MoveMakers & NewsMakers for July 1, 2021

St. Louis | Kansas City

St. Louis

Cheryl D.S. Walker, interim president and CEO of Deaconess Foundation and an experienced lawyer, has been elected to the legal board of directors for Midwest BankCentre .

Walker leads the Walker Commercial Law Group LLC, where she applies 30 years of legal experience to creating innovative business and legal solutions for clients; structuring complex commercial transactions; and negotiating commercial design and construction agreements. In her role with Deaconess Foundation, she leads a faith-based grantmaking organization supporting child well-being in St. Louis through philanthropy, advocacy, and organizing for racial equity and public policy change.

Walker possesses notable skills in capacity building, visioning, strategic planning and executive search leadership through her varied professional and community leadership roles. She serves as chair of the Missouri Ethics Commission, president of the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, vice president of the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, board member for St. Louis Business Empowerment Center and as a commissioner on the Tower Grove Park Board. She is an Alexis de Tocqueville cabinet member for the United Way of Greater St. Louis and a trustee for the Whitaker Foundation, centered on enhancing the arts and encouraging use of urban parks.

She formerly served on the University of Missouri Board of Curators, which she chaired in 2008. She co-chaired the Presidential Search Committee that selected Dr. Mun Y. Choi as the 24th president of the University of Missouri system.

Walker has been recognized among St. Louis’ Most Influential Business Women by the St. Louis Business Journal and as a Most Inspiring St. Louisan by the NAACP, St. Louis chapter. She was recognized for impactful leadership by Women of Achievement and received the Excellence in the Legal Profession award from the National Society of Black Engineers, St. Louis Chapter.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Missouri University of Science & Technology and her law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Midwest BankCentre’s current assets exceed $2 billion and deposits total more than $1.5 billion. A mainstay of the greater St. Louis community banking scene since 1906, the bank employs a staff of about 280 working at 18 bank locations in the City of St. Louis, St. Louis, Jefferson and St. Charles counties in Missouri and St. Clair County in Illinois. 

Kansas City

Dysart Taylor Cotter McMonigle & Brumitt, PC is pleased to announce that of counsel attorney Robert W. Cotter will be retiring, effective July 1, 2021, from the firm that bears his name. Cotter’s retirement is 47 years to the exact day he joined the firm in 1974 as a law clerk.

“Bob is an excellent attorney who is able to tackle any number of cases, but that is not his legacy. He’s not only a consummate professional who provides sound legal counsel, he also exemplifies the utmost character and heart for each and every client,” Managing Director Amanda Pennington Ketchum said. “He retires from this firm having given it the values and culture that have been the true source of our success. I cannot imagine how Dysart Taylor could have achieved all that we have without his leadership.”

Cotter has spent the last four decades successfully defending cases involving wrongful death, personal injury and property damage in state and federal courts throughout the Midwest. He was elected as a partner in 1979, became a named partner in 1996, and served as the firm’s president from 1999 to 2017 when he took an of counsel position.

Cotter has become a highly regarded litigator with extensive experience representing many of the nation’s largest aviation and insurance companies and their insureds. In addition, he advises numerous small and medium-sized businesses on various corporate matters as an outside general counsel.

Cotter will continue to be an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association and serve as a mediator in private mediations. He earned his legal degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1976 and received his undergraduate degree in 1973 from Rockhurst University.