Market Meets: Kathy Pear with Pear Project Services

Most creative when faced with a challenge, Kathey Pear enjoys problem solving and is committed to bringing individuals together to create sustainable environments, healthy communities, and healthy lives. The ultimate networker, Pear is always on the lookout for new and interesting interconnections and opportunities to address the opportunities presented by a continually evolving world. Pear has 30 years of commercial real estate project and contract furniture industry experience.

Kathey founded Pear Commercial Interiors, still one of Colorado’s largest office furniture dealerships, opening showrooms in Boulder in 1984 and Denver in 1988. Following the sale of Pear Commercial in 1998, she became intrigued by the vast lack of support resources for later adopters of technology who simply wanted to enjoy the benefits of computers and the Internet. Teaming up with Aardvark Networking Services, TechButler’s mission was to explore new ways to flatten the learning curve and reduce the complexity and frustration that present challenges for less technical users. TechButler was formed in 1999 to develop live, remote support applications that could be used over the Internet to support PC users at home, at work, or in the field. As CEO of the company, Pear was instrumental in providing her vision for live, remote, real-time technology support. In 2004 Kathey opened Citron WorkSpaces, a contract furnishings resource for corporate, healthcare, education, and shared workplace environments (co-working) and sister company, FacilityCycle, to address the growing problem of how to handle old office furniture. FacilityCycle focused on sustainable reuse, refurbishment, donation, and recycling of excess furniture and cubicles. In 2012 and 2013 The Boulder Daily Camera named Citron #2 among Boulder’s Top Women Owned Businesses and Citron was selected as a Colorado Companies to Watch honoree in 2013. Citron was acquired by Source Office and Technology in 2014.

Her current venture, Pear Project Services (PPS), adds furniture “re-homing” to the mix. By helping companies who are moving or upgrading to decommission their no-longer-needed furniture, PPS saves many tons of old furniture from ending up in landfills. As the self-titled “Queen of Crap”, Kathey and her associates take excess furniture from large companies, resell some and donate some to non-profit organizations and smaller companies that need furniture.

Pear earned a B.F.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut, an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Washington State University and part of an M.B.A. at the University of Colorado. She was the Boulder BPW Business Woman of the Year in 1992 and an Entrepreneur of Distinction at “Esprit Entrepreneur” in 1993.