TZL 1520 (web)

BUSINESS NEWS KAI FOUNDER MICHAEL KENNEDY, SR. AWARDED WITH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD DURING CONSTRUCTION INCLUSION WEEK KAI founder and chairman Michael E. Kennedy, Sr. was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award during Construction Inclusion Week held at Harris Stowe University in St. Louis. Founded by McCarthy Building Companies in 2020, Construction Inclusion Week is an annual week- long, industry-wide effort to champion change and cultivate a more inclusive construction industry. Now in its third year, the event has grown exponentially with more than 5,000 firms registered to participate nationwide. The event’s Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates the exceptional standards of construction excellence, dedication and accomplishment in the St. Louis region over a sustained period of time. Surrounded by family, Kennedy and Karl Grice of Grice Group Architects were honored with the award at Harris Stowe University’s Emerson Performance Center in front of a crowd of minority AEC industry organizations and businesses. “Kennedy has played an integral role in the creative, technical and professional progress as a minority business

development owner over the course of his professional life,” according to an email from McCarthy announcing the award recipients. Kennedy wanted to be an architect since age nine and became fascinated with construction watching homes being built in his Richmond Heights neighborhood designed by African American architect Charles Flemming. Despite a high school guidance counselor advising him in 1963 that Washington University’s schools of architecture “only took the cream of the crop and no negroes,” the university reached out to Kennedy in 1969 as the Civil Rights movement gained recognition and invited him to enter the School of Architecture as a graduate student with a degree in another subject. He then went on to study architecture at Washington University for an additional four years before finally became the first African American architect registered in the State of Missouri. He founded KAI in 1980 from his home office and grew the business alongside his oldest son Michael Kennedy, Jr., CEO, into one of the largest minority-owned AEC firms in the country with a diverse workforce of over 150 employees at its St. Louis headquarters and offices in Kansas City, Kansas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.

“Today is so appreciated, I am humbled by it,” said Kennedy. “I didn’t forget what my high school guidance counselor told me. As a 17-year-old, that went all the way to my marrow. Ever since then, I had two ambitions motivating me daily. One was to prove that he was wrong and the most important one was to demonstrate to my people that you can do it too. I couldn’t find a room with this many African American businesses in the construction industry here in the City of St. Louis when I started my career.” Over the course of his career, Kennedy and the KAI team have designed several notable St. Louis-area landmarks, including the St. Louis City Justice Center, St. Louis Metro Light Rail Stations, Clyde C. Miller Career Academy, Harris- Stowe’s William L. Clay Early Childhood Center, and the Downtown Gateway Transportation Center, among many others. Kennedy has also pursued numerous civic commitments to the St. Louis area, having served on the Board of Directors for the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, Forest Park Hospital, United Way of Greater St. Louis, St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association, American Red Cross and others.

surprised at the offerings at your nearby business college or university. 9. Mentor those who show the most potential. Spend time with them. Take them with you to meetings. Talk to them before and after work hours. Pose various business problems and opportunities to them to test their thinking. Add to this list! Email me at mzweig@zweiggroup.com with your additions and we will try to get them back out to our readers in a future communication! Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com. “When it comes to technical and design professionals, one thing we can probably all agree on is that no one goes into these fields because they are interested in business. If that was their passion or interest, they would have pursued a business education.”

MARK ZWEIG , from page 5

good way to ingratiate yourself with a current or potential client as well! 4. Watch inspirational films about entrepreneurs, either real or fictional, and then discuss them. There are many of them you could show! 5. Create an award that goes out monthly to someone in the firm who acted entrepreneurially, and award that publicly. Show that you value entrepreneurial behaviors. 6. Sell small amounts of ownership to your key people, and allow them to finance up to 100 percent of their stock purchase over time through payroll deduction. Make them think more like owners because they are owners. 7. Invite a different employee who is not on your board of directors to attend your board meetings each time they are held, to give people more exposure to strategy and business-related stuff than they would otherwise normally have. 8. Encourage and support those people who show the most entrepreneurial orientations to further their education by enrolling in college entrepreneurship courses. You may be

THE ZWEIG LETTER JANUARY 15, 2024, ISSUE 1520

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