Meet HBJ's 2018 40 Under 40 class

Photo | J. Fiereck Photography

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What must the Greater Hartford region do to attract more talented young professionals to the area? What do you hope Greater Hartford will be like in 10 years?

Those are two pressing questions on the minds of many influential people in the region and they are related in many ways. Our ability to attract young professionals will certainly dictate Greater Hartford's vibrancy in a decade's time.

We posed these two questions to this year's class of 40 Under Forty honorees, because what better way to understand the minds of young, talented professionals than directly asking for their input?

Their responses were enlightening. We can woo young professionals by offering them a vibrant city and region with public transportation options, affordable housing, amenities and entertainment, top-notch education and — most importantly — career opportunity and advancement, not only in traditional industries like insurance, financial services and health care, but in industries of the future — internet of things, coding and other STEM-related fields.

Many of our honorees expressed optimism for the region's future, but also acknowledged there is much more work to be done to make us competitive with other vibrant cities.

Every year for the last 22 years, Hartford Business Journal, with the help of our independent judges, has selected 40 of the top up-and-coming young professionals who are leading their respective organizations.

This year we received 164 nominations. Narrowing down the list to 40 deserving winners was a difficult task. More importantly, our winners provide evidence that our region has a vast young talent pool. As a state, we must do everything in our power to keep them here.

They represent the promising future of our city, region and state.

We also must heed their advice on how to attract more like-minded people to the region.

Our 2018 winners hail from the private, public and nonprofit sectors and from organizations both small and large.

We'd like to thank this year's judges (Ted Carroll, Wilson Camelo and Julie Daly Meehan) for helping choose our winners. We will be celebrating our annual 40 Under Forty event Sept. 27, at the Hartford Marriott Downtown.

We'd also like to thank Infinity Music Hall in downtown Hartford, which hosted this year's photo shoot.

And if you think you have what it takes to be part of a future 40 Under Forty class, we ask that you submit a nomination next year. This award is only as strong as the class of individuals who are nominated for it.

Greg Bordonaro | Editor

Meet the winners

Eric Amodio	Nisha Kapur
William Bussey	Ali Lazowski
Jason Cabral	Mae Maloney
Matthew Chesky	Ryan Martin
Britt-Marie K. Cole-Johnson	Jillian B. Mayer
Joseph Connerton	Jenna McClure
Kathleen M. Coss	Guilaine Menefee
Eric Cushman	Kara Mitchell
Christopher Cykley	Dr. Nathan Nartey
Dr. Ashley G. Dorin	Monica Obrebski
Kate C. Farrar	R. Bradford Oneglia
Nicole Feeney	Brad Palazzo
Morgan Sones Ferrarotti	Mahesh Puthenveetil
Sarah Gallardo	Philip Rigueur
Megan Rees Gavin	William J. Roberts
Michael Guidicelli	John F. Rossi
Meghan M. Hanrahan	Veronica Yvette Ruiz
Emily Hultquist	Andrew Salak
Ibrahim Ibrahim	Brendan J. Sullivan
Luis A. Valdez-Jimenez	Alicia Woodsby