Classification Talk for Gene Troehler

Gene Troehler
Business Development
Rotary member since 1985

I became an Overland Parkite in 1976 when my then-employer transferred my job, and thus me, here. My career pursuits have been in the sales and marketing arena, with involvement over the past several years in the business development area for local engineering firms, with my current employer being Larson Binkley. I am a Chicagoan by birth and upbringing, and an Illini (University of Illinois) and a Husky (Northern Illinois University) by formal education (thus accounting for my lack of zealous, irrational and fanatical exuberance with regard to the Big 12).

Thanks to my elder children, I am a 5x grandfather: my son and his wife have a boy and a girl, my elder daughter and her husband have three girls, and my youngest daughter is now doing graduate work in psychology.

My involvement in Rotary began with my induction into the club in 1985. Across the years I have found my membership to be a most fulfilling experience; such membership truly affords the opportunity to give back in some small measure to one’s community. My activities and involvement in the club consist of having served on several committees, several years on the board of directors, and I was honored to have served as club president in 1996-1997. Insofar as being a Rotarian is concerned, I think playing an active role in our club is the only way one really fully appreciates what being a Rotarian is all about.

Classification talk for Chad King

Chad King
Farmers Insurance Agent
Rotary member since 2004

I am a life-long Kansas City resident. In fact, with the exception of the four+ years I spent at the University of Kansas (Go Jayhawks!), I have spent that entire time in Johnson County. I have been married to my wife Amanda for 9 years and we have a wonderful 7 year-old daughter.

I work an insurance agent for Farmers Insurance Group—the largest employer in Olathe and #2 in Johnson County. I work hard to provide my clients not only with a good price, but more importantly—appropriate knowledge and adequate coverage.

I practice the Rotary 4-way test in my business and my life:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

As an independent Insurance agent, I am a small business owner with limited time and charitable Funds My membership in Rotary allows me to do amazing things on an international scale. I am:

• Helping to eradicate polio throughout the world.
• Building a school in Mali.
• Building libraries in Cambodia.

Rotary has been beneficial to me and those around me in so many ways. I currently serve on the Overland Park Rotary board as the Club Secretary and consider my membership to be one of the best things I do in my life.

Classification Talk for Greg Musil

Greg Musil
Shareholder at Polsinelli Shughart
Rotary member for 16 years

My name is Greg Musil and I am a native Kansan. I grew up on a farm outside of a small town in northeast Kansas called Frankfort. Frankfort had a Rotary Club that had lunch once a week in the Methodist Church basement, but beyond that I had little knowledge of what Rotary was or what Rotarians did. Even when I joined the Overland Park Rotary in 1993 I was unsure of the real purpose for my membership.

What I have learned since then is that Rotary International may be the best answer to a future of peace, cooperation and international understanding. If we could get the Rotary 4-Way Test adopted by people worldwide, what a wonderful world this could be.

My classification in Rotary is Law Practice - General. Yes, I am a lawyer. Some might say I needed Rotary more than others simply to overcome the perception of my profession. I don't believe that, but I do know that Rotary's motto of "Service Above Self" is an important adition to what I learned on a farm in a small town about values, helping neighbors and practicing teamwork. The principles taught in 4-H and Boy Scouts and at church drive me to serve as a member of Rotary. I have always been involved, whether as Student Body President at Kansas State University, as a City Councilman in Overland Park for 8 years, or as a community volunteer. Those activities, I hope, help me fulfill the expectations of my parents that all three of their kids would give back to their communities and do more than just sit around and hope or, worse yet, sit around and complain.

For anyone interested in helping others in a group of caring, smart, diverse, hard-working and dedicated people, Rotary International is a great place to be a member. I hope you will consider membership, too.

Classification Talk for Andy Heath

Andy Heath
Vice President of Investments at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
Rotary member for 5 years

I am Vice President of Investments at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.. Think of me as a financial coordinator. I oversee and coordinate the financial affairs of a select group of families and small businesses, primarily in Kansas and Missouri. I have been in the industry since 1998.

I was raised on a livestock farm in northwest Missouri and graduated high school in a class of 27 from Mound City, Missouri. Having a desire to actually date girls, I soon realized that raising 1500-3000 hogs at one time was not helping the cause (That stuff is hard to wash off!)
A talent for singing and music helped change my direction. I was fortunate to be accepted as the only soloist in “America’s Youth in Concert” and enjoyed a summer touring and performing in the great concert halls of Europe. At age 18, I received a standing ovation in our Carnegie Hall debut, and was honored to sing before the Pope at St. Peter’s Basilica.

I married my wife Tammy while still in college, graduated in three years with a business degree from Central Missouri State University, and packed our bags to head for Nashville, Tennessee. We have since sung on the Grand Ole Opry, The Nashville Network, recorded dozens of commercial jingles and traveled to 122 countries as headline performers on luxury cruise ships and resorts around the world. Our love for the ocean and luxury cruising in particular led me to becoming the cruise director on Regent Seven Seas Cruises—voted multiple times as World’s Best Cruise Line by Conde Nast Traveler magazine. Clearly, I didn’t love the ocean enough—how else can you explain the move to Kansas!

