2007 Top Company finalists.

It's all about excellence.

Excellence in financial performance.

Excellence in business operations.

Excellence in community involvement.

The 30 companies profiled in the following pages are finalists for the 2007 Top Company business award program.

They didn't get there by accident. Participating companies must nominate themselves, which means they're willing to undergo the rigor of an evaluation process by longtime sponsor, Deloitte, and a panel of judges.

The professional-services company evaluates the dozens of nominations received each year and selects finalists in 10 business categories, including a newly added nonprofit category.

A panel comprised of outstanding Colorado business and civic leaders will select winners from the companies profiled in the following pages.

The 2007 panel:

* Kathryn Paul, President and CEO, Delta Dental

* Larry Pisciotta, President, Brakes Plus

* Mario Carrera, VP/General Manager, Entravision Communications Corp.

* Jon Nordmark, CEO, eBags

* Don Elliman, Director, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade

* Bruce Hutton, Interim Dean, Daniels College of Business, Univ. of Denver

* Don Collins, Chief Marketing Officer, Pinnacol Assurance

Winners will to be announced Sept. 12 at an awards luncheon at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Call (303) 662-5222 for more information.

ENERGY & NATURAL RESOURCES

FOREST OIL CORP.

Forest Oil Corp. has a long history of exploring, developing, producing and marketing natural gas and crude oil over much of the continent and selected international sites. In recent years the Denver-based firm has narrowed its focus and is reaping the benefits.

"We've made a transition since the summer of 2003 through today that's taken us in a completely different direction," says Patrick Redmond, the company's director of investor relations. "The primary producing areas we're in are Texas and Canada. We're concentrating outside the Gulf of Mexico and primarily in onshore North American development or exploitation plays. It's provided for much greater stability for the company and much more clarity in terms of growth of production for the organization."

The company in June acquired Houston Exploration for $1.5 billion and also this year entered into an agreement to sell its entire Alaska assets. President and CEO Craig Clark called the two moves "another transformational period for Forest."

There have been many such periods in the company's long history. Forest Oil dates back to 1916 when it was launched in northwest Pennsylvania, the place oil was first discovered in the U.S. Over the years the company has expanded and weathered economic fluctuations to become one of the largest independent exploration and production enterprises in the U.S.

ST. MARY LAND & EXPLORATION CO.

A Top Company winner in 2005, St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. got its start in 1908 when the founders purchased 17,700 acres of land in Louisiana for $11,000 that ended up yielding more than 200 million barrels of oil and large quantities of natural gas.

The company has been headquartered in Denver since 1966 and has been a public company since 1992. The firm is engaged in the exploration, exploitation, development, acquisition and production of natural gas and crude oil in five core areas: the Mid-Continent (Oklahoma and northern Texas); Rocky Mountain; another region that includes parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas (known as "ArkLaTex"); the Permian Basin of west Texas and eastern New Mexico, and the Gulf Coast.

That geographic diversity, along with a decentralized company structure--each regional office has its own geo-scientists, engineers and land negotiators--enables the company to weather adversity in any one region, such as hurricanes Katrina and Rita that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.

That diversity and degree of autonomy in the regional offices also helps St. Mary manage risk and maintain value in a notably high-risk industry. For example, a St. Mary's geophysicist in the Billings, Mont., office developed sophisticated geographic mapping in the early '90s that enabled the company to establish a large, profitable acreage position ahead of competitors in the Williston Basin of eastern Montana.

XCEL ENERGY

Xcel's Public Service Co. of Colorado, whose parent is Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, has been a statewide leader in the growing sustainability movement, as it has worked to bring wind-energy alternatives to consumers and is working with National Renewable Laboratories in Golden to develop hydrogen technology-based energy solutions.

The company also has partnered with a solar-energy farm in the San Luis Valley of Colorado to further broaden the company's investment in sustainable-energy solutions.

While coal-fired electricity-generating plants remain an Xcel staple, a recent National Renewable Energy Lab ranking of green pricing programs placed Xcel's Windsource and Renewable Energy Trust No. 1 in number of customers and fifth in energy sales out of more than 500 U.S. utilities.

In 2005, Colorado voters mandated that utilities provide at least a 10 percent renewable component for electricity by the year 2015, and Xcel representatives say they expect to meet that requirement seven years earlier than mandated.

In August 2006, the company created a "voluntary energy assistance program" that allows Colorado customers to make regular tax-deductible donations to Energy Outreach Colorado through a check box on their monthly utility bills.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

OPPENHEIMERFUNDS INC.

Unlike many competitors who were negatively impacted by scandals in the financial-services industry, OppenheimerFunds has grown rapidly in the past five years. In that period, the firm has increased assets under management 92 percent, to $244 billion, and is now rated as the seventh-largest fund manager in the U.S.

A key to that growth has been the firm's transfer agency subsidiary, OppenheimerFunds Services, which is located in Centennial and provides record-keeping and customer service to 6 million shareholder accounts.

The firm decided to bring in-house its customer servicing function for its tax-advantaged college savings vehicles, known as 529 Plans. That move improved customer service and responsiveness, and it resulted in the firm receiving the Best Post-Trade Technology Implementation Award at the 14th annual Mutual Fund Industry Awards Ceremony.

To lay the groundwork for young people to succeed financially and encourage them to become early and successful investors, Oppenheimer sponsors the Colorado Stock Market Game, allowing students to build mock portfolios based on real market conditions.

The firm allows employees to vote on where they want to concentrate their community fundraising each year. For 2007, the choice was the Denver Dumb Friends League's annual fundraising run, the "Furry Scurry."

UNITED WESTERN BANCORP

Formerly known as Matrix Bancorp, Denver-based United Western Bancorp has transformed from a holding company focused on mortgage servicing, to a premier community bank.

As part of that process, the company last year added two branch offices and a loan-processing center. During the year, 92 people were added to the banking team, including veteran bank presidents, loan officers and other specialists.

As loans in the firm's mortgage-services portfolio are paid off, United Western is redeploying them into community-based lending activities.

Last year, United Western donated almost $200,000 to local organizations. It concentrates its charity efforts on activities in which employees are involved, thus leveraging its involvement in terms of both time and money put into the community.

Among those efforts: The company awards two need-based scholarships to students at Denver's Metro State who are pursuing business or finance degrees. It also supports the Money Smart educational program in partnership with Denver Mile High Rotary, teaching money and other skills to moderate-to low-income women--instructing them in English or Spanish as needed.

WESTERN UNION CO.

Western Union has been in the money-transfer business since 1851, and last year took on a new identity as it spun off from First Data Corp.

Even after the spinoff, Western Union ranked No. 10 among the state's largest public companies, based on revenue, in this magazine's annual public-companies ranking.

The Englewood-based firm has 300,000 agent locations around the world, and they complete an average of 13 transactions such as bill payments or offsite purchases per second.

Agents are able to make money transfers in more than 120 currencies, and Western Union Online has country-specific websites for almost all the company's markets.

Seven years ago, the company formed the Western Union Foundation to facilitate charitable giving, and since its inception the program has granted more than $4.4 million to 522 Colorado programs focused on education issues, basic needs of Coloradans and disaster relief efforts around the world. Employee contributions to the foundation are matched by the company, $2 for every $1 an employee gives, and matched $1 for $1 for employee contributions to other charities.

HEALTH CARE

CRAIG HOSPITAL

Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, Craig Hospital started out in Lakewood as the "Brotherly Relief Colony" and consisted of 50 tents for destitute, homeless male sufferers of tuberculosis.

A century later, with...