Celebration of Leadership Celebrating Boulder’s innovators, trailblazers and leaders. March 9, 2021
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Welcome! It was a beautiful March evening last year when we convened for what, for many, would be the final chance to gather as the Boulder business community for our annual event honoring those leaders among us who have achieved business success, supported our economy and lifted our community. It was a wonderful gathering! Though we celebrated in the traditional joyous manner, there was a strange pall in the air that evening as we sensed our circumstances were about to shift in the face of a virus that was wreaking havoc across the globe, but just beginning to take hold in Colorado. The full extent of the impact was uncertain to us at that time, but I think most of us sensed this might be the last time we would all see each other, in-person, for a while . . . It all lent a certain additional level of warmth to the sense of camaraderie we always enjoy in any gathering of our Boulder Chamber family. Fast forward to this evening, as we convene in a hybrid fashion to, once again, pay tribute to our cherished business and community leaders. It pains me that we can’t all be together in-person tonight. That time will come soon enough. Still, I am no less filled with the excitement that I experience every year, given the honor the Boulder Chamber enjoys in this opportunity to reflect on all the good in our community and the people and organizations that make this such a wonderful center for business activity. With that, I offer a toast to all of you in tribute to our work together as partners in support of our local economy and community, with special appreciation for the exceptional contributions of those honorees we have the pleasure to celebrate this evening. I also toast to what each of us has endured this year and how much pride we should all take in the manner in which we’ve supported each other, working to sustain our collective health and economic vitality. There is much left to accomplish as we begin to move from pandemic response to achieving our goals of a strong and inclusive economic recovery. Just for tonight, though, please join me as we reflect on all the positive accomplishments of our business and civic leaders, and draw strength for the road ahead in this acknowledgement of the collective power, passion and perseverance of our Boulder Chamber membership and partners!
-John Tayer President and CEO of the Boulder Chamber
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Opening Performance Mysto the Magi Welcome & Sponsor Recognition John Tayer, President and CEO, Boulder Chamber Standing Strong Recognition Scott Firle, Member Relations Director, Boulder Chamber Scott Sternberg, Executive Director, Boulder Economic Council Equity Amplification Program Karen Kruse, Vice President and COO, Boulder Chamber Award Ceremony Introduction by Presenting Sponsor Nathan Ewert, Regional Vice President for Colorado and Western Nebraska, FNBO Award Ceremony Innovative Business of the Year Techstars, David Brown and David Cohen Rising Star Award Katrina Miller, Blackat Video Productions Virginia Patterson Business of the Year Black Cat, Jill and Eric Skokan Startup of the Year Equity Solutions, Aaron Clark Special Impact Awards Boulder County Public Health Response Network Avista Adventist Hospital Isaac Sendros, CEO Boulder Community Health Rob Vissers, President Boulder Community Health Foundation Grant Besser, President Boulder County Public Health Jeff Zayach, Executive Director Longmont United Hospital Christina Johnson, CEO SCL Health Jennifer Alderfer, President, Good Samaritan Medical Center & System UC Health Lonnie Cramer, President
Our partners in the Boulder Business Response and Recovery Alliance Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau Mary Ann Mahoney, CEO Boulder County Summer Laws, Policy Analyst Boulder Small Business Development Center Sharon King, Executive Director Community Foundation Boulder County Tatiana Hernandez, CEO City of Boulder Yvette Bowden, Assistant City Manager & Director of Community Vitality Downtown Boulder Partnership Chip, CEO Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County Ricardo Cabrera, Operations Manager
Franny Reich Lifetime Achievement Award Peter Salas, Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County Closing Remarks John Tayer, President and CEO, Boulder Chamber 6 • BOULDER CHAMBER
About the Awards The Innovative Business of the Year Award recognizes a business that demonstrates the innovative spirit, creative problem solving, and pioneering approaches to organizational success and industry growth that exemplify the character of Boulder’s business community. The Rising Star Award recognizes a new business or an up-and-coming individual who has made a significant, positive impact on their industry, the local economy and/or the Boulder community. The sky is the limit for this future Boulder leader. The Virginia Patterson Business Leader of the Year Award is presented annually to the person who exemplifies determination and commitment to building a strong local economy. The Startup of the Year Award recognizes a visionary company that has reimagined a business concept, taken an innovative solution, product or service to the marketplace, and demonstrated successful business growth. The Franny Reich Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an outstanding individual for their legacy of exemplary business achievement and community impact. The Impact Award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to advance their industry, environmental stewardship, and/or social sustainability within the Boulder community. View the list of past honorees at boulderchamber.com/celebration-of-leadership-past-honorees
2019 Honorees
2017 Honorees
2014 Honorees 2021 CELEBRATION OF LEADERSHIP • 7
Friday, March 26 Saturday, April 3, 2021 Street Wise Arts. In progress photo of “Portrait of Sojourner Truth” by Jodie Herrera as part of Street Wise Boulder. Photo credit Peter Kowalchuk.
