Twenty-five YPs who have reached the top and are still climbing
Just try reading about this year’s 25 Most Influential Young Professionals without a little envy and a lot of astonishment.
Really, how did they come so far so fast?
Take Rachel Scott: She’s marketing director for Quick Left, but she’s also a musician and elite athlete who founded the Colorado Women’s Cycling Project, the largest women’s cycling team in the nation and possibly the world.
“She’s started and run two successful companies, rebranded 100-year-old nonprofits, orchestrated deliveries of thousands of books by bike to underprivileged children and runs the CWCP team,” says her business partner and friend, Vera Divenyi. “I met her at 25 and she’s continued to blow me away with her accomplishments, personally and professionally.”
Paths to success haven’t always been paved or leisurely for these young professionals: Scott was the first in her family to graduate high school, let alone college.
Peak CEO Luke Norris, who started his first company at age 14, struggled with dyslexia – but used the challenge as a motivator.
“It forces him to communicate in-person and carefully consider what he says,” colleague Kelsey Bernius says. “With that, Luke built Peak into a company that puts the customer first, beginning with one-on-one communication.”
The payoff: Peak has grown more than 400 percent the past three years.
Our young standouts are doing very well – and doing good at the same time.
As a board member for Mile High Youth Corps since 2012, Lucas Mallory helped create an assessment tool that helps provide work opportunities for disadvantaged teens. As chair of PCL’s United Way Committee, he’s overseen the highest levels of employee giving in the company’s history: $1.45 million.
Attorney Tommy West founded Boulder Flood Relief and championed a state Senate bill to expand civil liability immunity for disaster-relief volunteers.
And even as she was breaking sales records, Monica Perez was saving the young professionals group at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
“When the group was about to dissolve, she stepped up and became the much needed advocate to move the group through turbulent waters,” says her mentor, Patricia Barela Rivera.
Her praise for Perez might apply to any of the ColoradoBiz up-and-comers.
“She does not dabble in things,” Barela Rivera says. “She puts her heart and soul into any venture she pursues.”
When it comes to taking care of business, not even the sky’s the limit for these rising Colorado stars.
(This is the fifth year of the GenXYZ awards recognizing Colorado business standouts in the 20 to 40 age group. Winners were selected from online nominations and judged by a panel made up of ColoradoBiz magazine’s editorial staff, past GenXYZ winners and representatives of the business community.)