Hyperbaric oxygen treatment, which pro athletes use to treat concussions and enhance performance, helps restore brain function by administering pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, increasing blood flow to the organ.

The often expensive treatment is one of many services available to veterans through referral by The American Legion, a community-based advocate for veteran’s benefits.

“I have personally watched some people go through it and they’ve become a different person,” said Pat Smith, Department Adjutant.

Along with advocating for VA based medical care, The American Legion can refer veterans, suffering from conditions like post-traumatic stress — formerly known as PTSD, for psychological services.  But where once therapy involved sharing war stories in a somber semicircle, the organization now advocates a more proactive approach to treatment, teaching practical hands-on skills like art classes, computer skills and photography as a way of healing.

“We found it helps to get people in a classroom environment learning something interesting along with their buddies,” said Smith.

Those with young families can also receive up to $250 to help cover the cost of food or rent through the American Legion Department of Colorado Veterans Kids Fund.    

“Our focus is to get you the benefits and care that you need, whether medical, psychological or otherwise,” said Smith.  “So don’t be afraid to reach out.”

Spin a globe, count to three, and pick a city on the map. Chances are, you’re pointing to a place where Western Union has operations. From its headquarters in Englewood, the 164-year-old company speaks to customers in 75 languages, at more than half a million retail locations, moving more than $82 billion in principal between consumers and more than 29 transactions a second in 120 currencies and 200 countries and territories around the world.

A company this large, that has lasted this long, does so by adapting to market conditions. Western Union, long the leader in bridging gaps in global financial services worldwide, is showing strong signs that it’s ahead of the curve in adapting to a market that’s going online, digital, and mobile at a rapid clip.

“We have a long history of transforming to meet our customers’ needs, and to meet market needs,” said Western Union Chief Information Officer David Thompson. “We’re in one of those transformative states right now, around what services we offer in the marketplace, the partners we work with, and our future in servicing our clients.”

“At the heart of that is being there for our customers,” Thompson said.

A key component of Western Union’s business comes from serving customers who are underserved and unbanked. They may be migrant workers sending money home, they may choose not to participate in the banking system, or they may not have reliable banking services offered in their area.

The company also serves the needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises throughout its Western Union Business Solutions division, which helps importers and exporters, for example, manage international business payments.

Western Union’s services are on a trajectory to go mobile and online. The company now has 24 websites worldwide (the newest in Russia), and customers can send money from their smartphones in the U.S. and Australia. They also have 17 partnerships with mobile phone companies in 14 countries as users in the developing world continue to see a rapid increase in use of mobile phones for financial transactions.

“Certainly our efforts continue to be for the underserved and unbanked. We want to be there with our customers as they transition from our retail platform to an online digital platform,” Thompson said.  “One of our top agendas is making sure our mobile application is robust and capable for our customers to make international transfers and bill payments.”

That’s why the Western Union app is one of the top-rated financial services applications in the Google Play and iTunes App stores. The company also announced, in January 2015, that it is accepting Apple Pay™ at its flagship locations and at more than 7,600 kiosks at Walgreens and Duane Reade locations nationwide.

“Maybe it’s a customer who is working the night shift and wants to send money back home, but doesn’t want to have to wait for the bank to open. By using our online services, they can do that through us,” Thompson said.

Just as Western Union is committed to offering services that meet the needs of its customers and business clients, the company is equally committed to giving back through its Western Union Foundation.

The Foundation’s efforts seek to make life better for individuals, families and communities around the world.

More than 82 percent of people around the globe recognize the Western Union brand. In the U.S., they are likely to associate the brand with its retail locations in supermarkets and drugstores. As the market changes, however, more people in the U.S. and abroad are recognizing Western Union as a leader in financial services technology, as well as through its seminal work via the Western Union Foundation.

Creating a better world

The Western Union Foundation believes that the ability to realize dreams through economic opportunity is not just a privilege for the few but a right for all. Through its signature program, Education for Better, and with the support of The Western Union Company, its employees, Agents, and business partners, The Western Union Foundation works to realize this vision by supporting education and disaster relief efforts as pathways toward a better future. Since 2001, the Western Union Foundation has:

• Paid more than $101.1 million to 2,739 organizations in more than 135 countries and territories.
• Pledged 3,095 grants and donations to support the full spectrum of large global NGOs to small local nonprofits and charities.
• Partnered with 517 Western Union Agents in charitable programs.
• Supported more than 142 disaster relief operations in 65 countries around the world.

