George Hall demonstrates spirit of entrepreneurship

George Hall ranks as one of the class acts of Northern Colorado entrepreneurs: a business leader – and risk-taker – who never neglects to give back to Greeley, Weld County and Northern Colorado overall.

His accomplishments in the building of Hall-Irwin Corp. and Bestway Concrete Inc. – which have grown to employ more than 500 workers – truly reflect what Bravo! Entrepreneur is all about: honoring those individuals who go above and beyond in the formation and running of their businesses.

Hall emerged as a clear favorite of our Awards Committee for the 2005 Bravo! Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award. (We should note that the Awards Committee was supplemented for the first time this year by past recipients of the Bravo! Entrepreneur awards.

You’ll read about Hall’s accomplishments – and those of our other Bravo! winners – in this special section.

Before you move on, however, let us remind you of some important details about this program. Bravo! Entrepreneur is, of course, a Northern Colorado Business Report program conducted in partnership with the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, the Greeley/Weld Chamber of Commerce, the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, the Greeley-Weld Economic Development Action Partnership Inc. and the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp.

Presidents of these organizations appointed business leaders to the Awards Committee, which this year sifted through more than 130 total nominees – another record.

This year’s Awards Committee included Rene Clements, The Clements Co., Fort Collins; Tim Dow, The Dow Law Firm, Fort Collins; Bob Hessler, retired banker, Greeley; Lucille Mantelli, Kodak Colorado Division, Windsor; Kelly Peters, Loveland Center for Business Development, Loveland; Ron Schneider, Bank One, Loveland; and Lynn Settje, the Greeley Stampede.

Winners of Bravo! Entrepreneur awards are chosen from Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland and Outlying Communities. Additionally, an Emerging Entrepreneur Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Regional Spirit Awards are also presented.

Here’s a rundown of all Bravo! Entrepreneur winners for 2005:

n Emerging Entrepreneur Award: Paul and Nenita Pellegrino, founder of NitaCrisp.

n Bravo! Entrepreneur, Fort Collins: Lori Schlotter, CEO of Colorado CustomWare.

n Bravo! Entrepreneur, Greeley: Mark Kendall, founder of Kendall Printing Co.

n Bravo! Entrepreneur, Loveland: Jerry Donnan, founder of Factual Data Corp., now Kroll Factual Data Inc.

n Bravo! Entrepreneur, Outlying Communities: Tom Baur and Garry Gorsuch, Meadowlark Optics Inc., Frederick.

n Regional Spirit Award: New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins.

n Lifetime Achievement Awards: George Hall, founder of Hall-Irwin Corp. and Bestway Concrete Inc.

As always, we at The Northern Colorado Business Report need to thank our many partners, including those chambers of commerce and economic-development agencies noted above. Thanks to MediaTech Productions, Caldera Creative Services, Kenny’s Steak House, Mountain Media, Colorado Biz Products, Simply Chocolate and to our own Jim Rath, who does such a marvelous job organizing our events.

Lastly, thanks to our many sponsors, including platinum sponsors Bank of Choice, Hall-Irwin Inc. and Ehrhardt, Keefe, Steiner and Hottman. Our reception sponsor was Banner Health; our dinner sponsor was McWhinney Enterprises; and our awards sponsor was Kodak Colorado Division. Gold sponsors included Front Range Real Estate Consultants Inc. and Palmer Flowers.

We also are indebted to our many table sponsors.

Finally, we hope you enjoy this special section on Bravo! Entrepreneur 2005. We’ll see you next year!

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