Columbia Business Times December 2018

A BUSINESS TIMES COMPANY PUBLICATION DECEMBER 2018 INNOVATION

MARK SWANSON MU Associate Professor & Board Game Creator

IT'S ALL

Fun & Games

PG. 72

KEEPING IN THE LOOP PG. 54

A STINKY, LINGERING PROJECT PG. 79

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I might not have a million dollars - Cynthia Frisby, in the bank, but they make me Professor of Journalism, feel like I do. When I walk in, University of Missouri-Columbia they say, ‘We haven’t seen you in a while,’ — I love that! Isn’t it time you became a Landmark?

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hink back. All the way back to your childhood, when superpowers were real and you could be the inventor of things that would change the world. MARK SWANSON What superpower did you want? What kind of inventions did you dream up? Do you still wish you could make your dream of the next big invention a reality? Who says you have to give up on that dream? While we cannot make your invention a reality by offering you a large sum of money for research or a secret way of turning that dream into something tangible, we can inspire you to keep pursuing your interests and dreams of improving the world through the stories we share in this Innovation Issue. Columbia is an incredibly innovative community! We ON THE COVER have people who aren’t afraid to push boundaries and Mark Swanson, MU associate professor challenge what others would see as set in stone. Not only and board game creator, is this month’s cover model. From inception that, but we also have readily available people and resourcto creation to expansion, Swanson’s es at places like REDI and the Missouri Women’s Business game, “Feudum,” is taking over the Center to help people develop their ideas. We also have a Euro-style board game world. Photography by Anthony Jinson. university that puts millions of dollars towards research funding each year to help move us forward. And, most important of all, we carry a passion to create. This issue covers some of the ways in which our community is taking their creative passions to new levels. The Loop was awarded a large grant earlier this year, and the funds will be used to revitalize the Business Loop area through fostering a small-scale maufacturing community for makers in Columbia. Turn to page 54 to learn about the possible projects the money could go towards once The Loop finishes their discovery phase. Mark Swanson, an MU professor, created a Euro-style board game a couple years ago that has since taken off across the world and is now produced in multiple languages. He’s currently working on ways to expand the offerings for the game, “Feudum,” like expansion packs and collector pieces. Hear in his own words what he has planned on page 72. And MU Health’s Tiger Institute for Health Innovation is winning awards for their use of technology in patient care. The institute’s main focus is to make patient care more convenient, cost-effective, and accessible (page 67). We hope you will read these stories and be inspired by the inventors in our community and that you will keep your dreams alive. Who knows what you will make a reality. Are there innovative companies in Columbia we did not cover that you think we should have? If so, send me an email. I would love to know who you value in the community. A BUSINESS TIMES COMPANY PUBLICATION

DECEMBER 2018 INNOVATION

MU Associate Professor & Board Game Creator

STICKY NOTE MOTIVATION

IT'S ALL

Fun & Games

Three of my favorite quotes on innovation.

PG. 72

KEEPING IN THE LOOP

PG. 54

A STINKY,

LINGERING PROJECT PG. 79

“Learning and innovat ion go hand-in-hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufﬁcient for tomorrow.”

- William Pollard

“Exploration is the engine that drives innovation. Innovation drives economic grow th. So

let’s all go exploring!”

- Edith Widder

"The history of innovation is the story of ideas that seemed

Cheers,

dumb at the time.” Emma Bentley, Editor Emma@businesstimescompany.com

/Co l u m b i a B u s i n e ss Ti m e s

@ Co l u m b i a B i z

Co l u m b i a B u s i n e ss Ti m e s .co m

- Andy Dunn

Ed i to r @ B u s i n e ss Ti m e s Co m p a ny.co m

20 DECEMBER 2018

EDITORIAL Emma Bentley, Editor Emma@BusinessTimesCompany.com Megan Whitehead, Managing Editor MWhitehead@BusinessTimesCompany.com Tiffany Schmidt, Editorial Assistant Tiffany@BusinessTimesCompany.com DESIGN/CREATIVE SERVICES Jordan Watts, Senior Designer Jordan@BusinessTimesCompany.com Kate Morrow, Graphic Designer Kate@BusinessTimesCompany.com Cassidy Shearrer, Graphic Designer Cassidy@BusinessTimesCompany.com Sadie Thibodeaux, Graphic Designer Sadie@BusinessTimesCompany.com MARKETING REPRESENTATIVES Deb Valvo, Marketing Consultant Deb@BusinessTimesCompany.com Bonnie Hudson, Marketing Consultant Bonnie@BusinessTimesCompany.com MANAGEMENT Erica Pefferman, President Erica@BusinessTimesCompany.com Renea Sapp, Vice President ReneaS@BusinessTimesCompany.com Amy Ferrari, Operations Manager Amy@BusinessTimesCompany.com Beth Bramstedt, Editorial Director Beth@BusinessTimesCompany.com

Inside the Issue Facebook Love New Chapter Coaching, LLC The November Employment & Culture Issue of Columbia Business Times is out, and look who’s on the cover! Our thanks to Erica Pefferman, Emma K. Bentley, Deb Clagett Valvo, Anthony Jinson, and the entire CBT team for the coverage. Carolyn always dreamed of being called a cover girl! Kiefer Law Office LLC Shout out to Columbia Business Times for featuring such an amazing and well-deserving nonprofit, Heart of Missouri CASA! Volunteers always needed. Check them out and make a difference in the lives of Boone and Callaway County children.

Behind the Scenes Photographer Anthony Jinson is willing to go to extreme lengths to keep the 20 Under 40 class members of 2019 under wraps. But the wait is over! Check out our social media channels to meet the new class members.

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Keith Borgmeyer, Anthony Jinson, Sadie Thibodeaux CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kacen J. Bayless, Al Germond, Brenna McDermott, Kermit Miller, David Morrison, Latha Ramchand, Tiffany Schmidt, Jennifer Truesdale INTERNS Jordyn Miller SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription rate is $19.95 for 12 issues for 1 year or $34.95 for 24 issues for 2 years. Subscribe at columbiabusinesstimes.com or by phone. The Columbia Business Times is published every month by The Business Times Co., Copyright The Business Times Co., 2008. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of any editorial or graphic content without the express written permission of the publisher is prohibited. OUR MISSION STATEMENT The Columbia Business Times and columbiabusinesstimes.com strive to be Columbia’s leading source for timely and comprehensive news coverage of the local business community. This publication is dedicated to being the most relevant and useful vehicle for the exchange of information and ideas among Columbia’s business professionals. CONTACT The Business Times Co., 2001 Corporate Place, Suite 100 Columbia, MO, 65202 (573-499-1830) • columbiabusinesstimes.com

Contributors

Kermit Miller, KRCG 13

David Morrison

Brenna McDermott

Kacen J. Bayless

@DavidCMorrison

@_BrennaMcD

@KAC3N

Jennifer Truesdale

Write to CBT editor Emma Bentley at Emma@BusinessTimesCompany.com COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 21

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DECE MBE R 2018 VOL . 2 5 / I SSUE 6

TA B LE OF CON T EN TS

The Innovation Issue 19 FROM THE EDITOR 21 INSIDE THE ISSUE 25 CLOSER LOOK 26 BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS 29 BUSINESS UPDATE 3M

32 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT Heart of Missouri United Way

34 CELEBRATIONS Art in the Park

39 MOVERS & SHAKERS 41 P.Y.S.K. Collin Bunch, REDI

45 10 QUESTIONS Sara Cochran, MU

47 A CAPITOL CONVERSATION Missouri Capitol Restoration

49 LOCAL PERSPECTIVE Latha Ramchand, MU

51 OPINION: AL GERMOND

No Surprise Prop. D Failed

Calling All Makers Explore the projects The Loop will be spending their recently awarded grant money on and see how that will affect the Business Loop and makers in Columbia.

85 NEW BUSINESS LICENSES 86 DEEDS OF TRUST 87 ECONOMIC INDEX 89 BY THE NUMBERS 90 THIS OR THAT Bill Turpin, Missouri Innovation Center

Intellectual Property Rights

A Health Care and Technology Pairing

It’s All Fun and Games

In Focus: A Stinky, Lingering Project

What is defined as university intellectual property when inventions come from MU staff or students?

Exploring how MU Health uses technology to bring patients innovative and easily accessible health care.

‘Feudum’, Mark Swanson’s Euro-style board game, has taken off. What’s next for the game and for Swanson?

An in-depth look at the Henderson Branch sewer project’s history and current state.

24 DECEMBER 2018

BUSINE SS • P EOP L E • VOIC ES • F YI

C LOSER LOOK

Closer Look

Ophelia’s Flowers

Vows Bridal Boutique

Orangetheory Fitness

With winter upon us, many plant lovers are transitioning their outdoor plants into house plants or switching their attention and care to indoor plants completely. Jeni Mae McKenzie, owner of Ophelia’s Flowers, opened the boutique plant and flower shop in July. McKenzie decided on her hometown of Columbia for the shop because of Columbia’s atmosphere. “It’s always had a very young and vibrant downtown scene, and as a small business owner, I wanted to tap into that market and offer something new,” McKenzie says. McKenzie loves doing floral design, but her passion is with rooted plants. Ophelia’s has workshops regularly and hopes to have them weekly in the future. Their Facebook page lists their events. McKenzie also enjoys being able to take the time to speak with her clients in-depth about their successes and failures when it comes to keeping house plants alive and thriving. Stop by her shop with your questions.

Every bride dreams of the day she says yes to the dress, but with so many options, choosing the perfect dress can be a bit daunting. Vows Bridal Boutique, Columbia’s newest bridal store, seeks to make shopping for a wedding dress an enjoyable experience that isn’t overwhelming. Vows prides itself on creating customized experiences for each bride. Owner Victoria Sporleder majored in textile and apparel management at MU and knew she wanted to open a bridal store in Columbia after graduation. “I have always loved the energy and vibrancy of Columbia,” she says. To make sure the bridal boutique offers the very best, Sporleder researches designers and gowns to ensure that the boutique has a wide selection of different silhouettes, styles, fabrics, and options for different price points. Sporleder also focuses on upcoming trends in the market to offer brides the latest fashions. Their goal is to do everything possible to give their brides a dream wedding experience.

Orangetheory Fitness, a franchise found all over the nation, is bringing a fun, innovative way to exercise to Columbia with a new location on the west side of town. The fitness company is a science-backed, technology-tracked, coach-inspired group workout designed to produce results from the inside out. “We hope that Orangetheory Fitness in Columbia never stops growing,” says Studio Manager Abbie Truskowski. “We cater to every fitness level and lifestyle. Whether you work out at Orangetheory exclusively or use it to supplement your already existing routine, we want to create a fun, safe, and supportive environment.” Orangetheory Fitness is constantly adding new, fun ways to change up their workouts. They hope to keep adding more technology that helps members better track their physical activity both inside and out of Orangetheory Fitness workouts.

Location: 110 N. Tenth St. Website: opheliasflowershop.com Contact: 573-777-8788

Location: 510 E. Green Meadows Website: bridalbyvows.com Contact: 573-464-4141

Location: 3103 W. Broadway Website: orangetheoryfitness.com Contact: 573-381-0388

Are you an entrepreneur? Are you sprouting a new business? Tell us about it at Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 25

BUSINE SS • P EOP L E • VOIC ES • F YI

Briefly in the News DECEMBER 2018

E DUC AT ION

ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF MID-MISSOURI PROVIDES CLOTHING As of November 1, 2018, more than 2 2,000 elementary students have been provided new winter clothing and coats through the Assistance League of Mid-Missouri’s Operation School Bell program. The program was created in 1997 with the goal of increasing the selfesteem of each child and enabling regular school attendance. This year alone, Assistance League members provided clothing to almost 1,600 students.

C OMMUNIT Y

RONALD McDONALD HOUSE CELEBRATES FIFTH ANNIVERSARY This year, the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri celebrated the fifth anniversary of their new house in Columbia. Ronald McDonald House Charities is a nonprofit organization that helps families with sick children stay close to each other and provides care and resources in their times of need. Since the house opened, 1,810 families have stayed more than 26,050 nights.

“Thanks to our new space, we have been able to serve more families and keep them close to the services they need.” — Terri Gray, executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri

26 DECEMBER 2018

BR I EFLY I N T H E N EWS

BUSINESS

TRUMAN VA HOSPITAL RANKED ‘BEST PLACE TO WORK’ For the second consecutive year, employees ranked Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital as the No. 1 best place to work through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ All Employee Survey. The VA survey is administered annually, and all VA employees are encouraged to participate for the best assessment of workforce satisfaction and organizational climate.

BUS INES S

VETERANS UNITED NAMED ONE OF THE BEST WORKPLACES FOR WOMEN

C OM M U N I T Y

E DUC AT ION

NEW CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AWARDED GRANTS

On November 1, members of Columbia’s six Rotary clubs participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for their first joint construction project, a children’s playground. The playground will be constructed adjacent to the new farmers’ market, which is next to the Activity and Recreation Center on Ash Street. Columbia’s six Rotary clubs raised $52,000 to pay for the playground equipment and construction costs.

The MU College of Education’s eMINTS National Center received two U.S. Department of Education grants. The grants total more than $18.6 million in federal funds and $3.8 million in private sector matching funds. The money will be used to expand a successful educational technology professional development program into rural schools in Missouri and Kansas.

