OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Trinity Wells – Chair
Trinity Wells - Board Chair
Trinity Wells – Board Chair
Trinity has made a career of leveraging financial analysis to facilitate strategic discussions for clients in the technology, government and nonprofit sectors. She began her career in investment banking (George K. Baum & Company, 2006 – 2013), structuring over $1 billion in capital project financings for education and nonprofit institutions. Now she works as an independent financial consultant (TJL Consulting LLC, 2013 – present) helping clients strategically navigate and manage growth, acquisition or change.
An avid outdoorswoman, she can be found setting first skin tracks, backpacking with her baby daughter on her chest, or climbing with friends. In 2011, Trinity took a year-long sabbatical in the form of a (virtually unprecedented) adventure where she and two friends thru-hiked up the spine of South America. In recognition of her trip and contribution of scientific data collected along the way, Trinity was awarded the Spirit of Adventure Award in 2016 by her alma mater, Colorado College, which “recognizes an alumnus/a who exemplifies the unique CC experience through a life of intellectual, social, or physical adventure.”
Prior to joining the Paradox Sports board in 2015, Trinity served on the boards of two wilderness-focused nonprofits – cityWILD (Denver, CO), which provides at-risk youth with wilderness service learning opportunities, and Pacific Biodiversity Institute (Winthrop, WA), which focuses on land preservation in South America.
She resides in her mountain playground, Nederland, CO, with her husband Jake, young daughter Atlantis, and black and fuzzy adventure pup, Pali.
D.J. Skelton
D.J. Skelton
D.J. Skelton
DJ Skelton grew up in Elk Point, SD. He briefly attended the University of South Dakota before embarking upon an unorthodox path of serving our Nation over the past two decades. His energy, leadership, sense of adventure and inspiration has gained him National and Global recognition.
DJ enlisted in the United States Army in 1996 as an interrogator and is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). In 1999 he was nominated to attend the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY, and commissioned in 2003 as a 2LT. After graduating from Infantry Officer Basic Course and Airborne school, DJ was severely wounded in November, 2004, while leading a rifle infantry platoon in Charlie Company, 1-5 IN BN, 1st BDE of the 25th ID in close combat in Fallujah, Iraq.
During his recovery DJ was introduced to the adaptive climbing community and subsequently co-founded Paradox Sports, where he currently serves on the Board of Directors.
Craig Smith
Craig Smith
Craig Smith
Craig R. Smith is Chairman of the Board of Owens & Minor, a Fortune 500 Company and a leading healthcare logistics company dedicated to Connecting the World of Medical Products to the Point of CareTM by providing vital supply chain services to healthcare providers and manufacturers of healthcare products. With logistics platforms strategically located in the United States and Europe, Owens & Minor today serves markets where three quarters of global healthcare spending occurs.
Craig was named Chairman of the Board in April 2013. Prior to that, he served as Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, from April 2013 until August 2013, when he relinquished the president’s title. He was named Chief Executive Officer in July 2005, after serving as President & Chief Operating Officer since 1999. Craig was also named to the Owens & Minor board of directors in 2005.
Craig has been active in the healthcare industry and in the community as a volunteer. He served as a governor‘s appointee on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership Authority from July 2010 to June 2013. He also served on the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business Executive Advisory Council, and is a past member of the Board of Directors of CrossOver Ministry of Richmond, which provides healthcare services to those in need. In addition, Craig served as the Chairman of the successful 2009 Central Virginia United Way Campaign. Currently, Craig serves on the University of Southern California’s Board of Leaders and on the Board of Alumni and Friends for Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History from the University of Southern California, and completed the executive program at the Colgate Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.
Mr. Smith and his wife, Cynthia, have two sons.
Price Floyd
Price Floyd
Price Floyd
Price Floyd is a native of Fort Worth, Texas and grew up spending as much time as he could outdoors – with the Boy Scouts, hiking and skiing in New Mexico and Colorado (the mountains weren’t quite big enough in Texas) and is now trapped in Washington, DC.
