South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce

	John Brackney, President Following a time-honored family tradition, John was born. This event took place in what is now Centennial Colorado, and he grew up a block from where he currently resides and attended Littleton high school. John continued on to the University of Northern Colorado, where he earned a Bachelors' degree in political science. Not yet drained from years of academia he attended the University of Denver where he received a law degree. His formal education completed, he embarked on repaying student loans. John enlisted in the Colorado National Guard and later attended Officer Candidate School, attaining the rank of Captain. He served as the Company Commander of the 147th Combat Support Hospital. During his 12-year tenure he was privileged to twice receive the Meritorious Service medal. John was elected to his first term as Arapahoe County Commissioner in 1996, and was selected as Freshman Commissioner of Year by his colleagues across the state. Re-elected to a second term, he served as chairman of the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority, and as president of the Arapahoe County Water and Wastewater Authority. He was one of the founders of the City of Centennial, a city he is proud to call home. In his spare time he is a volunteer fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis society and serves on the Board for Littleton Public Schools Foundation. In his spare spare time he enjoys yard work (really?) and, in an attempt to keep his weight down, runs an occasional marathon. No information about John would be complete without mentioning the people most important in his life, his wife Meredith and daughters Taylor and Jordan. Meredith has provided him with endless support and years of friendship, and his girls keep him on his toes and constantly entertained.
	Bart Sayyah, Director of Economic Development Bart has lived in Colorado since 1977 and considers himself a "semi-native." He attended Colorado State University, graduating with a BA in Brilliance and a minor in Modesty in 1986 and an MA in Allure and Overall Charm with a Secondary Teaching Certificate in 1990. During his tenure at CSU, Bart nobly served as the President and Spiritual Light for the adoring members of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. He was also a member of the Order of Omega Greek Society, the Phi Sigma Iota Language Honorary Society, and was the Alpha and the Omega. After college, Bart touched the hearts and minds of coworkers in several jobs including a 1-year stint in Guadalajara, Mexico teaching English as a Foreign Language, Vanity as a Foreign Concept, and Jimmy Buffet for Beginners. In 1993, he landed at Charles Schwab & Company. Gracing the company with his presence for seven years, Bart worked in a variety of areas including Latin America Client Services, Trading & Risk Support, Training, Classic Management and the National Help & Advice Project Management Team. In 2000, Bart's endless talent was sought out by Instinet out of New York, for whom he ran the Call Center Operations in Denver until the company closed its doors in 2001. He then decided to donate his time to caring for his three children, Madison, Lucas, and Sydney, who have inherited his capacity for genius and his general good looks. In addition to his inspirational academic and professional legacy, Bart has left his indelible mark on the less privileged community through his extensive philanthropic work. He has worked alongside ordinary people for organizations such as International Friends, Companions for Youth, MDA, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Habitat for Humanity, Project Angel Heart, and Theater in the Park. Bart has captured the affection of citizens everywhere, including but not limited to the people of Burlington, CO. Bart was hired by the Chamber in May of 2004 and currently serves as the Director of the Economic Development Group. Words that describe him include Charming, Captivating, and Quasi-Omniscient. When time permits, Bart can be found fly-fishing. Autographs are now being sold on E-Bay.
	Cristin Tarr, Director, Events and Visitors Bureau At the 2005 leadership retreat - Cristin Tarr's theme song was "Just Want to Have Fun" by Sheryl Crow. This is indicative of her life as well. Cristin grew up in Michigan and then traveled and moved extensively after graduating from high school. She went to the Virgina Commonwealth University in Richmond and graduated with a BS in Marketing with an emphasis in International Business. She spent her junior year abroad, living in Lueven, Belgium for a year. While there, her interest in tourism was peaked. Cristin worked on Wall Street shortly after graduation and then quickly moved to uptown New York City where she worked for American Airlines in the East Coast executive offices. She held many jobs there including budgets, marketing analyst and international sales. Cristin and her husband, Jonathan, moved to Littleton in 1995. While home with their three sons, Andrew, Gavin and Ian, Cristin co-founded the Rocky Mountain Denver Chapter of Children's International Summer Villages (CISV), an independent organization promoting cross-cultural understanding. As with any small business, she held almost every job within the chapter, helping to grow the membership from three people to well into the hundreds. In February of 2005, Cristin joined the Chamber as the Events and Visitors Bureau Manager. She is passionate about the tourism industry and loves to brag about the South Metro area. In her free time, she enjoys running, reading and finding new places to explore with her family.
