Denver NWSL names Cherry Creek, CU alum Jen Millet as president and team’s first employee

Denver’s NWSL club is turning to a Cherry Creek High School and CU Boulder graduate as its first employee.

The team announced Jen Millet as its president on Thursday morning. Millet, who was previously the chief operating officer for Bay FC and worked for six years for the Golden State Warriors before that, will be in charge of all business operations for the Denver club that’s set to debut in 2026.

Millet says her vision for women’s professional sports aligned with that of the Denver NWSL ownership, which is headlined by club governor Rob Cohen, and that drew her back to Colorado.

“The scope that they’ve accomplished so far is super impressive,” Millet said. “That was very attractive for me. The big differentiator also is that they were able to get a stadium project to the stage that it’s at and the training facility project to the stage that it’s at.

“When we talk about building a global sports brand, those are key things for a men’s or women’s club, to be able to have in their arsenal. They demonstrate to me that this ownership group is not just words, but actions.”

Millet, a 51-year-old New Jersey native, moved to Colorado in eighth grade. She was a three-sport athlete at Cherry Creek (soccer, basketball and track), where she graduated in 1992 before going on to earn a degree in English language and literature/letters from CU.

She has two sisters who live in Colorado, one of whom, Jackie Millet, is the former mayor of Lone Tree. Jen frequently spent her holidays in the state, and that personal connection, in conjunction with her vibing with Cohen & Co., prompted her to make the leap from Bay FC to Denver’s to-be-named NWSL club.

Millet will oversee marketing, merchandise, ticketing, partnerships and venue operations for Denver NWSL, in addition to the finance, human resources and legal departments.

She recalled going to the Rockies’ inaugural game at Mile High Stadium in 1993, and hopes to have a similar energy (albeit in a smaller venue) for the Denver NWSL opener next year. The club will play its first couple of seasons at a 12,000-seat modular stadium in Centennial before moving to its permanent home in a 14,500-seat stadium at Santa Fe Yards in Denver.

“Next year, I hope it’s a sold-out crowd full of the demographics of Denver — different age groups, ethnicities,” Millet said. “I hope there’s massive excitement from fans about being a part of it, and we make it feel like they’re at a historic moment.

“They will bring that energy, and it will be my job and the team’s job to make sure the experience around them supports that and ignites that. I hope in that moment we will have people 20, 30 years later talking about how they went to the first NWSL match in Denver.”

With Millet’s hiring, Denver NWSL’s next move is to tab a general manager. That GM search is ongoing, with that hire expected to be announced soon.

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