In 1996, Jo Anne joined the Management Consulting Group of Ernst & Young, LLP (E&Y) in their Kansas City office. While at Ernst & Young, Jo Anne spent much of her consulting time leading teams on business process improvement and IT projects for Fortune 500 companies.

Using $5,000 of her own money, in 1999, Jo Anne founded Adams-Gabbert & Associates, Inc., a professional services firm that is committed to the success of its clients. The company specializes in consulting, project management, and process analysis with the focus on improving business operations. Jo Anne established Adams-Gabbert to also provide management professionals the rewards of offering clients affordable, quality service while maintaining a positive work-life balance.
Jo Anne manages the Operations, Sales, and Business Development areas of Adams-Gabbert.

Jo Anne is a proud member the Central Exchange, the Kansas City Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the Kansas City Council of Women Business Owners (KC-CWBO) and WIPP (Women Impacting Public Policy). She serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce as Vice-Chair of Leadership and Membership, KC Chapter of NAWBO, The Family Conservancy and Citizens Union Bank.

Adams-Gabbert was recently honored as a Top 25 Under 25 Company by Small Business Monthly. In 2003 the company was recognized by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce as one their "Top Ten Small Businesses of the Year". The Lee's Summit Chamber of Commerce selected Adams-Gabbert as their "Small Business of the Year" for 2003. Jo Anne has also been honored as a Regional Finalist in the "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year" awards program in 2001, 2003 and 2004.

In 2004, for the third consecutive year, Adams-Gabbert was selected as a "Top Diversity Owned Business in Missouri" by Div2000.com. The Div50 represents the leading diversity (women and minority) owned businesses in each state.

Janis Sportsman is Vice President, Client Services, responsible for leading strategy and delivery of services and solutions. Janis brings leadership and subject matter expertise in the area of Business Planning, Enterprise Program Management, Project Portfolio Management, Strategic Alignment of Project Selection and Prioritization, Change Management and End-to-End Process Improvement.

Janis has 20 years of professional experience; 18 years in the financial services industry and 2 years in the travel industry. In both industries, Janis has held positions in sales, operations, and business management.

Prior to joining Adams-Gabbert & Associates, Inc., Janis spent 10 years with Citi Cards, a division of Citigroup, where she held the position of Vice President, Strategy and Prioritization. Janis' direct responsibilities included Business Planning and Prioritization, the Strategic Project Office and an Enterprise Project Management Office within the Office of the Chairman. Janis provided strategic management consulting across multiple divisions of Citigroup on the topic of Project Portfolio Management.

Janis is also a well known subject matter expert and spokesperson on the topic of Project Prioritization for Business Value Maximization. Her audiences include the International Six Sigma in Financial Services conference and various service oriented companies in the U.S. and Europe.

As a member of the Adams-Gabbert executive team, Kara is responsible for driving all strategic and operational initiations related to the Human Resources and Administration functions.

Kara has over 12 years experience in Human Resources management with the professional services industry.  Specifically, her areas of expertise include Associate Relations, Compensation and Benefits, Recruitment and Selection, and Training and Development.  Prior to joining Adams-Gabbert & Associates, Kara held various roles in Human Resource management with RSM McGladrey, Inc., KPMG LLP, and Arthur Andersen LLP.

Kara graduated from William Jewell College, a private liberal arts college, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.  Kara also holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification from the Society of Human Resources.  Additionally, Kara is an active member of the Kansas City chapter of Human Resource Management Association.

Away from the office, Kara is actively involved with the MS Society, Harvesters, and several other charitable organizations for women and children.
 

Joe began his professional career with Black & Veatch, a consulting engineering firm headquartered in Kansas City, before moving on to work as a management consultant for Ernst & Young.  In 2002, Joe left Ernst &Young to join Adams-Gabbert.  He brings over fourteen years of experience in consulting, including project management, business analysis, facilitation, business process improvement, and application development and implementation.

 Since joining Adams-Gabbert, Joe has spent time with Birch Telecom, Sprint, Blue Cross-Blue Shield of KC, Aquila, KU Hospital, Boilermakers National Fund, Embarq, Unified Government of K.C. Kansas/Wyandotte County, and the General Services Administration.  As the Director of Process Improvement Solutions, his primary responsibilities include Client Services delivery and leading the Business Process Improvement service line.

 Joe is also experienced with project management assessments, facilitation, process mapping, business requirements definition, process transformation, gap analysis, and business operations analysis.  At Adams-Gabbert, Joe continues to develop the Business Process Improvement offering, which can be used as a competitive tool that allows companies to identify and enhance core business processes while ensuring alignment with their organizational strategies. 

Joe earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska and an MBA from the University of Kansas.  He holds a Professional Engineer license in the state of Kansas