Ingram's May 2024

Kansas City’s rich entrepreneurial history comes shining through with performers making a global impact today. Lessons from the Past; Visions for the Future

Thomas Swope and R.A. Long, then figures like J.C. Hall and a cadre of engineers with names like Burns, McDonnell, Black, and Veatch. Scoot forward half a century, and you see more of the Halls and Kempers, along with the Blochs and Helzbergs, all of whom helped shape the contours of a startup eco system that thrives today. It does so in large part because of the generations who fol lowed their lead, business figures who, in many cases, have recently begun handing the baton off to new cohorts of visionaries. You can start with companies that were already half a century old—or older—by the time Ingram’s predecessor, Outlook , began printing as the 20th century’s fourth quarter was about to start. Commerce Bank and UMB Bank, di vergent branches long led by the extended Kemper family, were well-established by then, and each entity had powerful market positions. Stan Durwood was applying in novative approaches to expand the audience for movie-going—his father was one of the three brothers who acquired what would become AMC Entertainment back in 1920. While they had yet to assume the global proportions they hold today, both Burns &

by Dennis Boone

W hen people from Kansas City say they hail from a place with entre preneurship in its DNA, they’re not blowing smoke: The very first non-na tive entrepreneur here was a fellow by the name of Francois Chouteau, a fur trader and explorer who—before his untimely death at the age of 41—earned the distinc tion “Father of Kansas City.” That was back in 1819, before there even was a formal Kansas City—before there even was a formal state called Missou

ri, for that matter. But the point stands: This region screamed opportunity for America’s settlers, and not much has changed in the 200-plus years since Chouteau set up his first trading post here. If you go back a century or more—150 years, even—to the time when Kansas City was just assembling critical mass as a center of commerce, you’ll see the roster of entre preneurial icons with which this city has long been associated, such as the extend ed Kemper banking family and names like

Hall’s Mark: Joyce C. Hall came to Kansas City as a young man with a vision, and it transformed the creative class and economy here.

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May 2024

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