Born in Edison, New Jersey, Mitchell attended San Diego State University, earning a bachelor's degree in finance in 1988.^[4]

Mitchell's career centered primarily in business starting from the age of 21.

In 1987, while in college, he started a transportation business, and, over the course of his career, founded and served as CEO and chairman of five companies: Advantage Advisory Service (1989–2004), Advantage Cellular (1991–1995), Advantage Wireless (1996–2004), Motion Telecom, (2002–2004), and Ricochet Networks (2003–2004). After selling Advantage Cellular to AirTouch (later part of Verizon) in 1995, Mitchell moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1996 and founded Advantage Wireless, a wireless distributor. After expanding to 114 branded locations and thousands of independent retailers across the US, Advantage Wireless was sold to a private equity consortium in 2004. Advantage Wireless, Inc. was named "Colorado Business of the Year" by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in 2000. Mitchell has also served on advisory boards of the Denver Metro Chamber and the Denver Better Business Bureau.^[5]

In 2003, Mitchell acquired control of Ricochet Networks, a data service provider that had suffered multiple bankruptcies. The following year, after turning its first annual profit under Mitchell's leadership, Ricochet was acquired by Young Design, Inc. Mitchell was named by the Denver Business Journal as one of their "top 40 under 40" for business executives of Colorado, and was a finalist for Ernst and Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year" recognition.^[5] Mitchell also returned to school to earn a Master of Public Administration degree in 2005 from Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.^[4]

In June 2008, Mitchell founded Lead Funding, a private lender to real estate investors, homebuilders, and developers across the United States. He still serves as CEO of that firm.

Politically, Mitchell chaired the Douglas County arm of the political committee opposing Colorado's 2005 Referendum C, and was a director of the Colorado Leadership Program of the Rockies.^[4] In 2000, he attended the Capitol Conference in Washington, D.C., on behalf of U.S. Senator Wayne Allard.^[5]

2006 election edit

In 2006, Mitchell faced Democrat Linda Constantine in the overwhelmingly Republican district. Mitchell campaigned on his opposition to Referendum C,^[6] and on his support for education reform, including support for charter schools.^[7]

2007 legislative session edit

During the 2007 legislative session, Mitchell served on the House Education Committee, the House Finance Committee, and the Legislative Audit Committee.^[8] Mitchell expressed his frustration with the pace of educational reform as a minority member of the Education Committee, blaming the lack of substantial reform on teachers' unions.^[7][9]

Building upon his work with Project Lifesaver, Mitchell sponsored successful legislation to encourage the project's expansion, including $380,000 in grants to counties to provide tracking bracelets for cognitively impaired people and coordination with law enforcement agencies.^[10][11]

2008 presidential election edit

In 2007, as a state legislator, Mitchell was named a member of the Colorado Legislative Leadership Team for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.^[12] Shortly before Super Tuesday in February, he was announced as a Douglas County chair for Romney's campaign.^[13] After Romney dropped out of the presidential race a few days later, Mitchell offered support for Arizona Sen. John McCain.^[14]

2008 legislative session edit

In the 2008 session of the Colorado General Assembly, Mitchell sat on the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee and the Legislative Audit Committee.^[15]

After joining with moderate Republicans to criticize an executive order issued by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter allowing collective bargaining for state workers,^[16] Mitchell unsuccessfully attempted to amend a Republican proposal for punishing striking public employees to moderate fines; both his amendment and the Republican version of the proposal failed in committee.^[17] Mitchell criticized the Democratic version of the bill for not having sufficiently high penalties for striking state employees.^[18]

Mitchell has also proposed legislation to require students to pass a high school proficiency exam before graduating,^[19] and to enhance the ability of the state to inspect public school buildings by giving the Division of Oil and Public Safety the power to delegate building inspections to other parties, a measure which passed the state house.^[20]

Retiring from legislature edit

Citing business responsibilities and frustration with advancing legislation while a member of the minority party in the legislature, Mitchell announced in January 2008 that he did not intend to seek re-election to a second term.^[21] Carole Murray succeeded him in the District 45 House seat.^[22]

2011 Election edit

Mitchell formed and self-funded a campaign committee–Save Colorado Jobs–to oppose Democratic State Senator Rollie Heath's Prop 103 that would have raised both the state sales and income taxes to help fund education. It would have been the largest tax increase in Colorado history at that time.^[23] Prop 103 was defeated by a wide margin, 64% NO to 36% YES.^[24]

Currently a resident of Longboat Key, Florida, Mitchell has three children, Lauren a New York City educator, David a United States Army Lieutenant, and Emily, a college student.

• Company website
• Governor campaign web site