UofL President Kim Schatzel named among most influential people in Louisville

President Kim Schatzel’s influence in the city of Louisville is being recognized after just one year at the helm of the University of Louisville.

Schatzel was named among Louisville Business First’s Power 50 for 2024, which identifies the city’s most influential people in business and related communities. She secured a position on the fourth annual edition of the list after being included in the publication’s “Five on the Rise” in 2023.

Arriving at UofL in February 2023, Schatzel hit the ground running with more than 40 listening sessions that included 1,200 people both on campus and in the community. The listening tour resulted in plans to increase student success, enhance research and innovation and raise the university’s profile in the community and beyond, which she laid out in https://news.louisville.edu/news/president-schatzel-outlines-8-prioriti… for her first full semester as UofL president, all before her inauguration on Sept. 29.

Louisville Business First selected the Power 50 from individuals nominated by the public and those covered in the publication’s own reporting and sourcing, which did not include elected officials.

Returning to the Power 50 list is UofL Health CEO Tom Miller, who has led the university’s academic health system since early 2019. Miller led the integration of the hospitals and medical centers of the former KentuckyOne Health into the organization, creating one of the city’s largest health systems and its only academic medical center. Miller currently is overseeing the construction of UofL Health – South Hospital to increase access to health care for residents of Bullitt County and southern Jefferson County.

The 2024 Power 50 list also includes major university donors Christina Lee Brown and Steve Trager. Brown provided foundational funding for the UofL Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and New Vision of Health Campus in downtown Louisville. The Trager family funded the UofL Trager Institute/Republic Bank Foundation Optimal Aging Clinic, the Trager Center indoor athletic practice facility and the Trager MicroForest Project at Founder’s Square.

Former UofL Trustees Junior Bridgeman, Sandra Frazier, Kevin Cosby and Phoebe Wood – all of whom made the list in 2023 – are on the list again in 2024.

UofL alumni also wield power in the community, and a dozen made the Power 50 list in 2024:

• Junior Bridgeman, ’75, Owner, Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and Bridgeman Sports and Media
• Russell Cox, ’81, President and CEO, Norton Healthcare Inc.
• Steve Trager, ’85, Chairman, Republic Bank & Trust Co. and CEO, Republic Bankcorp Inc.
• Earl Winebrenner, ’88, Managing Member, Winebrenner Capital Management LLC
• Kevin Cogan, ’79, Owner/CEO, Jefferson Development Group
• Condrad Daniels, ’03, President, HJI Supply Chain Solutions
• Chris Dischinger, ’90, Co-founder and Principal, LDG Development
• Ryan Bridgeman, ’04, President and CEO, Manna Inc.
• Debbie Ford, ‘87, Chancellor, Indiana University Southeast
• Todd Spencer, ’93, Executive Chairman, Doe-Anderson
• Andre Kimo Stone Guess, ’90, President & CEO, Fund for the Arts
• John Hollenbach, ’16, Managing Partner, Hollenbach Oakley

Marcus Withers, ‘00, owner, MKM Investment Group and The Property Group LLC, and dealer principal, Withers Automotive, was on the 2024 “5 on the Rise” list of business and community leaders LBF believes will make waves in the coming year.

A profile of each of the honorees will be published in print and online March 29.