Celebrating success: raise a glass to the 2010 Top Company award winners.

• Position: TOP COMPANY

Judges must like beer. How else could you explain how Odell Brewing Co. rose to No. 1 in the two ColoradoBiz competitions featured in this month's issue?

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The business executives who examined the Top Company nominations and the architects who reviewed the Colorado Sustainable Design Awards entries were never in the same room, nor would they recognize each other on the street. But when it comes to the Fort Collins craft brewer, they came to the same conclusion.

We'll toast a pint of 90 Shilling to that.

On the following pages, learn how Odell and the other 11 winners in the Top Company awards made the grade in one of the toughest and most stubborn economic environments in our nation's history. (On page 30 read how Odell's dedication to sustainability in its brewery plant expansion caught the attention of the design award judges.)

Top Company sponsor Deloitte winnowed the nominations to 36 finalists in 12 categories. A panel of business and community leaders selected the winners. We celebrated the finalists at an evening reception in September at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

As part of the Top Company tradition, UMB and fellow sponsors Deloitte and Holland & Hart hosted a trip to Napa Valley in October to honor the winners with a tour of wine country.

You can bet a few people also had beer on their minds.

--Mike Cote, ColoradoBiz editor

Consumer

Odell Brewing Co.

Walk into the main entrance on your way to Odell Brewing Co.'s tasting room and you'll pass a reception area decorated with signs that will catch your eye.

On a warm September afternoon in Fort Collins, the sun illuminates one sign that reads "The Charity of the Month: Butterfly Pavilions."

"We're proud of our outreach programs," says Corkie Odell, one of the three primary owners, along with Doug Odell, the founder, and his wife Wynne, the CEO. "We let an employee-based committee choose the charity categories every month."

So if you head into Odell and get a tasting sample of several beers, your $4 will likely go to help charities involved in education, environment or humanitarian causes.

The awards hanging on the wall aren't just for the brewery's lauded Easy Street Wheat, 90 Shilling or 5 Barrel Pale Ale, though you'll see plenty of those golden pendants, as well.

Odell's recent expansion of its brewery and headquarters was ranked No. 1 in the commercial category this year as part of the Colorado Sustainable Design Awards, a competition sponsored by ColoradoBiz; the American Institute of Architects, Colorado; and the Urban Land Institute. And 5280 magazine gave the company the coveted "Brewery of the Year" award.

"Wynne, Doug and I have worked together for 21 years," says Corkie, who calls herself "the co-owner and culture maven." Most of the human resources responsibilities fall to her, she says.

"The three of us comprise the board of directors," she says, greeting a young man serving thirsty customers in the tap room. "We're all very, very different, but we respect each other's strengths."

Corkie wanders through the brewery, past the brew kettles, bottling line and beer tanks, waving at employees along the way. The smell of malted barley permeates most of the nearly 50,000-square-foot building, which has recently grown. Solar panels on the roof--350 of them--mean the plant will save money down the road, and help the environment.

Odell employs more than 60 people who work in everything from the production area to outside sales.

Say "manufacturing plant" and visions of tired-looking factory workers come to mind. Not so here.

Everyone from the woman offering a tour to the man in the bottling line grins and waves at Corkie, clearly a popular boss.

"We really do value our employees' ideas and knowledge," she says. "We want them to be engaged in what we do. We know they can make a difference."

They may also be happy to know that at the end of their workweek, they can bring home a few six-packs of the beer that's so popular in nine states. And a post-shift beer, be it the seasonal Isolation Ale or a bourbon stout, will keep moods elevated, as well.

From its start in 1989, when the three Odells converted a 1915 grain elevator, to the splendid building that catches eyes today, it's clear that this brewery has evolved.

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"Doug started in Seattle with home brews, and all his friends said his beer was better than all the others," Corkie says, walking past a 200-barrel fermentation tank.

"I talked them into coming to Colorado, and this outdoorsy college town."

The philosophy of the company is simple, Corkie says.

"What you see is what you get." She grins and waves at the people in the bottling area. "We want to make the best possible beer, and serve it fresh. Everyone who works here believes in that. We're authentic."

--Maria Cote

Energy/Natural Resources

Newmont Mining

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Newmont Mining Corp. is making headlines again. But this time, it's for all the right reasons.

After years of negative press surrounding environmental and health concerns at its operations in Peru and Indonesia, the 89-year-old Denver-based gold mining company has been praised in recent years, heralded as a model of environmental stewardship and corporate responsibility at a time when the mining industry desperately needs an image boost.

In 2006, Newmont became the first gold mining company to make the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (which recognizes companies with sustainable economic, environmental and social records)--a place it has held for four years in a row. In March, it was ranked 16th on Corporate Responsibility Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens List. And in June, it was honored by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for its efforts to control malaria among employees and community members at its operation in Ghana.

Meanwhile, the company managed to have a banner year in a grim economy, posting a 26 percent increase in revenues--to a record $7.7 billion--in 2009, while boasting one of the best employee safety records in the gold mining industry. It has also been instrumental in founding several organizations aimed at improving safety and environmental stewardship industry-wide.

"We are not only improving our own performance, but the performance of the industry as a whole," says CEO Richard O'Brien, who took the helm of the company in 2007 and has been credited for his open, straight-talking style. "We realize that a sustainable business model cannot just be about financial results and the number of ounces we produce. It has to be about the way we conduct ourselves."

Just a decade ago, the company was mired in controversy after a truck

from its mine in Cajamarca, Peru, spilled mercury along a highway, sickening residents. Newmont paid $3 million in indemnity, covered medical expenses and revamped its transportation policies, but skirmishes with mine protestors there persisted for years. Then in 2004, an environmental group from Indonesia filed suit against the company, claiming its activities had caused health problems there.

"Newmont was in the news a lot, and many stories portrayed the company in a negative light," recalls Stephen D'Esposito, president of Washington, D.C.--based RESOLVE, a nonprofit that helps businesses find solutions to environmental and public health problems.

In 2007, under pressure from socially conscious investors, Newmont made an unprecedented move for a mining company. It agreed to allow an independent team of evaluators to conduct a Community Relationships Review at six of its sites around the globe, interviewing employees, community activists and others to determine what it is doing right and what it is doing wrong.

"We realize we have an impact locally. It can be positive--in the form of employment and royalties and goods and services. But there is no question that, unless we do our business just right, it can also be negative," says O'Brien.

With the Community Relationships Review complete, the company is now in the process of revamping its policies to address its shortfalls. But already, its image has changed dramatically, says D'Esposito, and the rest of the mining industry is paying close attention.

"They are a successful example of a company that has been very transparent and open about their challenges, engaged with their stakeholders about how to address them, and worked to come up with solutions," he says. "It is a game-changing approach, and it is definitely working for them."

--Lisa Marshall

Financial Services

CoBank

It's hard to sense the national recession at CoBank. Then again, it was hard to sense the past economic boom, too.

The Denver-based national lender to agribusiness and rural utilities posted record profits in 2008 and 2009--something it consistently has done this past decade with steady growth during a roller-coaster economy.

At year's close 2009, CoBank reported total assets at $58.1 billion with annual net income at $565.4 million--both about double the bank's figures in 2004. CoBank employs about 700 people, 500 of whom are in Denver, and it plans to increase total employment by 10 percent this year.

There's no boom, nor bust with CoBank, now in its 94th year--it's the slow and steady ship winning the race.

"Our mission is to provide our customers a dependable source of financing in good times and bad," said CoBank President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Engel. "We're not in the transaction business; we're in the relationship business. It's kind of like an...