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July 14, 2017 40 Under Forty 2017

Christopher Duffy

Photo | J. Fiereck Photography
Photo | J. Fiereck Photography (From left to right) Patrick Langevin, Jennifer Widness, Aaron Gill, Laura DePergola and Christopher Duffy.

Age: 34

Company: Travelers

Title: Senior Director

Town where I live: Windsor

Town where I work: Hartford

College: Columbia & Drexel

Fun Fact

I enjoy reading multiple books at the same time and I will write a memoir one day.

Q&A:

What do you do in your current job? Through leading, consulting and coaching, I help other individuals and teams increase their effectiveness, leveraging their already-existing strengths. I also serve as a product owner for an enterprise innovation initiative to rapidly improve the customer experience — a critical priority in today's competitive marketplace.

What are your goals in your current job? Develop leaders, elevate the organization's profile and performance, and improve customer experience.

What's your biggest passion? Helping others, both in the professional realm and in the public domain. Developing talent, hearing people's stories, providing some level of reassurance as some of them are having the worst days of their lives. I have been blessed with many wonderful loved ones and mentors and will continue paying it forward — our best chance for sustainability.

What are your future professional aspirations? I will continue to serve as a leader helping individuals and organizations realize their own great potential. I will keep fighting for the underdogs — such as underserved populations — to ensure they have a voice and address the biggest challenges of our time. I also aspire to help future leaders be even stronger, more diverse, and more promising than ever before.

How are you involved in the community? Windsor volunteer firefighter and EMT; member of board of directors for Leadership Greater Hartford and anti-poverty agency Connecticut Association for Human Services; advisory board member of Drexel University career development center; guest presenter, speaker, and panelist. I am also very “involved” with an adult recreational ice hockey league.

What do you hope Greater Hartford will be like in 10 years? We'll make some tough decisions to improve our fiscal health and attractiveness to both businesses and talent. We won't blindly imitate other regions, but recognize our value — such as not staying too small but seeing the benefits of remaining relatively small. We'll do a better job marketing the area in multiple channels, both to folks across the globe as well as to the region's residents to scale the knowledge that ultra-involved folks already have.

List four reasons why you deserve to be a 40 Under Forty: 1. Volunteer firefighter since 1999 and EMT since 2013. 2. Completed 12-month executive master's degree at Columbia University. 3. Led multiple teams across various functions, locations and demographics, while empowering team members and collectively exceeding business objectives. 4. Nonprofit board member, pro bono organizational development consultant for a local nonprofit, and executive coach for military officers stationed in the Middle East.

Click here to see all 40 Under Forty winners

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