Ingrams August 2023

Ernie Verslues MFA Incorporated Columbia When the farm cooperative MFA

Sheila Thomas Table Rock Lake Chamber of Commerce, Kimberling City Going to “the lake” usually means one of two locales in this region: Lake of the Ozarks or Table Rock Lake, and each has its own devotees. Sheila Thomas is squarely in the Table Rock camp. “We will only have docks on about 12 percent

Incorporated sought new leadership in 2015, it didn’t have to go far: The right fit for its next president and CEO was Ernie Verslues, who had been with the Columbia-based organization since 1987. For more than 25 years, Verslues had been a constant contributor to the MFA team in finance and operations roles, serving as corporate tax manager, regional manager and senior vice president of finance before earning the role of chief financial officer. It’s fair to say Verslues knew MFA’s operations: his corporate finance work included accounting and auditing, plus insurance, tax, and retirement planning—for starters. As regional manager, he led a retail team that worked closely with MFA’s member owners. In these roles, he developed not just hands-on experience with retail management but the strategic thinking skills needed to further MFA’s mission. Raised on a dairy farm in Taos, Mo., Verslues earned a bachelor’s in accounting from Central Missouri State University, then took an audit job in Kansas City for a few years before MFA came calling. Founded in 1914, MFA is a member-owned cooperative that provides whole-farm solutions through products, services and professional advice to 45,000 farmers and ranchers in five states. Its Columbia headquarters serves 125 company-owned Agri Services Centers, two dozen local affiliates, and a network of independent cooperatives and dealers.

of the whole shoreline (745 miles), and you can’t build to the water. So, there are so many areas of Table Rock that are untouched,” she says. “Lake life here is laid-back and very family-friendly. My husband and I spend every open weekend on our boat at Table Rock Lake.” Her love for the area certainly makes her current job— president & CEO of the Table Rock Lake Chamber of Commerce— an even better fit. Her family moved to Branson when she was in the third grade, so she’s spent nearly her whole life there, so when a board member friend asked her to apply and leave her role at a nonprofit, “It was perfect timing, and I have definitely found my niche.” Success has followed: Her team has won 15 awards from the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Missouri (three last year), along with a marketing campaign award from the Missouri Division of Tourism. She’s also leading a five-year economic development initiative, Launch Stone County, and has nearly raised $1.1 million to fund it. For the former journalist, marketing professional and real estate broker, the role fits perfectly. “I’m incredibly proud of my team and what we’ve accomplished,” she said. “They’re an inspiration to work with every day.”

Roger Walleck Missouri Employers Mutual Columbia

Brian Whorley Paytient Columbia

Chicago. Boston. St. Louis. Roger Walleck had a chance to experience big-city life during his insurance-industry career, but when his path led to Columbia, this Illinois native found something closer to his small-town roots—with plenty of those

For a homegrown Missourian, Brian Whorley can nevertheless still turn a phrase that evokes the spirit of surfing. “I decided to paddle out to where I believed a few different waves would come together and create the opportunity for

amenities you’d expect in the urban centers. “This is kind of a small town, but once you get to know it, particularly with the university here, you quickly discover great things,” says the chief underwriting officer for Missouri Employers Mutual. “The Fall Festival, college sports, great restaurants, the Katy Trail. For a city this size, there’s a lot here and available to do. It was a nice surprise.” All the better to deal with a business sector in transition. MEM is the leading provider of workers’ compensation insurance in Missouri, with a mission to help policyholders save lives and money by promoting safe workplaces. One of the ways that the sector has changed over the years has been the implementation of technology, something that can attract talented people who might not otherwise ever have given an insurance career a second look. “When I came on board, insurance was a very staid, cookie-cutter operation,” he said. “From an employer standpoint, we had not done as good a job as we should have in keeping our career path relevant to college grads,” he says. Tech has helped change that. “Now you can use that as a hook to get people into the business if you want a career as a network engineer or data analyst.”

the ride of a lifetime,” he says. That ride was Paytient, a financial technology company he founded in Columbia in 2018 to help people access and afford health care by better managing out-of-pocket costs. Even back when he was pursuing an industrial engineering degree from Mizzou, he said he realized his talent for creating new ideas designed to help others. “I’m at my best when I’m building things or teams,” he says, “so engineering was a natural home.” Previously the founder of another business—a white-label software application that has since been acquired—and now CEO of Paytient, he hopes the future of startup growth capital will spread beyond the coastal cities for future founders. “We need to create means and incentives for the capital to come to the talent vs. the talent going to the capital,” he said. But for now, he feels like his home state was the perfect setting for this most recent entrepreneurial leap. “I didn’t want to leave the future to chance,” he said. “Missouri is simply a great place to live, work and play, with an excellent quality of life and an abundance of talented people. … full of earnest, kind folks you can actually get to know to make something happen, and that makes all the difference.”

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