R. Crosby Kemper III served as the chairman and CEO of UMB Financial Corporation and UMB Bank, n.a. from 2001-2004. Prior to that, he served in other senior positions with UMB Bank in Saint Louis and Kansas City, as the executive director of the British Institute of the United States in New York, and as an English instructor at the University of Sichuan in Chengdu, China. He was appointed by Gov. Bob Holden to chair the blue-ribbon Citizens Commission on the Future of Higher Education in Missouri. He also founded successful, free, outdoor Shakespeare festivals in Kansas City and Saint Louis. He is vice chairman of the Truman Presidential Library and Institute Board of Directors. He is on the Board of Trustees for the Kansas City Symphony and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the private, nonprofit corporation that has owned and operated Monticello since 1923. He has also served on the boards of the Jefferson National Park Association, Westminster College in Fulton, MO, and Webster University in Saint Louis. He edited the book Winston Churchill: Resolution, Defiance, Magnanimity. Kemper received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University.
Rex Sinquefield is the co-founder and past co-chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors Inc., a registered investment advisor with over $100 billion under management. In the 1970s, he co-authored (with Roger Ibbotson) a series of papers and books titled Stocks, Bonds, Bills & Inflation. These works provided the first seminal data on the performance of the financial market in the United States. At American National Bank of Chicago, he pioneered many of the nation's first index funds. Since 2003, he has served as a member of the editorial board of the Financial Analysts Journal. Sinquefield is a director of Saint Vincent Orphan's Home in Saint Louis, a member of the investment committee of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, and a life trustee of DePaul University. He serves on the boards of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis Opera Theater and Saint Louis University. He received his B.S. from Saint Louis University and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1972.
Bevis Schock is a lawyer in solo practice in Saint Louis. He founded the Shrink Missouri Government PAC, which challenged the constitutionality of Missouri's campaign finance limits before the United States Supreme Court in 2000. He also brought a challenge to the plaintiff's attorney's fees in the tobacco litigation of the late 1990s. He was one of three people who started the Shakespeare Festival of Saint Louis and served on the Board of Directors for ten years. In his day-to-day work he handles a broad array of matters including civil rights, real estate, personal injury and criminal. He received a B.A. in history from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.
Joe Forshaw is president and CEO of the Saint Louis–based Forshaw, a 137-year-old family-owned business specializing in the retail sale of home furnishings, as well as the manufacture and national distribution of fireplace-related building products. He has served for several years on the board of directors for the Commerce Bank of Saint Louis, and is the managing partner of several family real estate partnerships. An alumnus of Saint Louis University High School, Forshaw received both his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Saint Louis University.
Stephen Brauer is the Chairman and CEO of Hunter Engineering Company, which sells computer-based automotive service equipment and employs more than a thousand people. From 2001 to 2003, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. Mr. Brauer has served on numerous charitable and civic boards, including the Saint Louis Area Council of Boy Scouts, Saint Louis Art Museum and the Missouri Botanical Garden. He is a past member of the National Board of the Smithsonian Institution and a former member of Missouri's 21st Judicial District Commission. Mr. Brauer is a trustee of Washington University in Saint Louis, a member of its executive committee, and a part owner of the Saint Louis Cardinals.
James Forsyth is President and CEO of Moto, Inc., which operates the MotoMart chain of gas stations and convenience stores. He is also president and CEO of two other family owned businesses, Forsyth Carterville Coal Company and Missouri Real Estate. He serves on the boards of Saint Luke's Hospital, YMCA of Southwestern Illinois, and Commerce Bank of Saint Louis. He has served on the boards of Webster University and Forsyth School. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Virginia.
Louis Griesemer is president and CEO of Springfield Underground Inc. He holds a bachelor's degree in applied math and computer science from the Washington University School of Engineering. After graduating, Griesemer immediately went to work in the family business as a mine safety and quality control foreman. During this period, Griesemer also broadened his education by taking evening business classes at Drury University. Working in a small business, he has had the opportunity to wear many hats, including production, sales, accounting, and management. Griesemer also sits on a number of other boards: the Advisory Board for the UMB Bank in Springfield; the Executive Board of the Ozarks Trails Council, Boy Scouts of America; and the board of the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association, which he chaired from 2007 to 2008.
Robert Heller is a retired judge who served for 28 years on the Shannon County Circuit Court in Missouri, where he presided over a broad range of civil and criminal cases both locally and throughout the state. He holds a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a B.A. in Philosophy from Northwestern. He has served as a member of several Missouri court-related committees and as a district chair for the Boy Scouts of America.
Michael Podgursky is a professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he served as department chair from 1995 to 2005. He has published numerous articles and reports on education policy and teacher quality and coauthored a book titled Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality. Podgursky is a member of the advisory boards of the National Council on Teacher Quality and the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. From 1980 to 1995, he served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He earned his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Missouri–Columbia and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Gerald A. Reynolds is assistant general counsel at Kansas City Power & Light Company, an integrated electric utility. Earlier he served as a deputy associate attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, advising the associate attorney general on matters ranging from terrorism-related litigation to spent fuel litigation. Mr. Reynolds also provided oversight for several litigation components within the department's civil division, including consumer protection and immigration. In 2004, President George W. Bush designated Mr. Reynolds to serve as chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and in 2002 appointed him assistant secretary of education for the Office for Civil Rights. There, he advised the secretary of education on all legal and policy matters relating to civil rights laws. Mr. Reynolds received his law degree from Boston University School of Law, where he served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Law and Medicine. He received his B.A. in history from City University of New York, at York College.
Kevin Short is the co-founder and managing partner–CEO of Clayton Capital Partners, a Saint Louis–based investment banking firm specializing in merger and acquisition advisement. In 2007, Thomson Financial, FactSet Mergerstat, and Investment Dealers’ Digest all ranked Clayton Capital Partners as a top U.S. M&A firm. Recognized as a leader in purchase and sale transactions of mid-size businesses spanning a wide range of industries, Short has orchestrated more than 150 purchase/sale transactions with an aggregate value of more than $1 billion. As an expert in mergers and acquisitions, Short writes and speaks frequently on the topic to groups of business owners, advisors to business owners, and academics. Groups include: Business Enterprise Institute, Inc., the St. Louis Association of Evaluation Professionals, Edward D. Jones, and Washington University. In addition to contributing to various national trade and business publications, he is the co-author of Cash Out Move On: Get Top Dollar—And More—Selling Your Business. Short devotes his free time first to his family, and second to the education of children from low-income families. He is an active board member for Today & Tomorrow Educational Foundation, the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, and the Board of Education for the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
