Ingram’s September 2022

Greg Klein PRESIDENT, INLAND TRUCK PARTS

Tim Klein CEO, NATIONAL BEEF PACKING

Keeping the supply chain moving was crucial throughout the pandemic, so Greg Klein’s crew never closed the doors to truckers who needed their services. Klein shared that he is especially proud of Inland’s leadership team for increasing margins over the past year, even during inflationary times the U.S. hasn’t seen in 40 years. “These margins were essential for us to be able to offset the significant cost increases we are seeing in our wages and operating expenses,” he said.

Tim Klein took the food-production skills he honed at Cargill to Nation al Beef Packing in 1997, serving as COO before becoming chief execu tive there in 2015. In that role, he leads a vast enterprise with revenues of more than $7 billion, according to industry estimates. The company produces fresh beef, case-ready products, and beef by-products to customers around the world and operates two major packing plants in the southwest Kansas cities of Liberal and Dodge City.

KEEPING EMPLOYEES ENERGIZED: “As an essential business our stores remained open throughout the pandemic. By showing our employees how important their health and safety is to us, whether by paying them to stay home if they were at high risk or giving them extra paid time to deal with being sick or exposed to someone who was, it reinforces to our employees that they are valued and appreciated as human beings, not just workers. The fact that they own 100 percent of the company via an ESOP certainly helps their morale, as well.” STAFFING CHALLENGES: “Talent acquisition has been an issue in our industry for some time now, especially repair technicians.” KC’S NEXT BIG THING?: “Continue to promote Kansas City as a transportation hub in every way possible. Located in the center of the country, with a confluence of several interstates and railways, Kansas City is perfectly poised to expand its role as the heart of transportation in the U.S.

COLLEGE: B.A., Business Administration/General Management, Westmar College QUOTABLE: Responding to rancher complaints about a squeeze on profits, Klein testified before a House ag committee hearing early this year, offering a vigorous defense of the demand-driven spike in U.S. beef pricesduring thepandemic. “History,”hesaid, “teachesus that ascattlesuppliesdeclinecyclically, andnew capacity comes on line, there will be a shift in profits to the cattle-production segments of the industry.” MEETING DEMAND: To address increased beef demand by consumers, National Beef announced that it would invest more than $100 million to double the capacity of its Tama, Iowa, plant, boosting production to roughly 2,500 head per day. COMPANY GIVING: Among the non-profits to have received donations from National Beef and its em ployees are the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the United Way, the Kansas Children’s Service League, and TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which serves those who have lost someone in the military.

Ann Konecny CEO, FOLEY EQUIPMENT

John Kornitzer PRESIDENT, KORNITZER CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

The world of heavy earth-moving equipment isn’t particularly accommodating of women in executive roles today. It was even less so in 1991 when Ann Konecny signed on as Generation Three at Foley: “I was lucky that my father and grandfather encouraged me to be a leader in our family business in a day when that was not common for women in our industry,” Konecny told us. “But I focus on the job, and my work speaks for itself.”

With $7.3 billion in assets under management for nearly 5,000 client accounts, John Kornitzer has built one of the Kansas City area’s biggest wealth advisories. In doing so, he’s earned respect nationally for the firm’s financial performance; this year, Investor’s Business Daily included two funds from KCM’s Buffalo Funds subsidiary among the Best Mutual Funds of 2022.

COLLEGE: B.A., Finance and Economics, Wichita State University BROAD REACH: The company has 18 locations in 15 cities, spanning the two-state area from Sedalia to Liberal in southwest Kansas. FAMILY VALUES: Her grandfather founded the company in Wichita in 1940, and on her watch, it has grown to provide sales and rentals of new and used heavy equipment like backhoes and loaders, plus power generators and more. ENTREPRENEURALWAYS: Konecny also co-founded a mobile fitness-tracking app, Nukshuk, in 2018. CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: After an acquisition prompted her to move to Kansas City, she joined the boards of both the American Royal and the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and pre viously served on the boards for the Wichita State University Foundation, Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army and the Wichita Area Chamber of Commerce.

COLLEGE: B.S., Business Administration, St. Francis College HERD MENTALITY: In 1994, Kornitzer created Buffalo Funds, a family of 10 actively managed, no-load mutual funds to provide managed investment vehicles for the private accounts of clients. Why Buffalo? The name was inspired by the American buffalo, the main source of food, clothing, and shelter for Native Americans for thousands of years. BEFORE KCM: He incorporated KCM in Kansas in April 1989, but before that, Kornitzer had spent more than a decade with Wall Street firms Merrill Lynch and Butcher & Singer. He also was an asset manager and eventually vice president of investments for Employers Re insurance Corp. GLOBAL IMPACT: KCM serves clients around the world, and more than one-third of its total AUM—$2.49 billion—is managed on behalf of 660 high-net-worth individuals.

Ray Kowalik CHAIRMAN/CEO, BURNS & MCDONNELL

Brad Lager CHAIRMAN/CEO, HERZOG ENTERPRISES

For a company with the reputation of Burns & McDonnell, Ray Kowalik’s favorite business memory of the past year is a milestone of incredible proportions. “We signed up the largest project in our history this year,” he said, adding that the project “will need the ex pertise of almost everyone one of our business lines.” According to Kowalik, the collaboration involved and Burns & Mac’s diverse ser vice offerings make them uniquely qualified to take on the project.

Grass Roots wasn’t just a band—it also describes this native Missouri an, who can often be found on his cattle farmwith his family when he’s not leading a billion-dollar private rail and heavy/highway contracting company. Herzog has seven divisions and more than 2,300 employees, in addition to the execution of the day-to-day overall strategic plan, direction, and operations. Lager began his association with Herzog in a strictly advisory capacity before being appointed President of Herzog Technologies in 2014, then the leadership of the whole enterprise in 2020.

COLLEGE: B.S., M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia ATTRACTING TALENT: “We’ve grown tremendously over the last year. We know we have a lot

COLLEGE: summa cum laude , B.S., computer management systems, Northwest Missouri State University BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: “We have been blessed to see continued top-line and bottom-line growth even though sectors of our business have seen a slowdown. The team has done a great job of finding quality work and identifying customer challenges where we were able to provide solutions.” RECESSION OUTLOOK: “There is a strong argument that we are already in a recession, and if not, it is very likely within the next year. Over the last 18 months, we have focused on understanding what we do very well and doubled down on those activities while ending or greatly restructuring the things that we did not do as well.” CHALLENGE AHEAD: “Supply-chain issues, talent acquisition, and fuel prices.” FINDING TALENT: “Our recruitment team has done an incredible job of finding people, but it has required looking at double or triple the applicants than in the past. Not innovative, just doing the hard work to get the job done right.”

to offer talent that wants to work in an employee-owned business model.” NEXT BIG THING FOR KC?: “Downtown baseball and a cap over I-670.” 2022 CHIEFS PREDICTION: “17-0. Always need to set expectations high!”

GROWTH YEAR: Burns & McDonnell eclipsed the 10,000-employee level for the first time over the past year, asserting its place as the biggest engineering enterprise in a city teeming with them. HUMBLEORIGINS: The seeds for today’s Burns &McDonnell in 1898 were planted by two young engineers who came to Kansas City, correctly envisioning the need for municipal engineer- ing services as cities sprung up from the plains in the Midwest.

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September 2022

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