Duke Hartman is the Co-Founder of High Noon Entertainment and retired as the Chief Operating Officer in January 2019, a position he has held since 1997. A world-class content creator specializing in character-driven television programming, High Noon Entertainment develops, sells and produces across all unscripted genres for television networks, both domestically and internationally, and is known best for groundbreaking series, including Fixer Upper (HGTV), Cake Boss (TLC), Unwrapped (FOOD), and Tough Love (VH1). As COO Duke was responsible for strategic oversight of High Noon’s productions, operations, finance and technical areas. Together with his partners, they formed High Noon to provide programming to the burgeoning cable industry and created 6,000 television episodes in 22 years. In 2013 they sold a majority stake in the company to the British broadcaster/producer ITV, who purchased the remainder in Q1 2019.

On the creative side, Duke is a long-time partner in Denver based Great Divide Pictures and continues a 40-plus-year career as an award winning single and multi-camera television director. Skilled in both live and live-to-tape productions, Hartman continues to direct for several long-time clients and freelances on occasion.

Prior to the formation of High Noon in 1997, Duke was the Director of Network Operations for Liberty Media’s Intro Television cable network. In 1977 Duke was hired at then Denver ABC affiliate KBTV as an entry level floor director and through the 1980s and mid 90s, Duke eventually became Production Manager, as the station became NBC affiliate KUSA-TV, where he spent 18 years as a staff Producer/Director. Raised in Baltimore, he received a B.A. in Communication Arts from the University of Dayton and a M.A. in Documentary Film from Ohio University.

Duke currently serves on the Advisory Boards of several arts organization in Denver and since 2007 he has been on the Board of Trustees of Colorado Ballet and has been Co-Chairman of the Board since 2016. He and his wife Pam are long time Park Hill residents and their two adult children live nearby.