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.

Derek Hoffine joined Hensel Phelps in 2002 and graduated from Pittsburg State University with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering Technology. Established in 1937 by Abel Hensel Phelps in Greeley, Colorado, Hensel Phelps has grown from a small, local builder into a multi-billion dollar life cycle building solutions provider with an unparalleled portfolio of

successfully completed projects. Hensel Phelps serves a diverse range of markets nationwide,

including hospitality, transportation, structured parking, retail, government and commercial

office, higher education, aviation, correctional and justice, critical facilities, and healthcare. In

2022, Engineering News-Record ranked Hensel Phelps #14 among the Top 400 general

contractors in the United States. With more than 4,000 employees, Hensel Phelps is one of the

largest employee-owned general contractors in the country. As Regional Vice President, Derek

establishes policies and strategies that promote the growth of the Rocky Mountain Region based in Thornton, Colorado. He bears overall corporate responsibility for the management and direction of all projects in the Rocky Mountain Region and the fulfillment of Hensel

Phelps’s obligations to its clients.

Derek is an active member of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). He is a

Workforce Development Committee member supporting ABC National in workforce

development and training.

Sarah is an accomplished lighting design professional and a leader in the lighting design industry in Colorado. As Principal and Partner at Colorado-based LS Group, she brings a passion for exploring the many ways that design impacts both the built environment and the human experience.

Drawing on a strong foundation in architectural engineering, illumination, architecture, and planning, Sarah has the advantage of bringing a holistic perspective to the firm’s specialized services. Her wide-ranging technical expertise and collaborative approach ensure seamless integration into project teams, ultimately leading to better project outcomes.

Under Sarah's leadership, LS Group has expanded its portfolio to include diverse project types - from luxury homes in the U.S. and abroad to award-winning hotels, community parks, modern mixed-use developments, and workplaces. Today, with offices in Basalt and Denver, the firm has earned a national reputation for its best-in-class lighting design and controls.

Beyond her work with LS Group, Sarah is a recognized expert in the field of lighting design. An IALD Professional, Sarah also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Denver chapter of Women in Lighting + Design (WILD). She holds a bachelor's degree in Architectural Engineering - Illumination from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Rebecca Stone (Becky) has been with OZ Architecture since 1998, a 150-person design firm based in Denver, CO. She leads the company’s Hospitality practice, which is widely known and respected, having worked on nearly every prominent ski resort in the U.S. and many notable urban boutique hotels and restaurants across the nation.

The projects Becky has led, in the course of her career, reflect her guiding principle — designing dynamic environments that enrich communities and set the highest of standards. Her extensive experience has also given her a unique and inherent understanding of the best way to create a sense of place — whether in an

urban setting, the mountains, or by the sea. In addition to her work with clients, Becky always takes time to serve as a mentor to OZ staff.

Becky received a Bachelor of Architecture from Iowa State University in 1993 and a Master of Architecture from Cornell University in 1995. She holds an architectural license in more than 28 states and is an active member on several national industry councils and boards, including co-chairing the Colorado ULI Impact Awards and the AIA Design of Excellence Awards.

With a legacy of more than 40 y ears of real estate and

hospitality experience, Dave Johnstone, McWhinney’s Chief

Investment Officer - Hospitality, is responsible for acquisitions,

developments, asset management and dispositions.

Specifically, he creates and executes business strategies

associated with all hospitality-related acquisitions and

development.

His career began in 1979 in the Windy City at Laventhol and

Horwath, a hospitality accounting and consulting firm, before

moving in 1981 to open their Denver office. He then served as

an Investment Manager for Prudential Property Company in

Atlanta, GA in 1987, where he was responsible for an equity

portfolio of hotel properties located in the Southeastern United

States. He then joined Sage Hospitality in 1989, where he

served as Principal for the Denver-based, nation-wide owner/

operator of hotels. In 1996 he departed for Hong Kong, and

his role as Vice President, Development for the Asia/Pacific

region at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, a subsidiary of

Marriott International, Inc., where he negotiated operating,

management and technical services contracts for new hotel

projects. In his final role before joining McWhinney in 2015,

Dave joined Miller Global Properties, LLC, a real estate pension

fund advisory firm, in 1998 , where he developed and acquired

hotels throughout the United States.

Passionate about creating new destinations with endless

possibilities in the ever-changing world of hospitality, Dave is

driven by the numerous opportunities McWhinney discovers.

He continues to give back to the industry that has shaped his

professional life by serving on university boards and councils,

as a guest lecturer and authoring several articles and book

chapters on industry related topics

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.

