go to college. So we should not discount or demean those other things that kids absolutely can do.”

The next challenge for local business owners is to keep new graduates — those with technical training and those with college degrees — here in Columbia to fill available jobs.

“The low unemployment rate can be an issue because there are not enough people coming in the door who are employable,” said Heather Hargrove, general manager of the Holiday Inn Executive Center and current chair of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce board of directors. “We continue to reach out more to the University of Missouri through the hotel and restaurant school, making contacts with students while they are in college to get them in and hopefully hang on to them through careers.”

“Just speaking from my industry, for us to try to hire someone coming out of the University of Missouri with an accounting degree is impossible,” Bales said. “They’ll go to St. Louis or Kansas City for big dollars. I’m sure all of you as small businesses cannot pay what these companies pay in the big cities. And the university pushes all their students to go to the big firms in St. Louis or Kansas City, but that’s not for everybody. We need to keep some of those students here and keep that talent in town. Some sort of collaboration with that would be helpful.”

Gina Gervino, vice president and general counsel for Columbia Insurance Group, said her company is trying to be proactive with their student recruiting.

“This past year, we partnered with several other companies with the Trulaske WINTER 2015

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CEO ROUNDTABLE here and grow here with us. We’ve come close on having some big businesses here and we lose that opportunity. I don’t know exactly what goes wrong.

Other places, even in the Midwest, are incentivizing businesses to start there and grow there and we’re not doing that.”

“There are a lot of people who do a lot of good things, don’t get me wrong,” Allison said. But she thinks the city could make great strides through a visioning process “that doesn’t have an agenda.”

Ann Echelmeier, a financial adviser with Edward Jones, shared something she had learned at a recent financial advisory analyst meeting. “There was an international analyst commenting on China,” she said. “China has these huge international airports that are just empty. Well, their vision is the vision of 20 years down the road and the huge amount of urbanization that’s going to occur in China. There’s a lot of negativity about their economic situation, yet they’re planning for the future. We don’t look that far out.”

NOW WHAT?

College of Business to start a risk management program, where we hope to be very intimately involved in the process of the classes those particular students are taught. We want to get in at an early level, introduce them to the local companies that are in the insurance industry and entice them to stay there through internships and just the education process. We hope by the time they graduate, first of all, that they see the insurance industry can be a great career field, and then secondly, actually entice them to stay in Columbia rather than going outside of it. It’s in its infancy stages so we’ll see where it goes.”

WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

Parry shifted the conversation to Columbia’s attitude about growth and change. “Is Columbia slow to embrace the big ideas?” he asked.

Allison said that Columbia loves its small-town feel, but the desire to preserve that aspect of its personality can become an obstacle. “We just can’t seem to embrace anything that might potentially grow the city and the community,” she said. “I’m not growth for the sake of growth. I was born and raised here. I want this to be a wonderful place and I want people to want to come here. But I don’t want it to be Kirksville, Missouri, where it’s dying and the 52

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population is shrinking. I don’t want that for my community.”

Mendenhall shared a favorite quote: “You have to have more loyalty to the future than you do to the past.”

“If we were back in the 1800s, would we be talking about the railroad or electricity?” Gaus asked. “Would we be saying, ‘We don’t want any electricity in our town! We’re just fine.’ ” The women voiced frustration over the perceived lack of cooperation between the city and county government, and between elected representatives.

“Could the city actually work with the county on something, or vice versa?”

Moore asked. “For the long-term success of both, it can’t be [hostile]. Let’s work toward the same goals. We might even be so bold as to perhaps, possibly, someday even talk to the people in Jefferson City and collaborate with them. You never know.”

The ideas that Grant can get behind aren’t new ideas, but she considers them critical to the economic development of the city: “More jobs, more businesses, a better attitude about pro-business. I can’t help but think so many more things get fixed when more people have jobs and we have highly skilled workers and we have businesses that are contributing to the taxes. I feel like we need to incentivize some of those larger businesses to be

“In my head I’m trying to figure out how we can get this done and how we can make a difference versus just sitting around,” Tipton said. “When are we going to stop just throwing out ideas and talking about it. How can we join forces and do something?”

Hargrove remembers a particular committee meeting that changed her perspective about community involvement. “It was in the early 2000s, and I kept hearing everyone saying ‘they, they, they,’ including myself, and I’m like, ‘I am they!’ My fear is that we have 100 percent in our city reached a stalemate.