Colorado is a growing global financial center with an innovative ecosystem and unmatched talent pool.

Colorado’s Front Range is the major financial center between Los Angeles and Chicago. Denver is home to a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank and is the location of one of only six U.S. Mints. As the “Wall Street of the West,” Colorado’s Front Range is one of the few areas outside of the Northeast with a substantial financial services industry involved in a wide range of activities, including banking and finance, investments and insurance.

Companies in the financial services industry employed more than 226,800 workers in 2014, representing 6.6 percent of total employment in the state. Roughly two-thirds of financial services employment is located in Metro Denver. Total payroll for the financial services industry in Colorado reached $16 billion in 2014, or an average wage of $70,350.

About 50 percent of the employees in the financial services industry work in the investments industry providing securities and commodities trade, real estate investment trusts and portfolio management. Another 27 percent are employed in the insurance industry, which comprises insurance carriers and brokerages. The remaining 23 percent work in the banking and finance industry providing commercial banking, credit union functions, lending, credit and  mortgage services.

Click here for a closer look at Financial Services statistics

Financial services companies are attracted to Colorado because of its growing population base and a competitive business environment that attracts several well-known and highly ranked companies. Fourteen companies headquartered in Colorado were included on the Forbes’ 2014 Global 2000 list, nine companies were included on the 2014 Fortune 500 list with revenues totaling more than $93.6 billion, and 14 were named among Inc. 500’s fastest-growing private companies.

A variety of trade associations and service firms support the state’s diverse financial services industry base. The Colorado Bankers Association is a key industry partner (www.coloradobankers.org) representing all Colorado banks and provides government relations, community relations, educational and training services, and bank insurance. The Colorado Association of Mortgage Professionals (www.coamp.org) represents Colorado’s financing professionals specializing in origination of residential and commercial mortgages. The Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation formed the Financial Advisory Coalition in 2014, which is an advocacy group for investment and wealth management companies.

The state’s growing financial services companies and entrepreneurial business environment are propelling forward with significant investment activity. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ MoneyTree Report, Colorado companies in just the financial services industry attracted eight deals totaling $20.8 million in venture capital over the past five years. Colorado ranked ninth in 2014 in total venture capital placed in the state, with $793.1 million invested in 86 deals.

A number of associations and organizations support entrepreneurship and venture capital financing in Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association (www.rockymountainvca.com) represents entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and service providers in the Rocky Mountain Region. The Rockies Venture Club (www.rockiesventureclub.org) is a nonprofit organization that encourages entrepreneurship in the region by connecting entrepreneurs, service professionals, investors and venture capitalists. The Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute serves the needs of community entrepreneurs to foster growth within Denver communities.

The state’s central location and reputation as a global commercial gateway gives financial services companies a competitive edge. Colorado is a prime financial center in the U.S., with support from a highly educated workforce, high concentration of corporate talent, and outstanding quality of life.

SOURCES: Development Research Partners, www.developmentresearch.net • Economic Modeling Specialists International, 2015 • Forbes. Global 2000 2014. www.forbes.com/global2000/list • Fortune 500 2014. https://fortune.com/fortune500 • Inc. 500. Fastest Growing Companies 2014. www.inc.com/inc5000/index.html • PricewaterhouseCoopers, MoneyTree Report, 2014. www.pwcmoneytree.com

If there’s any lingering question about Colorado’s fast-growing status as a magnet for global business, those in doubt need only scroll down a list of companies opening new offices in the state, from Panasonic Enterprise Solutions’ planned business and technology center near Denver International Airport, to Charles Schwab’s new 47-acre campus in Lone Tree.

Now, JLT Specialty Insurance, a subsidiary of London’s JLT Group, has become the first top-five global insurance brokerage to base its U.S. headquarters in Denver.

The company opened up shop in the Rocky Mountain Seed Building on Market Street in December 2014, and will lead U.S. operations in six cities including Houston, Dallas, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Denver office currently employs 30, with plans to double that number in three years.

“It feels great to live in a place like Denver, and to be an employer here and support this marketplace,” said CEO Michael Rice.

The Mile High City’s central location puts the company in a prime position to service clients on both coasts, while DIA offers convenient access to international meetings and events. Denver is also a hub for the industries the firm plans to service, such as aviation, technology and the oil and gas industry. Most of the company’s executives hail from Denver or have lived here for many years, possessing valuable local knowledge and industry experience.

