Jimmie McMillian serves as chief diversity officer and senior corporate counsel at Penske Entertainment Corp., which includes IndyCar, IMS Productions and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He’s charged with implementing the Race for Equality & Change, a Penske initiative to provide opportunities for underrepresented women and men in motorsports. McMillian is chair of the board of the Marion County Public Defender Agency and serves on the board of United Way of Central Indiana, Indianapolis Urban League and Miracle Ride. He serves as president of 317 Ryders Motorcycle Club and has been chair of The Racing Attorneys Conference. He previously was a partner at Barnes & Thornburg.
Archives: Profiles
Lawren Mills
Lawren Mills is a partner with Ice Miller LLP and chair of the law firm’s Public Affairs Group, leading a team of 25 professionals across the United States and Washington, D.C. She focuses on state and federal public affairs management, including government procurement, legislative representation, public-private partnership coordination and administrative law. She previously served as then-Gov. Mitch Daniels’ chief lobbyist and as senior policy director in his administration focused on Medicaid, public health and child welfare. During her time in state government, Mills helped to develop the Healthy Indiana Plan.
Advice for a young person: “Nametags go on the right side. Yes, even if you’re left-handed. Lapel pins go on the left side.”
Favorite gadget: “Probably my sound machine and my Theragun. Yep, I guess that makes me old.”
Walk-up song: “One Day More” from Les Miserables or “Work B**ch” by Britney Spears. “Yes, I realize they are quite the dichotomy.”
Chuck Magro
Chuck Magro has been CEO of Indianapolis-based Corteva Agriscience, a maker of agricultural seeds, insecticides and herbicides, since November 2021. He serves on the boards of CropLife International, the Business Roundtable, the IMAGINE Food Collective, Ingredion, and the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. Before joining Corteva, Magro was president and CEO of Nutrien, from when it launched in 2018 until April 2021. He had been president and CEO of Agrium previously; it merged with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan to create Nutrien.
Bob Hicks
Bob Hicks is a firmwide chairman and managing partner of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, the 50th largest law firm by lawyer headcount in the United States. Hicks joined Sommer Barnard before it merged into Taft in 2008 and moved into his current role in 2017. As chairman and managing partner, Hicks oversees the strategic direction and management of the firm. Last fall, Hicks announced a new partnership between Taft and Maryland-based company SkillBurst Interactive to launch training on generative artificial intelligence for lawyers and other professionals.
First job: He started working as a paper boy for The Indianapolis Star at age 9. “My parents had to obtain a waiver because I was 3 years younger than the minimum age.”
Something surprising: He takes an annual motorcycle ride through state and national parks, sometimes visiting Nevada, Montana and Wyoming.
Leadership lesson: “A true leader ‘eats last’ in the food line and should see himself/herself as a servant to those he/she leads.”
Paul Mitchell
As founding president and CEO of Energy Systems Network, Paul Mitchell leads the Indiana not-for-profit that helps accelerate the development and commercialization of advanced energy and transportation technologies, such as autonomous vehicles, smart grids and hydrogen power. The consortium of businesses and institutions, such as Duke Energy and Purdue University, has incubated and launched more than $1 billion in joint ventures, multi-company partnerships and startups. Mitchell also serves as chair and president of Indy Autonomous Challenge Inc., which organizes fully autonomous racing competitions among global research university teams.
Favorite thing about being a leader: “The freedom to seek out [a] big challenge and then seek technologies and build coalitions of people to solve them.”
Leadership lesson: “Plan for 3-5 years out—that’s the sweet spot for solving worthwhile problems.”
Worries about: “That the U.S. won’t produce enough energy to support the 21st Century re-industrialization and power AI. And that China will.”
Ken Zagzebski
Ken Zagzebski returned in August to the top job at the Indianapolis utility, where he served as CEO from 2011 to 2014 and as interim CEO from July 2015 to June 2016 when the company was known as Indianapolis Power & Light. AES serves about 500,000 customers in central Indiana. In recent years, he’s focused on the construction of two combined cycle gas turbines in southern California.
Job swap: “I would be a head high school football coach. I love the strategy of the game and the ability to work with students in developing life-long values and memories.”
Toughest challenge: “I was a walk-on for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s football team. My first year, I was the 12th of 12 fullbacks on the depth chart. I ended up starting on the varsity team, earning three letters.”
Jeff Simmons
Jeff Simmons has been president and CEO of Elanco Animal Health since the public company completed its spinoff from Eli Lilly and Co. in 2019—but he was leading Elanco for Lilly for more than a decade even before that. In 2020, Simmons announced Elanco would build a $100 million headquarters campus at the former GM stamping plant in downtown Indianapolis. This year, the company sold its aqua business line to Merck Animal Health and announced it is developing a shared-use facility with Purdue in downtown Indianapolis.
Advice for a young person: “Leaders are at all levels at Elanco. There are four powerful words that can change everything: What if? Why not? Ask these as often as possible. Ask them to yourself and those around you—and watch the impact. Small groups using these four powerful words have changed Elanco and our people for the better.”
Pets: “As I’ve transitioned to having grown kids out on their own, our beloved labs, Lilly and Laken, keep our home feeling full and active and are a No. 1 reason for our kids to come visit.”
Jeffrey Harrison
Jeffrey Harrison is president and CEO of Citizens Energy Group, the locally owned utility that provides natural gas, thermal energy, water and wastewater services to more than 800,000 customers in the Indianapolis area. Harrison has held the top spot at Citizens Energy Group since 2015 and has worked at the utility for 20 years. The company is in the midst of a project that began last year to replace customer-owned lead service lines in conjunction with the Indianapolis Department of Public Works. Harrison also serves on the boards of a host of Indiana organizations, including Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana, the Indianapolis Urban League, Marian University, Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and United Way of Central Indiana.
Something surprising: “I am an introvert.”
Most admired: “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He believed in equality for all and died for his belief.”
Randy Kron
Randy Kron started farming in the 1980s by raising yellow corn, white corn, soybeans and wheat near Evansville. His first involvement in the Farm Bureau was as a young farmer representative on the county board. Now he’s been president of the Indiana Farm Bureau for eight years after serving as vice president for 14 years. This year, the organization set up a task force to examine what’s driving a farmer’s tax burden. Kron also serves on the board of the Indiana Grain Indemnity Corp.
Something to change about Indiana: “The importance of high-speed internet down to the last acre to help families, farms and businesses function. According to the 2022 Ag Census, 28% of farms in Indiana don’t have reliable broadband.”
Worries about: “That the general public may not understand agriculture and the importance of farmers. Most people probably don’t realize what goes into growing the food that they purchase at the grocery store.”
Mitch Frazier
Mitch Frazier is chief executive officer of AgriNovus, a not-for-profit focused on growing the ag-tech and ag-bioscience economy. It’s a role he’s held since June 2020. Previously, he led a regional John Deere retailer and worked at Salesforce and ExactTarget. In April, he was part of a delegation to Brazil for an economic development trip with Gov. Eric Holcomb. He is chair of the Indiana State Fair Commission, a member of U.S. Sen. Mike Braun’s Agriculture Advisory Committee and has served on the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority.
Something surprising: “I served in the Army as an enlisted soldier for five years and then volunteered to deploy to Iraq as an Army civilian in 2004.”
First job: “Working at a fast food restaurant. The owner set an example, demonstrated no one was above any task and personally ensured everyone was working toward delivering a positive experience for customers. I remember her saying, ‘If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.'”