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Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award
Category: Industry & Commerce

Dena Lund is the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Sterling Energy Investments LLC. In addition to her full-time job at Sterling, she is also an Independent Director for Anvil Corporation. Throughout her time at Sterling, Lund has taken the lead on several projects that helped turn the company around. In 2016 and 2020, she successfully led a facility consolidation and cost restructuring effort that buoyed the company through a difficult price environment. Throughout her career, Lund has developed a patent, has been published in Oil and Gas Journal for facility troubleshooting efforts and developments, and has been a featured speaker at the World LNG Fuels conference. She is well-respected across North America for her industry knowledge and professional contributions.

For her technical and volunteer contributions, she received a 2016 Top Women in Energy Award from the Denver Business Journal. It was the third year of this award, which honors 40 women per year in all related fields (exploration, production, engineering, finance, education, etc.). Lund makes it a priority to give back to the industry as well as develop, mentor and train her employees in meaningful and impactful ways. Lund is a supporter of the Women’s Oil and Gas Association, hosting their monthly growth topics and encouraging the women at Sterling to become actively involved. She is an active member of the Denver Petroleum Club’s mentor program and provides the next generation of industry leaders with insight, guidance and advice on their professional career development. Lund is a volunteer board member for the UCHealth Broomfield and Longs Peak Hospitals as well. She also served on the board of directors and as president of the Gas Processors Association Rocky Mountain Chapter. Through this organization, Lund led teams to establish industry events for networking and information exchange and raised funds to distribute as scholarships to engineering students.

Lund has also made significant contributions to CU Boulder since she graduated, and she has done so in a unique way. Lund was a member of the Chemical Engineering Advisory Board in 1996. At her urging, the advisory board recommended that the capstone design course be radically changed and consider real projects from industry. The faculty took this recommendation to heart and completely revamped the course with great success. Lund and Amoco (where she worked at the time) were among the first to offer a project. Even with her substantial corporate responsibilities, she sponsored a senior design project this past year.