Boulder Chamber Celebration of Leadership brings laughter, emotion
BOULDER — University of Colorado Boulder chief operating officer Patrick O’Rourke accepted the Boulder Chamber’s Impact Award on behalf of the university Thursday, thanking many individuals who were in the room — and one in particular who was not.
The award — part of the Chamber’s Celebration of Leadership program — was presented jointly to CU and the city of Boulder for their compromise on the CU South annexation, which provides guiding principles for how the university will develop a 308-acre parcel on the southeast edge of the city.
About 190 people attended the event at the Glenn Miller Ballroom in the University Memorial Center, with others attending online via Zoom. The event was emceed by stand-up comedian Vinnie Montez, a commander in the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
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O’Rourke, speaking alongside City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, thanked a variety of city and CU officials for their years-long work on the CU South project but took time to recognize the pivotal role played by CU Boulder’s former vice chancellor of strategic relations, Frances Draper, who died Sept. 1 after a long battle with cancer.
O’Rourke said the agreement that allows CU to proceed with development of the property — while also providing housing, preserving open space, permitting public access and implementing flood-mitigation measures — would not have been possible without Draper, who worked for years to forge a compromise. The moment was even more impactful that it occurred in the Glenn Miller Ballroom, the same room in which Draper was memorialized Oct. 9.
“It’s fair to say that the CU South annexation never would have happened without Frances and her tireless efforts,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke said that while the university changes lives worldwide as the result of scientific research, “This agreement that we were able to negotiate with the city’s team has the ability to change lives in this community.”
Rivera-Vandermyde said the city “is truly honored” to be a co-recipient of the award.
“The annexation agreement associated with the award caps off years of collaboration between the city and the university and is shaped by extensive community input,” she said. “The balanced and holistic agreement is the result of a long, thorough and very collaborative process with the community and CU Boulder.”
Among other awards:
The Rising Star Award: Tatiana Hernandez, CEO of the Community Foundation Boulder County, received the Rising Star Award.
Hernandez, who assumed her position in July 2020, has helped the organization raise tens of millions of dollars in disaster relief, including more than $36 million for the Boulder County Wildfire Fund. She also helped direct the organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m so fundamentally and deeply honored,” Hernandez said. “It’s been quite the two years in our community.”
Hernandez said she moved to Boulder “seven years and one week ago, and much to my surprise, I found myself home, possibly for the first time in my entire life.
“I really grew up feeling a little displaced, and then I came to Boulder,” she said
“It is my great honor to run the Community Foundation Boulder County, certainly in the last two years with all that we’ve been through together,” she said. “This work doesn’t happen alone. As I look across this room, I look at faces that have been partners, thought leaders, supporters in all of this, and I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you.”
Startup of the Year: Shinesty Inc., which launched at CU Boulder and sells “outlandish” clothing online, including party clothing, was named Startup of the Year. CEO Chris White said, “It’s an amazing honor to be selected among all of the incredible companies that exist in Boulder, all of the incredible startups that have come out of Boulder. We feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to build a business here, to build a business with over 100 employees, to serve over a million customers all over the country.”
White credited the university for its role in the birth and growth of the company.
“We came up here. We were started in a classroom at CU in the Business School,” he said, also crediting the CU Law School, the Silicon Flatirons program, the New Venture Challenge, and Catayze CU, the university’s startup accelerator.
“All of the people involved with that, they had a meaningful impact, whether slight or massive , on Shinesty’s success, and we probably wouldn’t be where we are without having touched those people.”
Virginia Patterson Business Leader of the Year: Brian McCudden, president and CEO, CordenPharma Colorado, was named Virginia Patterson Business Leader of the Year.
McCudden leads a biopharmaceutical operation that was instrumental in creating a portion of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and that has grown to more than 500 employees.
“The last few years have been quite a ride,” McCudden said. “When COVID hit, it was pretty dramatic for us in a lot of different ways. One of the ways it was dramatic was, we started to get a lot of inquiries from these different companies, saying, can you do this for us, can you make this potential vaccine?
“And then Moderna presented us with this huge opportunity, and it was a really huge challenge to take a lab process and scale it up a hundredfold and make it a thousand times faster than what it was before, and, oh, by the way, you need to do this in three months.”
McCudden said teamwork was instrumental in the company’s success in the project.
Franny Reich Lifetime Achievement Award: Catherine Allegra, senior vice president and global head of IHS Markit Digital, received the Frannie Reich Lifetime Achievement Award.
Allegra co-founded Wall Street on Demand, a financial-tech company that moved from New York to Boulder in 1996 and was owned by Reuters, Charles Schwab and Goldman Sachs before being sold to Markit in 2010. The company, now owned by S&P Global, provides data services to the global wealth and brokerage markets.
“I think in these moments, it’s seductive to believe that I’m standing here because I’m smarter, more innovative or worked harder than others, but I know that’s not true,” Allegra said, “because I’ve just been very lucky, extremely, extremely lucky in the people who have loved, taught and supported me, my family, my friends and my colleagues.
“At Markit Digital, I work with a brilliant, passionate team that knows we have the right to win and can push through any obstacle we meet and grab any opportunity we find,” she added.
Allegra credited friends and “Sanitas hikes, book clubs and thoughtful inclusion,” and family “who practiced unconditional love” as instrumental in her success.
Boulder Chamber president and CEO John Tayer also offered an emotional tribute to Karen Kruse, the Chamber’s vice president and chief operating officer, who is leaving the organization at the end of March to become vice president with the Boettcher Foundation.
“We cannot underestimate the impact that Karen has had on our organization over the past six years,” Tayer said. “Karen balanced our books when no one could. Karen designed a strategic-planning structure that has withstood the test of time.
“Karen pioneered our D&I [diversity and inclusion] journey,” he added, his voice choking with emotion. “Karen has been the glue and support system for a Boulder Chamber team that is tested by immeasurable demands.”
Kruse expressed surprise at the recognition.
“I didn’t know about this,” she said. “It’s been a real honor and a privilege to be able to work with this amazing person, the amazing team. For me, it’s all about the team and what we’re able to do for the community.”
A bear in the kitchen
Montez recounted responding to a 911 call in which the caller complained of a bear in the kitchen.
“When I was going to the academy, nobody talked about the fact that I might have to deal with bears when I became a cop,” Montez said. “Nobody discussed that in the academy. It wasn’t on the syllabus.
“The night we got called out to this call, I was paired up with one of the SWAT guys … He comes out of the station, he’s all built, 225, 6-foot, 4 inches, a big guy, right? Basically, Captain America and I were going to get this bear.
“As we’re going up the canyon, we pull into the driveway all fast and quick, he jumps out of the car and he grabs the shotgun … I’m going, ‘bro, you can not shoot a bear in Boulder, Colorado. The Subaru drivers will have your ass for that.”
Fortunately for Montez and Captain America, the bear was gone, leaving only tufts of hair throughout the kitchen.
“What I deduced from my investigation, was the bear got into the chip cabinet, ate a bunch of kale chips, some kombucha, had a bowel movement and ran out the back door,” Montez said.
St. Patrick’s Day investigation
CU Boulder’s O’Rourke — full name Patrick Terrence O’Rourke — offered a “sincere apology” that beverages served at the Chamber’s Celebration of Leadership event, conducted on St. Patrick’s Day, did not include Guinness.
“As a Patrick Terrence O’Rourke, I find the lack of Guinness at this particular event to be highly disturbing, and I’m going to be initiating a full-blown investigation,” O’Rourke said. “We’ll be getting to the bottom of that.”
