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Tag: GenXYZ 2022

GenXYZ 2022 Finalists: (21-25)

This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals vary in their backgrounds and their professional pursuits – they’re leaders in banking, real estate, nonprofits, law, entrepreneurship and architecture, to name just a few. 

Some are lifelong Coloradans who couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else; others are transplants from the East and West coasts or somewhere between. What they have in common is a relentless achiever’s mindset, a can-do spirit and a desire to do good for others as they do well for themselves.

Read on to learn more about this year’s GenXYZ finalists.

David Shirazi, 31  

Senior VP, JLL | Denver

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David Shirazi, Senior VP of JLL

David Shirazi was promoted to senior vice president in 2021, making him the youngest senior VP in the history of JLL’s Denver office. Since joining the international real estate and investment management firm in 2013 he has been involved in lease transactions totaling nearly 7 million square feet. 

Shirazi has led headquarters’ relocations for Conga, Molecular Products, Xero Software, LightDeck Diagnostics, TrackVia and Red Canary, among others. His clients include Velocity Global, Lyft, VMware, Key Bank, Independent Financial, PNC Bank and Bank of Colorado. 

Shirazi’s leadership was evident in his appointment as leader of JLL’s junior broker training program in Denver in 2019. He de-constructed the entire program and rebuilt a more interactive version of the weekly trainings when he took the role. In 2021, he was tapped to lead JLL’s training program on a nationwide basis. In this role, Shirazi is responsible for training all JLL brokers with less than three years of experience – more than 150 brokers. Also in 2021, Shirazi was appointed to JLL’s Leadership Council Advisory Board, made up of 12 young leaders at JLL from around the country. LCAB reports directly to the CEO on special projects including diversity and inclusion initiatives, attraction/retention and growing JLL’s technology tools. 

Shirazi was elected president and chairman of the board for the Denver Active 20-30 Children’s Foundation in 2019 and served in that role until October of 2021. He also sits on the board of the Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation. During much of the COVID-induced quarantine period, Shirazi and his wife, Kelsey, volunteered to foster dogs through A Friend of Jack Rescue. In all, they fostered 12 dogs.  

Jeff Homer, 33

Founder, Ensemble Music Schools | Louisville

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Jeff Homer, Founder of Ensemble Music Schools

Ensemble Music Schools grew out of founder Jeff Homer’s determination to combine his hobby as an amateur musician with his professional background in investing to create a network of more than 25 music schools across the country. 

Starting with the Dana V Music school in Louisville in 2019, Homer is taking mom-and-pop community music schools and bringing them into the digital age, enabling schools to stay in business and for teachers to earn a living wage, as they’re able to attract enough students to make teaching music a sustainable career. 

Ensemble Connect, the company’s newest digital platform, allows more than 400 teachers across the network to stay connected virtually while also gaining valuable knowledge on music education in addition to personal, life lessons. For example, Homer recently gave a presentation to the Ensemble faculty on how to manage finances. This is just an example of his leadership and desire to empower the teachers in his network.  

After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University, followed by nearly 10 years in the finance industry in Boston and New York, Homer put down roots in Colorado. In addition to acquiring a network of more than 25 music schools with high-quality teachers under the Ensemble umbrella, Homer, with the support of his team, also recently launched Ensemble Connect, a best-in-class administrative platform that equips the teachers to thrive in the digital age by sharing lesson plans, network and learn from one another to better serve their students.  

The pandemic proved to be the greatest challenge, yet the most defining moment for Homer and the Ensemble Schools. He started Ensemble Music Schools within weeks of the onset of the pandemic and had to shift into leader mode while still learning how to be a full-time CEO. He encouraged teachers to adapt, as the company developed a highly successful Zoom music program. During a scary time in his career, Homer summoned the courage and belief in his mission to invest in great schools, students and teachers.  

Kyle Endres, 39  

Director of Development, We Don’t Waste | Denver

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Kyle Endres, Director of Development at We Don’t Waste

Since joining Denver-based nonprofit We Don’t Waste in 2017 as director of development, Kyle Endres has redefined and reinvented the organization’s fundraising. In partnership with the We Don’t Waste team, Endres led fundraising efforts that have generated an astounding 259% increase in financial donations in four short years. 

We Don’t Waste tackles the important and timely issues of food insecurity and food waste. It does so by helping reduce the environmental damage of unsold or uneaten food that would otherwise end up in landfills, and providing the recovered food to vulnerable populations across the Denver metro area and Colorado’s Front Range. 

When Endres joined the organization, a team of seven worked out of a small office in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood. Since then, the team has grown to 20 and moved into an 11,000-square-foot distribution center. These changes, in addition to new and expanded offerings spearheaded by Endres, such as the addition of Mobile Food Markets and a school environmental education program, have greatly expanded the organization’s reach and impact. However, growing the team, the organization’s footprint and programming added to overhead costs, requiring consistent and continuous efforts to find new donors and revenue streams. That’s where Endres has stood out.  

He leaves no stone unturned in sourcing donations from new and existing donors, developing corporate partnerships and obtaining grants that have allowed the nonprofit to maintain and expand its services.   

He’s proved particularly masterful at winning grants from previously untapped sources. In 2020, when We Don’t Waste was unable to rely on in-person events and face-to-face meetings with potential donors, Endres identified and led development of a winning application for the prestigious Bank of America Neighborhood Builders grant. The award of $200,000, given over two years, came at a particularly crucial time as We Don’t Waste struggled to meet heightened community needs for food during the pandemic. 

