When George Guastello climbed aboard as Union Sta-tion’s CEO on January 1 he brought along decades of experience in making KC non-profits work for the community. Most recently, he was CEO of American Royal for five years, and, before that he served as Starlight Theater’s VP of marketing and business strategy. When he joined Union Station, he came full-circle back to his first community-centric position with Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, where he helped develop the bi-state initiative that brought the railway icon back to life over a decade ago. Ingram’s magazine spoke to George recently about how he plans to help Kansas City’s Union Station connect to the community’s past and future.

These are challenging times for all businesses, including non-profits. What compelled you to take on this new role?
I’m a Kansas City guy. Born and raised, lived here all of my life, the second generation son of an Italian who immigrated to the region. I went to Rockhurst High School and UMKC and my first job was at Commerce Bank, another legendary local institution. After that it was the Chamber of Commerce, Starlight, American Royal. At the Chamber, I worked on campaigns for bi-state, which brought Union Station back to life. My wife and I even had fundraisers right in our own backyard.

What changes are you hoping to bring to Union Station?  
One of the things I’ve been charged to do is take a business approach. I’ve been very fortunate in my life, working with people like Neal Patterson, James Kemper,  Crosby Kemper. I got to learn from them. So now at Union Station, I’m reviewing everything and reevaluating our vision, our mission and strategy, our measurements of success. Running Union Station is no different than running a public company, except that instead of shareholders our responsibility is to KC residents— to children and they’re education, to all the people we serve. That’s why we constantly reevaluate our approach, make
sure we’re doing a good job and that the numbers reflect this.

Why does Union Station need to change? 
I wear a tie everyday to work. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing the tie I wore ten years ago. Things change, and that’s why we have to constantly reassess our strategies, learn from our customer base about how we can improve and update the entire experience. Twelve years ago this place was horrid except for Crown Center. Fast-forward twelve years and here’s what happened. Billions have been invested in this neighborhood—a new a sky-walk connects you to Crown Center and the Freighthouse Bridge and arts district.