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Over the summer two distinguished advisory board members stepped down after impactful contributions to the Center for Education on Social Responsibility (CESR) and the Leeds School of Business, as well as to local and global communities.

Rich Hoops

Rich Hoops’ five years on CESR’s board have been fully engaged with both CESR and Leeds.

As an executive coach for CESR’s Leadership Challenges: Exercises in Moral Courage course for four years, Rich guided students in grappling with true-life cases of ethical dilemmas in business.

Lorna Christoff, instructor of the course, said “Rich has contributed mightily to the depth and breadth of learning the students achieve, so much so that students cite his influence as one of the course’s key value-adds to their personal and professional growth.”

He’s also participated in several CESR conferences as a speaker and panelist, including the Conscious Capitalism Conference and Partners in Business Ethics, among others. As a mentor with Leeds’ Professional Mentorship Program, Rich has helped professionally guide four mentees over the years.

“Rich Hoops’ spirit is hardwired into the very DNA of CESR,” said Mark Meaney, executive director of CESR, “He has exerted such a tremendous influence on everything we do, especially on our education of undergraduates. As a teacher, Rich challenges students to engage in a process of self-exploration in making explicit their fundamental value commitments. He then inspires students to be courageous in the application of their values to concrete scenarios drawn from his rich experience. In short, Rich leads through the powerful influence of his example.”

A deep dive into social enterprise

A corporate career at Dell as director of marketing for 11 years preceded his transition to a focus in social enterprise. Since then, Rich has led a career heavily focused in the areas of social responsibility and philanthropy.

Currently co-founder and chairman of the board at Impact HUB ��«����Ƶ, Rich has dedicated much of his time assisting area nonprofits through strategic consulting and general business coaching. For the benefit of Leeds MBA students, he has fostered a partnership between Impact HUB and CESR to provide exclusive membership privileges students interested in sustainability.

He currently sits on five mission-driven boards: Social Venture Partners, Chicago Booth School of Business’ Social Enterprise Initiative, Impact Charitable, and Thrive – Transformation at Work. With an MBA in organizational strategy and entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago, he mentors budding entrepreneurs at the Unreasonable Institute.

“We are ultimately witnessing an awakening of spirit and a growing desire to ensure that values are at the heart of enterprise, regardless of legal structure and status,” Rich Hoops

He’s also shared his expertise internationally, with active engagement in the social enterprise sector in East Africa as both investor and advisor to several early-stage social enterprises, while also supporting training/capacity building programs for local entrepreneurs. As board chair for Blood: Water Mission, a Nashville-based nonprofit, for seven years he helped partner with community based organizations in the fight against the HIV/AIDs and water crisis throughout East Africa.  

“…The interest, issues, opportunities and challenges surrounding social enterprise in East Africa are no different than back home in ��«����Ƶ County…How can we balance for-profit and non-profit motives, and remain mission driven?” Rich Hoops

Gary Antonoff

Gary Antonoff has made a significant impact on CESR in the four and a half years of his board tenure. Most recently, he and his wife Donna’s newly established scholarship awarded $10,000 to each of five incoming freshmen at the Leeds School of Business.

The  chooses applicants who’ve maintained impressive academic achievements, strength of character, integrity and strong interest in business ethics, social responsibility, diversity and/or sustainability.

“You have to be able to look in the mirror every day,” Gary Antonoff

Gary Antonoff has been an active contributor to the Leeds community for many years. Since the seventies, Gary has held positions at Leeds on the CU Real Estate Council and Executive Board, as well as the CU Business Dean’s Advisory Council.

Mark reflected, “Gary personifies the characteristics we hope to instill in our students. He lives a life of integrity made manifest through the tremendous success he has earned as a business leader. Through his generous spirit, Gary then gives back as an community activist in promoting the common good. He has a particular passion for the care of the disadvantaged. Gary’s love of life is contagious, and he has been such a joy to have as a member of the CESR Advisory Board.”

Integrity in real estate & Denver institutions

Around 2003, Gary slowed his involvement with Leeds due to a busy career at Antonoff & Co, his family’s retail real estate brokerage firm. But over the years he maintained his relationship with Leeds and was excited to hear that the business curriculum was embracing difficult conversations on ethical business, a topic of great interest to him.

Antonoff & Co. has been active in the Colorado retail real estate market for three generations and prides itself on maintaining a reputation for integrity. In an environment where all brokers must work as a team, Gary has developed a solid background of honesty in the workplace through open exchange of information and ideas.

Gary’s other notable affiliations include his position as co-chair of Coors Field fundraising committee and his active involvement in the Denver community in professional and civic groups such as Adams County Economic Development Inc., Greater Denver Corp., Denver Arts Center Foundation, and Rose Medical Center. Additionally, Gary served on the Denver Mayor’s New Airport Blue Ribbon Committee for DIA and was finance chairman for Denver’s airport elections.
 

CESR's Advisory Board is made up of some of the most diverse and impressive socially responsible business leaders, philanthropists and sustainability champions you'll ever meet. See who helps guide CESR.