Unlike its parent company, which has offices in 140 countries and covers a vast array of industries, JLT Specialty Insurance will focus mainly on insuring a handful of sectors within corporate America, bringing in-depth expertise to the energy, aerospace, aviation, technology and financial lines areas. Major products in the space include directors and officers liability, which protects company executives from shareholder litigation, errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, and policies to cover cyber attacks – a rising threat to corporate America.

Introduced in 1999, cyber insurance is one of the fastest growing products in the industry, thanks in part to the scourge of recent data breaches at companies like Sony and Home Depot. Rather than rely solely on in-house security systems, businesses are increasingly purchasing plans to cover unforeseen expenses that can result from a hack, such as reissuing credit cards, or notifying groups exposed to identity theft.

Growing to over 100 employees in four short months, and serving clients ranging from fortune 100 companies to venture-backed tech startups, the firm’s U.S. footprint is gaining momentum and growing rapidly.

The company’s success, according to Rice, can be traced back to its core philosophy. “We are focused experts and understand those elements needed to perform for the client,” he said, noting that the firm has invested heavily in its legal, broking and specialist teams. “The key is that our team works together to make sure we are protecting our clients’ interests and mitigating their risks. We understand both the client’s industry and the case law that governs the insurance marketplace. This combination is incredibly powerful for clients and allows us to advocate and advise like no other firm.”

Instead, he stuck with finance, and in 2004, founded Bruce G. Allen Investments, a boutique advisory firm in downtown Denver.

Allen’s wealth management approach extends beyond investment services to credit and liability management, risk management, estate and trust matters.

“We are our clients’ advocates,” Allen explains. By using sophisticated planning tools, 30 years of expertise and a vast resource network, “We help them move through all the financial decisions they need to make in their lives.”

Allen’s passion for risk analysis stems from growing up in a company town, Oneida, N.Y., home for more than 100 years of the nation’s largest maker of flatware.

“As I was growing up, Oneida had a sense of invulnerability—to some degree arrogance—about the risk that was emerging out of Asia,” Allen recalls.

Offshore competition in stainless steel demolished Oneida’s core business. It lost more than $157 million between 2003-2005, sold or closed its manufacturing plants, slashed its workforce from 2,500 to 450, and was acquired by a private equity firm.

“Watching Oneida disintegrate in front of my eyes, and watching people’s wealth get destroyed, left an indelible imprint on me,” Allen says. People retired with millions of dollars in Oneida stock that turned worthless before they died.

Understanding risks – and helping clients weather them – forms the core of Allen’s advisory practice. “We’re going to help them get where they want to be. I check myself at the door and make sure that we’re really listening to our clients.”

Q&A WITH BRUCE ALLEN

What can prospective clients expect when they come into your office?

It starts and ends with listening to our clients. I want to really understand where someone is coming from financially, where they are now, and what their vision of the future looks like. Once they share that information with me, I roll up my sleeves and go to work. I study, test, analyze and model solutions, and explain those solutions in plain English. We agree on a course of action, and I implement using independent, objective and unbiased strategies. And finally, we monitor, evaluate and adapt.

What is your planning approach?

You don’t want people to be uncomfortable with the level of risk that their investments reflect. It’s important to take time to deeply understand their tolerance for risk, through good markets and bad.

Our process starts and ends by listening to our clients. I want to understand what our client’s vision is for their financial future. Once they have shared that vision with me, we run our clients through a thousand different financial lifetimes to see how many times they made their goals and how many times then ran into difficulties. Once we have done that sophisticated analysis, we build their portfolio to endure.

We diversify clients in ways that go well beyond what traditional advisors look at. Our clients are protected not just from market volatility, but from increasing inflation, multiple economic environments and different geopolitical events.

What’s the biggest worry people have about their financial lives?

The No. 1 pain point for thousands of people is, “How do I make certain that I have enough assets to retire, and that my assets will last?”

Younger clients want to make certain they’re planning, saving and investing wisely to get to retirement. And parents want to know, “How do I make sure that my children can make it through college and be launched without significant amounts of debt?”

How do you address these fears?

Social Security planning can make a tremendous difference.

We had a client who wanted to retire and take Social Security benefits at 65. He and his wife needed monthly income of about $5,000. At 65, they would jointly receive Social Security of about $3,600 a month. We found that if they deferred those benefits until they were 70, they would generate income of roughly $4,800. So their $5,000 goal was going to be met largely by Social Security, and we would supplement their income with other assets over the next five years.

