ColoradoBiz articles from July 2005

ColoradoBiz archives from July 2005

The wheel of commerce sometimes turns softly.(Sun Microsystems Inc. acquires Storage Technology Corp.)
July 1, 2005... MERGERS AND ACQUSITIONS. Colorado was treated to two big time M&A deals announced last month, one that will remove a storied name from the roster of Colorado-based companies, and a second that will add a new story to a local company that...

Hoover's plight rouses IRE.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... Mike Taylor's article on the incarceration of Will Hoover ("100 Years of Hard Time," June) neatly illustrates the occasionally breath-taking stupidity of our judiciary, and the particular empty-headeness of Judge Sheila Rappaport. Sure, Hoover...

Include architects.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I really enjoyed the piece on the Golden Triangle in this month's issue ("Edgy Enclave," June). I also have a small suggestion for future stories on development. For some reason the architects of these projects are rarely mentioned in the...

Hosed off.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... The piece in your latest issue regarding the Denver Water Board ("Are we getting hosed on water?" Jeff Rundles, June) expressed well the frustrations of everyone except the economists. I once was one, but I got religion. And a life. As for the...

The best business advice I ever got.(Column)
July 1, 2005... IT WASN'T A TIP TO HELP ME MAKE A million in the stock market or the secret to a big sale that made the company. The best business advice I ever got was a simple idea on how to treat people. It has always stuck with me. Back in the early...

Four steps to better leadership.
July 1, 2005... IN THE 19 YEARS SINCE I OPENED THE DOORS OF EXECUTIVE Forum, I have observed, worked with, and listened to hundreds of business leaders, from executives of Fortune 500 companies to owners of small, local firms and executive managers of...

Udi the Sandwichman: former accountant gauges economy by lunchtime orders.
July 1, 2005... Economists don't normally look to sandwich sales as a prime fiscal indicator. But Udi Baron isn't your ordinary economist. Nor is he your ordinary sandwich man. In the 1990s, Baron's operation, Udi the Sandwichman, specialized in sandwich...

Country clubs for the Coloradan: at elite clubs, money alone won't get you a membership.(Attitude at Altitude)(membership of Cherry Hills)
July 1, 2005... The 18th hole at Denver's Cherry Hills Country Club is a soft blanket of green sloping uphill over 459 yards from tee box to flagstick. To the golfer's left, reflections from willow trees ripple across the surface of a lake that curls itself up...

Robert Coombe.(PLAYMAKERS)(named as chancellor of University of Denver)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Robert Coombe, the University of Denver's provost, was named to succeed DU Chancellor Dan Ritchie, a former business executive and philanthropist who has been credited with not only saving DU from financial failure, but undertaking a $400...

Roger Ogden.(PLAYMAKERS)(appointed as president of Gannett Company Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Roger Ogden, president and general manager of KUSA-Channel 9 and a senior vice president of Gannett Broadcasting, was named president and CEO of the entire broadcasting unit of Gannett Co. Mark Cornetta, general sales manager and a vice...

Barbara Danbom.(PLAYMAKERS)(appointed as president and chief executive of Young Americans Bank)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Barbara Danbom, the chief financial officer of Young Americans Bank in Denver, will succeed Linda Childears as the bank's president and CEO.

Dennis A. Ahlburg.(PLAYMAKERS)(appointed as dean of University of Colorado at Boulder's Leeds School of Business)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Dennis A. Ahlburg, a senior associate dean at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, has been named the new dean of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Leeds School of Business. He succeeds Steven Manaster who stepped...

American shoppers spent nearly $45.8 billion on natural and organic products in 2004.(RETAIL)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... American shoppers spent nearly $45.8 billion on natural and organic products in 2004, according to research published in the 24th Annual Market Overview in the June issue of The Natural Foods Merchandiser, a Boulder magazine. In 2004, natural...

Denver landed five companies this year in Inc.(SMALL BUSINESS)(rankings)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Denver landed five companies this year in Inc. magazine's seventh annual Inner City 100, which ranks the fastest growing companies in inner-urban America. Denver companies that made the list, which was published in the June issue, were Global...

Calgary, Canada-based Suncor Energy Inc.(acquires a refinery from Valero Energy Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Calgary, Canada-based Suncor Energy Inc., which has significant operations in Colorado, last month purchased a $30 million, Commerce City refinery from Valero Energy Corp. The 30,000-barrel-per-day refinery is located next to Suncor's existing...

Instapoll.(INSIDERS' BIZ)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... 71% OF RESPONDENTS SAID THE STATE SHOULD HELP THE GAMING INDUSTRY EXPAND IN COLORADO IN ORDER TO INCREASE STATE REVENUES FROM GAMING TAXES. RESULTS OBTAINED FROM APRIL 22 THROUGH MAY 22. 60% OF RESPONDENTS SAID CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF A...

Border war: the jury is still out on how Tom Tancredo's immigration crusade will impact Colorado.(Border patrol)
July 1, 2005... In April, Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo was in Arizona to cheer the launch of the volunteer border-watchers known as the Minutemen. [paragraph] In May, he roundly criticized Denver police and Mayor John Hickenlooper after an undocumented...