Yev Muchnik, 39 

Founding Partner, Launch Legal | Denver 

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Yev Muchnik, Founding Partner at Launch Legal

Yev Muchnik is a legal and tech futurist, a corporate and securities attorney who has taken a leadership role in many statewide blockchain initiatives, including participation in a study on how blockchain intersects with food safety and rural economic development. This study was the impetus of Colorado House Bill 19-1247, passed into law in 2019. The act directed the commissioner of agriculture to convene an advisory group to study the potential applications of blockchain technology in agricultural operations. 

Muchnik is also part of the team that has initiated HB22-1053, an effort to normalize agriculture data for use in blockchain financials. She’s been both a speaker and a judge at numerous national blockchain events. 

Since 2016, Muchnik has carved out a niche practice focusing on digital assets, blockchains, NFTs and smart contracts and other emergent technologies. 

Muchnik was born in the former Soviet Union (Kiev, Ukraine) and immigrated to the United States with her family as a Jewish refugee when she was 6. Recently she spearheaded an effort to raise more than $15 million in support of Ukrainians. 

Muchnik originally set out to be a human rights lawyer, but an opportunity arose at the outset of her law career to practice as a transactional attorney at an international law firm in Russia. 

Muchnik mentors local startups and founders, with a special interest in increasing diversity and inclusiveness in the startup and tech space, particularly as it relates to access to capital.  

Robin McIntosh, 36 

Co-CEO & Co-Founder, Workit Health | Denver 

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Robin Mcintosh, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Workit Health

Robin McIntosh is co-CEO of Workit Health, a health-care company she co-founded in 2015 to provide online and in-person care to people recovering from addiction. 

Workit is the first online addiction care intervention that is evidence-based and outcomes-driven. By providing specialized addiction counseling and an evidence-based curriculum, patients are able to moderate or abstain from addictive behaviors and live better lives. 

For nearly two decades, McIntosh has focused on building innovative and compelling consumer experiences and executing business growth strategies. A self-described social entrepreneur, she’s founded multiple companies dedicated to solving industry-scale problems through user-centered research, design thinking and craft. 

Her varied experiences include a stint as art director for Wired Magazine, COO and co-founder of Yoga company, and co-founder and CEO of SIREN, a San Francisco-based visual and interactive design studio focused on branding and user exerience.  

At Workit Health, she’s leading the development of a seamless at-home recovery service that delivers tangible outcomes for patients, including at-home automated drug testing and in-app video visits with Workit care teams 

McIntosh serves as a mentor and board member for organizations focused on design and entrepreneurship. A frequent guest lecturer and critic, she’s spoken at the Milken Institute, Yale, Wharton, California College of the Arts, and Stanford, with a focus on design thinking and innovation as well as business strategy. 

GenXYZ 2022: Finalists (16-20)

This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals vary in their backgrounds and their professional pursuits – they’re leaders in banking, real estate, nonprofits, law, entrepreneurship and architecture, to name just a few. 

Some are lifelong Coloradans who couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else; others are transplants from the East and West coasts or somewhere between. What they have in common is a relentless achiever’s mindset, a can-do spirit and a desire to do good for others as they do well for themselves.

Read on to learn more about this year’s GenXYZ finalists.

READ — GenXYZ 2022: Finalists (11-15)

Adeeb Khan, 39 

VP of Corporate Social Responsibility & Executive Director, Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation | Centennial 

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Adeeb Khan, VP of Corporate Social Responsibility & Executive Director at Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation

Shortly after joining Delta Dental of Colorado in January 2020, Adeeb Khan had to quickly shift the strategy for the nonprofit dental-benefits company’s foundation because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the measures he undertook: helping to craft the foundation’s $30 million COVID relief plan, which included $2 million in funding to 55 of Colorado’s 64 counties. The plan also included a low-interest loan program for dentists who provided relief support during the shutdown, marking the first time the foundation used investing as part of its strategic approach to community impact. By September 2020, Khan began working with the foundation’s board to set a new strategic direction in support of its mission to elevate the well-being of all Coloradans by advancing oral health equity. 

Khan also designed and launched the foundation’s impact investing strategy that includes offering low-interest loans for nonprofit/public dental clinics for capital expenses. In 2021, the first year of this strategy, the foundation awarded $2.7 million in loans for the development of three new clinics across the Denver metro area. 

Khan has dedicated his career to working in the nonprofit sector. In 2020, he was appointed by Gov. Jared Polis to serve on the Early Childhood Leadership Commission for Colorado. He is currently chair-elect of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation board and serves on the advisory board for the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver and the board of directors for Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC). 

Khan, whose parents immigrated from Pakistan, was raised in Wyoming and has been in Colorado since earning his undergraduate degree here. He’s visited his parents’ home country numerous times, and that experience has made him grateful for having been raised in the United States where opportunity abounds. It’s also clearly fueled his desire to give back.  

Denise Gomez, 36  

VP of Strategic Impact & Integration, Rocky Mountain Communities | Denver 

Denise Gomez
Denise Gomez, VP of Strategic Impact & Integration at Rocky Mountain Communities

As a Denver native, Denise Gomez has positively impacted thousands of individuals and families, displaying leadership that was evident in her teens when she was student council president at Denver East High School. Professionally, she’s worked with several organizations, including Latino Community Foundation of Colorado, Emily Griffith Foundation, Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance, and Nonprofit VOTE, among others. 

Gomez came aboard Rocky Mountain Communities (RMC), an affordable-housing nonprofit, in early 2020, initially as director of fundraising and equity. Shortly thereafter, the pandemic hit, and her role shifted to meet the needs of the community; in little time, she was elevated to vice president of Strategic Impact and Integration for the organization. 

Because some employees left RMC amid the pandemic, the organization’s resident-services team went from six people to one—Gomez. Through her role as the leader of resident services (which she was not hired for but eagerly took on) she took the services to a new level. For example, to support those living in RMC’s affordable housing communities and to provide equitable access to vaccines for its residents when vaccines became available, she connected with other community organizers to host vaccine clinics for residents and staff at the organization’s properties.  

