Ingram's November 2022

Mariah Meyer , President & CEO BRR ARCHITECTURE Mariah Meyer’s father is an architect, and thus influenced, she headed off to the University of Kansas to study architecture—but not entirely without reservations. “To be honest,” she says, “I wasn’t sure that architecture would be a good fit. … I had exposure to the industry, but I didn’t decide to explore it as a career of my own until I started college.” Happily, architecture is not a one-size-fits-all career. “The good thing about architecture, though, is that there are so many career paths within the industry,” says Meyer. “There are places for technical experts, researchers, designers, and managers. I didn’t know any of that at the time, but ultimately was able to find a path that I was well suited for.” Better than well-suited, actually. She found a path that would align with her interest and elevate her to leadership at one of the region’s largest design firms, Merriam-based BRR Architecture. There, she relies on lessons that go back to her upbringing. “My parents were both business leaders, so I saw from an early age what it looks like to work hard and juggle multiple commitments,” she says. “Beyond that, though, I learned valuable lessons about assuming responsibility, acting with integrity, and putting forward my best effort. It was leadership training on a daily basis at home.” Graduation led to a short stint in Chicago before family ties with her husband made Kansas City the right choice—not just professionally but personally. “In the 12 years we’ve lived in the Kansas City area, we’ve seen so much positive growth and development,” Meyer says. “It’s been an exciting time to live here—I really feel like Kansas City is coming into its own as the top city in the Midwest, so it was definitely the right decision.” That good luck in picking a new city extended to her career choices. “I feel so lucky to have landed at BRR when we relocated,” Meyer says. “The company is goal-oriented and has a culture of continual improvement, meaning that there’s always something to continue striving towards. That fits well withmy personality, and I have never Stephanie Schneider , Partner FIVE ELMS CAPITAL When Fred Coulson tells you that Stephanie Schneider an amazing partner to the Five Elms Capital team, its investors, and the companies it supports, he’s not overstating her influence: “She recently was named one of the top 25 growth investors in private equity globally ,” the firm’s CEO says. “For the past seven years, Stephanie has played an integral role in over 20 of the firm’s investments.” She sits on the boards of directors for 10—yes, 10—of the firm’s portfolio companies, and less than two years after the firm had bought into work-force management leader LaborChart, she led its sale Procore, a global provider of construction management software. Schneider is living proof that a journalism degree still has tremendous career value ... especially if you don’t go into journalism. At Five Elms, she’s a partner in a private equity firm that invests exclusively in business-to-business software companies. The firm brought her to Kansas City from New York in 2015, and she has not only achieved partner status, she’s on the Five Elms Investment Committee. She honed her investment-world skills in New York during a stretch as an investment banker in Citigroup’s Technology Group, advising corporations and financial sponsors on mergers, acquisitions, and general corporate finance. Before that, she served as an investment banker in the financial-services group for Sterne Agee. At Five Elms, she’s part of a team that makes investments of between $5 million and $75 million in companies poised to scale from a revenue base of between $2 million to $20 million. In return for growth capital or liquidity for founders and early investors, Five Elms secures minority or majority positions in those companies. “I believe that all my efforts propel, promote, and protect entrepreneurship,” says Schneider, who earned bachelor’s degrees in broadcast journalism and advertising from SouthernMethodist University inDallas. “This is a function of Five Elms’ value proposition that it offers entrepreneurs. In a year, we look at thousands of companies, have active dialogue with about 500, and ultimately invest in 4-6 companies.” Her contribution to winnowing that field of

felt like therewasn’t room to grow.” Leadership, she says, evolved naturally: “Leading the company was never my original plan. Over the time I’ve been with BRR, I realized that there was always a bigger way to contribute, more teammates to in teract with, and ideas that could be implemented at a larger scale. It was

a natural progression as the impact I was having on those around me grew.” Now, she’s in a position to help more women seize opportunities in that sector. “I believe the opportunities have always been there; the difference now is that we have more people who are interested in reaching for those opportunities,” she says. “Seeing your cultural group, whether it’s someone of the same gender identification, skin color or sexual orientation, in a leadership role will continue to inspire others to strive for those opportunities.”

candidates entails working with CEOs to discern how to best manage the different drivers—among them, growth, attrition and gross margin—on how to scale the business. The goal is to determine whether it makes more sense to pursue acquisitions or grow organically, and she ne gotiates the deal structures to make sure that the

result for both Five Elms’ investors and the entrepreneur are aligned, “whether that’s removing toxic shareholders to empower the CEO to seize the market opportunity ahead or providing capital and expertise to companies lacking subject matter experts,” she says. Being an entrepreneur, she says, means “understanding that in order to achieve your vision, you can’t do it alone. Building a strong team, establishing a group of advisers in a board, or partnering with a growth equity firm like Five Elms is what it means to be an entrepreneur.”

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November 2022

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