Nolbert D. Chavez works at both the campus and system level at the University of Colorado. He is Chief of External Initiatives for CU Denver. He works directly for Chancellor Dorothy Horrell, former president of the Community College system. He also serves on the Chancellors Cabinet. In addition, Nolbert is Associate Vice President for Community Engagement for the University of Colorado system, in the President’s office.

Prior to working for the university, Mr. Chavez was a partner in Capitol Success Group, a public affairs and lobbying firm based in Denver, Colorado. Nolbert served a variety of non-profit, corporate, governmental, quasi-governmental and higher education clients including Adams State University and Metro State University.

Mr. Chavez was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1994 and served eight years representing HD5 (Denver). He served on almost every committee in the House. His last bill in office, signed by Governor Bill Owens, was arguably the most significant structural higher education bill in the last 20 years. The bill eliminated the State College system and gave each of the colleges their independence.

Nolbert has served on numerous Boards of Directors. In 2013, Mr. Chavez was appointed by Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar to serve on the American Latino Heritage Fund of the National Parks Foundation. Mr. Chavez was appointed by Governor Ritter and reappointed by Governor Hickenlooper and Senate President Cadman to the Colorado Boxing Commission, where he serves as Vice Chairman. Mr. Chavez was reappointed this year by Mayor Michael Hancock, to serve on the Judicial Discipline Commission. In addition, he serves on the board of the Latin American Education Foundation, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Denver and the Colorado Children’s Campaign.

Mr. Chavez earned a Bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing. In 2016, Nolbert graduated with a Master’s degree in political science with an emphasis in policy and politics from CU Denver. Currently, Nolbert is enrolled in a Doctoral program in CU Denver’s School of Education. In 2004, Nolbert completed executive education at the Harvard Business School on Corporate Governance.

Nolbert Chavez is married to former Denver City Councilwoman Judy H. Montero. Nolbert ran the Marine Corp Marathon in 2005 and the Denver Marathon in 2007. His passion includes restoring a 1977 FLH shovelhead Harley Davidson motorcycle that has been in his wife’s family for 35 years.

Eric Drummond is an entrepreneur, business development ecosystem builder, and a former partner at one of the globe’s most prestigious law firms, now with 46 offices in 21 countries. Drummond has more than 25 years of business, corporate, and complex administrative law, with a focus in emerging technology, alternative energy issues, telecommunications, climate, and capital formation.

Drummond has represented the U.S. Department of Energy in the nation’s $32.4 billion Section 1705 Loan Guarantee Program and was appointed to Colorado’s Renewable Energy Development Team by the Governor in 2011. In 2012, he was asked to assist in creating the Energy Fellows Institute, where he founded the Clean Energy Generation program and ultimately served as Co-Managing Director. An advocate for Colorado’s innovation and business community, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Colorado Venture Capital Authority by the President of the Senate in 2013 and currently serves as Chair. In 2014, Drummond was appointed to the 5-member Foundation Board of Directors for the University Corporation for Atmosphere Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. UCAR manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the nation’s premiere federally funded research lab in weather forecasting, climate, and the earth sciences, on behalf of the National Science Foundation.

Drummond is the former Vice Chairman of the Innosphere technology incubator, headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, and currently the President of Global Strategy for FORMATIV, and the CEO & Founder of the Innovation Corridor. Drummond received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (Symbolic Logic) from the University of Texas at Austin and his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Texas School of Law.

Zack Huhn is the Founder of Venture Smarter, a technology and strategy company dedicated to streamlining the development of smart cities and regions. He is on the board of Regional Smart Cities Initiatives, an advisor to the United States House of Representatives Smart Cities Caucus, on the leadership team for the National Institute of Standards and Technology Wireless Supercluster for Global City Teams Challenge, and is the Chairman of IEEE’s Smart Cities Standards Committee (P2784.) He is also an active leader in IEEE’s Advancing Internet Inclusion Initiative and serves on the IEEE Standards Association Communications Society Standards Development Board. All of this is to say that he is committed to democratizing smart governance – driven by standards and collaboration, that puts people first.

Mr. Jules currently serves as Vice President of Public Safety and Smart City Solutions for Hitachi Data Systems. The Public Safety and Smart City Group is focused on creating safer, smarter, more efficient communities through connected intelligence.

Mr. Jules served as CEO for AvrioRMS Group, a provider of wide-area networks and software interoperability and integration platforms. He lead the effort to sell the company to Hitachi Data Systems in 2014. During his tenor AvrioRMS deployed solutions to support Federal, State and Local Agencies for day-to-day public safety as well as to secure special events including the 2008 Republican Convention, 2008 and 2012 Democratic National Conventions, the 2009 G20, the 2008 and 2012 Presidential Inaugurations

Prior to joining AvrioRMS Group Mr. Jules served as Founder and President of Protean Solutions, a provider of mobile platforms for battlefield communications, interoperability and emergency operations. Protean Solutions created strategic partnerships with some of the world’s largest defense companies to secure and deliver on Federal Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contracts.

Before founding Protean Mr. Jules severed as Director of Business Development for Worldwide Information Network Systems, a minority owned enterprise IT company. Mr. Jules and his team grew the company from four to over 300 employees.

Mr. Jules is currently active in various public safety and smart city organizations where he serves as a featured lecturer on the topic of Smart Cities, Interoperability and Private Public Partnerships.

