Citywide Mentor-Protégé Program

view of city scape looking up from street on sunny day

The Citywide Mentor-Protégé Program is designed to develop long term business relationships between established prime contractors, certified minority and women-owned businesses (MWBEs) firms and city agencies. The program is driven by the overarching mission of encouraging the city’s utilization of certified MWBE firms on city professional services, construction, good and service projects.

Overview

As part of the City and County of Denver’s commitment to help expand the capacity of MWBEs, the city has created the Citywide Mentor-Protégé Program to help address some of the challenges faced by small firms as they pursue city contracting opportunities.

Through mentorship, MWBEs can learn from larger firms and develop the necessary skills to help scale their businesses. Through this program selected firms - mentors and protégés - gain valuable educational and networking opportunities, while interacting with participating city agencies.

The city does not match mentors and proteges--you must self-select your partner and submit one joint application. Pairings selected to participate must be committed to dedicating time and resources to successfully achieve goals outlined in their development plan.  

Upon successfully completing this program, firms will receive a certificate of completion and a badge to display on their website. 

Application

Applications are now open for the 2024 Mentor-Protégé program. Applications close June 3, 2024 at 5 p.m.

Apply today!

Mentors and Protégés must enter the program jointly and are expected to establish a mutually agreed upon development plan with input from the selected city agency for one year. 

Cohorts

Learn who participated in our 2022-2023 cohort down below.  

Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI)

Team 1 
Mentor: Muller Engineering Company | Protégé: Empowercom 

Team 2
Mentor: PCL Construction | Protégé: Burgess Services 

Denver International Airport (DEN)

Team 1
Mentor: HNTB Corporation | Protégé: Peak Consulting Group 

Team 2 
Mentor: HSS, Inc. | Protégé: American Automation Security

Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) 
Mentor: Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. | Protégé: SurvWest

Mayor's Office of the National Western Center (NWCO) 
Mentor: Flatiron Construction | Protégé: Ram-Co Trucking Services