Price has extensive communications experience at the most senior levels of government and the private sector. He was most recently a senior public relations expert with Blue Engine Message and Media where he worked with Fortune 100 companies, non-profits and advocacy campaigns. From 2010 to 2014 he served as Vice President of Communications, responsible for Internal Communications and Global Digital Strategy, for BAE Systems.
Immediately prior to joining BAE Systems, Price was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (PDASD) from April 2009 until August 2010. In this role he served as staff advisor and assistant to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense for public information, internal information and community relations. Floyd led the worldwide public affairs community of approximately 2,400 military and civilian personnel. In this capacity, he transformed the Defense community into a digital leader in communications, launching all of the Defense Department’s social media platforms and creating an engaged and proactive public affairs workforce.
From 2007 through 2009 Floyd led the communications efforts for the Center for a New American Security. He promoted their policy initiatives and helped to transform it, from founding, into one of the pre-eminent national security organizations in the United States.
At the U.S. Department of State Price Floyd held several positions between 1990 and 2007. His final position was Director of Media Affairs, in which capacity he led the day-to-day relations with the media and developed and implemented media strategies to promote the foreign policy agenda of the Department. This included everything from the war in Iraq and elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the responses to natural disasters, such as the tsunami in Indonesia and the earthquake in Pakistan.
Price is married to Elizabeth Waters, a psychotherapist and attempts to keep up with her and their three teenage children. He does a couple of triathlons a year and wishes he could do Crossfit 24/7.
Rebecca Boozan
Rebecca Boozan
Rebecca Boozan
Rebecca grew up in Vermont and fell in love with the outdoors at an early age, running, biking, hiking, camping, and skiing in the woods and ski area by her house. Rebecca headed west to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder while starting a cleaning business to help fund tuition.
Thriving on giving back, Rebecca has always been involved in various volunteering endeavors whether it’s helping to build playgrounds for local schools, taking people up their first Colorado 14er or helping individuals fundraise money for Team In Training and train to run their first marathon.
After college, Rebecca backpacked and biked through Europe, trekked in Patagonia and climbed Kilimanjaro before starting her professional career in sales and marketing. Her love for endurance sports (competing in Ironman triathlons and ultra running) and talking to people quickly led her to working for technology companies in Boulder, CO and currently she is a Regional Manager for ChronoTrack, specializing in registration and timing technology for endurance events.
Maury Birdwell, ESQ.
Maury Birdwell, ESQ.
Maury Birdwell, ESQ.
Maury is an Oklahoma native who quickly discovered the outdoors at a young age as an escape and mechanism for self development. The local Wichita Mountains wilderness area served as his venue for hiking and backpacking and soon matured into a life long fixation with climbing. He guided rock climbing outings in college and has summited peaks from Canada to Patagonia, Switzerland, and more. He loves sharing his passion with others and seeing the transformative power that a mother nature fueled pursuit can have in someone’s life.
After a ‘brief three year exile’ on the east coast to earn his law degree from Georgetown University, Maury made his home in Boulder, Colorado, where he runs a law practice focused on business, entrepreneurship, and non-profit development. He thrives on advising businesses and organizations and guiding their growth with reasoned thought, advice, and sometimes a touch of devil’s advocacy. In 2012 he co-founded and continues to serve as the Executive Director of the Honnold Foundation, which supports projects from the perspective of “improving lives through sustainability.”
Judd MacRae
Judd MacRae
Judd MacRae
Judd fell in love with the outdoors after he participated in a NOLS backcountry skiing course as a teenager. Shortly thereafter he graduated high school, packed his car and started a 10 year career guiding wilderness trips for organizations such as Outward Bound and Wilderness Inquiry. During this time he found climbing and developed a deep appreciation and love for the confidence, joy and grit that it fosters.
During this period he met his wife. The desire to be home more led him to pursue a career in finance and accounting. Judd started his finance career doing a private equity roll up of retail stores, working both on deal due diligence and post-acquisition integration. From there he joined Richtr Financial Studio – a CO & CA CPA firm providing complete accounting solutions to tech, life science and aerospace companies. Judd is now a Partner at Richtr serving as a fractional CFO to help companies with capital formation strategies and effectively scale thereafter.
