Feb. 26, 2026
Contact: Sara Diedrich, diedrichs@missouri.edu
For Gail Peace, BHS ’88, MHA, MBA ’92, success alone isn’t the goal — it’s what you do with it that matters. The real reward, she believes, comes from turning around to empower the next person in line.
After building a remarkable career at the intersection of health care, innovation and leadership — including her technology startup Ludi, Inc. — Peace is putting that philosophy into action. Her generosity includes a recently established four-year, full-ride undergraduate scholarship at the University of Missouri’s College of Health Sciences, where her journey began.
Mizzou is where this self-described “scrappy” St. Louis native discovered a home and a can-do spirit.
An innovator at heart
Peace sharpened her ability to seize opportunity early. At 11, she spotted a more lucrative venture than babysitting and approached her parents about starting a cake-making business. She soon turned a tidy profit baking and decorating Barbie- and Tony the Tiger-themed cakes. By 12, she had added an Avon business.
“I’ve always had the entrepreneurial bug,” Peace said.
Once at Mizzou, Peace, who originally enrolled to pursue a business degree, gravitated to the College of Health Sciences and recognized an opportunity to make a difference by combining that interest with her enterprising nature — an instinct that would shape her career.
“First, the academic rigor at Mizzou felt unparalleled,” said Peace, who quickly found community among like-minded classmates. “We were all figuring things out together, and I liked that.”
After earning her undergraduate degree, Peace left to travel the world working for a cruise line and ultimately returned to Mizzou to complete master’s degrees in health administration and business administration. Her time at the university reinforced an important lesson: Success rarely happens alone; it depends on collaboration and the ability to work effectively with others.
A conscientious path
After graduation, Peace was deliberate in her career choices, moving intentionally between technology companies and hospital administration to gain a deeper understanding of both industries.
“It gave me a unique perspective,” she said. “From technology, I could see ways to improve health care, and from within health care, I could see exactly where technology could make a difference.”
Over time, Peace identified a costly inefficiency in hospitals: a tangled network of physician contracts and payment structures that were draining millions from the industry. Drawing on her experience as a hospital executive and her technical expertise, she saw a way to simplify and fix the process. In 2012, she founded Ludi, Inc., creating software that brings transparency and accountability to physician compensation.
Under Peace’s leadership, Ludi, Inc. earned a national reputation, serving hundreds of hospitals and transforming physician compensation and performance management.
“I always knew it would succeed, no matter the challenges,” she said. “I carried that Mizzou spirit and kept pushing forward, knowing I had to either climb over this wall or find a way around it.”
The first two years were relentless as Peace learned every part of running a company — handling payroll, navigating state taxes, hiring the right people and setting up the technology.
What made her successful was her discipline: She committed to 20 face-to-face sales visits to hospitals a month. That’s how she built the pipeline. She was pounding the pavement and selling Ludi, six to seven hours a day. Then it was back to the office, focused on other tasks such as HR, marketing and IT, for the next five hours.
In 2014, Peace raised venture capital, the funding she needed to accelerate the business’s growth. She also built a network of support through the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, an international organization supporting founders of new businesses. There she was in a forum of eight CEOs who advised one another on growing their businesses.
“We traded advice, solved problems and pushed each other forward,” she said. “It was an incredible support system and a game-changer for my growth as a founder.”
She also repeatedly returned to her alma mater to recruit. Ultimately, she hired more than 25 graduates from the Master of Health Administration program whom she knew would make an impact from day one.
“Mizzou graduates stood out,” Peace said. “They could hit the ground running and didn’t need much direction — they figured things out. The master’s program relied heavily on group work, which proved invaluable later.”
In 2023, when the right opportunity arose, Peace sold Ludi to a private equity firm. She remains on the board, supporting the incredible growth.
Paying it forward
A year after selling Ludi, Peace founded Gail Peace, LLC, and now works primarily as a speaker, author and teacher. She teaches an entrepreneurial course at several Nashville, Tennessee, high schools and, last year, published “No Shortcuts: One Woman’s Journey from Startup to the Successful Sale of a Multimillion-Dollar Tech Company,” detailing her career journey.
She hopes the Gail Matejcic Peace Innovation Scholarship at Mizzou will open the door for students who have the grit to succeed but lack the financial means to attend college.
“When I was young, I learned that money provides choice,” Peace said. “That’s always been my perspective. Having options is valuable, but now my focus is on giving back — and that includes Mizzou. That’s my No. 1 motivation. It’s been a privilege to reach this point in my life, and I want to help others have the same opportunities.”
