We are led by a group of 18 current and former executives, primarily CEOs, from some of Colorado’s largest companies who have made a commitment to collectively leverage our voices, platforms, talent and resources to help Colorado thrive for the long-term. As committed civic leaders, we believe in the power of committed business leaders to ensure a better and more equitable future for all.

Erin Trapp Erin Trapp is the Executive Director of Colorado Thrives, an association of 14 current and former Chief Executives from some of Colorado’s largest companies who have made a commitment to collectively leverage their voices, platforms, talent and resources to help Colorado succeed for the long term. Erin has also led other successful nonprofit organizations, including Climate Vault and the Biennial of the Americas. Previously, Erin served in executive leadership roles at the City and County of Denver under then-Mayor John Hickenlooper, Metropolitan State University of Denver and Merrill Lynch Private Client Services. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder and a BA in History and Public Policy from Swarthmore College. She serves on the Boards of numerous nonprofit organizations including the Denver School of the Arts Friends Foundation, Take Note Colorado and the Swarthmore College Alumni Council. Luis Ceballos Luis is a Senior Project Manager at Colorado Thrives. He previously served as a project/account manager in the physical product development space in China and Southern California with a focus on textiles, consumer packaged goods, and smart home appliances. This refined his intercultural competence and further developed his working Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Although new to Colorado, he's excited to ground himself in Denver's welcoming community and use his skills to create programming that contributes measurable impact for underserved and underrepresented communities. He holds a Masters in China Studies from Zhejiang University and a BA in Chinese and Computer Science from Swarthmore College. In his free time, you can catch him watching/playing soccer, exploring the outdoors with his partner and two pups (Pretzel and Elote), doing his best to improve (and maintain) his Chinese language skills, or just hanging out in the sun.

Economic Mobility is the current focus of our work and we are committed to supporting initiatives that increase opportunities for Coloradans through training and education. In addition, we are committed to actively pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion in all of our work, regardless of topic area. We will expand our focus over time and are currently investigating new initiatives in areas such as environmental sustainability and public safety and infrastructure.

We select initiatives using a five-point screening process that includes: Does the initiative align with our purpose? What is the potential impact of the project or initiative? What is the probability the initiative will be successful? Will support from Colorado Thrives make a significant difference in the likelihood or magnitude of success? What kind of investment is required?

Colorado Thrives considers the following forms of engagement with the initiatives we support:​ Convening business, community and government leaders Advocating for or endorsing policy changes necessary to create an environment for the initiative to thrive Driving change in our members’ organizations Allocating talent to support both nonprofit and for-profit start-up initiatives and organizations Catalyzing innovation and accelerating scale Attracting scaled philanthropy Providing funding