As one of the top executives at CB Richard Ellis, a large commercial real estate company here in the Valley, Darren Pitts knows a whole lot about investing in commercial property. Nowadays, he'll tell you that belonging to The Wealthy 100 has made him more aware of the other options in investment.

Along with his wife Denise, Pitts has made time to attend for several events: "When I've been at an event, they've had some of the top leading stockbrokers and financial guys in town, some of the top residential real estate guys, other hitters in my industry that are part of it and some of the top insurance people. It's really a good opportunity to share different thoughts and experiences from different areas of business instead of just hanging out with people in my own industry."

Pitts views the cross-fermentation nurtured by The Wealthy 100 as an ongoing asset: "…It’s not even an investment club, it's kind of a forum. What I've learned around a lot of these people is that everybody has a concern about money. You know, how do they create good incomes for themselves-but beyond that, how do they build wealth; how do they preserve wealth; how do they invest smart? So there are two parts of it. One is that he's [Christenson] brought together a bunch of people that have the same common concerns. The second thing is that it's not really one-dimensional. I mean, it’s not a bunch of guys smoking cigars. I don’t know if you’d call it a family environment, but it’s certainly an environment where my wife and I can go and there are other people exactly like us there, that have some of the same common concerns.”