Christine Perich

Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer

New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc.

Christine Perich works for New Belgium Brewing Company, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale. She fills a dual role as the acting Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer.

Perich has served in numerous roles since her start in 2000 and is responsible for driving successful initiatives and business strategy in operations, supply chain management, risk analysis, IT and finance. She has been a key factor of the company’s 419% growth since her start and is dedicated to keeping NBB’s integrity while growing the brand nationally.

Professionally she has over 20 years of experience in public accounting at a CPA firm in Denver and as an auditor in both the public and private sectors. Her experience also includes international and domestic vendor auditing, cash management and financial projections and analysis.

Perich serves on the New Belgium Board of Directors and is an active member of the Global Leadership Council at Colorado State University School of Business.

She received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from Colorado State University and is a state certified CPA.
In her free time, she enjoys traveling, running, kayaking, riding her horse and spending time with her family. She and her family reside in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Dr. Cile Chavez

President

Cile Chavez Consulting, Inc.

Dr. Cile Chavez is president of Cile Chavez Consulting, Inc., and provides motivation and expertise to organizations in the private and public sectors on Leadership and Human Development. Her services include keynote speeches, seminars, in-depth retreats, and individual coaching.

Her passion is to guide others in realizing their skills, talents, and potential in both their personal and professional lives. She emphasizes the power of modeling integrity, effective human relations, intelligent behavior, and enthusiasm.

Her unique mixture of humor, storytelling, ideas, and metaphors has helped make her one of the most sought after speakers on contemporary leadership issues and possibilities.

Cile has presented keynotes to more than 35 state school board and administrator conferences and has been the keynote speaker twice at the National Staff Development Council’s Annual Conference. Her influence extends beyond the Continental U.S. to Brazil, Singapore, The Philippines, Japan, England, and The United Arab Emirates.

Diane B. Zile

Chief People Officer

OtterBox

Diane Zile is Chief People Officer for OtterBox, a Fort Collins based global company experiencing extraordinary growth providing innovative protection solutions for mobile handheld technology. Prior to her current role, Diane co-founded a strategic business consultancy, Whole Strategies.

Having lived in Colorado for the past 12 years, Diane also held key leadership roles at McStain Neighborhoods and Level 3 Communications. She has over 25 years of strategic human resources experience at Fortune 500 companies, including YUM! Brands (a former division of Pepsico) and Macy’s. Areas of passion and expertise include strategic planning, organizational development, alternative reward systems and culture integration.

Diane’s enthusiasm for theatre and the arts has led to serving as a member of the Advisory Board for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and becoming a Producing Partner for BETC (Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company). She is a member of the Wise Women Council of the Women’s Vision Foundation.

Diane graduated with a bachelor of arts from Towson University in Towson, Maryland and received her masters of science from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking and exploring Colorado with her husband, David, and her three “fur children,” Kona, Hilo and Kahu.

Dorothy Horrell

President

Bonfils-Stanton Foundation

Dorothy Horrell joined the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation as Executive Director in January 2001 and was elected its President in September 2002. The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation is among the 15 largest private foundations in Colorado and focuses its grant-making on arts organizations and initiatives that make Denver an artistically vibrant and culturally engaged community. Its signature programs include: The Catalyst Partnership, through which the Foundation invests in high-performance nonprofit organizations to assist them in increasing their impact and effectiveness; The Livingston Fellowship Program, which recognizes and supports the advanced learning and development of promising nonprofit leaders; and The Annual Awards, presented for over twenty-five years to honor Coloradans who have made significant and unique contributions to advance the quality of life in our state.

This appointment followed Dr. Horrell’s retirement as President of the Community Colleges of Colorado, a system of thirteen two-year public colleges that serve over a quarter-million students each year. This system is recognized as an essential partner in the state’s economic development strategies and for its role as the gateway to higher education for the majority of Coloradans. Her 27-year career as an educator also includes serving as President of Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado. During her tenure there, the college carried out a $14 million expansion and renovation of its main campus, established a second campus, increased its total enrollment by over 25%, and underwent a comprehensive transformation as a “learning-centered college.” Dr. Horrell’s resume also includes a number of administrative and teaching positions at the high school and college levels. She has been active in policy development at the local, state, and federal levels and has served on a number of state-level commissions focused on improving educational quality and outcomes.

Dr. Horrell is a native of Holyoke, Colorado and earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Colorado State University. She has served in leadership positions on a number of civic and nonprofit boards and is currently a gubernatorial appointee to the Board of Governors for the Colorado State University System, and a member of the Board of Directors of First National Bank of Colorado and the Clyfford Still Museum, Dr. Horrell and her husband, Ted, live in Wheat Ridge and are the parents of an adult daughter.

Gay Cook

Vice President for Programs and Strategy

The Colorado Trust

Ms. Cook is Vice President for Programs and Strategy and a Corporate Officer at The Colorado Trust, a Denver-based strategic grantmaking foundation whose mission is to advance the health and well-being of the people of Colorado. When the nonprofit PSL Health Care Corporation was sold to a for-profit organization in 1985, proceeds of the sale were used to create a foundation dedicated exclusively to the health of the people of Colorado. The Trust has worked closely with nonprofit organizations in every county across the state to improve health and well-being. To build on these efforts and address growing needs to expand health coverage and care within Colorado, The Trust committed to a new 10-year goal at the close of 2007 to achieve access to health for all Coloradans by 2018.

