CREW Denver’s 11th Annual Women of Influence awards luncheon was held yesterday at The Ritz-Carlton. The theme of this year’s event was “Leading the Renaissance.” Fawn Germer, Oprah-endorsed, best-selling author of 6 books including Finding the UP in the Downturn, delivered an inspiring keynote address encouraging everyone to turn adversity into opportunity. All attendees received a signed copy of Fawn’s book. Otten Johnson was the Keynote Sponsor, and First American Title Insurance Company was the Book Sponsor. The event was a big success and a complete sell-out.
There were 16 nominees for the Women of Influence award, all outstanding, well-qualified women who are “Leading the Renaissance” in their own and different ways. At the event, the four finalists were announced, all hailing from different sectors of commercial real estate.
The four finalists were:
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Cyd Petre, Senior Vice President, Special Assets Group, Colorado Business Bank — Cyd leads the Special Assets Group at Colorado Business Bank and her group’s charge is to deal with troubled real estate loans. Using creative and out-of-the box approaches, Cyd and her team have successfully resolved over 50% of the banks troubled loans in 2009 and are well on their way to the same success for 2010.
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Karen Blumenstein, Project Developer, THF Realty, Inc. — Karen managed to renegotiate a public-private partnership for a retail project that was put in place when the economy was soaring. Things were not working the way that the players had envisioned and Karen found a way to restructure the deal in order to help save a project.
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Tracy Huggins, Executive Director, Denver Urban Renewal Authority — Under Tracy’s leadership, DURA has managed to take the most difficult projects under the most difficult economic circumstances and find a way to make them happen. These projects have included Dahlia Square and a third school in the Stapleton redevelopment.
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Tristin Gleason, Co-Owner, Project One Integrated Services, LLC — Tristin, as the owner of a small business providing construction management/owners representation services, managed to refocus her company on public projects in the education, public safety and utility realms. As a result, Tristin’s company hired 2 additional people in 2009 and 5 in 2010, a track record unheard of in the construction business during this downturn.
Tracy Huggins was named the 2010 CREW Denver Woman of Influence. Otten Johnson congratulates Tracy and all of the other nominees.