Mr. Jules graduated from Bucknell University as a member of the Phi Sigma Phi Honor Fraternity.

David McCurdy is an accomplished professional and thought leader who has been sought after to speak both nationally and abroad. Before joining the public sector in September 2014, he acquired more than 17 years’ experience working in IT as a programmer, system engineer, architect, and executive across the telecommunications, finance, healthcare fields.

David spent ten years at Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) during which time CHI grew from a holding company to one of the largest healthcare systems in the country and provided more than $715 million in charity care in the year 2013 alone. In his roles as CHI’s Associate Vice President and Chief Enterprise Architect, David led a 1,000-person IT organization that serviced hospitals and clinics across the country and was responsible for setting standards and strategic direction of IT. His key accomplishments include the build out of three primary data centers, centralization and reorganization of IT, the build out of new ERP and business management systems, and the implementation of the Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Prior to Catholic Health Initiatives, David served as Manager of Special Projects for AT&T Broadband, now Comcast, where he was responsible for leading programs that built cable and telephony billing systems. He was also part of the core team that built the financial, human resources, and business management systems.

David’s interest in technology began in high school when he was selected to work on the Cray Supercomputers at Los Alamos National Labs. This early success drove him into his career as a technology professional. Today, David holds multiple certifications and memberships from leading organizations, such as the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Citrix, CompTIA, Microsoft, Cerner, and Gartner. David spent much of his childhood as a military dependent before establishing roots in Colorado.

A family man, David, his wife, Jennifer, and two sons have called Colorado home for the last 18 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else. After serving patients and hospitals around the country, he now enjoys serving the state and people of Colorado. “My passion is knowing how our work with technology makes a positive difference in the world every day.”

Dr. Raitano is a third generation native Coloradoan, born in Pueblo and raised in Denver. She attended Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska and completed her undergraduate work at the University of Colorado, Boulder, earning a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Psychology. She was awarded a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado in 1981. Dr. Raitano then completed an internship in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Dr. Raitano managed and owned a small animal clinic in Dillon, Colorado for eight years.

She was twice elected Mayor of Dillon, Colorado and served on numerous boards and commissions, including Colorado Municipal League Region 12 (president), Colorado Association of Ski Towns (vice-president), the Summit Leadership Forum (vice-president & founding member), and the Colorado River Headwater Forum (vice-chair & founding member). Former Governor Romer appointed her to two terms on the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission where she served as vice-chairman during her last term.

Dr. Raitano served as the first Executive Director of the Colorado Rural Development Council from July, 1993 until January, 2003. She chaired the Colorado Rural Technology Project (CRTP) for Colorado’s Advanced Technology Institute for three years. Former Governor Romer appointed her to serve as the representative for rural consumers on the state’s Working Group on Telecommunications Deregulation and has served in an advisory capacity to the Public Utilities Commission for their telecommunications grants project. In 1997, Dr. Raitano was awarded Vice-President Al Gore’s Hammer Award for Re-Inventing Government for her work with the Colorado Ecosystem Partnership

Beginning in 1997, Dr. Raitano served two terms on the 10th District Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank. In 1998 Dr. Raitano was appointed Senior Fellow at the Center for the New West. CSU Cooperative Extension presented Dr. Raitano their “Friend of Extension” award in 1998. From 1999 through 2003, she served on the Executive Committee of the Economic Developer’s Council of Colorado. She also served a term on the Board of the Education Foundation of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry from 1996 until 2000. She served on the Steering Committee for the Western Rural Development Center for six years beginning in 1999. In 2001, she was asked to serve on the charter board for the Community Development Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. She served 12 years on the Rural Community Assistance Corporation Board of Directors. Dr. Raitano also serves as Chair Emeritus for the Board of Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology now known as Manufacturer’s Edge.

Dr. Raitano chaired the RuralTeleCon 2000 national conference in Aspen and delivered an International Keynote on her work to stimulate deployment of advanced IT infrastructure to rural Colorado communities in Nova Scotia, Canada. In May, 2001, Dr. Raitano was a guest of the Australian Government where she presented the International Keynote address and a seminar at the Queensland University of Technology on the role of IT infrastructure in rural economic and community development. Dr. Raitano served on the Summit Medical Center Community Advisory Board since 1995 and was elected as the first Chair of its Board of Directors. She served on the St. Anthony’s Hospital Board of Directors in 2006 and 2007. She was named Executive Director of the I-70 Coalition in 2006 and has served on CDOT’s SB-1 Transit Task Force. At the request of CDOT Region 1, she served on the Context Sensitive Solutions project leadership team and selection panel. Former Governor Ritter appointed her to the Technical Advisory Committee for the Blue Ribbon Panel on Transportation Finance and Implementation in 2007. She was a member of the I-70 AGS Feasibility Study Project Leadership Team and the Interconnectivity Study for CDOT.

Dr. Raitano has been CEO of RD Specialists, LLC since March 2003 and has worked on contract assignments ranging from rural economic development projects in NE Colorado to rural community broadband projects for the State of Arizona, to tribal comprehensive community planning in Southern California. She completed work on several HUD Sustainable Communities projects (New River Valley Region in Virginia; St Charles Parish Louisiana). In 2013 she worked with the North Fork Valley in Delta County to attain Creative District status. Dr. Raitano has been at the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) since August 2013 in multiple capacities and is currently serving as the Director of Partnership Development and Innovation.