Welcome to our annual special edition featuring the 2008 Greater St. Louis Top 50. This is the 13th year that St. Louis’ top companies are being honored by the RCGA and Deloitte, in cooperation with Ameren Corp., Edward Jones, Southwest Bank, and media partners
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, STLToday.com, KMOX and Commerce Magazine. We are pleased to be honoring David Farr and his colleagues at Emerson as the Ameren Corporate Citizenship winner. For the Spirit of Technology Award, we are honoring Edward Jones Managing Partner Jim Weddle and CIO Vinny Ferrari. To help us commemorate this edition, we are most grateful to internationally-renowned artist Peter Max for once again designing our colorful cover art, which captures the excitement of this year’s festivities.
In addition to the Top 50, Ameren and Spirit of Technology awards, this month’s edition of Commerce focuses on the growing trend of concierge doctors who make house calls to busy patients. One of the leaders of the trend, Dr. Elizabeth Laffey, is featured in our story about how more and more executives are opting for concierge medical care—a new dimension in St. Louis’ always advancing health industry.
As we note the cutting-edge trends and companies in St. Louis, this issue also explores meeting venture capital needs in Missouri through the “Grow Me State Initiative.” This effort is aimed at closing the capital gap in Missouri for start-up companies. Chambers of commerce throughout the State are backing the initiative that would fund early stage firms. One of the RCGA’s top legislative priorities for 2009 is achieving passage of this legislation in the next session of the General Assembly.
We are proud to report on an exciting trend of start-up firms emerging from the partnership between Washington University and the BioGenerator. That partnership has produced 7 biomedical companies in the past 2 years that show tremendous economic promise for the region. The results produced by these companies will pay dividends for years to come.
One of the enduring assets of the region is its research and scientific base. Our story on the more than 50 St. Louis area members of the National Academies shows how vital our area’s scientific intellectual capital truly is. These men and women have an extraordinary impact on the nation’s research, medical and scientific work, and St. Louis is an integral part of that. We are also pleased to highlight Melissa Rey, a Kennedy High School freshman, who has been selected as America’s Top Young Scientist by the National Academy of Sciences.
The fruits of our region’s scientific labors helped the region attract and host the 2008 SciFest at the Saint Louis Science Center. More than 20,000 people learned about the science of baseball, chocolate and rock & roll, as well as more serious aspects of science as a part of this educational and entertaining event.
This month’s magazine also takes a look at the “ahead of schedule” Interstate 64/Highway 40 rebuilding project. Construction on the first half of the project is finishing up early and we are looking ahead to the second phase to rebuild the eastern segment. We also take a look at infrastructure with a story on the future of Illinois’ levee system and the excellent progress Southwestern Illinois leaders have been making in becoming a major distribution “location of choice.”
Finally, we focus on “A Day in the Work Life” of Joe Conran, co-chairman of the new Husch Blackwell Sanders law firm, and this month’s “Spotlight” focuses on Edward Jones CIO, Vinny Ferrari.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue of
St. Louis Commerce Magazine. As always, please send your comments and suggestions to me at dfleming@stlrcga.org.
ICHARD C.D. FLEMING
Publisher
St. Louis Commerce Magazine
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