It was late in the night and even later in the game when the Rams took on the Boise State Broncos last football season. The Rams were down and the crowd, expecting a loss, had begun to peter out of Canvas Stadium. Kathleen Pitre (B.A., ’00; M.S., ’04) wasn’t one. As usual, the season-ticket holder stayed glued to her seat and watched as Coach Jay Norvell rallied his players in an expert display of leadership. The Rams followed his direction, and, in a rush of excitement (and with some good communication), the Rams pulled off an incredible 31-30 win over Boise State. Even though she knew the Rams would pull it off in the end, Pitre was exuberant, but it wasn’t until after the game that she felt an overwhelming sense of pride in her team and her alma mater.
“I was able to go on the field with my 11-year-old son and the players were all running around and celebrating. We came across [Quarterback] Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, who had just made that amazing pass and who my son totally idolizes,” Pitre said. “[Fowler-Nicolosi] saw my son and leaned down to shake his hand, ask his name, and take a picture with him. It was generous, sweet, and so unnecessary – a combination of excellence and humility – and that sums up the character of [Colorado State University] and it’s why I’ve stayed so involved all these years.”
Green and Gold from the Word Go
There was never a question Pitre would attend CSU because she has been “green and gold from the word go”: She was raised in Fort Collins just west of campus, most of her family earned degrees at CSU, and her childhood memories are filled with attending Rams football, basketball, and other athletics games.
“Campus, students, and the energy of CSU have always been a part of my life, and it was very natural for me to want to be a part of that,” she said. “Even though I grew up in Fort Collins, it didn’t feel like a continuation. It was a whole new world, and I felt I had the chance to spread my wings and reinvent myself as a student.”
Whether hanging out at the Lory Student Center, studying in the Morgan Library, watching games in the student section, or grabbing something to eat with friends at Rocky Mountain Bagel Works, Pitre relished the moments of self-re-discovery.
“I am a massive, massive, sports fan, and CSU sports in particular, and when I first started [at CSU] my intent was to become a sportscaster,” she said. “But then I realized I wanted that to be a passion and not necessarily my job, and that’s when I began to really morph into something new.”
Communications, specifically technical communications, is the direction Pitre found herself moving toward when she realized she would rather watch sports than report on it. After earning her B.A. in speech communication from the College of Liberal Arts, Pitre went right into graduate school at CSU to earn a Master’s in technical communication.
“I love helping people understand things,” she explained. “To me, helping people understand the world they’re in enables them to feel like they’re a part of something and can help them make good choices no matter what the issue is.”
Pitre worked throughout her entire undergrad and graduate time at CSU – in the Athletics Department where she was front-row for CSU’s most successful seasons; as a teaching assistant where she taught technical journalism to science majors; and in the University Advancement Division where she wrote for alumni publications (like the one you’re reading now). She was also able to earn an unofficial M.B.A. from the College of Business.
“I was a camera operator for the Distance M.B.A. Program where we would film classes and then mail V.H.S. tapes to enrolled students,” she said, laughing at how novel “remote learning” felt back then but how ubiquitous it is these days. “Sitting through four years of M.B.A. classes was a gift for me, and it’s another example of how when I left CSU I took way more with me than just my actual degrees.”
Upon graduation, Pitre’s newfound love of technical communications and business, combined with her leadership-first mentality she’d always appreciated from sports, set her up perfectly for the second phase of her life.
The Whole Package
Looking at Pitre’s life, two things stand out: she invests in the places that invest in her, and she is attracted to institutions with a deep history, a great culture, and that believe innovation should never be pretentious. It’s no surprise then that after earning two (or three) degrees from CSU, she went to work for the Ball Corporation.
“I got really interested in the role good communications can play in helping people understand complex topics, and that’s what led me to Ball,” Pitre said. “My first job [with Ball] was in the aerospace business where it was my job to help the engineers turn their good ideas into proposals that government officials would want to buy.”
Over the next two decades, Pitre’s role at Ball would progress from a corporate relations/communications focus to her current position as President of Beverage Packaging for North and Central America. Throughout that transition, her communications, science, and business backgrounds began to coalesce, and today she uses those skills as she oversees $6 billion in sales and 5,000 employees. With nearly half of aluminum cans in the U.S. being made by Ball in manufacturing plants from Canada to Panama, it’s an immense enterprise to oversee, but Pitre isn’t daunted by the scale. Whether she’s working with an established client to enhance the relationship, pitching Ball to a new customer, or connecting with her employees, her philosophy is always the same.
“The most important thing is listening,” she emphasized. “If you don’t understand where your audience is coming from or what they’re interested in, you will completely miss the mark. If it’s not grounded in relevant and meaningful information that is inspiring to the people hearing it, then, who cares?”
When you listen well, people trust you, and when people trust you, you’ll be amazed at what they’re capable of, she added.
“There’s authority, and then there’s leadership. Those two often get intertwined and confused because you can be a leader without having authority and just because you have authority, doesn’t mean you’re a leader,” she said. “But when you can bring those two things together, set a vision, and have people aligned with it and understanding their role in it, that’s when you get [positively] outsized results.”
Especially when, like in sports, everyone is focused on what’s best for the team, not the individual.
“The thing I love about Ball is the people and the teams are incredible. I feel the responsibility, but I’m surrounded by brilliant, generous people and none of us do anything on our own. Everything is about the team and getting clear about what and why we’re doing the job,” she said.
That culture is also prevalent at CSU, she added, and it’s why she still has season tickets, still stays at every home game until the final second, and is still all green and gold.
“The CSU community is a cool blend of really, really smart people who are also super humble, just like at Ball, and it’s why I stay involved,” she concluded. “I love being around people who are so lovely and so brilliant, but who have none of the boastfulness or self-centeredness. There’s nothing fake about CSU or its people – they just do things the right way. I love seeing and feeling that and being a part of that. It makes me proud.”
