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40 Under Forty Class of 2019
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.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Eric D. Batista
Batista helps the city look at best practices, lean management and overall efficiency, where his passion for data-driven analytics has helped Worcester complete its first modern strategic plan.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty: Julia Becker Collins
Becker Collins was named Vision COO at the beginning of 2019, taking over day-to-day responsibilities from Founder & CEO Laura DiBenedetto. Now, Becker Collins essentially leads all aspects of the company.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Nicole Bell
After struggling for more than 10 years to escape a life of prostitution and substance abuse, Bell founded the nonprofit LIFT essentially out of necessity.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Julie Bowditch
Bowditch has found a calling for fundraising and donor relations after a decade-long career in special education,
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Charlotte Bradrick
Bradrick was working in public relations when she noticed something: a lack of experiential marketing in Central Mass.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Emrah Ercan Cakir
Cakir works in information technology for Fallon, responsible for storing, protecting and analyzing data for the insurer.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Mike Ciprari
What began has a hobby for Ciprari and his brother 19 years ago in their grandparents’ basement has become one of the Central Mass. music industry’s best kept secrets.
40 Under Forty 2019: Lismarie Collazo
Collazo’s 14 years at SCU have been spent doing a little bit of everything.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Joshua Croke
Joshua Croke has been a major contributor to the growth of Worcester’s culture.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Julie Davenport
Davenport is the only woman project manager at Cutler, a point of pride for the career construction leader.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty: Lisa A. Drexhage, 36
Any talk about Worcester’s arts or startup culture is bound to include at least one thing Drexhage has had her hand in.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Daniel Estevez
Estevez founded Families Together in 2014, which offered a medical day program to disabled adults and seniors through daily activities. The organization has grown from just three clients to now more than 60 and a staff of 16.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Ricky Gala
Ricky Gala has already been promoted twice at Consigli since he started seven years ago as a project engineer. Now as project manager, he’s the main point of contact at the company for owners and architects throughout the construction process.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty: Patrick D. Hare
Hare’s WSU duties include overseeing campus-wide activities and acting as a liaison to the board of trustees; but his actions go far beyond that, and well beyond the WSU campus.
40 Under Forty 2019 Thomas M. Hoffey, Jr.
Hoffey is already a noted lawyer, having received the Worcester County Bar Association’s President’s Award in 2010 and been named an up-and-coming lawyer by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in 2013.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Justin Jarboe
Jarboe was a firefighter for eight years, retiring as a lieutenant before moving into a career in real estate.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Nadja Johnson, Ph.D.
At 17, Johnson made about as big of a leap of faith as one could take: She came to the U.S. from Jamaica, alone, with just $400 and two suitcases of clothing.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Dr. Shirley D. Konneh, Ph.D., MBA
Konneh was raised by a single mother and has found success after emigrating from Nigeria, so she works hard to give back, particularly in diversity efforts.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Orieta Kristo
Orieta Kristo left her job as a lead sales representative at Liberty Mutual Insurance in 2014 to start Horizon Insurance, which has tallied $4 million in sales and a client list of 3,000 households across Massachusetts, as one of few female owners in the male-dominated insurance industry.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Kristie Lee Laskes
In 2011, Laskes started Nkd in little more than a cubicle with her makeup in a corner. Yet, it wasn’t so long before she had to expand – twice, with a third on the way.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Rex Macapinlac
By day, Macapinlac runs marketing for Bay State Savings Bank. His alter ego, though, is Rex Mac, a rapper.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Mackenzie May
During May's relatively short tenure leading the nonprofit Central Mass Grown, the longtime farmer has secured more than $250,000 in grant funding to create and expand educational and outreach programming and increased membership by 10% to now represent 170 regional farm businesses.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Steven C. Meyer, Ed.D.
Raised in Pennsylvania, Meyer first came to Central Mass. to study at WPI, where he majored in biomedical engineering. His career dream, he always knew, was in teaching.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Danielle O’Connell
Even if Becker’s 1,800 students or prospective ones wouldn’t recognize O’Connell, they’ve seen the results of her strengthened recruitment initiatives, which include a student ambassador program for tour guides.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Carolyn J. Perla
Now at IC Federal for more than a decade, Perla has been promoted five times, with her responsibilities at the Fitchburg banking institution growing to include oversight of seven branches and its education scholarship awards program.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Stephanie Ramey
Central Massachusetts has long relied on visitors from the immediate area to fuel the tourism industry, but with Ramey leading DCM, that appears to be changing.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Daniel Rea III
Rea is quickly becoming a well-known figure in Central Mass., as the Pawtucket Red Sox are working with the City of Worcester to build a $101-million baseball stadium in the Canal District.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Jessica Rubinow
Among her growing duties at EY, Rubinow oversees a $12-million global tax redesign project for a multibillion-dollar chemical conglomerate.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Sonia Sharma
Sharma is a 10-year technology and beverage industry marketing veteran, but it’s her promotion and encouragement of diversity that has elevated her among her peers at the largest manufacturer in Central Mass.
40 Under Forty 2019: Daniel Stanhope
Stanhope came to AAFCPAs in 2014 already with more than 10 years of diverse experience in public accounting. It didn’t take long for him to be named partner by the end of 2015 at age of 33.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Erica Stritch Schultz
As the head of thought leadership development for the sales training firm, Stritch Schultz led the charge in re-branding RAIN in 2011, including a new name and identity along with an expansion into new markets.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Ted Strzelecki
At Solar Wolf, the results of Strzelecki’s leadership speak for themselves.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Jeff Taylor
Taylor got into real estate as the son of a broker, but didn’t find himself an easy path to a comfortable position.