In an environment where investments have been incredibly volatile – returns from 1999 to 2009 in the U. S. stock market were negative for the decade – maximizing that Social Security resource can be critical to assure that other assets endure for 25-30 years.

In a bull market like the current one, is it difficult to keep clients focused on long-term strategy?

In 1999, people were enamored with all things technology. People thought they could become instantaneously wealthy. Several clients were tempted to abandon a diversified multi-asset investment approach and buy a handful of technology stocks. We talked them out of that. And honestly, that was critical to their success when the tech bubble imploded. Risk can come out of the blue in ways that people don’t imagine. You can see how the Oneida story has permeated my being.

Does the way your firm operates help your clients’ peace of mind about money matters?

If we are transparent about what our strategy is, how our clients are doing, and how much we’re charging them, transparency alleviates a lot of anxiety. Even in 2008 when markets were bad, people wanted to know how they did.

We can implement whatever we feel is appropriate for the client, whether that’s an S&P 500 Index Fund or one of the best active managers in the country. We can share with our clients, monthly if they want, how they’re progressing toward their goals. We believe in being totally transparent about what we charge – we’re a fee-based advisor, so we charge based on the value of the assets.

This is a very small firm. How do you compete?

We combine the independence and objectivity of a boutique advisory firm with one of the largest financial services companies in the nation, which gives us enormous financial firepower. Nations Financial Group is my broker/dealer, and all of our accounts are held by First Clearing, LLC, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company. They issue our statements, and we have their resources behind us. We also have the independence to use other resources as well. Having that objectivity is critical to me.

How has technology enhanced your ability to advocate for your clients?

It’s made a huge difference. We now have institutional-quality investment products that didn’t exist four or five years ago. The index fund industry has gone from a handful of products to over a thousand funds across many markets. Combine that with more sophisticated investment technology, and it is an incredible change to help clients achieve their goals.

The company, based in Thornton, provides drug and alcohol testing for Colorado courts, private employers and the Department of Transportation.

The judicial side is the biggest segment of the business, says founder Priscilla Castorena. Testing is often mandatory as part of a sentence. Clients might be required to be tested weekly or even more frequently.

Private employers as well as companies regulated by the Department of Transportation might require testing as a condition of employment or for cause.

What sets Precise Monitoring apart from other testing agencies is its focus on customer service, and a big part of that is its unusual office hours. While most testing services are only open until 5 p.m., Precise Monitoring is open from noon to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

Castorena, who worked in county probation departments for several years, says that is to the company’s success.

“Throughout my years in probation, we noticed that people were unable to comply, not because they didn’t want to, but because they couldn’t,” she says. “Getting to an agency by 5 p.m. is really hard, especially if you have to do that a couple of times a week. You have to explain to your boss that you have to leave early and hope they understand. I wanted to remove that obstacle and also allow employers to take advantage of our hours.”

Another factor in the company’s success: its prices are half the cost of medical facilities and it can produce results in half the time.

Castorena is surprised by the growing number of people who come to the company voluntarily to be tested, often while looking for a job. She also didn’t expect parents who bring in their children. “They come in with questions wondering if we can help them. Sometimes they don’t know where to turn. People want to know more than I anticipated.”

Whoever the client, however, Castorena credits the growth of the business with “our great customer service. Our facility is great. We greet our clients by name. We don’t herd them in. That’s a good experience for people. There’s a real comfort level here.”

“We are fully engaged with the community. It’s our reason for being,” says MSU Denver President Stephen Jordan. “In this urban environment, we have an opportunity to put theory and practice together in real time.”

The school’s Hospitality Learning Center with the SpringHill Suites Denver Downtown hotel provides downtown hotel and conference space as well as real-world experience for students in hotel, restaurant and tourism management.

MSU Denver’s Center for Visual Art in the arts district on Santa Fe Drive provides a space for the university’s 1,000 arts majors to display their work and gives them an opportunity to meet and learn from artists who visit from around the world.

The new $20 million Regency Athletic Complex is the center for MSU Denver’s NCAA Division II teams as well as club and intramural sports. But it also was designed for the surrounding community.
The complex provides sports-related programs such as tennis and soccer for inner-city youth and has a walking path around the building that residents can use. MSU Denver will play host to between 800 and 1,000 student athletes at the Spring 2016 NCAA Division II sports festival.

