Devin Anderson joined E&A Cos. in 1997 and has been CEO and partner since 2003. Along with business partner Al Hubbard, Anderson buys small but successful companies and helps accelerate their growth. One of E&A’s success stories is Udi’s Gluten Free Foods. When E&A acquired a majority stake in Colorado-based Udi’s in 2010, the company had annual revenue of $6 million. Anderson became the food company’s CEO at that time and guided it through rapid growth. In 2012, E&A sold Udi’s to margarine maker Smart Balance Inc. for $125 million. Before joining E&A, Anderson served in multiple political and government leadership positions in the Republican Party, including serving as chief of staff to former Indiana congressman David McIntosh and to former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats. Anderson graduated from Franklin College and currently serves on the school’s board of trustees. He is also board chair for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
Archives: Profiles
David Becker
David Becker launched First Internet Bank in 1999 as an industry pioneer in the branchless delivery of banking services. Today, he is chair and CEO of the bank and its parent, First Internet Bancorp, a bank holding company with assets of $4.7 billion. Becker has a 40-year career of creating successful entrepreneurial companies in financial services technology, or fintech, and software-as-a-service, or SaaS, having created and sold five Inc. 500 companies.
Job swap: “I’d be a photographer.”
Sabbatical topic: “It would be frigid, but I would love to explore Antarctica.”
Improving Indiana: “I would promote efforts to reform the state’s economy and workforce development system to deliver better outcomes for individuals, employers and the state’s economy.”
Tim Cook
Tim Cook leads Katz Sapper & Miller, one of the city’s largest accounting firms, with 600-plus employees. In May, the company announced plans to acquire Cassady Schiller CPAs & Advisors, a 70-person firm based in Cincinnati. KSM also has offices in Evansville, Fort Wayne, New York City and Oklahoma City. Cook, an attorney by training, joined the firm in 2003 to establish a state and local tax practice. Previously, he worked at Ernst & Young and the Indiana Department of Revenue. He serves on the boards of Heartland Film and the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee.
Something surprising: “I was an aspiring screenwriter and had a Hollywood agent.”
Worries about: “Being wrong and not recognizing I’m wrong.”
Advice for a young person: “Listen. If there is one trait that is most valuable as well as universal across all industries, it is to be a good listener.”
Michael Ash
Michael Ash is regional president for Fifth Third Bank, a job he’s held since September 2020. In this role, he oversees the growth of the business, commercial, wealth and asset management and consumer business units for a region that extends across Indiana and also includes western Kentucky, southern Illinois and Missouri. Previously, he served as Louisville regional president. Ash joined Fifth Third in 2003 as part of the bank’s Indianapolis commercial banking team. An Indianapolis native, he moved to Kentucky in 2010 where he served as Fifth Third’s Lexington market president.
Favorite gadget: “My Hewlett Packard HP12c calculator. It has been the one device that has been with me throughout my entire career and is considered the gold standard for financial calculators.”
Toughest challenge: “Twice in my career I’ve taken a step back in position and/or pay in order to learn something new and chart a different path. Those moves eventually paid off.”
Tanya Walton Pratt
In 2021, Judge Tanya Walton Pratt became the first person of color to be chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. This milestone followed her 2010 appointment as a district judge, which made her the first Black federal judge in Indiana history. In her role as chief judge, she oversees day-to-day court administration of one of the state’s two federal district courts. Pratt, a graduate of Howard University School of Law, previously served as supervising judge of the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center. She currently serves on the board of the Federal Judges Association and Marion County Bar Association.
Lesson learned: “You can’t do it all. Surround yourself with a well-qualified team and delegate. Trust the leaders of the organization to do their jobs.”
Worry: Climate change. “The planet is changing rapidly, and I worry about the world we are leaving for my grandchildren.”
Dawn Rosemond
Dawn Rosemond has been with Barnes & Thornburg for 28 years—her entire legal career. In 2016, she took on the role of firm diversity partner, in which she leads and activates the firm’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion across its entire 23-office footprint. She’s responsible for driving the DEI strategy and developing programming and initiatives to promote the recruiting, retention and advancement of diverse talent. She remains an equity partner in the litigation department. She is also founder of Reign Today, a leadership and personal development firm, and host of the “Standing in the Reign” podcast.
Toughest challenge: “The toughest challenge I’ve ever overcome is me. One can spend so much time with the lower version of themselves that even the thought of evolving (of an elevated model) is offensive. That was me. I spent more of my life (more of my career certainly), not thinking that I was enough. … I was fighting my own growth. So glad the old me lost that battle.”
Melissa Proffitt
A partner who is now in charge of client relations at Ice Miller, Melissa Proffitt practices as an employee benefits tax lawyer and is chair of the Food and Agribusiness Group. She serves on more than 15 community boards, including as vice chair of the Indy Chamber and chair of the Indiana University Women’s Philanthropy Leadership Council. She is a member of the team advising IU President Pam Whitten on the separation of IUPUI into two schools. Proffitt also has worked on political campaigns for U.S. Sen. Todd Young and former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, among others.
Leadership: “My favorite part about being a leader is: (1) making things happen, I am a “doer”; (2) watching others demonstrate their skills and grow as professionals, who then themselves become leaders; and (3) connecting people. … Finally, I love to connect people, on a one-one-one basis, to help promote their success and success in our city. Relationships are fundamental to all that we do. They build trust, loyalty and stability.”
Bryan Bedford
Bryan Bedford has worked in the airline industry for more than 35 years. He joined Republic in July 1999 as president and CEO. Previously, he served as president and CEO of Mesaba Holdings Inc. in Minneapolis, as well as Business Express Airlines Inc. in Boston. During his years at the helm of Republic, the airline has grown from $85 million in revenue and 36 turboprop aircraft to more than $1.3 billion in revenue and an operating fleet of over 230 E-Jet aircraft.
First job: Busing tables at a local IHOP during his sophomore year of high school. “The owner spent the first week showing me how to do everything from bus tables to clean the bathrooms. He impressed upon me that no job is too small to do well and that a real leader will get their hands dirty because they can make a difference. I still think about how formative that was for me as I became a leader in my own right.”
Andrea Pierson
As a partner in Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath’s product liability and mass torts practice group, Andrea Pierson serves as client service team leader for numerous multinational corporations. She also is lead trial counsel for product manufacturers and sellers in courts across the country. Her primary focus is defending life sciences manufacturers in high-stakes trials and multi-district litigation. She’s also defended clients in complex and catastrophic injury trials.
First job: Waitress. “I learned that great customer service is the key to nearly every other job you will ever have.”
Lesson learned: “Listen more than you talk. Be decisive; don’t waffle. Always build a bridge upon which your counterpart can retreat, and don’t be afraid to take the bridge that someone else offers.”
Victor Smith
A former Indiana secretary of commerce and Silicon Valley engineering company CEO, Victor Smith now is chair of the Bose McKinney’s Site Selection and Economic Incentives practice group. The group specializes in negotiating federal, state and local incentives for companies embarking on new developments or expansions. He focuses on high-wage “next generation economy” projects of a national scale in industries such as semiconductor fabrication, pharmaceutical manufacturing, Tier 1 automotive suppliers, animal health, steel fabrication, and aviation—projects worth tens of billions of dollars managed from the firm’s Indianapolis office.
First job: “Each of my four high school summers were spent working as a laborer for an industrial construction company. It was hard work and hot work.”
Most admire: “My wife of 29 years, Kathleen. … After a very successful and dedicated career as a stay-at-home mother to our three children, Kathleen earned her master’s degree from Wake Forest and now serves as a licensed mental health counselor.”