At the same time, she supported the organization’s quest to bridge the technology gap that became apparent when the pandemic hit. Gomez worked to design and implement a vision for a laptop program, which started as a pilot at one property and expanded to offer all 1,000 RMC residents a laptop, tablet and Wi-Fi. 

The fact that Gomez’s family had lived in Townview, the affordable-housing community that she now supports, makes her work even more rewarding and fulfilling. 

“If we can impact our residents in the way my family was impacted all those years ago, we know that what we are doing is working,” she says.  

Rachael Yee, 33 

Architect, SmithGroup | Denver

Rachael Yee
Rachael Yee, Architect at SmithGroup

As one of the earliest new hires at the new SmithGroup Denver office in 2019, Rachael Yee stepped in to build and nurture the new office culture of this rapidly expanding arm of the international architecture, engineering and planning firm. Currrently she is the chair of a combined Denver and Phoenix SmithGroup Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee and is helping create and build a human-centric and empathetic industry.  

Yee has been a part of two architecture firms in her young career: Huelat Davis (an expansion to Denver’s Davis Partnership) and SmithGroup Denver. Both were budding office locations that brought her on to help establish a working and productive studio, where she has helped build programs and culture. At Davis Partnership, she helped develop and maintain a robust involvement with the Denver Architecture Foundation Cleworth Architectural Legacy Project (CAL) Project, which brought architecture education to K-8 classrooms, inspiring students to think critically about built environments. She continues this leadership role at SmithGroup, originating and leading the SmithGroup CAL volunteer cohort. 

The University of Denver graduate also stepped into leadership roles with AIA Colorado, (American Institute of Architects) including co-chair for its Justice and Equity Task Force.  She also served on the AIA Colorado Advocacy Task Force to help build a culture of belonging across the state for widely dispersed membership and representation. 

Yee currently serves as AIA Colorado’s past president, assisting the board in implementing and activating its imperatives and goals.  

Previously at Davis Partnership, where she was recognized as a rising star, Yee was asked to move cross-country to help build the architecture department at the firm’s new East Coast office location. As a small team, and with Yee as the youngest professional of the group, they developed a client base, nurtured relationships, collaborated with the existing interior design discipline at the new office and helped pilot a series of new virtual collaboration tools. Upon returning to the main Colorado office, she helped mesh the two office cultures together and strengthen relationships among colleagues. 

Chris Picardi, 38 

Senior VP & Commercial Banking Sales Leader, KeyBank | Denver

Chris Picardi
Chris Picardi, Senior VP & Commercial Banking Sales Leader at KeyBank

Chris Picardi has a unique ability to see a better way of doing something – and take action to make it happen. For example, he saw a gap in the market when it came to servicing Colorado-based private equity groups, so he spearheaded KeyBank’s effort to become a leading provider of credit and banking services to these groups. As a result, KeyBank is filling a niche of financing the purchases of portfolio companies for the city’s most prominent investor groups. Picardi and his team have established themselves as a go-to resource for these complex transactions.   

He’s also taken an active role in helping Key redefine the way it provides small business financing to minority-owned businesses. Until now, the process has been decentralized and handled on an ad hoc basis in each market. Picardi is one of a small group of company leaders currently working to centralize this program, with the goal of making it more impactful to underserved small business owners by making it more structured and strategic. As the middle-market liaison for this initiative, Picardi is attending national conferences, serving on the planning committee for how the company tracks the investments it is making, and having a hand in reshaping the way the company meets the needs of small business owners across its footprint – all just seven months into his new, expanded leadership role in Colorado.  

Picardi joined KeyBank as a licensed retail banker in 2012 and has been promoted six times since, most recently in July 2021, when he was named senior vice president and middle market manager for the KeyBank Colorado Commercial Banking team. In this role, he oversees seven commercial bankers and has responsibility for KeyBank’s entire middle market portfolio in Colorado. At 38, he is one of the youngest middle market team leaders in all of KeyCorp, leading one of the largest teams both in terms of employees and book of business.  

Picardi describes transitioning from an individual producer to a team leader as his greatest professional challenge so far, but it’s one in which he is clearly thriving.  

Phil Dumontet, 34 

CEO, Whole Sol Blend Bar | Boulder

Phil Dumontet
Phil Dumontet, CEO of Whole Sol Blend Bar

Phil Dumontet’s entrepreneurial zeal was evident when, fresh out of Boston College, he launched a service called Dashed, which grew to be one of the largest independent restaurant delivery services in the Northeast. Shortly after being named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30,” he sold Dashed to Grubhub in August 2017. 

Impressive stuff, but Dumontet was just getting started. Less than a year later, in Boulder, he co-founded Whole Sol Blend Bar, an organic and whole-food eatery and smoothie bar that was an outgrowth of his passion for running and healthy living. Dumontet is an avid marathoner who consistently finishes in the top 20 for his age group. In fact, the idea for Whole Sol came about in training for the New York City Marathon with Alexa Squillaro, who holds a master’s of science in nutrition from Columbia University. Together they launched Whole Sol. The concept has grown to five locations with two more in the works. Three of the new Whole Sol openings occurred during the pandemic, and the company hired 64 new employees during the labor shortage. 

Dumontet is also an accomplished and passionate writer, having contributed to The Washington Post, Business Insider, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He’s also passionately involved in the Boulder community, currently serving on the Downtown Boulder Partnership board. In addition, he created the “Boulderthon,” a movement whose goal is to produce a world-class marathon in Boulder with a downtown finish.  