MSU Denver is embarking on an innovative project that aims to integrate several disciplines to meet a growing demand for a skilled workforce that also will keep graduates in Colorado. The Aerospace and Engineering Sciences Building will combine aerospace science and engineering; industrial design; civil, mechanical and electrical engineering; and computer science and computer information systems. Some 28 new courses are planned, and classes will begin in 2016.

“Colorado has the second-largest workforce in aerospace in the private sector,” Jordan says. “But the industry can’t find the workforce. Companies like Lockheed Martin are recruiting out of state.”

MSU Denver leaders have proposed a $60 million public-private partnership with $20 million from the state, $20 million from the school and $20 million from the private sector. MSU Denver has received $5.8 million from the state for design work. Jordan says current plans are to break ground in the summer, with the building opening its doors in fall 2017.

Jordan says faculty members from the various disciplines as well as representatives from Lockheed Martin are working together to develop curriculum.

“This will fill a unique niche,” Jordan says. “It will provide a trained workforce and give students an opportunity to work and stay in Colorado at starting salaries of $60,000 to $65,000.”

The program also will continue MSU Denver’s growth in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) sciences. MSU Denver has seen a 30 percent growth in STEM, and Jordan is particularly surprised by the 68 percent growth in enrollment of students of color in this area.

In all, 34 percent of MSU Denver’s 22,000 students are students of color.

In 50 years, MSU Denver has graduated more than 80,000 students and it’s seeing an increase in the number of degrees it awards – from 2,280 10 years ago to 3,545 in 2014. And 85 percent of graduates stay in Colorado.

“We’re doing a better job of getting kids to the finish line, putting people in the workforce in meaningful ways,” Jordan says. “That’s why we created the university. We don’t have the highest ACT scores. It might take our students a little longer to complete school. But these are scrappy kids who want to change their lives.”

Each Thursday, Wells gathers on campus with a group of high school students from Aurora’s Rangeview High School. Together, they conduct community-based research that helps them identify an issue they care about. The annual sessions culminate in a service-learning project, where they volunteer to take specific action to help improve the community around them.

“We really focus on organizing and empowering students and individuals in the community around us,” Wells said. “Together with the students, we take ownership of our projects. We want to demonstrate to them, and to ourselves, that we are accountable for the well-being of the people around us.”

Wells’ efforts are part of a larger, ongoing movement at the University of Denver that finds students, faculty, and staff volunteering hundreds of thousands of hours in the local community every year. Since March of 2014, University of Denver students, faculty, staff, and alumni have logged more than 283,000 hours of community service, helping DU gain recognition as a winner of the prestigious Carnegie Foundation 2015 Community Engagement Honor.

The benefits of the University’s community programs come in many forms, not least of which is the effect on Denver’s economy. The University’s volunteer efforts over the past year represent almost $2,500,000 in work hours – a direct boost to Denver’s economy.

“Community engagement in teaching, research and campus life offers incredible opportunities,” said Dr. Anne DePrince, Director of CCESL. “DU students apply their academic learning within communities, developing skills that prepare them for their careers. Our faculty also addresses research questions with enormous public importance, oftentimes with student collaborators, preparing them to become the academic and civic leaders of tomorrow.”

The hands-on experienced gained via these programs is part of the reason, DePrince said, that 88 percent of DU graduates have at least one job offer at graduation.

It’s all part of DU’s larger vision to take the passion students have in their areas of interest, and turn that into purposeful, measurable activities both on and off campus. Since its founding in 1864, the privately-funded University of Denver has long had a reputation for being active in the community, but the philosophy became formalized with the creation of the “1864 Service Challenge” created during last year’s 150th anniversary celebration.

“We have an amazing collaborative community – alumni, students, board members, faculty and staff, donors and friends, who work together to educate our outstanding students and to serve the public good,” said University Chancellor Rebecca Chopp.

Wells said his three years in the CCESL programs have given him a greater wisdom about the communities around him and, he hopes, helped him inspire others to stop, take notice, and take part in building a better society around them.

“My students are the next generation of leaders,” he said, “It’s important that we address some of these issues within our community. Yes, we hope it makes the world a better place, but it also expands your own worldview. It makes you aware of some of your own privileges, as well as how difficult things can be for others in our community. Most of all, it makes you realize that you can, in fact, do something about it.”

By: Mark Samuelson

Among the factors that weigh most heavily on people when choosing where to live, few rank higher than quality of education.

