Wes Gardner is the founder and CEO of Prime Trailer, a semi-tractor-trailer dealership with an emphasis on rental and leasing. Prime has operations in Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Wes is a successful entrepreneur with a strong faith which he integrates into his businesses and the marketplace. He has an ardent desire to give back to his employees and his community. Wes believes that a “Good Job” is the best way to fight poverty which is why he founded The Gardner Family Foundation which provides grants to nonprofits that focus on education, job training and sustainable self-sufficiency programs for single moms. Wes sits on several boards including CityUnite and Activate Workforce Solutions. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Allyson, and has two children and 6 grandkids that he calls his “True North!”

Antoinette Gawin is President and Chief Executive Officer of Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies, a mission-driven medical device company that is focused on unlocking the potential of blood and cell-based therapies. The innovative company strives to advance healthcare, broaden treatment options and improve patient outcomes through its technologies within the sectors of blood banking, transfusion medicine and regenerative medicine.

Antoinette focuses on how the company will continue to evolve with healthcare’s rapid changes to meet more patients’ needs globally. She believes medical device manufacturers must change and go beyond equipment to think about services, data management and new geographies where people do not yet have access to the technologies that can advance their health and lives. Antoinette is ensuring that Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies continues to focus on service and helping our customers solve problems — enabling them to better serve patients.

She has nearly 30 years of experience directing diverse global teams and transformational change. Building from a foundation in finance, operations and customer service, Antoinette has led joint ventures and acquisitions, as well as all aspects of marketing, strategic planning and commercial operations for divisions of companies in the healthcare, information technology and energy sectors.

Antoinette joined the company in 2016 and previously served as Executive Vice President, Global Commercial. She was responsible for leading the company’s global sales, services, marketing and commercial teams.

In her past leadership roles at Baxter Healthcare, she oversaw global market access and commercial excellence, strategy and commercial operations. For more than 20 years prior, Antoinette worked at GE Corporate and a number of subsidiaries, including GE Healthcare Technologies, GE Industrial and Power Systems and GE Information Services.

She is a member of the AdvaMed Board of Directors and serves as the chair of the AdvaMed Ethics and Compliance Committee.

Antoinette is involved in many civic organizations, including American Friends of Watershed Trust Organization, a nonprofit focused on sustainable access to clean water in India. She lives with her family in Colorado, where they enjoy the outdoors and the performing arts.

Karla Grazier became president and CEO of Goodwill of Southern and Western Colorado in August 2010, and of Goodwill of Colorado in May 2019, reflecting the expanded scope of the merged Colorado Springs and Denver Goodwill organizations. The merger is the largest in the history of the Goodwill network with    a   budget of over $195 million. The organization is a unique combination of social enterprises and mission programs and serves over 127,000 people on an annual basis. 

Prior to her role at Goodwill, Ms. Grazier had a varied career as an entrepreneur starting, building, and buying companies as well as a consultant and corporate banker. She was co-owner and CEO of a B-to-B catalog company later sold to a Houston based catalog consolidator; Founder and COO of a snack food manufacturing company in New York, later sold to a French food conglomerate and an analyst in the Corporate Finance Group of Touche Ross, performing valuations and M & A work. Ms. Grazier began her career in corporate banking at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco and New York City, specializing in leveraged buyouts and bond issue support. 

In addition to her role as President and CEO of Goodwill of Colorado, Karla has served on many community, state, and national boards including Colorado Springs Memorial Hospital, Colorado Springs Chamber and Economic Development Board, the Pikes Peak Workforce Investment Board, the Governors State Workforce Council, Lead Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair of the  Board of Directors of 5Star Bank and on the Colorado Springs School Board of Trustees. 

She currently serves on the Board of the Employers Council and as Chair of its Investment Committee, a 4-state organization that advises thousands of organizations on employment law, and as a founding member, member of the board of directors, and the audit chair of GoodwillFinds Ecommerce, Inc., a nationwide ecommerce platform. Ms. Grazier is a member of the Executive Committee of the Pikes Peak Community Foundation Board. 

In 2013, Karla was elected to the board of directors for Goodwill Industries International (GII), a $7. 5 billion international organization, first serving as Treasurer, then as Vice Chair, and then as Board Chair in 2018-2019. During her term as Board Chair, she led the transition to a new CEO for that organization. In 2016, Karla received both GII’s Matthews Entrepreneurial Award and the Watkins Award for Mission Advancement and was the 2019 recipient of GII’s Kenneth K. King Outstanding Management Award for Executive Excellence, presented to a Goodwill CEO who demonstrates outstanding leadership and accomplishments. In 2019, Karla was given the Athena Award, presented to an outstanding businessperson who inspires others through her professional accomplishments, mentorship and community service and has been named a Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts and a Woman of Influence by the Colorado Springs Business Journal. In 2023, The Colorado Springs Leadership Institute awarded her the Cathy O. Robbins Excellence in Leadership Award. 

Karla holds a BA from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Indiana University and served   as an adjunct lecturer in the graduate schools of Yale University and New York University for eight years. She also served on the National Advisory Council of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey, reviewing and choosing grant recipients.   

With nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare administration, Jena Hausmann is one of the leading womenin healthcare in the US. As President and Chief Executive Officer for Children’s Hospital Colorado, she oversees an integrated healthcare system for children, which is affiliated with the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

With 700,000 patient visits annually and 593 licensed beds, Children’s Hospital Colorado has consistently ranked in the top ten children’s hospitals in the nation. Jena oversees the Children’s Hospital Colorado at the Anschutz Medical campus, the Children’s Hospital Colorado network of care in 17 locations in the metropolitan Denver area, the Children’s Hospital Colorado pediatric services at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, and the newly opened Children’s Hospital Colorado South Campus, a full service generally licensed hospital in south Denver.