Colorado’s Competitive Spirit is Alive and Well — Celebrating CoBiz’s Fall 2022 Print Issue

There is a hint of seasons’ change blowing in the wind. No, it’s not Fall yet, but it is football season.

Nonetheless, this isn’t about the Walton-Penner Group, the new owners of the Denver Broncos, or their new quarterback, Russell Wilson. It’s about the spirit of competition that’s in the air.

They say a friendly matchup never hurt anyone. No pain, no gain. Whether on or off the field, inside or outside the boardroom, the strategies are strikingly similar. Develop a game plan. Practice. Execute. Review, repeat (or modify). Competition can bring out the best in us, and afterward it often leads to internal evaluation and honest reflection.

We see that in this year’s Top Company Awards competition, now in its 35th year, sponsored this year by MB Law. The outpouring of applications is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of Colorado businesses, and it’s clear that the competitive spirit is alive and well. ColoradoBiz staff and hundreds of guests gathered on Sept. 14 to celebrate the best of the best in 14 industry categories. Winners and finalists are profiled in our Top Company section that begins on page 52 of our Fall issue.

For many, it’s a moment of clarity that their well-executed game plans led to success. It’s also a time to reflect and be grateful.

And since football is also top of mind right now, the positive benefits of competition among our high school students, and the next wave of entrepreneurs and CEOs, is also in the air. There’s something about youth competition we don’t seem to talk about often enough. On or off the field, it breeds innovation and a commitment to excellence.

On Aug. 26, two rival high school football programs – Regis Jesuit (ranked No. 3) and Valor Christian (ranked No. 2) – squared off under Friday night lights for a season opener that everyone will be talking about for the rest of the season. While you can find the details of Regis Jesuit’s overtime victory on MaxPreps Sports, what inspired me was the level of respect the teams granted one another. Moments after the tears of both joy and defeat, together, they knelt at the 50-yard line in prayer. Even for them, the months of preparation and training, statistic tracking and execution culminated with sobering reflection.

Yes, fall means sports. It also means a time of evaluating success and failures, and strategic planning for the future. Colorado has never been more competitive, and we wish all businesses, Top Company (or not) the greatest success as they lay the groundwork for their future successes.

 

Jon Haubert Hb Legacy Media Co 2Jon Haubert is the publisher of ColoradoBiz magazine. Email him at [email protected].

GenXYZ 2022: Finalists (11-15)

This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals vary in their backgrounds and their professional pursuits – they’re leaders in banking, real estate, nonprofits, law, entrepreneurship and architecture, to name just a few. 

Some are lifelong Coloradans who couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else; others are transplants from the East and West coasts or somewhere between. What they have in common is a relentless achiever’s mindset, a can-do spirit and a desire to do good for others as they do well for themselves.

Read on to learn more about this year’s GenXYZ finalists.

Shawnee Adelson, 38 

Executive Director, Colorado Brewers Guild | Denver

Shawnee Adelson
Shawnee Adelson, Executive Director at Colorado Brewers Guild

Shawnee Adelson has worked with the Colorado Brewers Guild for nearly seven years and has consistently proven herself as a valuable ally to more than 400 independent brewers in the state. 

Taking over as the nonprofit trade assocation’s executive director when the position was vacated in 2019, Adelson had little time to settle into the job before COVID unleashed its wrath on the business landscape. She worked tirelessly to support breweries, communicating to them weekly on how to navigate shut-down orders, mask mandates and constantly changing ordinances. Efforts from the guild included teaming up with the Left Hand Brewing Foundation to create the Colorado Strong Fund, a campaign to provide for those impacted by COVID, working with Gov. Jared Polis and the Liquor Enforcement Division (LED) so that breweries could deliver and sell beer to-go during Colorado stay-at-home orders, and lobbying to ensure reopening guidelines for restaurants, including breweries and brewpubs.  

Operating as a one-person team after COVID-induced layoffs of two guild staffers, Adelson juggled multiple jobs during this time, including member communications, member recruitment, event planning, and legislative and regulatory advocacy. She also strived to maintain the guild’s financial stability to ensure the organization would survive the pandemic. 

Fortunately, Adelson was able to weather the storm and hire a business-development manager in 2021 and a marketing and events manager in 2022. 

Adelson is particularly proud of two legislative priorities that passed during the pandemic:   

In 2020, Senate Bill 20-194 was signed into law, allowing brew pubs with multiple locations to sell beer to-go from both locations if the beer is brewed under the same ownership. Another big win was SB21-082. The bill expands festival permits – previously limited to wineries—to include Colorado licensed breweries and brew pubs. Thus, breweries can sell samples as well as beer to-go and invite other breweries, wineries and distilleries to participate.  

Colin McIntosh, 31  

CEO & Founder, Sheets & Giggles | Denver 

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Colin McIntosh, CEO & Founder of Sheets & Giggles

Colin McIntosh is reinventing the bedding industry through comfort, sustainability and puns. He started the sustainable bedding brand with a joke and Indiegogo campaign and now oversees the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brand in the bedding industry.  

As the sole employee during the company’s first six months in business in 2018, McIntosh received more than 6,000 orders and generated nearly half a million dollars in revenue. He finished 2021 with more than $9 million in revenue.  

McIntosh’s business is build on this concept: The bedding industry can sell better products for better prices without retail margins, give people a good customer experience, unlimited returns and full confidence in their products. Sheets & Giggles entered the space in 2018 with previously unseen levels of transparency and customer engagement to ensure it was giving shoppers a memorable experience at every touchpoint in an incredibly competitive space. This means bending over for customers. Defects? Free replacement. Delayed shipment? Amazon gift card. Social follow? Relentless giveaways. McIntosh “personally answers reviews and Facebook posts within minutes,” says Jason Michael, senior vice president at markeing firm Elasticity, who nominated McIntosh for this GenXYZ honor. 