	Juli Frey, Executive Director of Corporate Relations Juli grew up in a small town in South Dakota. Called Vermillion, the town was named from the color of the eroding cliffs along the Missouri River she grew up with. Though a tiny farming community, Vermillion is also the home of the University of South Dakota. Juli is one of six children, in those days a small family compared with the average farm family. Life there was slow-paced but full, with many fun-filled days of water-skiing, snowmobiling, and ice-skating. Nights seemed to be very hot or very cold, yet the playing never ended until well after dark. Graduating from high school, she began studying for a business degree, but soon found herself bored and wanting more. She moved to Denver (the big city with big adventures) and graduated from CU with a degree in Architecture. Still not satisfied, she continued to study, this time in the field of meteorology. With most of her life spent in sales, Juli believes her love of people and the ability to listen are her defining qualities - qualities that make here great at what she does today. Juli and her husband have one son, Christopher, a name only mom can use. To everyone else he is known as Kit. If she is not working, Juli will likely be found on the top of a fourteener (51 down and only a few more to go), riding her bike (RAGBRAI ten times), or watching Kit play hockey. Juli believes in living life to the fullest, constantly enriching it with new people and new experiences.
	Marcia Pessemier, Director, Small Business Development Center Marcia got her introduction to the business world by spending 10 years in various sales and marketing positions with Hyatt Hotels, The Lee Apparel Company and Showtime Networks. A Cancer survivor herself, she held leadership positions supporting those on the cancer journey at The Cancer FitSpa and QuaLife Wellness Center. In 1989, she visited the Small Business Development Center at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS, and started her first business. She began with a marketing consulting firm with a business model of launching and growing companies … at the rate of 100 per year! She is a self-professed “business midwife” helping birth companies and guiding them through the subsequent growing pains. From this auspicious start, Pessemier has continued her entrepreneurial drive over the past 18 years. She has owned six companies as diverse as a marketing consulting firm, a murder mystery theatre company, a motivational speaking and training company and both in person and online coaching companies as well as working with other SBDCs along the way. Marcia Pessemier is thrilled to join the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce as the Director of the SBDC and to lend her entrepreneurial spirit and skills to the current and start up businesses in the South Denver Metro area. “Watching someone’s dream or passion come to fruition in the business world,” she states, “is one of my foremost experiences.” As Director of the SBDC, she hopes to impact the community by leading with the wonderful group of business consultants and trainers associated with the Denver Metro SBDC. She is the past founder and president of Limelight Presentations, a creative firm specializing in helping professionals in the limelight. Watch your TV closely, because when not directing the SBDC, Marcia also does TV commercials and local theatre as a professional actor. Marcia and her husband Bill are avid skiers and live in Centennial.
	Suzy Colgan, Marketing & Visibility Consultant Suzy was born in a small town on the edge of the Poconos in eastern Pennsylvania. There she learned the ways of the tom boy: catching frogs and salamanders, riding dirt bikes, fishing, and swimming in the creek. At the age of seven, she moved with her family to Salt Lake City. She enjoyed school and spent her summers back in Pennsylvania and up and down the east coast. During those summers, she took up flying small, single engine Cesna’s and flew solo in a glider at the age of 15. Instead of pursuing a sensible degree like business or medicine, She followed one of her lifes passions, Anthropology, at the University of Utah. She completed her degree in 4 years, including a summer field school for archaeology in southern Utah. After living in Texas for a stint, she came to Colorado. Suzy loves the outdoors, and when she isn’t working hard at the chamber, she spends time with her two dogs, Whiskey and El Heffe, camping, backpacking, and fly fishing.
