Noted businesswoman Kim Jordan to receive honorary doctoral degree from CSU at University-wide Commencement

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Colorado State University will present an honorary doctorate to Kim Jordan, a boundary-crossing leader who, as co-founder and CEO of New Belgium Brewing Company, crafted a model for business excellence that balanced innovation in beer production with the interests of people and the planet.

Jordan, an alumna of CSU’s School of Social Work who recently completed eight years of service on the CSU System Board of Governors, including two years as Board Chair, will give brief remarks when she accepts the degree on May 16 at the University-wide Commencement at Canvas Stadium.

“I can think of no one more deserving of this honor,” said CSU President Amy Parsons. “As a nationally recognized industry leader, Kim Jordan represents the best of CSU. She is a true pioneer who built one of the country’s largest craft breweries, and she brings energy, creativity, and entrepreneurial drive to everything she does.”

The story of how Jordan co-founded New Belgium in 1991 has been shared widely through local and national media. In the early days, the brewery operated out of the basement of Jordan’s Fort Collins home, and she took charge of marketing and overseeing essential business functions. The business grew steadily, and Jordan became the company CEO in 2001.

A 2014 Fortune article describes the early days at New Belgium, when Jordan still worked part-time as a social worker and, on days off, made beer deliveries while the elder of her two sons did his homework in the van. “I agreed to start the company because I’d hate to think we were too afraid to try,” she said. “It’s important to say yes to things, if you can. I figured we could always go back to day jobs.”

In a Forbes Q&A, published in 2016, Jordan discussed the emergence of New Belgium’s unique culture of engagement. What started with monthly all-staff meetings and annual retreats eventually led to the sale of the company to New Belgium employees in 2013. Jordan traced her inclusive leadership style to her upbringing, recalling her attendance at a Quaker high school at which students spent 20 minutes each day cleaning and performing other chores to keep the school running. “The notion was that it takes everyone pulling together to build and maintain a community,” she said.

By the time Jordan transitioned out of the CEO role in 2015, New Belgium was already the country’s fourth largest brewer of craft beer, according to the Brewers Association. She continued as executive chair of the board at New Belgium until 2019, when employees voted to approve the sale of the business to Kirin, a Japanese beverage company.

From its early days, New Belgium has had close connections to CSU. In a statement supporting Jordan’s nomination for the honorary doctorate, Jack Avens, professor emeritus of food science and nutrition, notes that he met Jordan when she was a CSU undergraduate enrolled in his animal science course.

When Avens started the university’s first course in brewing science and technology, Jordan helped establish connections to the company by hosting fieldtrips, donating equipment, funding research, and encouraging New Belgium brewing professionals to share their knowledge. Later, Jordan wrote a letter in support of offering a new CSU major in fermentation science and technology. In 2015, paid equal shares in a $1 million donation to the university to create the New Belgium Brewing Fermentation Science and Technology Laboratory.

Lise Youngblade, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, which includes the School of Social Work and the fermentation science and technology program, said Jordan is “incredibly deserving” of this recognition.

“She embodies characteristics that are cherished at CSU — she is hardworking, innovative, and dedicated to making the world a better place,” Youngblade said. “She has made significant and lasting contributions to CSU through her philanthropy and her service on the CSU Board of Governors. Her impact within and through CSU will be felt for decades to come.”

From the name of its flagship Fat Tire beer to early investments in solar and wind power, New Belgium been recognized for its efforts to build community and protect the environment. That includes the annual “Tour de Fat,” a costumed bike parade through the streets of Fort Collins, and investments in technology to produce beer efficiently and sustainably.

“One of the things I’ve tried to do and that New Belgium also tried was to be attentive across a broad swath of issues,” Jordan said. “That includes community service, environmental responsibility, and business best practices. I tried to really think of all of those domains in a comprehensive kind of way as we were choosing strategy, making decisions, and trying to figure out how to allocate time.”

That approach and an entrepreneur’s eye for opportunity continued serving Jordan after she joined the CSU System Board of Governors in 2016. Planning for the CSU Spur campus in north Denver, part of the $1 billion National Western Center redevelopment project, was already underway, and Jordan recalled discussions about the Board paying higher upfront costs to invest in a $34 million sewer-heat recovery system that would eventually — and efficiently — meet most of the heating and cooling needs for CSU Spur’s three buildings and several other buildings to be built at the Center.

Discussions about the energy project were difficult at times, Jordan said, with some Board members favoring caution. Jordan insisted on taking a close look at the numbers, and the Board went on to support the project, balancing acceptable risk against the potential for much greater rewards.

“We have a reputation as a university system that values sustainability and environmental stewardship,” Jordan said. “Sometimes you have to step out there and say, ‘we have this one time to make this choice. Let’s go ahead and be congruent with what matters to us.’”

The resulting sewer-heat recovery system, reported to be the largest system of its kind in North America, is now a highlight of sustainability tours at CSU Spur and the National Western Center. A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the system’s seamless operation and quoted Brad Buchanan, CEO of the National Western Center Authority, on its environmental upside: “the system saves the equivalent of six million passenger vehicles of emissions and five Olympic pools worth of water a year.”

President Parsons expressed gratitude for Jordan’s vision and leadership on the Board of Governors.

“All of us at CSU and across the System have benefitted from Kim’s tremendous expertise,” Parsons said. “She is a remarkable business innovator and community leader who keeps values front and center and makes all of us better.”

Beyond business and higher education leadership, Jordan has demonstrated a willingness to “step out there” in her philanthropic endeavors. In 2013, she and her sons sold the balance of their ownership in New Belgium to her co-workers and started what became the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation, which supports land and water stewardship, including the development of sustainable food systems and renewable energy, focusing primarily on Colorado, California’s Bay Area, and the Intermountain West.

Mighty Arrow is a leader in “trust-based” philanthropy, an approach that involves partnering with organizations doing important work and giving them flexibility to take the long view in advancing toward their goals.

CSU has frequently benefitted from Jordan’s philanthropic efforts. Including the $1 million gift for the Fermentation Science and Technology Laboratory, she, the foundation, and New Belgium have donated nearly $6 million to CSU.

She’s also given her time. She was the commencement speaker in 2018 for the College of Health and Human Sciences and has given lectures on campus. In a keynote at the 2023 Leadership in Social Work Speaker Series, she talked about the ways that studying social work, which offers a “generalist perspective” and a “systems-theory bent,” helped her develop the broad capabilities she needed to be an effective CEO.

Jordan has been recognized both on and off campus for her many achievements. In 2017, she received the College of Health and Human Sciences honor alumna award, and the next year she was presented with William E. Morgan Alumni Achievement Award at CSU’s Distinguished Alumni Awards dinner. She has also received the Colorado Governors Citizenship Medal for Growth and Innovation, the Brewers Association Recognition Award, and the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership Conservation Achievement Award. In February, she was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame.

Preparing to accept an honorary degree at the University-wide Commencement celebration, the first such celebration CSU has held since 1998, Jordan reflected on the importance of higher education and the significance of the degree she is receiving.