Publishers’ Notebook: Bravo! award winners, nominees endure jungle

It’s a jungle out there.

Nominations for this year’s third annual Bravo! Entrepreneur program illustrate just how deeply Northern Colorado’s economy continues to diversify, even as competition intensifies in every industry.

From high technology to banking, brewing to agriculture, manufacturing to events, this year’s nominees for Bravo! Entrepreneur hail from the region’s most dynamic industries. What they have accomplished over the past years or decades inspires all entrepreneurs to new heights of accomplishment.

Bravo! Entrepreneur embraces the spirit of risk-taking and the ability to overcome obstacles and weather competition that characterize all the nominees – and a good portion of Northern Colorado’s business populace overall.

As always, Bravo! Entrepreneur encompasses Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland and outlying communities of Larimer and Weld counties.

This year’s honorees include:

” Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch, owners of New Belgium Brewing Co. Bravo! Entrepreneur, Fort Collins.

” Bill Beirwaltes, founder of Colorado Memory Systems and Colorado Time Systems, and CEO of OnStream Inc., Bravo! Entrepreneur, Loveland.

” Bill Farr, president of Centennial Bank of the West, Bravo! Entrepreneur, Greeley.

” Max, Bob and Dean Walker, owners of Walker Manufacturing in Timnath, Bravo! Entrepreneur, outlying communities.

” Kenneth W. Monfort, a pioneer in the beef industry who continues to promote Northern Colorado’s growth through a variety of philanthropic activities, Lifetime Achievement Award.

” Greeley Independence Stampede, winner of the Regional Spirit Award for its embracing of all of Northern Colorado for one of the nation’s premier rodeos.

” Tim Gan, founder of OpenLCR, a Fort Collins-based high-tech company, winner of the inaugural Emerging Entrepreneur award.

It’s important to note, however, that Bravo! Entrepreneur does not honor these individuals alone; rather, it pays tribute to all of the nominees and indeed all of the individuals who take risks on a daily basis, who work out solutions to problems and who generate new ideas that turn into profitable enterprises. Total nominations this year were about 75.

In this special section of The Northern Colorado Business Report, you’ll read of those who won these awards, but you’ll also read brief synopses of all who were considered. You’ll read of Jerry Donnan, whose Factual Data Corp. in Loveland is emerging as one of the nation’s most prominent mortgage credit-reporting firms. You’ll read of David Carson, whose CBW Automation makes robots for a variety of manufacturing purposes. And you’ll read about Betty Tointon, whose Antiques at Lincoln Park sets new standards for antique stores, no matter where they are.

Bravo! Entrepreneur is a program of The Northern Colorado Business Report, in conjunction with the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Collins Economic Development Corp., the Greeley/Weld Chamber of Commerce, the Greeley/Weld Economic Action Partnership Inc., the Loveland Chamber of Commerce and the Loveland Economic Development Council.

The president of each of those organizations serves on the Steering Committee, which is responsible for the overall success of Bravo! Entrepreneur. Yours truly also serve on the committee.

Steering Committee members from chambers and economic-development agencies each appoint business leaders to an Awards Committee, which considers nominations from the public and from the Awards Committee itself.

This year’s committee included John Arnolfo of the Silver Grill in Fort Collins, Marge Yoder of Travel Connection in Fort Collins, Kelly Peters of the Loveland Center for Business Development, Irene Johnson of Loveland’s Linsco Private Ledger, Kevin Schwindt of R.R. Donnelley Norwest in Greeley, Ted Warner of Connecting Point of Greeley and Rocky Mountain Technology Solutions of Fort Collins and Lucille Mantelli of Eastman Kodak Co.

They deserve our thanks for agreeing to review hundreds of pages of information on the nominees and for giving each careful consideration. Such a task is not easy, and each member strove to choose truly the most deserving entrepreneurs.

We also thank the folks at Burns Marketing/Communications for helping put on the Bravo! event, Advanced Media for its creativity in video production, All About Events for handling the name tags and reservations, and Balloonz & Bouquets for the flower and balloon arrangements.

Additionally, thanks to Jake Jabs of American Furniture Warehouse for emceeing this event and to Primal Future for the entertainment.

We especially thank the staff of the Business Report for long hours spent on every aspect of this program. Bravo! Entrepreneur would not be possible without their dedication and skill.

Lastly, thanks to our Platinum Sponsors, including Qwest Communications, Pratt and Wells Fargo Banks for their unending support of this program, and to all of our other sponsors, who are listed at right. Each played an integral role in the program’s success. Additional sponsors are listed below.

Here’s looking forward to more amazing stories in 2001!

P.S. We would like to apologize for one glitch that emerged with this year’s program, namely the tardiness of the invitations. Through no fault of All About Events but rather to a comedy of delays from various other parties, the invitations did not go out with the anticipated three-week notice.

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