By: Ernest Gurulé
One of life’s early wonders is looking up and seeing things flying across the sky. They could be birds, bugs or planes. It doesn’t matter; they fly. To a mind ready to absorb the world, flight fascinates. For Denver native, Everett Martinez, it was no different. But now, he’s planted himself at ground zero at one of the nation’s—the world’s—busiest transportation hubs where every single day, flight—once a fascination—is now simply a way of life—his life. Martinez is Denver International Airport’s new General Counsel.
Martinez might not have ever imagined himself punching the clock at DIA were it not for an unscheduled meeting he was asked to attend when he was a downtown Denver attorney doing public finance law. “I went there (DIA) with my boss,” he recalled.
There, he met DIA’s then Assistant General Counsel, Dan Reimer, a fellow he apparently impressed both with his knowledge of public finance and his air of confidence. About a week later, said Martinez, he got a phone call. It was Reimer, with a job offer. Both Dan Reimer and then General Counsel, Xavier DuRán were instrumental in helping Martinez join DEN.
At the time, Martinez thought, “It seemed like a dangerous leap.” On one side of the scale was job security. He was comfortable with just about everything at his firm. He liked the people he worked with, they liked him. The other side of the scale was the unknown. What to do? After giving it a lot of thought, he made his decision. “I just said, ‘What the heck. I’ll take the jump.’”
Of course, every job has its moments and turbulence along with the unknown lurk around a lot of corners. But in the main—emphasis on ‘main’—it’s been what pilots call, CAVU; Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited. In just six years, Martinez has risen from Assistant City attorney, then assistant General Counsel to General Counsel/Executive Vice President of DIA. And one of the visionaries who ‘imagined a great airport,’ thinks he’s the right man at the right time for the challenge.
“Ev is an outstanding lawyer,” said former Denver Mayor and Presidential Cabinet Secretary, Federico Peña. “He already understands the challenges,” of running an airport. Indeed, Martinez and his team will be greeted daily with a buffet of contract negotiations, bond financing issues, litigating and defending legal claims, ensuring compliance with federal, state and local law and things not yet even imagined. DIA, after all, is the world’s third busiest airport!
But Peña has full confidence in Martinez, saying he’s up to the task. Also, said the former Denver chief executive and first Latino to hold the city’s top job, Martinez will be the only Latino in the country to serve as General Counsel for a major transportation hub.
While Martinez considers himself an organized person, he knows the job is not a one-person undertaking. “If I need to delegate any task, they’ll (his team) get it done. One man can’t do it all.” And certainly, with DIA’s role in the transportation industry growing by the day, the airport dealing with remodeling and reconfiguring, new airlines entering the picture with others leaving and the country nearly back to pre COVID levels, his role will become ever more crucial. “DIA was built to handle 50 million passengers,” he said. Today, that number has soared to 70 million annual passengers.
Martinez journey began in North Denver, where parents Everett and Mary both stressed education. His father was a pharmacist and his mother worked alongside him. His parents, coincidentally, were both high school valedictorians. He also has two older sisters, Barbara Casey and Yolanda Martinez, the former a CPA, the latter a financial executive. Martinez says that because of the age difference between his sisters and him, he often feels like he was raised by ‘three mothers.’
Martinez journey from north Denver to DIA was—by any definition—unplanned. After graduating from Denver’s Holy Family High School, he attended the University of Colorado thinking that political science or psychology would be his ticket. But the plan was diverted when a college professor at CU, Glen Morris, suggested he consider law school. Law school had not occurred to him but he decided to give a shot. “I applied to the top ten” that a magazine had rated the best. “I got into all of them.” But Harvard, he said, called back first and that was the choice. It could not have turned out better.
Asked how his family reacted to being accepted to Harvard Law, Martinez stated “My mom always says, ‘we expect great things from you so I never made a fuss about it.’ But the fulfillment of those expectations came directly from the drive I saw in her. She worked 6 days a week, for 12 hours a day most of my childhood. My mom is bulletproof and my bestfriend.”
He quickly got over the culture shock. But another shock—a completely different kind—soon hit. “My father passed away two weeks before finals the first semester,” said Martinez. It was tough but he knew he had to marshal on; his father and his family would have wanted him to. Eighteen months later, he had
his law degree.
At Harvard, the ‘snootiness’ that he expected to find, never really materialized. “Harvard Law School has the nicest, down to earth people,” he said. But orienting himself took a bit of work. Denver and Cambridge are different worlds, he admits. Though each has their charm.
But besides a prestigious degree from perhaps the world’s premier law school, he also made lifelong friends and associates.
“The Dean of Students was Elena Kagan,” Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. Other friends include a variety of high ranking state and federal officials. “My classmates have done amazing things.”
Martinez’ curiosity about a life in the political arena was satisfied after a stint in then Ken Salazar’s Senate office. It was interesting but it wasn’t for him, and he settled down back in Denver and began his legal career. “I’ll do the law firm thing for a few years,” he thought. But the challenges of public finance law fit his makeup and he’d found his calling. It all paid off.
The north Denver kid still lives in the city. He enjoys working on a few properties he owns, enjoys the remodeling. In his free time, Martinez also admits he’s a long standing fan of The Beatles, so much so that he’s made a number of trips to London and, yes, taken the same walk that George, Paul, Ringo and John took for the iconic cover of the classic ‘Abbey Road’ album.
Martinez officially begins his job the second week of July. But first, he said, is to take his first business card and visit his father’s gravesite. There, he’ll have a private chat and thank him for everything, most especially the strong and solid foundation that brought him to this moment in time.
