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Posted 03.19.2009

17th annual Colorado Ethics in Business Alliance Awards

Page 4

Daniel L. Ritchie Award
ROBERT POWELL

Robert Powell

After 40 years as a successful businessman, Daniel L. Ritchie Award winner Robert Powell looks back on his career and sees a missing link – the link between success and personal ethics. Eight years ago Powell retired from his business career and began seeking an organization to involve himself with in the Fort Collins area. That year he attended a national convention for the Character First organization, and was so inspired by his experience that he decided to start a spinoff group known as Character Fort Collins.

Today, Character Fort Collins stands as the model for character-building organizations across the country, having trained and interacted with thousands of individuals in the Fort Collins area – from police officers, to business owners, to elementary school students, to prison inmates.
“At the end of a 40-year business career, despite all the training I did, I realized that I never once was taught about good character,” Powell said. “I only discovered the missing link after I retired from my business.”

Powell, who was formally trained in business ethics and even taught a business ethics course on a voluntary basis, said that prior to his exposure to Character First he had never regarded personal ethics as the foundation for character or success. Instead, business ethics seemed merely to be the adherence to some established code, he said. “I realized that a lot of the problems and challenges I faced in business, I would have taken a different approach, and likely been successful,” he said. “We’re a very outcomes-based society,” Powell said. “Because of this, people see this as the only way that they’re going to meet their goals. And this leads to character compromise.”

There seems to be a constant focus on business gains and personal achievement, he said. And this creates a very prevalent drive to cheat in the classroom or at work; also to perceive good character as a liability, rather than an asset, Powell said. Between 2001 and 2007, Powell served as the founder and president of Character Fort Collins. The organization adopted 49 specific character traits that, to Powell, help define good character in individuals – including initiative, responsibility, creativity and compassion. Since this time, Character Fort Collins has grown into Character Colorado, with which Powell is still very active behind the scenes. He even donated $50,000 to make the executive director position with Character Fort Collins a paid position.

“The more you work with Bob, the more you realize that he has one of the most sincere approaches to the enhancement of good character of anyone that you would hope to meet,” said Character Fort Collins Board Member Bonnie Titley. Powell is a man who embodies the qualities at the heart of Character Fort Collins, Titley said. After almost 20 years of working with him, Titley has come to admire Powell and appreciate all of the projects that he has become involved in, she said. “Let’s just put it this way: Bob Powell is an ethical man, and there is no need to embroider,” Titley said.
— Dan Ray