For the past seven years, ENR’s 10 regional editions have honored the construction industry’s best and brightest in its Top Young Professionals competition. This year, for the first time, ENR takes the competition nationally to select ENR’s Top 20 Under 40.

The road to selection for these 20 outstanding leaders of today and tomorrow began with a call for entries in late 2016. More than 400 individuals were entered in that round from all walks of the industry in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Next, panels of industry judges were assembled in each of the 10 regions and up to 20 winners were selected to represent that region in early 2017. You can find profiles of those winners in each regional magazine.

Finally, a brand new panel of judges reviewed the top-scoring regional candidates to pick a national Top 20 list that represented the pinnacle of leadership skills, community service and diversity of the construction industry. 

Note that all of the candidates were under 40 at the time of their initial regional award in early 2017.

The winners include engineers, architects, entrepreneurs, academics, contractors and owners. Submitters provided information on work experience, industry leadership activities, efforts to improve the built environment and service to the broader community.

ENR will spotlight the winners in the October 30 issue of ENR, including their thoughts on important issues facing the industry, such as mentorship, diversity, technology and work-life balance.

Have the perfect candidate for next year? The first step is to submit an entry to the regional Top Young Professionals competition here: www.enr.com/top-young-professionals

ENR'S 2017 TOP 20 UNDER 40 (in alphabetical order)

Scott Armstrong, Senior Associate/Regional Design Management Leader at Gensler. Originally submitted to ENR Texas & Louisiana       

Joshua Broder, President & CEO at Tilson Technology Management Inc. Originally submitted to ENR New England

Jonathan Burgess, President of Sustainable Operations at The Spinnaker Group. Originally submitted to ENR Southeast

Melissa Countryman, Vice President at JLL. Originally submitted to ENR Southeast

Enrique Elizondo, Superintendent at GH Phipps Construction Cos. Originally submitted to ENR Mountain States

Afsaneh (Anna) Farokhi, Commissioning Manager at Fluor. Originally submitted to ENR Texas & Louisiana

Mani Golparvar-Fard, Associate Professor, Faculty Entrepreneurial Fellow and Faculty Excellence Fellow at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and CEO and Co-Founder of Reconstruct Inc. Originally submitted to ENR Midwest

Derek Hoffine, Operations Manager at Hensel Phelps. Originally submitted to ENR Southeast

Damaris Hollingsworth, Vice President of THOR Design Plus. Originally submitted to ENR Midwest

Noopur Jain, Statewide Engineering Manager, Complex Structures with California High-Speed Rail Authority. Originally submitted to ENR California

Heath Kearney, Civil/Pipeline Discipline Lead at STV. Originally submitted to ENR Mid-Atlantic

Tommy Linstroth, CEO of Green Badger LLC. Originally submitted to ENR Southeast

Andrew Liu, Co-Founder, Head of Growth of Arrivo. Originally submitted to ENR California

Dave Lubitz, Chief Operating Officer of Aguirre & Fields L.P. Originally submitted to ENR Texas & Louisiana

Jennifer Marcy, Project Manager with Atkins. Originally submitted to ENR New York

Tarelle Osborn,  President of Osborn Consulting Inc. Originally submitted to ENR Northwest

Laura Flannery Sachtleben, Principal at Stantec. Originally submitted to ENR Texas & Louisiana

Darcey Schumacher, Principal/Houston Area Market Leader with Wallace Engineering. Originally submitted to ENR Midwest

Joanna Slominski, North Dakota Construction Executive at Mortenson. Originally submitted to ENR Mountain States

Antonya Williams, Director of Design Integration at McCarthy Building Cos. Originally submitted to ENR Southwest