All of these ideas, although they may be good in and of themselves, there are so many personal agendas that are currently being driven in this city. Everything is punching against the other and we are not going to move forward.”

Nancy Galloway, a partner at Callahan & Galloway, pointed out that everything that had been discussed was intertwined, “Whether you’re talking crime or talking schools or talking business development.

There is so much great to offer in Columbia, but we’re a little protective of our Columbia and want it to stay a little small town, but it’s not. Look at downtown and how the landscape is changing. Things are changing, and we’re going to have to embrace the change.”

Echelmeier said her takeaway from the discussion was: “What can I do to help? I’m truly honored to be able to sit here with all of our minds to understand what we need to do together to help with some of this change.”

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SPONSORED CONTENT

REAL WOMEN. REAL BUSINESS.

WENDY C . SWE T Z Wendy Swetz is a Columbian through and through, a product of Jefferson Junior High, Hickman High School and Columbia College. She loves the energy of the city, the abundance of professions, the Midwest attitude and the hard-working, loyal people who live here. She showcases that hometown spirit with every home she sells.

“I get to help clients reach their dreams and build new memories when purchasing or selling a home,” she says. “It is an incredible job, and I love the challenge of making the process seem easy, when behind the scenes it can be anything but.”

Swetz spent 10 years in the mortgage banking industry. It was a natural progression when she moved into real estate, which feeds her love for working with people and a delightfully flexible schedule.

She is driven to be the best at building relationships. “I want to be that agent that people talk about in a year or three years because I made a difference in their lives, not because I just sold them a house,” she says.

Her passions are family and career, hard work, integrity and loyalty. “I love that every single day is different and that I get to implement yesterday’s challenges into tomorrow’s successes.”

Columbia Real Estate

2100 W. Broadway 573-777-SOLD (7653) www.columbiarealestate.com

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REAL WOMEN. REAL BUSINESS.

MELISSA SMIT H

People are Melissa Smith’s passion.

“I am passionate about meeting new people, learning from people, helping people and being a better person.

These passions drive me professionally and in my family life,” she says.

At The Bank of Missouri – Investments & Retirement Planning division, she finds plenty of opportunity to polish her people skills.

“What I love most is the ability to connect and to offer high-tech wealth management solutions while delivering high-touch client service,” she says.

It’s a balance that works. “We offer a holistic approach to client service. We believe in boundaryless client relationships. Often times, clients need the benefits of multiple departments and we serve the client’s needs. We are a fiduciary and always put the clients first.”

Smith’s journey to her banking career is a long story, she says, “but … trust God.” Her formula for success is more succinct: “Surrounding myself with mentors, peers and teammates who are smarter, faster and stronger than me enables us all to benefit from each other’s talents and experience … no one can whistle a symphony; it takes an orchestra to play it.”

The Bank of Missouri

Investments & Retirement Planning 3610 Buttonwood Drive, Suite 100 573-874-4900 www.bankofmissouriinvestments.com

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SPONSORED CONTENT

REAL WOMEN. REAL BUSINESS.

K AT C U NNINGHAM Kat Cunningham hung out her business shingle on March 1, 1994. Two decades later, Moresource Inc. is still unlike any other business in town.

“Moresource is about our team serving your team one service at a time,” Cunningham says. “Business owners have better things to do than pick up the telephone to call 10 different vendors. By calling the degreed, licensed, certified professionals at Moresource, you have one vendor, one phone number to call and one check to write.”

Cunningham’s company thrives in the warm business climate of Columbia, where innovation is welcome. “Columbia is big, but feels like a small town,” she says. “The culture is supportive for everything from new startup to veteran businesses.”

It’s a culture rich with the ingredients that make up Cunningham’s success story: mentors and networking.

“Call it karma, call it fate, call it God’s will but the people who come in and out of your life are those who shape and mold you into a positive person,” she says. “Meeting those individuals has helped me grow into the business owner I am today.”

Cunningham is passionate about helping children, families and individuals in need. “Through being a door-opener, donor and/or doer, I have been able to live my passion,” she says.

Moresource Inc.

401 Vandiver Drive 573-443-1234 www.moresource-inc.com

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SPONSORED CONTENT

REAL WOMEN. REAL BUSINESS.

NELLY R OA C H

Nelly Roach reaches into cyberspace to drive the success of her marketing firm, Caledon Virtual.

“We are a virtual company with a core team in a brick-and-mortar setting,” Roach says. “We do distributive creative, with no geographical boundaries, to truly tap into our potential.”