For the fourth consecutive year, Veterans United Home Loans was named to the Best Workplaces for Women list assembled annually by Great Place to Work and Fortune. Veterans United came in at No. 23 on the list. The ranking considered more than 540,000 employee surveys from Great Place to Work-certified companies and evaluated more than 50 elements of team members’ experience on the job. Veterans United has nearly 2,400 employees nationwide.

“A significant focus of our culture is supporting the lives and interests of our female employees. This recognition is both an honor and reminder of our commitment to providing a workplace culture that enhances the lives of our employees.” — Dr. Amanda Andrade, chief people officer at Veterans United

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 27

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BUSINE SS • P EOP L E • VOIC ES • F YI

BU SI N ESS U PDAT E

The Drive to Improve New 3M plant manager Jim Burkhardt is getting to know Columbia’s site and planning for the future.

BY EMMA BENTL EY | P HOTOG R A P HY BY KE I TH B O R G M E Y E R

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 29

B USINE SS • P EOP L E • VOIC ES • F YI

ESTABLISHED IN 1970, Columbia’s 3M plant is a staple of the city’s manufacturing economy. Once one of the city’s largest employers, the plant has seen its fair share of changes over the years as product demands, the economy, and the number of employees have ebbed and flowed. One recent change garnering attention is the hiring of new plant manager Jim Burkhardt. In June, Burkhardt began his transition to Columbia from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, where he worked at a 3M plant that focused on making and assembling health care products, as does Columbia’s plant. He fully took over Columbia’s plant manager role in early July. During his 22-year career with 3M, Burkhardt has worked at seven 3M sites and has spent his whole career working in manufacturing. As Burkhardt settles in to Columbia and the new site, he says one thing that’s struck him is the friendliness of the people. Many people have reached out to him to check in on how his transition has gone, how he’s doing, and if there’s anything they can help him with.

And while he’s still working on learning all the names of his employees, he has noticed that they all have one thing in common: a drive to see the plant succeed. “I’ve been amazed at how driven they are to continuously improve. That’s really been apparent,” says Burkhardt. FROM CIRCUITS TO STETHOSCOPES The drive and engagement of the plant’s employees has helped the plant survive and thrive throughout their almost 40-year history. When the plant originally opened, they focused on audio visual products and electrical connectors. Shortly thereafter, the plant also produced flexible circuits. The business grew and allowed them to bring on large clients and to grow their workforce to about 900 employees by the late 1990s. Demand for their products peaked during the 90s because of ink jet printers. The plant stayed busy until the early 2000s, when a few large customers moved their operations and business overseas to Asia.

Aerial view of Columbia's 3M plant. (Provided by 3M) 30 DECEMBER 2018

Burkhardt explains that the plant was not as diversified in the products they produced during this time, so when those customers left, they were difficult to replace. The plant’s headcount of 900 employees soon dropped to around 200 employees. It was not until 2010, when a core group of people at the plant chartered a new path for the plant, that they began to pick back up again, moving into manufacturing health care products like stethoscopes, filtration systems for biopharmaceuticals, and surgery preparation products. “That’s really led to a resurgence here in the plant as far as businesses, employees, and growth for the site,” says Burkhardt. It was not much later that 3M acquired a company in Carlsbad, California, that specialized in health care products. And because the Columbia plant had the capabilities for health care production the operations from that company moved to Columbia. “[The company] was a good fit for what we’re doing in the plant, and it goes after

BU SI N ESS U PDAT E

Burkhardt stands next to a picture of one of the plant's biggest product lines: stethoscopes.

what 3M health care wants to do in regards to reducing opportunities for surgical site infections or reducing the chance for infections in the hospital, making it a healthier world,” says Burkhardt. Stethoscopes, which they assemble at the plant, have now become the plant’s largest value stream. Not all of the parts for the stethoscope are made at the plant, but Burkhardt says that could be a way to provide a faster service,

and a less expensive product, to their customers in the future. With the pivot into the health care field, the plant is now back up to 500 employees. They didn’t leave their circuits and connectors behind completely, though — those products are still manufactured at the plant, but that’s now a smaller part of their financial stream. So what does the future of product lines and the plant as a whole look like?

STREAMLINING THE SUPPLY CHAIN When Burkhardt looks to the future of the plant, he explains that improving the extended value stream — the process of making a product from beginning to end, like the testing and packaging of the products — is where he’s focused. That process begins with thinking through how 3M can speed up the supply chain process to improve their service to their customers. One way in which this can happen is by bringing the production of more of the products in-house when it makes sense, Burkhardt says. Let’s again use the stethoscope as an example. Right now, not all of the parts for the stethoscope are made at the plant, which means that the parts the Columbia plant does not have need to come from another plant or a possible competitor. They then have to wait for the parts to be shipped to them, which adds additional costs to the customer and lengthens the amount of time it will take 3M to get the finished product out the door. If 3M brought the equipment to make those parts in-house, then that would not only decrease costs for the customer, but it would make the plant more responsive and would decrease their lead times. And this is an opportunity for growth across product lines, not just products in the health care value stream. “[Every value stream’s] team has a process around evaluating the overall supply chain and trying to improving service and quality to the customer,” says Burkhardt. Each team creates goals for continuous improvement in this area on an annual basis during a strategic meeting, and they even bring in people from St. Paul, Minnesota, where 3M is headquartered, explains Burkhardt. They then evaluate their goals every 90 days to assess and pivot if needed. At the end of the day, Burkhardt says that there may be different quantifiable goals across product lines and value streams in the Columbia plant, but “it all comes down to the same thing. It’s about engaging the workforce, and we have a very good one here, driving quality and servicing the customer by making products that help serve the customer.” CBT

3M 5400 Paris Rd. 573-474-8521 3m.com COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 31

B USINE SS • P EOP L E • VOIC ES • F YI

Maximizing the Impact The United Way’s allocation process aligns resources with the community’s greatest needs.

BY BETH BRA MST EDT | P HOTOG R A P HY P R OV I DE D BY H E A RT O F M I SS O U R I U N I TE D WAY

ONE OF THE MYTHS Executive Director Andrew Grabau hopes to debunk about the Heart of Missouri United Way’s allocation process is that grant recipients are chosen by five or six people who gather in a smoke-filled room, behind closed doors, to make the decision. Instead, the United Way makes sure that the community dollars that they are fortunate to receive are put to the best use in helping those who need it. “It’s a high form of stewardship,” Grabau shares, “and it’s very deliberate.” This month, while the United Way is wrapping up their fundraising campaign, they will also be ramping up the allocations process. They award community impact grants in four areas on a rotating basis. Health, education, and financial stability grants are awarded every three years, while basic needs grants are awarded every two years. Right now, the organization is preparing to award grants for financial stability to programs that boost work readiness, employment, and financial independence.

VOLUNTEER-DRIVEN While the United Way staff coordinates the effort and provides the necessary training and 32 DECEMBER 2018

information, the allocations process is driven by four volunteer groups consisting of more than 35 total members. The advisory council is one of those groups. They are selected each year to research the new grant applications and make a set of recommendations to the board. “Last year, the advisory council spent more than 400 hours reading the applications, listening to the agencies make their pitch, going on site visits, and sitting in meetings to discuss the decisions,” says Rachel Delcau, director of community impact. “They gave a lot of time.” Troy Norton, a CPA with Williams-Keepers, has been volunteering with the United Way for nearly 20 years. He started as a volunteer in the allocations process. “As a volunteer, we visit the partner agencies to learn about their impact in person, and we see a lot of their operational and financial information to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs and correlate them to the community needs,” he says. “This process provides our volunteers with the resources to make highly-educated recommendations,” Grabau adds. Some members of the advisory council are chosen for their expertise, whether academic or

in the field, on a particular subject matter. Others are members of the community who utilize the services the United Way agencies provide. “This way everyone from the donors through to those individuals using the services have their voices heard at the decision-making table,” Delcau says. “That makes for a very well-informed process.” Members of the 2019 advisory council will begin their training and research in February, visit agency sites in March, and discuss their recommendations in early April. The board will make the final decision on funding in late April and grant recipients are announced in May. Funding begins July 1.

IMPACT-FOCUSED The United Way’s efforts must be intentional because the amount requested from the partner agencies each year is almost double the amount the United Way has available for funding. Last year, they received 40 applications for education and basic needs, totaling $2 million in requests. They had $1 million in grants to award. “The process of making the allocation decisions is a difficult one,” Norton shares. ”For all

Heart of Missouri United Way MISSION The Heart of Missouri United Way fights to improve lives in our community.

VISION “Living United”: By responding to changing community needs. By forging strategic partnerships and fostering effective solutions to tackle local issues. By harnessing the best resources and inspiring others to join the fight in defeating barriers to basic needs, health, education, and financial stability.

BOARD OFFICERS • David Putnam, First State Community Bank (President) • Aimee Davenport, Stinson Leonard Street (Vice President) • Lee Hendrickson, Providence Bank (Treasurer) • Erica Pefferman, The Business Times Company (Secretary) • Teresa Magruder, Shelter Insurance Companies (Past President) • Jim and Lisa Meyer, MeyerWorks LLC (2018 Campaign Chairs)

N ON PR OFI T

the great attributes of Columbia and the surrounding area, there are still many people in our community who need help to meet their basic needs and to prepare them to escape poverty.” The board’s decision is made easier thanks to the work of the Boone Impact Group. BIG is a collaboration between Boone County, the City of Columbia, and the United Way to prevent duplicating work as funders and to make sure area agencies receive the funding and support they need. BIG meets weekly to share information, identify resource gaps, coordinate efforts, and tackle social issues together. The group also developed a shared taxonomy of services. The taxonomy provides categories that identify services provided to individuals living in Boone County. Funding proposals require that the partner agencies use the taxonomy of services to identify what services they will provide. “In order for us to measure shared outcomes as a community, we have to start with a shared language,” Delcau explains. One example Grabau likes to reference is their collaboration with Columbia Public Schools. Since 2012, the graduation rate has increased from 84.8 percent to 90.1 percent. To supplement the school’s efforts under the community impact area of education, the United Way was able to fund over 73,000 hours of tutoring and mentoring. Another example is their relationship with Phoenix Health Programs, a partner agency providing treatment for drug and alcohol addicts seeking recovery. “We gave them funding for an innovative program and they leveraged it for larger state funds,” Delcau shares. “So then we pivoted and reemployed their dollars elsewhere (within their organization) where they could be helpful. So the strategic part of our investment really paid off there.”

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Another myth Grabau likes to dispel is that the United Way knows what’s best for the community. “We really value the partnerships we have with our agencies.

We may be a nonprofit leader in our community,” he says, “but our partnerships are absolutely essential in making sure we all succeed.” The United Way is proud to be investing in 45 programs and services with 33 local agencies in the targeted areas of health, education, financial stability, and basic needs for the 2018-2019 funding year. Currently, the United Way is requesting letters of intent from partner agencies, who must be certified for 12 months before applying for funding. They will have a conversation with each partner to help them align their services to the taxonomy. “This way we can help guide them and give them feedback to make their application compelling,” Delcau shares. Certified agencies will spend December and January filling out their grant applications. In preparation for this year’s focus on financial stability and economic mobility, the United Way hosted a community summit on November 8 at Shelter Insurance. Attendees were asked to develop a plan of action to move the community forward. This year’s grant targets were informed by the outcomes of this summit. “Currently, we’re looking at data that shows that Boone County ranks in the 17th percentile of all counties in the country for economic mobility,” Delcau says. “So we want our financial stability targets to move people on the path of economic mobility. We are hoping the summit will encourage our partners to develop and maintain programs that will effectively address these issues.” Grabau feels honored to represent the community and he takes his job seriously. “We’re doing the work they’ve asked us to do,” he says. “We have this process not be overly complex so we can be good stewards of that responsibility.” CBT Heart of Missouri United Way 105 E. Ash St., Ste. 300 573-443-4523 uwheartmo.org COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 33

Betty Robins and Andy Tau

1959

1964

Columbia Art League is founded, spearheaded by Betty Robins.

The first art fair is held on Cherry Street.

The Columbia Art League creates a sales gallery.

34 DECEMBER 2018

BUSINE SS • P EOPL E • VOIC ES • F YI

C ELEBRAT I ON S

Curating Creativity The Columbia Art League celebrates 60 years of Art in the Park.

BY TIFFA N Y SCHM I DT | P HOTOG R A P HY P R OV I DE D BY TH E CO LU MB I A A RT L E AG U E

FIVE ARTISTS who had been taking creative classes together in 1959 decided to found the Columbia Art League, a place where likeminded creatives could come together to create, appreciate, and learn. The group started by meeting at the home of Betty Robins, who spearheaded the organizational efforts. The first Art in the Park was held as an art fair on Cherry Street as a way of encouraging artists to share their work with one another and with the community at large. The event has grown quite a bit since then, but Art in the Park is still free to the public, and the festival showcases a diverse range of mediums that are available for purchase. “There is art for everybody,” says Executive Director Holly Stitt. Over the years, CAL has added installations, interactive activities, food vendors, and performers to the overall experience of the festival, which now draws both artists and attendees from across the state. The newest addition to the festival this year was the Veterans’ Art Pavilion, which was an extension of the outreach CAL does with the VA reintegration program. The pavilion featured art created by veterans and let them share their stories with the community. The Young Collector’s Tent is another unique experience the festival offers each year. Artists who show their work in the festival donate a collection of pieces to CAL to hang in the Young Collector’s Tent. Children are encouraged to choose one of these pieces without the help of their parents so they can identify the kind of art that resonates with them personally. They are then given a map of where the artist is located in the festival so they can meet the artist in person. “We get feedback from the artists that the best part of coming to the show is seeing those

kids and working with them. It’s one of the best parts of Art in the Park,” says Stitt. As CAL celebrates 60 years of Art in the Park, they’re reflecting on how they have grown from a small collective into a thriving nonprofit. CAL now employs three full-time staff members who coordinate with 20 to 25 volunteers to run the gallery, teach classes, and direct outreach. An annual fee allows patrons to become members of CAL. Members are given discounted rates to gallery shows, access to members-only shows, and opportunities to show their art in community exhibits. “We really strive to get people into the arts and using the arts in any way that we can,” says Stitt.

