Bill Vidal, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Denver President and CEO
Guillermo Vidal is a native of Camagüey, Cuba. His parents sent Vidal and his two brothers to the U.S. in 1961 via “Operation Peter Pan,” a program that placed over 14,000 children in foster homes or orphanages. Once in the U.S., the Vidal boys were sent to Sacred Heart Orphanage in Pueblo, Colorado. The family was reunited four years later.
Vidal graduated from the University of Colorado with a civil engineering degree. He joined the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), where he worked for 23 years and was promoted to the post of executive director as an appointee of Colorado Governor Roy Romer in 1994. During his tenure with CDOT Vidal was responsible for many construction projects including the I 25/I 70 Interchange (the Mousetrap), C 470 and the North I 25 HOV lanes.
After his tenure with CDOT, a board of elected officials from fifty local governments that make up the Denver metropolitan region selected Vidal to head the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). Amongst Vidal’s best known accomplishments are the adoption of the 20 Year Regional Transportation and Clean Water Plans, the investment of $40 million of DRCOG funds into two critical regional projects, the Central Platte Valley Light Rail spur and Denver Union Station.
During his time as Executive Director of DRCOG, newly elected Denver Mayor, John Hickenlooper, persuaded Vidal to join his Cabinet and become Deputy Mayor and Manager of Public Works for the City and County of Denver. In addition to his role with Public Works, Vidal served as Deputy Mayor for seven years. After Mayor Hickenlooper was elected Governor of Colorado, Vidal assumed the role of the 44th Mayor of Denver in January 2011, becoming the City’s first foreign-born Mayor. Today Vidal is serving as the President and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Denver.
Zelda DeBoyes, Court Administrator for the Aurora Municipal Court
Dr. Zelda M. DeBoyes is the Court Administrator for the Aurora Municipal Court in Aurora, Colorado. She has managed all non-judicial court functions for this limited jurisdictional court since 1992. She is also the Department Director for the Aurora Detention Facility. Prior to her court appointment, Dr. DeBoyes served as the Operating Section Manager for Denver County Court’s Traffic Division and as a Management Analyst for the Colorado Judicial Branch.
Dr. DeBoyes is a Board Director for the Excelsior Youth Center. She is a past President of the National Association for Court Management (NACM), as well as a past member of the Board of Directors for the National Center for State Courts. She recently completed a nine year appointment as a commissioner with the Colorado State Commission on Judicial Performance.
She is an adjunct professor at the University of Denver – Sturm College of Law with the Master of Science in Legal Administration program. As a training consultant, Dr. DeBoyes has taught seminars and workshops in Human Resources, Performance Management, Leadership, Diversity, Caseflow Management, Trial Court Performance Standards, and Customer Service in the Courts.
Dr. DeBoyes earned her Bachelor of Science in Aviation Management/Business Administration from the Metropolitan State University of Denver and received her Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado-Denver. She has a doctorate degree in Higher Education from the University of Denver through the Morgridge College of Education.
She is also the proud mother of two daughters, Telia N. DeBoyes, M.D. and Ahnjoulie M. DeBoyes.
Richard Franklin, Regional Director of Cleantech Open
The mission of this organization is to “Find, Fund and Foster” Cleantech entrepreneurs across the United States. To date, over 600 companies have amassed $660 Million in capital to commercialize their technologies while creating over 2300 clean tech jobs.
Dick was co-founder for the first expansion region (Rocky Mountain), is a prolific fundraiser, provides C-Level strategic acumen and is instrumental in the launch of additional new regions across the country.
Dick brings 35 years of CEO, COO, CSO, SVP level experience with corporations such as Reebok, Coors, Head Sports, Seven-Up, TCI, Nestle etc. His expertise is in strategic, organizational and process change transforms economic, environmental and social challenges into sustainable business models for the future.
He has done eco-strategies, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects, EMS (Environmental Management Systems), Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and brand positioning for organizations such as Merrick Engineering, Channel 9, Douglas County Schools, St. Mary’s University, Saunders Construction, Texas Business for Clean Air, Accuwater, Regis Jesuit High School, Cleantech Open etc.
