A Message from the President | University of Colorado

Young alumni light the road ahead

Steve Golter (’12) and Brandon O’Leary (’07) are two young CU donors using their early professional success to help students at CU. Their donations support scholarships and courses that light the path for other students to do and experience great things, and ultimately fuel their career success–which reflects well on all CU alumni.

‘CU Denver Was That Light Switch’

Steve Golter ('12) holds crampons and an ice ax that he uses to climb fourteeners and snowboard in the backcountry.

At age 32–within months of completing his business degree–Steve Golter donated $10,000 to the CU Denver Business School for Information Systems scholarships. Four Information Systems students will each receive $500 this year, with a similar number of scholarships distributed over the next five years. Golter’s firm, Scendent, provides internet services, marketing, and security for Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek casinos–building on his experience managing IT full-time for Bullwhackers Casino while earning his degree.

He found the problem-solving modules and time-management lessons he learned at the Business School to be most useful.

“Before I went to University of Colorado Denver I was going through a dark room and CU Denver was that light switch,” he says. “They taught me the standard things you do to conduct business.”

Golter is on the advisory council for the school’s Center for Information Technology Innovation, which is planning to establish a networking lab to keep up with new trends in technology.

Although he has grown from working at his father’s technology company to managing his own, Golter has bigger plans–he wants to extend Scendent’s reach into gambling hotspots in Macao, Singapore and Brazil.

“I do gamble, but I don’t gamble in a casino. I gamble in business,” he says.

‘Shining a Good Light on CU’

Brandon O'Leary ('07) works at Unicom Capital offices in downtown Denver.

Just 28 years old, CU-Boulder alumnus Brandon O’Leary, gave $10,000 to the Leeds School of Business to support an elite investment banking seminar that was at risk of getting cut. Small, accelerated-learning seminars such as this one give students real-world opportunities in experiential learning.

“I decided to donate to the program because it helped me, and the program produces students that are well-prepared for Wall Street trading and investment banking–since they perform well at their jobs it shines a good light on CU,” says O’Leary, now an equity trader.

Many students who take the seminar go on an annual Wall Street Trek, where they meet alumni and potential employers in New York City. These experiences help students compete with graduates of Ivy League schools and get rewarding jobs in financial services where they refine skills such as monitoring global markets, reviewing trading strategies, and managing financial assets.

“Once you place some business graduates that do well at banks, it’s a revolving door,” O’Leary says. “If they are looked upon in a good light at their jobs, then other graduates get recruited through the investment banking seminar.”

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