Chairman and CEO, Country Club Bank
High-energy and high achieving, Bryon G. Thompson admits his priorities today focus on helping people.
Thompson's story is very much an example of hard work. He describes his parents as "honest, salt of the earth people who gave great love to my three brothers and me." He began his career at $3,600 per year, which helped him understand those in need when he later achieved financial success.
Thompson invested in Country Club Bank in 1985 after serving at United Missouri Bank of Kansas City, NA, for 29 years. While there, he was vice chairman in charge of Investment Banking and served as a member of the Board of United Missouri Bancshares, Inc. He is the past Vice Chairman of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and has served as Secretary of the Dealer Bank Association, a group of nationally recognized professionals involved with the taxable and tax-exempt bond industry. As a banker, Thompson serves on the Federal Advisory Council representing the 10th District of the Federal Reserve Bank. He is chairman of the Audit Committee on The Board of Kansas City Southern Industries.
Thompson is a member of the Board of Trustees for Rockhurst University and of the Board of Directors of Benedictine College in Atchison. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Midwest Research Institute and of the Investment Advisory Committee for the endowment fund of Union Station.
Editor and Publisher, Warrrensburg Daily Star-Journal
Avis Green Tucker became a newspaper publisher with the 1966 death of her husband William C. Tucker, owner and publisher of the Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal.
Her accomplishments now seem natural, but in 1966 eyebrows were definitely raised when a woman walked into a room of male editors and introduced herself as their new boss. "I tried to be tactful and not pushy," she recalled. "But some of them did look down on the idea."
The granddaughter of UtiliCorp United founder Lemuel K. Green, she joined the Board of Directors of Missouri Public Service, UtiliCorp's predecessor, in 1973. She was soon elected chairman of that board and continued that role under the reorganization creating UtiliCorp United in 1982. She continues today as a board member emeritus for the modern successor, Aquila.
Tucker also served as vice president and curator emeritus of the University of Missouri Board of Curators. She has been a member of the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, a trustee of Westminster College and a member of the UKC Trustees, the leading UMKC constituency organization. Tucker served on the Governor's Advisory Council on Literacy, as president of the Missouri Press Association and on the boards of both the West Central Missouri Mental Health Association and the Warrensburg Medical Center.
Tucker even continues to write weekly columns for her newspaper. "I believe in being fair," she noted. "I think you have to be objective. That's why centralization of media is terrible. Diversity of opinion is so important."
Blackwell Sanders Attorney, MO Senator
Harry Wiggins went to the public 16 times in nearly four decades and always came out a winner, but for him the best results were accomplishments he achieved in Jackson County and in the Missouri Senate.
"I enjoyed trying to use that for the public good and things I believe in," he said. "Public service is important."
Wiggins brought both intellectual prowess and old-fashioned hard work to his efforts. He holds what is believed to be a national record of never missing a roll call vote, a record that stood at more than 17,000 such votes at the end of his final term in the senate. Of the more than 400 laws he sponsored or co-sponsored, none have been replaced or overruled in court.
Wiggins began his public career on the Jackson County Court, serving as the group's last western judge. He was first elected to the Missouri Senate 10th District seat in 1970. Active in grassroots efforts and community projects such as higher education, Wiggins was so popular that all of his election victories were by 60 percent majorities or greater.
"The fact that your neighbors and constituents, the people who know you, had the confidence to elect you, that makes you feel good," Wiggins said. He also earned respect from his fellow legislators and served as chairman of the Senate Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees, and for six years as majority leader, the first from Kansas City.
Chairman and CEO, Zimmer Companies, Inc.
Kansas City was fortunate when this community became the hometown of Hugh Zimmer.
Over the last 55 years, Zimmer has played a major part in the location and development of much of Kansas City's business base, including the development of more than 26 million square feet of commercial buildings. He has achieved a remarkable record that includes directing economic develop-ment organizations from Lenexa to Platte County.
Zimmer is Chairman and CEO of Zimmer Companies, Inc, an inter-related group of commercial real estate entities with operations in commercial real estate brokerage, development, management and leasing. Zimmer clients are in most of the major cities of the country. Some of Zimmer's more notable and recent projects have included the Sprint World Headquarters Campus and, as co-developer with Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation, the new Shook, Hardy and Bacon headquarters. Zimmer recently became project advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City and was selected by Crown Center to assist in leasing their office properties.
Zimmer serves as an advisory director of Commerce Bank of Kansas City as well as Kansas City Equity Partners. He is a trustee of Midwest Research Institute and is immediate past chair- man of the UMKC Trustees. He is a former chairman of the Hawthorn Foundation of Missouri and a former co-chairman of the Kansas City Area Economic Development Council. He was chairman of the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City as well as chairman of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Bureau.