Ingram's August 2022

Laura Angst Gartin Live 2 Give Hope Lebanon January 2017: After career stops doing marketing and supply-chain work for large and small companies in her native Missouri and off to Arizona and back, Laura Angst Gartin has an itch she needs to scratch. And

Scott Anderson CBIZ St. Louis

Think about the core values Scott Anderson grew up with in St. Louis, thanks to family, teachers, and community leaders: Honesty. Integrity. Hard work. Those are not industry specific traits, so one shouldn’t be

thus was born Live 2 Give Hope. “I didn’t really know what we wanted it to look like; I just wanted to help people,” says the non-profit’s founder. That spring, she started a class to become a foster parent, and “I realized what needs existed in the foster community, and moved in that direction,” she says. By autumn, she launched the Fostering Hope Closet in the back of her boutique shop in Lebanon, and within a year, it took up more than half the floor space. She moved it to another building and started five related programs, switching to non-profit work full-time. It’s an extension, she says, of the experience of growing up surrounded by missionaries affiliated with her father, a pastor, and his congregation. Once into the foster mindset, she saw the challenges for homes in rural areas. “We have much higher than state or national average numbers of kids in foster care in Lebanon and Laclede County,” owing to drug abuse, poverty, and child neglect. Her programs now help foster children and families with basic needs like driver’s education and financial literacy, home management, and basic life skills to attend and hold a job.

surprised that this Mizzou journalism grad was able to succeed in public affairs and investigative reporting for both print and broadcast outlets, then move seamlessly into the path that made him president of the benefits and insurance division for CBIZ’s St. Louis region. Back at Parkway North, he says, a journalism instructor “sparked a love of effective communication that I continue to practice every day.” After five years in newspaper and TV work, he shifted into corporate communications roles, settled into health-care disciplines, and jumped at the opportunity to join CBIZ. His leadership also allows him to view operations through the lens of an entrepreneur; he previously owned a health-care IT company that rose to $10 million in revenues before selling it. That success was due in part to being in the right field—electronic medical records—but in the right location, too. “St. Louis has an extraordinary lineup of consultants and advisers (banks, accountants, attorneys) who provide invaluable assistance to start-ups,” Anderson says. “But you absolutely need a strong and vibrant network to succeed.”

Brad Beckham O’Reilly Auto Parts Springfield It’s a long way from working the counters as an auto parts specialist in Wagoner, Okla., to the C-suite of a $13.3 billion publicly traded company, but Brad Beckham completed the journey earlier this year when

Max Buetow CoxHealth Springfield

On any given day, CoxHealth providers are saving lives and extending them. In that is an energy Max Buetow can feel in the C-suites of the Springfield health-care system. “I may never take care of a patient, but it is powerful and

he became COO of O’Reilly Auto Parts, one of Missouri’s biggest entrepreneurial success stories. In that capacity, he is responsible for store operations across the board for a company that currently has 5,873 stores in 47 U.S. states and 27 ORMA stores in Mexico. After taking that first position just about the time that the ink was drying on his high school diploma back in Muskogee, he worked his way up the ladder one rung at a time—store manager at various sites in Oklahoma and Texas, district manager in Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia, regional manager for four southeastern states, and then divisional vice president based in Atlanta in 2007. That’s not a bad track for slightly more than a decade after high school. In 2012, the corporate offices came calling, and he split time between Springfield and Atlanta, overseeing eastern store operations and sales as vice president; and earlier this year, took the next step to his current role as executive vice president and chief operating officer. The company, founded with a single store in 1957, went public in 1993 and now provides jobs for 84,000 employees.

humbling to be close to life-changing, life-altering moments every single day,” says Buetow, who earlier this year became CEO. A Denver native, he’s part of what he calls “a tightly knit, but ultimately a very open and accepting community” because it’s his wife’s hometown. “I love the people here in southwest Missouri and this is a region that is growing rapidly. Springfield has an entrepreneurial nature in the fabric of who we are that helps keeps us fresh and cutting-edge, and always wanting more.” The city, he says, teems with “highly invested local civic and business leaders and people who want to see the community progress. I am also addicted to progress, so I love driving through this community and watching a new business open or a new service offered. I love being here because of the welcoming environment and the relationships I have built.” he’s grateful that his work contributes to that environment. “I take a lot of solace when I drive by our hospitals in the middle of the night and see the lights on,” he says. “They are open 24/7/365, no matter what the emergency is. There is a safety and comfort in that.”

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2022