Newsmakers: Nov. 8-14, 2021

Accounting
BKD Wealth Advisors LLC was named to CNBC’s annual list of the nation’s top financial advisers for the second year in a row. The CNBC FA 100 recognizes registered investment advisers based on data from 38,000 advisers culled by AccuPoint Solutions.

BKD LLP promoted Clint Caselman, Sydnie Evgenides and Allison Gardner to managers, and Chase Simmerman and Susan Slaton to managing consultants. Caselman provides tax, accounting and consulting services and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Missouri State University. Evgenides performs audit and consulting services in health care and holds a bachelor’s in accounting from Southeast Missouri State University. Gardner provides audit services and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Mississippi. Simmerman primarily handles Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement work and holds a bachelor’s in accounting and economics/finance from Southwest Baptist University. Slaton provides reimbursement and regulatory consulting services in health care and holds a bachelor’s in accounting from Western Kentucky University.

Banking & Finance
The Bank of Missouri promoted Sheldon Toler to regional mortgage loan officer. Toler holds a bachelor’s in finance and economics from Southwest Baptist University. He began his banking career in 2008 at Bank of Bolivar, which merged with The Bank of Missouri in 2020.

Education
MSU awarded a 2021 Bronze Bear Award to Tim Reynolds and Judith Enyeart Reynolds. The Reynoldses have financially supported several programs, including Ozarks Public Television and KSMU Ozarks Public Radio, as well as academic programs in the McQueary College of Health and Human Services and a significant gift to the C.W. Titus Foundation to support the arts park under construction near Craig Hall and students in the College of Arts and Letters.

College of the Ozarks was named one of the 2021 Great Colleges to Work For by The Chronicle for Higher Education. The private school was recognized in the categories of compensation and benefits, as well as professional development, determined by surveys of faculty and staff. The Great Colleges program factored responses from 38,000 employees at 196 institutions, and C of O was rated among 58 schools in the small, four-year institution category.

Beverage
Beer Institute named U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., among its 2021 Beer Champions for supporting federal policies that aid the success of U.S. brewers and beer importers. He was recognized for sponsoring the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act to provide permanent excise tax relief to U.S. brewers and beer importers during 2020 to help recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Government
Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller was appointed to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Technical Guidelines Development Committee, and he was elected president of the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities. As a member of the TGDC, Schoeller is part of a 14-member team that assists the EAC to fulfill requirements of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

He was first elected to the MACCEA in 2018, and as president, he works with the executive committee to shape statewide elections issues and work with the Missouri General Assembly and secretary of state to help enact statutory and regulatory elections reforms.

MSU selected former Springfield-Greene County Health Department Director Clay Goddard to receive its 2021 Government Excellence Award for his professional leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Goddard, who now works as director of public health transformation for the Missouri Foundation for Health, holds two degrees from MSU, a bachelor’s in political science and a master’s in public administration.