2021 TOPEKA BUSINESS HALL OF FAME LAUREATES ANNOUNCED

The 2021 Topeka Business Hall of Fame laureates were announced at a virtual press conference on Tuesday, November 10. Five business leaders will join the Topeka Business Hall of Fame in June 2021.

The 2021 laureates are:

Dan Chavez, Chavez, Inc.;

Butch Eaton, Midwest Health

Mike Kiley, Security Benefit

Jim Klausman, Midwest Health

Christel Marquardt, posthumous.

The 2021 Topeka Business Hall of Fame dinner honoring these individuals will be Wednesday, June 9, 2021 at the Stormont Vail Event Center.

Dan Chavez

Dan Chavez is the Owner of Chavez Inc., a 53-year-old business providing Water and Fire Restoration, Environmental Cleaning services to Topeka, Lawrence, and NE Kansas. Dan has been with the company for 42-years. He began his career as a production employee, supervisor, and project manager.

Dan is currently working with his son and daughter as he navigates and guides the family business onto its 3rd generation of service. The company maintains the same philosophy his Father (Trinidad Chavez), who founded the company in 1967, “develop employees and provide leading-edge capabilities that support our clients.” He credits this practice and the dedicated employees over the years for the small businesse's success and service longevity. Dan was born in Topeka, Kansas, and is a 1978 graduate of Hayden High School. He spent a short time at Washburn University and time at Coffeyville Junior College on a football scholarship.

He spent time in the late ‘70s in San Diego, California, working in a manufacturing warehouse in shipping and logistics. Searching for a balance between school and work, it became clear that his heart was back in Topeka. He returned home and immediately went to work with his father and brother in the family business. Dan has spent his entire professional life in the family business. In the early ‘90s, as the business continued to grow, Dan and his older brother Richard Chavez began to take larger leadership roles within the company. The business expanded into other areas of restoration. The company is a leader in restoration services in NE Kansas, and along with their “blue trucks” it has been a staple in the community over the last 50 years.

Dan is an active member of Corpus Christi Church in Lawrence, Kansas. He enjoys volunteering for community events with Churches, Boys and Girls Club, and other civic groups where he lends a hand in connection to his love of music.

Dan is married to his wife Carla, an Instructional Facilitator for Auburn Washburn Public Schools for the last 17 years. They have established a uniquely blended family that includes seven children, five grandchildren, and 12 dogs. On the weekends, you will find Dan spending time with grandchildren or playing outside with his two dogs, Cooper and Rocky.

Butch Eaton

Butch Eaton is a founder and principal in Midwest Health Inc. Originally from Iowa, Mr. Eaton attended Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, now Truman State University. In 1966 he enlisted in the United States Air Force. At the conclusion of his service in 1970, Mr. Eaton enrolled at a local university to complete his degree. Mr. Eaton has been an active part of the Kansas Health Care Association, previously serving as Chairman and in multiple positions on the Board of Directors. He has also been active at the national level in the American Health Care Association.

Mr. Eaton is proud to support the Jayhawk Area Council Boy Scouts as well as the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Topeka Inc., The Junior League of Topeka, The Arthritis Foundation, The American Heart Association, The Alzheimer’s Association, Topeka Civic Theatre & Academy, Easter Seals Capper Foundation, The Shawnee County Parks and Recreation Foundation, and the Ronald McDonald House.

Mike Kiley

Mike Kiley is the Chief Executive Officer of Security Benefit Corporation, the 4th largest employer in Kansas (by revenue). Security Benefit is comprised of Security Benefit Life Insurance Company and SE 2 .

Mike came to Topeka in 2010 with the mandate to revitalize and grow Security Benefit, a 128-year-old Topeka institution. While Mike has served as CEO, Security Benefit has grown to more than $41 billion in assets under management (as of December 31, 2019), generated over $38 billion in sales, and created hundreds of new jobs in northeast Kansas. Forbes named SecurityBenefit a Best-in-State Employer in Kansas in 2019, and the company has been named to Ward’s 50® for 2020, a list of the top performing insurance companies in the U.S.