Before joining The Trust, Ms. Cook was the first Managing Director of the new Center for Women's Health Research at the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver—Anschutz Medical Campus. The Center is working to change the future of women’s health through research into the understudied issues in women’s health, training the next generation of scientists and physician-scientists to work in the underserved field of women’s health research, and educational outreach for the benefit of women everywhere, their families and communities. Prior to that, Ms. Cook was Vice President of Executive Operations and Planning at Metropolitan State College of Denver and member of the President's senior staff and Cabinet. Metro State is a comprehensive college, offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees; it educates more undergraduate Coloradans than any other institution in Colorado. Before joining the college, Ms. Cook was a reporter, editorial writer and Managing Editor of The Denver Post. Her work as a journalist has been honored at the local, state, and national levels with some of journalism’s most prestigious awards.

Ms. Cook also is Past President of the Washington, D.C.-based International Women's Forum, an organization of more than 5,000 women leaders in 26 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. She is a past director of the IWF Leadership Foundation. The Foundation's unique Leadership Fellows Program, with components at Harvard University and INSEAD—The Business School for the World, advances women’s leadership across careers, cultures and continents. Ms. Cook also is a past president of the Colorado Women's Forum and a past director of the Colorado Women's Forum Foundation. She was named a 2006 Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts-Mile Hi Council.

Jill Tietjen

President and CEO

Technically Speaking, Inc.

Ms. Tietjen is the President and CEO of Technically Speaking, Inc. She has spent 35 years in the electric utility industry, and provides planning consulting services to electric utilities and organizations serving the electric utility industry. Ms. Tietjen serves as an expert witness before public utility commissions and other government agencies. Her technical papers have been published in Public Utilities Fortnightly and Transmission and Distribution. She has co-authored several Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) papers and served as an electrical engineering program accreditor on behalf of IEEE.

Ms. Tietjen’s previous employers include the University of Colorado at Boulder, Stone & Webster Management Consultants, Hagler Bailly Consulting, Mobil Oil Corporation’s Mining and Coal Division, and Duke Power Company. She graduated from the University of Virginia (Tau Beta Pi, Virginia Alpha) with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics (minor in Electrical Engineering) and received her M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte. Ms. Tietjen is a registered professional engineer in Colorado.

Ms. Tietjen regularly speaks on women in engineering, historical women in engineering and science, and leadership topics. Her book Her Story: A Timeline of Women Who Changed America (HarperCollins, 2008) is a local bestseller and is featured on C-SPAN2/Book TV. Her introduction to engineering textbook, Keys to Engineering Success, was published by Prentice Hall in 2001. She is the co-author with Betty Reynolds of the Setting the Record Straight series of which three volumes have been published. She has written articles for and been profiled in SWE: Magazine of the Society of Women Engineers, Graduating Engineer, U.S. Woman Engineer, Woman Engineer, and Engineering Horizons. She served as the 1991-1992 National President of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). As Jill S. Baylor, she is a contributing author to the 1995 book She Does Math!

Ms. Tietjen has received numerous awards and honors including the 2001 Woman in Technology Award from the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, Subaru, and News4; Tau Beta Pi’s Distinguished Alumna Award, and she was named a Woman of Distinction by Girl Scouts – Mile Hi Council. Ms. Tietjen serves on a number of non-profit boards and was Chair of the Board for Girl Scouts – Mile Hi Council. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Georgia Transmission Corporation of Tucker, Georgia and serves as an outside director for Merrick & Company. Ms. Tietjen was a Commissioner on the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, Inc., and served as the Western Zone Vice President for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. She is a Fellow Life Member of SWE and a Senior Member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society. She has been inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. Ms. Tietjen is listed in Who’s Who in Engineering, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, and Who’s Who in Technology.

Patricia Barlow, MCC

President and a Founding Partner

Blue Mesa Group

Pat Barlow is a sought-after executive coach and a thought leader in her field, thanks to her hard-won MCC credential from the International Coach Federation and the collected lessons of years spent in business leadership.

The unquestionable result of Pat’s knowledge, diligence, and passion is empowerment of individuals, teams, and organizations to reach their full potential.

Pat has become adept at translating her acquired wisdom into the practical advancement of business and cultural competence for leaders.

As an executive HR leader for both Merck and Citigroup, Pat gathered experience spanning cultures, industries, organizations, and financial climates. She balanced external business objectives--sales, profits, and growth--with the internal conditions necessary for success--skilled leadership, clear objectives, and strong corporate cultures--on six continents.

She has been at the forefront of divestitures and acquisitions, diversity leadership, organizational and team development, strategic planning, labor negotiations, senior executive advising, and leadership assessment and development. She is pleased to put the broad sweep of her accumulated knowledge at the disposal of her coaching clients.

Pat is the President and a Founding Partner of Blue Mesa Group, an executive coaching and consulting firm based in Fort Collins, Colorado, providing executive coaching and leadership training through the creation of assessments and processes customized to allow each client to achieve desired results and growth.

Specialties
Though Pat’s particular interest lies in Leadership Development and Assessments, she is also able to serve in the following capacities:

Executive Coaching
Organizational Development
Leadership Development
Strategic Planning
International Human Resources Leadership
Employee and Labor Relations
Diversity and Executive Coaching