Nearly 60 years after graduating from a class of 39 students at Estes Park High School where he was student council president, Charles S. McNeil – known to all as Charlie – was inducted Thursday night into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame.
McNeil attended the Colorado School of Mines in Golden where he graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mining engineering.
Recognized for his success as a business entrepreneur and philanthropist, McNeil was selected as one of this year’s laureates by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain, Inc.
“I’m so glad we live in a country that fosters the ability to start a business and grow our economy. Not everyone has those kinds of freedom. I started in my basement 35 years ago with my wife as my assistant. I risked my kid ‘s savings for college. Fortunately, it all worked out,” McNeil said after having accepted the award.
McNeil joins four other living recipients and one Colorado pioneer as 2025 inductees.
Since 1991, McNeil has been the CEO of NexGen Resources, a natural resources company he founded and personally funded. He is a licensed professional engineer and a member of the Society of Mining Engineers of AIME. He currently serves on the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum Board, is a member of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Society, the Western Energy Alliance, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.
McNeil actively serves the Denver community as a member and past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Denver Area Boy Scouts, and has served on the boards of the Employers Council, Craig Hospital Foundation (2019 PUSH Gala Chairs), Common Sense Institute, Steamboat Institute, Cherry Hills Farm, and Arapahoe House for Substance Abuse (honored as 2007 Pillars of the Community).
He has also been involved with the Sewall Childhood Development Center, Kempe Foundation for Abused Children and the Children’s Diabetes Foundation (High Hopes Award at 2011 Carousel Ball), Volunteers of America (Western Fantasy 2019 Gala Chairs and 2023 Humanitarian Award Honorees), the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and was recognized as the 2010 Cherry Hills Villager of the Year.
McNeil has been honored by the National Boy Scouts of America as a Distinguished Eagle Scout and was honored with the Mines Distinguished Achievement Medal in 1998. At Mines, he is a member of the Foundation Board of Governors, the President’s Council, the Guggenheim Society, and was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Board of Trustees.
In 2020, he and his wife, Judith, contributed a $5 million endowment to the Colorado School of Mines to instill entrepreneurial and business principles and foster innovative thinking through the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at McNeil Hall.
At the time the couple provided the gift they stressed their belief in entrepreneurship as a means to professional and personal success and desire to ensure that every student at Colorado School of Mines has the opportunity to learn and grow through instruction and hands-on experiences with entrepreneurism.
Other laureates inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame were Water Isenberg, co-founder of Sage Hospitality Group, Kim Jordan, co-founder of New Belgium Brewery, Anita Padilla-Fitzgerald, founder of MegaStar Financial Corp and owner of MegaStar Holdings for real estate, and Earl S. Wright, co-founder of Asset Management Group, now known as AMG National Corp. Prospector, miner, and philanthropist Winfield Scott Stratton, who discovered the Independence Loade near Victor on July 4, 1891 and became the Cripple Creek Mining District’s first millionaire in 1894, was named Pioneer Laureate.