Boulder Chamber announces 2014 honorees

BOULDER – Rally Software Development Corp.’s founder and chief technology officer Ryan Martens has been named the Boulder Chamber’s 2014 Business Person of the Year.

Martens will receive the award at the Chamber’s Celebration of Leadership on April 2 at the Boulder Theater. The Chamber’s largest fundraising event of the year will also include appearances by Sochi Olympians Lyman Currier and Alex Diebold of Boulder, as well as the presentation of other awards.

Martens is being recognized for his development of Agile software technology and for Rally becoming the first socially conscious B-Corp in the nation to go public. Rally last year announced a major expansion of its Boulder headquarters, and also donated 1 percent of its founding equity to the Community Foundation of Boulder County.

Dave and Dee Hight of McGuckin Hardware will receive the Franny Reich Business Hero Award. The lifetime achievement award recognizes the McGuckin partners for growing the store during the past 50 years into one of Boulder’s iconic businesses, employing 250 people.

The Industry Leadership Award will go to chief executives and founders of Avery Brewing, Boulder Beer, Left Hand Brewing, Oskar Blues Brewery, Twisted Pine Brewing, Upslope Brewing, Mountain Sun and the Brewers Association for their roles in the growth of the craft-beer industry in recent years.

The Community Leadership Award will go to eTown’s Nick and Helen Forster for their advancement of “the arts, environment, or social sustainability values while achieving business success,” according to a Chamber release.

Finally, the Chamber Champions Award will go to Ro Medina of the University of Colorado’s Career Services for her leadership in developing the Bolder Young Professionals organization.

The Celebration of Leadership is from 5 to 9:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 2. Registration information and an event agenda can be found at http://bit.ly/CoL2014. Tickets are $65 for chamber members and $95 for non-members.