It's not easy to keep a low profile once you've made your first billion, but Brad M. Kelley has been better at avoiding the limelight than most billionaires.

Kelley is the moneyman behind Cumberland & Western Resources, the Kentucky company that won (and paid $5 million for) the rights to redevelop Loveland's former Agilent Technologies plant, which is now being called the Rocky Mountain Center for Innovation and Technology.

Unlike most of his billionaire brethren, Kelley has taken anonymity to a near art form. Cumberland & Western has no website touting its successes. Not only did company vice president Bill Murphree turn down the Business Report's request for an interview with Kelley, but he strongly suggested that writing about Kelley might have negative consequences for Cumberland & Western's interest in doing business in Northern Colorado.

"Brad likes to be very private," Murphree said in a phone interview. "He's just the source of capital for the project, he's not really involved in it. ... The less you write about Brad, the more supportive we are going to be of the Northern Colorado area."
Despite declining an interview, Kelley has left a public trail that helps fill in some of the gaps.