Ingram's May 2024

CERNER CORP. Year Founded: 1979 Headquarters: North Kansas City, Mo. Sector: Health-Care IT Number of Employees: 25,000 (peak)

CHILDREN’S MERCY KANSAS CITY Year Founded: 1897 Headquarters: Kansas City, Mo. Sector: Healthcare Number of Employees: 7,443

Cerner Corp. went public in 1986, seven years after it was founded, and up until its acquisition by Oracle Corp., this health-informatics giant was THE defining example of Kansas City’s entrepreneurial spirit for four decades. Neal Patterson, Cliff Illig and Paul Gorup seized the opportunity to help the nation’s health-care system go digital, launching with a single product that blossomed into a suite of health informatics and population-health technologies. Gorup retired in 2015, a year before Patterson’s death; Illig left the Cerner board three years later. They created a company that would surpass $5 billion in revenue and, at one point, stood as the region’s largest private employer (roughly 15,000 here and 25,000 globally) before the sale to Oracle was finalized in 2022. The new parent gave off an ominous signal for the role the firm will play here when founder Larry Ellison announced last month it would move its Austin headquarters to Nashville.

An emerging force in pediatric health-care research, Child ren’s Mercy has outgrown its KC-centric mission with a physical footprint that covers the two-state region, and a reputation that’s national in scope. More than half a million young patients are treated in its facilities every year, and of those more than 14,000 are admitted as patients. That’s a long way from 1897, when Alice Berry Graham and her sister, Katharine Berry Richardson, began treating a single young girl. By 1927, the hospital had already made its mark (Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig paid a visit to patients that year), and celebrity support continues today with the annual Big Slick fund-raising event. In 2021, it opened a $200 million tower devoted to pediatric drug research, extending its reach in that field. Before long, new leadership will be in place. Six years after taking the reins from longtime leader Rand O’Donnell, Paul Kempinski recently announced his upcoming retirement.

COMMERCE BANK Year Founded: 1865

CREATIVE PLANNING Year Founded: 1983 Headquarters: Overland Park, Kan.

Headquarters: Kansas City-St. Louis Sector: Banking/Financial Services Number of Employees: 4,722

Sector: Financial Services Number of Employees: 2,100

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s digital records go back to 1992, but 34 years is little more than the blink of an eye in the history of one of the Midwest’s oldest banks. Even then, though, Commerce Bank sat largely where it does today in terms of its financial muscle—near the top. It surpassed the billion dollar mark on assets in 1971 and needed another generation to reach $2.5 billion (about $5.5 billion today). Since then, the bank has grown nearly sixfold, surpassing $31 billion as one of the market’s premier brands and a long-established partner to countless regional businesses. Among the notable companies and projects spawned with its backing were Arthur Stillwell’s rail operation (he had already founded Kansas City Southern), Midwest Research Institute (now MRIGlobal), and Trans World Airlines’ overhaul center here. Kevin Barth is the Kansas City region chairman/CEO, with Rob Bratcher as president.

Don’t just take our word for it: The brainiacs at the wealth-mangement bible Barron’s, have designated Overland Park’s Creative Planning as one of the nation’s best wealth management firms every year for nearly a decade, with mul tiple No. 1 rankings. On its way to $300 billion in assets under management or advisement, this once-upon-a-time boutique investment adviser morphed into a market disruptor after Peter Mallouk acquired it in 2006 and turned it into a one stop shopping mall of investment guidance, risk management, tax, estate planning and legal services. Along the way, that explosive growth generated explosive returns for the firm and more than 234,000 clients around the world, its employees, and Mallouk (along with his wife, Veronica) into major donors in philanthropic circles. The biggest leap in scale came with the 2021 acquisition of Lockton’s $110 billion retirement services unit.

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May 2024

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