Meet Bob Brettell

I was born outside Philadelphia, PA in a time before Rocky.  I moved to San Diego at 14 and graduated from Junipero Serra High School.  After high school, I followed in the footsteps of my forefathers and joined the Army, serving 3 years on active duty with the 18th Airborne Corp (Ft Bragg, NC) and 2nd Brigade 3D Infantry Division (Wurzburg, FRG) and 5 years in the Reserves (Ft. Meade, MD & the Military District of Washington).

Thanks to the GI Bill, I was able to obtain an undergraduate degree in History with a minor in English.  Thanks to taking out a ton of student loan debt, I was able to earn a joint JD/MBA (with a Finance concentration) from the University of Kansas (Rock Chalk!) and an LLM (Tax) from the University of Missouri – Kansas City (Go Roos!). 

After stints with Utilicorp and later Aquila, and a brief dalliance with the actual practice of law, I turned back to business, becoming the first non-family COO in the history of the 2nd largest RE/MAX region in the world.  With operations spanning 5 states and over 50 employees, 8,000 real estate agents and 300 broker/owners, this my first real experience deploying the leadership lessons I learned in the Army.  After successfully leading the company to double-digit profit margin increases, I transitioned back to the energy industry, joining Tyr Energy in Overland Park as its Senior Director of Acquisitions & Integration.  With the experience of working with the largest Wall Street banks and law firms under my belt, I decided to open my own firm helping small businesses access professional investment advice and acquiring an interest in a securities broker-dealer along the way.

Since 2012, I’ve owned and operated an economic development consulting boutique serving the largest energy firms, agricultural commodities merchants and building materials companies in the US.  To date we count over $20,000,000,000 in enterprise value generated, 1,000s of good-paying jobs (with the opportunity to join unions) created, and the generational development of public assets by private developers through federal infrastructure programs among our successes.

My family consists of both humans and dogs.  My Mrs., Kristi, is a western Kansas farm girl – go Belpre! – who works in marketing for an educational software firm.  Our oldest, Sophie, is a 2022 graduate of Shawnee Mission East and current KSU Wildcat (EMAW!) where she is a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority.  Our next oldest is Charlotte who attends St. Teresa’s Academy where she actively assists the lacrosse team along with all her other charitable and academic pursuits.  Esmae follows next and is a current SME freshman and cross country runner.  Finally, Logan is our youngest and our last at Academie Lafayette in KCMO (but soon to be a Lancer!); he’s active in baseball, soccer, track, basketball and flag football. We’re kept safe and entertained by 3 mixed breed shelter dogs in order of age, not beauty:  Lucy, Margeaux and Stella.

When we’re not trying to figure out what’s for dinner and how to get kids to sporting events, we enjoy visiting our country’s beautiful national parks, watching baseball – like, a LOT of baseball - walking our dogs and enjoying the areas abundant, delicious restaurants.