Business & Industry
The Kansas City metro is headquarters to a regional Federal Reserve Bank, the world's largest concentration of animal health companies, and several employers whose scale or history is documented, not assumed.
Cerner (Oracle Health)
Founded in Kansas City in 1979, Cerner grew to become the metro's largest private employer, with more than 12,700 local employees across four area campuses before Oracle acquired it for $28.3 billion in 2022. The company, now operating as Oracle Health, continues to anchor Kansas City's health information technology sector.
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Endowed at roughly $2.7 billion, the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation is one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the country built specifically around entrepreneurship, alongside education and civic development. Its research and grantmaking have shaped how cities nationwide track and support startup activity.
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Kansas City is home to one of only twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in the country, established in 1914 to oversee the Tenth Federal Reserve District: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and western Missouri. Since 1978, the bank has hosted the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, whose 2003 and 2005 papers on derivatives risk are now viewed as early warnings of the 2008 financial crisis.
Garmin
Garmin's operational headquarters sits in Olathe, Kansas, where the company designs the GPS, aviation, and marine electronics that made it a global navigation technology leader. Its G1000 integrated cockpit system, FAA-certified in 2004, became a standard fixture across general and commercial aviation, and Garmin was first to bring real-time live sonar imaging to recreational anglers with its Panoptix line.
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark has been headquartered in Kansas City since founder Joyce Hall moved his postcard business there in 1910, and it remains one of the largest greeting card manufacturers in the United States and privately held by the Hall family more than a century later, a rarity among companies of its scale.
Kansas City Animal Health Corridor
The stretch running roughly between Manhattan, Kansas, and Columbia, Missouri, is home to more than 300 animal health companies, a concentration the industry calls the world's single largest cluster of animal health interests, accounting for an estimated 56% of global animal health, diagnostic, and pet food sales.