Show Notes

Debbie Brown

Debbie Brown is the president of the Colorado Business Roundtable (COBRT) and a host of its podcast, A Seat at the Table. The University of Denver joined COBRT  in 2024.

Table of Contents

In this episode:

• About the Colorado Business Roundtable
• Colorado Business Roundtable: Policy Priorities
• Podcast: A Seat at the Table, hosted by Debbie Brown

Related articles and information:

• Denver Gazette: Fellow Colorado residents cheer Trump’s pick of Chris Wright as next energy chief
• 9News: Business Brief: ‘View from the Top’ CEO roundtable
• Debbie Brown on X
• Debbie Brown on LinkedIn

Transcript

Lorne Fultonberg:
Today, on the Voices of Experience podcast:

Debbie Brown:
Our mantra has always been, when we agree on an issue, we agree wholeheartedly. When we disagree, it’s always respectfully.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Building relationships strong enough to survive the heat of politics. And why Debbie Brown says she is optimistic about a new administration.

Debbie Brown:
We’re going to find a way to make sure our input is heard, our voice is heard.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Brown is the president of the Colorado Business Roundtable, a diverse coalition of businesses, executives,  government, academics and community organizations. The University of Denver just joined. Together, they meet with politicians from the Colorado state Capitol to the White House, making recommendations on policies that will help businesses thrive. And they host events that bring people together to talk about the most important issues facing companies today.

On this episode, Debbie names some of those issues and explains how she navigates politically charged conversations and shares the things the most successful business executives have in common.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Debbie, thanks for joining us today.

Debbie Brown:
And thanks for having me over.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Let’s start with the Colorado Business Roundtable’s mission, which talks about unapologetically amplifying the voice of business. What does unapologetic mean and why is that so important to include in the mission?

Debbie Brown:
That’s a great start to the question. We really frame it also as business is a force for good. Business isn’t perfect, that’s why we need some level of regulatory framework, whether you’re thinking about the state or the federal level. But that the heart of it, business is a force for good. And so we are unapologetic about that mission and having that point of view as a starting place.

And when we meet with, whether it’s a member of Congress or the governor or different rule makers, it’s nice to have that point of view as our starting place that business is a force for good.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Yeah, the Roundtable does work locally, regionally, nationally. I’m wondering how supporting the local economy differs from the work that you do on a broader scale.

Debbie Brown:
Yeah, it’s a good question. It’s all very intertwined. We meet with members of Congress regularly and also with the governor and his team on issues that are important to Colorado’s economic impact. And so state level, sometimes it’s around regulatory framework.

But then that other level of federal is an interesting intertwining. So we might meet with a member of Congress on issues that are going on with the presidential administration or with Congress, but it all kind of intertwines. A business sees it as a help or a hindrance either way, whether it’s a state or federal issue that they have to tackle.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Do you approach the conversations with these people differently depending on which level they’re operating at?

Debbie Brown:
To some degree, just because the tangle of challenge is sometimes different. You think about right now with the change in administration at the federal level, we had several new members of Congress just elected here in Colorado. So to some degree we’re starting from scratch with some of those relationships. Making sure that we’re part of the mix as they’re thinking about, especially these new members of Congress, as they’re thinking about their agenda and how it might affect business. We want to be trusted advisors, trusted partners to them, and making sure that if they have ideas for how it might impact Colorado business or Colorado employers, they reach out to us first.

So there’s complexity with both levels, but I think right now the complexity at the federal level is what’s changing and moving really quickly.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Do the results of an election affect your priorities or the way you go about doing your thing?

Debbie Brown:
I would say yes and no. Just this past year, we had several meetings with the Biden White House, for example, that were very productive. They were very interested in hearing what were the challenges for the business sector west of the Mississippi. Sometimes people in D.C. don’t get out of D.C.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Right.

