Karen Setterfield, CCIM, MBA, CNE

karen@aspenreal.com | c: 970.379.3876| o: 970.920.1833

Karen Setterfield dominates commercial real estate brokerage in downtown Aspen and she is unequivocally Aspen’s most experienced and most knowledgeable commercial REALTOR.  Karen has leased almost every retail space in downtown Aspen, and she has sold over 35 commercial properties in Aspen ranging in price up to $33,000,000.  In 2010, Karen became a CNE (Certified Negotiation Expert) and in 1992 Karen earned the prestigious CCIM designation (Certified Commercial Investment Member of the National Association of REALTORS).

For over 25 years, Karen has been the President of Setterfield & Bright, working with business partner Galen Bright who manages the residential transactions, and for over eight years with Angi Wang who brokers both residential and commercial properties.  With a team approach, Setterfield & Bright is consistently among Aspen’s top sales volume producers in the Aspen Snowmass market.

Upon obtaining a Colorado Real Estate Broker license in 1986, Karen moved to Aspen, joining The Fleisher Company as Vice President, where she focused on retail leasing.  In 1983, Karen relocated to Denver to be VP of Finance and Administration for a new commercial real estate subsidiary of U S West and promptly “fell in love” with Colorado.

Karen earned an MBA in Finance from California State University at Northridge in 1982, while working as a financial manager for a group of private real estate investors, developers and syndicators in Beverly Hills.  Becoming a Licensed Real Estate Broker in California in1976, Karen sold commercial and residential properties in the San Fernando Valley, and became Vice President of a large regional brokerage company.  After graduating with a BA in Economics from Occidental College in Los Angeles (plus minors in Spanish and Accounting), Karen worked as an accountant at the corporate offices of Coldwell Banker Management Corporation, where she first became interested in commercial real estate.

Karen Setterfield grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula.  As the daughter of a Pan American World Airways pilot, she traveled extensively and lived in Europe, South America and Mexico, also becoming fluent in Spanish.  When she is not assisting clients with their commercial real estate needs, Karen still enjoys foreign travel, spending time with her husband, David Muckenhirn, and hiking with their beautiful dog.  Every winter Karen and David ski on Aspen Mountain, while in the summers they participate the Aspen Music Festival, enjoying the superb classical concerts.  Karen believes that Aspen is the most perfect place to live, play, invest, own property and conduct business, where the physical beauty of the mountains is only surpassed by the incredible people that choose to be here too.