Sheets & Giggles also strives to share its prosperity with worthy causes. The company donated $20,000 to koala conservation in 2019, $40,000 to Colorado COVID relief in 2020, and $28,000 to cancer organizations in 2021. The company is also an environmental steward, planting one tree for every Sheets & Giggles sale. To date, the company has planted nearly 70,000 trees; it also tracks how many pounds of carbon dioxide those trees absorb every year and posts the figures on the company website. 

McIntosh is a graduate of Techstars Denver and has remained active in the program, mentoring students and guiding Techstars classes.  

Anthony Halsch, 29  

CEO, ROXBOX Containers | Denver

Anthony Halsch
Anthony Halsch, CEO of ROXBOX Containers

Halsch’s first company in Colorado, Overcon, disrupted the container sales industry by using new technology in the space to sell and deliver containers. He had the first e-commerce platform to buy new and used shipping containers in Colorado. 

While expanding Overcon to Texas, Halsch was able to create a new shipping lane for containers between Houston and San Antonio so that his containers would arrive without the shipper having to pay for transport, increasing margins dramatically. 

Out of this came his idea for what he calls the “BeerCan” model, fashioined out of a 20-foot shipping container. This product is now the best selling unit at ROXBOX Containers Inc. With ROXBOX, Halsch and his team were able to create a product to assist restaurants with extra seating during the pandemic. “The PatioBox” was developed and received two-day approval from the Denver Building Department for placement on Larimer Street in downtown Denver, creating covid-safe seating for an additional 24 patrons per establishment. 

ROXBOX was started in a dirt lot in Erie, Colorado, with a good idea but  little knowledge of what was needed to produce a modified container for serving beer to thousands of people. Halsch was able to sell and build containers as he bootstrapped the operations with little outside investment. After receiving a large investment from the City of Denver, ROXBOX hit the hiring requirement for the city in hiring 14 people in the first two months of receiving funding. This enabled the company to move into a 31,000-square-foot warehouse, and it increased revenue more than fourfold from 2020 to 2021. The company how has 25 employees and a pipeline to double or triple revenue in 2022. 

A graduate of Colorado School of Mines, Halsch was a board member of the Denver Transportation Club for three years, hosting events to educate students about the transportation industry. He also was a board member of the Golden-based nonprofit GoFarm for three years, helping to build 20-foot containers to pull behind trailers for cold food storage, and dedicating many hours to business development, planning events and assisting at events for GoFarm.    

Kristin Strohm, 38  

President & CEO, Common Sense Institute | Greenwood Village

Kristin Strohm
Kristin Strohm, President & CEO of Common Sense Institute

As co-founder (and now president & CEO) of Common Sense Institute, Kristin Strohm is guided by the belief that when people have solid information, they are more likely to make sound choices. Free markets and free people function when they have facts and data to frame vital choices.  Strohm took the non-partisan nonprofit Common Sense Institute from vision to reality, and now CSI is driving the debate across the state on the most important policy issues. 

While in her 20s, Strohm, along with her business partner started Starboard Group, a groundbreaking political and nonprofit fundraising firm that enabled clients to capitalize on the momentum of their last election cycle and successfully build and expand their base.  Several firms have since copied this successful model designed and executed by Starboard Group. 

Since its founding in 2010, CSI has become a leading voice in Colorado, providing citizens and leaders facts they need to make informed decisions about the future for their families, and to empower state lawmakers to shape policy with sound fiscal and economic research. Building CSI to the point that it exerts this much influence has been no small task. Strohm has amassed a top-flight board of respected community leaders; she’s been a dogged fundraiser; and she’s hired a smart, ethical and committed staff of economists and bi-partisan fellows whose insights are helping policymakers and the public reach important decisions with facts as their guide. 

Strohm defies the stereotype or label of any political party. She’s been a trailblazer in the LGBTQ movement, recognized by a gay rights organization for her commitment to kicking down-barriers for same-sex couples. In 2016, she received the Ally Award from the pro LGBTQ organization One Colorado in recognition of her work.  

She was the only Republican board member of the National Vote at Home Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit dedicated to ensuring the security of elections. For several years, she was the volunteer chair of the Denver Area Boy Scouts Annual Sports Breakfast, shattering  fundraising records under her watch, and she was a six-year board member and two-term chair of the Women’s Bean Project.  

Francis LeGasse Jr., 39 

Managing Partner, Assured Senior Living | Wheat Ridge 

Francis LeGasse Jr.
Francis LeGasse Jr., Managing Partner at Assured Senior Living

Francis LeGasse Jr. is the co-owner of Assured Senior Living and Sevens Home Care. At the age of 25, after having watched his parents provide care for his grandfather living with Parkinson’s, he joined forces with a college friend to create a different future for the way we age. 

The two purchased a small home-care agency in the Castle Rock area, then added a couple of existing memory care residential homes in Lakewood and Castle Rock. LeGasse learned the business inside and out, doing everything from hands-on care to house repairs to training his staff to providing house tours for new move-ins. The multi-tasking helped leave them with enough revenue to survive and grow the business.  

LeGasse was one of the first senior-care providers to recognize that shifting demographics required a stronger role for the primary supporting family members. He proactively embraced clear, consistent, two-way communication with families of those in his care, and he searched for ways to modernize an antiquated, siloed industry. 

Assured Senior Living has set the stage for a new way of thinking about senior care. For example, he often asks partner providers such as hospice and home-health providers to collaborate when they have a shared patient.  

Having started small in order to learn the market, Francis and businss partner Brian Turner have grown to 10 residential care homes from Castle Rock to Wheat Ridge; their home care business is now a steady supplier of staff to other senior care providers.   