Debbie Brown:
So it’s important for us to make sure we give feedback on what’s happening west of the Mississippi in terms of business climate. We’ll work to have good relationships as well with the Trump administration. So we’re bipartisan, business is not a Democrat issue or a Republican issue, and we’ll work to have those relationships as well with the new administration.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Yeah. People say all the time that this is the most divided time that we’ve ever had politically in our country. With how entrenched some people can be and the variety of people that you have to work across the spectrum. How do you build relationships with them, especially knowing that at some point the Roundtable might take a position that is contrary to some of the people that you’re working with?

Debbie Brown:
Our mantra has always been, when we agree on an issue, we agree wholeheartedly. When we disagree, it’s always respectfully. And so we’ve been able to build a reputation as a trusted convener on issues, it doesn’t mean we’re always going to agree. But it’s been a really productive and collaborative space that I think we’re proud of our reputation in that space.

Lorne Fultonberg
Your website talks a little bit about immigration being a top issue for businesses here in Colorado, but the national conversation missing a little bit of what’s going on on the ground in Colorado. First of all, why is this such an important topic for businesses here in Colorado? And then secondly, how do you get the national folks to get a picture of what’s going on here?

Debbie Brown:
It’s an interesting issue in that it’s a federal issue that has to be solved federally, but yet the effects are felt locally. I think we’ve seen that here in Denver, especially with the changes in asylum law, through the Biden administration. I think there’s a real opportunity for business to have a seat at that table in terms of modernizing immigration. And that’s where we’ve tried to lean in the last handful of years.

And I think there’s a really good opportunity, perhaps even looking forward to the new Trump administration, to think about how do we bring employers to the table on modernization? You think about the quota system, if you’re in agriculture, if we’re thinking about agriculture, the quota system is antiquated. It’s decades old, bringing in high skilled labor, perhaps in fields like biopharmaceutical or tech. There’s just not a mechanism for bringing in the labor that we need as a country to be strategic.

Lorne Fultonberg:
What are some of the other most important issues for the Roundtable in 2025?

Debbie Brown:
Here in Colorado there’s some regulatory issues that have been brought to light, and we can put this maybe on the site too, some recent data that shows that Colorado really has fallen in rankings in terms of its business friendliness. And a lot of that has to do with the regulatory environment.

So thinking about how we can be productive and pointing out regulations that really are a roadblock to success. Not saying that we don’t need regulations, but how do we make sure they’re streamlined so businesses can also succeed? On the workforce side, this has been an area that’s a real passion of mine in terms of making sure pathways are created so that learners can become earners in a fashion that’s as streamlined as possible. And so cutting some of that red tape, we were involved in stackable credential work.

We’ve been involved in some other areas around apprenticeship, trying to expand apprenticeship opportunities beyond the construction industry, but into professional pathways. And so anything around that co-creation of talent and making sure that the employer community is leaning in so that co-creation is really valuable for learners is important to us.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Sure. Daniels is a new member of the Colorado Business Roundtable, and we’re really happy to be there. What’s the benefit of having an educational institution on the Roundtable, and how does that work compared to how it would work for another business?

Debbie Brown:
Yeah, I appreciate that. I think we’re the only roundtable in the country that actually adds employers from academia into our mix, and we’re really, really proud of that. We call it the ABCG, academia, business, community and government, and I think it’s part of our secret sauce of being good collaborators. we’re really, really excited to have DU’s voice as part of our voice, because that exchange of thought leadership will make us a better partner to DU and to all of our partners because it just brings a level of expertise that we don’t currently have. So we’re excited to work with DU to make sure our voice is really collaborative going forward.

Lorne Fultonberg:
I want to know a little bit more about your leadership style and what’s helped get you to where you are now. I saw that the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce recognized you as one of the top 25 most powerful women in Colorado. What does that title mean to you, and what has it taken you to achieve that distinction?

Debbie Brown:
it was a really great distinction. I think it’s probably because of the work I’ve done, bringing people together with diverse viewpoints, finding commonality, working on sometimes tough political issues as a community and then moving them forward.

So some of that time was during my consulting years, probably particularly in the oil and gas industry. And again, a tough issue, but bringing people together and moving forward in a positive way.

