Pat Meyers, the team leader of the Constrained Medical Supply Team (CMST) that is apart of the state’s COVID Innovation Response Team has had a lot of sleepless nights since March.

Whether it was negotiating with international vendors over the price of gloves, face masks, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) or helping a fellow team member find additional vendors, Meyers always made time to listen and help his team, said Gretchen Deruiter, a member of the CMST.

“He truly leads by example and he was always right there,” Deruiter said. “If I was putting 24 hours a day, he was right there with us, and if there was ever anything any of us needed help with, he would be there.”

For Meyers leadership and ability to acquire around 34 million pieces of PPE for the state as the COVID-19 pandemic began hitting Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis gave Meyers the COVID-19 Hero Medal, one of the annual Colorado Governor’s Citizenship Medals.

“The governor called me and told me I had won, and I was really surprised and honored, and I didn’t see this coming if I’m being honest with you,” Meyers said. “It’s just really an honor.”

Before the coronavirus pandemic changed the way of life throughout the world, Colorado typically was not buying large amount of PPE and medical supplies, but as the COVID-19 virus began to spread, state officials created a team to do just that.

When the governor formed the COVID Innovation Response Team in February, Meyer’s CMS team was formed with eight state government employees.

Although Meyer had no prior experience working with PPE,  he had experience with international and domestic marketplaces. He knew how the state operated through his experience as  then Gov. John Hickenlooper’s chief of staff.

During the early phases in March, Meyers and his team immediately saw the strain the pandemic was having on the marketplace as orders for N-95 face masks equaled the number used over the last 10 years, Meyers said.

“There was simply not the manufacturing capability in the world, much less the United States, that could meet that kind of demand,” Meyers said. “3M told me that prior to COVID, N-95 mask production was something like 80% industrial use, and 10 to 15% medical use, but that completely flipped overnight.”

But after countless days of working at least 17 hours, the team had to vet through various “gray markets” which were essentially fraud, Meyers said, while also creating relationships with new and reputable vendors.

January Montanto, a team leader, alongside Meyers, who has 24 years experience in healthcare policy and previous experience purchasing PPE for the state, began finding those vendors.

“My job was to field all of these incoming vendors and at that time it’s becoming ridiculously clear, that we weren’t going to be able to order anything, and we’d have to negotiate,” Montanto said.

“We worked 17 to 20 hour days at least for three weeks straight, negotiating with Chinese brokers at midnight, and just trying to get all the products the state needed. Without Pat’s guidance, things could have been much different.”

Despite the fraudulent markets throughout the world, Colorado did not spend a single penny on fraudulent products, Meyers said.

And through it all, Meyers was always there for his teammates, said Montano.

“There were times when a team member might have misspoke to a vendor, or anything and you could go to him and explain what happened and tell him you don’t know how to fix it,” Montano said. “His patience, thoughtfulness and problem solving was instantly focused on your need and had such an incredible and intelligent way of solving any problem.”

“He was always ready to go to bat for us.”

And over the course of working with Meyers as his chief of staff and as his 2020 presidential campaign manager, now Sen. Hickenlooper says it’s Meyers selflessness that makes him stand out.

“The thing that Pat is almost unique for is this sense of selflessness,” said Hickenlooper in a video clip about Meyers.

And Polis echoed that sentiment.

“Pat quit what he was doing and said I’m here to help,” Polis said in a video about Meyers.

Even though Meyers will be accepting the medal in his name, he said he could not have done it without his tremendous team. And that’s no surprise to any of his teammates.

“A true leader is like ‘no it’s my team, and it was the team coming together,’ but it was his leadership that allowed the team to be as functional as we were given the circumstances and stress,” Deruiter said.

“There couldn’t have been anyone better, helping us through everything.”