Francis takes his business and the quality of life for those in his care seriously. And personally. He became certified in renowned dementia care expert Teepa Snow’s “Positive Approach to Dementia” so he could better serve his residents and continually train and coach his staff.  

GenXYZ 2022: Finalists (6-10)

This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals vary in their backgrounds and their professional pursuits – they’re leaders in banking, real estate, nonprofits, law, entrepreneurship and architecture, to name just a few. 

Some are lifelong Coloradans who couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else; others are transplants from the East and West coasts or somewhere between. What they have in common is a relentless achiever’s mindset, a can-do spirit and a desire to do good for others as they do well for themselves.

Read on to learn more about this year’s GenXYZ finalists.

Jessica Ostoyich, 38

Market Director, Mortenson | Denver 

Jessica Ostoyich
Jessica Ostoyich, Marketing Director at Mortenson

Jessica Ostoyich started her career as a field engineer at Mortenson’s Central Park (formerly Stapleton) project.  

A 15-year veteran of the company, Ostoyich has since overseen projects such as Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, Woodward corporate headquarters in Fort Collins, Facebook’s massive data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah, and The HUB Project in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood. Along the way, she’s built strong community partnerships with local nonprofits, making an impact in the communities in which she works and lives. Two years ago, Ostoyich was named project executive and is now responsible for Mortenson’s Corporate Market, which also includes life sciences, manufacturing, industrial and corporate projects. 

She credits great mentors with helping her chart a path in the building industry and aims to provide the same support for others. She’s become a vital leader in Mortenson’s national event for Women in Construction Week, leading discussions at Mortenson’s “Cup of Joe” conversations, and coaching field team members. 

Ostoyich is currently overseeing a new $15.5 million research laboratory on the South Table Mountain Campus of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The 15,700-square-foot laboratory will provide multipurpose lab space for cross-disciplinary research within the fields of chemistry, materials science, bioscience and engineering. This project will be the first of its kind on the NREL campus. 

Ostoyich has served on the boards of Firefly Autism and the American Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe Committee and is a founding board member of the Eagle Mountain Chamber of Commerce in Eagle Mountain, Utah.  

Ginnie Logan, 39

Program Director, Chinook Fund | Denver 

Ginnie Logan
Ginnie Logan, Program Director at Chinook Fund

Born and raised in Denver, Ginnie Logan has worked for several nonprofits in the Denver area, including one she founded—Big Hair, Bigger Dreams—advocating for and providing opportunities for students needing adults to advocate for and support them.  

As a leader focused on equity, Logan has led efforts to strengthen diversity, equity and inclusiveness. Through this lens and her lived experience, she has positively impacted thousands of individuals and families in classrooms, schools and communities across metro Denver and the country. 

One of her strengths is her ability to engage in interdisciplinary efforts that connect with a wide range of community members. 

This ability is evident in her current role as Program Director at Chinook Fund, a Denver-based community foundation working across Colorado to support organizations and leaders engaged in community organizing and social justice. Logan has brought her strengths in planning, project management, change management and teaching to strengthen the organization’s cornerstone program, the Giving Project. She has also been active within the National Giving Project Network, a collaborative of 11 social justice organizatons across the country advancing political education, donor organizing and movement building. 

One of her most notable achievements was the curating, co-editing and publishing of the book, “Black Girl Civics.” By incorporating intersecting identities of race, gender and age, Logan and her co-editor and authors have reframed these issues from overlooking and minimizing Black girls and women to centering them. In doing so she is challenging educators, youth development professionals and policy makers to consider how to improve civic education not only for Black girls, but any marginalized community.  

Erin Beffa, 36

Threat Intelligence Practice Lead, Digital Silence | Denver 

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Erin Beffa, Threat Intelligence Practice Lead at Digital Silence

Working as a one-woman department, Erin Beffa created an open-source intelligence (OSINT) practice at Digital Silence from scratch, bringing external security intelligence to information security clients.  

Beffa works one-on-one with clients to ensure online security. This includes clients in the legal field, whom she helps with case matters such as legal and plaintiff discovery. Beffa also has worked several financial cases to untangle account ownerships, business registrations, asset identification, cryptocurrency research and theft.  

Beffa was accepted to teach a workshop at this year’s National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) conference in Phoenix. This provides an opportunity to present OSINT methods and techniques to the legal field, specifically to help paralegals.  

In 2018, Beffa earned a lifetime pass to the NOLA security conference in New Orleans, also known as a black badge, after her team won a Capture the Flag-style competition. The competition consisted of hunting down specific clues (flags) online using OSINT methodology. These competitions require a wide OSINT skill set to enable participants to investigate all corners of the internet to solve the clues provided.  

Beffa laso has contributed intelligence found online to law enforcement case files. This involves finding specific details regarding missing persons and providing that data to law enforcement. She is also an active participant in several online communities sharing tips and resources with fellow OSINT researchers.  

Beffa volunteers for the Innocent Lives Foundation (ILF), a nonprofit working to identify online child predators and bring them to justice. Many online predators use fake personas; Beffa and other ILF volunteers work to un-mask these predators. The work helps to stop child predators before any victims are hurt. 

Beffa has been invited as a guest lecturer at Washington University in St. Louis to speak with law students on the advantages of using OSINT (open-source intelligence).   

Victoria Donovan, 29  

CEO, Clinically Media | Denver

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Victoria Donovan, CEO of Clinically Media

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, only 25% to 30% of drugs in clinical trials make it past Phase 3. A University of Pennsylvania study concluded that around 86% of clinical trials do not reach their patient enrollment timelines. 

Victoria Donovan established Clinically Media to improve these numbers; she’s also redefining what it means to recruit and retain patients for clinical trials. Her Clinically Media team seeks to advance medicine and improve patient outcomes, while bringing diversity and inclusion to the forefront of clinical research and streamlining processes with cutting-edge technology. 

