David Duran, graduate of the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business celebrated in alumni publication, Intergistic Intel, for success seen through his leadership as CEO of Meritech.
GOLDEN, Colo., Aug. 20, 2020 -- David Duran, CEO of Meritech and graduate of the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business EMBA program, was recently featured in an alumni publication, Intergistic Intel. This publication was launched to provide a forum to share information, connect and create a dialogue with former Daniels College of Business students, colleagues, and friends who are seeking reliable, centralized information on how to best operate during these turbulent times.
For 30 years Meritech has been leading the fight in infection control for customers in food production, pharmaceuticals, education, hospitality, and healthcare around the globe. Meritech’s touchless, fully automated handwashing stations assure a complete hygiene event removing 99.9% of harmful pathogens in a 12-second wash. It obviously is the right product at the right time and the CEO of Meritech is David Duran. David’s focus on values, culture, teamwork, and organizational agility has certainly made him the right leader at this very crucial time. David, who has been with Meritech for 14 months and started with the company as its CEO about 10 months prior to the pandemic, says he “believes strongly in what Meritech does.” Further, he says, “Meritech’s processes, products, and culture give me great satisfaction.” He goes on to explain that Meritech is comprised of people who are invested in the company’s core values -- Accountability, Growth, Integrity, Laughter, and Empathy. “Each one of these plays a big part in the organizational identity we are working on creating. We have plenty of improvement to make and work to do to become the organization we want to be. But again, the journey itself is rewarding and almost addictive to me.”
Headquartered in Golden, CO, Meritech manufactures all products in the U.S. while continually advancing the science of handwashing as a key element in the fight against disease. Meritech has over 6,000 installations in industries that include: Food and beverage production, pharmaceuticals and cleanrooms, hospitals, cruise ships, cannabis, food service, schools, and
Fourteen months ago, when David joined Meritech, nobody had heard of COVID. “We have been consistent in our messaging through this pandemic. We have no interest in being ‘opportunistic’ to take advantage of any collective panic in the market. Meritech has been in business for 30 years and through this pandemic, we remain committed to our mission of making the world a safer and healthier place by redefining human hygiene. There are many dangerous pathogens that we must protect ourselves from. This isn’t the first and won’t be the last pandemic or outbreak. The importance of effective human hygiene has always been high and always will be. What we are experiencing is a more receptive audience to our message. Throughout this pandemic, our message has been ‘facts over fear, clean hands, open hearts’.”
Emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community, David says that as CEO, “We wanted to find a non-profit partner that we developed a long term strategic relationship over the course of years and hopefully decades. We followed an internal process based on nominations and voting rounds to select this partner based on their alignment with our core values.
Meritech employs about 50 employees and has its equipment manufacturing facility as well as all management and support roles in Golden. “We have Regional and Territory Managers, as well as a team of Service Technicians, spread around the country ensuring that all customers are being served to the highest level of satisfaction. We are growing this team rapidly and plan to expand our reach as we continue the execution of our strategy. Additionally, we have a network of international distributors covering over 40 countries.”
The process resulted in us partnering with Developmental FX. Our purpose for this partnership is two-fold: First, we wanted a third-party organization with a higher purpose, not motivated by market dynamics, to be our accountability partner. We want them to get to know Meritech deeply and be in a position to “call us out” if we ever start deviating from our intended organizational identity or culture. If we start moving away from our WHY, or our AGILE values, we expect them to tell us and challenge us directly to get back on track. Second, we wanted to give ourselves collectively, and each Meritech employee individually, a further reason to feel pride in belonging to something bigger than ourselves. We wanted to use some of our growth to support a single cause that moved us and gave us even more drive to excel. Developmental FX is an absolutely incredible organization focused on improving the lives of thousands of children and their families. Their mission and work are a source of inspiration to us.“ Employing leadership lessons from the Daniels EMBA program, David says, “So many of the lessons learned at Daniels during my EMBA have been instrumental in the development and execution of the strategy at Meritech. The concepts learned during the program, especially those presented by Scott McLagan and Kerry Plemmons, both Professors of the Practice, absolutely work. A couple of quotes that have stayed with me and guide my approach daily are:
“Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase sense of power among those who are led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.”
“Your job as a leader is not to react to the future but to create the future.”
“Great leaders motivate by creating an environment where people self-motivate.”
“Great leaders don’t decide. They decide on how to decide.”
In summary, David says: “These are just a few concepts that are in my mind daily. I couldn’t give enough credit to DU. The EMBA program absolutely gave me the tools, and the confidence, to do what I do today. I’ll always be grateful to the faculty for that.”