40 Under Forty for 2014

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Hartford Business Journal gives out numerous awards every year: Women in Business, Healthcare Heroes, Best Places to Work, Family Business, CFO of the Year, among others. By far, the most popular of these accolades is 40 Under Forty, given annually to the Greater Hartford men and women who have accomplished much in the early stages of their careers and have the potential to go on to do even greater things.

And as with all of our awards, integrity of the selection process is absolutely paramount. We try to ensure judges are unbiased and have varying professional backgrounds; that nominees meet the awards criteria; and that the entire process is free of outside influence.

Readers may notice there are more than 40 winners in this year's 40 Under Forty class. This is the result of an issue that arose during our nominations screening process. In previous years, if nominees turned 40 at all during the year, they would be ineligible to win (yes, even if their birthday landed on Dec. 31). However, this year we screened in multiple nominees who were 39 at the time of the nomination deadline but were due to turn 40 at some point in 2014. The judges — who were unaware of the issue at the time, as was HBJ — picked two such nominees as winners.

This left us with a list of winners, some of whom would have been ineligible in previous years and were pushing out other nominees who would have won had HBJ stuck with its age criteria. Rather than punishing either group for our mistake, however, we decided to honor both. All these winners were considered carefully by the judges and they have outstanding track records and strong futures in front of them. They are more than worthy of HBJ's 40 Under Forty award.

This year's 40 under Forty class is extremely strong, full of entrepreneurs, executives, community leaders, and up-and-comers, who are shown in these pages in all their work-life balance glory. This year's 40 under Forty theme is connections. All of our winners have forged personal and professional relationships over the course of their lives that helped them achieve much success early in their careers. We've asked each winner to share insights on how they've developed those connections and how networking, community involvement, and other social activities have helped them along the way.

And, in joining the 40 under Forty alumni, these top young professionals will add their own web of connections to HBJ's constantly growing community. We hope you enjoy their stories and gain insights from some of the region's best and brightest.

– Brad Kane

Managing Editor, Hartford Business Journal

40 Under Forty for 2014 winners

Leticia Colon de Mejias