KeyNote Speaker -- Mayor John Hickenlooper

A small businessman who had never previously run for political office, John Hickenlooper was elected Mayor of Denver in 2003 and reelected in 2007. Since taking office, overcame a $70 million deficit to balance the City budget while averting major cuts in services and massive layoffs, reached deals with United, Frontier and Southwest Airlines enabling all carriers to grow at Denver International Airport, implemented the most sweeping set of police reforms in Denver’s history, built an unprecedented partnership with Denver Public Schools, launched efforts to create a more business-friendly environment in city government, initiated a citywide campaign to end homelessness, created Denver’s sustainable development initiative, and ushered in a new era of bipartisan regional cooperation culminating in passage of the largest regional transit initiative in the history of the United States.

In November 2005, Mayor Hickenlooper was the only mayor named by Governing Magazine as one of the top Public Officials of the Year, and in April 2005 – less than two years into his first term – TIME Magazine named Mayor Hickenlooper one of the top five “big-city” mayors in America.

Hickenlooper’s passion for Denver began in 1981 when his career as an exploration geologist brought him to Buckhorn Petroleum, where he worked for five years. After the collapse of the oil industry, he found himself with a healthy severance check, no immediate job prospects, and time on his hands. Inspired by a visit to a northern California brewpub, he spent two years developing the Wynkoop Brewing Company, the first brewpub in the Rocky Mountains. The Wynkoop group grew to eventually include seven Denver restaurants and a brewpub in Colorado Springs.

Since his election, Mayor Hickenlooper has worked to increase civic engagement and participation throughout the city and Denver metro area, helping to bring all 32 metro mayors together to work on initiatives that benefit the entire region. His collaborative approach has built strong bonds and partnerships that transcend partisan and geographic lines.

Dan Burak, Senior Strategy Associate, Greenhouse Partners

Dan's brand experince includes; Coca-Cola North America:  VAULT, Gold Peak, 7-11, Dannon, Molson Coors: Coors Original, Coors Light, Celestial Seasonings, First Data, Adventure Collection, SpectraLink, Charter Communications, Intrawest/Playground, Quintess, 3Com, U.S. Robotics, Montgomery Ward.

Dan has spent 14 years in various capacities with a focus on retail, channel marketing and channel development, and branding and brand strategy. Prior to joining Greenhouse, Dan spent six years at 3Com, beginning with U.S. Robotics as they were just starting to sell a lot of this new device called a “modem.”  Among the varied responsibilities during his tenure there, Dan managed the content, tools, and strategy of the consumer website, helped to market and launch 3Com’s cable access and DSL business, and marketed into the reseller channel. Dan also has extensive experience with the retail channel, having spent several years in the buying office and marketing department of Montgomery Ward’s corporate headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.

Vince Chirico, Regional Head Mountain States, Google, Inc.

Vince currently heads up both the Mountain States and Southwest Regions for Google.  He consults with key business decision makers to assist with mitigating pain points and achieving sales and marketing objectives.  In addition to his daily sales responsibility, Vince is a steward of the Google value proposition and helps evangelize Google’s story for all marketers.  Prior to assuming responsibility for the Mountain States and Southwest Regions, Vince headed up the US travel practice in the East for Google. 

Vince has over 10 years of experience in the travel industry having worked on both the supplier and distribution sides of the business.  Prior to joining Google, he spent two years as Cendant’s Vice-President of Strategy, Marketing and Product Development in their Travel Distribution Services division and nearly eight years with Delta Air Lines in multiple posts, most notably General Manager of eBusiness Development where he headed up strategy and business development for delta.com and served as Delta’s lead in the creation of ORBITZ.com.

Vince graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with an undergraduate degree in business administration in 1986 and earned an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 1991.  He works out of Google’s Denver, CO offices where he lives with his lovely wife Kristina and dog Orion.

Gary Duncan, Principle, Leadership Connections & columnist for Denver Business Journal

Gary is a sales strategy, sales management consultant, and sales trainer with over thirty years of experience.  Graduating Magna Cum Laude in Marketing, Duncan received certification with CMSI (Certified in Marketing & Sales) by the Dutch Council under ISO 9000.  Duncan also holds credentialing with the Alliance of Professional Consultants, and certifications in behavior, workplace motivators, and personal attribute analysis.

Duncan combines exceptional expertise with real world experience.  Duncan has over 25 years experience with two Fortune 100 companies (DuPont and Pfizer) selling, hiring, managing, and training salespeople from Canada to Mexico and extensive experience with entrepreneurs.  Duncan is the recipient of many awards for goal achievement, market share and dollar increase in a variety of markets and product lines, including designation as a “Heavy Hitter” while directing a Sandler Sales Training Franchise. 

Duncan is a member of TEC (now Vistage), The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Target Training International, Association for Corporate Growth, Colorado Human Resource Association and a monthly columnist for the Denver Business Journal.  He is now President of Leadership Connections, Inc., a 15 year old consulting and training group focusing on performance, organic growth, sales management and sales training.

