Ken Gart
Ken Gart
Partner, The Gart Companies
Ken has been a partner at The Gart Companies since its inception in 1992. Prior to that time, he was Co-President and Chief Merchandising Officer at Gart Bros. Sporting Goods, a family-owned and operated corporation, from 1983 to 1992. Ken started Specialty Sports Venture, LLC (SSV) in 1994 and built it to over 140 stores and into the nation’s leading specialty ski and bicycle retailer. SSV included Aspen Sports, Telluride Sports, Boulder Ski Deals, Colorado Ski and Golf and roughly 30 other trade names. The company was sold to Vail Resorts in 2010.
Ken was chairman of the Board of Denver Bike Sharing (DBA B-Cycle) where he was appointed to the position by then Governor John Hickenlooper. Denver B-Cycle was the first major city-wide bike sharing to launch in the US. Ken is currently chair of the Board for RPM Events Group which owns the Colorado Classic. The Colorado Classic is a women’s only global professional cycling competition. The goal of the Colorado Classic is about impacting the future around women’s empowerment and equity using the sport as an avenue for change in women’s sports.
The Gart Companies are closely held and family-owned with two primary businesses, commercial real estate and private equity. The commercial real estate portfolio includes more than 5 million square feet of retail shopping center space, primarily in Colorado. The private equity portfolio includes Powderhorn Mountain Resort, GolfTEC, a professional golf improvement retail business utilizing proprietary technology to provide high-tech indoor golf lessons with over 180 locations nationwide and over 20 locations outside of the United States and Work World, a retail business providing quality work apparel and footwear with 23 locations in California and Nevada as well as online sales.
Ken created the Colorado Community Trail Fund at Trust for Public Land with funding from Ben Walton. That fund is focused primarily as a catalyst for bike trails connecting high density and low-income neighborhoods to work, play and schools for their communities.
Ken has held various memberships, directorships and chairmanships with The Nature Conservancy, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Telluride Foundation, Colorado Conservation Trust, Denver Area Council Boy Scouts of America, Denver Metro Boys & Girls Clubs and the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. Further, he serves on numerous other non-profit boards and committees.
Ken attended Claremont Men’s College and graduated from Middlebury College and Stanford Graduate School of Business. He and his wife Rebecca have three children. Ken is an athlete, having climbed over 30 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, and is an enthusiast in the sports of skiing and cycling.