The 2018 class of Outstanding Women in Business marks Denver Business Journal’s 20th celebration of women making an impact in the professional community. With that in mind, we celebrate “20 Years of Firsts,” focusing on firsts of all kinds — from first-place finishes to first business incorporations to honorees who were the first in their family to earn a college degree — all in the spirit of honoring the pioneers and innovators who have graced these pages for 20 years.
In this section we profile the winners and finalists for 2017, and look back on our first issue, incorporating thoughts from some of our first winners on how far we’ve come — and how far we have to go when it comes to women in the workplace.
Keep reading for all of the winner and finalist profiles
The winners of each category joined DBJ photographer Kathleen Lavine for photo shoots. You can hear the winners in their own words in embedded sound within each feature linked below. Extended Q&As with the winners and finalists can be seen by clicking “Get Started” above, or clicking the tiles below the body of this story.
Small businesses are considered those with 20 or fewer employees; large companies are those with more than 20.
Nominations were taken online at the DBJ website.
Winners from previous years weren’t eligible to win again in the same category.
For the ATHENA Award, past winners in individual categories were eligible.
Nominees in each category were judged on innovation, entrepreneurship, professional accomplishments and community leadership from the information provided on the nomination form.
Twelve judges, all previous winners of various DBJ honors, dedicated an enormous amount of time to reviewing and scoring the 297 nominations.