Growing up, Michael Welty knew he wanted to be part of something bigger than himself.
“I’ve always had a penchant for partnering with others to learn and grow within every business that I’ve ever been a part of,” he said. “I’ve always had that drive to build something meaningful and impactful.”
Welty started working in the food industry at age 14, and in college he took jobs at the radio station hosting news and sports shows and ran his own ticket sales business from his dorm room.
He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2004 and worked as an apartment leasing consultant. In 2006, Oakwood Homes hired him as an on-site sales manager. He ran one of the highest producing master planned communities in the state, and Oakwood promoted him to regional sales manager in 2012. After 10 years with the company, Welty pivoted to Century Communities, where he was promoted to director of sales and had a team of 50 sales reps in 20 communities throughout Colorado.
After 11 years in the new-home building industry, Welty joined Hartford Homes as the director of sales and marketing in 2016. Although Hartford was a privately held, smaller homebuilder, Welty wanted to bring national recognition to the company. In 2020, he was promoted to president of homebuilding, and over the last three years the company has achieved its highest revenue ever, with 2021 revenue reaching $126 million and 2022 revenue surpassing $150 million.
“When I look back on where Hartford Homes was in 2016 versus where we are today, I’ve had a lot of help along the way,” Welty said. “But every detail about Harford today has my fingerprints somewhere on it. In January of 2023, I was installed as the NoCo HBA chair, and my main focus is to drive the association through the challenges of today’s market while advocating for affordable and attainable housing throughout the industry.”
Every five years, Hartford creates a new five-year vision and drive toward its definition of success. To create this vision, Welty leads a visioning exercise with the vice presidents and every Hartford employee. Hartford takes the best snippets from each vision to create an agreed-upon company vision.
Under Welty’s leadership, Hartford reinvests in its communities, regularly giving back through donations of money and time. The company has helped build 10 habitat homes over the last five years.
“My personal and professional visions for Hartford manifest themselves daily, one way or another,” Welty said. “I like to think that the intentionality of creating and executing on my wants and desires help drive Hartford to bigger and better goals each and every year.
