Landon H. Rowland

Rowland joined Watson Ess Marshall and Engass upon graduation, leaving in 1980 to join Kansas City Southern Industries (KCSI). He was promoted to President and COO of KCSI in 1983, then served as CEO starting in 1987, retiring as Chairman in 2004. To help the railroad maintain its independence, he was part of the push to diversify the company into the less capital-intensive fields of finance— including the acquisition of Janus in 1984—and technology—with the establishment of DST as a division to automate mutual fund record keeping. These entities became so successful that between 1995 and 2003, Rowland oversaw splitting KCSI into three public companies: Kansas City Southern (railroad), Janus Capital Group (mutual fund), and DST Systems (financial technology).

Rowland continued to build the KCS railway, acquiring four railways and pursuing the acquisition of Mexican railways starting in the early 1990s (before NAFTA in 1994). Despite Mexican government churn, Rowland pushed to maintain involvement, finally culminating in KCS's acquisition of the "premier rail line in Mexico" in 2005. His CEO predecessor, Irvine Hockaday Jr., later noted that "[Rowland] and the leadership of the railroad subsidiary solidified the future of that railroad by its extension into Mexico, which in turn stabilized the future of Kansas City Southern to the benefit of the city."

In 2005, after his retirement from KCS, Rowland and his wife Sarah purchased a small Garden City, Missouri, bank, which later became Lead Bank. As of 2019, Sarah Rowland served as Lead Bank's Board Chairman, while their son, Joshua C. Rowland, served as CEO and Vice Chairman.

At the time of his death, Rowland was serving as Director and Chairman Emeritus of Janus Capital Group. Rowland was also a Trustee of CED (Committee of Economic Development) where he was given a CED 2011 Distinguished Performance Award. Rowland was a panel presenter in a CED forum called "Hidden Money: The Need for Transparency in Political Finance".