During his tenure, Security Benefit has become a leader in multiple segments of the U.S. Retirement market and in the competitive business process outsourcing industry. Their financial rating jumped from an average “B” rating in 2010 to the “A” range from S&P, Fitch and A.M. Best as of 2019. This success has allowed the company to give nearly $1 million annually through charitable and corporate contributions and investments in support of programs for the homeless, teachers, the arts, the education system and local law enforcement.

Mike has three decades of management experience in the Insurance, Investments, and Retirement industries. Prior to joining Security Benefit, he served as President and CEO of Van Kampen Investments, a division of Morgan Stanley. At Morgan Stanley, he also served as President and CEO of Morgan Stanley Funds Distributors, head of the U.S. Intermediary Group and as a principal in the Institutional Asset Management Group. Prior to that, Mike was President of the Travelers Portfolio Group, a division of Citigroup. He also held executive positions at AXA and Guardian Life.

Mike serves on a variety of boards of directors including the International Association of Fire Fighters Foundation, SE 2 , and others. He won Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year for the Heartland Region in 2018, and holds a B.A. from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Jim Klausman

Jim Klausman has been President and CEO of Midwest Health since 1977. He received his BA in Political Science from Washburn University, Topeka, in 1974. Mr. Klausman has been a licensed adult care administrator since 1974 and has served as administrator of several of the company’s facilities. He currently is responsible all company operations.

Mr. Klausman served as President of the Kansas Health Care Association, the industry’s largest trade association, in 1979 and again in 2007-2008. He is a past Chairman of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce. He served as the President of Northeast Kansas Junior Achievement and is currently on the board. In addition, Mr. Klausman is proud to presently serve on the Board of Directors of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Go Topeka, and the economic and development arm of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce.

Christel Marquardt

Christel Marquardt was born August 26, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois. She attended a Lutheran grade school and her family later moved to a chicken farm. She worked at the horse track across from the farm peeling potatoes to make money in junior high. She attended Crete-Monee High School where she played piano, clarinet saxophone, baritone sax, flute and won several competitions.

Following high school she worked at ACME Steel as a secretary until she had enough money to attend Concordia Teacher’s College. After two years of teaching at a two-room schoolhouse, she married and had four boys, moving from Chicago to California to Minnesota, and finally settling in Topeka.

While raising her children, she attended Missouri Western, and graduated with honors from Washburn Law School in 1974 where she was a managing editor of the Law Journal. She was later celebrated as a distinguished alum at both schools.

Following law school, she worked for Cosgrove, Webb, and Omen in Topeka, becoming a partner, and then started the law firm Palmer, Marquardt and Snyder. In 1985, she was named one of the Top Ten Business Women in America by the by American Business Women’s Association. In 1986 she became the first woman President of the Kansas Bar Association. She also received the KBA’s highest award – the Phil Lewis Medal of Distinction, and now her namesake award – the Christel Marquardt Trailblazer Award, an award names in her honor to recognize exceptional KBA members who break new ground, shatter glass ceilings or pave new paths for others.

She continued to practice law in Topeka, but when her kids settled in Kansas City and Chicago in the early 1990s, she moved to Lenexa and started a law practice with her son Andrew. After eighteen months, she was appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals where she served as a judge for 17 years.

Christel’s civic and community involvement and awards are too numerous to mention. Anyone that knew her understood besides her family, her passions were Washburn University, Washburn Law School, Topeka Symphony and equal rights for women. She was a Chair of the Washburn University Board of Regents and Chair of the Washburn University School of Law Board of Governors. She much enjoyed the fact that her birthday coincided with the historical date when women won the right to vote. In 1999, the Kansas Women Attorneys Association recognized Christel’s steadfast efforts on behalf of women practitioners, making her the first awardee to receive its prestigious Attorney of Achievement Award. Washburn University School of Law has also recognized her tireless efforts on its behalf, awarding her its Distinguished Service Award in 2002 and 2004. In 2014, the American Business Women’s Association also selected her to receive the Woman of Distinction Award.

Christel’s legacy of helping women in law and business will surely live on and be remembered for a very long time. She passed away on March 8, 2020.