CHRIS CHIODINI
Chris Chiodini has accomplished a good deal in his 36 years. On the more superficial end of his own scale, Chris has achieved #1 World Ranking as 1st degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. He also had the honor of receiving appointments to West Point, The Naval Academy and the Coast Guard Academy simultaneously. Chris now serves as a senior civil engineer at Burns & McDonnell after having accumulated a wide range of real world experience as a business owner and in the public sector as well. More important still to Chris is his "strong marriage" to wife Rachelle and the raising of his "Godly children," Tate, Brianna, and Isaac, each under the age of five years. Chris says that mentors have made all the difference in is life. "I found people who had the life I wanted and asked them to help me do the same." His charge: "To be a mentor to those who want me to mentor them."
GARY FISH
Gary Fish has found a great way to combine fitness, employee motivation and charity work. The president and CEO of FishNet Security initiated a program called "Fit to Help." For every hour that an employee works in FishNet's onsite health center, the company donates $5 to their favorite charity. Fish started FishNet Security from his basement in 1996. In 1997, Fish hired his first employee and moved into an office in Overland Park. One year later, he moved his four employees to an office in downtown Kansas City. Now he has offices in Kansas City, Dallas, St. Louis and Minneapolis. FishNet is a premier provider of network security. Recently, FishNet designed, integrated and implemented a security solution for the State of Kansas Criminal Justice Information System--for which the company received a Checkpoint Partner Excellence Award. A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology, Gary works closely with the Alumni Association. He is also an active participant and advocate of the Ewing Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurial Leadership.
GEORGE GUASTELLO
George Guastello, 39, is a man of numbers. As Birch Telecom's director of finance & strategic planning, George has prepared and conducted presentations for private equity firms that assisted in raising $105 million in venture capital despite an increasingly tight financial market. George helped guide Birch though its successful emergence from Chapter 11 in near record time last year, and he remains the company's key number cruncher as it moves forward in merging with Ionex Telecom. When not busy working with the company's investment bankers and financial advisors, George, 39, donates his time and support at St. Ann's Church, Highlawn Montessori School and the American Royal Association, where he serves as an ambassador. He rounds out his busy schedule coaching children's soccer, basketball and T-ball. He credits his wife E.B. and his work associates "for allowing me to live a life of family, career and community." George and E.B. have four children: Beck, 8; Jay, 6; Mark, 4; and Lynn, 2.
SEAN HART
As Chief Executive Officer of Berger-Boyer Clinical Innovations, better known as BBCI, Sean Hart, 34, attributes his success to "the strong family bond" he has developed with his wife of nine years, Katie, and his "two wonderful daughters," Lucy Jane and Abigail Ellen, ages 3 and 1 respectively. In business, Sean was "blessed" to find three partners in pharmaceutical research who were experienced, patient and willing to share their knowledge. Sean believes that communication and trust led his to his company's aggressive growth from six employees in 1993 to nearly 100 in 2004. In his spare time, Sean is involved with various charities, including the Ozanam Home for Boys and as a board member with the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America. For the last twelve years, Sean has also volunteered as a consultant for medical research on the Ethical Review Committee. "All of my accomplishments," says Sean, "can be attributed to the values I learned living in a wonderful family in Kansas City."