Navin Dimond is the founder & CEO of Stonebridge Companies, a privately-owned hospitality firm founded in 1991. Stonebridge owns and operates a diverse portfolio of 64 hotel properties in the United States, with approximately 12,000 rooms. Mr. Dimond has received numerous awards for his work in the hospitality industry, including the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award®, and the Award of Excellence from the American Asian Hotel Owners Association. Dimond is a firm believer in serving his community; currently he serves on the Board of Trustees for the University of Denver and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). Mr. Dimond also served as the former chairman of the Denver Metro Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (Visit Denver). Most recently, he was appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Denver branch (Chair). Mr. Dimond serves in an advisory role for many organizations, including Washington State University’s College of Engineering and Architecture Executive Leadership Board and Cornell University’s Dean’s Advisory Board for the School of Hotel Administration. Mr. Dimond is a graduate of Washington State University where he earned a B.A. in Business Administration and a B.S. in Construction Management. He also earned his MBA in Real Estate/Construction Management from the University of Denver.

As a Partner at JNS Architecture + Interior Design, Tobias Strohe contributes to the firm’s technical and creative direction. Tobias, who has 26 years of professional architecture experience, ensures projects meet JNS’ high standards, collaborating with all partners and teams to create pragmatically beautiful solutions. His expertise spanning the entire spectrum of the architectural industry is balanced with an acute attention to detail. Tobias is also a trained cabinet maker.

Carmen has a 15-year career in corporate finance and asset management. She brings extensive hotel operations and financial management knowledge to Mission Hill Hospitality where she serves as Senior Vice President of Asset Management. Prior to joining Mission Hill Hospitality, Carmen played a pivotal role in growing the select-service hotel portfolio for Investra Capital, a Dubai based private equity firm, acquiring over $400 million in assets for the firm and asset managing the portfolio. Carmen has been a panelist at the Hunter Hotel Conference and AAHOA. Carmen's passion has always been asset management, and in her early career she served in an asset management capacity for IFA Hotels & Resorts, and before that, as a bankruptcy analyst where she developed and authored numerous plans of reorganization for hotel debtors in Chapter 11.

She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and International Business. In addition, she holds her Master's in Business Administration (with a specialization in International Finance) from Charleston Southern University.

Carmen recently relocated to the Denver area where she lives with her husband, two daughters and dog.

Kevin Kelley, a partner with Husch Blackwell, LLP, advises clients on all aspects of commercial real estate. Kevin specializes in helping clients navigate complex mixed-use and transformational re-use development projects, exemplified by his representation of RTD in the redevelopment of Union Station and his guidance of Intrawests’ development of resort communities across the continent. Beyond traditional real estate law, Kevin regularly advises clients on NBA, MLB and NFL sports facility deals, including development of the Milwaukee Bucks Fiserv Forum, Golden 1 Arena for the Sacramento Kings and potential waterfront ballpark for the Oakland A’s. Kevin’s deep roots in Denver include having worked with Paul Jacobs to bring the Rockies to Colorado in the 1990s. Kevin serves on the MSU Denver Foundation Board of Directors, as well as the board of the Downtown Denver Partnership and is the immediate past chair of the Junior Achievement, Rocky Mountain board of directors. Kevin has also served as a director and on the Executive Committee of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Amy is the Managing Partner of East West Partners in Denver. East West Partners is devoted to

creating terrific places. Since 1986, the firm has developed and sold over $7 billion of residential

and commercial real estate.

Amy is always looking for ways to connect people with the places they live and work. Amy is

responsible for bringing the new Cherry Creek West development to life. Her team recently

completed one of the Denver Union Station transit hub redevelopment and much of the

adjacent residential and office including The Coloradan and 16 Chestnut. She also oversaw the

revitalization of The Landmark, a distressed mixed-use community that needed new eyes and

perspective. Prior to this, Amy helped to create the Riverfront Park community in Denver. More

than a collection of buildings, the Riverfront Park neighborhood of Denver, Denver’s Union

Station Neighborhood and the Landmark development represent something important to Amy -

creating a sense of place.

Amy is deeply committed to the community. She a founding member of the Center City

Collaborative, which is a coalition of civic-minded, business and community leaders working to

find creative and inclusive solutions to the current challenges facing downtown. She is also on

the boards of Habitat for Humanity, the Denver Metro Chamber’s EDC, Downtown Denver

Partnership’s Civic Ventures Board, the University of Colorado Real Estate Center’s

International Advisory Board, and a member of Colorado Concern and the Urban Land

Institute’s national Mixed-Use Council, Also deeply committed to the arts, Amy is a founding

board member for the Riverfront Park Community Foundation, which fosters organizations

particularly in the areas of arts and education in Denver, and as a founding board member of

Union Hall, a new model to support local and emerging artists in downtown Denver.

