Ingram’s September 2022

Rob Adams PARTNER, SHOOK, HARDY & BACON

Ingram’s editors are pleased to present the 2022 Class of the Ingram’s 250: The most influential and powerful business executives and leaders throughout the Greater Kansas City Region. Congratulations!

Rob Adams once said that teaching young lawyers how to be great trial lawyers is his greatest professional achievement. They are learning from one of the best. The co-chair of the general liability and litigation practice group for one of the biggest firms in the Midwest, Adams has served as lead counsel for more than 30 jury trials in various federal and state courts and has a lengthy resume in appellate court cases, as well.

COLLEGE: B.A., University of Kansas; J.D., University of Missouri School of Law HIGH PRAISE: Chambers USA, considered the Bible of legal-eagle rankings, has made Adams a perennial honoree. He’s also been named Missouri Lawyer of the Year by Missouri Lawyers Weekly . DIVERSE CLIENTELE: Much of Adams’ work is focused on the automotive, insurance and reinsurance, pharmaceutical, and construction sectors, as well as cases involving medical device design. OTHER DUTIES: When he’s not punching a clock in the courtroom or office, Adams is also Dean of the Trial Bar for the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.

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Raghu Adiga INTERIM PRESIDENT AND CEO, LIBERTY HOSPITAL

Mauli Agrawal CHANCELLOR, UMKC

Raghu Adiga looks at the team he inherited when he took on the in terim CEO role at Liberty Hospital this year and says he is impressed by the “continued success of the organization in demonstrating that we can provide top-notch, safe and compassionate health care to our community, despite the hurdles posed by the pandemic, inflation, and leadership changes.” Adigamaintains that pace by investing in his staff, “our biggest asset in providing premiere health care in the Northland.”

No sooner than he had arrived on UMKC’s campus in 2018, Mauli Agrawal declared his intent to bolster the engineering program to better serve a city known internationally as a center of engineering excellence. He had a head start on that goal when UMKC broke ground on a new $20 million building for its School of Computing and Engineering two months after starting the job. Overall, UMKC has more than 16,000 students enrolled.

COLLEGE: Bangalore Medical College Bangalore, Karnataka State, India ON TALENT: “Our HR department remains very active in exploring any and every opportunity available to attract and retain talent. We are strengthening our relationships with area educational institutions to ensure a pipeline of highly talented new recruits are available to us in the near future as a long term solution.” COVID PERSPECTIVE: “We have a very experienced team that anticipated and responded extremely well to the pandemic. Our employee COVID vaccination rates were near 95 percent even before the CMS vaccination mandate in health care went into effect. The culture among our dedicated staff has been to lead by example to the community we live in.” KC’S NEXT BIG THING?: “More and more interest in KC by major national industries to set up shop here, for the talent pool and quality of life for their employees.”

COLLEGE: B.A., Technology, Indian Institute of Technology; M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University; Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Duke University EXPANDED PROGRAMS: Agrawal’s penchant for a more sweeping engineering profile at UMKC showed up this year when the university announced two new degree programs— a bachelor’s and master’s in Biomedical Engineering—starting in the fall semester of 2023. ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET: Agrawal is a mechanical engineer by training, and he specialized in the development of orthopedic and cardiovascular devices before turning to academia. He has multi ple start-ups to his credit, including Cardivovate, Inc., a cardiovascular device company he co-founded, and a medical device maker that has been rebranded as Diabetica Solutions. INVENTIVE MIND: By the time he arrived at UMKC, he already had 15 patents, with more than a dozen others pending.

Matt All PRESIDENT/CEO, BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD OF KANSAS Matt All decided to go all-in on the newly-imagined workplace. “We’ve transitioned from being a largely on-campus workplace in Topeka to a hybrid workplace across our service area and beyond,” he says. “It’s challenging for us to work, but I believe it will allow our team- mates to work in new ways, achieve more for our members, and enjoy more fulfillment outside of work. We want BCBSKS to be a good thing in our employees’ lives, and I believe this new, more flexible way of working will do just that.

Damon Anderson CEO, TALLGRASS FREIGHT

This should tell you all you need to know about Damon Anderson’s brand of leadership and his skills in crafting a corporate culture: “The one thing that’s the most important to me about our company is this: I never want to lose that feeling of this company being a community,” he says. And it’s a community primed for success: Revenues last year more than doubled over 2020, soaring past $142 million for the Overland Park freight-solutions provider.

COLLEGE: B.A., Political Science, University of Kansas; J.D., Yale Law School ON TALENT RETENTION: “In addition to creating a more dynamic, flexible workplace, we’re completely revamping our compensation and career structure to meet the needs of a new generation of employees. It’s going to do wonders for us as an organization and open new paths for our colleagues to do amazing things with their careers. The next few years will be an exciting time to work at BCBSKS.” COVID PERSPECTIVE: “As a health organization, COVID has affected us in countless ways. It’s forced us to think about our physical workplace differently and caused us to rethink our work in public health. We’ve done things we’ve never done before, from making hundreds of grants to providers to encour- aging telemedicine to invest in new ways to promote mental health. We’ve emerged from the pandemic stronger and more committed than ever to serving our members. We’ll never be the same. We’ll be better.” NEXT BIG THING: “As a lifelong Royals fan, I’m waiting for the announcement of a downtown base ball stadium. I love Kauffman Stadium, but it’s probably time to bring the Royals closer to the people.

COLLEGE: Kansas City, Kansas Community College GROWTH KINGS: It’s hard enough to make the Corporate Report 100’s Top 10; harder still to do it back-to-back years. But that’s child’s play for Tallgrass: Anderson and his crew have notched three consecutive appearances in the CR100 Top 10. BEVERAGE OF CHOICE: “Bottle of Miller Lite” at happy hour. SONG THAT RESONATES: “Faster Disco” by Faith No More. AT HOME: He’s also an avid runner and a father of three. TEAM-BUILDING: Anderson addresses the challenges of a tight labor market by offering his agents industry-leading compensation—with no salary caps. ABOUT TALLGRASS: The company’s services cover full truckload and less-than-truckload, expedit ed shipping, rail, and temperature-controlled shipping.

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September 2022

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