Each year, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry selects the state’s fastest growing companies to receive the Fast Track Award. Click below to learn more about each Fast Track Award winner and their unique recipes for growth. Bluebird Network Do Outdoors—Lew’s Fishing Equifax Workforce Solutions IMKO Martin Mechanical Moneta Group Phoenix Home Care Saint Luke’s East Hospital
Read more
In the Missouri General Assembly, Sen. Mike Kehoe stands out for his support of the state’s business community. Kehoe’s career as a business leader helps him understand the issues companies in our state are facing. For 20 years, Kehoe owned and operated Ford and Lincoln-Mercury franchises in Missouri. He served on the Ford Motor Company’s National Dealer Council and placed
Read more
Representative Dan Shaul Few first-year lawmakers can claim the level of success achieved by Representative Dan Shaul in 2015. Shaul, of Imperial, showed uncommon leadership when his House Bill 722 was amended to contain important language to stop municipality-driven workplace regulations. He quickly became a key figure in a fierce debate in the General Assembly. After his bill was vetoed
Read more
The Spirit of Enterprise Award was established in 1990 to recognize legislators who have consistently shown efforts to protect the free enterprise system in Missouri. Our 2015 Spirit of Enterprise Award winners join a prestigious list of Missouri lawmakers whose legislative efforts have helped make Missouri a better place to work and live. Senator Ron Richard Senator Ron Richard has
Read more
Brian Hammons doesn’t know how to stop running. As President and CEO of Hammons Black Walnuts in Stockton, he runs the family business as the “head cheerleader” of the third-generation company. In his spare time, he runs marathons, including 11 times in the Boston marathon. This year, Hammons is being honored with the Leadership Missouri Alumni Lifetime Achievement award and—according
Read more
Each year, the Missouri Chamber selects a local chamber of commerce that sets the standard in economic development, advocacy, and innovation. The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce was selected from more than 200 local chambers that serve communities all across the state. “The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce raises the bar for chambers all across Missouri and beyond,” says Dan
Read more
The path to growth doesn’t start in the boardroom at Saint Luke’s East Hospital. It starts at the bedside. Hospital President and CEO Ron Baker says everything begins with having highly engaged employees and physicians who provide high-quality care to patients. “What makes Saint Luke’s East Hospital successful are the people who work here and practice medicine here,” Baker says.
Read more
Companies often have to evolve before reaching their full potential. For Moneta Group, evolution has been constant during its nearly 140-year existence. Founded in 1869 as an insurance business, today’s Moneta Group is a client-centered financial services company managing more than $14 billion. Over the last three years, company revenues have increased by nearly 50 percent. Principal, Chairman, and Managing
Read more
Although Columbia-based Bluebird Network may not be a household name, the company has quietly become part of many Missourians’ everyday lives. Over the last sixteen years, Bluebird has laid more than 6,000 miles of fiber-optic cable across Missouri and Illinois. Today, many residents and businesses—especially those in rural areas—rely on this high-speed network for everything from transmitting local hospital scans
Read more
When David Wegenka joined with Staci Thornton, Patrick Hawkins, and Keith Hawkins in 2008 to buy IMKO from Jim Hawkins (Patrick and Keith’s father), they had big dreams for the small company. What started as one office in Saint Joseph in 1972, has now turned into five locations in Missouri and many more throughout the Midwest. Their explosive success in
Read more
Missouri Business 