Ingram's April 2023

CLASS of 2023

JENNA PUKACH Projects done right lead to short-term profits. The longer term, Jenna Pukach believes, requires a separate focus in her

Distributors, full-service specialists in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration. “I’m a passionate leader who believes in servant leadership and giving back,” says Roberts, 38. “I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty and work alongside my co-workers, helping with anything else that needs to be done.” That mindset has helped her with oversight of the com pany’s mobile app, development of its e-commerce site, and—most notably, she says, “successfully leading our company through a global pandemic and doubling our net profit in 2020 over 2019 with a lot of hard work, grit, and teamwork, without having to cut any staffing.” On her way up, Roberts became the youngest vice president in CFM’s history when she was just 27 years old, an act she followed up he trains his guns, Chad Sneed finds a way to drive growth. “My passion lies in improving business operations and the lives of its employees,” says the 38-year- old co-founder/owner at the Brain Group. He partnered with Andrew Brain in 2016 and cultivated the business from the ground up. “Today, our efforts are seen through ownership, leasing, and management of nine commercial properties totaling more than 500,000 square feet,” he says, and among those is Plexpod, the Midtown co working site. “Seven years ago, we started with no employees; today, we employee eight full-time people with benefits,” he says. The benefits part is important to Sneed, who sees it as a corporate duty owed to those who make the organization tick. He did the same after securing ownership role as accounting operations controller for the region’s biggest engineering and construction firm, Burns & McDonnell. “While ensuring our company is moving in the right direction is a critical part of my job, I believe it is also necessary to reevaluate our organizational systems so that we’re not only focused on our proj ects but also our people,” says Pukach, 39. “Just as others within Burns & Mac helped me along my path, I try to do the same by being a dependable leader, mentor, and friend.” A working mother of two with husband Jeremy, she sees the value of passing the organizational baton to the new cohorts of workers. “Inspiring young people and nurturing the next generation of leaders is also why I’m active within two United Way

at 33 by taking her current role with the 100 percent employee-owned company. The passion she brings to work carries on after hours, giving back to the local com munity and the industry she’s part of. That includes a stint as president of Women in HVACR, an organization focused on bringing women into the blue-collar industry and providing mentoring, net working, and education opportunities for them to grow in their careers. In addition to her corporate board role, she has held board seats for the Kansas City Industrial Council, the Historic West Bottoms Dis trict board, and—a personal favorite, she says—the executive board for Kansas City Children’s Assistance Network, which raises funds that benefit multiple chil dren’s charities in Kansas City. of the family’s Dennis Sneed Ford in Gower, Mo. There, he returned after a gap of 11 years to help resolve struggles with software and accounting issues. “Fast forward to today, volume is up 25 percent, with a record year at 50 percent,” Sneed says, and EBITA is up 5x on average. For the 30 employees on staff, he says, “benefits have now been offered for over four years, whereas prior to that, they were not available.” Previous to those ventures, he was involved with a pair of companies that successfully sold Stealth Data and Clayview Country Club. Born and raised in Kansas City, Sneed is a lifer. “There were numerous opportunities to pursue endeavors elsewhere,” he says, “yet I felt close to the community and its people. For that reason, I was not willing to move away from the area.” leadership groups: Emerging Leaders Society and Women United,” Pukach says. She's also a member of Central Exchange’s Lean In Circle Program, serves as a Girl Scout leader, and par ticipates in a regional AEC industry networking group. "As a wife and a mom of two young girls, I am proud to model for them dedication to my family, my team, and my community,” she says. She’s also a member of the Regional AEC Industry Networking Group for design/ construction professionals. “Throughout my journey,” she says, “I led multiple restructuring efforts to improve effic iency, client service, department pro cesses, and recruitment—which includ ed expanding our finance-intern and new-graduate programs.”

LAUREN ROBERTS Passion, service, and an in-the-trenches mentality define Lauren Roberts’ leader ship style as president and CEO of CFM

CHAD SNEED Commercial real estate, vehicle sales, IT services, and consulting—even country club ownership—it doesn’t matter where

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April 2023

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