Economic Summit

Ed is the Senior Resident Fellow at the Urban Land Institute. He holds the Charles E. Fraser Chair on Sustainable Development at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, DC, where he is nationally known as an inspiring speaker and leading authority on economic development and land use polices and trends. As the Senior Fellow for Sustainable Development McMahon leads ULI’s worldwide efforts to conduct research and educational activities on environmentally sensitive development policies and practices. He is also Chairman of the Board of the National Main Street Center and a Senior Advisor to ULI’s Healthy Places Initiative. During the past 30 years, McMahon has worked with communities in all 50 states on a wide variety of land use and economic development activities.

Robin is the Executive Director for the Grand Junction Economic Partnership.  She spent eight years as an attack Army helicopter pilot, deploying twice to Iraq before moving with her husband and two children to Grand Junction in 2010. As the Development Director for the Avalon Cornerstone Project, Robin managed the $9M capital campaign for the historic theater renovation and expansion which celebrated its grand reopening in 2014. She revamped and upgraded Downtown Grand Junction's Special Events as a Director for the Business Improvement District. In October 2017, Robin launched Spoke + Blossom, a quarterly lifestyle magazine for western Colorado and was hired as the Executive Director of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership in December 2017 where she leads the economic development efforts for Mesa County. 

Chet is a renowned futurist and has identified seven things that challenge current thinking. He is the author of several books on personal and corporate change. He sees the current changes happening as “special invitations for us to move from spectator to transformed humans.” He shared his perspective at the United Nations in 2015 helping leaders rethink how things work. He is a resource to the National Conference of State Legislators, helping lawmakers understand the importance of visionary thinking. He is the producer of a television series called Change! The Subject, a program dedicated to helping the general public understand what they can do to thrive and succeed in a time of change. 

Richard is Associate Dean for Business & Government Relations, Senior Economist and Faculty Director of the Business Research Division and at the University of Colorado Boulder. He develops an annual consensus forecast of the Colorado economy and performs various economic impact assessments of the Colorado economy. He produces the quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index for Colorado. He participates annually in the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank Regional Economic Roundtable and is a contributor to the Western Blue Chip forecast newsletter and the National Association of Business Economists Economic Outlook and Policy Surveys.  He is widely recognized as Colorado’s top economist.

Bethany is the Owner of Outlaw Apiaries and Executive Director of Bee the Future. Outlaw Apiaries was founded in 2016 in Hayden, Colorado. Outlaw strives to deliver the purest, unadulterated honey to both families and businesses in Routt County. Each spring, Outlaw Apiaries places over 500 beehives along the Yampa River and on local farms and ranches to assist with crop pollination. Outlaw Apiaries is committed to the local community and provides annual funding to a variety of non-profit organizations. As a result of Bethany’s unwavering passion for altruism as well as protecting the honeybee population, Bee the Future was born in 2019. Bee the Future, a 501(c)(3), serves to empower Routt County youth by teaching the skills necessary to become beekeepers as well as educating youth about saving the honeybee population and protecting all pollinators. Bethany also works as a life coach and sport psychology consultant with snow sport athletes of all levels and possesses a doctorate in sport psychology from the University of the Rockies.

Nick Haggard is the Director of Direct and Programmatic Sales at Alpine Media Technology (AMT). AMT provides businesses custom content for mobile apps and digital signage to improve customer communication.  Real time and relevant information improve the guest experience, and Alpine Media's platform serves multiple industries (resorts, theme parks, senior care facilities, HOAs, and schools). While on the board of the National Sports Center for the Disabled, NSCD, Nick Haggard met the cofounders of AMT and saw revenue growth in enabling relevant businesses the ability to message the audience viewing AMT's content.  Nick previously worked with iHeartMedia creating marketing campaigns across their 850+ radio stations and has an MBA from Denver University's Daniels College of Business.