Ingram’s September 2022

Sandy Kemper CEO, C2FO

Paul Kempinski PRESIDENT/CEO, CHILDREN’S MERCY

In its rich entrepreneurial past, Kansas City has been home to world-changing ventures, but what’s happening right now with C2FO may become the world-changiest. Sandy Kemper launched this fintech firm in 2008, before fintech was even a word, and has rewritten the rules on digital payables and receivables. More than 1 million companies worldwide, with $10.5 trillion in annual sales, use the platform, connecting more than $110 billion in daily accounts.

Children’s Mercy’s decades-long rise to national prominence among pediatric hospitals and research centers continues un abated under the leadership of Paul Kempinski, who took the reins there in November 2018. From its roots as a stand-alone facility in the urban core, it has expanded bistate with acute care and urgent-care locations and clinics and admits 16,000 young patients every year.

COLLEGE: B.A., American History, Northwestern University THE VISION: Kemper saw an emerging demand for companies to access payables well before the terms set on transactions, allowing others to buy those amounts owed at a discount in exchange for immediate payment. WISE REBRAND: The company was originally incorporated as Pollenware, but soon embraced the C2FO brand, which stands for Collaborative Cash Flow Optimization. GOING GLOBAL: From its base in Kansas City, the firm has expanded with operations in Europe, China, India, and Australia. It is now the world’s largest non-bank provider of working capital and, since its first transaction in March 2010, has cut the payments timetable by a combined 1 billion days, generating more than $110 billion in working capital funding in 183 countries.

COLLEGE: B.S., Health & Human Development, Pennsylvania State University; M.S., Health Sys tems Management, Rush University INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP: Earlier this year, Kempinski joined the board of the Children’s Hospital Alliance, and he is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives’ Board of Trustees. MAKING A SPLASH: When the main hospital opened its new research tower last year, it im mediately thrust KC into national conversations about pediatric drug research. The nine-story, 375,000-square-foot facility was a $200 million project largely funded with philanthropic donations. ABOUT CHILDREN’S MERCY: The hospital was founded in 1897 by two sisters and today is a health system with facilities in more than a dozen locations in western Missouri and Kansas. The main hospital overlooking Downtown Kansas City has 367 staffed beds.

Scott Kincaid PRESIDENT, KINCAID GROUP HOLDINGS

Robert Kenagy PRESIDENT/CEO, STORMONT VAIL HEALTH

Diversified holdings and sectors and recovery of student transpor tation services helped Kincaid Group keep its financial balance in 2021. But it’s more than business with Scott Kincaid; it’s a matter of values, and the ones that drive performance for his team are Family, Safety, Service, and Respect. The family-owned group of businesses founded by his father is engaged with motor coach production, ready mix, vehicle sales, digital security, and IT.

Robert Kenagy brims with justifiable pride over his organization’s past year of achievement, serving the Greater Topeka region. The team, he says, “has continued to rise to the challenges presented by staffing shortages, supply-chain disruptions and all the other many changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Addressing staffing efforts, he cited a“more than doubling our child-care ca pacity focused on early childhood education.”

DEALING WITH COVID: “Health-care workers were uniquely challenged by the care re quired for those with COVID-19 and a significant number of our team count these days as their most fulfilling and most challenging, some to the point of emotional trauma. The experience will continue to impact our culture, both as a point of great pride and as one of great challenge.” MAJOR PROVIDER : Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka is the anchor for a health system that serves much of northeast Kansas and a broader region. The main medical center itself is the second-largest in the region in patient volumes, with roughly 24,000 admissions per year. CHIEFS PREDICTION: “The Chiefs will lose three games and win the Super Bowl. Go Chiefs!”

COLLEGE: B.S., Business Administration, University of Tulsa DRIVING SUCCESS: Don Kincaid started driving a bus at the age of 17, setting the stage for a career in student transportation. In 1976, he founded School Services and Leasing with a fleet of 17 buses, eventually building that into a 3,500-vehicle enterprise serving school systems in seven states. Scott joined Midwest Bus Sales in 2005 and directed the company’s expansion into multiple sectors on his way to the leadership ranks. DIVERSIFYING: The company’s lineup of businesses today: American Digital Security, DS Bus Lines, DS Bus Lines South, Kincaid Coach Lines, Kincaid Information Technology, Kincaid Ready Mix, Midwest Bus Sales, State Line Nissan. IN OVERDRIVE: The Bonner Springs company employs 2,000 people and generated 2021 revenues that reportedly surpassed $314 million in 2021.

Jim Klausman OWNER, GREATLIFE GOLF

Mark Kleeman PRESIDENT, SAFE HAVEN SECURITY SERVICES

Topeka’s Jim Klausman became one of the region’s most prominent de velopers of senior-living centers, and now he’s doing the same for golf: His GreatLife Golf & Fitness, which already owned 13 courses in the Kansas City area, is merging with a Pennsylvania company, which will up the count to 53 courses and four gyms. Their sports-themed empire took off after Klausman and his Midwest Health partner hooked up with GreatLife’s founder to go on a course shopping spree in recent years.

The metaphor is mixed but apt: Mark Kleeman and his team at Safe Haven have lassoed a growth rocket in home security systems, building the nation’s largest authorized ADT dealer. From its hum ble inception in 1999 and formal incorporation three years later, Safe Haven has grown under Kleeman’s watch to national power with 82 office locations in 43 states.

COLLEGE: B.A., Political Science, Washburn University BEFORE GOLF: Klausman, a Baby Boomer himself, had the vision to anticipate senior-living demand while he was still in his mid-20s, founding Midwest Health in 1977. It’s now an empire of 77 se nior-living centers across Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Missouri, with 3,000 employees in assisted -living centers, skilled-nursing centers, and senior independent-living apartments. CHIEFS ON BOARD: Klausman and Eaton own the Jack Henry Building on the Country Club Plaza, which recently added an impressive tenant: the second Chiefs Fit fitness center. HONORS: Last year, he and his Midwest co-founder, Butch Eaton, were inducted into the Topeka Business Hall of Fame. He’s a past chairman of the Topeka Chamber and board member for Go Topeka. BOARD DUTIES: Klausman also sits on the boards of his alma mater, Topeka-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, and Junior Achievement.

SERVICE LINES: Safe Haven installs everything from basic alarm systems to more sophisti cated tech, including Pulse cameras, voice control, and energy optimization devices. FAMILY VALUES: Kleeman’s son, Dustin, is on board with the company as a project manager, a role he took as the ink was drying on his degree in industrial engineering from Mizzou in 2018. BROAD REACH: Over its history, the company has delivered to more than 100,000 clients in 75 metropolitan areas. ON THE INGRAM’S 100: In 2018, the company’s revenues stood at a healthy $88 million. Then came the boom: Within two years, it had added $100 million to that top line, then knocked it out of the park in 2021 with a bump of 76.35 percent year over year to hit $332.5 million in sales.

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September 2022

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