Colorado Black Chamber of commerce grooms young business leaders.

• Author: Cote, Mike
• Position: [LEADERSHIP] - Colorado Black Chamber's program to groom young business leaders - Brief article

When you have more college and graduate degrees than people in the room, chances are you're mixing with a pretty powerful group.

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That's how Richard Lewis described participants in the debut class of Chamber Connect last year as he was talking about the leadership program to a group of business people gathered for a "Day at the Capital" sponsored by the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce.

The chance to meet with legislators is among the networking activities included in the Black Chamber's program to groom young business leaders to take on bigger roles in the community. Now in its second year, Chamber Connect takes on about 35 people per year, most between the ages of "25 and 30-something," from both the corporate and entrepreneurial fields, and introduces them to business and community leaders.

"Our participants are very interested in getting involved, but they're just not connected," said Lewis, vice chairman of the chamber (and featured in "Executive Edge" on page 21). "What we're...