ENR Texas and Southeast Names 2026 Top Young Professionals
Sharath Vennavelly, construction manager at Ardurra, reviews site operations. He is one of 30 winners of ENR’s Texas & Southeast 2026 Top Young Professionals.
ENR Texas & Southeast now includes states that previously fell under ENR Texas & Louisiana and ENR Southeast. The format for the Top Young Professionals competition remains consistent with previous years. Judges reviewed more than 100 submissions to select the top 30 professionals in the region, all aged 40 or younger. Top Young Professional judges were excluded from scoring an entry representing a conflict of interest, such as place of employment.
This year’s judging panel included:
Megan McPhilimy, transit planning project manager at HNTB
Prateek Tare, executive vice president and founder at Distributed Energy Infrastructure
Abbas Kachwalla, associate vice president at AECOM
Matthew Calvey, architect at AECOM, Boston
The selected young professionals will be profiled in the Feb. 16, 2026, edition of ENR Texas & Southeast, recognizing career accomplishments, industry leadership, and community contributions.
Below is the list of the 2026 ENR Texas & Southeast Top Young Professionals, presented in alphabetical order by last name.
Congratulations to all honorees.
- Stephen Abadie — Executive Vice President, Infrastructure | RNGD
- Erik M. Alcantara — Client Service Manager / Senior Project Manager | AECOM
- Imtiaz Ali — Project Control – Schedule Review Lead | AECOM
- Chase Anderson — Associate Principal | Thornton Tomasetti
- Jamal Atkins — Vice President of Construction Engineering and Inspection | Volkert, Inc.
- Kristy Baumer — Business Manager | Turner Construction Company
- Rosslyn Cooper — Senior Vice President – Project Management & Operations Center of Excellence | WSP
- Ryan Eisenhauer — Director, Facilities Construction Services | STO Building Group
- Mark Grano — Director of Substation Engineering | Primoris Services Corporation
- Cyndi Hallman — HSE Director, Corporate | Primoris Services Corporation
- Bibek Karki — Regional Director of Engineering | IPS PowerServe
- Donny Kiehn — Design & Commissioning Manager | PCL Construction, Solar Division
- Milan Mendapara — Development Manager | Thakkar Development Group LLC
- Mary McGowan — Civil Engineer, Vice President | Kimley-Horn
- Nathan Mozeleski — Technical Manager | AtkinsRéalis
- Ricardo Jesus Maga Rojas — Assistant Project Manager | Stantec Architecture Inc
- James Olden Jr. — Design Manager, Associate | Gensler
- Tanner Oetjen — Civil Engineer | AECOM
- Andrew Reid — Vice President | Burns & McDonnell
- Mike Ritchie — Vice President / Division Manager | Brasfield & Gorrie
- Natalie Rogers — Water Resources Team Leader | Halff
- Matt Schrodel — Senior Vice President of Operations, Dallas Business Unit Leader | McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
- Diana Sosa — Project Manager | Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp.
- Anthony Taylor — Regional Director | Harper General Contractors
- Maksym Tkachuk — Project Manager | Rosendin
- Stephanie Tovar — Superintendent | Flintco, LLC
- Sharath Vennavelly — Construction Manager | Ardurra
- Katie West — Project Manager | AtkinsRéalis
- Nick Wilson — Vice President / