Since 2000, Worcester Business Journal has honored 800 young professionals with its most popular award.
That’s 800 people who started off strong and have further ingrained themselves in the Central Massachusetts economy and beyond, some reaching far off lands, like Houston and Michigan. You have a former lieutenant governor, dozens of CEOs, nonprofit executive directors, entrepreneurs and one three-time world champion boxer.
The oldest of the 40 Under Forty alumni are now nearing retirement age, as six winners from the inaugural class – Andrew Deschenes, Ernest C. Floyd, Steven Migridichian, David Mullaney, Pamela Sager and John Shoro – have all reached age 59. The youngest alumni at age 26 – Brendan Aylward (2017), Derek Canton (2018) and Ryan Canuel (2018) – are still going strong at the startup companies they founded. One of the youngest ever winners – Laura DiBenedetto, who was honored in 2004 at age 23 and still would be eligible for the award today – already has semi-retired from her marketing firm Vision Advertising.
This year’s 40 Under Forty class represents another deepening of the alumni talent pool. Over the past two decades, the award has gotten so competitive winners like Kimberly M. Salmon from 2007’s class said it would be difficult for them to make the cut this year.
Indeed, there is much to celebrate about the Class of 2019. Dan Rea III is one of the top Pawtucket Red Sox executives bringing the minor league baseball team to Worcester. Nicole Bell has escaped a life of prostitution, founding a nonprofit to help other women trapped in that life find ways out and avoid prison. Joshua Croke has left an indelible mark on the Worcester cultural scene, and they are the first nonbinary WBJ 40 Under Forty.
Winners and alumni. The 40 Under Forty honorees over the years stand proud, with an endless list of accomplishments, collectively remaking the Central Mass. economy in their own image.
– Brad Kane, editor