“I’m a big advocate that everybody, no matter what line of work they’re in, no matter what they do, needs to have art in their world.” President Pam Gainor says the shows are especially rewarding due to “the joy that people find in doing art, and the courage they experience putting their art out for other people to see.” CAL has also created different outreach programs for youth in the Columbia area. Emerging Artists is one such program focused on encour-

aging high school students and college undergraduates to show their art in one of the galleries that CAL curates. Pieces are also displayed in the emerging artists’ tent at Art in the Park. A mentorship program for at-risk and underprivileged teens is another way in which CAL engages young artists. Teens are paired with a master artist for the school year to learn how to create different forms of art. The water serpent that was featured in the lake at this year’s Art in the Park was created by one of the mentees from this program. The gallery at CAL features six shows a year, with two being members-only shows. The remaining four shows are open to anyone in the community who wants to display their art. Artists who are featured may be well-known or up-and-coming. Each show is themed, and art is selected based on the approval of juried panels. Give a Gift of Art is currently on display; the show is intended to encourage patrons to purchase art as gifts during the holiday season. In addition to the galleries, CAL’s building houses a classroom, where both children and adults can learn a variety of crafts. Painting, hand lettering, basket weaving, and drawing are just a few of the classes taught there. CAL’s main goal for the future is to further expand its membership base. In doing so, CAL can mobilize outreach initiatives and programming, all of which directly funnel back into the community. “I’m a big advocate that everybody, no matter what line of work they’re in, no matter what they do, needs to have art in their world,” says Stitt. “Whether they create it or they appreciate it, whether it’s show worthy or not, doing it makes them a better person and better at what they do.” CBT

1976

2008

2018

2019

The art fair becomes Columbia Arts Festival.

Columbia Art League moves to Ninth Street.

The art league celebrates the 60th anniversary of Art in the Park.

Columbia Art League turns 60.

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 35

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36 DECEMBER 2018

#FIGHTFORGOOD

DEB VALVO Publisher, COMO Living

LOVE HAS AN ARMY… And to provide love and care to those in need in our community, it also takes an army. ERICA PEFFERMAN President, The Business Times Company

Change DOES make change. We agreed to co-chair The Salvation Army’s Christmas Campaign this year because we both feel very strongly about the work they do in our community. In spite of all the great things about Columbia, we have some serious issues that require boots on the ground, laser focus attention. The kind of attention that only the Salvation Army can provide… and only with the support of people like you. We’re asking you to dig a little deeper in your pockets and wallets this year each time you pass their red kettles. And we’re grateful that you, too, want to see a positive change in our community.

THANK YOU FOR HELPING!

The numbers are daunting. In • • •

2017, The Salvation Army’s Harbor House served over 500 individuals provided over 16,500 nights of shelter served over 33,000 meals

In addition, they also served over 2,700 through their food pantry. These much needed services are only made possible by the generous donations made to their infamous Red Kettles. And those kettles need bell ringers! Please consider volunteering this season because an unmanned kettle gets easily ignored. Monies put in the kettles in Columbia stay in Boone County!

TO VOLUNTEER, VISIT

RockTheRedKettleCOMO.org/bell-ringing TEXT TO DONATE

KETTLE2018 TO 91999 COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 37

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38 DECEMBER 2018

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B U SINESS • PEOP LE • VOIC ES • F YI

M OVER S & SH AKER S

Movers & Shakers DECEMBER 2018

KEITHAHN

Stephen Keithahn

Melissa Montgomery

MU Health and MU’s School of Medicine named Dr. Stephen Keithahn as chief wellness officer. Keithahn will be responsible for creating and leading the Office of Physician Well-being to optimize physician wellness and engagement. Keithahn is an associate professor of clinical medicine and pediatrics and serves as the medical director for the Woodrail General Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Clinic.

Melissa Montgomery, Columbia College senior director of philanthropy, has been named the 2018 Outstanding Fundraising Professional by the Central Missouri chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Montgomery has been a member of the Columbia College advancement team since 2004 and has served in her current role since February. This award recognizes a professional with more than 10 years of experience in the field of fundraising who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment, dedication, and talent toward promoting philanthropy in the community.

Terra Crane The Convention and Visitors Bureau's convention sales manager, Terra Crane, was named a Top Young Professional Under 37 by the national branch of the Society of Government Meeting Professionals. To receive the recognition, young professionals were nominated by their peers and selected by a national panel. Crane hopes to be a resource for government meeting planners and help the SGMP organization.

KOPN Community Radio KOPN hired Tim Pilcher as administrative manager and Cory Crosby as community relations manager. Pilcher will be assisting KOPN’s general manager and assisting with every area of the station’s organizational development. Crosby will focus on building KOPN’s presence in the Mid-Missouri community.

Samantha Crane Central Bank of Boone County has promoted Samantha Crane to vice president, controller. Crane manages the accounting functions of Central Bank of Boone County and Central Trust Company. She has worked in financial services for 18 years and joined Central Bank of Boone County in 2012. In 2015, Crane added the duties of controller for Central Trust Company.

Sean Sweeney Coegi is pleased to announce and welcome Sean Sweeney as vice president of client development. With 18 years of sales and leadership experience in the digital media space, Sweeney will

be in charge of leading Coegi’s direct business strategy. Sweeney has a strong history of success in the digital media industry. He joins Coegi after having worked as regional vice president of sales for mobile video startup LoopMe.

T. CRANE

Aurora Meyer Aurora Meyer, marketing and public affairs coordinator with the Missouri State Teachers Association, has successfully completed the examination for accreditation in public relations, entitling her to use the APR professional designation. The accreditation program aims to improve the practice of public relations by assessing competence in 60 areas of knowledge, skill, and abilities associated with the profession.

Jim Peregoy The International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners has announced that Jim Peregoy, principal sales representative with Medtronic, has earned the certified cardiac device specialist certification. Earning the certification requires passing a comprehensive examination that is based upon an internationally accepted body of knowledge for cardiac arrhythmia health care professionals. Candidates must meet established eligibility criteria and have an excellent foundation in the field of device therapy and electrophysiology to earn the certification. CBT

MONTGOMERY

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MEYER

PEREGOY

Are you or your employees making waves in the Columbia business community? Send us your news at Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 39

40 DECEMBER 2018

B U SINESS • PEOP LE • VOIC ES • F YI

P E R S ON YO U SH OU LD KN OW

COLLIN BUNCH ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM COORDINATOR | REDI | AGE: OLD ENOUGH

Job description: I guide people to become entrepreneurs. My position is a continuous lab on innovation across complex systems, digital marketing, traction channels, and how to execute through an agile process. My work also includes building and managing the REDI HUB program, where 20-plus startups work and grow. Years lived in Columbia/MidMissouri: Five years. Original hometown: I moved around the country, but I was a kid in Victorville, a desert town in Southern California. To be honest, Columbia feels like my first real “hometown” where I have a deep connection to the community. Education: Most of what I know has been learned through experience, selftaught skills, and working with amazing entrepreneurs and professionals. Favorite volunteer/community activity: 1 Million Cups is a weekly gathering of entrepreneurs where people share personal stories of innovation and how their business model works. The community of entrepreneurs, professionals, investors, and students is a perfect mix of support and hard questions that move people forward. Professional background: As a college student, I launched a social venture called Chairs that Care with classmates. We made a net profit of $13,000 in four months for a local women’s shelter. I did some large consulting projects on corporate culture and the socioeconomic approach to management while pursuing my MBA that led to me being recruited to the Small Business & Technology Development Centers. I came to Columbia in 2013 as a counselor for SBTDC. I worked out of

Photography by Keith Borgmeyer

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 41

B U SINESS • PEOPLE • VOIC ES • F YI

P E R S ON YOU SH OU LD KN OW

the REDI office for three years. After leaving, I was given the opportunity to lead the newly created entrepreneurship program within REDI. This was a unique opportunity to create a new program and focus on innovation that builds both the startup ecosystem and the individual entrepreneurs. A favorite recent project: We held our first Game Jam in January 2017, mostly as a way to draw out some other game development talent to help our HUB client Space Shark Studios. We quickly found out there was a huge pool of hidden talent and passion around video and tabletop games. Our third Game Jam saw the creation of 14 video games, four tabletop games, and two VR games. A Columbia businessperson I admire and why: Susan Hart. She manages to show up and be engaged at any business or community event in town while still running multiple businesses and caring for her family. Susan always shares advice or questions on a level that lets you know she has done her homework and came to bring value to whatever you’re working on. Why I’m passionate about my job: Our strategy for building entrepreneurs has been investing in people, not companies. We know that if we build up their entrepreneurial skills, connect them to resources and mentors, and challenge them to think and act in innovative ways, they will find a way to be successful. It’s often only a small nudge or introduction that unlocks a different trajectory in someone’s life and venture, but it’s transformative — being part of that transformation at an individual and community scale is thrilling. Why I’m passionate about my company: REDI works behind the scenes of community and business every day to make it easier for people to be successful. From attracting larger companies who are in growth mode and will create livable wage jobs to helping existing manufacturers and employers develop their workforce or other community assets, to growing our own companies, REDI has taught me what high-level professional service looks like in a dynamic community. We are action-oriented problem solvers who are 42 DECEMBER 2018

able to build consensus and change across the public, political, and business communities to drive Columbia forward. If I weren’t doing this for a living, I would: Run my side businesses more effectively and build a way to get paid to travel and empower entrepreneurs. The next challenge facing my industry: Despite the explosion of resources and programs nationally, we’re seeing a decline in people becoming entrepreneurs. This trend isn’t holding true in Columbia. My industry will need to transition from building networks of support to intentionally building entrepreneurs. My next professional goal: Collaborate with Carrie Gartner and The Loop on the small-scale manufacturing project to build capacity for makers of all kinds. Biggest lesson learned in business: People create value. Management is the creation of cohesion. How I want to impact the Columbia community: Like a water balloon of innovation. A clear milestone would be for the entrepreneur ecosystem of resources to be as known and accessible as the Daniel Boone Regional Library. Greatest strength: I am genuinely curious about people and then I help them connect to better strategies through action.

Greatest weakness: Taking on too many projects at once. What I do for fun: I love to start or work on other entrepreneurial ventures. My wife and I like to scheme about current opportunities or future business ideas. We also play video games together and have been playing more tabletop and board games because of some of the talent in town and our neighbors, who play something almost every week. Family: My wife, Lisa, is my co-founder of life. We’ve failed a lot together, and she helps keep me honest with myself. My daughter, Ellcie, is 8. She is an almost overwhelmingly prolific artist. If we drive to Jeff City, she will color and write an entire book on the trip. My son, Ender, has started to really notice and appreciate good music. It’s funny when your 3-year-old has an opinion about Arcade Fire’s latest album. Favorite place in Columbia: The downtown area. We live close to the library and walk downtown often. Columbia is unique for the diversity of businesses in a small area, how safe it is at night, and how engaging the people and business owners are. When we travel, my kids often assume we know everyone because the owners in downtown Columbia are so friendly that it’s normal to them. Also, the library. We decided where to live based on our proximity to it. CBT

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Q&A DR. SARA L. COCHRAN

Entrepreneurial Programs Manager & Interim Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, UM System

1. What’s your background? I hold a PhD in higher education with research focused on entrepreneurship education, an MA in integrated marketing communications, and BA degrees in accounting and arts administration. I’ve been in my current role for two and a half years. Before moving to Columbia to pursue my doctorate, I worked as the assistant director of the Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at Drury University. Prior to that, I was the director of special events and promotions for Pyramid Foods. 2. Tell us about your job: I work as the entrepreneurial programs manager for the UM System and as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship for MU. In my role for the UM System, I work with the entrepreneurship programs at all four of our universities. I collaborate with programs on everything from curriculum design and program development to judging pitch competitions.