Roach came to this business venture through “a journey to be the very best me in all that I do,” she says. “I discovered my need and my natural ability to solve problems in a creative manner.”

Her creativity feeds her success, and her achievements have been bolstered by those who surround her with support. “Other people — my family, my team, my friends — I am only one person who has a vision and without those around me, I could not begin to accomplish anything great.”

Caledon Virtual thrives in Columbia. “It’s a big enough town to have lots of opportunities, yet small enough to develop long-lasting and meaningful, personal relationships in the midst of doing business,” Roach says.

Those personal relationships are what lift her to her greatest success. “My passion is to win at being a mother and a wife,” she says. “Winning at anything else means nothing unless I win at those, first.”

Caledon Virtual

1902 Corona Road, Suite 204 573-446-7777 www.caledonvirtual.com

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SPONSORED CONTENT

REAL WOMEN. REAL BUSINESS.

J ESSIC A C A R D

Wedding plans have the power to fill one’s life with joy — or drain it with stress. Jessica Card and her staff at Belle Mariée focus on the joy.

“Getting married is a very special time in one’s life and we want to make sure your experience is everything you dreamed of,” Card says. “I love helping brides during one of the most joyous times of their life. Our personalized customer service sets us apart. We offer consultations by appointment only to ensure every bride receives that one-on-one time they deserve.”

Card’s new venture is just beginning. “We are excited to open in the Forum Shopping Center in January,” she says. But Belle Mariée has been in the works for a year, ever since another Columbia bridal shop closed.

“When the Gown House closed their doors last January, I felt it left a large void in our community,” Card says. “My hope is to fill that void with the only full-service boutique in the area.”

Card has called Columbia home since she graduated from college nearly 15 years ago. “It is a unique and diverse city with much to offer,” she says. “Since announcing my venture I have had an outpouring of support from the community. I love working with the people of Columbia and look forward to serving the brides here.”

Belle Mariée

1400 Forum Blvd., Suite 7A 573-815-9135 www.midmobride.com

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REAL WOMEN. REAL BUSINESS.

S TA C Y BRYA NT-W IMP

When Stacy Bryant-Wimp and her pharmacist husband, Jay, started their business in 2009, their goal was to create a place where they could love and enjoy their family, serve others while continuing to grow in their careers, and give that gift to their staff as well.

It’s a philosophy that has paid big dividends for Accurate Rx Pharmacy.

“Putting the patient first and choosing the best team to care for those patients are what has contributed to our success,” she says. “What sets us apart is the level of customer service shown by every staff member to every client. Every team member thinks through the lens of what is best for the patient, from navigating insurance costs to packaging and delivery. The patient always comes first, even at 2 a.m. on a Saturday or when our clients are vacationing in Florida.”

Bryant-Wimp has created a similarly unique workplace culture that goes the extra mile. “It’s the ability to not live your life in silos,” she says. “We have a culture that allows staff members to blend their work life with their personal life. We have created this dream place for us to work where we can be solution finders to our clients and help patients gain control of their chronic conditions so that they can live more productive, happy lives.”

Accurate Rx Pharmacy

103 Corporate Lake Drive, Suite B 573-256-4279 www.accuraterx.net

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SPONSORED CONTENT

REAL WOMEN. REAL BUSINESS.

MA R C Y MA R KE S Marcy Markes came to Columbia in 1988 to get a nursing degree. And like so many others, she stayed to build a career. Her work at Columbia Allergy and Asthma Specialists encompasses comprehensive care of the respiratory system.

“I love the uniqueness of each case and the fact that no one person can be treated exactly alike,” says the nurse practitioner. “Every day is a new adventure.”

Columbia Allergy and Asthma Specialists treat clients from the very young to the elderly in all conditions of allergy and asthma. The practice has expanded to include sleep as a component of care.

“We pride ourselves in taking time to know our clients personally,” she says. “We care about them, their families and getting them better to enjoy life to its fullest.”

Markes credits her success to her staff, her family and the desire to change people’s lives. She is passionate about helping her patients get better with the least amount of medication and financial burden.

“Breathing easily is something that you shouldn’t have to even think about,” she says. “Unfortunately, those who suffer with allergies and asthma think about it every day. Helping them realize they can feel better and live normally, with some minor changes in their lives, is amazing.”

