"The MADman"
William P. Marino, husband, father, entrepreneur, and public servant, leads the Lakewood-West Colfax Business Improvement District (BID) and is a champion for 40 West Arts District, serving as Board Chair. Marino is also a founder of The Creativity Lab of Colorado—another 501(c)3 nonprofit serving individuals and groups seeking to bolster their creative economy through creative district formation. Prior to creating The Lab and spearheading the BID and 40 West Arts initiatives, Marino launched and sold multiple companies in the publishing and technology sectors, served as a two-term planning commissioner, and chaired numerous task forces on economic development, community planning, and land use. A teacher at heart and a lifelong student of creativity and quantum physics, he seeks unifying solutions through “purposeful friction”—a collision of contrasting views—which despite inevitable uncertainty, has the potential for the ground-breaking results. Recipient of CBCA’s John Madden Leadership Award (2015) and Americans for the Arts Michael Newton Award for Leadership (2018), Marino is a published author and has been a speaker on entrepreneurship, business strategies, and community engagement—until a stroke during the pandemic impacted his ability to speak articulately for a year. He persevered with speech therapies to build new neuropathways to regain his speech; Still in the process of recovery, he continues to try his best to make a difference, serving on the boards of 40 West Arts, Lakewood’s Housing Authority, W. Colfax Community Assoc., and a number of start-up companies. After living and working in Florida, California, England, and Australia, Marino now lives in Lakewood, CO, with wife Jane of 45 years, and their mixed-breed dog, Frankie.
Why is Marino The MADman? MAD is an acronym, a reminder & guiding principle: "Make A Difference."
“Sensei Y-Not"
Kevin Kazuhiro Yoshida, entrepreneur, architect, and designer, joined with Marino to co-found The Creativity Lab in 2015, working together over the last decade to help leaders in numerous Colorado communities—from Sterling to Trinidad and Grand Lake to Grand Junction—advance their creative district movements. Yoshida, a Denver native who received his architectural degree from the University of Southern California, returned to practice architecture in Colorado in 1994. He has earned a reputation as an insightful designer who upholds both ethics and aesthetics. He is focused on developing relationships with people and organizations that share the core values of questioning, challenging, and disrupting the status quo. As an active advocate for his community, Yoshida serves as the Board President of the Lakewood-West Colfax Business Improvement District, as a member of the Board of Directors for 40 West Arts District, as planning commissioner for the City of Golden, Colorado, and as an Govenor appointee to Colorado Creative Industries, a division of State of Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Why is Kevin " Sensei Y-not"? Ideas that change our world often start with challenging the status quo and asking: "why not?"