1 0 QU EST I ON S

3. What does your typical day look like? Most days are not the same, but I’ll describe what I spend my time doing. I receive a lot of emails, but I also get a lot of work accomplished via email. I communicate with colleagues from the four universities on a regular basis to answer their questions, help brainstorm ideas, or discuss projects. I do some scholarly writing and reviewing, as well as connect with colleagues from around the country regarding projects for my position with the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. I mentor students involved in ESIP or EQ to discuss their internships and other progress through the programs. I also attend events related to entrepreneurship, which allows me to connect with entrepreneurs and other educators. 4. What drew you to your position? I left my job at Drury to move to Columbia to pursue a PhD. That meant leaving teaching in-person courses and working with students and student programs. When I began my PhD program, I was working for the department, where they were extremely supportive of my career goals. I had also been doing some consulting work for the UM System related to the ESIP program. When the opportunity came up to take this position as I completed my PhD coursework, I jumped at the chance to again work with students and student programs. About a year later I was asked to start teaching for Trulaske Business College. Clearly, students are my true passion within entrepreneurship education. 5. What don’t people know about the entrepreneurship development industry that they should? We spend a lot of time researching, studying, learning about, and working to improve our practices for student programs and teaching. There are whole conferences about running entrepreneurship programs and teaching entrepreneurship. There are scholars who spend their entire careers researching the topic. 6. What would people be surprised to know about your job? I work with all four UM System universities: MU, UMKC,

UMSL, and Missouri S&T. I’m not part of a governing body of the universities, but rather serve in a collaboration and support role. Think of me as Switzerland. 7. What are some challenges you face in your job? We have four distinct universities with multiple colleges and so many goals and objectives to accomplish. Higher education has a long history of working in silos and it can be challenging to change the mentality to work collaboratively. The UM System is currently working on amending policies and procedures to help motivate more collaboration by removing conflicting incentives and agendas. 8. Describe a success you’re most proud of: I spent a significant amount of time, energy, focus, and tears on a doctoral dissertation. Completing it and being hooded with my PhD was exhilarating, but then it was over and I had this entire work just sitting on the library website and I wanted to share it more broadly. I then got accepted to present my dissertation research findings at two international conferences. After an engaging session at one of the conferences, the executive director of Babson’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership chased after me to ask for my slides, talk to me about my presentation, and tell me she hopes the research gets published. That was the moment I felt like I had “made it”… at least for now! 9. What inspires you to get up each day and make a difference? Students. I moved back to an office on the MU campus last winter and I love the buzz of campus when students are around. 10. Tell us something about you that we wouldn’t learn from your resume: My resume doesn’t have a spot for interesting life experiences, which really make me who I am today. For example, growing up in the Pipeline Crossroads of the World, participating in FreeWheel bike ride across Oklahoma at age 11, living on a sheep and cattle farm in New Zealand for four months in eighth grade, and learning to drive a manual transmission. CBT

Check out more questions and answers online at ColumbiaBusinessTimes.com. COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 45

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46 DECEMBER 2018

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A CA P I TO L CON VER SAT I ON

The Missouri State Capitol Undergoes Restoration BY KRCG 13’ S K ER M I T M IL L ER

If you're like a lot of readers, your eyes — and ears — now hurt from the endless stream of tribal political rhetoric that defined the 2018 campaign season. This month's column puts that aside in favor of a truly capitol conversation. Anyone who has driven past the Missouri State Capitol building since the spring knows something big is going on. First, the circle drive around the building was closed to traffic. Then, fencing went up and the south lawn was covered in gravel as a staging area for heavy equipment. That was followed by scaffolding, which eventually got covered by weatherproof sheeting. Most recently, the scaffolding has crawled its way toward the top of the dome, some 238 feet above the ground. It's the kind of renovation the building has not seen since its completion in 1917, and it could take two and a half years to finish. State lawmakers say it's essential to sustaining a building worked in by hundreds and visited by nearly half a million people every year. In 2014, they approved spending $40 million for some long-overdue restoration. However, the first bonds to fund the project did not get sold until the summer of the following year. Most Missouri school children know the big, domed building between High Street and the Missouri River is the third capitol building to stand in Jefferson City. It replaced two versions demolished after fires had damaged them beyond repair. Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved the construction of the current capitol. Revenue collections for the project eventually topped $4.2 million, allowing for some topdrawer decoration and furnishings. At 437 feet long and 300 feet wide at the center, the five-story building is symmetrical, pat-

terned after the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The exterior is Carthage marble, a dense limestone quarried in southwest Missouri. Decades of water freezing and thawing have eroded and weakened the facade. In the 1990s, a chunk of masonry fell from the roof line to the porch outside the governor's office, exploding on impact with such force that people within the office thought they might be under attack, triggering action by then governor Mel Carnahan's security team. More than a decade later, Governor Jay Nixon took the lead on making the necessary repairs. Phase one was to deal with water leaks. Nixon gave key lawmakers a guided tour to highlight the deterioration, which include formations of lime from the continuous dripping. "Needless to say, the stalactites we just saw in the basement were not decorative," Nixon said at the time. "Each day the water continues to seep through the damaged stonework is another day that the structural integrity of this iconic building weakens." The exterior work constitutes phase two, which, at nearly $29 million, spends most of the money. Damaged stone is getting replaced with marble from the Ozark Plateau, which officials say will be indistinguishable from the original. Workers have removed decorative lighting for refurbishing. Likewise, the statuary, a prominent feature on the capitol grounds, will be reconditioned. The bronze likeness of Thomas Jefferson, standing more than 13 feet above its stone pedestal, is among several statues targeted for cleaning. In what technically is a separate project, the renovation includes the bronze relief that depicts the signing of the Louisiana Purchase and the nearby Fountain of the Centaurs statues, all of which form the plaza

between the capitol building and the Missouri River to the north. The plaza should re-open to visitors by the end of the year. The most dramatic restoration target, however, is Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture (or vegetation or any of a number of other things, depending on who you talk to), whose likeness rises above the very top of the dome. "She's been up there for a long time," Dana Rademan Miller, member of the Missouri State Capitol Commission, said during the summer. "She's two tons and she's 10 feet tall. And so that's going to be a very interesting process, and we're excited to see it happen." At this writing, the goddess awaits removal from her perch on the dome, which planners originally had anticipated for September. Rademan Miller says workers have decided against using a giant construction helicopter to remove the statue as a single unit. The plan now is to reach Ceres by crane. The statue went up in three pieces a few years after the building opened. Engineers still must decide whether it should be disassembled before being lowered. In any case, the capitol work is a long way from done. At this writing, the stone work is about 35 percent finished. The scaffolding currently surrounds only the eastern end of the building and work on the other end is still to come. The target for completion is late 2020, but prior to the next gubernatorial inauguration on the capitol grounds. A photo gallery and live webcam of the work are available online. CBT Kermit is an award-winning 45-year veteran journalist and one of the longest serving members of the Missouri Statehouse press corps.

Kermit Miller anchors the 6 and 10 p.m. news for KRCG 13. You can reach Kermit at kmiller@krcg.com COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 47

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LOCA L P E R S P EC T I V E : L AT H A RAM C H AN D

MU Is Spreading Roots Throughout Missouri BY LATHA RAMCHA N D | P HOTO P R OV I D ED BY MU

WHEN I FIRST VISITED MU, one of the things that struck me about the campus was its beauty. The entire campus is a diverse botanical garden, with beautiful buildings intertwined with gorgeous trees and flowers. Having been here for a few months now, I have come to see that this balance of environments is no accident. In fact, it’s an expression of the integrational ethic that drives MU’s relationship with Columbia and the state. MU is interwoven into those communities as seamlessly as it is nestled within a garden. When I think of MU’s impact on Missouri, I think of the campus as a network of trees, each planting its roots into a different part of what makes this state special. Taken together, this garden allows us a complete understanding of the value chain of

human health. Think of these different trees as programs specializing in life sciences, health professions, medicine, nursing, and health professions that, when added to professional programs like business, journalism, and law, allow us to understand and address the human health equation in a holistic manner. We connect the research from these disciplines to opportunities for cures via the production of life-saving medical isotopes produced in our research reactor, the only one of its kind in a university location. The roots of programs like these are still spreading, as are those of the Translational Precision Medicine Complex, which will translate state-of-the-art advances into treatments for cancer and other diseases benefitting people across the state, the country, and the world.

To accommodate these scientific advances in the workforce, an entire generation of workers is growing at MU. More than half of MU graduates stay in Missouri, and almost 30,000 UM System alumni are engineering graduates, not to mention a combined 20,000 graduates from our nursing, medicine, and health professions programs. MU students earn their doctorates in biological sciences 18 months earlier than the national average, allowing them to bring their knowledge to the workforce even sooner. The UM System alumni are taking the discoveries from our labs and putting them to work in the homes and clinics across the state, from counties like Atchison and Pemiscot to Clark and McDonald. Indeed, MU’s $3.9 billion impact on Missouri is no surprise given that our own roots — our foundations — are strong. You have probably heard about George Smith’s Nobel Prize, about his pioneering work that led to a treatment for Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis that has changed so many lives and pumped billions of dollars into the national economy. But consider, too, that he taught scores of students throughout his more than 40-year career. For all he has done with his storied research, his greatest achievement may be that he has inspired countless others to follow in his footsteps, contributing to the Missouri workforce’s growing knowledge base with a deep humility we can’t help but admire. Therein lies the most crucial benefit of MU's sprawling roots. As with any living thing, one becomes two, two becomes four, four becomes 100. Every impact MU has on industry, the workforce, or the lives of its students has more multiplying effects down the line. Whenever we contribute a branch, whether it be educating Missouri’s workforce or building new partnerships with distributors that can supply isotopes from the research reactor to drug companies, we are also building foundations for the next generation. We know that the key to having a positive impact on Missouri is to become part of the industry ecosystem in the communities we serve, not to simply reach out, but to plant roots that will grow for years to come. Our mission is the community. CBT

Latha Ramchand was appointed executive vice chancellor and provost at MU in August. COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 49

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OP I N I ON : AL GER M ON D

It’s Not a Surprise BY A L GERMON D

IT WAS DESTINED to fail — Proposition D, the motor fuel tax increase proposal. And it did! Missouri continues to carry the ignominious honor of having the nation’s second lowest tax on motor fuels. Our state legislature, influenced and driven by a cabal of narrow-minded, special-interest lobbyists, has consistently spurned the annual opportunity to hike these taxes by two cents. This limit, imposed by the noxious Hancock Amendment, has been hastening the Show-Me State’s race to the bottom since it was approved more than a generation ago. But that’s another story. Proposition D was both poorly conceived and widely misunderstood, tacked on to another bill as the most recent legislative session was winding down. Some of the naïve among us

were jolted by the fact that our well-regarded state highway patrol draws its principal sustenance from these taxes. The thought was to take Proposition D to the voters and say the new income stream would be channeled in entirety to funding our state highway patrol. This would free up what had formerly gone in that direction to concentrate in entirety on the maintenance and construction of the more than 55,000 miles of bridges and highways in our state. That seemed reasonable enough, but voters, fatigued by latent memories of MoDOT’s performance in the past, weren’t buying into this idea. What a mess. Ever since the state legislature enacted the Centennial Road Act in 1921, Missouri has skimped on funding its highways. The rate at

the beginning of the fuel tax was two cents per gallon when gasoline of some unknown, minuscule octane was selling for about a dozen cents per gallon. The tax today, according to an accepted inflation calculator, should be around 28 cents per gallon, or roughly ten cents more than what it is now. In fact, what’s amazing is that our roads and bridges are in the tolerable condition that they are. But they are ailing, and they need our help. Highway funding has lagged over nearly a century of time. A struggle to double the tax during the late 1920s was greeted with scorn and opposition by the Auto Club, which should have known better, so it was whittled down to an increase of a penny. There have been other, embarrassingly tiny increases since then while the ongoing annual carnage of deaths and injuries has continued to mount, reaching a crescendo of around 1,400 who died in auto accidents in 1965. After World War II, the State Highway Commission (now MoDOT) grew fat with the volume of highway mileage it was expected to build and maintain. Roads and bridges that in many other states were entirely funded and maintained by counties and individual municipalities — typically having no money of their own to build and maintain — became the wards of the commission under the King Road Act and other legislation designed to appease rural interests who needed improved farm-to-market roads. How wonderful it came to be that a gravel road stretching toward a county seat was designated with a letter and taken over by the commission with its promise to upgrade and maintain until the end of time. Missouri wouldn’t be in this mess if somehow all 114 counties and the thousands of cities, towns, and villages contained therein could come up with the dough to allow MoDOT to concentrate on the numbered pavements like I-70 and U.S. 63. It’s a nice thought, but it ain’t gonna happen. While hands are being wrung in various quarters, frustrated by this latest in a string of failures to properly fund Missouri’s enormous network of roads and bridges, let’s allow the initiative petition writers to have a go at this. Write propositions and let the voters have a go at it. Soon. Very soon, we hope. And let’s have someone in the state legislature come up with a different way to sustain and fund the state highway patrol. CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 51

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2018 VW Passat SEL V6 It’s time! I finally get to reveal what I’ve decided on as my 40th birthday present to myself. I bought a 2018 VW Passat SEL V6! I’m so in love with this car. Let me tell you how the journey began. I brought the GT I test drove for the last issue back to the dealership and told Murali that while I really liked it, I didn’t feel the sporty version was for me. I was married to the luxury the SEL had as well as the V6 model. The challenge was that the 2018 model year was almost over and the 2019 ship dates hadn’t been set yet. In addition to that, the Passat SEL wouldn’t be offered with the V6 in 2019. True to Murali’s dedication to amazing customer service, he put out a nationwide search for the car I had my heart set on. After a few days, he called me to say they had found the only two left and one was exactly what I wanted – in Kentucky. He promised to put her on a truck and have her to me within the week. When Murali called me to say she was here, I immediately dropped what I was doing and drove up to the dealership. It was love at first sight.

