Tag: CEO of the Year Finalist

Kelly Perkins, Founder and CEO

Spinster Sisters Co., Golden

Spurred by a search for cleaner, chemical-free soap, Perkins, 53, quit her job as a business analyst for a corporate travel agency and started making soap full-time in 2012.

“It was the best move I ever made for sure from an employment perspective,” Perkins says. “I feel like I’m doing a good thing now.”

Spinster Sisters gained a fast following with its lines of natural soaps with ingredients like lavender, pomegranate and oatmeal, and expanded into moisturizers, bath bombs and other products made at the company’s “Microsoapery” in Golden.

A pivot in 2018 catalyzed sales. “We started focusing more on the natural grocery channel, because that’s where our tribe is — people concerned about sustainability, using clean ingredients and things like that,” Perkins says. The strategic shift meant slimming the catalog from more than 400 products to 85. “It’s certainly paying off.”

The 16-employee company’s products are now on the shelves in three regions of Whole Foods, after debuting in Colorado in 2019, and 2,000 outlets in all. After a solid 2019, sales are up 70% in 2020 with a big uptick in hand sanitizer sales and the launch of a new mask spray. “COVID has generated whole new worlds of products,” Perkins says.

Spinster Sisters is currently working toward B Corporation certification, which has increased employee engagement. “I’m really excited about the direction we’re going right now.”

Perkins’ words of wisdom for aspiring entrepreneurs: “Be brave and believe in yourself. There’s certainly days where I wake up and I know with 100% certainty that I have no idea what I’m doing. Then the day goes on and I realize, ‘Yeah, I actually do know what I’m doing here.’”

---

This article is part of ColoradoBiz Magazine’s annual CEO of the Year feature. Read more about this year’s winner Kurt Culbertson and the other finalists: 

WANDA JAMES | CHRISTOPH HEINRICH | PAT CRAIG | GEORGE STAFFORD | KRISTEN BENEFIEL | MIKE DUDICK | LLOYD LEWIS | JAVIER ALBERTO SOTO

Javier Alberto Soto, President and CEO

The Denver Foundation, Denver

After starting his career in law and the public sector, Soto gravitated to philanthropy. Before the Denver Foundation recruited him in 2019, he led the Miami Foundation for the previous decade.

A regular visitor to Colorado, Soto, 50, jumped at the opportunity. “It’s a place that makes you feel welcome,” he says. “There’s a real kindness to the DNA of Colorado and Denver.”

It’s been an eventful first year on the job. He began by bicycling to meetings all over the city, but the pandemic quashed that tactic, as outreach moved online.

The Denver Foundation has risen to the challenge of COVID-19 and the ongoing protests with new initiatives. “We realized it was time to throw the rulebook out the window,” Soto says, “and just say, “We’ve got to meet this moment.'”

After a flurry of grant-making, the foundation switched over to recovery mode, advocating for paid family leave, collaborating with Bonfils-Stanton Foundation on relief for artists and launching the Black Resilience in Colorado Fund “to double down on racial equity,” Soto says. “This is unprecedented, so therefore we needed to show up in a new way.”

The “entrepreneurial DNA” of his team drives all else, he adds. “Those ‘intrapreneurs’ are the ones who really hold the key to success for organizations. Those are the folks I’m always trying to identify.”

Soto says continued action is especially important in tough times. “You’ve got to keep moving forward,” he says. “In my mind, standing still is just not an option.”

---

This article is part of ColoradoBiz Magazine’s annual CEO of the Year feature. Read more about this year’s winner Kurt Culbertson and the other finalists: 

WANDA JAMES | CHRISTOPH HEINRICH | PAT CRAIG | GEORGE STAFFORD | KRISTEN BENEFIEL | MIKE DUDICK | LLOYD LEWIS | KELLY PERKINS

Lloyd Lewis, President and CEO

arc Thrift Stores, Lakewood

When his son, Kennedy, was born with Down syndrome in 2003, Lewis “got very involved” with research and advocacy. He soon left his career in technology and financial services behind to serve as CFO for arc Thrift and was named CEO in 2005.

As of 2019, arc’s 31 stores have an estimated $2.3 billion economic impact on the state, as sales have more than tripled to $100 million in Lewis’ tenure. “My approach has been to run a nonprofit like a business,” he says. “The more earnings we create, the more funding we can provide for programs that support people like my son. I run the company like a traditional retailer, but with an eye on the mission.”

It follows that arc’s profits support 15 affiliated advocacy programs. More recently, a COVID-19 initiative donated 60 tons of food to families in need, and “thousands of pounds” of masks.

