whO wE aRE 

Staff

	Mari A. Christie, Founder, Event Director, Selection Committee
Ms. Christie is the Founder and Event Director for Friends of Faith. She has been managing and promoting successful events since 1988, ranging from small seminars and consumer events to sizable trade shows and exhibitions. In 1989, when she was only 17, she created the first University of Northern Colorado Apartheid Awareness Day, and from 1991-95, she was promoter of Colorado's original Poetry Slam, including managing the first Colorado Poetry Slam team, ranked 8th internationally. She acted as Show Manager for the China and East Asia Mineral Resources Show in 2000, Conference Manager and Assistant Show Manager for the Rocky Mountain Film and Video Expo from 1996-2000 and the Total Technology Expo 2000, and Production Manager for the SAGEEP 2000 and Rocks 2000 Geological Symposia for the Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society and the American Rock Mechanics Association, respectively. Concurrently, she has provided print marketing and communications services to a variety of clients, including The Denver Press Club, Multi-Link Communications, Auraria Campus, The Colorado Film and Video Association, ExpoMasters, the Denver Studio Complex, John-Phillip’s Printing, and others. Ms. Christie is currently enrolled at the University of Colorado, pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Writing, with a minor in Religious Studies.
David J. Cutler, Financial Manager
Mr. Cutler has more than 25 years of experience in international finance, accounting and business administration. He held senior positions with multi-national companies such as Reuters Group PLC and the Schlumberger Ltd, served as a director for two British previously publicly quoted companies, and has been self-employed, providing accounting and financial advice to small and medium-sized companies in the United Kingdom and the United States. From 1999 to 2005 Mr. Cutler was initially Chief Financial Officer and subsequently Chief Executive Officer and a director of Multi-Link Telecommunications, Inc. Since April 2005 Mr. Cutler has been the sole director, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Aspeon, Inc., a company listed on the Gray Sheets and in March 2006 Mr. Cutler was appointed as a director, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Cavion Technologies, Inc., a company listed on the Pink Sheets. Mr. Cutler has a Master’s degree from St. Catherine College in Cambridge, England and an executive MBA from Colorado State University. He is as a British Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor and a Fellow of the UK Institute of Chartered Accountants. In the US, Mr. Cutler is a Certified Public Accountant, a Fellow of the AICPA Institute of Corporate Tax Management, and a Certified Valuation Analyst of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.

Board of Advisors  

Rika Mead, Change Manager, City & County of Denver

Rika Mead, Change Manager for the City & County of Denver, has held that position since September, 1998.  She comes to the public sector after having her own change management consulting firm. In her private consulting practice, she completed several public sector projects on the federal level, as well as many private sector ventures.       Previously, Rika did organization design & development, executive coaching and leadership evolution, process improvement, team building, needs analysis, professional facilitation, strategic planning and coalition creation.  She has worked in a variety of industries, including financial services and the entertainment field.  She is certified to deliver Profilor’s 360-degree assessment instrument, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Performance Consulting, McNellis Compression Planning and Enlightened Leadership workshops.      Rika holds a Masters degree in Leadership & Organizational Change from Regis University, with an undergraduate degree in Business Administration.  She does public presentations on a variety of professional and personal growth topics.      The path to CCD Change Manager has not been a linear one.  Rika has also been a professional race car driver in California, a bartender in Paris, a pool player in Alaska, a freelance writer in South America, a race horse handicapper in New York City, and a corporate vice president in Connecticut.  As a life-long student of world culture, Rika has lived in Sweden, England, Canada, France, Guatemala & the Yucatan and has traveled in many other countries.  Rika says that her life continues to be a fascinating journey.

Selection Committee, Accepted

Paul Alexander, Director, Regis University Institute on the Common Good
Mr. Alexander is Director of the Institute on the Common Good at Regis University.  Prior to that he served as the Degree Chair for the Master of Nonprofit Management Program (MNM) at Regis.  He initiated the new leadership curriculum for the MNM program, with its enhanced focus on internal development and service and helped create the Colorado Trust Fellows Project. He has over twenty years experience in the nonprofit sector, most recently serving as Executive Director of Denver Youth Employment Service and Program Director for the Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development.  He has traveled extensively and lived and worked in Spain and Latin America.  He currently serves on the boards of the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning, the Colorado Nonprofit Loan Fund, the Rocky Mountain Regional Steering Committee of the PeaceJam Foundation, the International Multicultural Institute, the National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation, and the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado.  He has a BA from Williams College, an MA in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has a Ph.D. in Community Dialogue with the Union Institute and University.
Mari A. Christie, Founder, Event Director, Selection Committee (see above)

Friends of Faith Fund Committee  

Phillip Bradbury, Engineer, City and County of Denver, Chair
	Suzette Brown, Committee Member, Webmaster
Ms. Brown currently lives in Edinburg, Texas and has been an Employee Benefits Specialist  for more than 15 years. She served as secretary on the Board of Directors for the Women Together Foundation, a local domestic violence shelter for one year and has been on the Advisory Board for Transitional Housing for the same shelter for the last five years.  She was the shelter's Volunteer of the Year for four consecutive years.  She also volunteers teaching English as a Second Language and as a sexual assault advocate. She graduated with BFA in Acting from Baylor University in 1984. She is  happily married and has four well-loved canine companions. She loves reading, traveling, swimming and being a positive force for good.
	Thomas E. Matthews, Owner, Turkey Creek Motorcycle Tours, Committee Member
Thomas E. Matthews was transplanted to the Colorado Rocky Mountains from Bay Shore, NY in 1974. He studied both English and History at the State University of New York at Oswego. Much of his career has been in a variety of Information Technology and Telecommunications management positions, however, he recently gave up the rat race to start Turkey Creek Motorcycle Tours, specializing in mountain and desert vacation tours. Tom has three grown children and is married to Lynn Matthews, a freelance fundraising consultant. The Matthews family is active in affordable/low-income housing charities.

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