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Here’s what I found: VOLKSWAGEN: I mean, we’ve all come to expect this, right? Check. PARKABILITY: I have always taken pride in the fact that I’m a pretty great parallel parker. Now, I can do all of my previous amazing work and more with Park Assist. Parking this car is a piece of cake! The cameras and sensors that show every angle of my car have really helped me more efficiently navigate downtown. SASS: With the beautiful, shiny deep black pearl exterior and luxurious cornsilk beige leather interior, I found my new car. She is beautiful! I opened all the doors, sat in all of the seats, felt all the leather, and admired the beautiful woodgrain interior. The sunroof was smooth and silent. The infotainment system had all the features I needed plus many more I didn’t know I’d need. The backseat not only has more than enough leg room for my adult children, but also its own set of seat warmers. My new car has rainsensing windshield wipers, lane assist,

6-speed DSG® automatic transmission with Tiptronic and sport mode, heated power side mirrors with integrated turn signals, automatic headlights with coming/leaving home feature, LED headlights with LED daytime running lights, halogen fog lights with lowspeed corner-illuminating feature, LED taillights, and 18-inch Chattanooga alloy wheels. She’s drop-dead gorgeous! GAS MILEAGE: While the car is so beautiful that I don’t even care, the gas mileage on this vehicle is pretty great. I drive I-70 every day and manage to do it on one tank a week. I’ve put 5,000 miles on her since late October already and have easily averaged between 28 to 30 mpg. This experience has been amazing. Not only have I found the car that I absolutely love, I’ve also helped a couple of friends find their next car with the VW Atlas. If you ever need to know how any of the cars drive, feel free to call me. You’ll find me scooting around COMO in Maeve!

Parkability

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A federal grant will assist the Loop in developing a “maker economy.” BY JENNIFER TRUESDALE PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEITH BORGMEYER

54 DECEMBER 2018

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 55

hile Columbia boasts a healthy startup economy for local coffee roasters, breweries, and the like, it lacks a concentrated sector devoted to the small-scale artisan manufacturing that generates middle-skills jobs — those that require training but not a college degree. Carrie Gartner, executive director of The Loop, says that’s a problem because, as with most college towns, there is a growing gap in the skilled labor force. “Our city needs a refreshed perspective on what a typical artisan looks like, as well as programs designed to bring more entrepreneurs into the mix,” says Gartner. Earlier this year, The Loop, more formally known as the Business Loop Community Improvement District, and REDI received a federal grant to assist in developing a bustling artisan “maker economy” on the Loop corridor. The nine-month grant is set to be implemented in March 2019 and will provide consulting services provided by Smart Growth America, a national organization that works with communities to build healthy local economies and neighborhoods. The consulting services will be funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. With ambitious revitalization plans already in the works, The Loop and REDI will use the grant to devise a plan for pumping in new business, consumers, and living-wage jobs to a long-neglected corridor.

Business Loop 70 runs nearly three miles, from Stadium Boulevard to the west to East Boulevard, just shy of where I-70 intersects U.S. 63. (The Loop’s CID spans the corridor from the West Boulevard interstate exit to College Avenue.) Restaurants, bars, fast-food joints, auto dealers, grocers, museums, college satellite campuses, home improvement stores, and a myriad of retailers are among the diverse mix of businesses that call The Loop home. Despite the variety of businesses along this corridor, The Loop presents several challenges to shoppers, property owners, and business tenants. “Right now, we have successful businesses on The Loop, and our sales are higher than expected,” says Gartner. “However, we have a number of underperforming properties, including vacant lots or overly large parking lots.” To combat these and other problems, the CID board approved a 10-year revitalization plan earlier this year. With an estimated cost of $15 million over the next decade, funded primarily by property, use, and sales taxes assessed in the district, the plan outlines capital improvements and beautification efforts. The Columbia City Council recently approved the revitalization plan, which calls for improving traffic flow, constructing sidewalks and bike paths, enhancing landscaping, and defining the street’s identity with signage and public art. Also on the to-do list are short-term projects, like creating a handful of pop-up spaces for festivals and community events. The envisioned outcome of these improvements is attracting greater investment in The Loop by artisan startups, and in turn, consumers.

56 DECEMBER 2018

“Support for this plan is strong, and a small-scale manufacturing strategy would integrate into the shared economic revitalization goal outlined within the plan. The ultimate goal is to create a corridor that revives this historically working-class neighborhood with new, small-scale industries owned and operated by local residents.”

Artist renderings provided by The Loop of beautification improvements like an event space and streetscaping.

“Our goal is to improve the street, but in a way that matches the current character of the area. We don’t want to be a street with high-end clothing stores and art galleries — we want to be distinct from other commercial areas of town,” Gartner explains. “The Loop is a place where people show up in gloves and work boots. It’s an area specializing in fixing, building, and learning. A local furniture maker, metal worker, or jewelry maker would feel right at home on the street.” City council recently rezoned The Loop to allow for just such artisan industries, which has opened the door for The Loop and other partners to focus on creating a small-scale manufacturing corridor. “This can include welding, sculpting, arts and crafts, pottery, and carpentry, as well as local, small-batch bakeries, candy shops, cheese shops, craft breweries, and micro-distilleries,” Gartner says. It also provides an opportunity for developing a comprehensive, citywide policy dedicated to expanding this place-based economic sector, something Gartner says doesn’t currently exist. “Support for this plan is strong, and a small-scale manufacturing strategy would integrate into the shared economic revitalization goal outlined within,” Gartner says. “The ultimate goal is to create a corridor that revives this historically working-class neighborhood with new, smallscale industries owned and operated by local residents.”

The revitalization plan is also about investing in the community adjacent to The Loop. The First Ward neighborhood that lies just south of The Loop is one of three identified by the city’s 2019 strategic plan as needing a boost in social equity, public safety, infrastructure, and economic development. “This is a neighborhood with historically low household income, low employment, and high crime,” Gartner says. The neighborhood is inhabited predominantly by minority residents whose unemployment rate of eight percent is nearly twice that of white residents, in part because of a growing gap between the skills that employers need and the skills that residents in this area possess. The city’s strategic plan aims to combat these issues by increasing living-wage jobs in this neighborhood and by reducing the median wage gap between white and minority households by five percent and the skills gap

by 10 percent over three years. One way to meet these goals is by creating middle-skills jobs that fuel a small-scale manufacturing sector on The Loop, which is within walking distance from the neighborhood. The Loop’s partnership with REDI is a logical one. Stacey Button, president of REDI, administers the Innovation Hub, a startup incubator that provides collaborative co-working space, business counseling, and mentorship to assist budding entrepreneurs. She is also responsible for the economic development portion of the city’s strategic plan. “Small-scale manufacturing helps grow local entrepreneurship, and small business and can be a catalyst in revitalizing specific areas such as the Business Loop,” Button says. “It allows people to produce and sell their own goods, and if strategically located in an area such as the Business Loop, their presence will enhance not only the business corridor, but also the surrounding neighborhoods and the residents who reside there.”

Just as The Loop’s revitalization plan will take several years to implement, so too will developing a burgeoning small-scale manufacturing corridor. The first step is to create a feasible working plan that can be completed in phases, which is where the grant-funded consulting services from Smart Growth America come in. Gartner and Button are busy preparing for the first site visit in March by gathering preliminary information about Columbia’s specific needs, strengths, and challenges. “Part of our prep for the site visit it to get a lay of the land: What types of makers and producers do we have [in Columbia] right now? Are they home-based or located in commercial spaces? What types of resources are available?” Gartner says. The Loop created COMO Makes, a website dedicated to the planning process. Interested artisans, as well as those with resources for helping artisans with training, assistance with business plans, and funding, can add their names to the COMO Makes registry. “That information will help Smart Growth America and their team develop a plan tailored to us,” Gartner says. “We’ve got about 30 people who’ve signed up on the makers registry now, and we’ll keep collecting names. These folks will be helpful in providing an overview of what types of manufacturing are happening now, and they can help during the site COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 57

Carrie Gartner

visit interviews as well. It’ll also be a good way to keep them apprised of our planning and the outcomes.” In addition to having a community that already supports an active startup culture, Gartner says one of Columbia’s strengths lies in its educational institutions. The MU School of Engineering, Stephens College School of Design, the Columbia Area Career Center, and Moberly Area Community College have programs focused on training workers for well-paying, middle-skills jobs. Gartner suspects the challenges to a small-scale manufacturing sector will be identifying creative funding options, assistance programs, and working space for artisans. 58 DECEMBER 2018

“We need a compelling argument for traditionally conservative real estate developers, banks, and property owners to recognize the value of small-scale manufacturing and invest in developing these types of projects,” Gartner says, adding that some local banks already recognize the value of investing in this type of jobs-based program. Gartner expects the plan to include efforts to help women and minority entrepreneurs who historically lack access to the funding needed to gain a foothold in the startup world. “We don’t yet know what [Smart Growth America] will recommend, but past grant awardees have created makerspaces, commercial kitchens, or fabricating labs for garment construction and other textile work,” Gartner

says. “Think of these as the manufacturing equivalent of [REDI’s] Innovation Hub. Having a physical incubator would allow us to create a pipeline of local manufacturers that would help convince property owners to develop needed space for them.” As The Loop, REDI, and its many partners look to what the future could hold for the I-70 business corridor, Gartner is confident in the planning process that will start next spring. “A smart plan that excites the community and helps us support local manufacturers on the Business Loop will pay dividends far into the future,” she says. “If done right, we’ll revitalize the street with new manufacturers, new jobs, and new retail spaces, all while remaining true to the character of the area.” CBT

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Innovating FORCE

Understanding how students and staff share intellectual property rights with MU. BY DAVID MORRISON PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED BY MU

IF YOU COULD INVENT ANYTHING YOU WANTED, what would it be? You thought of something pretty quickly, right? Many of us have thought about this before. It’s doubtful, though, that we have then thought about the patent process or getting our invention to market — a process that is often long, arduous, and costly. But that’s exactly what MU staff and students must do in order to protect their inventions and ideas from someone else coming along and taking them. And if they want to make money off their idea or invention, they must take steps to gauge commercial interest in licensing the invention and find a firm that will expand on their work instead of sitting on it to keep it away from competitors. The money doesn’t come rolling in immediately, though. “From the point of evaluation of the new technology, where it’s very early, to some point where it’s generating royalties is usually on the magnitude of years,” says Sam Bish, interim director of MU’s Office of Technology Management and Industry Relations, or OTMIR. “It’s not evaluate today, file a patent application tomorrow, on Wednesday secure the patent, on Thursday license it, and on Friday make the product. That’s not how it works.”

PROTECTING THE INNOVATIONS The OTMIR is an arm of Missouri’s Office of Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development that identifies, assesses, licenses, and protects innovations that spring from researchers at the university. Staff members deal with patents, trademarks, and copyrights for pioneering work in four main sectors: life science and agriculture, health science, engineering, and copyright and software. Enterprising employees file invention disclosure forms with the office, which then evaluates the innovation for its market potential, secures intellectual property protection, identifies companies that could have an interest in bringing the invention to market, then negotiates licensing contracts with those companies. The OTMIR staff has to be somewhat knowledgeable about a lot of things because innovation comes from pretty much everywhere on MU’s campus. “We’re not experts in any particular area of science, but we’re conversant in many, and there are not many people at the university that have the skills to talk the science, the patent law, and the business all in one person,” Bish says. “When we’re transferring innova62 DECEMBER 2018

tion out from the university to the company, it’s not a product yet in most cases. There’s additional research and development that has to go into it from the company side. We want them to do that. We don’t want them to take our innovation, put it on the shelf, and say they’re not going to develop it. We want our assets to get out and have an impact on society.” From fiscal year 2014 to 2018, intellectual property from MU researchers generated 143 patents, 194 license and option agreements, and $38.9 million in gross licensing income. Their innovations can be found in such sectors as heartburn medication, plant-based protein products, osteoarthritis detection, and solid-state nuclear energy conversion. It’s a seemingly endless cycle. MU helps secure funding for research, which spurs employee innovators to create, which leads to licensing revenue and a reputation for intellectual property coming out of the university, which leads to more funds to put back into research. “It’s not like you can go out and say, ‘Today I’m going to innovate the greatest new invention ever,’” Bish says. “Hopefully, we’re attracting money to do good research, which allows more people to be spurred to new discovery, and some of that will lead to new innovations. There’s a process to it.”

THE DEFINITION OF A UNIVERSITY INVENTOR To get to the core of what defines university intellectual property, you have to cozy up with Chapter 100 of the Collected Rules and Regulations of the University of Missouri System. These guidelines have been on the books since 1971, amended five times since, govern the entire UM System, and any further changes to them have to go through the UM Board of Curators first. Basically, if you’re an employee of MU and your innovation springs from the general scope of the duties for which you were hired, then it’s a university invention. The venue for the breakthrough doesn’t matter. If you were hired to study cancer and you come up with a revolutionary new cancer cure in the shower one morning, it would be a university invention. If, though, you were hired to study cancer and you come up with the idea for a new type of steering wheel on your way to work, it would not. Students get a little more leeway. Unless their discovery stems from a venue in which the student is compensated by MU for their work, then the intellectual property is theirs. That

definition of compensation does not include student financial aid. The MU apparatus is helpful if you’re looking to patent your discoveries: Your average patent will run you around $25,000 to $30,000. The OTMIR also aims to negotiate licensing agreements that encourage partnering companies to keep improving on the university’s discoveries. “There are some assets or innovations that, if you don’t have patent protection, they’re not going to be as attractive to a company,” Bish says. “If I’m a company and I’m investing 10 years and $500 million to get a therapeutic product to market, I don’t want my competitors to come in and say, ‘Thanks for putting all that money and time into this. I’m now going to create this exact product and sell it against

you.’ We are not here to make and sell products. We’re here to put protections around some of these assets so that a company will know they have the protection to exclude their competitors from coming in and competing against them for a certain amount of time.” Once a piece of intellectual property is licensed, one-third of the revenue goes to the inventor. The rest, after paying down the costs of procuring and defending the patent rights, is split between the campus at which the invention occurred (two-thirds, with half of that going to the originating department) and the UM System (one-third). For plant varieties, 10 percent goes to the inventor, and the rest is split between the breeding program from which the variety originated (95 perCOLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 63

cent) and the system (five percent). With copyrighted materials, half goes to the creator and half to the department responsible for its production, though the university can come to an agreement with the creator to divide the revenue in another manner. Strategic Communications Manager Laura Roloff says MU generally ranks in the top 20 to 25 percent of universities when it comes to royalties received. Zegerid, a heartburn medication, uses a piece of MU’s intellectual property. So does Beyond Meat, a maker of plant-based protein food products. “MU is very generous with its inventors,” Bish says. “There are some places where they cap how much inventors can make, and MU does not have a cap.”