Columbia Allergy and Asthma Specialists

1601 E. Broadway, Suite 250 573-777-4700 www.breatheeasyandlivefree.com

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REAL WOMEN. REAL BUSINESS.

LAU R EN SWA RT Z Lauren Swartz founded Lo & Behold with the idea that a woman’s clothing should be a reflection of her spirit and personal journey.

“We take great care in choosing our lines,” Swartz says, “ensuring that each one mirrors our founding principle; fashion should be feminine, intelligent, creative but most of all an intimate expression of individuality.”

Her love of beautiful, unique clothing brought her to this downtown retail venture, she says.

“I wanted to share my love of beautiful, unique clothing with women in the Columbia area.”

Columbia is a welcoming community, she says, pointing to the support she has received here as a factor in her success.

“My passion is women — in everything I do, I think of the women I am buying for. How can I help her fully express her spirit to the world through this particular outlet? She is at the heart of all I do here. I am honored to be in this industry and to be a smallbusiness owner in Columbia, Mo.”

Lo & Behold

1013 E. Walnut St. 573-673-3522 www.shoploandbehold.com

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Support Our Locally Owned Restaurants When you dine at local restaurants, you help support small-business owners who spend their dollars in the community.

These dollars help keep our neighbors gainfully employed; the cycle continues as employees spend their wages on local arts, culture and other areas of the economy.

Eating local pays BIG dividends for Columbia!

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DIVIDENDS

EXECUTIVE GIFT GUIDE

Top Tech

For The Person Who Has Everything

by MORGAN McCARTY

Life demands much from today’s professional. Simplify things with practical technology gifts that enhance life and keep it running more efficiently.

Smartwatches are the talk of the tech world. For the active CEO, choose the Suunto Ambit3 Sport Black Watch with GPS. For the more connected CEO, go for the Moto 360.

If you’re shopping for a multitasker, pick the Surface 2 tablet with splitscreen multitasking, a kickstand and keyboard. The iPad Air is perfect for those on the go, with a long battery life and a sleek, light design.

Executives need to recharge once in a while. The iFrogz GoLite offers7800mAh of portable power and two charging ports — allowing up to four smartphone charges, or up to one complete tablet charge. Happy shopping!

IFROGZ GOLITE 7800 PORTABLE CHARGER AND FLASHLIGHT, AVAILABLE AT AT&T WEST WORLEY ($49)

AMBIT3 SPORT BLACK HR WATCH BY SUUNTO, AVAILABLE AT THE ALPINE SHOP ($450)

MOTO 360 WATCH BY MOTOROLA, AVAILABLE AT BEST BUY ($217.99)

64GB GOLD IPAD AIR BY APPLE, AVAILABLE AT AT&T WEST WORLEY ($529 WITH A TWOYEAR AT&T AGREEMENT)

SURFACE 2 TABLET BY MICROSOFT, AVAILABLE AT BEST BUY ($449.99)

photos by MORGAN McCARTY WINTER 2015

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DIVIDENDS

ceo at play

THREE QUESTIONS 2014 was a year of changes for some Columbia business people.

We checked in with a few for whom opportunity came knocking.

LOOK WHO’S TALKING Are you on Santa’s naughty or nice list this year?

MARK FENNER President & CEO MFA Oil Co.

PEGGY KIRKPATRICK

Recently retired executive director The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri

TERESA SNOW

Corporate director of strategic communications and media relations University of Missouri Health System

DON STAMPER

Executive director Missouri Community Services Commission

MATT WILLIAMS

Columbia Regional President Landmark Bank

FENNER: It probably depends on who you ask. If you ask me, I’m always nice. If you asked my kids, probably not so much!

-------------------------KIRKPATRICK: As a Christian, Santa isn’t my thing. I am on Jesus’ nice list, though!

-------------------------SNOW: I think I was on the “nice” list. I already got my big present for the year, a horse … something I have wished for since I was 8 years old!

-------------------------STAMPER: If it had not been for some boneheaded actions by the City Council, I would have been on the nice list! There is always next year.

-------------------------WILLIAMS: Nice, of course!!

Do you cocoon in the winter or embrace the frosty outdoors?

What is your New Year’s resolution?

FENNER: I’m all about embracing your environment. Plus, MFA Oil is a top 10 propane retailer in the country, so I get paid to like cold weather!

--------------------------------KIRKPATRICK: I have an 11-month-old Lab who thinks this is great weather, so we walk every morning around 5:30!