It’s so vital that Realtors say out-of-state prospects often have done extensive Google homework on districts and individual schools before arriving to look at property.

Although Colorado’s spending-per-student and teachers’ salaries are regular targets of criticism, the state is getting better grades for schools now from a diverse range of sources – particularly for the consumer value that an education offers here.

The latest “Leaders and Laggards” report on K-through-12 education issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation gives Colorado an “A” grade in academic achievement, international competitiveness, parental options and return on investment; and “Bs” in low-income/minority achievement and postsecondary workforce readiness.

WalletHub, an online source ranking consumer decisions, ranks Colorado sixth best in the nation in quality of education and future earning potential, based on an algorithm of 12 metrics ranging from pupil/teacher ratios and math and reading scores, to dropout rates and incidents of bullying.

Although Colorado is two time zones west of the storied universities along the Atlantic coast that have often correlated with acclaimed state schools systems, Colorado’s institutions of higher learning punch above their weight in recognition and performance.

Employers like the bounty of bachelor’s degrees they find in Colorado – the nation’s second highest number of college graduates as a percentage of population. The Denver-Aurora-Broomfield metro area, according to the Washington Post, has had the nation’s very best success in attracting new grads to relocate here – up more than 21 percent in the five years 2007 to 2012.

Educators here point to experiential learning opportunities offered by Colorado colleges and universities as better preparing graduates for the challenges they’ll find in the outside world.

“Our faculty addresses research questions with enormous public importance, oftentimes with student collaborators, preparing them to become the academic and civic leaders of tomorrow,” says Anne DePrince, Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning at the University of Denver.

DU posts the nation’s very highest percentage of students who study abroad at some point in their academic careers. At a time when unemployment is a particular concern for the youngest working ages, some 88 percent of DU graduates have at least one job offer waiting for them at graduation, a remarkable statistic.

Colorado has 876,999 public school students, served by just over 50,000 teachers, who earn just under $50,000 yearly on average.  Student dropout rates are moving in the right direction, currently just 2.4 percent – falling over recent years, down 1.4 percent between 2008 and 2014.

Despite what seems to be a growing reputation for a public school education here, significant numbers of families in Colorado are choosing to home-school students. They now number more than 8,000 and their numbers are rising.

And while it has expanded its reach, the 18-year-old organization continues to focus on empowering women to be leaders in business and the community.

It’s not easy work. Women still hold only 17 percent of corporate board seats and fewer than 15 percent of executive leadership positions. And Colorado ranks 48^th in the country for the number of women on public boards of directors.

“The needle is not moving. We still have a typical pyramid for women getting to the C-Suite,” says Robin Heller, the organization’s president and CEO. “We’re 50 percent of the workforce, but as we move up the ranks of leadership – whether it’s corporate or nonprofit – it’s still that pyramid. We want to shift that to a square box where you have 50/50 opportunity at every level.”

To help get women there, The Leadership Investment provides a variety of opportunities.

Networking continues to be as important as it was when Stephanie Allen helped found the organization, originally known as the Women’s Vision Foundation. “Networking is critical,” Heller says. “We haven’t created those networks early in our careers, which you need as you get to the senior ranks. It’s not just credentials. We have to help them build that.”

The organization’s signature event, the Women’s Success Forum, takes networking a step further and offers “the latest and greatest about what’s going on in the leadership arena,” Heller says. The annual event, which will be held on Oct. 23 at the Convention Center, draws between 1,200 and 1,400 women and men from across the Front Range.

Education also is key. Leadership programs, speakers, monthly events and webinars provide members with crucial information. This year, the emphasis will be on a holistic approach for success: members as individuals, their teams, their organizations and their communities.

The annual Mentor’s Walk, scheduled for June 18 at City Park, partners mentees with local business executives to discuss different issues the mentees may be facing.

The group changed its name to The Leadership Investment two years ago to distinguish itself from other nonprofits focused on women. In addition, “we know we need to have men in the conversation and to get where we need to get. We’re very inclusive,” Heller says.

As it looks to the future, The Leadership Investment is stepping up its efforts. An Ignite the Night event, scheduled for March 12, invites government officials, economic development groups, community and nonprofit leaders as well as corporations to join forces to help open those boardrooms and executive doors to women.

“We’re upping our game,” Heller says. “We want to ignite and accelerate the shift to a world where women hold 50 percent of the leadership positions at all levels.”