Innovator and visionary are words that have always described Richard Lewis, the founder and CEO of RTL Networks.

As a participant in the Denver Metro Leadership’s 2006 Leadership Denver, Lewis was selected as a team leader to create a presentation on the “African American Experience” in Denver.

“Being the overachievers that our Leadership class was,” shared Lewis with a laugh, “we talked about the African American Experience, not only in Denver, but since 1501 when the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America, creating roughly 60 data points that we thought were important to discuss.”

He guided the development of a historical timeline where people of all ethnicities could learn a true connective narrative they hadn’t learned in school – a history that was accurate and unchanged on the whim of educational institutions.

Today, the African American Timeline, the only one in the United States, has expanded to over 130 data points to tell the invaluable story. Lewis considers it his labor of love, which is now available to purchase in various sizes mounted on different mediums, from acrylic to wood to murals, from www.AfricanAmericanTimeline.org. His goal is to get the Timeline into every school in the state.

Born in Ohio and raised on the East Coast, Lewis came west to attend the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. After graduating with a degree in computer science, he spent the next ten years in the Air Force writing, deploying, and testing code worldwide.

“It was one of the most amazing and best experiences of my life,” marveled Lewis. “I learned a trade, traveled the world, met amazing people – it was everything the recruiting poster promised.”

Spending a few years after the military in corporate America convinced the up-and-coming entrepreneur to start his own firm.

“It was a tough economic climate, and after being laid off twice, I had enough,” recalled Lewis. I joined corporate for stability. After the second layoff, I figured I could be unstable on my own, so I created RTL Networks in 2002.”

Eyes wide open, Lewis envisioned leading a company functioning in multiple geographies and markets.

Over the years, RTL Networks has proven to be anything but unstable, growing in its visibility and scope. Lewis and his team successfully provide Information Technology (IT) services to their varied clients, including federal civilian agencies and the Department of Defense.

The IT network infrastructure firm prides itself on its diversity of thought, helping customers find new solutions and ideas.

In addition to overall system administration and network engineering, RTL Networks has been making a name for itself in cyber security, including for military weapon systems.

“Anything that receives or transmits a signal can be hacked into and we advise and assist in protecting our customer’s critical systems,” explained Lewis. “Anything that connects to a network, such as a GPS location service, is a convenience to make our lives easier, but it’s also a vulnerability.”

The challenges for Lewis with RTL Networks have changed over the years. Initially, the primary was credibility. He had been used to working for well-known companies that already had name recognition and respect.

“People weren’t as interested in what I had to say when I left corporate and was working on my own, so I had to work extra hard to gain their trust,” remembered Lewis.

The next greatest challenge became scaling, which meant growing and needing the best people inside the company. Now, these competent people want to work for RTL.

“We’re 22 years old, and want to go at least another 22,” mused Lewis.

Besides running a valuable and prosperous company, the inventive business owner has maximized his new second-floor space in the Five Points Media Center on Welton, where 89.3 KUVO Jazz formerly resided, creating the RTL Foundation with 24 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) non-profits currently thriving under this sustainable umbrella. This “incubator” contains ten deeply discounted office spaces, 18 cubicles, two board rooms, two media studios for podcasts, and an event space that doubles as an art gallery to showcase local BIPOC artists. In addition to office space, the RTL Foundation offers programming and consultation to help these non-profits increase their skills and grow their networks.

Lewis, a long-time advocate for community non-profits, observed similar struggles facing these organizations, including office space, board development, governance, and fundraising. Having always assisted non-profits in whatever capacity he could, he can now take this social entrepreneurship to a new level.

“We currently have a wait list for non-profits wanting to join this collaborative cohort,” marveled Lewis. “In this first year, we’re building the airplane as we take off and fly. If I could, I would put this foundation in every city in the country.”

For additional information on RTL Networks, visit www.RTL-Networks.com. For more information on the RTL Foundation, visit www.RTL-Foundation.org.