Director, Colorado Water Conservation Board

James Eklund is the director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) and serves as Colorado’s interstate representative on the Colorado River. As a lawyer and a government official, Eklund is already a disappointment to much of his family on the Western Slope. He is redeemed in their eyes, however, because he drinks whiskey and fights over water (but never at the same time). As the Director of the CWCB, Eklund leads the state’s water policy, financing, and planning efforts. Eklund is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Denver College of Law (neither of which, his father is quick to note, made him any better at cleaning ditches or irrigating pasture). The Upper Colorado River endangered fish he most identifies with is the Razorback Sucker because he thinks of himself as sharp but also somewhat gullible.