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Many entrepreneurs recognize their instincts from a young age, and that was no different for , a lifelong entrepreneur and intrapreneur.

His childhood was marked by a pattern of leadership, always ending up as captain of sports teams or club president, not particularly because of his talents, but his social skills.����

It all started in a pharmacy, a simple job that would become the spark for a lifetime of opportunity. When he noticed leftover inventory, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, and bandages, he didn’t let it go to waste. Instead, using his entrepreneurial instincts, he started taking those extra items to flea markets, selling them for a small profit and splitting the earnings with the pharmacist. The motivation didn’t just come from making a little extra cash, but about seeing a problem and finding a creative solution, a career-defining mindset.��

Today, Tombazian is based in Boulder, a return to his alma mater. After 20+ years in corporate leadership and strategic consulting, he now focuses on emotional intelligence-based leadership training, strategic differentiation, and sustainability curriculum for universities. But the journey that led him back here was filled with defining moments, each one shaping his career.

Developing his Roots in Boulder

When Tombazian moved to Boulder from Los Angeles in the 1970s, he immediately fell in love with the town’s energy and entrepreneurial spirit.

During his senior year at ����������, he was hired at the historic Hotel Boulderado as a busboy and bar-back at “The Catacombs.”�� Within six months, he was promoted to assistant manager, and soon after, General Manager. He followed that role with a similar experience at Boulder’s iconic fresh seafood restaurant, Pelican Pete’s.�� Being hired there as Boulder’s first full-time wine steward, and within 9 months being promoted to General Manager.��

What made him stand out wasn’t just his fast learning ability, but being a “systems thinker” before the term was popular.

“I was always looking for ways to solve problems and maybe work across department lines. Even back then, I didn’t have a name for it, but it was about creating systems that made everyone’s job easier and the experience better for everyone.”

He constantly asked,��How can we make this place better? By focusing on key factors like customer and employee satisfaction and engagement, he helped transform Catacombs and Pete’s into a model of service and innovation. Leading by example, he created processes and standards, reflecting not just good restaurant management but entrepreneurship in action.

Building on that foundation, Tombazian pursued his MBA at ���������� Boulder and soon set his sights on the business world, ready to take his leadership and creativity to a larger stage.

Scaling his Talents

Towards the latter part of his MBA, he landed a staff position with The Taylor Group, an innovative Boulder consulting firm specializing in creative strategic planning. The founder, Matt Taylor, was trained as an architect at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in Arizona. Naturally, the foundational principles of the firm were rooted in architectural design long before “design thinking” became mainstream. Additionally, Matt’s wife was a school teacher steeped in learning theory, which became the backbone of their 3–5-day strategic planning process.

Tombazian thrived in this environment, using his natural curiosity and cross-functional mindset to help organizations reimagine how they approached growth and innovation. When one of their corporate clients sought strategic guidance, they were so impressed that they offered to acquire the entire firm just to bring its creative thinking in-house.��

“They said, ‘We need more of your time to trickle this down through the rest of our organization.’ We said, ‘We can do that, but we’re busy.’ They said, ‘Well, to hell with that, we’ll buy you.’”

Originally, Tombazian didn’t take them seriously. But, fast-forward six weeks later, and The Acacia Group (the client) sent a check for $250,000 and acquired the firm. Tombazian and his team moved from Boulder to Washington, D.C., where they were set up on the top floor of a building across from the U.S. Capitol.

This move marked the beginning of his corporate career. Once again, he showcased his profound ability to lead with care and think creatively, becoming an Acacia Group Vice President and an elected corporate officer. Through these roles, he developed new competencies in leading large company strategic innovation and organizational transformation.

After several years in Washington, Tombazian transitioned west to Arizona, where he spent nine years with Avnet, the Fortune 150 global technology distribution company. There, he served as Director of Strategic Planning and later, Vice President of the Voice of the Customer Office, overseeing international operations and refining how the company connected with clients worldwide. This new team was responsible for engaging customers in North America and centralizing customer data that was spread across different silos in Avnet.��

It was the perfect culmination of everything he had learned, from hospitality and consulting to leadership and innovation.

Since leaving Avnet in 2009, Charlie has focused his consulting around three core specialties: differentiating strategy, customer and employee experience, and emotional-intelligence-based leadership development.

Coming Full Circle

After years of success in corporate America, Tombazian felt it was time to come home. In 2021, he and his wife, Debbie, moved back to Boulder, completing the full circle that had started nearly half a century earlier.

“My sister followed me here in the ’80s when I came to school at ����������. She never left. As we got older, we wanted more time together. My wife loved Boulder whenever we visited, so I said, ‘We’re there.’”

Back in Boulder, Tombazian reconnected with the Fiske Planetarium, where he had once worked as part of the original staff during graduate school. Today, he continues to create and collaborate on new programs there, including music and seasonal shows, and was recently recognized at Fiske’s 50th anniversary as the only original staff member.��

But his biggest focus now is sustainability and education, with an emphasis on the sustainability curriculum for ����������. He has become a driving force behind Boulder Filmmaker, Nathan Havey’s documentary,��Beyond Zero. The film, now used by over 500 universities worldwide, is paired with a curriculum that Tombazian helped design.

“It’s unbelievable what you can do when you think about a problem and solve it in a way that serves not just customers or shareholders, but all stakeholders, including the Earth.”

Through this work, he’s teaching future leaders more than sustainability itself and how to think ethically and apply it to everyday activities.

That mission brought him into contact with Erick Mueller. The two connected over their shared belief that entrepreneurship is about solving real problems and building with purpose. Tombazian shared with Mueller a book he helped co-author,��Timeless Wisdom: An Advanced Degree from the School of Hard Knocks, a collection of stories from 23 entrepreneurs on lessons learned through experience.

The book, now part of the Deming Center’s library, embodies the power of lived experience, representing what Tombazian is all about.��

For him, returning to Boulder was a full-circle moment. Starting from his early days managing The Catacombs and ending with mentoring the next generation of sustainable entrepreneurs, Boulder remains the place where his purpose continues to evolve.

Tombazian has been in all realms of the intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial world. All in all, to him, entrepreneurship is not about titles or trends, but about seeing problems and creating solutions, making the world a better place for everyone.