	Brian Bartony , Marketing & Visibility Consultant Brian feels very fortunate to be a part of the South Metro Denver Chamber. Before joining the staff, Brian was a individual member and a proud volunteer of the Chamber Connection. Brian grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts. He attended The University of Maine, graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degre, with a concentration in Marketing. During Brian’s college career he was a very active member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, on which he served a variety of leadership positions. Brian was also very active in student government, serving as a student senator, the President of The College Republicans, and was the campaign chair for various student government campaigns. Upon graduating college, Brian made the long trek across America to call Colorado his home, where he has lived for more than 13 years. Brian is married to his wonderful wife Victoria and has a son named Stephen who is exploring his world with little sister Jessica. When Brian is not working with South Metro Denver Chamber’s members to be incredibly successful, he can be found in tailgating in Lot M during the Denver Bronco’s season, cooking gourmet food in the parking lot. During the summer, Brian can also be found in the streams of the Colorado Mountains, prospecting for gold.
	Mary Kay McCarty, Membership Representative Mary Kay has a long and storied history, with the Chamber that is. A member since 1988, she has seen three Chamber Presidents, two office relocations and one name change from Centennial to the South Metro Chamber of Commerce. After participating and volunteering for a while with the Chamber she was offered a position as a Membership Representative in 1992. Her response was "I'll give it six months since I have no sales training or experience" and the rest is history. She soon found that sales was definitely her niche. By 1996, Mary Kay was named one of the top three salespeople in the State of Colorado by Colorado Business Magazine. That same year the South Metro Chamber was named "Best Chamber" for the second year in a row, thus the reason our website name: www.bestchamber.com. Mary Kay, a.k.a. "Pit Bull" in her early days at the Chamber, loves sharing her sales stories. Her all time favorite is when she sold a membership to a door-to-door salesman that had stopped by her home to make a sale and walked away wondering "What's wrong with this picture?" Anyone that knows Mary Kay is aware of how important her family is to her. Married 45 years, she and her husband Larry are the proud parents of five children (all grown, married and living in the metro area) and very proud grandparents of ten grandchildren. Growing up in Kansas, her family moved to Houston where she attended high school and college, majoring in Elementary Education at the University of St. Thomas. After getting married and moving to CA, she taught 5th grade in San Diego before coming to CO in 1969. Mary Kay retired from the Chamber for a while in order to pursue her passion for traveling (she is still always packed and ready to go at a moment's notice) and her other hobbies as a pianist, seamstress and artist. She was coaxed out of retirement in 2000 to work part-time at the Chamber and still continues to enjoy her involvement with this very dynamic organization.
	Kevin Wong, Marketing & Visibility Consultant As a native of Taipei, Taiwan, Kevin has taken residence in Colorado since the age of 4. His education history consists of being an alumnus of Littleton H.S. and The University of Northern Colorado. During Kevin’s tenure at Littleton H.S. he majored in art and became a marketing major when arriving at UNC. Other than the (SMDCC) South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, Kevin has been associated with the (AKL) Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity, (AMA) American Marketing Association, and the (FMA) Financial Managerial Association. Kevin’s professional background is in marketing and is experienced in management. As a son of former restaurant owners, his business philosophy is based around relationship building, hard work, and integrity. Kevin’s professional goals are to provide value to those around him and become an asset to those who associate with him. As Kevin looks to the future, he expects to continue his personal and professional endeavors within Colorado. He aspires to have a long career connecting businesses together while joining new organizations with acronyms.
