2024 40 Under 40 Spotlight: Tyler Moles, 2016

Then: Director of development, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks
Now: CEO, Discovery Center of Springfield Inc.

For Tyler Moles, being honored as a member of Springfield Business Journal’s 2016 class of 40 Under 40 was life changing.

“To me, being part of that meant that I had to do something great,” says Moles. “It inspired me to try to be the thing that I was awarded for being, to live up to the hype.”

That next year, he became president of Think Big Foundation, with a goal of generating sustainable funding for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks.

In 2021, he joined the Discovery Center, where he was named CEO in March.

In his new role, the 40-year-old says his goal is to continue the momentum the nonprofit has experienced since the pandemic.

“One thing I really want to do is just continue what we’ve been doing over the past three years,” Moles says. “The goal is to inspire kids a generation from now and a generation after that.”

Best advice to young professionals? Keep working. Keep doing the right thing. Eventually, it’ll pay off.