40 Under Forty 2019: Gilmarie Antoniette Vongphakdy
Vongphakdy has grown QCC’s partnerships with community organizations and agencies in the Greater Worcester through its Future Focus Program.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Casey L. Wall
In her job leading WPI diversity initiatives, Wall creates paths for students to one day have the type of success and involvement she’s had with her alma maters.
40 Under Forty 2019: Jon Weaver
MBI has already begun to grow under Weaver, who was named CEO effective the start of 2019, taking over for longtime CEO Kevin O’Sullivan.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty 2019: Kara Wiersma
When Wiersma graduated from college while five months pregnant and working full-time while commuting to class at Boston, it was just a snapshot for her ability to juggle responsibilities.
40 Under Forty 2019: Anna K. Zheng, MD, 35
Since joining the Kennedy CHC in October, Zheng has led the center’s efforts with the March of Dimes to bring group pregnancy visits to the Worcester facility.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2000: Polly A. Tatum
Tatum leads the same law office she did back in 2000, and her standing in the community has grown many times over.
40 Under Forty Class of 2001: Ned LaFortune
LaFortune was one of the original craft brewers in Central Mass., well before the thriving craft beer scene came to be.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2001: Kristine Bostek
Since 2001, Bostek has given her talent and efforts to a range of Worcester health-related organizations.
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40 Under Forty Class of 2002: Kate McEvoy
Since 2002, McEvoy has been named a Worcester State University distinguished alumna and received the YWCA of Central Massachusetts’ Katharine F. Erskine Award, which recognizes women for their leadership
40 Under Forty Class of 2002: Timothy P. Murray
Murray has been at the center of the Greater Worcester economy for nearly two decades.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2003: Cheryl A.W. Eidinger-Taylor
In February 2018, Eidinger-Taylor successfully navigated a merger with Buffalo, N.Y.-based HUNT Real Estate ERA, which expanded the reach of the combined company and created a real estate firm with more than 50 offices and 1,600 agents.
40 Under Forty Class of 2004: Tuyet Tran
Tran, who arrived with her family as Vietnamese refugees in the mid-1970s, takes pride in forming and developing Worcester’s Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts, which supports immigrants and refugees.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2004: Helder Machado
Two years after being recognized by WBJ, Machado left Applix, Inc. to start his own IT management firm, Machado Consulting.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2005: Carla McCall
Around the same time McCall became the co-managing partner of New England’s ninth largest certified public accounting firm, she recognized something: too few women worked at the manager level in public accounting.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2006: Troy Siebels
When Siebels was named 40 Under Forty, the Hanover Theatre had not yet opened and was about to run afoul of the biggest U.S. economic slowdown since the Great Depression. Yet, Siebels opened the theater in 2008 and has steadily grown the downtown facility.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2006: Jose Antonio RIvera
hortly after being named to WBJ’s 40 Under Forty, Rivera won his third World Boxing Association Championship.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2007: Kimberly M. Salmon
After six years at AHA, Salmon left the nonprofit in 2009 to eventually land at Fallon, where she has developed a comprehensive statewide giving program.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2008: Michael Covino
Since 2008, Covino’s restaurant group has expanded and flourished in some of the most high-profile locations in the city.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2009: Timothy J. McGourthy
In the last decade, McGourthy has gone from focusing on Worcester development, then economic opportunities across Greater Worcester, and now across the state.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2010: Andy Lacombe
Since winning 40 Under Forty, Lacombe has risen to senior executive producer. That’s after filling a variety of roles at the station since 2000, including producer, anchor, host, reporter and supervisor.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2011: Kate Roy Alexander
In 2017, Alexander became the first female president and CEO at 81-year-old Southbridge Credit Union, which has $186 million in assets and nearly 13,000 members.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2012: Paul Belsito
After winning 40 Under Forty, Belsito became the head of the $5.4-billion global insurance firm’s charitable arm.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2013: Amy Lynn Chase
When she won 40 Under Forty, Chase had just opened the Crompton Collective, with wares from more than 100 local artists, creating a destination in the neighborhood. Six years later, the Canal District is a bustling up-and-coming district, where Chase recruits and mentors new businesses.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2014: Rick Porter
Since 2014, Porter has taken Cinch I.T. to new levels. Now the sole owner, he has grown the company’s headcount by 22 employees and moved the business from a cramped 2,500-square-foot office on West Boylston Street to a newly purchased 12,000-square-foot office on West Mountain Street.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2015: AiVi Nguyen
A year after winning 40 Under Forty, Nguyen became the youngest partner in Bowditch's 105-year history, at age 31.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2016: Kola A. Akindele
A year after winning 40 Under Forty, Akindele was named a Rising Star in Health Care by the magazine Becker’s Hospital Review. By the end of 2018, he had been promoted to the assistant vice chancellor at UMass Medical School.
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Focus On 40 Under Forty40 Under Forty Class of 2017: Francisco Torres
Torres’ development talents have benefitted Westborough, Brookline and now Fitchburg, where he’s a fellow for MassDevelopment’s TDI,
40 Under Forty Class of 2018: Lilian Radke
Barely a year has passed since Radke won 40 Under Forty, and she already has nearly doubled the size of her cleaning company, growing from 124 employees in summer 2018 to now employing 230 people.
