In Kansas City, the name Kauffman is a familiar one. Kansas City Kauffman Stadium, Kauffman Preforming Arts Center, the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, and the Kauffman foundation which continues these endeavors. Ewing Marion Kauffman was a Kansas City entrepreneur and investor. After exiting the Navy his wife took his savings (which he earned from poker) and invested in real estate. This allowed him time to find a job that he loved. A natural born sales-man, Kauffman gravitated towards pharmaceutical sales. After two years at his first sales job, he was making more than the owner of the company, and this was strictly commission based. After the owner lowered his commission, Kauffman quit and started his own company in his basement. It was also a pharmaceutical sales company which he called Marion Laboratories. He began as a one-man shop and in 1989 merged with Merrell Dow as a billion-dollar company with hundreds of employees who became millionaires working for him.
Kauffman was the man who brought the Royals to Kansas City and funded the building of the Kauffman, then Royals, Stadium. He had a lot of pride in Kansas City and wanted to help the people in it. He started programs that payed for student’s post-secondary education if they stayed drug free and met other requirements, including grades and parent participation. Kauffman gave this community a lot and we are still reaping the benefits today. The revenue brought into the city by Kauffman Stadium gives a lot of our local economy, as does Kauffman Preforming Arts Center, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation continues his work with providing post-secondary education, working with and helping entrepreneurs, and continuing to give back to the city. The work that Kauffman did and the work that his foundation continues to do makes Kansas City a great place for entrepreneurs and those looking to make the most out of its economy. Because of the revenue brought in by our MLB and NFL stadiums and the preforming arts center, our economy is booming and so is the housing market. Kansas City’s history has made it a great place to invest in turnkey and our economy will continue to make it so in the future.