Ingram’s September 2022

Frank Ross PARTNER AND PRACTICE CHAIR, POLSINELLI

Fred Ross CEO, CUSTOM TRUCK ONE SOURCE

The law firm Frank Ross leads has a good year to look back on, as Ross recalls, “Pushing ourselves to surpass more than 20% growth in our Business Department revenue while keeping young lawyer attrition to about 6% in the era of the Great Resignation.” How does the firm manage such great retention? “The best way to attract and keep talent is to continually let our people know that we have a true culture of caring for them and about them,” said Ross.

Too often, when business figures ponder gazelles—those start ups that soar to $1 billion in revenue—they overlook the more muscular animals that might not have the glitz and glamor of a tech company. But Fred Ross and a passel of his siblings have done the gritty work on the blue-collar side of the economy, tak ing Custom Truck from its startup in 1996 to one of the nation’s premier providers of heavy construction vehicles.

BLUE-COLLAR FOUNDATION: Custom Truck is a national power behind the construction sector, providing the heavy equipment used to build and repair America’s infrastructure. TEN-FIGURE THRESHOLD: After a 2015 capital infusion from affiliates of private equity giant Black stone, Custom Truck went on a growth surge and surpassed $1 billion in sales for the first time in 2019. ACQUISITION TARGET: In April 2021, Nesco Holdings acquired Custom Truck for $1.45 billion, and it became a public company. The strength of the brand, though, came shining through as Nesco swapped its symbol on the New York Stock Exchange for CTOS. FAMILY AFFAIR: Five of his siblings joined Ross at the company’s inception, which meant 40 percent of the 15 employees hailed from one family. POWER EMPLOYER, TOO: The company’s workforce has grown more than 100-fold, with 1,700 workers in all. About 650 of them work at the headquarters on the site of the former Armco Steel plant, and 100 more are expected to be on staff by year’s end.

COLLEGE: B.S., Kansas State Univ; J.D., Washburn Univ School of Law; LL.M., Georgetown University COVID AND CLIENTS: “As we were building this law firm, we always talked with our clients and our lawyers about putting the best lawyer on the file regardless of where that lawyer lived. We told our clients we were certain they didn’t care where our lawyers lived, only whether they were the right one to handle their work. COVID has made that crystal clear. This is the culture created by Jim Polsinelli 50 years ago, and we still live it.” KC’S NEXT BIG THING: “A new Royals stadium downtown, a decision for a great home for the Kansas City Chiefs, wherever that might be, and the renewal of the Country Club Plaza as a nationally prominent hub of great retail stores and more great locally owned restaurants to add to all of the great restaurants that are there now.” CHIEFS PREDICTION: “I can never escape being a Chiefs fan ... a 20-0 year, with a Super Bowl win.”

Andy Sareyan PRESIDENT/CEO, ANDREWS MCMEEL UNIVERSAL

Philip Sarnecki CEO/MANAGING PARTNER, RPS FINANCIAL GROUP

The past year, says Andy Sareyan, was all about adapting. “We’ve adapted extremely well to change and kept our focus despite all kinds of distractions in the external world,” says the leader of this media content giant. “There’s no single achievement that stands above the rest, but this leadership team has been absolutely unflappable under some pretty chal lenging circumstances.”

Spare Philip Sarnecki the hair-splitting over whether a recession will be here in 2022 or 2023: “We’re in a recession,” he says, simply enough. It helps, then, to becoming off another record year, but past perfor mance won’t alone see his financial services firm through: “We’re prepared,” he says. “We have great leaders, great advisers, and great products. We’ve historically done extremely well during downturns. The financial strength of Northwestern Mutual is a huge advantage.”

COLLEGE: B.A., Middlebury College; MBA, Stanford University RECESSION OUTLOOK: “It does seem like more of a question of when than if. I’m optimistic that we’ll push the downturn farther down the road and that it won’t be severe when it arrives.” DEFENSIVE POSTURE: “We’ve spent a lot of time and effort on supply chain issues and managing physical costs. But at the same time, we’ve got our foot firmly on the pedal to pursue new initiatives and drive top-line growth.” CHALLENGES AHEAD: “Near-term challenges to AMU, I’d put supply chain at the top of the heap. In terms of our primary focus, talent acquisition and retention will always trump all else.” ATTRACTING TALENT: “We’ve stayed committed to our values, many of which revolve around how we treat our people and genuinely care for one another. And we’ve done our best to listen and adapt to changing desires and needs of the workforce.”

COLLEGE: B.A., Finance, University of Illinois WIDE NET: Sarnecki has built a small empire across the two-state area, as well as Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, with more than 250 financial advisers in 13 offices. CHALLENGE AHEAD: “Talent acquisition.” COVID IMPACT: “We just continued to do what we do well, which is have our world-class advisors bring world-class products to our clients.” KC’S NEXT BIG THING?: “NBA or NHL team?” CHIEFS PREDICTION: “11-6. Tough schedule, tough conference. Might take a little time to integrate the new players, especially the wide receivers.”

Paul Schultz CEO, UTXL

Neal Sharma PRESIDENT, DENTSUDTC

For more than 25 years, Paul Schultz has been with this third-par ty logistics provider, the last three of them in the role of chief executive. Those happen to be three of the biggest years in the company’s relatively brief history since its founding in 1997. Year over-year growth of 56.8 percent last year, in fact, propelled Schul tz and his team onto Ingram’s 100 list of the region’s largest private companies.

Neal Sharma did his part to change the world—literally: Inc. mag azine listed his corporate baby among its “25 Companies That Are Changing the World”—then oversaw its sale and staged his exit last year. Now, he’s plotting his Next Big Thing. “Truth be told,” he quips, “I am screwing up quasi-retirement. Earlier this year, he took his current role with an offshoot of Dentsu, the company that bought DEG, which he had taken from startup to digital power.

THE BOOM: UTXL, like many logistics-sector firms here, has taken advantage of Kansas City’s in creasingly prominent profile in shipping and distribution. Last year’s surge brought the company’s top line to $163.4 million. NICHE: The Northland company specializes in nationwide over-the-road full truckload and multi stop loads at any length of haul. RELOADING: The company set the stage for future growth last year when transportation giant Knight-Swift bought control for $22.5 million, providing access to capital and experienced logistics leadership. “Once UTXL and Knight-Swift began discussions,” Schultz said, “we quickly realized that we found a dynamic leadership team to support us as we gain momentum in growing our business and continue to strengthen the UTXL brand.”

COLLEGE: B.A., Communication, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government, American University; MBA, University of Kansas OTHER TASKS: Sharma is also on the board of MRIGlobal, an adviser and investor with Heirloom Brands, and an investor in about half a dozen startups over the past year. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!: “In addition, I am in the process of starting a couple of companies myself with some operators—one in the blockchain arena and one in the tech-enabled professional services arena—and might look at buying a company or two. Stay tuned for more there…” THE CIVIC SIDE: Sharma remains co-chair of KC Rising, a collaboration between the Kansas City Area Development Council, KC Chamber, Civic Council, and Mid-America Regional Council to bolster workforce development. He’s also on the Young Presidents Organization board, having just completed a year as chairman, and remains a Fellow of the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program HEMP.

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September 2022

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