--------------------------------SNOW: I do cocoon, but my husband teases me that I am a fair-weather farmer. He does all the outside work on the farm in the snow, ice and bitter cold. I am happy to have a desk job!

--------------------------------STAMPER: I mostly cocoon in the winter. I am more of a warm-weather person.

Thank goodness for fourwheel drive.

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FENNER: To stay as humble and charitable as possible. I grew up in a small Missouri town — Richmond — where I learned good values and humility define a person’s worth much more than material things.

------------------------KIRKPATRICK: To be used by God in any way He wants!

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WILLIAMS: I prefer staying in with my family by a warm fire.

SNOW: As always, to eat better and get more exercise. This year, I have a FitBit and am trying to walk my 1 million steps for the MU Health Care fitness challenge.

------------------------STAMPER: To take things at a more reasonable pace and to enjoy life more.

------------------------WILLIAMS: I’m not much of a resolution guy, but if I did have one, it would be to have a great year at Landmark Bank and enjoy my kids who are growing up way too fast!

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DIVIDENDS 1

networking

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CEO LAUNCH PARTY Inside Columbia’s CEO advertisers gathered for a cocktail 1 reception Sept. 25 at the magazine’s offices to celebrate the Fall 2014 issue. (Photos by Joe Schmitter)

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1. Stacey Swalla and Betsy Woodruff 2. Gary Meyerpeter and Amanda GarrisonLucas 3. Stephanie Hancox and Ann Marie Quertermous-Richards 4. Rob Volker, Noelle Case, Andy Cofer 5. Amanda Garrison-Lucas, Rosemarie Peck, Leanne Naeger-Geiss 6. John Sebree, Connie and Norm Reubling 7. Matt and Tim Gerding 8. Laura Gerding, Stephanie Hancox, Kim Ritter.

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ADVERTISING INDEX A Catered Affair..................................................17 Accounting Plus.................................................. 13 Accurate Rx - Stacy Bryant-Wimp.................61 Anytime Fitness.................................................. 13 Babbo’s.................................................................64 Belle Mariée - Jessica Card ............................60 Bleu Restaurant & Wine Bar...........................66 Caledon Virtual - Nelly Roach........................ 59 Central Trust and Investments.......................70 CenturyLink............................................................7 Cevet Tree Care.................................................. 33 City of Columbia Water & Light .....................11 Coley’s American Bistro .................................65 Columbia Allergy & Asthma Specialist Marcy Markes ...................................................62 Columbia Landcare..............................................5 Columbia Real Estate - Wendy Swetz..........56 Columbia Regional Airport...............................11 CoMo Christian Men’s Conference...............15 Creative Surroundings...................................... 33 D & M Sound.........................................................3 Data Comm..........................................................19 Downtown Appliance....................................... 75 El Tigre ................................................................64 Flooring America............................................... 53 Hawthorn Bank ................................................. 76 Inside Columbia Custom Publishing .............. 31 Inside Columbia’s E-Newsletter ..................... 35 Inside Columbia Subscription .......................... 51 Inside Columbia Event Space .......................... 72 Image Technologies .........................................29 Inside Columbia’s Prime Card ....................... 37 Landmark Bank ....................................................2 Las Margaritas ..................................................65 Les Bourgeois Vineyards................................... 4 Lo & Behold - Lauren Swartz ......................... 63 Macadoodles ......................................................17 Moresource.........................................................68 Moresource - Kat Cunningham ....................58 Piano Distributors ............................................ 53 Pizza Tree.............................................................65 Postal & Sign Express....................................... 72 Precision Construction..................................... 27 Riback/DKB........................................................70 Room 38..............................................................65 Starr Properties.................................................. 33 Stifel Nicolaus ................................................... 35 Sycamore ............................................................64 Tech Electronics.................................................. 31 The Bank of Missouri - Melissa Smith ........ 57 The Blue Note .....................................................21 The Broadway Hotel ........................................49 The Callaway Bank ............................................. 9 Tiger Court Reporting .......................................19 Timberlake Engineering ..................................49 UMB Bank .......................................................... 22 Water Tower Place............................................ 25 Williams-Keepers..............................................66 Winter-Dent ...................................................... 39 72

