Chancellor Kristin Sobolik, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center Executive Director Scott Morris, College of Business Administration Dean Shu Schiller and alum and Midwest BankCentre Chairman and CEO Orv Kimbrough were among the many people with UMSL connections included in St. Louis Magazine’s inaugural St. Louis Business 500 list.
The University of Missouri–St. Louis was well-represented among the inaugural St. Louis Business 500 list unveiled last week by St. Louis Magazine.
The guide aims to highlight some of most influential, impactful and innovative leaders from different sectors of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The magazine said it includes both “C-suite executives and more under-the-radar entrepreneurs across an array of industries, from health care to hospitality, accounting to aerospace, restaurants to real estate.”
Chancellor Kristin Sobolik led the UMSL contingent featured on the list. She has overseen dramatic changes to the university during her tenure, including the ongoing $110 million Transform UMSL initiative and the development of new academic programming aligned with the workforce needs of the St. Louis region.
“At UMSL, Sobolik is reimagining the school’s trajectory,” the magazine wrote. “In 2024, the university secured unprecedented funding from the state to support its Transform UMSL project that will help upgrade its 350-acre campus. UMSL also recently received $15 million in capital funding to launch its School of Engineering and an $8 million grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to help grow the school.”
St. Louis Magazine also included College of Business Administration Dean Shu Schiller and Scott Morris, the executive director of UMSL’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center. The magazine noted Schiller’s previous accomplishments as the interim dean of Wright State University’s College of Graduate Programs and her background in information systems with a research focus on “how people can boost communication and collaboration in the networked world.”
Of Morris, it wrote: “In his 30 years in the corporate world, Scott Morris has done a bit of everything. He’s played a role in strategy and development, M&A, and sales while working in B2B and B2C industries. Now, he’s supporting local entrepreneurs in a big way. The UMSL Anchor Accelerator has awarded $1.1 million in grants to 22 winners over the past four years, and big plans for the future are on deck.”
Also on the list were prominent UMSL alumni, including Steven Harris, the managing partner of RubinBrown Advisors and an UMSL accounting graduate; Orv Kimbrough, the chairman and CEO of Midwest BankCentre who earned his MBA at UMSL in 2002; Jim Lally, a 1993 UMSL MBA graduate now serving as the CEO and chairman of Enterprise Bank & Trust; Lúcia Lohmann, the new president of the Missouri Botanical Garden who earned her PhD in biology at UMSL in 2003; and WEPOWER founder and CEO Charli Cooksey, who holds a master’s degree in secondary education from UMSL. Harris and Kimbrough are both members of UMSL’s Chancellor’s Council.
Longtime Chancellor’s Council member and former UMSL Vice Chancellor Kathy Osborn, the president emeritus of the Regional Business Council, and Tim Nowak, a frequent UMSL collaborator and the executive director of World Trade Center St. Louis, were also among those recognized, along with Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, co-founders of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation and recipients of the E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Medal for Philanthropy at last year’s Founders Celebration.
