At 27, Haylee Ouellette is turning around a human services program serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. At 30, Travis Landry runs a multimillion-dollar auction business he founded while building a national reputation as a collectibles expert. Dr. Chintan Patel, 39, has performed more than 300 Aquablation surgeries, while Cathy Zhang, 34, is helping Saint-Gobain North America rethink how a global manufacturer approaches sustainability and resource efficiency.
They are four members of WBJ’s 40 Under Forty, Class of 2026. They illustrate just how difficult it is to define this year’s winners by any single measure.
[To see the full list of winners and read their profiles, go to the 40 Under Forty awards page.]
They are entrepreneurs and physicians, attorneys and engineers, elected officials and nonprofit leaders. They work in construction, banking, health care, higher education, manufacturing, technology, and human services.
What connects them is they aren’t waiting for their turn to lead.
This year’s winners are already running companies and departments, overseeing hundreds of employees and patients, managing projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars, developing new technologies, shaping public policy, and building organizations from the ground up.
Their impact extends beyond their day jobs.
Throughout this year’s class, professional achievement is intertwined with community involvement. Winners coach youth sports, serve on nonprofit boards, mentor students and younger professionals, advocate for people in need, raise money for charities, and volunteer in the communities where they live and work.
Many credit mentors, colleagues, spouses, and parents for helping them reach this point, and they are now beginning to provide that same guidance to others.
Now in its 27th year, WBJ’s 40 Under Forty awards recognize some of the region’s most promising young professionals. If you want to celebrate with them and meet this amazing class of winners, I invite you to attend the 40 Under Forty event at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester.
These 40 leaders aren’t preparing to shape the future of Central Massachusetts.
They’ve already started.
Brad Kane is editor of Worcester Business Journal.