INVESTING IN INNOVATION In a February address, Chancellor Alexander Cartwright laid out an ambitious goal for MU’s research expenditures. He wanted the value to double by 2023. “MU’s research enterprise is a powerful economic engine,” Cartwright said. “MU faculty are shaping views on politics and society. They enrich our lives through arts and humanities. They develop solutions to the world’s grand challenges in food, water, health and others, and they engage our community both on and off campus. This significant impact is creating a better future for citizens of our state, nation, and the world.” MU spent about $248 million on research and development from external and university sources in fiscal year 2016, according to the latest version of the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development Survey. MU ranked 89th out of more than 600 schools surveyed and was in the middle of the pack when it came to other Southeastern Conference schools and a cohort of peer institutions. MU spent $205 million in external funding for research, service, and instruction for fiscal year 2018. Cartwright wants that number up around $413 million a year. 64 DECEMBER 2018

“It’s not like you can go out and say, ‘Today I’m going to

innovate

the greatest new invention ever.’” “Hopefully, we’re attracting money to do good research, which allows more people to be spurred to new

discovery, and some of that will lead to new innovations. There’s a process to it.” - SAM BISH

“Some of the benefits of bringing in external funding, with a lot of these programs, we’re able to engage students and give them hands-on opportunities to do research or work in classrooms or work with different populations that they wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to engage in,” says Jamie Szabo, associate director of the Missouri Office of Sponsored Programs Administration. “When we bring in these grants, there is quite a bit of benefit to our students in addition to the local economy, our existing staff, and being able to hire on people to create new positions. As we increase our research enterprise, that draws students to MU, too, because students are aware that they’ll have these opportunities here.” Szabo says MU regularly receives the bulk of its funding from governmental entities such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Defense, and state programs that funnel federal dollars to the university. Some grants are assigned for very specific purposes and projects, while others, such as the yearly Small Business Administration grant to fund MU Extension’s Small Business and Technology Development Centers, give MU more flexibility. Efforts such as the recently announced Translational Precision Medicine Complex, a collaboration between industry partners, universities within the system, and the federal government for biomedical research, are meant to be magnets for the sort of external funding Cartwright wants to see. That, in turn, helps start the cycle of innovation all over again. “We’re just a very diverse campus with lots of diverse research areas,” Bish says. “You think you know all the people that are doing certain things, and then someone will come out of the background. Now you have an innovation in a space that’s really cool where I previously didn’t know we were innovating in that area.” CBT

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BY BRENNA McDERMOTT | PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED BY MU HEALTH

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 67

might be MU Health's best kept secret. It’s the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation, a public–private partnership between the UM System and Cerner Corporation, formed in 2009. It’s goal? Make health improvements throughout the UM System and across the state to create a national model for patient care. It’s method? The implementation of new technologies to better serve patients. The hospital industry has taken notice. For the eighth year in a row, MU Health has been recognized as a “Most Wired” health system by the American Hospital Association’s 2018 Most Wired Survey, the system announced in November. Winners demonstrate continued development and use of health information technology. Dr. Thomas Selva, chief medical information officer of MU Health and ex officio member of the Tiger Institute board of directors, says this ranking is an important benchmark against which to measure the health system’s work. He says the criteria has been set higher in the past few years as health care has become more advanced. “You should be raising the bar,” he says. Health care is still a personal relationship with a provider, and technology advancements will never completely replace face-to-face health care, says Selva, but using technology can provide higher quality care. Through the development of the MU Health app, video visits, and a partnership with the Apple Health app, the MU Health team’s end game is clear. “Our goal is to bring the care to you rather than bring you to the care,” Selva says.

A ‘One-stop Shop’ for Patients The MU Health app, a Cerner-developed technology, is the natural step to follow the classic web portal the system has used for many years, Selva says. The goal is to create a one-stop shop for patients to interact with MU Health. “We really wanted to extend our patient engagement to that level, that wherever you are, we are available to you,” he says. The mobile technology, released about a year ago, often can help patients avoid unnecessary office visits, saving time for patients and health care providers. Patients can use the app to schedule and manage appointments, message providers, view 68 DECEMBER 2018

lab results and clinical notes, request prescription renewals, and view vaccination records. The app also allows for more transparency – patients can see their provider’s notes as soon as they are finalized and put in the electronic health records system. “We’re very much about being as transparent as possible in the care that we deliver,” Selva says. There are 105,000 active portal accounts on desktop and mobile, he adds, which represents less than 10 percent of the system’s patients. They’re aiming to increase use of the app in 2019. “What we recognize is the most underutilized person in the health care system is really the patient,” Selva says. “Who else is more interested in the accuracy and the timeliness of new information than the person to whom it actually and rightfully belongs?”

24/7 Care Via Video Video visits even just a few years ago seemed to be a lot of hassle. Now that the cost of video equipment has dropped and mobile devices

â&#x20AC;&#x153;What we recognize is the most underutilized person in the health care system is really the patient. Who else is more interested in the accuracy and the timeliness of new information than the person to whom it actually and rightfully belongs?â&#x20AC;? Dr. Thomas Selva, Chief Medical Information Officer, MU Health COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 69

can deliver high-quality video, Selva says, the system hopes to see video visits expand. “There’s a lot of interaction with physicians where we don’t need to have you physically in the room,” Selva says. “Maybe we need to see you move, maybe we need to take a look at a lesion on your skin, maybe we just need to interview you.” Though initially partnered with Cerner on video, the health system has also partnered with American Well, one of the system’s IT infrastructure vendors, to offer video visits. They launched the American Well video visits about a year ago. The process is straightforward — download the video visits app, submit billing and insurance information, and patients can have a visit with a provider via video. Visits cost $49 and can be done via smart phone, tablet, or computer. They are available 24 hours a day year-round.

In many cases, patients and doctors don’t need to be in the same room to address a health issue. If, for example, a patient has a lesion, the doctor needs to be able to visualize the lesion and interview the patient, which can be done via video. It’s also good for straightforward medical issues like cold and flu symptoms, sore throat, abdominal pain, pink eye, and migraines, according to the website. “The platform allows this very seamless interaction with providers,” Selva says. “American Well provides their own group of providers that we have, obviously, credentialed, and then our providers can also use that platform.” It can also be used for post-operative follow ups, he says. If a patient recently had surgery on their hand, the doctor can ensure via video that the hand is moving properly in five minutes

instead of scheduling what would be a oneto two-hour ordeal for a patient visiting the doctor’s office. Video usage is climbing in doctors’ offices around the country. This technology is appealing to large segments, Selva says, including employers who want to encourage employees to use it to save time and productivity, people living in more rural areas, and parents who have overnight concerns about their children. It can be useful for doctors as well — older patients might be less stressed and confused if they can remain in their homes and see a doctor via video. Video visits have not yet been highly utilized at the UM System, but Selva says the system will begin promoting the service in the next year. “We feel like there’s a large segment of our patient population that would really take to that as a way to avoid having to leave their office and miss work,” he says.

Apple Health App

A patient accessing the MU Health Care app.

70 DECEMBER 2018

For patients who want more ownership over their personal health records, the health system has partnered with Apple and can now connect its patient portal to the Apple Health app so a patient can collect their personal health records and store the information on their phone, even if the patient has multiple providers. The health records section of the app is in beta testing. “They’ve seen an opportunity to really bring interaction with the patient to the next level,” Selva says. The health system quietly launched the partnership this year, and it will be a more “passive” offering for patients. Selva says the Apple Health app could be useful for mobile populations who switch doctors often, like MU students and people who might see several specialists. The app can house allergy information, immunization records, lab results, and medications. Selva says there really hasn’t been much resistance against the push toward technologydriven medicine. The more transparent the system has been, the more accepting the patients have been, he says. “You’re putting the responsibility for someone’s care in their hands,” he says. “That’s different, and it allows people to be much more engaged in their health care.” CBT

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72 DECEMBER 2018

Dream TO REALITY What’s new in the world of board game creator Mark Swanson. BY MEGAN WHITEHEAD PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANTHONY JINSON

In the summer of 2016, CBT caught up with MU professor Mark Swanson to discuss his dream of creating a board game of his own. Two years have passed, and not only has his dream come to fruition; it’s becoming a worldwide phenomenon. While exciting, this isn’t at all surprising to anyone who has listened to Swanson talk about his game, “Feudum.” After a brief discussion about the game’s past, present, and future, you come away feeling energized and inspired by Swanson’s passion and innovation. COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 73

NUMBER OF GAMES/ EXPANSIONS PRINTED • Feudum – 14,000 • Feudum: Windmills & Catapults – 2,000 • Feudum: Seals & Sirens – 2,000 • Feudum: Alter Ego – 2,000 • Feudum: Squirrels & Conifers – 2,000 • Feudum: Queen’s Army – 3,600

BOARD GAME GEEK FEUDUM PAGE • 338,000 pageviews • 1,048 ratings for a 7.7 overall

FEUDUM KICKSTARTER • 3,028 backers • $263,852 raised with a goal of $49,000

QUEEN’S ARMY EXPANSION KICKSTARTER • 1,543 backers • $64,769 raised with a goal of $15,000

YOUTUBE • “Feudum Complete Rules + Setup video” – 29,352 views and counting

CHARITIES BENEFITING FROM FEUDUM • The Jack Vasel Memorial Fund • Christians Against Poverty, United Kingdom • Saint Louis Children’s Hospital 74 DECEMBER 2018

The Game “Feudum” is a so-called Euro-style board game. “Eurostyle, or German, games are an emerging market in the United States,” says Swanson. “People know what ‘Settlers of Catan’ is, but they don’t necessarily understand that it’s part of the Euro or German board game genre. There’s a whole world out there. What I’ve done is create a niche game within a niche. I’m squarely inside the Euro-game universe, but I’ve created a ‘heavy Euro.’ It’s more complex than a typical Euro.” “Feudum” is not a game for beginners. It is a game requiring well-thought-out tactics and intellect to win with no lucky spins or rolls to help you out of a bad situation. “I’m not saying it’s complicated,” adds Swanson. “I play with my 13-year-old daughter, who beat me once, but you have to appreciate strategy and enjoy the mental acrobatics that come with a strategy game.” Set in a medieval countryside, the game sees two to five players take their turns vying for power over the land. Each turn includes four actions, which are used to gain points through strategic moves such as farming, taxing, fighting, etc. The sheer number of options ensures constant varying gameplay and the need for your best-fitting thinking cap — you’ll never play the same game twice.

Raising The Funds We’ve all heard it: You have to have money to make money. This is the starting point for any entrepreneur, including Swanson. “Typically, an entrepreneur is limited to cash on hand, taking out a bank loan, or seeking out venture capital, say from an angel investor,” says Swanson. “The problem with investors is that you have to give a piece of your company away.” This was a major sticking point for Swanson. To avoid giving up sole ownership of “Feudum,” he created a Kickstarter campaign. (Board games are one of Kickstarter’s most common projects). “Of course, I still needed some cash to fund the creation of the Kickstarter campaign, which involved art and animation,” he says. “I actually took out a home equity line of credit, which I’ve since paid off.” After two years and a ton of online support, “Feudum” has grossed nearly $1 million through Kickstarter and, almost more excitingly, worldwide localization. “It’s funny that now, I don’t have to do a lot of the selling of my game,” says Swanson. “Once the game achieves a certain level of notoriety, people come to you.”

