Fresh face fueling Colorado: what they lack in experience, these 25 top young pros make up for in drive, determination and ingenuity.

AuthorSukin, Gigi
PositionGEN XYZ - Company overview - Interview

In a survey conducted in early 2013 by online job network Beyond.com, roughly 6,000 job seekers and human resource professionals nationwide revealed that while more than 80 percent of Millennials are optimistic about finding employment, hiring managers are unconvinced they've got what it takes.

"Young professionals have energy, enthusiasm and ideas, but often lack the experience and respect to be heard," said Dan Kobler, co-founder of Denver's Mile High Young Professionals.

And then you hear the list of Colorado's 25 most influential young professionals ...

They're solving the world's contact information challenges, feeding hungry burger lovers and satiating the thirst of tea enthusiasts. They're advancing social and economic prosperity for kids, managing wealth, developing apps, increasing the accessibility of green buildings and designing more than 100,000 digital displays in 27 countries worldwide.

The message comes in loud and clear: It would be laughable to question if these 25 rising stars have what it takes. Whether climbing the ladder in lightening speed or taking the bull by the horns, these 20- to 40-year-old professionals are each something extraordinary.

"What I love most about the professional landscape for young professionals [in Colorado] is the true passion that exists: the "can-do" attitudes, the desire to make a real difference and the collaborative community efforts to turn pipe dreams into realities," said Jennifer Chang.

2013's Top 25 were selected by a panel of CoBiz representatives, interested community members and formerly recognized young professionals, including Chang. With just over 380 applications, it was no easy feat deciding who would take the top spots.

"When you look at how much Colorado has grown and changed over the past decade, you can really recognize how important leadership and innovation is in our state," Chang said of the 2013 narrowing-down process. "Luckily, our future is in good hands. I felt that each and every nominee was a winner in their own right, and that their contributions to our state and local communities will be instrumental in shaping Colorado's next years and decades to come."

Youthful. Clever. Ambitious. Unstoppable. Check out the rising stars disrupting industries, making moves and building businesses on the following pages.

TOP 5 WINNER

Bertram's life changed when someone approached her employer for a grant.

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When Brandy Bertram was in grade school, all her report cards contained the same critique. "It always had 'Challenges the instructor," says Bertram, currently the executive director of Youth Biz. "I was always asking, 'Why am I doing this, what is this and where does it come from?"

Bertram grew up in Laramie, Wyo. Her parents and brother all earned doctorates, so she might have been expected to follow their academic lead. Yet, she declined. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Wyoming, and then went to work as a stockbroker.

"I earned my Series 7 and Series 63," she says, referring to the securities licenses. "I did that because someone told me I couldn't and I liked the challenge."

She went to work for the Denver branch of Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., where she won excellence awards and served on a local philanthropic board and listened to nonprofit pitches. "We would hear requests to save everything: puppies and whales and water," she explained.

Then she watched a presentation by a representative from YouthBiz, an organization that helps lift young people out of poverty by teaching them about entrepreneurism. "She talked about using $5,000 to fundamentally shift a young person's life in inner-city Denver, by trying on business ownership as a pathway out of poverty."

So inspired was Bertram that she fought for the grant, and began volunteering with Youth Biz. She would show up in her stockbroker suit and teach kids ages 14 to 24 about business skills, access to markets and startup financing.

That was 1999.

Over the next few years, she continued to volunteer as she worked as director of operations and finance at the law firm Donelson Ciancio & Goodwin P.C., chief operating officer at the charter school Denver Venture School, training and enterprise specialist at the economic development business Making Cents International and deputy director at Micro Business Development Corp.

In January 2012 she became executive director of Youth Biz. "I took a 50 percent pay cut, and I never looked back," she says.

Bertram thinks she was destined to do this type of work. "I love the combination of figuring out the money conversation and the human conversation," she says. "That's business, the collision of the two worlds."

YouthBiz was launched in 1992 to teach job and life skills to youth in Denver's underserved communities. The focus on entrepreneurism is designed to help young people think about starting and growing their own businesses, and design their own economic futures.

