“You just make the time,” Brad Busse says of community service. Photo: Wayne Armstrong
As president of RBC Daniels, Brad Busse (BS ’80) stays pretty busy. He’s one of the most seasoned investment bankers in the world of telecommunications and has completed some of the industry’s most significant transactions. But he still finds time to make an imprint where it’s needed.
“I felt I wanted to give back to my community,” Busse says, “and have been involved in a variety of things.”
That’s one way to put it.
This year’s Founders Day Community Service Award winner served as chairman of the board for the PCIA Foundation (the education and charitable arm of the Personal Communications Industry Association) from 1999–2001. From 2000–06, he served on the Governor’s Commission on Science and Technology for the state of Colorado. He’s on DU’s Athletic Affairs Committee, is chair of the executive advisory board of the Daniels College of Business, serves on the Governor’s Commission on Early Childhood Leadership for Colorado and is on the board of Mile High United Way, where he served as chair from 2008–10. He also chairs the CEO roundtable for Executives Partnering to Invest in Children.
“For the past two years, the community could not have had a better champion than Brad Busse,” says Christine Benero, president of Mile High United Way.
Chicago native Busse has been at it since he came to DU on a swimming scholarship. He eventually became team captain and was president of his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, during his senior year.
“I think my involvement with the University was a function of the support I got while I was there,” Busse says.
He’s carried on that involvement and then some, giving money and time to the school and state he’s come to love. And though he feels strongly about every organization he works with, he has a special affinity for early childhood care and education.
“That’s a passion my wife, Lisa, shares with me,” he says. Their two kids, 23-year-old Blake and 21-year-old Alison, have learned what it means to give back, regardless of how busy life becomes.
“You just make the time,” Busse says. “The investment banking business is a pretty demanding job, but you become pretty one-dimensional if all you do is work.”