Tickets are on sale for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s 133rd annual meeting, but a first as well, as Denise Burgess becomes the first African-American woman to lead the 3,000-member organization.

The luncheon Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center begins at 11 with networking among about 1,000 metro Denver leaders followed by the program from 11:30 to 1. Individual tickets are $105.

Burgess will accept the gavel from outgoing board chairman Todd Munson, who is the executive vice president and director of commercial banking for Vectra Bank.

The new chairwoman is the president has been on the chamber board since 2010. She is the CEO of Burgess Services, Inc., a construction management firm based in Denver.

She has been listed among the Top 25 Most Powerful Women by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce. The Girl Scouts of Colorado named Burgess a Woman of Distinction, and she has received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award and the Davide E. Baily Small Business Advocate Award.

After getting a degree in journalism from the University of Northern Colorado, Burgess began her career in broadcast management. In 1994 went to work with her father, who passed away in 2002. She turned his heating and air conditioning business into a nationwide firm that provides construction management, commissioning and quality assurance/quality control services. The company’s clients have included the City and County of Denver Justice Center, the Corp of Engineers Southeastern Headquarters in Miami and the Westin Hotel at Denver International Airport.

The Denver chamber said Burgess Services was awarded the largest contract ever to a black-owned business, $39.6 million, for mechanical work at DIA.

“Denise credits her continued support from family and friends as part of her success, along with her dedicated employees,” the chamber said in a bio. “Never taking anything for granted, Denise regularly takes time out of her busy schedule to give back to the Denver community both personally and professionally. The Burgess Family Fund was established through the Denver Foundation in 2013 with a goal of funding the education of minority women interested in STEM and construction. The Burgess Family Fund has donated to over a dozen Colorado organizations.”

Kelly Brough, the chamber’s president and CEO, will talk about the next year’s priorities for the business community and announce the Del Hock Lifetime Achievement Award.

Author, inventor and “tech trailblazer” Byron Reese, the CEO of Knowingly, is the keynote speaker.