Angie Pfannkuch passed up the offers of college recruiters after a standout career as a high school softball and basketball player, knowing instead that “working is what I needed to be doing.”

“I have to be busy all of the time,” she said. Pfannkuch graduated from Manning High School and headed for AIB College of Business in Des Moines. Her degree was in sales and marketing, but the management of large development projects, especially historic rennovatons, is where she has turned heads.

“I believe her to be the most influential woman in design and construction in Des Moines at this point in time, an astonishing feat given her age and the … hill that must be climbed to gain credibility in our industry,” Ben Bruns, business development director for The Weitz Co., said in a letter.

Pfannkuch said she “fell into” the development game 10 years ago while working in sales for the former Regency companies. Bill Spencer, who was leading Regency Land Development Services, told her one day, “You’re in land development now.”

Since that time, she has been involved in signature projects, including the historic renovation of the Des Moines Building, a structure that was vacant and tied up in a foreclosure action when it was bought by Nelson Construction & Development.

City of Des Moines planners Andrea Hauer and Erin Olson-Douglas said the conversion of that building to apartments and retail spaces “was undertaken almost entirely at her direction.”

Pfannkuch also played a key role in Kingdom Cares International’s first venture into Africa. She has been involved with the nonprofit organization as a basketball coach and fundraiser. As part of her involvement, Pfannkuch traveled to Ghana, Africa, to locate a site for an orphanage. Since that time, Kingdom Cares also has developed a clinic and school.

“It was an amazing trip, to fly in and see skyscrapers and high rises and McDonald’s, then ride in a ratty bus for 30 miles to where people were drinking out of same stream where they were dumping trash,” she said. 

Reasons she’s a forty:

• She’s a member of Neighborhood Development Corp. board of directors, serving as secretary.
• She took a mission trip to Ghana, Africa, to help Kingdom Cares International establish its first orphanage.
• She has been involved in the historic rehabilitation of several buildings, and is the project manager and owner’s representative for the $35 million renovation of the American Enterprise Group building.
• She is a committed babysitter for two nephews and three nieces, ages 1 1/2 to 6.