Linda Alvarado

Co-owner, Colorado Rockies National League Team
Kids: Heather, Jennifer, Robert Jr. (teens)

Linda Alvarado is quite simply a business trailblazer. In the 1970s after working in construction, she decided to start her own company, Alvarado Construction. It was launched with money from Alvarado’s parents, who took a mortgage out on their home after no banks would loan to a woman entrepreneur. Two decades later, Alvarado’s firm is building high-rise office buildings and airport hangars in Denver. In the 1990s, Alvarado, along with a group of local Denver business owners, put in a bid for a National League expansion team to bring professional baseball to Denver. The group won and Alvarado became a co-owner of the Colorado Rockies—making her the first woman to become the owner of a professional sports team on her own (without inheriting a stake from her husband or family). Now at 57, she is a thriving entrepreneur. For her three teens that has meant access to lots of baseball in their hometown and a chance to see their mother leave her mark on Denver in many ways.