"Our job is to help them think about what's possible," Bertram says. "We see young people shifting from, 'Maybe I can do hair,' to 'Maybe I can own a salon franchise, or 'Maybe I could make this handbag,' to, 'What if someone else manufactured the bag and I had multiple retailers sell it?' They are worth more than a minimum-wage job."

Indeed, she has helped launch businesses over the years, but Youth Biz is different. "This is a big deal here," she says.

TOP 5 WINNER

Gonzales gave into his construction connections to build buildings and a business.

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Mitchell Gonzales thought he wanted to get into the hotel and restaurant management business. He majored in hospitality management his first three years at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, but then he had a realization.

"I love to travel, and I take ridiculous amounts of vacation every year, and I wanted to start a hotel," he says. "Then I realized I wanted to stay in hotels, not work in hotels."

His father owns an electrical contracting business, and his uncles have construction-related businesses; but Gonzales didn't think he wanted to follow them. Still, most of the work he had done over the years had been in construction, so his prior experience failed to help him earn work toward hotel management credits.

So he gave in.

"I had internships in construction and I felt comfortable hanging out with my dad at his office and going to networking events," Gonzales says. He decided to write a business plan and get the financing to start a construction company before graduating.

The head start really helped. He launched his general contracting company, MGC Services Corp., in 2009. Today the company handles a variety of construction jobs, with work mostly for commercial buildings, and clients ranging from Denver Public Schools to Union Station to the Denver Zoo.

The Zoo, Gonzales says, started as a small project and then expanded. "We installed handrails, which was an $8,000 project that took a couple of days," he says. "Then they were asked to build steel caging around the sprinklers so the rhinos could not damage the sprinklers. Then the elephants needed the same steel metal caging, which led to decorative panels."

"It grew to $300,000 in eight months," Gonzales says.

That is not to say everything always runs so smoothly. "There are always challenges with being a business owner," he says. "The biggest is cash flow, especially in the construction industry. Sometimes it takes several months to get paid, and you have to be able to finance a couple months of materials."

Gonzales is also interested in community work. He and his father, Andrew "Rusty" Gonzales, are among the founding members of the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado. The foundation, established in 2007, helps Latinos become more involved in philanthropy. Mitchell Gonzales serves on the grant committee. This year the Foundation gave grants to nonprofits such as Cafe Cultura, El Centro Humanitario, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition and Museo de las Americas. "I definitely put a high priority on the community," he says.

He still gets to travel, but now it's with World Ventures, a Plano, Texas-based organization that is partnering with the nonprofit Hug It Forward. The organization builds bottle schools, which are made from eco-bricks, plastic bottles filled with inorganic trash. Gonzales plans to travel to Guatemala to build a bottle school in December.

TOP 5 WINNER

Mangat's brainchild caught the eye of Cisco Systems.

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When a giant came knocking, BroadHop happily opened the door.

In January, Cisco Systems Inc. acquired the company, a provider of next-generation policy control and service management for carrier networks.

Kishen Mangat, who co-founded BroadHop in 2003, says the time was right to make the move.

"The market began to consolidate and policy server products were being packaged with adjacent network equipment offerings," he said. "Cisco was looking for the best technology and a world-class team. BroadHop's shareholders were looking to solidify our market position. We saw Cisco as the right partner."

Cisco has helped accelerate the business, according to Mangat, one of Broad Hop's three founders. The policy server business has seen substantial revenue growth since the acquisition.

"Having a broader portfolio and a global sales force provides a significant go-to-market advantage," Mangat says. "Becoming a part of Cisco has been positive for our employees, shareholders and customers."

"Positive" is a word that Mangat uses a lot when he discusses his experience as an entrepreneur.

At Colorado College, he studied business and economics, and decided he wanted to work for himself. The high-tech industry was growing, so it seemed a natural fit.

"If you have a computer science background, it helps, but if you have an enjoyment of technology and a determination to follow a path, you can get traction," he says. "There's...

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