Lura E. McBride is the President & CEO at Van Meter Inc. ("Van Meter"), a one-hundred percent employee-owned electrical and automation distributor, a position she has held since 2016. She previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Van Meter since 2010. She has responsibility for the overall vision, direction, and growth strategy of a 100 percent employee-owned electrical and automation distributor that employs over 800 employee-owners in 25 locations across Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Virginia, Alabama, Wisconsin and Minnesota. She has experience building strong leadership and a high performing culture to create lasting value for customers, supplier partners, communities and employee-owners. She serves on the Van Meter Board of Directors, the Werner Electric Supply Board of Directors and the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED). Prior to joining Van Meter in 2008, she worked for almost 15 years at Accenture, a global management consulting company based out of Chicago, Illinois. Her work experiences were in the areas of Systems Integration, Change Management, Human Performance, Knowledge Management, Business Process Design and Program Management. Ms. McBride graduated from University of Iowa with degrees in Finance and Marketing. In the community, Ms. McBride serves on various boards and committees including The Tippie School of Business Advisory Board, Tanager Place, The Hall-Perrine Foundation, Unity Point St. Luke’s Hospital, Iowa BIG and the Cedar Rapids Police Chief Council.