Among his many community activities are United Way Denver, Children’s Museum, Audubon Society, Denver South Metro Chamber, Renewable Energy Taskforce, CORE, CleanLaunch Incubator, Earth Protect and Colorado Clean Tech Industry Association.
Dick earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from St. Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia; a Master of Business Administration from Dalhousie University, Halifax and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Commerce degree from St. Mary’s in 1999.
In 2008, the South Metro Chamber awarded Richard the “Volunteer Leader of the Year” award. In 2010, he was nominated for the “Governor’s Award for Cleantech Leadership.”
He is an avid diver and has amassed over 1,000 dives around the globe over the last 40 years. It has been this visual time capsule of destruction that has motivated him to help business transform from “Depletive to Sustainable to Restorative” strategies for a secure, economic future.
His wife D.A. is a medical doctor and his daughter Missy Franklin is a two time World Record Holder and the youngest member of the U.S. swim team.
Savinay Chandrasekhar, Senior Project Manager for Standards Implementation at Denver Public Schools
Savinay Chandrasekhar is the Senior Project Manager for Standards Implementation at Denver Public Schools. In this role, he oversees the vision, strategy, and execution of the rollout of new Common Core State (CCSS), Colorado Academic (CAS), and English Language Development (ELD) Standards and concordant instructional practices across the district, impacting almost all of its 81,000+ students and 5,000+ teachers.
In addition, Savinay is Vice President and Co-Director of the Sophomore Program at Minds Matter Denver (MMD), a non-profit that pairs high-potential, low-income DPS high school students with two adult professional mentors and a rigorous after-school curriculum to help them achieve admission and access to college. Over its history MMD has had 100% of its students successfully graduate from high school, gain admission to four-year institutions, and receive scholarships. He also is a Senior Partner at Metro Denver Partners, for which he mentors an at-risk twelve-year old youth.
Savinay graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Business Systems Engineering and began his career at the The Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, CA as a member of a two-year management training program — in this role he rotated through six different business functions across the company. Upon graduating the program, Savinay worked in supply chain management on myriad aerospace and defense programs, where he managed contracts with suppliers valued at up to $1 billion. In July 2011, Savinay moved to Colorado to serve as a Project Manager for the Office of Teacher Learning and Leadership in Denver Public Schools as part of The Broad Residency — a leadership development program that transitions non-traditional business minds into the education industry across the country.
Aimee Cohen, Owner of Cohen Career Consulting
Aimee Cohen is a Career Expert, Coach, and Speaker. She owns Cohen Career Consulting, is a contributing writer for the Denver Business Journal, has appeared as a career expert on Channel 7 and Channel 4 News, and was featured in Denver Woman magazine. For more than 19 years, she has coached executives and job seekers in personalized one-on-one consultations, led outplacement transition seminars for Fortune 500 companies, conducted organizational assessments, and delivered dynamic career-related presentations to audiences of all sizes. With a nearly 100% success rate, Aimee empowers people to implement a strategic step-by-step action plan with proven techniques that generate results. She transforms “job seekers” into “job finders”.
Julia Gentry, Owner of Intern America
Julia Gentry is the liaison and the voice for the next generation of individuals. She has been involved in 4 different start ups ranging from a short sale business that had bought and sold millions of dollars worth of investment property, while managing four employees, and over 70+ short sale files, to her most recent venture, Intern America. Intern America is a company designed to reignite the national economy by connecting employers with interns. Along with actively running her business, Julia is traveling the country, speaking to audiences about her experiences and teaching the basic, yet transformational principles of what it takes to be a successful business owner and purpose – driven individual.
Chris Herndon, Denver City Councilman
Councilman Christopher Herndon is from Kansas City, Missouri. A 1999 West Point graduate, he spent nearly seven years in the United States Army.
As Councilman, he serves on committees including Government and Finance; Business, Workforce and Sustainability; Stapleton Development Corporation; and many others. He is also the Co-Chair of the Committee on Redistricting.
Chris is a believer in strength and responsibility in education, community involvement, and business growth. His experiences thus far have shown him the importance of listening and cooperation; tools that have served him as a leader in the military and will help him serve his constituents as a public servant.
