Richard Polk is president of Boulder’s 50-year-old Pedestrian Shops, noted for social programs and green business practices. Richard received a Pacesetter Award from the Daily Camera for leadership in business, the Ron Porter Lifetime Achievement Award from Downtown Boulder Inc., the Boulder County Business Hall of Fame, and the Local Business Hero Award from the Chamber of Commerce. While serving on Boulder’s City Council 2005-2007, he proposed a Solar Rebate ordinance that funds solar on affordable housing and non-profits. Richard chaired The Dairy Arts Center board for 18 years, leading its renovation. He is active with the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Boulder Partnership, Xcel Energy’s Renewable Energy Trust, and the Polk Family Charitable Fund. Richard attended the Dublin School in Dublin, N.H., and the University of Denver. A Chicago native, his first job was at Polk Brothers, then the world’s largest retailer of name brand furniture and appliances.
My advice to students...
After business and public service success, I've come to a surprising conclusion. I believe this year, 2020, is the Crazy before an Age of Abundance resulting from a convergence of global events. The two most relevant to career decisions will be the renewable energy transition and the realization that in our constantly smaller high-contact world, the good health and sustainability of less fortunate people is necessary for the more fortunate to be okay. The most important outcome of the transition will be less expensive clean energy for everybody, including the billion people not yet enjoying electrification. Transition opportunities are as diverse as renewable energy, electric vehicles including airplanes, batteries, and energy arbitrage. The lessons of COVID and climate change are that it has become an everybody or nobody world. The opportunities to be a part of that world are equally diverse.