One of his first moves as CEO was to start hiring people with disabilities. arc is now one of the largest integrated employees in Colorado: 350 of 1,400 employees have intellectual disabilities. The move contributed to a big growth spurt. “People began to realize they were working for more than just a paycheck,” says Lewis, 65. “It’s practically impossible to work next to someone with intellectual disabilities and complain or gossip or take things for granted. They’re very inspiring people.”

He adds, “Think big and shoot big. Point to center field.”

---

This article is part of ColoradoBiz Magazine’s annual CEO of the Year feature. Read more about this year’s winner Kurt Culbertson and the other finalists: 

WANDA JAMES | CHRISTOPH HEINRICH | PAT CRAIG | GEORGE STAFFORD | KRISTEN BENEFIEL | MIKE DUDICK | JAVIER ALBERTO SOTO | KELLY PERKINS

Mike Dudick, Co-owner and CEO

Breckenridge Grand Vacations, Breckenridge

Dudick arrived in Breckenridge in 1988 with $400 in his pocket and the plan to be a ski bum.

Within a year, bartending led to advertising, and advertising led to publishing Breckenridge Magazine. “The very first ad I ever sold in my publishing business was to brothers Mike and Rob Millisor,” says Dudick, 55.

The brothers had launched a time-share development. In 1998, Dudick sold his publishing business and invested with the Millisors in a second project: Grand Timber Lodge. He applied the marketing mojo he learned in the magazine business to great effect, and sales grew by more than 600% in two years.

When Rob Millisor passed away unexpectedly in 2016, Dudick assumed the mantle of CEO.

At a pre-pandemic retreat, the staff collaborated on a statement of purpose: “The soul of Breckenridge Grand Vacations is creating smiles.”

Notes Dudick: “For 30 years, the numbers bear out: The happier we make people, the more successful the company is.”

With 27,000 owners at four resorts and annual revenues north of $100 million, Breckenridge Grand Vacations is the largest year-round employer in Summit County, with a staff of 650, and a philanthropic anchor.

Dudick sticks to his Breckenridge roots by bartending at one of the company’s resorts every Monday night. “I’m like the only CEO in the world who’s not in the restaurant business who bartends,” he says. “I do that precisely so I get to know my customers better, and they get to know me.”

Dudick “retired from a hall-of-fame career of drinking” in 2018 and says the clarity of sobriety has helped him at work. “I can’t wait to wake up every day and see what’s next,” he says.

---

This article is part of ColoradoBiz Magazine’s annual CEO of the Year feature. Read more about this year’s winner Kurt Culbertson and the other finalists: 

WANDA JAMES | CHRISTOPH HEINRICH | PAT CRAIG | GEORGE STAFFORD | KRISTEN BENEFIEL | LLOYD LEWIS | JAVIER ALBERTO SOTO | KELLY PERKINS

Kirsten Benefiel, CEO

HSS, Denver

When she took the reins at HSS in early 2020 after serving as COO, Benefiel, 46, became the only female CEO at the top 25 firms in the security industry.

As COO, she helped develop a new strategy for the 3,500-employee security provider, which launched as a nonprofit hospital vendor in 1967 before reorganizing as a for-profit business a decade ago. She’s now putting her plan into action.

Benefiel’s “road map” charts a course to grow beyond traditional manned security into adjacent value-added services. “Manned security is becoming very commoditized,” she says, “and manned security isn’t the future of security.”

It follows that HSS is broadening its technology portfolio. One new product, Spotlight, helps secure medical devices. “We already have technicians, so we’re able to add on these services and really be an integrator for our customers.”

With the pandemic, HSS has seen volatile demand from different sectors, but the company’s staff has been able to effectively respond, Benefiel says. “We say we’re keeping the excitement out of security,” she cracks. “If there’s one area you don’t want a lot of excitement, it’s security.”

Benefiel says leadership is about “empowerment and listening.” She keeps a notebook full of the lessons she learned over the course of previous career stops at ViaWest, Newmont Mining and other companies.

Former Newmont CEO Richard T. O’Brien shared some indelible words of wisdom: “Never confuse yourself with the role,” Benefiel says. “He was reminding us that leadership positions are just that — they’re positions. Your self-worth isn’t tied to your job title, so how you treat people and how you show is what’s most important to demonstrate leadership.”

---

This article is part of ColoradoBiz Magazine’s annual CEO of the Year feature. Read more about this year’s winner Kurt Culbertson and the other finalists: 

WANDA JAMES | CHRISTOPH HEINRICH | PAT CRAIG | GEORGE STAFFORD | MIKE DUDICK | LLOYD LEWIS | JAVIER ALBERTO SOTO | KELLY PERKINS