Perhaps my most significant life experience was becoming a liver donor in 2000 for my friend Mike Gagen. Adult living liver transplants were a rare procedure at that time and continue to be uncommon. To be given the opportunity to try and save my friend’s life was a gift to me. I currently serve on the board of directors of Gift of Life and the Kansas City Chorale. I am also a past board president of Medical Missions Foundation.

I believe contributing to my community and my fellow man is not an act or donation, but a way of living. That is why I chose Rotary as a vehicle for making a difference. With Rotary I didn’t have to lose precious time reinventing the wheel. All that is required of me is to step forward and help turn it.

Classification Talk for Ryan Gerstner

Ryan Gerstner
Account Executive at Blue Valley Insurance
Rotary member for 4+ years

I grew up on a farm near Frankfort, KS, which is about 35 miles northeast of Manhattan. The Frankfort area was the birth place of such luminaries like Greg Musil and…..well, that’s about it. Frankfort was a great place to grow up and will always be a special place for me. I have a lot of great memories and all the success my teams had in sports have unquestionably shaped my outlook and approach to life. Besides my parents, I have two brothers and two sisters. One brother lives in Mission, KS and the other is finishing up at KU before taking a job in downtown KC. One sister is a sophomore at KU and the other is completing her senior year at Frankfort and will hopefully make a good college selection like most of her siblings did. In August 2008, I got married to my beautiful wife Kay who is finishing her last year as Chief Resident in UMKC’s Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency program. For the time being we live in a condo in downtown Kansas City, which gives me a small taste of the urban lifestyle that KC needs a lot more of to attract more talented young people to the metro.

After Frankfort I moved onto my beloved University of Kansas where after a two year detour in computer engineering, I found my passion for business receiving a B.S. in Business Administration. I graduated right after 9/11 in December 2001 and if not for that tragedy, I likely would have ended up doing investment banking in New York for at least a while. Instead, I started in UMB’s management trainee program in January 2002. After 8 months of credit analyst work, I spent a couple of months in loan administration/loan review before Bryan Biggs hired me to be a loan officer in UMB’s Overland Park office. I have been fortunate to work for several quality financial institutions.

Shortly after Bryan moved to Metcalf Bank, I moved onto the Bank of Blue Valley where I did a blend of Commercial & Industrial, real estate, and small business lending. After a relatively brief term at Blue Valley, a long time friend hired me away to work on larger loan relationships at Commercial Federal Bank, which before I even started was acquired by Bank of the West (BOTW). In my 3.5 years at BOTW, I specialized in large commercial real estate loan relationships (typically $5 million and up). It has been really enjoyable to see how many of the largest projects in the metro have been put together. In December 2008, I got my property, casualty, life, and health licenses, and I accepted an opportunity to sell personal and commercial insurance lines with a college friend of mine at Blue Valley Insurance in Overland Park.

In addition to many real estate related organizations, I serve on the Kansas City chapter board of the KU Alumni Association. I am a proud Rotarian and have enjoyed meeting and working with so many quality people on so many causes that positively affect people around the world.

Classification Talk for David Svet

David Svet
President & CEO of Spur Communications
Rotary member for 4+ years

I am married to Lee Svet, Retail Design Manager at Helzberg Diamonds. I have an 18 year old son, Clark, who is finishing up his senior year at Shawnee Mission East High School. We currently reside in Leawood and are very involved members of Asbury United Methodist Church.

My wife decided that we should move to Overland Park from Columbus Ohio 17 years ago to raise our son. At the time I was a professor at Ohio State University conducting computer graphics research and getting to do fun stuff like build a bobsled for the US Olympic team. Lee was a retail design director at Fitch traveling all over the world designing retail stores. After Clark was born, Lee wisely felt that leaving a newborn in my custody while she traveled the world was a very bad idea. So we came here so that she could work for Hallmark and I could work for NewTek, a technology company.

I bought my department from NewTek 15 years ago and started what is now Spur Communications.

Spur is a strategic marketing communications firm. Our clients include JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada, Zurich, Kodak, Hallmark, Kansas City Life, Wallace Saunders, American Humanics and a host of others. We help our clients to build their brands by establishing ongoing communications with their customers.

We do this with a mix of traditional and innovative methods including market research, strategic marketing planning, and execution through a variety of printed and online media. We are currently leading a very exciting marketing development initiative in the area of one-to-one custom publishing. This enables our clients to deliver completely unique information customized for each of their customers based on each customer’s interests, habits, and behaviors. Every piece of communication is one of a kind. We are hopeful that our work in the financial services sector will have a significant impact on motivating the rank and file investor. Hopeful to the point of believing we may have an effect in helping to alleviate any shortcomings of the Social Security System.

I joined Rotary because I believe that each of us has a responsibility to give back to the community at least as much as we are getting. I joined this Rotary chapter because of your outstanding record of community leadership and philanthropy and I am proud to be a member.

You can find out more about David and what he does by visiting his company's website or its blog.