Mary MacNeilly, Author and Owner of The Butterfly Creative
Mary was born and raised in Valparaiso, IN where she grew up in the arts. She studied dance, piano, and acting. She focused heavily on her academics and dance throughout her childhood and maintained a 4.0 GPA. Upon moving to Boulder, CO in 1998, she immediately began working to help support her family. Due to rehabilitation from a car accident, Mary only completed one semester of college at CU Boulder. She went on to hold various part-time jobs and eventually began her career in the mortgage industry.
After 10 short months, Mary began employment with Paychex, Inc. as a sales assistant in the major market services division in 2006. Mary quickly learned the products and industry, began working on her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Phoenix, and was promoted into major market sales in 2008. Although she did not have sales experience, she became the number one rep in her division within months of being promoted. She attributes her early success in sales to choosing to ‘think outside the box’ and build a career on relationship-based selling.
Mary sold over $1.8M in revenue at Paychex in just over two years. She held the number one title while given the opportunity to fly all over the country training sales managers and sales reps. In her last few months with Paychex, she worked directly with the VP of her division to discuss the infrastructure, systems, and processes for the $300M division of the $2B company. Upon succeeding at this level of work and completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Business & Marketing, she left Paychex and began working with start-up companies.
Over the past two years, she partnered with three start-ups, two internet-based companies and one services-based company. With each, she helped build the infrastructure; including market research, competitive analysis, overall market strategy, brand development, systems/processes, training/procedure manuals, and successfully helped take each company to market with an efficient go-to-market strategy. She published her first book, EXTREME BUSINESS BUILDING: From Concept to Profit in 60 Days in July 2012, and now teaches monthly business building classes for entrepreneurs.
Mary also teaches ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop at Centerstage Starz in Centennial, CO. Her passion shows in all her commitments and will always listen first, speak second, and execute third in an effort to build the best relationships in business.
Lisa Mattis, Executive Director at Big City Mountaineers
Lisa Mattis is a nonprofit leadership executive with more than a decade of experience in funds development. As Executive Director at Big City Mountaineers, she leads the turnaround and new growth initiatives, and has led national funds development with Outward Bound USA in the past. Lisa holds a masters in public administration from Columbia University, a BA from Fordham University, and has passion for working with under-resourced youth, hiking/running trails in the foothills, and ski instructing at Vail.
JP Maxfield, Founder of Waste Farmers
John-Paul Maxfield is the Founder of Waste Farmers. The Company started in 2009 with $9,000 and a belief that idealism and capitalism can coexist. Today WF has evolved into an innovator respected by leaders in the global community for developing simple solutions to the complex problems of modern agriculture and food security. The knowledge and experience behind Waste Farmers has been many years in the making as John-Paul comes from a family of agricultural leaders who have been pioneers in farming and ranching since the 19th century.
Prior to starting Waste Farmers, John-Paul founded the “The Inspired Economy” now known as “The Inspired Economist” in 2005, a blog focused on covering the people, places, ideas, and technologies inspiring positive change and redefining capitalism. In addition, John-Paul served as an Associate at MBH, a private equity group specializing in small to mid-cap service companies. Prior to joining MBH, John-Paul was an analyst with Alvarez and Marsal where he spent the majority of his time on a team that aided Louisiana’s Recovery School District with the restoration of public schools in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
In 2007 John-Paul was selected as one of the “Fifty for the Future” by the Colorado Statesman and in 2011 was selected as one of the Denver Business Journals’ “40 Under 40”. In 2011, John-Paul was appointed by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration to serve on Denver Seeds, a strategy to support small businesses, create jobs and shift food production away from large out-of-state industrial operations toward local growers.
About Waste Farmers:
Waste Farmers is a sustainable agriculture company cultivating solutions that help humanity meet current and future food demands, while decreasing agriculture’s environmental footprint
Ousmane Ndoye, CEO and Founder of Willingers Network
Raised in a small fishing village in Senegal, West Africa, Ousmane Ndoye witnessed the breakup of his family at age two and managed to survive a humiliating and abusive childhood. Through sheer determination and an inner belief system that lead him through his darkest hours, Ousmane left his home in Senegal at age 21 and set out on a harrowing journey that lead to him becoming a truly unique American success story.
