Denver Sports & Entertainment

Brad Buchanan, CEO of the National Western Center Authority, is a dynamic leader in the Rocky Mountain region, with roots in entrepreneurship, city planning, design, development, agriculture and community building. Appointed in 2018, he is responsible for implementing the vision of the National Western Center. When complete, the 250-acre campus in north Denver will be a year-round, global destination for culture, entertainment, education and agribusiness innovation. After earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental design from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Brad began his career as an architect in Denver, and started his own architecture firm in 1987. Over 25 years he expanded it to include design-build services and real estate development — focusing on mixed-use, urban infill projects, including some affordable housing developments. In 2011 he joined RNL Design (now Stantec) as principal. In 2014 during Denver’s historic post-recession building boom, Mayor Michael B. Hancock appointed Brad executive director of Denver Community Planning and Development. Under Brad’s leadership, city planners engaged more than 20,000 residents in drafting Denveright — an ambitious 20-year plan for land use, mobility, parks and recreation. Also during his tenure, Brad and his team streamlined and modernized city permitting — eliminating backlogs and improving the customer experience for projects of all sizes. Brad has been deeply involved in the community his entire career. As an architect he served as chair of the Denver Planning Board, the Landmark Preservation Commission and the Downtown Denver Partnership’s board. He participated in creating the original Blueprint Denver land use and transportation plan, as well as the city’s innovative, form-based zoning code. In 1999 he founded Freedom by Design, a community service program to provide pro bono design and construction services to the low-income disabled community; today there are 60 chapters nationwide. Brad has agricultural roots. He and his wife, Margaret, and their grown children Grace and Will own and operate Flying B Bar Ranch in Strasburg, Colorado where they raise Wagyu-Angus grass-fed cattle. Flying B Bar employs regenerative agriculture, a system of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds and enhances the ecosystem. Brad is a member of the board of directors of the American Grassfed Association.

The co-founder of Sage Hospitality, Walter Isenberg serves as the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Denver-based Sage Hospitality specializes in the operations, development and capital transactions of hospitality real estate. Sage Hospitality owns and operates hotels and restaurants in 26 states. Isenberg directs all company operations, including property management, real estate transactions and brand development. Isenberg co-founded Sage Hospitality in 1984 with partner Zachary Neumeyer. The company’s history in hospitality includes ground-up development, historic-adaptive re-use, acquisitions and third-party management. Sage hotels include well -known brands such as JW Marriott, Starwood Collection, Westin and Hilton, as well as several independent hotels. In 2006, Sage formed the Sage Restaurant Group, which operates unique high-volume restaurants inside its urban hotels.

Janice Sinden joined the Denver Center for the Performing Arts as President & CEO in 2016. Over the past 43 years, the organization has grown to become one of the largest non-profit theatre organizations in the country, presenting Broadway tours and producing theatre, cabaret, musicals and innovative multimedia plays. This fourth-generation Coloradan has had her eye on the future of her state for decades and now leads the 300 artisans and administrators of one of the nation’s largest non-profit theatre organizations. Janice’s diverse career has allowed her to support rich cultural experiences, access to education and community involvement. She previously served as Chief of Staff for Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock where she managed 60 appointees, 26 departments and the day-to-day complexities of running a major metropolitan city. She served as Executive Director of Colorado Concern, Manager of Community Relations / Corporate Communications for Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, and worked for U.S. Senator Wayne Allard in both Washington, D.C. and Colorado. She currently serves on the boards of M.D.C. Holdings/Richmond American Homes, Citizens for Arts to Zoo, VISIT Denver, Colorado Inclusive Economy, Denver Judicial Commission and the Denver Preschool Program.  She is also a member of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, Performing Arts Centers Consortium, Theatre Communications Group, Women Corporate Directors and National Western Stock Show. Previously, she was appointed by Governors Owens and Ritter to serve on the Colorado Creative Industries Council. Janice has been recognized by Denver Business Journal as an Outstanding Woman in Business, 5280 magazine as one of the 50 most influential people in Denver, by the Colorado Women’s Foundation as one of the 25 most influential women in Colorado, by the Girl Scouts of Colorado as a Woman of Distinction, and by the University of Northern Colorado Department of Political Science and International Affairs as Distinguished Alumnus of the Year, by Titan100 as one of Colorado’s top CEOs and Pro15 as Alumni of the Plains.

As the COO of EXDO, Kevin brings over thirty years of operational management and financial expertise to the company. He has worked in a variety of industries including recycling, banking, real estate and several service-related companies. Kevin currently manages the day-to-day operations of EXDO’s real estate and service holdings which includes commercial, industrial, multi-family and retail properties with over 65 properties and in excess of 400 tenants. After graduating from the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business, Kevin began full-time work as a fourth-generation member of his family’s recycling business where he had worked part-time throughout his teenage years. He was principally involved in the merger that saw the company evolve from a family-operated regional recycler to the largest independent recycling company in the nation with over 600 employees and 25 facilities. Kevin remained with the company as Executive Vice President until 1989. From there he moved to Los Angeles, California where he became a partner in a secondary fibre brokerage firm which marketed material to paper manufacturers throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe and Asia. Additionally, Kevin was also the Executive Director of Recycled Fiber for PaperExchange.com, at the time, the pioneering and leading e-commerce provider for the Paper Industry during the run up of the dot.com craze. In October of 2005, Kevin’s company expanded its activities to include commercial janitorial and cleaning services. Eventually, Service Solutions transitioned completely out of secondary fibre brokerage, and today employs over 125 people with a strong focus in multi-family properties, with over 7,000 units in its customer portfolio. Service Solutions recently became a part of the EXDO family of companies. In 2015 Kevin was hired as the COO/CFO for EXDO and is now a full partner. Kevin currently sits on the board of directors for First American State Bank, a position he has held for over 15 years. Previously, Kevin also served on the boards of Graland Country Day School, the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, and We Don’t Waste, the latter two as Chairperson. Kevin is an enthusiastic world traveler which allows him to see the world through the lens of his camera, which as an amateur photographer, is rarely not by his side. Kevin was also a pioneer and likely too early to the marketplace, as the founder of the online news site, indenvertimes.com. INDT was an earnest attempt in 2009 to save the core personnel of the Rocky Mountain News which was shutdown by Scripps-Howard. Ultimately INDT didn’t gain the traction needed in the marketplace for support of online news, but as time has proven, the concept was correct, the timing was simply too early, however the silver-lining was a connecting with Andrew Feinstein thru DenverStiffs.com. Kevin is a fourth generation Denver native and has two grown children, Anna and Joe.

As Senior Vice President of Venue Operations, Matt Bell oversees the day to day event scheduling and venue operations for Ball Arena, Paramount Theatre and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. His role also includes servicing the operational needs of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Mammoth, Colorado Rapids as well as all of the entertainment events performing at all of the Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) Denver venues. Bell joined KSE in 2012 as the Executive Director of Venue Booking and was responsible for the scheduling of all events in the KSE Denver venues and was later promoted to Vice President of Venue Booking for the KSE Denver venues in 2017 and has represented KSE on the Denver Sports Commission Advisory Board since 2015, the Visit Denver Board since 2022 and the Colorado Business Roundtable Board since 2023. Prior to joining KSE, Bell served as the Vice President of Venue Programming for the now Amerant Bank Arena with the NHL Florida Panthers and prior to that served in various venue programming capacities at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey scheduling events at the now closed Giants Stadium and IZOD Center. A native of Ohio and a graduate of Penn State University, Bell resides in Denver with his family.