Clinically Media recognizes the historical exclusion of marginalized communities and strives to break down the systemic barriers still present. For example, Donovan established a partnership with Uber Health to provide transportation to and from clinical trials to increase accessibility for all patients. 

To address the challenge of tracking patients in clinical trials, Donovan launched Clinically Portal, a proprietary software designed to help research sites track patients as they move through the enrollment process, while giving the Clinically Media team and clients valuable insights into recruitment campaign success. Donovan is continually evolving the software and services Clinically Media offers to provide the most valuable product to patients and industry professionals, leading to more medical advancements and more patients served. 

Through her company, Donovan supports women in business and the life sciences and promotes diversity in clinical research and beyond. She also started an internship program with University of Colorado Denver, CU Boulder and University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to invest in young professionals in the life sciences industry.  

Bobby W. Dishell, 29 

Associate Attorney, Moye White LLP | Denver

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Bobby W. Dishell, Associate Attorney at Moye White LLP

At just 29 and barely two years out of law school, Bobby Dishell is a publicly elected official with an active practice at a well-respected law firm. 

As a member of Moye White’s real estate team, Dishell focuses on real estate transactional matters, including industrial acquisition, development, leasing and disposition; commercial lease agreements; and multifamily assets. He also assists clients with solar leasing and development and other advanced energy matters. 

Dishell also is a member of the Regional Transportation District’s board of directors for District D. In this  elected position, he serves as vice chair of the Performance Committee, which oversees RTD’s GM/CEO evaluation. He also serves on the Ad Hoc Audit Committee, which is tasked with reforming RTD’s internal audit committee structure and overall internal audit process. 

Dishell spends about 40 hours a month tending to RTD-specific work, attending meetings and preparing for upcoming projects, in addition to his legal practice and community involvement. The RTD board position has also allowed him to develop expertise in areas important to his legal practice, including requirements related to federal funding, the impact of TABOR on the ability to increase revenue, and other public finance and general board governance matters.  

Dishell writes frequently on sustainability – he’s currently focused on solar power – and how it can impact the real estate industry; his work has been featured in Law Week Colorado and ColoradoBiz.  

GenXYZ 2022: Daniel Ramirez

This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals vary in their backgrounds and their professional pursuits – they’re leaders in banking, real estate, nonprofits, law, entrepreneurship and architecture, to name just a few. 

Some are lifelong Coloradans who couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else; others are transplants from the East and West coasts or somewhere between. What they have in common is a relentless achiever’s mindset, a can-do spirit and a desire to do good for others as they do well for themselves.

Read on to learn more about Meet Daniel Ramirez, Co-CEO, Los Dos Potrillos in Centennial, CO.

Daniel Ramirez, 30 

Co-CEO, Los Dos Potrillos | Centennial 

Daniel Ramirez oversees day-to-day operations of four restaurants that generate average sales of $5.2 million annually. He’s also launched a food truck as an extension of his restaurants. The truck is different than others in the niche, in that it sets up in neighborhoods and provides the same options diners would find in Los Dos Potrillos’ sit-down locations, so customers who can’t make it to one of his restaurants can still enjoy Los Dos Potrillos’ offerings at home.  

Ramirez also developed a marketing and social media team that has helped boost sales. During the pandemic, he implemented a curbside pick-up system so customers could order food and not have to get out of their cars. The system proved so successful that sales remained close to pre-pandemic levels with just to-go orders. As a result, Ramirez was able to retain more than 300 of his 320 team members.  

These developments are even more impressive when you consider Ramirez has been battling testicular cancer, requiring cycles of chemotherapy that last three weeks each round and average five hours a day. 

Somehow, Ramirez has not been deterred. He employs a master brewer who crafts special in-house beers exclusively for Los dos Potrillos restaurants; as a result, the fourth restaurant location is also the most distinctive: a brewery-Mexican restaurant under one roof. 

Along with his business pursuits, Ramirez makes time to give back to the restaurant industry and to the community. He is one of the youngest members on the board of directors for the Colorado Restaurant Association, serving as the vice chair for events and promotions. Every year during the holidays, he donates to the homeless more than 1,000 burritos along with coffee, juice and donated jackets. 

GenXYZ 2022: Nina Vendhan

This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals vary in their backgrounds and their professional pursuits – they’re leaders in banking, real estate, nonprofits, law, entrepreneurship and architecture, to name just a few. 

Some are lifelong Coloradans who couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else; others are transplants from the East and West coasts or somewhere between. What they have in common is a relentless achiever’s mindset, a can-do spirit and a desire to do good for others as they do well for themselves.  

Read on to learn more about Nina Vendhan, Chief of Staff & Product Manager at Studio Management in Denver, Colorado.

Nina Vendhan, 24 

Chief of Staff & Product Manager, Studio Management | Denver 

A Colorado native and daughter of immigrants from India, Nina Vendhan was admitted to Harvard a year early and was inspired to study development economics after witnessing economic disparities both in Colorado and in India. 

Armed with a degree in economics and mathematics from Harvard, Vendhan started her career at Tulco Holdings, the venture capital arm of billionaire and media mogul Thomas Tull, as the first and only direct undergraduate hire. She partnered with Tulco Labs, Tulco’s in-house artificial intelligence and data science team, to accelerate growth in the firm’s portfolio companies by understanding consumer behavior.  

