John Hickenlooper

John Hickenlooper is serving his second term as Governor of the State of Colorado. The centrally located state is a global hub of innovation, talent and business, recognized by Forbes as having the best metropolitan area in the country for economic development. Governor Hickenlooper is a lifetime entrepreneur who ran as a "dark horse" to become Mayor of Denver in 2003. He led the campaign to pass FasTracks, the largest regional transportation initiative in US history. Within eight years, he streamlined the total workforce by 7%, the first such reduction in Denver's history. In 2005, TIME Magazine named him as one of the five top big-city mayors in America. Governor Hickenlooper's goal is to create the most pro-business state government, with the highest environmental and ethical standards. His administration has already examined more than 16,000 rules and regulations, and either eliminated or streamlined more than half of them. They have created the Colorado Innovation Network (COIN) and provided Advanced Manufacturing Grants to accelerate start-ups and early stage technology businesses. They are building an integrated workforce training system, in conjunction with the Markle Foundation and LinkedIn, that will create a single, seamless continuum for education and workforce preparation, from childhood to old age. Governor Hickenlooper applied his passion to create good government on a national level as well. His 2015 “Chair’s Initiative” at the National Governors Association, focusing on hiring, appropriate creation and implementation of regulations, and continuous improvement, was a bipartisan success. He is one of the first geologists to become a governor in US history, and the first brewer since Sam Adams in 1792.