	Mary Hutchison, Marketing & Visibility Consultant To this day, the small Missouri town of Cameron proudly proclaims itself the birthplace of Mary Hutchison. A strong sense of family and community gave her deep roots in this rural town. Uprooted, however, at the tender age of 14 with a move across the Mississippi to Illinois, she developed the fine art of adaptation. She could often be found on the Edwardsville High School field high-stepping with her trombone… sometimes even with the marching band. Fortunately, Mary handled change well, loved meeting new people and being in new situations as her senior year found her in Iowa City. Again she settled in, planting roots, attending the University of Iowa with a major in political science and becoming a Hawkeye fan for life. In 2003, Mary began to stretch her wings and found the burgeoning metropolis of Denver a suitable roosting place. Now a die-hard Rockies and Broncos fan, she has no plans to ever take flight again as the roots have again found home. Mary finished up her degree at the University of Phoenix in Lone Tree in criminal justice. A life of fighting crime and putting the bad guys behind bars just wasn’t exciting enough for this energetic gal, however, as she focused her efforts on the business world and became infamous in the arena of event planning and marketing. This enthusiast and fun-loving gal loves to cook thanks to her extremely talented mom who is the best personal chef in existence. Her host of friends enjoys the benefits of her celebrated culinary skills. She also loves traveling to visit her family in the Midwest and has a passion for wildlife and all animals as well as the outdoors. The beauty of Colorado is the perfect outlet and she takes advantage of traveling to the high country when ever she can. She can also be found still marching to the music in her head, no longer with a trombone in her hand, but a golf club at one of the area golf courses. ersonal and professional endeavors within Colorado.
	Valerie Fitch, Marketing & Visibility Consultant Born and raised in Texas, Valerie has had her share of both small towns and large metropolitan areas. She relocated most recently from Montana. In Montana, she attended the University of Montana-Helena College of Technology earning an Associates Degree in Business Management with an emphasis on marketing. With her degree in hand, Valerie began her illustrious career, standing out from the crowd in restaurant management and public relations. Self-motivated and always enthusiastic, when she decides to move forward on a project or goal, she has a stubbornness that rivals that of more than a few mules known throughout history. The joy of her life is her protégé, Brent, a fine young man of 7, going on 35. To call Valerie an extrovert is understating the obvious. Her outgoing, passionate, confident, caring and humorous style is both a curse and a blessing to those working around her as they feebly attempt to emulate her charisma. Her passion is dance and is quite the bell of the ball, whether it be Country-Western, Ballroom or Hip-Hop (you gotta see her krumping!). In her spare time you can find her on a dance floor, or attending the nearest Hot Rod Show as she has true appreciation for gearheads.
	Nancy Hall, Office Manager Nancy is a native of Texas, but after living in several states, she calls Colorado home because it is The Best place to be! She considers The South Metro Chamber the Best, too, because of the wonderful people who come through our doors and call us "their" Chamber. Nancy graduated from University of North Texas with a degree in education and English and attended graduate school at University of Oregon, Eugene. She taught school in Texas, Wyoming and in Japan for the U.S. Air Force Dependent Schools. Nancy has two great sons, Jeff and Rich. Jeff and wife, Amy, are the parents of Nancy's pride and joy, two granddaughters and a grandson, Riley, Sarah and Parkman. Before coming to the Chamber, Nancy spent many years with Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton, first as a volunteer, then as the Assistant Manager and later, Operations Manager for the 10 years previous to coming to the Chamber in March of 2004. Nancy loved working in downtown Littleton and enjoyed watching the area grow and develop as Historic Main Street became a vital mainstay of the Littleton Community. Nancy enjoyed her association with those fine people, serving many years on the board of the Historic Downtown Littleton Merchants. She also served as a member of the Candlelight Walk Committee, Western Welcome Week Committee and the Olympic Torch Committee. Nancy enjoys her involvement with her church, her college alum group, likes to travel, especially to visit her grandchildren in Florida, reading, attending fine arts activities and antiquing. Most of all, she likes to spend time with her many friends and with her family.
