Newsmakers: Oct. 5-11, 2020

Russom

Michau

Schultz

Ollis

Beavers

Scholz

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Accounting
KPM CPAs PC hired Sherry Michau as a manager in the tax department. She has 20 years of tax experience. The firm also hired Veronica Schultz as a senior accountant. She has three years of accounting experience. Kort Farran, who holds a bachelor’s in accounting from Missouri State University, was hired as a staff accountant.

Banking and Finance
Guaranty Bank promoted Brittany Russom to assistant retail banking manager at its Republic Road branch. She joined Guaranty in 2014 as a teller in Nixa. Previously, Russom worked as a deposit service teller at the Rolla First State Community Bank and as a branch banker representative at Guaranty’s Sunshine Street location. She has an associate’s in business and marketing from Ozarks Technical Community College.

BKD LLP was named one of Inside Public Accounting 2020 Best of the Best Accounting Firms as a Best of the Best Top 5 Firm. The list marks the 10th consecutive year that BKD has been named a Best of the Best firm, selected based on survey responses from more than 540 firms.

Education
Drury University listed in the U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges 2021 rankings. The school also was one of The Princeton Review’s Best 386 Colleges for the third year in a row, and it was in the rankings of best value universities in Washington Monthly and Money. The annual list uses data on student outcomes, graduation rates, faculty resources, alumni giving and expert opinions, and Drury was listed No. 26 on the Midwest Regional University list, having been in the top 30 for 25 years.

Springfield Public Schools were awarded $152,330 in back-to-school grants by the Foundation for Springfield Public Schools. Grant requests are submitted by educators district-wide to receive additional support for their classrooms and facilities. Eighty grants were delivered to sites across the school district by FSPS Executive Director Natalie Murdock and Development Director Tina Pham.

Evangel University was named among the Colleges of Distinction for 2020-21. The award, which came with a special focus on Evangel’s departments of business and education, is given to institutions in the areas of student engagement, teaching, community vibrancy and outcomes.

Energy
Sun Solar was named one of the top 150 solar contractors in the United States by the publication Solar Power World in its annual Top Solar Contractor list. The list comprised 400 top contractors. Companies are ranked based on kilowatt capacity of projects installed in the past year, and Sun Solar installed 6,219 kilowatts in 2019.

Insurance
The Missouri Association of Insurance Agents elected Richard Ollis, CEO of insurance firm Ollis/Akers/Arney, to its board of directors as its region 10 director. This is his first term on the board for which he’ll represent Hickory, Polk, Greene, Dallas, Webster, Christian, Stone and Taney counties. Ollis joins 24 other board members. The MAIA is an association of independent insurance agents in Missouri, representing around 4,000 agents and brokers.

Manufacturing
NewStream Enterprises LLC, a supply chain management company, hired Ha Beavers as its marketing coordinator. She is a recent graduate from Missouri State University with a bachelor’s in digital film and television production. In her new role, she’ll be responsible for crafting inbound marketing strategies for NewStream.

Nonprofit
Laine Scholz was hired as the new director of development by FosterAdopt Connect, a foster care organization. She is the owner of Garbo’s Pizzeria and was previously the director of development for The Geek Foundation, a nonprofit technical education organization.