Celeste Tanner is the co-founder and chief development officer of Confluent Development. Bringing nearly 20 years of industry experience, she established the full-service real estate investment and development firm to bring a new vision of development within the industry to life. In her role, she steers the firm’s execution across all phases of real estate development, successfully delivering custom and complex projects that create significant value in their respective communities. Since the company’s inception in 2014, Celeste has overseen more than $1.5 billion in development projects across the organization’s diverse portfolio, consisting of more than 100 industrial, office, retail, mixed-use and senior housing development projects. Under Celeste’s guidance, Confluent has delivered award-winning projects and works with some of the country’s most sophisticated clients including Target, FedEx, Starbucks, Mikron Corporation, Vectra Bank, and Charter Communications, among others. In her previous role as director of real estate development at Opus Development Company, Celeste led the real estate project team for its Denver office and played a key role in the ground-up development of more than 5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family space. Celeste holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado at Denver, is an alumnus of the Downtown Denver Partnership Leadership Program, and has been awarded for her outstanding achievements from organizations such as The Denver Business Journal, CREW, NAIOP Colorado and Bisnow. Giving Back in Business and Community Celeste has represented the development industry both locally and nationally through her leadership in NAIOP, where she previously served as the chapter president for Colorado. Currently an executive committee member on NAIOP’s national board, she provides a voice for Colorado’s development industry at the national table. Celeste also contributes her leadership well beyond the industry and into the community. She serves on the board of Wheat Ridge Localworks, where she contributes her industry expertise to help implement the organization’s business and home improvement loan programs, among others, focused on enhancing the city’s economic vitality and neighborhood revitalization. Celeste also represents District I as a member in Renewal Wheat Ridge (RWR), an Urban Renewal Authority committed to improving the visual aesthetics and environmental aspects of Wheat Ridge, meanwhile adhering to the wants and needs of the community.

Jon Buerge is the President and Partner at Urban Villages, Inc. In this capacity, Jon is

responsible for operations, real estate development, and strategic positioning for all real estate assets. He

also manages the research and analysis of new company acquisitions and corporate growth strategies. Jon

currently serves as the Chair of the Denver Business Improvement District and is on the Board of Directors

for the LoDo District. He is also a member of Denver’s Public Realm Committee and 16th Street Mall

Redevelopment Steering Committee.

Eric co-founded the OliverBuchananGroup in 2021 and leads the day-to-day operation of the company. Dene and Eric share a long and successful working relationship beginning at OliverMcMillan, where they executed a multi-billion-dollar pipeline of Class A mixed use and multifamily development.

Prior to forming OliverBuchananGroup, Eric was the Chief Development Officer at Oliver McMillan, where he led all development and construction activities for the firm. He had a similar role at Brookfield and Lifestyle Communities, as well as a decade long tenure in development at Archstone-Smith earlier in his real estate career. At all companies he covered multiple national markets and managed in house and third-party teams simultaneously.

During Eric’s career, he has been intricately involved in the successful development of over 8,000 Class A apartment units in California, Colorado, Texas, Tennessee, Hawaii, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Massachusetts and New York. His execution experience covers all multifamily product types, as well as complex urban mixed use including Class A retail, office, hotel, convention and civic uses.

Eric is an active member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and active board member of Colorado UpLift and Urban Youth Ministries, two Denver based nonprofit organizations focused on bringing long-term, life changing relationships to urban youth.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Asian Studies from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Mr. Steve Gardner, AIA, Partner and Managing Director, Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderbergh, AIA.

Mr. Gardner oversees day-to-day operations, client relations, staffing and the overall growth of the

Denver office. Since joining Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderbergh, AIA in 2005 and now with over 30

years of experience in all phases of Architectural practice, he is an industry expert in entitlements, master

planning, feasibility studies, code research, design, construction documentation, specification writing, and

technical quality control.

His work includes commercial, institutional, residential, entertainment, mixed-use, hospitality and retail

projects. Some of his notable projects are:

University Village Thousand Oaks – Thousand Oaks, CA. – 65 Acres- Senior Living

Casey’s Pond Continuing Care Retirement Community – Steamboat Springs, CO – Senior Living

Cornerstone Residences at St. Francis Center – Denver, CO – Affordable Housing

Playa Vista Marina – Los Angeles, CA – Mixed-Use

Mr. Gardner also has extensive experience designing various building types in Asia and Europe.

His primary goal is to provide meaningful design solutions that effectively respond to the needs of his

clients, while respecting the balance of community and the environment all the while, striving to bring

something unique and special to every project.

Dimple's rise to principal has been in the works since she started with MBH in 2003. As a licensed architect and a LEED accredited professional with a penchant for business development, she plays a critical role in the firm's leadership. Aside from exhibiting unparalleled proficiency in her work, she is one of three prominent women of MBH to establish the Women in the Workplace committee with the intention of creating a safe forum for all employees to discuss the biases and trials of daily life. With her acumen in client relations, she set the stage for MBH's introduction into the realm of luxury retail. Consequently, Dimple is now the Principal in charge of the Luxury Retail Studio. Dimple holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the L.S. Raheja School of Architecture in India.