COLORADO BUSINESS AWARDS.

• Author: WOELFLEIN, MIKE
• Position: ColoradoBiz Top Company of the Year Competition - Statistical Data Included

TOP COMPANIES GROWING WHEN THE GROWING GETS TOUGH

NO MATTER WHAT YOUR BUSINESS, YOU'VE got to be aware of how e-commerce can improve it, even in the face of the tech-market crash. That was the message of a recent visit to Silicon Valley for several Colorado executives.

The trip, sponsored by ColoradoBiz, UMB Bank and accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, was the reward for winners of the 2000 ColoradoBiz Top Company of the Year Competition.

It included tours of Oracle and Cisco's headquarters; Cisco's I-Home, an e-commerce enabled home of the future; plus presentations from San Francisco-area CEOs.

"If you saw our Web site last year, and you see it this year, you'll see a big difference," said Jay Cimino, president of Colorado Springs-based Phil Long Dealerships.

"This trip played a big part in that. We approach Web marketing in a different way now, and that trip was part of it."

Another 2000 winner, Denver's world renowned rehabilitation facility Craig Hospital, also depends on e-commerce. "An awful lot of inquirers to our programs, potential admissions, originate electronically" said Craig President Denny O'Malley. "It's important because we draw from all over the country"

The Silicon Valley trip, said O'Malley, "was personally delightful, in addition to being professionally helpful. It was very helpful to get out of my own industry and talk with folks from other industries, who are dealing with some of the same issues " he said. "It's always good to walk in somebody else's shoes."

The 15th annual top company awards -- along with the Colorado Association of Commerce & Industry's Business Leader of the Year and the Colorado Council on Education's Enterprising Teacher of the Year -- were presented at a luncheon in downtown Denver, Aug. 6. In all, 113 entries were received this year for the nine top-company award categories.

Three finalists were chosen in each, with winners selected by a statewide panel of executives from business, industry and education. Winners are profiled on the following pages.

DAVID E. BAILEY

CACI BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR

David Bailey has so much going on outside of work, it's hard to imagine when he has time to lead Colorado's Wells Fargo Bank.

I don't want the company to know that," he laughed. "Let's keep that quiet."

Bailey is Wells Fargo chairman for Colorado and Wyoming. But he's also chairman of the 2001 Mile High United Way campaign. He's a past chair of the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, and a board member of the St. Joseph Hospital Foundation, the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, and too many other organizations to list.

"The truth is," Bailey said "I'm lucky to work for an organization like Wells Fargo and to hay 4,000 great associates in Colorado. This is a long way from a one-man shop. I have great support at home with my wife (Susan). She's eaten a lot of rubber chicken with me. And at work, I have my long-time assistant, Debbie Blocker, who helps me juggle all those balls."

And he must be juggling them well. Bailey started his banking career as a teller when he was still a student at DU. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1966, then took two years off to volunteer in the Peace Corps in Central and South America.

"I had no intention of going into banking, but I came back and they had an opening (in a management training program), so I said, "What the heck?"

The Denver native started with Denver National Bank, which then had assets of $750 million. He moved from Greeley, to Fort Collins, to Boulder and worked his way up Denver National's chain of command as the bank thrived and evolved. Through various mergers, it became United Banks, Norwest (where he was president) and now, Wells Fargo, which will have assets of $11 billion in Colorado by the end of this year.

Bailey remembers when his bank was far from the biggest in town, and when Denver was a much smaller place. "It's changed a lot. The city and the bank have come a long way," he said.

Bailey has announced his retirement, effective Dec. 31, but don't expect him to disappear. "My United Way campaign runs through the spring, so I'll be involved," he said. "I'll always be involved."

TOP COMPANY -- BIOTECHNOLOGY

COCHLEAR CORP., ENGLEWOOD

EMPHASIS: INDUSTRY FIRSTS

There's something special about working at Cochlear.

The company makes Cochlear implants, tiny devices lodged inside the ear that electrically stimulate the nerves and can allow deaf or severely hearing-impaired people to hear.

"There's not a dry eye in the place when somebody hears for the first time or parents get to see their child react to sounds for the first time," said Ron West, the president of Cochlear Americas until July. "All our employees are very excited about...