The 2012 Bravo! Entrepreneurs

It is my great pleasure to bring back the Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards program, thanks in part to the efforts of the Monfort College of Business and its E-Challenge program and generous contributions of a few past winners.

Yes, the Great Recession forced us to put this very important cause on hiatus more than once over the last four years, but you can only hold down those entrepreneurs for so long. Because, in the end, hard work, ingenuity and effective marketing create unstoppable prosperity.

Entrepreneurship is vital to the success of any thriving community. By its very nature, entrepreneurship finds a way to break down all barriers, and our Bravo! awards give us a chance to recognize the risk-takers who help create jobs in Northern Colorado. I would argue that nothing is more important for the continued, sustainable growth for our region.

This year marks a benchmark for our program as we join forces with the Malcolm Baldrige Award-winning Monfort College of Business to further promote entrepreneurship by recognizing the winners of its Entrepreneurial Challenge. I want to thank professor Dr. David Thomas for his leadership in this effort.

Winners again this year stem from a variety of disciplines including: technology, education, health care, energy, consulting and manufacturing — a perfect snapshot of Northern Colorado industry.

As I mentioned above, past Bravo! Entrepreneur winners generously supported this year’s event. They are: Spiro Palmer of Palmer Flowers and Palmer Properties, Curt Richardson of OtterBox, Rulon Stacy of Poudre Valley Hospital System, Ted Warner of Connecting Point, Harry and Jack Jr. Devereaux of Home State Bank on behalf of their father Jack Sr., and Don Churchwell, and Roger Knoph of Envirotech Services.

On behalf of the members of the Bravo! Steering Committee – Upstate Colorado, the Northern Colorado Economic and Development Corp., the Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland Chambers of Commerce and the Northern Colorado Business Report team — we thank you!

Additional sponsors that I want to recognize are the Mountain States BBB, Cornerstone Mortgage, Just Office Furniture, Social Media Pilots, DaVinci Sign Systems, EKS&H, and our media sponsor, KUNC.

And finally, I want to thank our own De Dahlgren and Melissa Matonis, who are the stewards of this event, and my old friend and colleague Gregg Moss for making the trek north this year to, once again, emcee our program.

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