Denver attorney fosters friendship between Mongolia and Colorado

Denver attorney Jim Wagenlander likes to point out the unlikely similarities between Colorado and Mongolia. Take the terrain, for example; Mongolia has mountains, prairies, and arid deserts. So does Colorado. Both economies are based primarily on mining, agriculture, and tourism. Our mutual governments are struggling to balance economic necessities with the need to protect the environment. And finally, Mongolians and Coloradans share, in Wagenlander’s estimation, a way of being in the world. “A certain personality type develops under a big blue sky,” he said. “Mongolians are open, hospitable, competitive, ambitious, independent, and self-reliant. But what I like most about them is their self-deprecating sense of humor.”

Wagenlander knows whereof he speaks. He’s been involved with the Central Asian republic since 1989. That was the year he began steering his law firm, Wagenlander & Heisterkamp LLC, in the direction of international practice. “We examined a bunch of countries and finally settled on Mongolia because of its similarities with Colorado,” he said.

His timing could not have been better. The country was in the process of sloughing off 65 years of Communist rule and instituting a free market economy. A flood of Mongolians had begun heading west to study at Colorado School of Mines.

“We wanted to expand on that,” Wagenlander said. “We started an organization called the Colorado Mongolia Project to provide the Mongolian community here with a formal association to promote economic, political, and cultural ties between our two cultures.” By the year 2000, Denver was playing host to the largest population of Mongolians in the Americas.

Today the country has the fastest growing economy in the world, and the standard of living is booming. “It's gifted with extraordinary natural resources, and a bright, well-educated population,” Wagenlander said. “Some of the world’s biggest mining players are there now. Rio Tinto, an Australian mining concern, has spent $5 billion in developing what is now the largest copper mine in the world. Mongolia also has the world’s largest undeveloped coal field.”

Part of Wagenlander’s mission has been to encourage local firms to invest in Mongolian development. “I’ve taken 160 people to Mongolia over the years,” he said. “We bring delegations to Mongolia and the countryside, helping Coloradans to identify with the Mongolian people.”

His efforts did not go un-noticed. In 1999, he was appointed Honorary Consul by the Mongolian government. By then, he was already on a first name basis with some of the country’s major players, including Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, who is the current president. “I first met him in 2000,” Wagenlander remembered. “He was one of the first leaders to challenge the Communists. He was here in Colorado studying, so one day I called him up and invited him out for a beer and some chicken in City Park. I introduced him to the music of Bob Marley, and he became a fan. He’s got connections with Colorado, a special relationship more than anywhere else in the Americas.”

In many ways, there could have been no one better suited for the job than Jim Wagenlander. He’s always had a passion for international issues, not to mention a yen for travel to exotic destinations instilled in him by a globetrotting father. “I had five sibs and he always took us with him,” he said. “Dad promised us that he’d take us anywhere we wanted to go after high school. My choice was Russia and Eastern Europe. It was still the Soviet Bloc back then.”

Reflecting on his more than 20-year association with the people of Mongolia, Wagenlander remains in awe of what they’ve been able to accomplish. “The strongest experience for me was to see the terrible period they had to endure during the transition from Communism to a free market economy,” he said. “I saw their strength and endurance and their ability to survive. Their economic deprivation during the early 90s was extraordinary. So it’s great to see them become so prosperous. This year they surpassed Qatar in terms of GDP. I and my family are so much better off for having been exposed to these people whom we once knew so little about.”