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34 Hartford Business Journal • July 25, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com 1997-2015 Where are they now? N ow that you've had a chance to meet our 2016 40 Under Forty winners, we want to introduce you to our previous classes. Many of whom you will recognize as we catch up on their accomplishments since winning the award. Our first 40 Under Forty was a no frills affair. I remember talking to a colleague about the idea. We would celebrate young professionals under the age of 40 and we'd call it (big surprise) "40 Under Forty." I got a raised eyebrow. "Where are you going to find 40 of them," my colleague asked. Back then, before Google, before Adriaen's Landing and way before "Pokemon Go," Mike Peters was the mayor of Hartford. Phones, at least ours, in our humble offices at the old Underwood Typewriter factory at 56 Arbor St., had no caller ID, or voicemail. That made life exciting. When your phone rang, you answered it, which also made life exciting. And they rang all the time. I'm still not used to the eerie quiet of the new office environment, where the sound of the digital age is the sound of phones not ringing. One particular day, I answered the phone to the brusque tone of Mayor Mike's familiar voice. "Joe, this 40 Under Forty thing you did last issue. That was good. When's the party?" he asked. I mumbled that we really hadn't planned an event. "No party? That's nuts! These kids are our future! We're having a party. I'll pay for it," Peters quipped. And that's how I got invited to a cocktail party thrown by the mayor of Hartford at a bar I can't remember, to celebrate the inaugural group of 40 Under Forty winners — the class of 1997. While we'd love it if the city had continued to fund our 40 Under Forty awards, we recognize the contributions of our generous sponsors, who have been crucial in helping us build and acknowledge a community of young leaders. The fact that past winners have also been quick to help us judge new classes and organize our awards speaks to the quality of that community. Unlike the digital natives that populate our current class, that first class of 40 Under Forty winners grew up watching Mr. T and the A-Team, along with the stories about the Cold War on the evening news. Over the years, many, in fact most of our winners have continued to contrib- ute productively right here in our region, bringing energy, passion and engagement to their work and to the causes they support, as they have actualized their potential as leaders. Mike Peters would have been proud. We hope you enjoy catching up with some of our past winners, in the retrospective section that follows. We also hope you will join us in celebrating them, along with this year's winners, at a special Black Tie and Blue Jeans event at the Connecticut Convention Center on September 14 starting at 5 p.m. — Joe Zwiebel Founding Publisher, Hartford Business Journal & President, New England Business Media Hartford Business Journal Worcester Business Journal MaineBiz 1997 .....................................................36 1998 .....................................................38 1999.....................................................40 2000 ....................................................41 2001 ....................................................42 2002 ....................................................44 2003 ....................................................46 2004 ....................................................48 2005 ....................................................50 2006 ....................................................52 2007 ....................................................53 2008 ....................................................54 2009 ....................................................55 2010 .....................................................56 2011 .....................................................57 2012 .....................................................58 2013 .....................................................59 2014 .....................................................60 2015 .....................................................62 Class of Page# Hartford's A-Team: Celebrating our 20th annual 40 Under Forty Looking Forward>> Editor's Note: The following pages contain photos of previous 40 Under Forty winners and awards events. The photo captions feature names as they were printed at the time of publication. The first Hartford Business Journal 40 Under Forty special issue debuted on August 11, 1997.