Nan Odell: VP brings sense of community to financial services.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: Executive Edge - Vice President

A.G. EDWARDS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT NAN ODELL HAS BEEN KNOWN TO TELL HER FINANCIAL clients to take a hike, and they do just that. With her, somewhere in Colorado.

An avid hiker who has trekked in countries from Nepal to Peru, Odell regularly invites local clients of her national stock-brokerage firm to take a hike along the gentle foothills in the metro area or on more challenging trails around Telluride in an effort to get to know them better.

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"I think people are fascinating, and I enjoy listening to them, hearing their stories and answering their questions," said Odell, who got into the financial-services industry 20 years ago after a career in the mortgage industry.

"When I'm meeting with a client, it's more important what is going on with them; what is going on in their lives. I run my business like it's my community--and they are part of it."

A sense of community is so important to Odell that each year she hosts an annual Christmas party during which clients' children bring Toys for Tots. In the spring she invites clients to a Bonfils blood drive held outside her Cherry Creek office in the Daniels Building.

And in 1998 she spent her vacation on a medical mission to Kazakstan with Project Open Heart--a Denver-based non-profit that brings medical services to a world in need.

"My volunteerism goes back to my mother," said the Wyoming native who grew up working on her parents' cattle ranch outside of Sheridan. "During the Vietnam war, my mother organized a group of women who would collect paperback books and bake cookies for the soldiers. I always remembered she was involved in some capacity in the community.

"My parents always listened to me and took the time to pay attention to what I had to say," she said

Today she...