Expanding Horizons This brings us to “Feudum” today. Due to the game’s overwhelming support (fans on Board Game Geek, a website dedicated to all things board games, are calling “Feudum” a G.O.A.T. — greatest of all time), it’s now being offered in three separate trilingual versions: English, German, and French; Chinese, Spanish, and Italian; and Russian, Portuguese, and Dutch. “I’ve recently signed a contract with a Korean publisher called Angry Lion Games to localize the game in Korea,”

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 75

Swanson adds. “I’m currently working on a Polish partnership, as well.” These translations are due to his localization contracts with foreign game publishers such as Maldito Games (Spain), Ghenos Games (Italy), Hobby Mind (China), Moroz/ Crowd (Russia), Corax Games (Germany), and Ludofy (Brazil), as well as work with crowdfunding sites from China (Modian) and Germany (Spieleschmiede). A major part of this globalization is the ever-expanding and ever-changing nature of the game. The original game alone has a multitude of options and ways to win, and when you add in the multiple expansion packs (“Windmills & Catapults,” a sixth player expansion; “Seals & Sirens,” a seafaring expansion; “Alter Ego,” a customizable deck expansion; “Squirrels & Conifers,” a colorblind-accessible version; and “Queen’s Army,” a single-player variant), the possibilities are endless. “Recently, I partnered with 3D modeler Scott Ryan and miniatures painter Bruce Monson to develop artisan versions of some of the pieces in the game, namely three-dimensional vessels and castles,” says Swanson. “After seeing the potential, I decided to

76 DECEMBER 2018

unveil these upgrades in a Kickstarter campaign in early 2019 in a mini expansion called ‘Feudum: Rudders & Ramparts.’ The deluxe components may be used to play a military variant of the game or be enjoyed solely for their beauty.” Something really exciting for board game enthusiasts today are the many ways to play digitally. “Feudum” is available to play on Tabletopia, STEAM, and Tabletop Simulator (from Berserk Games), which is currently creating custom downloadable content for the game.

What’s Next? With these expansions and new opportunities, Swanson isn’t slowing down. In fact, he has another game in the works, but in the very early stages. “‘Feudum’ used several mechanics such as action programming and area control, but I’m developing a new game that uses another one of my favorite mechanics called worker placement,” he says. “‘Feudum’ was set in medieval times, but this one will take place during the late 1800s in the Pacific Northwest in the United States. I don’t want to reveal any details just

yet, but, like ‘Feudum,’ it will feature a working economy. I’m partial to games that involve planning and resource management.” While this new game is in the works, Swanson is still working on exciting developments for “Feudum.” “The thing that I’m most excited about is the lengthy discussions I’ve had with a German app development company named Digidiced who have already programmed AI for several top-selling tabletop strategy games turned apps, like ‘Terra Mystica’ and the two-player version of ‘Agricola,’” says Swanson. “They are taking a serious look at turning ‘Feudum’ into an app in 2019. What’s fascinating about this is that their AI programmer is faced with programming games that are infinitely more complex than, say, chess or go [two other notable strategy games].” For instance, a spot on a go board can only exist in three states (white stone, black stone, or empty), whereas a hex on Terra Mystica’s map can have 55 different states. Sophisticated AI programs have outplayed human players in chess and go for years, but now the challenge is to simulate human-like play in more modern Euro games like “Settlers of Catan,” “Terra Mystica,” and — possibly — “Feudum.” CBT

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 77

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IN FOCUS

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

A contentious debate over sewers has led to a stink among voters. BY KACEN J. BAYLESS

IN FOCUS

n 2013, Columbia voters approved a $32 million bond issue that was to be allocated towards the city’s sewer systems. Within the bond issue, the city identified 30 sewer projects that it felt needed to be worked on. One of those projects was the Henderson Branch project, a now controversial project that would extend a sewer line into the Henderson Branch watershed and annex an area with large employers including MidwayUSA and the Midway Truck and Travel Plaza. Five years after it was approved, the project has continued to be a subject of debate as city council has repeatedly rejected the project, most recently in a 4–3 vote from September. Some council members and city officials have argued that the project is not feasible or necessary, while many people in Columbia say the council’s decision to deny a voter-approved project significantly erodes voter trust in the city government. The Henderson Branch project would have included extending more than 8,600 feet of sewer line to serve the 1,300-acre Henderson Branch watershed and annexed properties owned by prominent business owners Larry Potterfield and Joe Bechtold. As it stands now, the Henderson Branch project is listed as “cancelled” by the city. Proponents of the project worry that the council’s decision could prove to be damaging to the city.

HISTORY OF THE PROJECT Former city manager Bill Watkins said the idea for the Henderson Branch project has been identified for over a decade. In fact, the city’s Sewer Master Plan, a report created by engineering firm Black & Veatch in 2004 for the city to “meet the needs and demands of your growing community and surrounding

MEET THE SOURCES: 80 DECEMBER 2018

area through year 2030,” listed the Henderson Branch outfall in its original draft. Watkins served as Columbia’s assistant city manager from 1995 to 2006 and was appointed to city manager in January 2006. He announced his retirement in October 2010. During his tenure in city government, Watkins says that city council had a policy that emphasized the need to clean up the streams that flowed through the city. He says the city looked at Perche Creek, a creek on the west side of the city, and also did some work on Bear Creek. “The Henderson Branch is sitting there with what we thought and I still believe are some lagoons that really aren’t up to snuff,” Watkins says. “My personal opinion is, and I think most people would agree, if you can get sanitary sewage into the city system where it is monitored 24 hours a day, that is much more satisfactory than some of the lagoon systems that were built many, many years ago and have histories of overflow.” Watkins says fixing this system and creating the Henderson Branch project was a “fairly obvious next step,” and the city put the project up to the Capital Improvements Plan. However, Watkins says, the city realized they didn’t have money to fund the project until the next sewer bond ballot, which was in 2013. He says the city started putting the contents of that ballot together before he retired and that he had talked to Potterfield and Bechtold, who both expressed interest and willingness to become involved. On August 5, 2013, city council approved the calling of a special election related to the issuance of $32,340,000 in sewer system revenue bonds to be placed on the ballot. Deputy City Manager John Glascock says that a group of private citizens, orga-

BILL WATKINS

nized under the name “Citizens for Columbia’s Future,” promoted the sewer bond issue. City staff would accompany the citizen group when requested to provide information on the needs of the sewer system and the projects proposed, but Glascock says that city involvement was limited to just providing information. Glascock says that, although the Henderson Branch project was included as one of the projects in the bond issue, the ballot did not include references to any specific project. Instead, the ballot that voters received in November read, “for the purpose of constructing, improving, repairing, rehabilitating, replacing, equipping, expanding, and extending the city-owned sewerage system.” On August 5, 2013, City Council received a supplemental memo that identified specific projects that were to be funded by the sewer bonds as well as more information on each project. The Henderson Branch project was one of those projects. On November 5, 2013, voters in Columbia approved the bond issue and subsequently all of the projects that were to be funded by the issue including the Henderson Branch project. David Nivens, chairman of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, says the project was not originally spurred by simply trying to incorporate the area into Columbia to receive tax revenues from large businesses like MidwayUSA and the Midway Truck Stop. Instead, Nivens says, the original iteration of the project focused on addressing environmental concerns surrounding how sewage was being handled in the area. The Henderson Branch project was initially allocated $2.6 million of the approved bond issue. However, more recently, Glascock says the engineer hired to design the project estimated the total cost to be about $4.3 million.

JOHN GLASCOCK

H e n d e r s o n B ra n c h Nivens argues that because the city has not put out a request for proposal for the project, this estimate is only guesswork. “I mean at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what somebody thinks it might take to get it done. You don’t know what that number is until you actually ask somebody to give it to you,” he says. Despite approving the project in 2017 by a vote of 5–2, city council members eventually denied the project on September 4, 2018, by a 4–3 vote.

GOOD FOR THE CITY According to a memo given to the council in 2016, it is estimated that the city would have received approximately $479,512 in tax revenue from the Henderson Branch project. The document, created with information provided by the businesses in the proposed annexation area and from the Boone County Assessor’s office, states that the city would have collected a total of $438,520 in sales tax, $18,217 in property tax, and $22,775 in gross receipts tax. If the project was approved, $251,262 of the revenue would have been allocated to the city’s general fund and the remaining $228,250 would be allocated to special revenue funds. Nivens says that even though he doesn’t think it’s likely the council will revisit the project, he thinks it’s good for the city. “What are the benefits? Well, we would be incorporating into our city an overpass over a major highway, which I think has great value in and of itself,” Nivens says. “Second, you’ve got a major employer that’s located in that area that would immediately pull into our tax base all of the payroll, all of the sales tax, things that the City of Columbia is not currently getting by it being out in the county.” Nivens says he and other Chamber of Commerce members saw the project as an oppor-

DAVID NIVENS

“I mean at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what somebody thinks it might take to get it done. You don’t know what that number is until you actually ask somebody to give it to you.” — David Nivens

tunity to include great businesses into the community as it expands and grows. Watkins says he still believes that the Henderson Branch project is a necessary and “good” project. “I think it was needed for three reasons: One, from an environmental perspective, I think it

IAN THOMAS

was the right thing to do — it cleans up streams,” Watkins says. “Secondly, this was a kind of unique project because of the annexations that were associated with it. It was a deal that was going to bring a lot of money into the general fund. And thirdly, I think the tradition has been you do what you say you’re going to do.”

DAVID SORRELL Photo unavailable at time of publication.

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 81

IN FOCUS

BAD BUSINESS DECISION Fourth Ward Councilman Ian Thomas has consistently voted against the project when it’s been brought before council. “In my opinion, construction of the Henderson Branch sewer extension at the present time would be a very bad business decision for the City of Columbia,” Thomas says. “While we would lose some money on the construction of the sewer itself, the much greater concern would be the 300-plus acres of new development west of the Perche Creek that would be triggered by the annexation process.” Thomas says that taxpayers and ratepayers currently provide a $25,000 to $30,000 subsidy for every home built in Columbia because of what he describes as “grossly inadequate” development impact fees and connection charges, and he believes the natural barrier of Perche Creek would amplify those one-time expansion costs. “As a steward of the taxpayers’ money, I believe it would be irresponsible to commit city taxpayers to these enormous costs before we conduct a growth impact study and implement appropriate development fees and connection charges,” he says. He says that it would be disingenuous to argue that the revenues provided to the city by the project would pay for the upfront costs of infrastructure expansion because they’re needed for ongoing costs such as police, fire, and road maintenance. “If we adopt adequate development impact fees and connection charges, I would reconsider my position on the Henderson Branch sewer,” he says.

2013 SEWER BOND PROJECTS City Utilities Assistant Director David Sorrell just recently created a report that will be presented at the next council meeting. The report includes a list of all the projects included in the 2013 sewer bond issue as well as the amount spent to date, initial budget, and a status update on each project. Of the 30 projects listed in Sorrell’s report, only 14 are listed as complete. “A lot of people will say, ‘Here it is five years later and you’re not done.’ While we have typically gone to bond issues about every five years, that doesn’t mean we always have, and that doesn’t mean you do all your bond issue projects within a five-year timeframe either,” Sorrell says. Sewer system revenue bonds work a lot like U.S. savings bonds with the idea being that when you buy a bond, you’re going to get a certain return on your investment, Sorrell explains. Investors buy the bonds from the city and then the city has to pay it back in principal and interest each year, similar to a mortgage. “We can’t do a project unless we have the money sitting in the account to pay for it,” he says. “So, we can borrow those funds, do these projects and then all the current users of the

FUNDING AMOUNTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SEWER EXTENSION The Henderson Branch sewer extension’s budget was estimated at

$4,655,644 As of October 2018, only

$260,770 was spent towards the sewer extension, which has been canceled.

The 2013 bond for the sewer extension raised

$2,600,000 in funds.

If the businesses located at the Midway exit were annexed into Columbia, it was estimated that the city of Columbia would receive

$438,520 in sales tax in a 2016 estimate.

82 DECEMBER 2018

H e n d e r s o n B ra n c h

system are paying for that project, but also all the new users are paying for that project with the bond issue. If you pay for it solely through rates, only the current users pay for it because you have to bill the money upfront.”

ERODING PUBLIC TRUST Although some critics of the city have brought up the slow nature of completed projects, most have simply pointed to the fact that council has repeatedly denied a voter-approved project in the Henderson Branch project. In July, Nivens addressed the council with a prepared statement from the Chamber of Commerce that said it was concerned with the council’s lack of will to advance voter-approved projects forward and that the council had delayed certain projects that would advance the city. “This has eroded the business community and the public’s trust that our elected officials will follow through with voter-approved projects,” the statement read.

Two years ago, Nivens says the chamber included in its local legislative agenda an item regarding holding city government accountable for following through on projects that have been voter-approved. “We didn’t just decide to do that as an organization out of thin air,” Nivens says. “There’s kind of been a history of this over time, and we felt like it was important enough that somebody needs to be keeping an eye on these types of issues and making sure that our city government is following through on the projects that they are putting forward to vote in the community.” Thomas says he agrees that Columbia would have a much better functioning local government if projects are properly vetted by the public before the vote and the City Council follows through, but he believes there wasn’t proper vetting for the 2013 ballot issue and the presentations that listed the Henderson Branch project were mostly made to the Chamber of Commerce and not reported to regular citizens.

