Kawanabe, Markey, and Martin join CSU System Board of Governors

The Colorado General Assembly on February 23 confirmed the appointment of three new members to the Colorado State University System Board of Governors: Denver attorney Kenzo Kawanabe, cattle industry executive Louis Martin, and former Congressional Representative Betsy Markey. Colorado Governor Jared Polis nominated the three new members for the governing board seats.

The Board of Governors is the governing body for the CSU System and its three campuses: Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado State University Pueblo, and CSU Global, the nation’s first fully online public university. The Board also oversees the new CSU Spur campus, a public facing educational campus, that opened in January at the National Western Center in Denver.

The three new members will take the oath of office at the next regular meeting of the CSU System Board of Governors in May.

Kenzo Kawanabe

Kenzo Kawanabe is an equity partner with Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, where he represents individuals and businesses in commercial disputes, shareholder disagreements, mass torts, product liability, construction, environmental matters, and intellectual property concerns. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and teaches at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.

A fourth-generation Coloradan from the San Luis Valley, he is a former Boettcher Scholar and 1994 graduate of the University of Colorado, where he majored in political science. He graduated in 1997 from the Georgetown University Law Center.

He currently serves on the Boettcher Foundation Board, the boards of the Sakura Foundation and Sakura LLC, the Colorado Legal Services Board, the Colorado Lawyers Committee, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice. He is a member of the Tri-State Buddhist Temple and has previously served on boards for the Denver Foundation, the Center for Legal Inclusiveness, the Colorado Legal Aid Foundation, the Community Resource Center, and the Education Committee of the Rose Foundation.

He lives in Denver with his wife and two daughters.

Betsy Markey

Betsy Markey’s career has spanned more than 30 years in the government and private sector. She was elected as a Member of Congress in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, representing Larimer, Weld and 24 additional counties on the eastern plains. She served on the Agriculture and Transportation Committees for the state legislature.

Betsy was appointed by President Obama as the Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington DC. She facilitated a direct line of communication between the department and governors, mayors and tribal leaders across the country.  During the President’s second term she was appointed the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) based in Denver, where she oversaw the delivery of the agency’s small business programs and services in Colorado, Montana, North and South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Most recently, Betsy was appointed by Governor Polis as the Executive Director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. She retired in 2021 and now consults with companies looking to establish a presence in Colorado.

In the late-1980s, Betsy and her husband launched a successful technology company, Syscom Services, which was one of the first companies to market email and expanded into the area of web design and web-based information management systems. She has served on a variety of non-profit boards, including Board President for the Food Bank for Larimer County and the World Trade Center Denver.

She holds a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Florida and a Master of Public Administration from American University.

She and her husband live in Fort Collins.

Louis Martin

Louis Martin of Rush, CO, has more than 40 years of experience in all aspects of the beef cattle industry, including seed stock and commercial cow-calf production, as well as cattle feeding and yearling grazing operations. Twenty-five of those years have involved general management, with broad-based experience in all facets of operating and managing a profitable ranching/agricultural business.

He is founder and CEO of Round River Resource Management, a professional land and livestock resource management business. His extensive career includes a long tenure as general manager/foreman of the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Center with the university’s Department of Animal Science.

He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal science from Texas A&M, with additional studies in holistic resource management and ranching for profit.

He is a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Colorado Livestock Association, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, Society of Range Management, Quivira Coalition, Holistic Management International, Ranching for Profit Executive Link, and is a recent recipient of the Excellence in Rangeland Conservation Award from the Colorado Section of the Society of Range Management.

Martin will serve as an agricultural representative on the Board.

Louis and his wife, Cathy, live on the Brett Gray Ranch near Rush.