Lorne Fultonberg:
I know that one of your roles with the Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development was to talk to people about safe fracking, which seems like something that’s easier said than done for a variety of reasons, political opinions, and also understanding of technical knowledge. What do you need to do to connect with people who might have preconceptions or might not have the background and the depth to understand that?

Debbie Brown:
Yeah, absolutely. And it was probably broader than just fracking, although that was one piece of it. But the production of our natural resources, I would say. And most people today don’t necessarily know… They don’t think about, “Where does my meat come from? Where does my electricity come from? How can I be driving this vehicle?” And so it was interesting during that time working with particularly, I would say sort of grass tops leaders on making sure that we had information available to them.

One of the cool things I got to do is actually take people out on sites where there was actual fracking going on, or where there was actual drilling going on and trying to provide good information. That was really part of it.

Lorne Fultonberg:
You seem to interact with a lot of people of this pedigree, people who are C-suite and dynamic people. Are there any common traits you’ve noticed that the most successful people tend to share at that level?

Debbie Brown:
I actually pinch myself sometimes because I actually really do enjoy my job, and I get to work with about a 40 person board of directors, about 80 companies that are all these bigger employers. And the commonality, honestly, and this helps me also really dive into that concept of business as a force for good. I see these business leaders who have great responsibility, but they care very deeply about the people they serve, not only customers or other stakeholders with their employees, and they really lose sleep over it. This deep caring, I think, for people is something I always witness.

And I also would say their ability to build trust and relationships has been something that I’ve always found just really fascinating. It’s something that I try to also put into my leadership style. But when you build those relationships long-term, it’s easier to make your next deal or to invest in a state, bring people in, and I think people want to follow them.

Lorne Fultonberg:
This feels like a simple question, but building relationships is a skill. How do you do it?

Debbie Brown:
I think in some degree, it’s a little bit of a lost art because of the derailing of the personal relationship that happened with COVID.

But I think about it as thinking about building relationships isn’t transactional, it is relational. So this mindset, especially again, west of the Mississippi, Western values, people here want to build long-term relationships with each other based on trust, based on could be fun, it could be based on adventure, could be based on what you’re doing in business. But building those relationships long-term doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an ask, doesn’t mean that there’s something in it for each person in a selfish way. But that long-term relationship building, I think is what’s key to the business sector too here in Colorado.

Lorne Fultonberg:
When it comes to the advocacy that you do in your role, how can that be translated to someone who’s listening, who isn’t in a politics or a lobbying space, maybe in terms of advocating for themselves in the office or advocating for the mission of whatever company they’re working for?

Debbie Brown:
I think about people who say, “I’m not in sales. I’m not in a sales role.” Or, “I don’t have to network. I don’t need to know people till I need a new job.” The ability to learn how to advocate for yourself, advocate for a cause, it could be advocating for a nonprofit you care about. I think these are skills that everyone should embrace because public policy issues always trickle down, they affect individuals at the end of the day. It’s not just a business issue, it’s an individual issue. So that ability to advocate I think is incredibly important.

The truth is, when I go talk to, again, maybe say a policymaker at whatever level about a particular issue, they see me representing an organization, which I think has some merit to it. But when I bring an individual in who’s maybe an entrepreneur or an employee or somebody who has that impact, personally, it’s very, very powerful. So I encourage people to really embrace that piece of what skill set they want to develop and know that”If you don’t have a seat at the table, you could be for dinner.” So knowing that you’ve got to have some sense of advocacy for yourself.

Lorne Fultonberg:
What other skills have you felt that you’ve needed to develop to get into the position that you are today?

Debbie Brown:
I would say one of the skills, if I think back that’s really served me well is saying yes to new opportunities without always knowing how I’m going to do it. There could be fear, there could be courage involved, but that ability to say yes and be open to change and some disruption, I think has served me really well.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Talk a little bit more about the disruption piece of things, especially in a time disruptions everywhere, our dean, Naomi Boyd talks about that in terms of technology, notably. How do you navigate that, and how do you navigate new disruptions that are different from the old disruptions?

