The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce will work to improve its culture but found “no misconduct” in a third-party investigation following Denverite's reporting on complaints about high turnover and allegations of a toxic workplace.
“I took the allegations very seriously — as did (CEO and President J.J. Ament) and the entire leadership team,” wrote Mowa Haile, chairman of the Chamber’s board, in a statement obtained by Denverite. But the “four-month third-party investigation” found the “allegations at issue were not substantiated,” his statement continued.
Haile’s statement did not detail which allegations were assessed, how they were disproven or the scope of the four-month investigation, such as how many current or former employees were interviewed.
However, an internal document obtained by Denverite said that the organization is suffering a “growing strain on sustainability, trust, and retention,” based on the results of an internal survey. In response, the organization says it will make changes like hiring an external firm to help with human resources.
The internal survey was part of the Chamber's overall response to the Denverite investigation. It found concerns “that certain senior roles are viewed as exempt from accountability” and that “leadership double standards are significant trust barriers.” The survey also found positives, such as a dedicated workforce.
Denverite’s investigation found half the nonprofit’s staff departed from August 2024 to December 2025, with more than two dozen people quitting — some with new jobs, some without — or being laid off or fired. Some blamed Ament for fostering an unwelcoming culture, though a few defended him as a strong leader with high expectations.
The internal survey summary said the organization was not “keeping pace with employee expectations” in performance management, staffing levels, compensation fairness, leadership accountability and cross-department execution.
That’s contributing to “burnout risk” and “reduced confidence in the organization’s ability to retain high-performing employees,” the survey summary stated. But the firm that conducted the survey argued that dissatisfaction was not about Ament or on allegations raised in the Denverite article.
Key employees continue to leave. Kristen Blessman, the leader of Leadership Denver, will leave later this year. Leadership Denver — a well-respected leadership development program — faced blowback from alumni and participants after Ament and Blessman oversaw a shakeup of its staffing, including the reportedly acrimonious departure of former leader Jerome Davis.
Chamber officials said Blessman and others left for their own reasons.
“The Chamber is and should be a dynamic organization that encourages people to maximize their professional potential and personal ambition. Recent announcements reflect individual career decisions, including a planned leadership transition,” Haile said in an earlier statement.
In an email to Chamber staff, Blessman did not say why she was leaving, but cited accomplishments like alignment and partnership and new grant funding. In that announcement, Ament praised Blessman: “She made tough calls, took bold action, and did the hard work to position the Foundation and the Chamber for long-term success.”
HR director Monica Knickerbocker also resigned recently. Neither she nor Blessman immediately responded to requests for comment.
The internal survey was part of the Chamber’s ongoing efforts to improve, read a statement released by Cayti Stein, senior vice president of customer experience for the Chamber.
“The Board and leadership team are committed to evolving the Chamber’s operations for the benefit of our members, our employees and the communities we serve. That begins by listening and having the courage to act on what we hear,” the statement continued.
In response to the survey findings, the organization will make changes such as:
- Hiring an outside firm to help with human resources, internal processes and the overall employee experience
- And conducting semi-annual reviews to ensure the organization is aligned with its strategic plan and goals.
The internal survey was managed by a consultancy, Turning the Corner. Kendra Prospero, the firm’s CEO, said the survey highlighted “a team that is deeply invested in its mission, values their colleagues, and trusts their direct managers.”
In an email to Denverite, she wrote that employees had high marks for their direct manager and that many “feel connected” to the organization’s mission and work.
“While the survey identified real opportunities around staffing, compensation processes, and performance management systems, the Chamber’s overall workplace satisfaction ranks within the range of similar organizations surveyed by our firm,” Prospero wrote, adding the Chamber has a “strong organizational foundation on which to grow.”
What we reported earlier
Denverite’s investigation last year included interviews with 25 current and former employees. Among them, 18 reported negative experiences at the Chamber, many related to CEO and president J.J. Ament. The others were positive or neutral, while about a dozen more potential sources did not respond to interview requests.
A former human resources employee said: “A lot of the women came to me just saying (Ament) was very unprofessional, he yells, he diminishes you in front of people.”
Another former employee said that concerns about a toxic workplace had led state officials to move the region’s Small Business Development Center away from the Chamber, which had hosted it for nearly 40 years. State officials neither confirmed nor denied that allegation, and Chamber leaders said they never heard any concerns from the state.
Several former employees felt that women were more likely to be fired or treated harshly under Ament. Ament allegedly told one woman leader at a holiday party that he “didn’t care for” her; sources with direct knowledge said she was later effectively demoted and then fired for “insubordination.”
(The Chamber denied she was demoted, while Ament and another male employee said they couldn’t remember the incident and that Ament wouldn’t have behaved that way.)
Previously, Stein described allegations of misogyny as “a very large leap in judgment,” saying that none of the employee comments shared in the article reflected “an environment where women were targeted because they were women.” It was not misogyny, she wrote.
“Is every criticism or concern in a female-majority workplace by a male CEO automatically misogyny or toxic?” she wrote in an earlier statement. She said that much of the discontent may have been driven by tough but necessary changes, such as a five-day return-to-office mandate.
Other findings from the survey
In the internal survey summary, current employees appeared to echo some criticisms of Chamber leadership.
“Overall sentiment among commenters is predominantly negative or uncertain regarding trust in senior leadership’s ability to balance employee and organizational interests,” the summary stated. That includes “tension between stated value and observed behaviors.”
However, the summary said that dissatisfaction did not “center around” the allegations raised in the Denverite story “nor the CEO specifically.”
But Chamber leadership may have some work to do. Only a small minority “recognize recent transparency and see potential progress, though many in this group remain cautiously observant,” the summary stated. Distrust of the nonprofit’s human resources team was particularly widespread, with HR coming up in 38% of comments in the internal survey.
Concerns about compensation fairness and transparency were also common, with a “small minority” raising concerns about gender and racial equity in pay. In fact, compensation was most commonly seen as the “most consistent and immediate retention risk.”
The internal survey did find “strong mission commitment," “high emotional investment” and other positives.
“This is not a culture of disengagement, it is a culture of overextension,” the summary stated.
How the report came to be
In the days after the publication of Denverite’s original story, The Denver Post’s editorial board called for the Chamber to replace Ament with a leader who “will support businesses and drive investment in the Chamber without driving off half of the staff.”
Soon after, the Chamber announced it would commission an independent investigation. Haile said the Chamber's board approved a convening of a “special committee” of board members to oversee the review.
“The Committee retained outside legal counsel, who engaged a respected third-party workplace investigative firm to conduct a thorough examination that included document review and interviews. We did not shy away from subjecting ourselves to independent critical review to align our policies, our processes and — most importantly — our staff as part of the review process,” he wrote.
Former employees confirmed to Denverite that they were interviewed as part of the internal review, though some said they were never contacted. It is not clear how many total employees were interviewed for the internal review process.
The Chamber’s membership ranges from the state’s largest companies to individual craftspeople, all of them paying from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars in dues. It counts about 1,200 businesses as members, though previous leaders have claimed a much higher number through different counting methods.
The nonprofit traces its roots to 1867. Its mission is to support businesses, including by promoting the area and lobbying for business priorities before state and local officials.