Where it stands right now, the Henderson Branch project is essentially dead. After the vote for the project was denied by city council, the Columbia Missourian reported that Larry Potterfield was threatening to move his company out of the area. Although there have been no recent claims by Potterfield that he plans to follow through on this, many in the community are concerned about what this vote could mean for the city. Watkins says that if the city wants new businesses that pay taxes, it first has to have a population base, and if people can’t afford to live in the area, it’s going to be hard attracting new business. “Who knows where we’ll be in five years,” Watkins says. “The things that people were concerned about are going to happen anyway, but the city isn’t going to be able to plan or regulate how the development happens.” CBT

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 83

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TOP CATERER

TOP CEO

TOP SALESPERSON

TOP ADVERTISING AGENCY

1st Place: Stephanie Wilmsmeyer 2nd Place: Columbia Insurance Group

TOP COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER TOP OFFICE DIGS

1st Place: Crockett Engineering 2nd Place: Timberlake Engineering 1st Place: Hoot Design Company 2nd Place: Visionworks Marketing Group

1st Place: Equipment Share 2nd Place: Las Margaritas

TOP PLACE TO WORK (51+ EMPLOYEES)

TOP ENGINEER

1st Place: Ann Merrifield 2nd Place: Allie Marrone Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Services 573-474-2370, RotoRooter.com

2nd Place: PWArchitects

TOP NATIONAL PRESENCE

1st Place: Lanier Landscaping info@lanierlandscapingllc.com 573-795-5820 LanierLandscapingLLC.com

1st Place: Veterans United 2nd Place: CARFAX

TOP EVENT LOCATION

1st Place: Logboat Brewing Co. 2nd Place: The Roof

2nd Place: Columbia Landcare

TOP HAPPY HOUR LOCATION

TOP COMMERCIAL INTERIOR DESIGNER

1st Place: Room 38 2nd Place: Las Margaritas

1st Place: Inside the Lines 2nd Place: Scout and Nimble

BUSINESS • P EOPL E • VOIC ES • FY I

N E W BUS I N E SS L I C E N S E S

New Business Licenses OCTOBER 2018

Dry Goods

Vital Signs

2300 Bernadette Dr. 563-388-2226 Junior fashion apparel store

1729 Paris Rd. 573-514-5622 Sign sales and installation

Big Mama Chims Noodle House

Innovative

905 Alley A 573-356-4083 Restaurant

Insurance Solutions

Sydenstricker Implement Co.

2000 E. Business Loop 70 573-581-5900 Warehouse Fit X Femme

2614 Forum Blvd. 573-401-1440 Health and fitness coach A Catered Affair

2316 Paris Rd. 573-230-8812 Catering Health = Wealth LLC

4603 John Garry Dr., Ste. 16 573-673-3689 Health and wellness services

SIMPLIFY YOUR INTERNET SEARCH. Let us do the research. You make the choice. Locally owned. Multiple options. Competitive rates.

2011 Chapel Plaza Ct., Ste. 3 573-445-2694 Insurance broker Evexias Medical Centers

2900 Trimble Rd., Ste. 107 817-240-3831 Wellness clinic Fast Lane Tire & Auto

BUSINESS AND RESIDENTAL Fiber Optic Cable DSL Wimax and Microwave Wireless Television and Phone Services Satellite Television

Call

1208 E. Business Loop 70 660-883-2108 Tire and wheel retail FBM Logistics LLC

915 Elleta Blvd.

573-256-1166

573-256-4300 Freight trucking

Loanpal

Glo Nail Bar

303 N. Stadium Blvd., Ste. 200 916-290-9999 Residential mortgage leasing

124 E. Nifong Blvd. 573-881-0104

Park Restaurant

H&R Block

4380 Nocona Pkwy. 573-442-0919 Full-service restaurant

1900 Providence Rd.

Mesa Body Therapy

Handcrafted Hair

2401 Bernadette Dr., Ste. 202 573-489-6383 Massage therapy

111 S. Ninth St.

Nail salon

573-499-1990 Tax and accounting services

573-442-6819

CUT THE CORD. BREAK FREE. EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS.

1301 Vandiver Dr. Ste. C Columbia, Mo. 65201

QuantumWirelessInternet.com

Hair salon CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 85

BUSINESS • P EOPL E • VOIC ES • FY I

DEEDS

Deeds of Trust WORTH MORE THAN $378,000

$36,792,820

$617, 746

$437,000

DGHAMO001 LLC

Rem Initium LLC

Anderson, Patrick & Larissa

Branch Banking & Trust Company

Hawthorne Bank

Contour Mortgage Group

STR 11-50-14 //NW SUR

LT 15 Paris Court

LT 222 Vanderveen Crossing PLAT 6

$600,000

$424,000

Stor-Mor Property LLC

Cacek, Anthony & Debra

$1,994,000

Central Bank of Boone County

D A S Acquisition Company

Brinker, Thomas J

LT 2B Lake of the Woods Center PLAT 2

LT 168 Old Hawthorne PLAT 2

$559,944

$397,100

Travis Block Construction Co LLC

Davis, Daniel A

$1,994,000

Hawthorn Bank

Landmark Bank

Brinker, Thomas J

LT 810 Villas At Old Hawthorne Plat 8A

LT 268 Thornbrooke Plat 8

$538,000

$390, 664

Fraunfelder, Frederick W

Kester, Michael Scott & Michele J

$1,945,300

Central Bank of Boone County

Providence Bank

Columbia Motels Inc.

LT 112 Woodrail Sub PLAT 10

LT 142 Breckenridge Park Plat 1

BK/PG: 3093/92 FF TRACT A & ESMT

Fortunebank LT 9 Bridge Terrace

Fortunebank LT 79 Eastland Hills Plat 5

Alliant Bank LT 1 H E Johnson Sub

$453,100

Mettu, Krishna Kanth Reddy & Sangeeta $1,308,687

Jefferson Bank of Missouri

Peachtree Plaza Properties

LT 130A Copperstone PLAT 7

Hawthorn Bank LT 50 Rockbridge Sub

$453,100

REPLAT LT 46

Mettu, Krishna Kanth Reddy & Sangeeta Jefferson Bank of Missouri

$1,175,000

LT 101 Copperstone Plat 1

MD & B LLC Mid America Mortgage Services Inc.

$453,100

STR 1-48-14//NE SUR

Que Living Trust

BK/PG: 1878/181 AC 11.85

Landmark Bank LT 277A Copperstone Plat 7

$390, 000

Gauses House LLC McIntire, Jonah S LT 1 FF Batterson & Pemberton’s Sub $388,000

Wiesemann, Sebastian & Christiane Central Bank of Boone County LT 9 Woodrail Sub Plat 8 $378,000

Bowles, Jeremy & Jacqueline DAS Acquisition Company LLC STR 17-47-11/S/S

$750,000

Netemeyer, Ron L

$438,000

Central Bank of Boone County

Leach, Randy Lee & Martina

411 deeds of trust

LT 244 Gates At

North American Savings Bank

were issued between

Old Hawthorne Plat 2

LT 118B1 PT Gateway South PLAT 7-A1

9/17 and 10/12 CBT

86 DECEMBER 2018

BUSINESS • P EOPL E • VOIC ES • FY I

Economic Index LABOR

HOUSING

SEPTEMBER 2018

United States

Total single-family

Labor force: 161,958,000

home sales: 141

Employment: 156,191,000

Existing single-family home

Unemployment: 5,766,000

sales: 129

Rate: 3.6 percent

New construction singlefamily home sales: 12

Missouri

Single-family homes

Labor force: 3,056,519

average listing sold

Employment: 2,975,746

price: $233,623

Unemployment: 80,773

Single-family homes median

Rate: 2.6 percent

sold price: $190,800 Single-family homes active

Boone County

listings on the market: 805

Labor force: 98,789

Single-family homes average

Employment: 96,891

days on market: 46

Unemployment: 1,898

Single-family homes pending

Rate: 1.9 percent

listings on the market: 144

Columbia Labor force: 67,513

UTILITIES

Employment: 66,209

OCTOBER 2018

Unemployment: 1,304 Rate: 1.9 percent

Water October 2018: 49,430

CONSTRUCTION SEPTEMBER 2018

October 2017: 49,129 Change #: 301 Change %: 0.613 Number of customers

Residential building permits: 41

receiving service on November

Value of residential permits:

1, 2018: 49,432

$3,968,832 Commercial building permits:

Electric

October 2018: 50,359

Value of commercial building

October 2017: 50,139

permits: $2,334,551

Change #: 220

Commercial additions/

Change %: 0.439

alterations: 13

Number of customers

Value of commercial additions/

receiving service on November

alterations: $2,307,551

1, 2018: 50,405 CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 87

ADVERTISER INDEX ACCOUNTING PLUS..................................................................................................... 91 ANTHONY JINSON PHOTOGRAPHY....................................................................... 7 ATKINS, INC.................................................................................................................... 44 BMW OF COLUMBIA......................................................................................................9 BURGERS' SMOKEHOUSE......................................................................................... 18 CARSON & COIL............................................................................................................ 46 CENTRAL MISSOURI AUTO BODY..........................................................................71 CITY OF COLUMBIA WATER & LIGHT.................................................................. 20 COLUMBIA EDP............................................................................................................. 66 COLUMBIA MARKETING GROUP................................................................... 12 & 13 COMMERCE BANK....................................................................................................... 43 COMO YOUTH WORKS.............................................................................................. 48 COMPASS CHIROPRACTIC....................................................................................... 59 CONVERGEONE............................................................................................................. 18 COYOTE HILL................................................................................................................. 38 D & M SOUND................................................................................................................. 38 EDWARD JONES........................................................................................................... 59 ESI COMMUNICATIONS..............................................................................................40 EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT PROFESSIONALS...................................................... 43 FIRST MIDWEST BANK...............................................................................................87 FIRST STATE COMMUNITY BANK.......................................................................... 66 GFI DIGITAL....................................................................................................................... 3 HAWTHORN BANK...................................................................................................... 92 HEART OF MISSOURI UNITED WAY................................................................ 4 & 5 I-70 CONTAINER........................................................................................................... 48 JENNING'S PREMIUM MEATS.................................................................................. 50 JOBFINDERS.................................................................................................................. 66 JOE MACHENS - VOLKSWAGEN.................................................................. 52 & 53

88 DECEMBER 2018

KLIETHERMES HOMES & REMODELING.............................................................. 14 LANDMARK BANK.......................................................................................................... 2 MEDIACOM.........................................................................................................................8 MERCEDES OF COLUMBIA.........................................................................................15 MIDMOTIX.........................................................................................................................78 MISSOURI EMPLOYERS MUTUAL.............................................................................17 NATHAN JONES LAW...................................................................................................71 NAUGHT NAUGHT INSURANCE AGENCY............................................................71 NEW CHAPTER COACHING..................................................................................... 50 PCE, INC........................................................................................................................... 20 PERSONAL TOUCH CLEANING SERVICE............................................................78 PWARCHITECTS, INC.................................................................................................. 65 QUANTUM WIRELESS INTERNET.......................................................................... 85 REALTY EXECUTIVES - HEATH HIGGINS..............................................................6 RESTORATION EYECARE......................................................................................... 28 SEPTAGON CONSTRUCTION................................................................................... 28 SILVERBALL..................................................................................................................... 10 SOCKET............................................................................................................................ 24 SOLSTICE SENIOR LIVING........................................................................................ 46 STANGE LAW FIRM...................................................................................................... 88 SUN SOLAR......................................................................................................................22 THE BROADWAY HOTEL........................................................................................... 65 THE SALVATION ARMY COLUMBIA CORPS.......................................................37 THE TRUST COMPANY...............................................................................................60 TRUE FALSE FILM FEST............................................................................................. 16 UNIVERSITY CLUB....................................................................................................... 36 WE ALWAYS SWING JAZZ SERIES........................................................................22 WILSON'S FITNESS........................................................................................................11

B U SINESS • P EOP L E • VOIC ES • FY I

BY T H E N U M BER S

Entrepreneurial programs put on by REDI to help entrepreneurs advance their startups and business concepts

Startups founded in 2016 to further develop technologies licensed from MU

Number of high-growth businesses housed in MU’s Life Science Business Incubator

Source: research.missouri.edu

Source: missouriinnovation.com

$248m

$46.3m

The amount spent by MU on scientific research yearly

Licensing income MU generated from 2012 to 2016

Patents filed by MU’s tech-transfer professionals in 2016

Source: University of Missouri

Source: research.missouri.edu

Source: columbiaredi.com

COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 89

B U SINESS • P EOP L E • VOIC ES • FY I

T H I S OR T H AT

BILL TURPIN Interim Associate Chancellor of Economic Development, MU

Mac

Big Picture

Cursive

Early Bird Cinema Michael Jackson Firefox 9-5 Learn At Your Desk

Optimistic Business

I'm a salad guy — preferably with bacon.

90 DECEMBER 2018

Traditional Certain Country

Dog Driver Plane Mountains Realistic Casual

Solo

Team

For Here

To-go

DISC

I pride myself on getting sh*t done.

Planner

Winter

Car

5. 6.

In a Meeting

Summer

Ocean

Sailing is my passion. (I've sailed from California to Hawaii five times.) Fast cars are good, too.

Teach

Spend

Passenger

Spring and fall.

Flexibility

Save Cat

I feel you always need to be doing both.

Chrome

Cake

City

Led Zeppelin is the greatest band ever!

The Beatles

Pie

Skeptical

1. 2. 3. 4.

Netflix

Beer

Modern

A M E N DME N TS A N D CONDI TI ONS

Night Owl

Wine Improviser

Photography by Sadie Thibodeaux

Details

Books

StrengthsFinder Magazines

Reading

Writing

Creative

Analytical

Introvert

Extrovert

Podcast Cluttered Card Game Concept Fiction Text Soup

Playlist Minimalist Board Game Execute Nonfiction Call Sandwich

Business + Tax Advisor Team: Alicia Hendricks, Samantha Dent, Denise Nelson, Tracy Holmquest, Tina Marso, and Jeff Cirkl

BUSINESS + TAX ADVISORS Get the advice you need to run your business from the professionals you trust.

Leave it all to us! AccountingPlusInc.com/schedule

Schedule your free initial consultation online today.

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