Scott Romano sits at his desk, reflecting on the journey that led him to this corner office, in the proverbial C-suite of a statewide nonprofit
He recounts the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing business landscape that thrust him into stressful, but high-impact roles. He talks about the people that helped him grow and the relationships he still leans on.
It’s been a blur.
He’s admittedly young to be the CEO of a statewide nonprofit. He graduated from the Daniels College of Business less than a decade ago. Rapidly becoming a CEO wasn’t in his plans.
“Part of me is like, ‘yeah I can’t believe this it’s true.’ But the other part of me is like, ‘No, I went to Daniels, of course this is the way it worked out,’” said Romano (BSBA 2020), who graduated with degrees in International Business and Economics.
Romano was recently named the CEO of Energize Colorado, a nonprofit that provides lending, resources and advising to small businesses across the state. In 2025, the group provided $2.5 million in lending to 36 small businesses across 18 counties.
Romano joined the company in May 2020 as chief operating officer, shortly after he graduated from the University of Denver. The move itself was unexpected, as Romano was planning on moving to New York City for an opportunity that ultimately fell through. To regain his balance and leaned on his network.
The connections he made at Daniels would point Romano to Energize Colorado, which was focused on COVID-19 recovery efforts at the time, helping provide financial support, pandemic guidance and even distributing masks and face shields to the state’s small business community.
This was a huge undertaking, and Romano credits his time at Daniels with providing him the framework to find creative solutions to tough problems.
“I was really lucky as a Daniels student because we were always running a business while we were students,” Romano said, referring to experiences in Entrepreneurship@DU, which was called Project X-ITE at the time. “After we learned things in the classroom, we had a nearly 24-hour turnaround time on being able to implement and test them in our own business. You’re in a constant sandbox mode where you always get to apply the things you’re learning.”
While on campus, Romano was a constant presence at E@DU, where he would ultimately serve as an advisory board member, helping mentor his peers. He’d lean heavily into relationship building, volunteerism and skill-building while at DU, all things he uses constantly in his new role as CEO.
“It wouldn’t have been possible without Daniels because of the network and the connections. And the people I still stay in touch with are really what helped make this happen,” he said. “Daniels and the entrepreneurship program provided such a good training ground that let me go into a lot more of this work a lot more confidently at [age] 23 or 24—more than I probably would have been able to without a lot of that [exposure].”
This is part of the promise of The Daniels Effect. While most institutions promise leadership, impact and transformation, Daniels delivers. The College is a working lab, where students like Romano interface with industry experts and learn by doing. It’s also a network that is visible every day and stays with you forever, Romano said.
“There’s never a room where I’m not in it with at least another Daniels graduate,” he said “Last night I was with a group of six national bankers I’d never met and two of them were Daniels graduates. Neither of them even lives in Colorado anymore, but you just find them everywhere.”
In his new role, Romano has his eyes set on a fundraising campaign to continue helping rural startups grow into established small businesses. The nonprofit is looking specifically at the manufacturing industry in Colorado, supporting everything from a company that builds skis for U.S. Special Forces, to a rum distiller and a bike rack maker.
He’ll take it on with the support of Daniels at his back, as he’s still very much plugged into the community on campus. He routinely bounces ideas off his old professors, speaks in classes and grabs a drink at Beans Coffee Shop inside the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management.
The connections he made at Daniels during his undergraduate education have borne fruit long after he donned a cap and gown.
“Being able to go back to past faculty and get their perspective on these things is really helpful,” he said, adding that the access to subject matter experts is invaluable. “It’s something that you can really only get out of academia.”