	Michelle Rodriquez, Executive Secretary Michelle was born in a small town of cows and corn. The last of three kids, she was raised with two older brothers which meant a childhood of torture. With regular bumps and bruises from her brothers, she held her own. She learned to appreciate the saying "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger." Growing up in the country she would regularly miss class after it rained, because that’s when you can go muddin! At a young age she fell in love with the arts and harvested that love in the darkroom on the stage. Playing characters as different as a drunken reviler to the former Miss Cuba. She finally decided to leave her tiny stinky town of Rosco’s and cows and corn and move to Denver to pursue her love of the arts. So she continued her education at the Colorado Art Institute majoring in art and photography. She enjoys abstract art, such as Abelardo Morell, Georgia O’ Keefe and Monet. She also has a fondness for silly people and dumb humor. She enjoys independent films and Will Ferrell flicks and would rather do nothing on a Sunday but watch movies.
	Caryn Sutherland, Receptionist Caryn was born in the shadow of Pike's Peak in 1971 and is proud of the fact that she has followed the beat of her own drummer throughout her life. Graduating from Port Townsend (Washington) High School, one of only 89 students, she received part of her unique view of life from the town's population of "mostly hippies and old people." Returning to Colorado, Caryn settled in Littleton and never fails to attend the latest in horror movies, loves horror/mystery books and never misses CSI, Law & Order, or Criminal Minds. But she also has a softer side: "I used to have the most adorable dog, but it was so adorable that my step-dad borrowed it and has yet to return it." When Caryn's mind isn't full of blood and guts or missing her beloved dog, she enjoys hanging out with friends and meeting new people. "I love working at the Chamber with the opportunity to get to know new people every day." Caryn lives with her son, Caleb, who is 16 and attending Littleton Public Schools.
	Korri Stainbrook, Major Events Coordinator Korri’s roots run deep as a 5th generation Colorado and 3rd generation resident of Littleton. A graduate of Littleton High School and Colorado State University, she stays active as the mother of two busy middle school boys. The bubbly blonde owned and operated a Large Child Care Facility for 10 years. She also worked for St. Andrew United Methodist Church as Assistant Director for their Early Childhood Education Program for 8 years as well as taught at Peabody Elementary. Her compassionate nature lends itself to being involved with community activities including: (deep breath taken here…) Town of Littleton Cares Meals on Wheels, Make A Wish Foundation of Colorado, Denver Health Medical Center Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Program, Littleton High School Alumni Assoc., Peabody Elementary PTO – Fundraising and Food Drive Chairperson, Kings Point Pool Board of Directors, and is now the PTO President at Newton Middle School. (…and we wonder why she is occasionally looks a little weary…) When she isn't planning a splashy bash for the Chamber or involved in making the lives of those around her better, she really does have a life... Well known for her entertaining, particularly her Martini Parties, she also enjoys baking and cooking (she does some mean chile rellenos and green chili), mystery novels and cross stitch.
	Terry McElhaney, Manager of Communications Born and bred in Littleton, Terry has a real passion for his hometown. Graduating from Littleton High School in 1970, he had already completed 6 of the 27+ job descriptions he would eventually accumulate before arriving at the South Metro Chamber. After a stint in the Navy as a communications electrician on a minesweeper (“Yes… any ship can be a minesweeper – but usually only once.”), he followed his ambition of being a high school counselor to Adams State College. Somewhere along the line he discovered photography and from the little town of Alamosa, he went to the big city of Los Angeles. Graduating from the Art Center College of Design with a degree in photography, Terry returned to Colorado and began shooting everything from the brew to mountain panoramas to super models for Coors. He switched his focus to computer graphics in the early years when a single computer took up the whole room and watched as the computers shrunk while their capabilities grew. All this while, Terry maintained an entrepreneurial spirit by sprouting several home-based businesses and gaining a MS in Systems Management. In 1999, his sister convinced him to drop everything and become partners in the burgeoning coffee business. At one point operating four coffee bars throughout the south metro area, they have settled down and are now focusing their attention on Romancing the Bean. “Littleton’s Hometown Coffee Shop” is located at the downtown Littleton light rail stop inside the 132-year-old D&RG railroad station. Terry still spends a few hours a week making caramel mochas and true Italian machiatos. He also occassionally gets in a scuba trip to 'big water', but now his passion is getting the word out about the South Metro Chamber and it’s bevy of great member companies.