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

The Stalemate A

few weeks ago, we had the a unified vision of what Columbia opportunity to host an and Boone County might look like in impressive group of women 10 or 20 years. Although city leaders business leaders at our quarterly CEO did sponsor an exhaustive visioning Roundtable luncheon. I was inspired by process in recent years, the process the tenor of the conversation and the was hijacked by special interests pinpoint accuracy in which our guests that seemed to have an axe to grind. were able to analyze the tough issues Unfortunately, the end result of that facing our community. exercise was a plan that The longer we talked, the now sits on a shelf in more clearly a common City Hall gathering dust. theme emerged. Our Columbia’s official vision city has hit a stalemate. for the future became We are frozen not only immediately irrelevant by the dysfunction due to the flawed process and friction that exists that created it. Without between locally elected a clear, unified vision officials, but also by a for the future and an juggernaut created by understanding of the disenfranchised specialcore values that support interest groups that seem that vision, Columbia hell bent to stand in the will continue to spin its “We are frozen way of progress. Like an wheels. not only by the intense game of chess, Much of our failure dysfunction … there seems to be no to gain traction is tied to compromise possible for a reluctance to embrace but also by a opposing sides. the big ideas that can juggernaut created The most obvious move our city forward. by disenfranchised sign of our dysfunction Whether the need is special-interest lies in the tormented for a modern airport groups that seem relationship that exists or creating new jobs in hell bent to stand between our city and our community, there’s in the way of county governments. almost always a chorus Rather than sitting of anonymous critics progress.” down as a group to work tearing down the idea – Fred Parry out their differences before it can be given and seek compromise a fair trial. As a result, on sensitive issues, city and county the visionaries among us resist the leaders would rather point fingers at temptation to go public with their each other. Too often, the only dialogue BIG ideas. Rather than getting out taking place is through their legal in front of a potential opportunity, counsels. Beyond just traditional turf our governments find themselves wars, these leaders seem content with reacting to problems like inadequate rowing the boat in opposite directions. infrastructure, shrinking sales Our luncheon guests very astutely tax revenues and increases in pointed out that our community lacks criminal activity.

Of course, there are other reasons for the stalemate. Chief among them is our failure to bring stakeholders to the table who don’t have a bias or hidden agenda. Often, it’s a desire by some to slow or eliminate growth that will drive the conversation. A recent example of this phenomenon was when the University of Missouri decided to expand its student population on the Columbia campus. Even though this decision had a significantly positive impact on the local economy through the creation of high-paying professional jobs and igniting a construction boom of student housing, many detractors believed our city was going to hell in a hand basket.

A city either grows or it dies. While this fact is often disputed by naysayers, there’s no denying what has happened in other cities around the country when economic opportunity dissipates. In the final analysis, it is clear that our community could benefit from the creation of a unified vision that paints a picture of a Columbia that embraces a modest and sustainable rate of growth while preserving a quality of life that includes recreational opportunities, an abundance of green space and cultural opportunities that appease a variety of interests.

To accomplish this, we’re going to need some new blood at the table.

The process should not be driven by our local governments. In fact, I’d like to nominate the 15 women who participated in our luncheon. Their no-nonsense approach to governance along with their clear understanding of what it takes to bring disparate interests together would be a step in the right direction. Columbia needs a fresh start and a brighter vision for her future. Let’s get the ball rolling.

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CLOSING QUOTES

What Columbia’s Business People And Community Leaders Are Saying “When I worked at KOMU, I kept a piece of paper in my office that said ‘Not Afraid to Fail.’ I brought that same piece of paper with me to VU. I look at it every time someone doubts the value of communicating with people face to face.”

— Sarah Hill, brand broadcaster & human media strategist for Veterans United Home Loans

“It seems like we always go to ‘How can we get more taxes?’ I think people might be a little turned off by that.”

— Keri Tipton, president & CEO of Bucket Media, addressing the topic of Columbia’s economy at the CEO Roundtable

“I think the country has been so emotionally charged that our community reflects that same emotional response.

This community embraces knowledge and it would probably advance us to use more statistics and less emotion.”

— Elizabeth Mendenhall, CEO of Re/MAX Boone Realty, on the state of city and county government at the CEO Roundtable

“The system doesn’t educate anyone and doesn’t do research.

We’re here to serve our campuses.”

— Brian Burnett, vice president for finance and chief financial officer for the University of Missouri system

“Things are changing. If you don’t adapt and try to do things differently, you end up with an empty bucket.”

— Gloria Gaus, founder & CEO of Creative Surroundings, at the CEO Roundtable on Columbia’s inability to address growth and change

“A startup is like jumping off a cliff and building an airplane on the way down.”

— Bill Turpin, president & CEO of Missouri Innovation Center

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