Sandy A. Lane brings a diverse background from CPA to entrepreneur, having spent two decades as the first female consulting partner at a prominent Midwest accounting firm where her strategic guidance elevated clients to financial success. As co-founder and CFO of a major healthcare startup, she led a significant capital raise and established market leadership. Now a speaker, strategist, and Gallup Strengths Coach, Sandy focuses on accelerating value in businesses, teams, and individuals while serving her Colorado community as a SCAPE mentor, former Durango Chamber of Commerce board member, and current member of both the Good Business Colorado board and FLC Athletics Advisory Council.
Sandy A. Lane - People First. Profits Follow.
Dr. Guardiola is currently a Department Chair and Katz Endowed Professor of Management at the Katz School of Business at Fort Lewis College. He joined FLC in 2018. Prior he was an Associate Professor of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management at the Missouri University of Science and Technology from 2008-2018. Previous work includes being an associte researcher at the Center for Embedded Networked Sensors at UCLA, has taught at NMSU and Texas Tech University. His primary research areas are pattern recognition, time series models, applied predictive analytics and mathematical optimization.
Ivan Guardiola - AI Is Hungry: Is Your Data Ready to Feed It?
Robin Duffy-Wirth - Leading from the Heart: The Power of Professional Kindness
aka How Not to Be An Ass
My professional experience is broad, from Professional High Diving, teaching Kindergarten at an International School, owning 3 businesses (one in Switzerland and 2 in Durango), driving a school bus, Director of the Bayfield Family Center to 22 years at The SunUte Community Center with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe; 8 of those years as Director of the facility. The main focus has always been the people I work with and the people I serve. There is no doubt in my mind that any success I had was due to this focus. I also served on the Bayfield School Board for 10 years (receiving Colorado School Board of the Year Award) and am currently serving on the Community Foundation Board. I retired from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and now offer workshops, coaching for the professional and public speaking to anyone that will listen. On a personal note, I have raised 3 children that have not yet finished teaching me and have been married to the funniest person I know for 40 years. I hope to have the honor of meeting you at this conference.
With over two decades of a wide variety of consulting and professional experience, Michael successfully combines big picture thinking with detailed process and financial analysis. Covering the spectrum from training to turn arounds, he draws from his extensive business experience to provide creative, customer-oriented solutions coupled with long-term results. As a profit improvement specialist, Michael provides a proven methodology to improve his clients’ bottom line, cash flow, and stakeholder’s quality of life.
As a lover of business and a serial entrepreneuer, Michael started his first business when he was 12 years old and sold the business six years later to go to college. In college, he studied business, finishing with a Marketing degree from the University of Denver. After a stint with an oil company as a marketing consultant, he left to start another business before going to graduate school earning a Masters of International Management also from the University of Denver. Fast forward to today, Michael co-owns with his wife an integrative functional medicine medical practice in Littleton.
His industry experience includes: healthcare, automotive, powersports, oil and gas, construction, manufacturing (industrial, high tech, consumer), food and beverage, agriculture, publishing, government, financial services, conferencing, and recreation.
Embracing the Colorado life style, Michael enjoys weekly mountain top experiences while skiing and dirt biking throughout the year.
Michael Heisser - How to Build a Sellable Business
Elise Mariner - How to Build a Sellable Business
Elise Mariner is a Business Broker/Intermediary with Transworld Business Advisors. She is based out of Pagosa Springs and serves small business owners across Southern Colorado to meet their unique goals when selling their businesses. Elise joined Transworld Business Advisors after a 20-year career in healthcare that spanned manufacturing, consulting, and technology businesses. Most recently before joining Transworld, Elise held multiple leadership positions at a fast-growing healthcare services business and built many departments ‘from scratch’ while the organization grew from $100k to 9 figures in revenue. Transworld Business Advisors of Colorado is the leading business and commercial real estate brokerage in Colorado. Over the past 10 years, our team has completed $550 million+ in transactions, worked with 2,500+ business owners, provided guidance to over 15,000+ entrepreneurs about buying and selling businesses, and been involved with 950+ deals, growing daily.