Image maker: McClain Finlon delivers in downturn.

The last time Cathey Finlon saw anything like Colorado's current recession she was a new ad-agency owner in a new city and didn't know enough to realize times were tougher than usual.

It was 1989, and she had just bought out her partner in a Boulder ad agency, moved the firm to Denver and renamed it McClain Finlon Advertising. "I started out in the business in the middle of that recession, so what did I know?" says Finlon. "I just thought having your own business was hard. I didn't have anything to compare it to."

Times are tough again, but 2002 was a good year for McClain Finlon, one of the five largest independently owned advertising agencies in the Rocky Mountain region and the No. 2-ranked firm on the ColoradoBiz Top 100 women-owned companies list. Last year the firm had billings of $129.8 million, a 31 percent increase over the previous year.

Finlon didn't start out in advertising, but the route she took prepared her well. "I didn't go to business school--I have a liberal arts degree," says Finlon, who also earned a master's degree in English from Penn State in her hometown of State College, Pa. "I didn't have business training. I'm a good business person, but I had to learn it. A lot of seat-of-the-pants learning took place during that down economy."

Finlon's first lessons about working with clients took place in an arena seemingly far removed from advertising but in fact not so different in the skills required.

For 10 years she was a fundraiser for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and later, after moving to Colorado, for the Denver Art Museum. Deciding she needed a career change after a decade in the nonprofit sector, she joined the agency of well-known Denver ad man Bob Schenkein, where she spent five years learning the business and furthering her reputation as a well-connected woman who got things done.

Schenkein was attracted first and foremost to Finlon's leadership abilities honed as a fundraiser.

"I was looking for s...

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