By Suzanne De Lucia CBI
Fellow Of The IBBA
CABI Past President
Part 1 . . . . Part 2 . . . . Part 3 . . . . Part 4
CABI – Past Present & Future
Part 1 of a Series
Disclaimer: This is the first in a series of short essays intended to educate current CABI members about the association’s history and lay the groundwork for the Annual meeting discussions to take place on January 20, 2016. As technology has changed dramatically and the CABI leadership has changed since the early days, much is being written from memory. Please forgive any slight inaccuracies or omission of names, as it is not intentional.
Many people will find it surprising that CABI’s origins came from a very informal group of business brokers who got together circa 1997 or 1998 to share deals, war stories, and to co-broke. Morgan Connor, long gone from the local brokerage scene, called the informal group the Rocky Mountain Business Broker’s Association and we met early mornings at the Hot Cakes restaurant in central Denver. Turnout was typically less than 10 people.
Michael Marks, who has a long history in association consulting, volunteered to call every broker listed in the Yellow Pages (remember those?) to collect fax numbers. Using that advanced method of technology, Michael would send faxes to notify members of meetings. Back then, a fax run would take several hours and Michael was chastised for waking people up when their phones rang late into the night.
Shawn Sanborn, foodie (unknown term in 1998) and one of CABI’s restaurant specialists, took the group to a new level and set up the first cocktail party. A record number of 35 people showed up at Il Fornaio in downtown Denver and enjoyed appetizers paid for by SBA lender Dave Otteson. Alcohol apparently was quite the draw and the brokers really started to get to know each other.
This event was the catalyst for the association’s real roots. In 1999, a group of 6 brokers, including Morgan Connor, Michael Marks, Shawn Sanborn, Chris Hammond, Bill Bumstead and Suzanne De Lucia met at Business Acquisitions, Ltd.’s offices and the Colorado Association of Business Intermediaries (CABI) was created. Peter Nemkov, CABI’s counsel to this day, provided the legal advice and documentation to create today’s CABI.