Congratulations to Boulder’s leaders! The visionaries, the trailblazers, the courageous, the supporters. We celebrate you. When our community needed leadership, compassion and resilience the most, you kept our local people and businesses moving forward. Cheers to the 2021 Celebration of Leadership honorees and the Special COVID-19 Impact awardees.
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Innovative Business of the Year
DAVID BROWN AND DAVID COHEN • CO-FOUNDERS • TECHSTARS Founded in 2006, Techstars is on a mission to enable every person on the planet to contribute to, and benefit from, the success of entrepreneurs. In addition to operating accelerator programs and venture capital funds, Techstars connects startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Techstars has invested in more than 2,300 companies that today have a combined market cap valuation of more than $185 billion. David Brown is a co-founder at Techstars and has a 30-year career starting and building sustainable companies, including Pinpoint Technologies. David writes on all aspects of entrepreneurship and scaling up businesses for sustainable profitability from the vantage point of a founder and investor. He has a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. David Cohen is the co-founder and chairman at Techstars. David has been an entrepreneur and investor for his entire life, founding several companies and investing in hundreds of startups such as Uber, Twilio, SendGrid, DigitalOcean, Pillpack, Classpass, Zipline, Scopely, and DataRobot. Prior to Techstars, David was a co-founder of Pinpoint Technologies which was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation in 1999. David is the co-author (with Brad Feld) of Do More Faster; Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup.
Rising StarAward
KATRINA MILLER • OWNER • BLACKAT VIDEO PRODUCTIONS Blackat Productions has been providing a variety of video production services to businesses and private individuals for over a decade. With over 20 years of experience in pre-production, videography, and video editing, Blackat also specializes in directing the cinematography at venues like The Boulder Theater, Red Rocks Amphitheater, and Unity of Boulder Church. Equipped with a high-end, mobile live-streaming studio, we are able to broadcast any event to social media or your website. In 2020, documentary filmmaking became another large facet of this business. With an investigative yet artistic lens, Blackat takes an intimate look at the world in which we live. These films often juxtapose the present and the past or are driven by a historical element with the purpose of connecting communities of today. Katrina Miller, Blackat’s owner, has been featured in Boulder Lifestyles Magazine, a speaker and panelist at the Rocky Mountain AVExpo, a guest on the KGNU / NAACP radio show, Black Talk, and is currently directing the documentary This Is [Not] Who We Are, which explores racial equity and inclusion placing Boulder as a microcosm of the U.S. as a whole. 2021 CELEBRATION OF LEADERSHIP • 9
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Virginia PattersonBusiness of the Year JILL AND ERIC SKOKAN • BLACK CAT
Eric and Jill Skokan, entrepreneurs at heart, started Hatton Creamery in 2005, Black Cat Bistro in 2006, Black Cat Farm in 2008, Bramble & Hare in 2012, and authored Farm, Fork, Food: A Year of Spectacular Recipes Inspired by Black Cat Farm. Now, after 16 years, their North Boulder garden has grown into a certified organic 425-acre, full-scale diversified farm on Boulder City and County Open Space properties and their restored historic farmstead, supporting both of their restaurants, a permanent farmstand, CSAs, and a stand at the Boulder County Farmers’ Market. With a passion for innovation, integrity, hard work, and Kaizen they created one of the premier farm-to-table operations in the U.S. From countless donations to local organizations to their pioneering work on food access and regenerative agriculture to board memberships to mentoring the next generation, the Skokans seek to make our “today” brighter for all parts of the Boulder community.
The Boulder County Farmers Markets want to congratulate Jill and Eric Skokan of Black Cat for winning the Virginia Patterson Business of the Year award. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners.
