Ingram's May 2024

AMC ENTERTAINMENT Year Founded: 1920 Headquarters: Leawood, Kan. Sector: Entertainment Number of Employees: 33,812

AMERICAN CENTURY INVESTMENTS Year Founded: 1958 Headquarters: Kansas City, Mo.

Sector: Financial Services Number of Employees: 1,400

From its founding by James Stowers Jr. in 1958 as Twentieth Century Investments—and rebranded as the 21st century approached—American Century Investments has established a global footprint in wealth management, currently with more than $232 billion in assets under management. Stowers helmed the enterprise for four decades before Bill Lyons became CEO in 2000, and he in turn was succeeded by Jonathan Thomas in 2007. Their efforts have helped American Century make an impact with nine offices worldwide. On a local level, the firm continues annual funding of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, holding a controlling interest in the biomedical research firm. As such, roughly 40 percent of each year’s profits (more than $2 billion since 2000) go to the favored cause of the late founder and his wife, Virginia, both of whom had been cancer survivors.

The Dubinsky brothers—Maurice, Edward and Barney— were traveling tent-show performers who tired of the road and bought a fixed-up theater in Kansas City in 1920. By 1961, Ed’s son, Stan Durwood, was running the shows and applying business sense and innovation to improve the movie experience and the theater operations for a rebranded American Multi-Cinema, including the first multi-screen theater format. Durwood also leveraged his prominent business role to push for a revival of Downtown Kansas City, where the company was headquartered until 2013. The line of succession saw Peter Brown as the first person from outside the family to serve as CEO, followed by Gerardo Lopez and, since 2016, Adam Aron. From private ownership to a public company in 2013, Leawood-based AMC Entertainment has grown to become the world’s largest theatrical exhibitor, with $4.81 billion in 2023.

ASH GROVE CEMENT Year Founded: 1882 Headquarters: Overland Park, Kan. Sector: Construction Materials Number of Employees: Appx. 2,000

ASSOCIATED WHOLESALE GROCERS Year Founded: 1924 Headquarters: Kansas City, Kan.

Sector: Grocery Distribution Number of Employees: 4,600

Overland Park-based Ash Grove has been a pioneer in the portland cement industry for more than 140 years. The company, currently led by President Serge Schmidt, produces that specialized variety of cement and other materials used in the construction of highways and homes, bridges, commercial buildings, industrial sites, and other pillars of the nation’s economy. With revenues estimated to be north of $750 million, Ash Grove produces materials at 12 cement plants and 41 terminals in the U.S. and Canada. For nearly 90 years and over four generations, Ash Grove was controlled by the Sunderland family, culminating with the 2018 sale to CRH, a company based in Dublin. That $3.5 billion sale prompted a nearly unprecedented infusion of philanthropic muscle into the Sunderland Foundation, where brothers Charlie and Kent Sunderland continue to impact this region today.

If you eat, this is a company that matters to you: Associated Wholesale Grocers bills itself as the nation’s largest cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets, and that means feeding a lot of mouths. It serves roughly 1,100 member companies that, combined, have more than 3,300 grocery locations in 33 states. Those operations generated more than $12.4 billion in revenues in 2023, making AWG the third-largest private enterprise in this region. Groceries are the mainstay, but the company also delivers health and beauty care, general merchandise, pharmaceutical products, specialty foods, natural and organic products, and has various subsidiaries that provide real-estate and supermarket development services. Over the past 25 years, the company has been led at various times by Mike DeFabis, Doug Carolan, Gary Phillips, Jerry Garland, David Smith and, since last year, Dan Funk.

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May 2024

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