Judd holds a Bachelors of Science in Business and a Masters in Accounting from Colorado State University. He lives in Lafayette, CO with his wife and two kids and still climbs, runs and skis as much as possible.
Jake Gaventa
Jake Gaventa
Jake Gaventa
Jake Gaventa hails from the hills of East Tennessee where he was introduced to rock climbing in high school by an inspired teacher. This love has lent itself to many years of vagabond adventures to the mountains of Europe, Asia, Alaska, and (almost!) every range in the lower 48. But more importantly his pursuits have yielded countless smiles, shared laughter, sunrises, sun burns, strong bonds and memories made with humanity. Jake feels strongly that mountains and the vertical world should be accessible and shared by all.
Sharing his passion for the outdoors has been thread through adult life. Jake has a BA in Outdoor Education and Environmental Studies from Prescott College. He has worked for Outward Bound, adjunct faculty at Prescott College, ski patroller, and a guide in the mountains. Currently he is a full time guide and Custom Program Manager with Colorado Mountain School. He shares his life with a wonderful wife and a loud little girl with a curious interest in knots near Nederland, Colorado.
Julie Yates
Julie Yates
Julie Yates
An experienced fundraising professional and educator with a passion for making the world a more equitable and inclusive place, Julie has more than two decades of demonstrated success in the areas of philanthropy, relationship building, strategic thinking, and whole-person education. Julie was recently appointed Development Director at the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC), a Denver nonprofit with extensive experience in challenging discrimination of people with disabilities. Prior to CREEC, Julie worked for 18 years in various teaching and administrative positions at an outdoor-focused, independent boarding school in the White Mountains of NH, most recently directing the largest fundraising campaign in that school’s history.
Julie’s prior board service includes the Bethlehem Elementary School Board, Compas de Nicaragua, The Frost Place, and Bretzfelder Park Committee. Additionally, Julie enjoys time with her husband and their two adult children. She loves the outdoors, spending as much time as possible hiking, running, biking, or wandering aimlessly in the woods, fields, and streams. Julie also enjoys curling up with a good book, a cup of tea, and her two cats.
Graduating from Smith College, MA with a B.A. in Biology, Julie and later earned her M.S. in Science Education from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Malcolm Daly
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Co-Founder
Malcolm Daly
Maclolm Daly
Malcolm Daly is an icon in the outdoor world with 35 years of outdoor industry and non-profit experience. Malcolm was a co-founder of Paradox Sports, served as the executive director for five years and currently serves on the advisory committee. Better known for his affability, sense of humor and to-the-point insight, Malcolm’s wide-ranging business, outdoor sports and non-profit experience provides for a lively, entertaining and educational encounter. Malcolm is the founder of Great Trango Holdings, Inc. a leading supplier of innovative climbing equipment (Trango) and women’s activewear (Stonewear Designs). Starting the company from scratch in 1991 Daly built it into a multi-million dollar company doing business in 17 countries. During that time he started up two non-profits in the climbing world: the Access Fund, dedicated to retaining access to climbing resources and the Action Committee for Eldorado, a climber’s advocacy and liaison group specific to Eldorado Canyon State Park. Daly was an active board member of the Access Fund for thirteen years.
Timmy O’Neill
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Co-Founder
Timmy O'Neill
Timmy O’Neill
Timmy O’Neill is recognized as one of the world’s funniest, most irreverent and insightful climbing presenters, as well as a co-founder of Paradox Sports. He has climbed in the remote ranges of the world, completing first ascents from Greenland to Patagonia. His worldwide travels as well as adventures in community service and humanitarian work drives him today. In 1991, Timmy’s older brother Sean became a T-12 paraplegic after jumping from a Memphis Bridge into the Mississippi River. Fifteen years later, the O’Neill brothers successfully climbed El Capitan, a 3,000-foot vertical rock wall in Yosemite National Park. Since then, Timmy has kayaked, skied, climbed and hiked with numerous paraplegics, amputees and blind athletes. Timmy served as the executive director and board chair of Paradox Sports, and spearheaded the creation of the adaptive climbing manual, significantly increasing mission impact during his tenure. Timmy is currently a professional athlete and speaker.