With only a gallon of water and an unbreakable dream in his heart, Ousmane “The Fisherman” Ndoye crossed the Sahara desert between Algeria and Libya on foot in his quest to one day set foot on the shores of the United States.
His amazing journey began with one brave step, and today Ousmane is a proud U.S. Citizen and CEO and Founder of Willingers Network, a Denver-based company committed to improving the vibrancy of community organizations and businesses by fostering a greater sense of self-worth and contribution to others.
Matt Rowe, Author and CSO at Sales Leadership Inc.
Matt Rowe is a graduate of Industrial Psychology, past President of a manufacturing company by age twenty-three and Executive Vice President of a 200-person family owned distribution company before the age of thirty. In 2010, Matt merged his own budding niche printing business. In 2011 Matt became a CSO at Sales Leadership Inc. and is helping companies create award winning sales leaders.
He was trained on the principals of Nero-Linguistic Programming, Emotional Intelligence and Marston’s model of DiSC. As Executive Vice President of a corporation, Matt developed the “Yellow Card” system that held his executive team accountable in conversations on a daily basis. Matt has also authored the book Losers Never Fail which motivates readers to turn failure into their greatest adventure.
Matt has been featured in the Denver Business Journal, Colorado Small Business Development Center Entrepreneur Spotlight and seen on Colorado’s NBC and CBS News. He was also a past member of Vistage International a CEO’s roundtable.
Matt’s vision is to make a positive difference with laughter, love and a belief that every day can be greater when we strive for better conversations.
Adam Schlegel, Co-Owner of Snooze AM Eatery
Adam Schlegel serves as co-owner and Consiglieri for Snooze AM Eatery, a consortium of breakfast and lunch restaurants in Colorado. Snooze, established in 2006, currently operates 4 award winning restaurants with a 5th location coming in November of 2011. As Consiglieri, Adam focuses on business organization, development and strategy, financial management, technology, human resources, and, true to his hippy roots, sustainability. Collectively with his partner & brother Jon Schlegel, Snooze has established itself not only as the go to breakfast restaurant in the city, but developed a model that integrates community, environment and sound business to drive success. From Best Breakfast Awards five out of five years running with 5280 Magazine, to Best New Business in 2007 as awarded by the Downtown Denver Partnership, Snooze seeks change and growth.
A Denver native, Adam graduated from the University of Denver’s Finance School; his initial work focused on emerging market investments. Next Adam specialized in corporate financial management and system implementation with KPMG Consulting, working both nationally and abroad, with companies ranging from Australia’s Telstra Telecom to Time Warner/ America OnLine.
Adam is the founding member of Eat Greener Denver, a coalition of restaurants working with city, state and national organizations in support and promotion of sustainable actions in the hospitality field. Adam currently serves as President of EatDenver, a group of over 60 independent Denver restaurants promoting dining, sustainability and community involvement in Denver. Adam serves on the Denver’s Sustainable Food Policy Council, GreenPrint Denver, Board of Directors for Waste Farmers, and works locally and throughout Colorado on sustainable and triple bottom line management opportunities.
Erin Subedi, Founder of Edge of Seven
Erin Subedi is passionate about global education and exploration. In 2010, she founded Edge of Seven, a Denver-based nonprofit generating awareness and volunteer support for projects that invest in education, health, and economic opportunity for girls in developing countries. She currently sits on the board of Edge of Seven and is the Director of Recruitment and Business Analysis for EF Education, the world leader in international education. Erin has traveled to 30 countries on five continents and hopes to conquer all seven soon. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University and she loves to ski, hike, travel, and practice yoga.
Aaron Templer, Owner of Aaron Templer, LLC
Aaron Templer (AT) is an independent strategy, branding, and marketing consultant. He cut his professional teeth with a major graphic design software company, presenting to and training some of the world’s leading advertising and design agencies. AT has a unique “Branding is Leadership” lens through which he views branding and the social web, derived from directing the marketing for a world-ranked business college where he led a re-branding effort focused on values-based leadership and sustainable development. AT presents, trains, facilitates, and guest-lectures on the topics of branding and the social web. For more information visit: aarontempler.com.
