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New Program Spotlight: Trulaske Trade Trek
The MU International Trade Center provided a group of 18 Trulaske College of Business undergraduate students with an opportunity to travel to Kansas City in March as part of a newexperiential learning opportunity called Trulaske Trade Trek. Students experienced global trade in action by visiting with exporters, importers, government and local trade resource professionals, local trade assets, and trade service organizations based in the Kansas City region.
First stop: Labconco Corporation. Labconco has been serving the scientific community since 1925, manufacturing laboratory equipment specialized in ventilation products. Through a global network of distributors, Labconco serves a variety of laboratory customers around the world, including universities, research centers, hospitals and government agencies. Students had the opportunity to speak with company representatives Nathan Ladd, Nathan Richardson and Mona Daniels to learn more about Labconco's products and their global business connections.
Our Trulaske Trade Trek adventure included an Industry Panel & Networking Session at the World Trade Center Kansas City. World Trade Center Kansas City connects its business community to the people, companies, data and government agencies that make up the fabric of global commerce in the greater Kansas City region. In 2022, the Kansas City metropolitan area exported USD 9.6 billion, a 4.8% increase from the previous year, making them the 40th largest exporter among U.S. metro areas. Companies located in the Kansas City region benefit from the community's global connectivity worldwide.
Trulaske College of Business students heard from global professionals like Drew Felling from Commerce Bank, Jennifer Kahmannwith The Scarbrough Group, Pinki Thakker at Commercial Service Kansas City and Melissa A. Miller at the World Trade Center Kansas City about best practices for companies engaged in global trade and career insights for global business professionals.
Trulaske Trade Trek students had the opportunity to connect with Dave Johnson, an alum of the college and current Trulaske Dean's Advisory Board member. Mr. Johnson is founder and principal of Chicken N Pickle, opening its first location in North Kansas City in 2016.
Chicken N Pickle is an indoor/outdoor entertainment complex with a restaurant and sports bar, offering pickleball courts and yard games like shuffleboard and cornhole. Chicken N Pickle has rapidly expanded to include nine locations across the U.S. today, with plans to open 16 additional venues by mid-2025. Part of the company's roadmap to success involves introducing more people to the game of pickleball!
Next stop: Port KC. Port KC’s mission is to grow the economy of Kansas City's port district through transportation, global commerce and development. The organization is focused on revitalization of blighted areas, improving port infrastructure and increasing waterborne commerce.
After closing in 2007, Governor Michael L. Parson Port Terminal (formerly known as Woodswether Terminal) reopened in the West Bottoms area in 2015. Since then, the port has moved more than 150 barges and handled more than 250,000 tons of commodities. A new initiative of Port KC is the Missouri River Terminal, a project centered around the redevelopment of a former steel mill into a state-of-the-art multimodal inland port.
Students had an opportunity to hear firsthand from Richard Grenville, Maitland Mehlhaff and Meredith Hoenes on how transportation plays a key role in making Kansas City a global trade destination. Trulaske Trade Trek travelled underground to meet with Hunt Midwest, where students had the opportunity to learn and experience firsthand the SubTropolis!
Hunt Midwest is a Kansas City-based, privately held real estate development company with six decades of expertise in industrial, self-storage, residential, multifamily and senior living communities. Company representatives Mike Bell, Ryan Tompkins and Morgan Mutert joined us 150 feet below Kansas City, in the immense man-made cave nestled in the bluffs north of the Missouri River where SubTropolis is located. Students toured the "World's Largest Underground Business Complex," where 1,600 people work in a facility spanning an incredible 55 million square feet of space. SubTropolis is part of the Greater Kansas City Foreign Trade Zone.
Students were able to visit with Masterack, a business unit of JB Poindexter & Co, an industry leader in the design and manufacturing of high quality commercial grade van and pickup cargo management solutions for some of the nation’s largest fleets and auto makers. How cool: Manufacturing in a cave!
Last stop on our Trulaske Trade Trek to Kansas City was ULTRAX Aerospace. Students met with Troy Prewitt and Dave Petet to learn more about ULTRAX's global business network. With technology deployed worldwide, ULTRAX counts among its customers all branches of the U.S. military, foreign militaries, aircraft original equipment manufacturers, maintenance repair and overhauls, and both business and commercial aviation enterprises, leaving a significant global footprint. The company offers testing equipment, operational test program sets, control and relay panels, controllers, interconnect devices, fault monitors and other products.
Students had the opportunity to spend some time in the research and discovery lab, where they learned more about the company's technology that features condition-based intelligence, designing, development and risk mitigation solutions. What a great way to end our amazing adventure!
Students participating in the Trade Trek shared positive feedback about the experience:
“The Trulaske Trade Trek provided an opportunity to make connections and learn from professionals in Missouri who are focused on driving economic development. Highlights of our trip included going to Port KC and SubTropolis, and to a networking reception discussing the future of international trade in Missouri. Trulaske Trade Trek has provided me with knowledge and connections that I plan to utilize in my career.”
“The Trulaske Trade Trek is an experience that gives a fantastic picture of global trade in such a short amount of time. This is truly one of the best College of Business experiences I have had.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed the many opportunities to learn about different international operations through several companies. I was also able to connect and network with like-minded individuals who share the same passion as I do. Overall, a great opportunity.”
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