About Us
We provide a structured forum for engaging the Kansas City Metro area’s business leaders with world-class thinkers on critical issues in business, economics, and finance. The Club is nonpolitical, nonpartisan, and nonprofit and takes no side on any issue considered in its forum.
Our Programs
The Club hosts several programs a year featuring keynote presentations by renowned thought leaders. Every other year, we host the award ceremony for the Truman Medal for Economic Policy.
Upcoming Programs
November 2021
Tour of Hunt Midwest SubTropolis
The World’s Largest Underground Business Complex.®
Economic Club members will tour SubTropolis. Event specifics will be announced later.
SubTropolis is the world’s largest underground business complex, with over 6.7 million square feet of industrial space and 7.3 million square feet available for future expansion. SubTropolis was created through the mining of a 270-million-year-old limestone deposit. In the mining process, limestone is removed, leaving 25-foot square pillars. The pillars’ even spacing, concrete flooring and 16-foot high, smooth ceilings make build-to-suit facilities time and cost efficient for tenants. The complex is energy efficient, completely dry, brightly lit, with miles of wide, paved streets accessed at street level. Tenants include e-commerce, supply chain, pharmaceutical, animal health, automotive, record storage and food storage businesses.
Recent Programs
October 2021
2021 Truman Medal – Club Reception for Roger Ferguson, Jr.
POSTPONED – TBA 2022
President and CEO of TIAA, and former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Mr. Ferguson is the ninth recipient of the Truman Medal for Economic Policy, awarded biennially since 2005 to honor individuals with distinguished careers in economic research and policy. Mr. Ferguson was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1997–2006, serving as Vice Chairman from 1999–2006. As the only Governor in Washington, D.C. on 9/11, he led the Federal Reserve’s initial response to the terrorist attacks, taking actions that kept the U.S. financial system functioning while reassuring the global financial community that the U.S. economy would not be paralyzed. As Vice Chairman he led or influenced many domestic and international financial regulatory changes that contributed to a safer, more efficient, and modernized financial system, such as payment modernization through electronic clearing and settlement of checks, and improvements in FOMC communications and transparency through the public statement of actions after each meeting. After leaving the Federal Reserve, Mr. Ferguson continued his public service by serving on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and co-chairing the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Long-Run Macro-Economic Effects of the Aging U.S. Population.
August 2021
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
President, American Action Forum policy institute
Can people still hope for the American Dream? Is it still attainable?
Mr. Holtz-Eakin will discuss the outlook of American businesses and how proposed Congressional fiscal policies could affect the future of jobs and wealth. Mr. Holtz-Eakin’s career has spanned the areas of public policy, politics, government, and academia. He served as Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office from 2003-05 and chief economist of President George H. W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. He also was the chief economic policy adviser to Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. He has held positions in several Washington-based, policy-focused organizations including director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the Paul A. Volcker chair in international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Membership
Club members are leading organizations in the Kansas City metropolitan area, including Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas. The organizations are represented by the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, or other high organization official.
Membership is by invitation only. Invitations are extended without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or disability.