Startup of the Year
AARON CLARK • FOUNDER AND CEO • EQUITY SOLUTIONS Aaron is the Founder & CEO of Equity Solutions, a justice-focused consulting firm that educates tech professionals and empowers leaders and organizations to create a more equitable society. We encourage justice reform, publish data relevant to the equity space, and create innovative products — featuring Justice Reskill, a first-of-its-kind learning platform for justice-involved individuals. Aaron is a board member of Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute, a Twilio Champion, an A* member, and facilitator of /dev/color. He currently leads the Equity Initiative for Energize Colorado, acts as the Chair of Inclusion & DEI Track Captain for Boulder Startup Week, was recently named to Colorado’s 2020 Inno on Fire list and is active in multiple community workforce development projects.
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Special Impact Awards
BOULDER COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONSE NETWORK AND BOULDER BUSINESS RECOVERY AND RESPONSE ALLIANCE The Boulder County Public Health Response Network (comprised of Avista Adventist Hospital, Boulder Community Health, the Boulder Community Health Foundation, Boulder County Public Health, Longmont United Hospital, SCL Health and UC Health) is being recognized this evening in light of its tireless commitment to protect the health of our community. Award accepted on behalf of the network by Jeff Zayach, Executive Director of Boulder County Public Health. The Boulder Chamber is also proud to recognize its partners in the Boulder Business Response and Recovery Alliance (comprised of the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, Boulder County, Boulder Small Business Development Center, Community Foundation Boulder County, City of Boulder, Downtown Boulder Partnership and the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County) for their spirit of collaboration in finding creative solutions to support our community’s businesses. Award accepted on behalf of the alliance by Yvette Bowden, Assistant City Manager and Director of Community Vitality at the City of Boulder.
Franny Reich Lifetime Achievement Award PETER SALAS • PAST CHAIR • LATINO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF BOULDER COUNTY Peter is a father of three living in Lafayette and has been a Boulder County resident since 1985. He began his public career as a community organizer and has been actively involved in community affairs his entire career. Peter has served on over a dozen nonprofit boards, as well as having served on a city council and school board. He is a founding member of the Boulder County Latino Chamber and has served on the Board of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce and the former Minority Business Leadership Council. Peter has also been actively involved in local politics and has helped organize three different Latino-focused political organizations. During Peter’s professional work career, he has been a community organizer, a project coordinator, diversity coordinator, diversity liaison, intercultural trainer, program manager and public affairs specialist. Peter currently offers consulting services in Intercultural Development and Training, and is a champion for advancing equity and urban development strategies to expand economic opportunity.
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Entertainment MYSTO THE MAGI
Mysto the Magi has come to this Earth in a pursuit to bring FUN and laughter to others. He has been performing since he was 12 years old. By age 14, he performed on his first real stage for 300 people as a benefit for the Cancer Society. While in college he performed street magic in Austin, Texas on the now famous 6th Street. Upon graduation he joined the Renaissance Festival circuit where he was given the name “Mysto.” In 1991 he swept the awards at the Texas Organization of Magicians Convention in Dallas as Best Close-up and Best Stage Magician, and repeated this extraordinary sweep in Florida in 2011. In 2013 he performed his 10,000th show, and in 2019 he presented at his first TEDx event.
Congratulations to all of the Celebration of Leadership honorees! Boulder County’s No. 1 Best Read Source for News and Information Visit DailyCamera.com for subscription information or call 303.473.1400 to put us to work for your business.
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University of Colorado Boulder Xcel Energy Zayo Group LLC
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Eide Bailly LLP Embassy Suites Boulder Emerson FirstBank First Western Trust Bank Flatiron Crossing Front Range Community College Gibbons-White Inc. Hotel Boulderado Housing Helpers Ideal Americas LLC JPMorgan Chase Bank Kaiser Permanente KeyBank KPMG LLP Lake Valley Golf Club Land Title Lexmark International, Inc. Lily’s Sweets LJD Enterprises Inc. Lockheed Martin
Northrop Grumman Corp NREL - National Renewable Energy Laboratory Pfizer Pinnacol Assurance Premier Mortgage Group Qualcomm Inc Smoker Friendly / Gasamat Snell & Wilmer LLP Sopher Sparn Architects LLC Spencer Fane LLP The Colorado Group Inc. The Farm Unico Properties LLC Uplight Inc. Vectra Bank Verizon Wells Fargo Bank Western Disposal Services Westland Development Services Inc.
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