Kelly Green, Director of Marketing, Qdoba Mexican Grill

Kelly Green is currently the Director of Marketing for Qdoba Mexican Grill.  She joined Qdoba in November 1999 after previously overseeing the marketing for FirstBank. At Qdoba, she oversees the branding pieces that are used in their nearly 400 locations.  She also oversees the media and marketing strategies for the corporate locations that are in various cities such as Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Denver. 

Theo Mandel, Ph.D., Principal Consultant, Interface Design and Development, LLC

Theo Mandel, Ph.D., is an internationally-recognized expert in software usability and interface design with over 20 years of experience. Theo earned a M.A. and Ph.D. in Cognitive and Quantitative Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Mandel spent 11 years in IBM conducting software interface research, establishing industry-wide guidelines in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and Object-Oriented User Interfaces (OOUIs), and conducting hardware/software usability evaluations.

Mandel has written two well-respected books and numerous industry articles. The most recent book is titled, “The Elements of User Interface Design” (Wiley & Sons, 1997). Since 1992, Mandel has worked as an independent software user experience and usability consultant. He was also a co-founder and Chief Usability Officer (CUO) for an electronic medical records software company in the late 1990’s. Mandel also teaches seminars and workshops on software and web usability.

Dr. Mandel currently serves as the healthcare chairman for World Usability Day 2007. He was invited to present a keynote session for the Direct Marketers Association of Southern California (DMAsc) Direct Marketing Day in May 2007.

Stephen Patterson, President/CEO, Broadnet Teleservices

Stephen is a resident of Highlands Ranch, Colorado and was raised in Dolores, Colorado.  After graduating from the University of Colorado, he completed his career at Global Crossing as Director after holding many positions with the company in Seattle, Washington and in Denver, Colorado.

In 2002, Stephen realized an entrepreneur opportunity to provide web-based voice broadcasting and founded Broadnet .  Shortly thereafter, Stephen partnered with Brian Brown, a graduate of M.I.T. and Broadnet’s current CTO, as well as former Global Crossing colleague, Michael Davis, Broadnet’s Executive VP of Sales.   

Sandi L. Peterson, President, thepresscheckpeople.com at Berthelot Marketing Services, Inc.

Sandi L. Peterson is President of Berthelot Marketing Services, Inc., also known as thepresscheckpeople.com.  Sandi has more than 30 years of direct response print production experience. Our team at thepresscheckpeople.com has over 50 years!
Berthelot Marketing Services, Inc. began in 1987,with Sandi as a freelancer, moving up to a C-Corp in July ,1996. We have been offering print production services to marketers and agencies assisting them with their direct marketing needs. In 1999, Berthelot Marketing added Press Check and Lettershop Check services to their clients. Today, the majority of our days are spent at press and in the lettershop.

As our client list has grown, so has our number of employees. Local and national clients include well known agencies, marketers and financial institutions.

Sandi has logged over 25,000 hours at press. Her previous experience was gained in positions at highly talented agencies such as: Director of Integrated Production at Fallon, Direct Mail Production Manager at Carmichael Lynch, and as Director of Print Services at Russ Reid in Pasadena, CA.

Having been the agency, the printer and the marketer gives Sandi a unique perspective as well as extensive experience in all facets of the direct response arena.

Sandi is also a past president of the Midwest Direct Marketing Association in Minneapolis, MN and a member of printbuyersonline.com. A frequent exhibitor and speaker, Sandi shares her passion for all things print.

Andy Rayl, Senior Creative Associate, Greenhouse Partners

Andy's brand experience includes; Charter Communications, Playground- Westin, Citbank, Diners Club, Toyota Financial Services, HP, 3Com, JD Edwards, John Deere, Vail Resorts, IBM, Maxtor.

Andy has 13 years of experience as an award-winning art director.  As creative Director at Bernard Hodes Group, Andy produced national and international employment brands for companies such as Citibank, Diners Club, Toyota Financial Services, Hewlett-Packard, 3Com, JD Edwards, John Deere and Vail Resorts.  As the Sr. Visual Designer at Leopard Communications, Andy spent time creating websites, CD-ROMs and brand print collateral for companies such as IBM and Maxtor.  He has also been recognized in industry award competitions and publications such as American Advertising Federation, Employment Management Association, Art Directors Club, Communication Arts, American Corporate Identity and BrandWeek.

Jerry Sexton, President, PGM Integrated

Jerry is the President of PGM, an integrated advertising, marketing, PR and interactive agency. Past clients include SourceGas, Grease Monkey, Hewlett-Packard, Agilent Technologies, Lucent, AT&T and others. He combines hands-on production experience and proven technology skills with the ability to visualize new media uses for marketing applications. Jerry is Google Adwords certified. Jerry is the former owner and CEO of Digital Metropolis, a company he developed from conceptual idea into the premier interactive marketing agency for the Rocky Mountain region. Here he developed strategic plans and produced tactical CD-ROM, DVD, video (online and traditional), web and print products for sales, marketing and CRM applications.

A retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, Jerry was on the implementation committee for the United States Air Force Electronic Imaging Center concept for transmission of imagery around the world. A sought-after speaker, he gives seminars around the country on new media technologies and their uses in marketing applications. He has also taught a Masters Degree Course at Denver University on multi-media production management. He has a B.S., Mass Communications, Florida State University and a M.S., Public Relations, from American University.