Debbie Brown:
For me personally, I’ve probably reinvented myself to some degree every seven years because I enjoy that. I don’t think I would’ve… I was not meant to be working for one corporation for 35 years and then retiring. So I feel like that entrepreneurial spirit, even within an organization for me, has been something I’ve decided was important to me.

So what new skills do I need to learn along the way? I’m trying to learn, of course, how to incorporate AI into my practice daily. Now I’ve got some team members who might have to coach me now and then. But knowing that if I’m not staying on top of that for me personally and what I want to do next, it’s shame on me. This theory of lifelong learning, it’s not a one and done. I’ve got to continue to build new relationships, build new skills, even as I’m more on the tail end of my career than on the beginning, still have to be relevant.

The same is true for our organization. If we sit still and we’re not competitive in terms of how we want to create impact, then that’s a problem. So when I bring in new partners, I tell them straight out, “I’m competitive. Let’s assume we’re going to have coffee a year from now, what would’ve happened that made you super glad that you joined Colorado Business Roundtable?” I don’t want you just passive about it. I want to make sure that you felt like this was one of the best investments you made. So they hear the competitiveness in my voice, and it trickles down to my team that we constantly want to be improving, providing incredibly high value.

So like I said, this year we added on White House meetings. That was high value. We meet sometimes with ambassadors, it’s high value. We talk about trade globally. We might have an international delegation, it’s high value. So what do we need to do that’s high value and impact? And to me, that’s also, I think whether it’s an organization or a personal trait, I think that’s been really good and honestly, more fun. Nobody wants to be bored in life. And so to challenge myself, to challenge the team, to challenge the organization has been a lot of fun.

Lorne Fultonberg:
This is kind of a silly question because I know that you’ve been meeting with some big names and going overseas and talking with diplomats and politicians plenty, but do you ever get nervous going into meetings with the Biden administration or a diplomat?

Debbie Brown:

Yeah, 100%. 100%. I heard somebody say once, it’s not courage unless you’re actually a little afraid. And so knowing that it takes courage to do those things for pretty much everybody But I push through that and try to make it work.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Is it as simple as pushing through it?

Debbie Brown:
Preparation takes away a lot of the worries, making sure you’re on time, making sure you’ve thought through the follow-up. There’s nothing that can help you if you aren’t prepared. So I think that’s a lot of it.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Yeah. How do you feel like you’ve grown as a leader over the course of your career?

Debbie Brown:
I would say I’ve become more vulnerable the last couple years. I think there’s a power in that to even think through how I can improve, knowing that I haven’t got it all figured out. I think there’s a vulnerability in that that actually creates more power, so to speak, and more ability to get to know others at a deeper level.

Lorne Fultonberg:
The last question, Debbie, that we ask all of our guests is our big, broad catch all question, and that’s, as a voice of experience, what’s something else that we haven’t talked about that you’d like to share with our listeners?

Debbie Brown:
Well, especially thinking about if you have students that are listening, I feel like one of my biggest experience levels has been to dream big and then figure out how to make it happen. And to some degree, looking back at when I was starting out, I was also a business major back in the day, went to school in Arizona. But I don’t know that I would’ve dreamed about some of the things I get to do now, and some of the travels I’ve been able to take and some of the things I have yet to do that I’m still dreaming about.

And so not feeling constricted to somebody else’s playbook has been really important. So I try to think about that for myself, but also for others as well.

Lorne Fultonberg:
We’ve been talking to Debbie Brown, president of the Colorado Business Roundtable. Debbie, thanks so much for sharing that with us.

Debbie Brown:
Thank you for having me over.

Lorne Fultonberg:
Debbie answered our questions today, but she’s also pretty good on the other side of the microphone. Check out her podcast, “A Seat at the Table” on your favorite podcast platform. We’ve linked it in our show notes, daniels.du.edu/voe-podcast. The Colorado Business Roundtable is also an encyclopedia of resources on the state’s most important economic issues. We posted those too.

The VOE Podcast is an extension of Voices of Experience, the signature speaker series at the Daniels College of Business. Sophia Holt and Kenzie Claflin are our sound engineers. Joshua Muetzel wrote our theme. I’m Lorne Fultonberg. We’ll see you next time.