Posted 09.01.2009

Top Company Finalists 2009

Meet 33 companies at the top of their game

In a year of great economic challenge, being selected a Top Company finalist carries a deeper significance — it’s as hard to stay on top as it took to get there.

Top Company is Colorado’s most competitive business awards program, judged on the basis of sustained financial performance, operational excellence and community involvement.

Companies submit or are nominated to the program. Long-time sponsor Deloitte selects finalists after rigorous evaluations. Then a panel of business professionals and leading policy officials convenes to determine winners in each category.

Now in its 22nd consecutive year, Top Company and its roster of winners represent the best of Colorado business. The 33 finalists profiled on the following pages represent the class of 2009’s highest achievers.

Winners in each category will be announced Sept. 15 at an awards luncheon in the Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Contact Kelly Ness at kness@cobizmag.com or (303) 662-5222 for registration information. You can also visit the “events” tab at cobizmag.com.

ENERGY/NATURAL RESOURCES

Bill Barrett Corp.
www.billbarrettcorp.com
Years in business: seven
Location: Denver
CEO: Fredrick Barrett
Employees: 274
Company snapshot: The Bill Barrett Corp. (NYSE: BBG) explores for and develops natural gas and oil in the Rocky Mountain Region. Its development and exploration assets are located in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Natural gas makes up 96 percent of its proved reserves. Its net income for 2008 was
$107.6 million – a nearly 300 percent increase over 2007. Net production of gas and oil rose 27 percent during the period.
Notable practices: The company has been increasing the number of wells per pad to limit disturbance to the landscape and has implemented a water management system that eliminates thousands of truck trips per year. It’s also pioneering the use of completion and production equipment that nearly eliminates water emissions.
Community involvement: Bill Barrett Corp. matches employee donation requests up to $4,250. Its fundraising activities include the 2009 Heart Walk Team, the National Sports Center for the Disabled and United Cerebral Palsy of Colorado. Every year, the company chooses a charitable cause to support, such as the Denver Rescue Mission and Toys for Tots.

Newmont Mining
www.newmont.com
Years in business: 89
Location: Greenwood Village
CEO: Richard O’Brien
Employees: 34,000
Company snapshot: Newmont (NYSE: NEM) is one of the largest gold companies in the world and the only one listed in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the Fortune 500. In 2007, Newmont became the first gold company selected to be part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. The majority of the company’s 34,000 employees and contractors work at core operations in the United States, Australia, Peru, Indonesia and Ghana. The company’s net income in 2008 was $853 million, compared to a $1.89 billion loss in 2007.
Notable achievement: In 2008, Newmont significantly increased its non-reserve mineralization while purchasing the remaining 33.33 percent interest in Boddington, Australia.
Community involvement: Newmont works with the mining sector, governments and host communities to monitor work and curb corruption. It also actively participates in the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative. Newmont Nevada participated in a four-party agreement with county officials that led to the rejuvenation of a dilapidated mobile home park.

Tri-State Generation
www.tristategt.org
Years in business: 58
Location: Westminster
CEO: Ken Anderson
Employees: 1,137
Company snapshot: Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association supplies energy that electric cooperatives deliver to small towns and rural communities in the West. The not-for-profit consumer-owned cooperative provides electricity to 44 member co-ops throughout the Rocky Mountain West and has a service territory of 250,000 square miles.
Notable practices: Tri-State is investing in clean coal demonstration projects, exploring the most cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its generating plants. It has distributed more than 500,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs to rural consumers by providing an incentive of $1 per bulb.
Community involvement: Tri-State has provided financial incentives to two separate school districts, rewarding their decisions to integrate high-efficiency, geothermal air-handling systems in the construction of new schools. Its charitable efforts include $150,000 in donations ($50,000 each) to community colleges in Colorado, New Mexico and Nebraska. Other charitable efforts include donations to the Ronald McDonald House, the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the United Way.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

CoBank
www.cobank.com
Years in business: 93
Location: Greenwood Village
CEO: Robert Engel
Employees: 700
Company snapshot: CoBank is a $63 billion cooperative bank that provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers nationwide. In addition to serving its direct borrowers, the bank provides wholesale loans and other financial services to affiliated Farm Credit System associations and other partners across the country. CoBank serves customers from regional banking centers across the U.S. and maintains an international representative office in Singapore
Notable practice: CoBank reported record financial results for 2008, with net income at $533.4 million, a 28 percent increase over 2007.
Community involvement: The bank’s corporate giving program provides for a $5,000 directed donation for each of the directors who serve on the board. Supported charities include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado, Food Bank of the Rockies and the United Way. Through employees’ $200 directed donations, CoBank supported more than 300 nonprofit organizations.

