Boyer & Corporon Wealth Management has announced a change in leadership.
Richard Boyer has taken over as CEO from Mindy Corporon. In addition, he will maintain his role as chief investment officer.
Corporon will focus her efforts as president of the Faith Always Wins Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization she founded in 2015 a year after her father, son and another woman were gunned down at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park.
Corporon said she remains an “interested shareholder” and ambassador for the firm she and Boyer founded in 2007.
The process of transitioning began in 2015, Corporon said in an interview.
“When we started the company and before the shooting, we had always expected that I would be there longer than (Boyer) would and that I would carry everything on through to the next generation. But when shooting happened, my path just changed, and really was changed for me. …
“In 2015, we felt like we needed to go ahead and start the succession plan with the intention of either Rich leaving at some point or me leaving at some point. But in 2015, we didn’t know when that would be.”
In starting that process, the firm identified three “next generation” leaders, Corporon said. In 2016, Brian Hackleman, Laura Carley and Eric Clark became owners and have been serving in executive leadership roles. The firm has been talking with clients about the transition, Corporon said, and letting them know that the succession plan is in place to take the firm far into the future.
For Corporon, the transition comes at a time that is right for her and the firm.
“The foundation and what we stand for is so important and meaningful to me,” she said. “I just have this deep desire to be in that work. And I feel very confident that our firm is in a really good, stable position so that I can step away.”
Still, she said, leaving a position she thought she would be in for the rest of her career was personally challenging.
“It’s like giving my baby up for adoption — I became really not the right parent for it, and Richard and the other people in leadership are going to be better stewards of it because my attention has become more focused on the foundation,” Corporon said. “So I’m very grateful to them that they allowed me to walk that path and to be able to leave. It’s been hard on all of us — it’s been a process, for sure. But they are totally committed.”
The move allows her to focus on spreading the foundation’s mission of helping others heal. The foundation founded an annual event called Seven Days Make a Ripple Change the World, which takes place April 10-16. The full schedule of events, which are open to the public and take place throughout the metro, is at GiveSevenDays.org.
Seven Days invites 14 charities to participate in its Faith, Love & Walk because Corporon’s son, Reat Underwood, was 14 years old when he was killed. Endeavors supported by the foundation include performing arts and medical initiatives — which reflect the interests of Underwood and Corporon’s father, Dr. William Corporon.
Corporon said her life’s experiences have led her to her work through the foundation and Seven Days.
“I feel like I’m supposed to be working in that area. I feel like all the experiences that I’ve had up to this point, not including the shooting but everything in my life — in my business life, and all the travel I’ve done, the people that I’ve met and the level of knowledge I’ve been achieving — I feel like that’s really launching me to now go in a completely different direction, but still in a leadership position, of helping people find that they can find healing after trauma. People can find kindness and overcome evil that has either happened to them or happened in their life or happened around them.”
