Northern Colorado Economic Alliance chief to step down

LOVELAND — Northern Colorado Economic Alliance CEO Andy Montgomery plans to leave his position at the end of the year.

Montgomery joined the Loveland-based economic development agency as its first chief executive in 2016. He is stepping down to pursue a yet-to-be announced new business venture, he said.

The alliance’s board is close to identifying a successor, he said.

Montgomery said he will stay in his position beyond the end of the year if his replacement is not yet in place.

“I’m committed for as long as they need me,” he said.

The Northern Colorado Economic Alliance’s other employee, chief marketing officer Michael Masciola, recently left the organization.

“We decided the organization was going to go in a different direction” and some of Masciola’s duties became redundant, Montgomery said.

The alliance will wait until a new CEO is in place before hiring additional staff.

“We want the new CEO to be able to bring on his or her own people,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery’s planned departure comes in the same year that a potential merger between the alliance and Greeley-based Upstate Colorado Economic Development failed to materialize. Talks collapsed in April after the groups were unable to reconcile competing visions and different ideas about organizational structure.

Montgomery’s departure does not mean the merger discussions are resuming, he said.

“The Upstate merger for all intents and purposes is dead,” he said

Around the time the merger was collapsing, the alliance announced plans to rebrand the organization as One NoCO. But that branding is not prominent on the group’s website and the Colorado Secretary of State’s office still lists the name of the organization as Northern Colorado Economic Alliance Inc.

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