Denver Community Credit Union
www.denvercommunity.coop
Years in business: 75
Location: Denver
CEO: Carla Hedrick
Employees: 82
Company snapshot: The Denver Community Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative that serves anyone who lives, works, volunteers or attends school in the city and county of Denver. Its services include loans, checking and saving.
Notable practice: Since 2005, more than 4,600 adults and youth have received free financial education, and more than 40 organizations received support from the cooperative.
Community involvement: The credit union received the 2008 Community Impact Award from the Colorado Credit Union Association. It supports community events and several local organizations that work to provide goods and services to those in need.

 
Pinnacol Assurance
www.pinnacol.com
Years in business: 94
Location: Denver
CEO: Ken Ross
Employees: 635
Company snapshot: Pinnacol Assurance, a 2006 ColoradoBiz Top Company winner, provides workers’ compensation insurance for more than 57,000 Colorado businesses. It covers nearly 1.5 million workers – 57 percent of the state’s work force. Pinnacol operates as a mutual insurance company and serves as the source of coverage for businesses that, due to their size or accident history, are unable to obtain coverage from private carriers.
Notable achievements: Pinnacol has lowered rates by 42 percent over the past four years, saving Colorado businesses $205 million. In 2009, 89 percent of policyholders received dividends, totaling $120 million. Over the past five years, Pinnacol has returned $347 million to Colorado businesses.
Community involvement: The Pinnacol Foundation awards college scholarships to the children of Colorado workers injured or killed on the job, regardless of which insurer handled the parent’s claim. The foundation awarded $246,500 to 84 students for the 2009-2010 academic year, bringing its total to more than $1 million.

HEALTH CARE

AlloSource
www.allosource.org
Years in business: 15
Location: Centennial
CEO: Tom Cycyota
Employees: More than 300
Company snapshot: AlloSource provides specialized bone products for neurosurgical and orthopedic spine surgery and fusions, and processes ligaments and tendon replacement tissue to repair torn tendons. The nonprofit was founded in 1994 as the Mile High Tissue Bank.
Notable practices: In 2008, AlloSource made process changes to accommodate the time-sensitive production needs of Osteocel, the industry’s only viable stem cell product.  Osteocel promotes the growth of new bone cells. In 2008, LABS Inc., an AlloSource company, opened new facilities in St. Louis and Philadelphia and also moved into a new facility in Centennial. These laboratories offer the full range of infectious disease testing.
Community involvement: In 2008, AlloSource allocated nearly 45 percent of its annual revenue to its Organ Procurement Organization corporate partners. The money was used to fund organ and tissue donor education and awareness programs. AlloSource also sponsors the AlloSource Tissue Collaborative, a forum that enables best practices for tissue recovery to be shared.

Bonfils Blood Center
www.bonfils.org
Years in business: 66
Location: Denver
CEO: Thomas C. Puckett
Employees: 435
Company snapshot: The nonprofit Bonfils Blood Center provides more than 80 percent of the state’s blood supply and has collected more than 3 million blood donations for the benefit of more than 9 million people.
Notable achievement: Last summer, Bonfils began a capital project to renovate and upgrade its Lowry headquarters. The blood center secured a $6 million private equity bond that will allow it to adopt new industry standards, acquire new testing platforms, replace the roof, resurface the parking lot and make improvements to the facility.
Community involvement: Bonfils had more than 110,000 individuals donate more than 195,000 units of blood in 2008, helping more than 585,000 patients. It operates seven fixed-site community donor centers, including centers in Pueblo and Sterling, and partners with more than 1,300 businesses, civic groups and faith-based organizations across the state to hold mobile blood drives.

Centura Health
www.centura.org
Years in business: 13
Location: Englewood
CEO: Gary Campbell
Employees: 13,000
Company snapshot: The state’s largest health-care provider, Centura Health is sponsored by Catholic Health Initiatives and Adventist Health System. While the organization is relatively young, its 12 hospitals have served Colorado communities for decades, some for more than 125 years, from Boulder County and mountain communities to rural communities surrounding Pueblo and Canon City.
Notable achievement: Over the past three years, Centura has invested more than $700 million in its communities and facilities, including renovations and capital additions and new technology such as an electronic medical record system, the da Vinci  Surgical System and CyberKnife. 
Community involvement: In fiscal year 2009, Centura Health contributed $15.6 million to nearly 300 community service activities throughout the state, including parish nurse programs, flu shot clinics, blood drives and family education classes.

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