Now at Studio Management, an asset-management firm whose mission is to influence the flow of capital into companies that improve society and push culture forward, Vendhan is the only female member of the investing team and also serves as the chief of staff. She has taken on a wide range of responsibilities, including reviewing new investment opportunities, performing market research and supporting current portfolio companies with ongoing financial and operational analysis. Her areas of focus include quantum computing, eldertech, proptech and edtech. Vendhan works out of Denver to identify and support founders in the Rocky Mountain region. While California and New York often dominate the venture capital headlines, she wants to help change that narrative through technology investments as she staunchly believes that Colorado is full of innovative entrepreneurs ready to make their mark.  

Vendhan is fervently passionate about supporting entrepreneurs, particularly underrepresented founders, including women and people of color. Currently, less than 3% of venture capital funding is allocated to female founders, with women of color founders receiving less than 1%. Vendhan leans into her identity as a woman of color to enact change in venture capital and ensure that technology initiatives are developed by diverse founders to benefit a larger population. She is the youngest advisory council member of the Women and Girls of Color Fund supported by the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, for which she has applied her investing experience to help distribute more than $440,000 in philanthropic investments. 

The most fulfilling aspect of her work: “Being able to support innovative entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.” 

GenXYZ 2022: Neil Fisher

This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals vary in their backgrounds and their professional pursuits – they’re leaders in banking, real estate, nonprofits, law, entrepreneurship and architecture, to name just a few. 

Some are lifelong Coloradans who couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else; others are transplants from the East and West coasts or somewhere between. What they have in common is a relentless achiever’s mindset, a can-do spirit and a desire to do good for others as they do well for themselves.

Read on to learn more about Neil Fisher, Co-Founder & Co-Owner of Weldwerks Brewing Co.

Neil Fisher, 36 

Co-Founder & Co-Owner, Weldwerks Brewing Co. | Greeley

After homebrewing in his garage for more than five years, Neil Fisher received his first major brewing accolades, winning two medals at the 2014 Big Beers Homebrew competition in Breckenridge. 

It was an important proof of concept; Fisher had made a handshake deal with Colin Jones, an IT management executive and fellow craft beer enthusiast, that the two would launch a craft beer enterprise if Fisher medaled at the homebrewers’ event. 

Thirteen months later, Fisher and Jones opened WeldWerks Brewing Co. in historic downtown Greeley, in a 1950s building that formerly housed a car dealership. What began as a modest operation producing fewer than 400 barrels its first year has now become a staple of the Colorado craft beer scene with more than 12,000 barrels produced in 2021 and more growth on the horizon. 

The duo has also worked hard to make WeldWerks a fulfilling workplace. With perks such as complete benefits packages and team-building opportunities, WeldWerks was “Great Place to Work”—certified in 2021—meaning that 100% of employees surveyed gave the brewery high marks. Known for its rotating lineup of innovative beers, the brewery recently opened The Annex, an in-house eatery that features chef-driven, seasonal and locally minded dishes. 

During the onset of COVID-19 in 2020 when hand sanitizer was hard to come by, Fisher showed his desire to give back to his community. Using the FDA’s provisional formula for hand sanitizer, WeldWerks teamed up with local maltsters, distillers and manufacturers on a project in which more than 6,000 gallons of hand sanitizer were distributed, nearly half of which went to first responders, hospitals and nonprofits.

GenXYZ 2022: Alejandra Harvey

This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals vary in their backgrounds and their professional pursuits – they’re leaders in banking, real estate, nonprofits, law, entrepreneurship and architecture, to name just a few. 

Some are lifelong Coloradans who couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else; others are transplants from the East and West coasts or somewhere between. What they have in common is a relentless achiever’s mindset, a can-do spirit and a desire to do good for others as they do well for themselves. 

The winners were chosen from among hundreds of entries by a panel of judges made up of ColoradoBiz magazine’s editorial board and representatives of the business community, including a past Gen XYZ winner. 

Nominees for this 12th annual awards program were judged on professional achievement, community involvement and challenges surmounted, with judges giving weight to each criterion at their own discretion. The panel then convened, and judges each made their cases for their 25 selections. Votes were tallied. Out of that discussion, a “Top 5” of particularly impressive nominees were selected. 

For the judges, assessing the nominations and learning about the career and life pursuits of all the entrants was cause for optimism, as this group of Gen XYZ honorees continues to make its mark.       

Read on to learn more about Alejandra Harvey, CEO of Tendit Group. 

Alejandra Harvey, 36 

CEO, Tendit Group | Denver 

Alejandra Harvey was just 29 when she pivoted from a stellar career in hospital administration to launch American Striping Company with two employees and two refurbished paint trucks. Under Harvey’s leadership, the company saw exponential growth and, within five years, was sold to Tendit Group, a collective of six companies that provides comprehensive paving solutions and external facilities services, for which Alejandra now serves as CEO. 

Harvey knew at a young age she wanted to work with people to bring about change. Starting her career as a patient transporter, she created a system for hospital staff to better communicate with the nurses via walkie-talkies. After receiving her degree in pre-med from Virginia Tech and master’s degree from the Medical College of Virginia, she moved on to hospital operations in Denver, where at the age of 26 she was responsible for overseeing the staffing of 2,000 employees and a $234 million budget.  

Harvey partnered with the Progressive Health Center to add programs that included resilience training, massage, health coaching and acupuncture, free to all employees. With burnout and turnover rampant, the Progressive Health Center was a crucial step to help combat these issues and regain employees’ trust, health and safety. Since the first center was built, six more centers have been implemented across major hospitals in the Denver metro area, helping reduce turnover by 10%.  

Harvey’s leadership and vision are just as evident in her entrepreneurial ventures and civic involvement. She was recently appointed to the board for the Kenneth King Foundation, a private grant-making organization with a mission to create opportunities for Coloradans to achieve self-sufficiency through access to entrepreneurship, meaningful employment, basic needs and an improved quality of life. This is a lifetime appointment, and Harvey is the first Latina female under 40 to be asked to join.