Minority standouts see local upturn: second careers, stay-at-home moms and home-based businesses obviously have something going for them, because that description fits the two top-growing firms in this year's ColoradoBiz ranking of the state's Top 50 minority-owned companies.(DatamanUSA)
July 1, 2005... Nidhi Saxena quit her day-job five years ago and launched the IT consulting firm DatamanUSA out of her home so she could spend time with her two young children. Diane Pacheco was a stay-at-home mom with a background in gene-therapy research...

Executive meetings & travel.
July 1, 2005... MIXING PLEASURE WITH BUSINESS Business travel throughout the nation is struggling to recover from a decline over the last few years, but Colorado is well positioned to capitalize on a significant trend: the combination business/ leisure...

Railroad revival: Broe's OmniTrax, others, lay track for 21st century.
July 1, 2005... The four tracks curve southward as they cross the Nebraska state line into Colorado, heading west through the plains town of Julesberg. Passing a restored train station, the set of tracks pares down to two with a light-density line to Denver...

Virtela bets on network, not infrastructure.(High Tech ColoradoBiz)(Interview)
July 1, 2005... Q&A UNCOVERS THE STRATEGY BEHIND THE GROWTH Defying the telecom slump, Greenwood Village-based Virtela Communications Inc. boomed from 2001 to 2003, growing a staggering 1,709 percent. The five-year-old company is a virtual network...

Tech startup of the month.(High Tech ColoradoBiz)(officials of Umbria Communications)
July 1, 2005... INITIAL LIGHTBULB In 1997, Howard Kaushansky co-founded Boulder's Athene Software, which applied marketing analytics to the telecom market to cut down on customer churn. After selling Athene in 2001, Kaushansky brainstormed with longtime...

Answers from outside: two CEOs share consultant experience.
July 1, 2005... Two years ago, operations at two Denver companies, Regal Plastics, a distribution and fabrication firm with 110 employees, and E3 Consulting LLC, a five-year-old, 20-employee energy-sector adviser, looked pretty stable in the face of Colorado's...

Making wine on the western slope: Grand Junction, Palisade Vineyards appealing to a national taste.(Who owns Colorado)
July 1, 2005... WINE MAKING IS AN ART. THE CHEMISTRY IS COMPLEX, AND PROBLEMS THAT CAN ARISE BETWEEN VINE AND BOTTLE ARE MANY. Wine making is also serious business. Tricky accounting processes, huge capital outlays and years of product development before...

Offices a la carte.(ON SMALL BIZ)
July 1, 2005... RALPH GREGORY HAS OWNED RADIO STATIONS IN THREE upper-Midwest states, owned a paging company licensed in nine states, and developed a natural-gas-fired co-generation plant in Michigan that he still counts as an active investment. In a rare...

Trango MaxCams.(Great Trango Holdings Inc)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Malcolm Daly started Trango as a distributor for European climbing gear in 1992, but that model imploded when its main supplier decided to set up its own U.S. operations five years later. "We were instantly insolvent," recalled Daly. "We sort...

Valley of the Dunes book.(Valley of the Dunes: Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The professional/personal partnership of photographers Bob Rozinski and Wendy Shattil began when they met in 1981 and has since yielded 11 books, a thriving photography business and a library stocked 350,000 photos deep. The Denver couple's...

TopPeak pins.(Colorado Cool Stuff)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Dan Foster, the owner of Mountain Chalet in Colorado Springs, has climbed about 40 of Colorado's 54 fourteeners, its 14,000-foot peaks. His stalwart outdoor store did very well with T-shirts emblazoned with a map of those tallest mountains, so...

Whistle Creek walking and hiking sticks.(Colorado Cool Stuff)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Whistle Creek was born when "Chief of Staff" George Barker developed a limp after breaking his leg skiing in 1984. His handcrafted walking stick attracted attention, and a single Estes Park retailer has since snowballed into a network of 2,500...

Jeff Mango: Verizon exec rose from kiosk.(Executive Edge)(Verizon Wireless Inc.)(Biography)
July 1, 2005... Jeff Mango began his Verizon Wireless career in 1995 at a kiosk tucked in the Mammoth Mall in New Jersey--hardly a spot to provide a clue to the future career of the young salesman. But as Mango touted Verizon's wares with conviction, he...

Hard labor.(Sports Biz)
July 1, 2005... ECONOMISTS GENERALLY BELIEVE THE U.S. LABOR movement reached the peak of its collective power in the 1960s, when union membership was at an all-time high and corporate titans bowed to the might of organized workers. Unions still remain...

Pride and prejudice at old CU.(Rundles Wrap-up)
July 1, 2005... TWO MONTHS AGO, IN EARLY MAY, I JOINED THOUSANDS of my contemporaries in the stands at Boulder's Folsom Field to see one of my children graduate from the University of Colorado. There were doubts expressed that day--the graduates wondering...