During her tenure, unprecedented increases in patient volume have been achieved. With employees now numbering over 5,000, Jena is proudest that Children’s Hospital Colorado continues its focus on the precious children and families it serves through a culture of intimacy, connection and purpose. In a reaffirmation of the values inherent in Children’s Hospital’s child and family focused culture, the scores for patient satisfaction and employee engagement rank among the highest in the US.

Jena joined Children’s Hospital Colorado in 2004 as the Vice President of Strategic Planning and Network of Care Operations and assumed the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in 2008. In May of 2015, Jena was named President and Chief Executive Officer.

She was motivated to become a healthcare administrator after watching a loved one go through the system in their final moments of life. After earning a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota in 1996, Jena completed an administrative fellowship at the Fairview Health System in Minneapolis, MN. There, she helped redesign the care delivery and financing models for nursing home residents through a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant.

Following the fellowship, she served as the Director of Provider Relations at The University of Minnesota Medical Center, an organization consisting of a then recently-merged 500 bed community hospital and a 500 bed academic medical center. After 11 months in the role, she joined the senior management team and remained there for the next six years providing leadership over a large number of operational areas as well as planning and business development activities. The cultural and operational challenges in this merger of two large entities into a comprehensive, integrated health system prepared Jena for her executive role at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

In 2008, Modern Healthcare featured Jena as one of 12 “rising healthcare management stars.” Jena currently serves on the board of directors for the Metro North Chamber of Commerce. In 2012, she served as the March of Dimes’ March for Babies revenue chair and she served on the YMCA Metro Denver board from 2009-2012.

As a leading woman in healthcare, she annually mentors as many as 30 individual women at the CU School of Medicine as well as throughout the Children’s organization to help them understand their roles and opportunities and to demonstrate personally and professionally the ability of women to succeed in executive roles in healthcare.

Jena, her husband Kevin, and three children, Ellie, Andrew and Carson, find their life’s purpose is to provide much love and laughter each day.

Kate Horle (she, her, hers) is CWEE’s Chief Executive Officer. Guided by CWEE’s mission, Kate provides strategic direction and leadership, ensures financial sustainability, and supports the Board of Directors in fulfilling their governance functions. She leads the executive management team and, working closely with the Board of Directors, defines the strategy so that CWEE can continue to guide career seekers toward a fulfilling career and stable economic future.

Kate is known as a transparent, innovative, and trusted executive with a polished presence and demeanor, who establishes relationships across the continuum of human services and public policy. As a well-qualified, insightful senior leader and business partner, Kate has often played a pivotal role in persuasively applying expertise of regulatory compliance into business strategy.

She is an accomplished strategic planner and negotiator – responsible for positive financial outcomes in both private and non-profit sectors, including strong experience managing sales and business development teams, community foundation partnerships, and federal and state funding.

Kate has expertise in organizational management and relationship development and is experienced in business development, research, program management and development, advocacy, coalition building and management, contract negotiations, public speaking, communications, and message development.

Over her extensive 25+ years of experience in business, Kate has actively participated in executive leadership and board membership, contributing to strategic visioning, collaborative action plans, relationship management, tactical methodology, process design, internal and external communications, public policy, branding/marketing, cross-platform integrated services, social media, and speech writing.

Throughout her career, she has navigated the complex and often changing landscape of privacy, healthcare policy, regulatory compliance and, importantly, advocacy for customers and partners. She is a specialist in practical knowledge about public policy governing the diverse areas of the human service arc.

Kate holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) with a focus on Policy Analysis and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science from The University of Colorado.

Adeeb Khan is a social impact leader with a proven track record of delivering results and creating meaningful and lasting change. Adeeb is a recognized leader in the business, nonprofit, philanthropic and public sectors. Throughout his career as a nonprofit and corporate executive, he has advanced equity, economic opportunity, education, corporate responsibility, volunteerism, and civic engagement. He is the son of immigrants, raised in rural Wyoming and is both a first-generation high school and college graduate. He most recently served as the chief brand & impact officer for Delta Dental of Colorado (DDCO) the state’s leading dental benefits company and as the executive director of the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation (DDCOF), one of the state’s largest corporate foundations.

Prior to serving at Delta Dental, Adeeb was the senior director of corporate social responsibility at TIAA. He has served as senior director of volunteer engagement at Mile High United Way where he launched and expanded the Colorado Reading Corps. Prior to the United Way, he served as regional director of health & safety and community services at the Colorado Chapter of the American Red Cross.

He is the past chair of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation board. He currently serves on the Denver Civic Ventures board for the Downtown Denver Partnership. He is on the advisory board for the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, the board of directors for Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC) and is co-chair of the executive steering committee for the development of the 5280 Trail. In 2020, Adeeb was appointed by Governor Jared Polis to serve as a commissioner for the Colorado Early Childhood Leadership Commission (ECLC) and is now co-chair of the commission.

Adeeb holds an MBA with honors and a concentration in corporate responsibility from the University of Denver. He received a BA in Communications from the University of Southern California. He was a graduate of the Leadership Foundation’s Leadership Denver class of 2017 and has been recognized as a Colorado Governors Fellow. He has been named a Downtown Champion by the Downtown Denver Partnership, a Chamber Champion by the Denver Metro Chamber, one of Denver’s 40 under 40 by the Denver Business Journal, a top 25 under 40 professional by ColoradoBiz Magazine, the Community Change-maker of the Year by Colorado Youth for a Change, and was recognized as a top three finalist for the 9News Leader of the Year award.