February 27, 2018

Keeping It Clean: Cason Building Maintenance Inc.

It all began with two people going from business to business — scrubbing, vacuuming, getting the job done. Fast-forward 35 years and those two people have maintained an established cleaning service for businesses throughout Mid-Missouri, leading 60 employees from their Columbia headquarters. Owners Rob and Susie Cason began cleaning buildings and homes as teenagers. Rob

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Transition Points: Teresa Maledy, Steve Sowers, and Commerce Bank's New Era

Retirements are a big deal at Commerce Bank, but they’re an especially big deal when the person retiring is Teresa Maledy. Maledy started as a part-time teller with the bank more than 37 years ago; last month, she announced that she’ll be retiring as CEO and chairwoman of Commerce’s central Missouri region. She’ll cede the

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A Little Spark: The Ripple Effect of Microlending

  Small business loan counselor Liza Zimmerman says Columbia is “ripe” with opportunities for microloans, socially-conscious small loans that are a building block for many entrepreneurs. Zimmerman is a loan counselor at Justine Petersen, a St. Louis-based company that provides small loans to low- and middle-income entrepreneurs through a partnership with the Small Business Administration.

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Conducting the City's Business

There are two things in the administration of Columbia’s city government that never should be allowed to happen again. No more marathon seven-hour city council meetings. No more uncontested races for mayor and city council positions. City council meetings have become the vexingly cumbersome theater of frustration, complication, bloviation, and angst. No wonder fewer and

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Shon Aguero, Executive Vice President, Retail Banking, Landmark Bank

1. What does your typical day look like? Oh, I wish there was such a thing! With hundreds of bankers across three states running three very different lines of business, every day is different from the one before it. I consider my job to be like that of an orchestra conductor: I don’t play the

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