Ingram's July 2026

Corporate Report100

Third Avenue Events Gross Revenue: 2022: $2,023,325 Growth: 355.30% Average Annual Growth Rate: 111.76% Full-time employees: 14 The live-events business came roaring back from its pandemic near-death experience, and few in this market capitalized quite the way Annie Rector and Kristin Hems have done with Third Avenue Events, a success string that continues with a third straight Top 10 appearance. The Leawood firm continues to soar on the strength of full-service event planning and management: hotel sourcing, contract negotiation, transportation and attendee travel, audio-visual production, branding and theme develop ment, staffing for large-scale programs. The formula, say Hems and Rector: first, it was capitalizing on the return of in-person gatherings as life returned to normal after the pandemic threw the global meeting-space sector a curve back in 2020, then work ing to deepen demand from existing clients and extend services to new ones—all while keeping the client focused on content and strategic messaging, and leaving flawless execution to a team of just 14. Nearly topping the list of banks that bashed their way into the 2026 CR100 is this Downtown bank that has evolved in ways most of its peers haven’t. While the bulk of institutions on the fast-growth list this year leveraged interest rates that began to soar in 2022—most banks do make their money by making loans—Lead Bank took another tack. Under the leadership of Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Jackie Reses, who acquired the one-time community bank in 2022 for a reported $56 million, it has become a power player in the fintech space, powering other financial services nationwide. Reses, who’s been hailed as the most powerful woman in American finance, rose to prominence with her leadership role at Square, helped drive the bank’s implementation of an API-driven infrastructure for tech, crypto, and e-commerce companies. Today, the institution boasts a $1.5 billion valuation and handles embedded finance operations for giants like Affirm, Stripe, and Visa. When we say Cable Dahmer Automotive Group is a case study in fast growth, it’s not hyperbole: Last year, auto tech/consul tancy Urban Science broke down the way the Kansas City vehicle behemoth was applying technology to its internal processes tied to customer satisfaction and defection rates, raising the former while cutting down on the latter. That embrace of technology covered the traditional business model. What really drove growth in recent years has been the aggressive move into fleet sales and a national vehicle-leasing element. Both added unprecedented scale to an operation that began when Ledezma secured full ownership of his first dealership back in 2002, five years after becoming a minority partner. The enterprise now has nine deal erships that straddle the state line, flying the flags of Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Kia. It recently opened its fleet and commercial-vehicle service center at 135th and Holmes, adding another aspect to its range of services. 2025: $9,212,276 Lead Bank Gross Revenue: 8 th Year 2025: $291,640,000 2022: $64,032,000 Growth: 355.46% Average Annual Growth Rate: 111.48% Full-time employees: 302 Cable Dahmer Automotive Group 2025: $3,700,000,000 2022: $806,481,186 Growth: 358.78% Average Annual Growth Rate: 119.59% Full-time employees: 1,000 9 th Year Gross Revenue: 3 rd Year

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(l-r): Mike Rauscher, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, Cable Dahmer Cadillac; Carlos Ledezma, Owner/President/CEO, Cable Dahmer Automotive Group.

(l-r): Jackie Reses, Co-Founder and CEO; Erica Khalili, Co-Founder and Chief Legal & Risk Officer; Ken Auspaker, Chief Financial Officer; Ronak Vyas, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer; Albert Song, Chief Design Officer; Homam Maalouf, Co-Founder and Chief Product and Data Science Officer; Brooke Clouse, Chief Operating Officer; Angela Blackburn, Chief People and Experience Officer.

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(l-r): Annie Rector and Kristin Hems, co-founders.

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July 2026

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