Ingram's August 2022

David Humphreys TAMKO Building Products Joplin

Jena Holtberg-Benge John Deere Reman Springfield

If you’re reading this at home, stop what you’re doing. Look up. Is there a roof over your head? Then chances are, you’re covered by what David Humphreys and his crew turn out at TAMKO, where he’s president

If you’re not the kind who thinks of liberal arts icon Vassar College as the cradle of executive leadership in the manufacturing sector, we challenge your assumptions with Jena Holtberg-Benge. She earned a degree in international studies in 1995 and

and CEO of one of the nation’s largest makers of residential roofing products. The company is one of the nation’s biggest producers of asphalt and steel shingles, along with sheeting, waterproofing materials, and underlayments, and it not only owns the production facilities but has vertically integrated operations managing the processing of raw materials for its factories. Humphreys earned a degree in English from the University of the South before picking up his law degree at the University of Miami and following that up with his LLM in taxation from New York University. He joined TAMKO in 1989 and served as general counsel and vice president of finance, manufacturing, and legal. Fiercely dedicated to the power of individual liberty and free-market principles, he co-founded, along with his wife, Debra, the Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School in Joplin. The independent, private liberal-arts school serves students in kindergarten through secondary school, and the Humphreys commitment to the school’s mission shows up with financial aid or scholarships they fund for nearly half the 345 students.

has put the “international” part of that instruction to good use in roles that have taken her to Europe, Australia, India, Russia, South and Central America, and China, all on behalf of John Deere, whose farm implements can be found all over the world. More than two decades after joining the company, she’s been in Springfield for the past five years, serving as general manager for the company’s remanufacturing operations in both Missouri and Canada and overseeing a local workforce of roughly 400 people as of last year. The Springfield plant remanufactures engines and drive trains along with components for hydraulic, fuel, and electronic systems. Highly regarded within that sphere, she previously served as vice-chair for the Remanufacturing Industries Council and is well-known throughout the industry for her collaborations with other manufacturers to address industry issues and concerns. Holtberg-Benge also engages with the state business community as a board member for Associated Industries of Missouri and with the Springfield Chamber, including a term as president. She supplemented her Vassar experience with an MBA from Arizona State University.

Brad Jones NFIB Jefferson City “The thing that impresses me most about small business in general in Missouri is their guts and their resiliency,” says Brad Jones. Easy to understand, then, what drew him to a career in business advocacy, the past three decades leading

Janette Lohman Thompson Coburn St. Louis

Sunday nights at the Lohman house in Warrenton, Mo., presented a special treat for young Jan: Mama Lohman would let her stay up late to watch Perry Mason eviscerate ne’er-do-wells on the witness stand. So I earned a degree at William

the Missouri chapter of the National Federation for Independent Businesses. “When you have an idea and put a second mortgage on it to make that idea work, that’s hanging it out there,” Jones says. “That’s the kind of thing I really respect about entrepreneurs— the small business owner who goes out to do what others won’t do, and doesn’t work for anyone but himself. They can succeed or fail, but they’ll do it on their terms.” Jones is a Jefferson City native who chanced into a business advocacy role with the Associated Industries of Missouri after earning a political science degree at Mizzou, traveled the state extensively and built a network, then joined NFIB 31 years ago. His days at AIM were the perfect training for where he was headed. “I ran the association myself, just me,” he says. “I had an assistant, but it gave you the feeling of running a small business, doing the budget, check dues coming in and all that.” The past three pandemic years and economic roller coaster have been tough, he says, with supply-chain breaks, inflation, labor issues and more. “It’s just been one body blow after another for the small business community,” he says. “But yet they keep going. How can you not admire that?”

Jewell College and went to law school, but “I realized that I wasn’t trial attorney material,” Lohman says. Instead, she “fell in love with a federal income-tax class, and decided to make tax law my career.” She earned her law degree and MBA while working for a former Big Eight accounting firm, then passed the CPA exam and secured an LLM. in taxation from Washington University. Lohman wields that instruction and nearly four decades of tax experience, half as a partner with Thompson Coburn, a premier national law firm, where she represents influential clients and earned a spot on Law360’s list of “14 Women Influential in Tax Law.” Earlier in her career, she represented all Missourians as the director of revenue back when lawmakers opted to reduce the sales tax on food rather than eliminate the corporate income tax. The latter, she says, “likely might have encouraged more large businesses to move to Missouri, bringing with them more high-paying jobs and ensuring a better living environment for everyone. Over the years, I’ve watched Missouri’s extremely large companies either move away from or merge out of Missouri and have always wondered if that single decision could have mitigated this trend.”

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