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2026 C-SUITE AWARDS B6 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 19, 2026 Congratulations to our President & CEO, Carolyn Stanworth. As Carolyn Stanworth prepares for retirement after 27 remarkable years with BL Companies, we proudly celebrate her C-Suite Lifetime Achievement Award and the extraordinary legacy of leadership, growth, and employee-owner success she leaves behind. Contact us: 800.301.3077 • blcompanies.com Employee owned. Client driven. CT • CO • FL • MA • MD • NC • NJ • NY • OH • PA • RI • TN • TX Pictured L-R: Derek Kohl, Carolyn Stanworth, Julia O'Brien On The Job Guiding business principle: Take care of people, keep your commit- ments and the business results will follow. Best way to keep your competi- tive edge: Continue learning, adapt to change and invest in developing great people. Talented and engaged employees are the greatest compet- itive advantage any organization can have. Best business decision: Helping transition BL Companies to employee ownership and creating a culture where employee owners have both a voice and a stake in our success. Worst business decision: Early in my career, I occasionally spent too much time trying to reach perfect consensus before making difficult decisions. Leadership often requires acting with incomplete information. Biggest missed opportunity: I tend to focus more on future oppor- tunities than past ones. If I have a regret, it is that there were times I could have delegated sooner and created leadership opportunities for others earlier in their careers. Goal yet to be achieved: Ensuring a seamless leadership transition and helping the next generation of leaders build an even stronger BL than the one I inherited. privilege of helping guide BL Companies through some of its most challenging and transformative moments, including our transition to employee ownership and our growth into a national multidis- ciplinary firm. But my greatest source of pride is helping build a sustainable, 100% employee-owned company that will continue to thrive long after my retirement. Together, we created a culture rooted in trust, accountability, leadership development and shared ownership. We invested in people, empowered future leaders, and built an organization where employee owners have both a voice and a stake in our success. The true measure of success is not the growth we achieved during my tenure, but the strength of the company, culture and leadership team that will carry BL forward for genera- tions of employee owners to come. In what ways are you involved in the community? I believe businesses have a respon- sibility to strengthen the communities they serve. I proudly support BL's charitable initiatives, including food drives, holiday giving programs and local community initiatives. I have also supported military members through Soldiers' Angels for many years and encourage employee owners to give back where they live and work. Carolyn N. Stanworth President & CEO BL Companies Size of Organization: $120 million+ Employees: 385+ employee owners Education: University of New Haven, MBA W I N N E R C AT E G O R Y | L I F E T I M E A C H I E V E M E N T AW A R D C arolyn N. Stanworth is presi- dent and CEO of BL Companies, an employee-owned architec- ture, engineering, environmental and land surveying firm with more than 385 employee owners across 18 offices nationwide. Since becoming CEO in 2010, she has overseen the company's growth and geographic expansion, during which the value of its employee-owned stock has increased more than twen- ty-fivefold. Stanworth joined BL in 1999 as chief financial officer after holding leadership positions in finance and planning at Southern New England Telephone. Stanworth announced in March she will retire at the end of 2026 after 27 years with the company. What have been the biggest professional accomplish- ments in your career? When I reflect on my career, I don't think first about what I accom- plished. I think about what I am leaving behind. I had the