On February 20, the Colorado Technology Association hosted the 2025 Tech Summit + APEX Awards at the Grand Hyatt in Denver. In a demonstration of AI's current dominance of the tech industry, Ibotta founder and CEO Bryan Leach accepted the award for Company of the Year, while Jon Nordmark, co-founder and CEO of Iterate.ai, won the award for CEO of the Year. Ibotta also secured a second APEX trophy, with Luke Swanson winning the CIO of the Year Award.
In the course of the event, Bryan Leach had a fireside chat with Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in which the two discussed everything from AI regulations and the Colorado AI Act, to the idea of vulnerability being a superpower in leadership. Of course, they touched on Ibotta’s record-breaking 2024 IPO - the largest initial public offering of a tech firm in Colorado history - which raised $328 million for its investors and $198 million for itself.
Leach highlighted the importance of innovation and people-first leadership in shaping Colorado’s tech future, speaking passionately about how you must surround yourself with colleagues who lift you up, inspire you, and make you a better leader.
In other APEX awards, Brittany Katalenas, CEO of Konnected Technologies, Inc., won the Emerging Tech Leader Award, Samuel Ogah, founder of ZICT and CACC, won the Colorado Entrepreneur Excellence Award, and Elevate Quantum won the Advocate of the Year Award.
Colorado AI News will take a deeper dive into the AI-related APEX Award winners in upcoming articles. Many thanks to Auburn Meisner for her help reporting on this story.
This article was updated on March 1, 2025.
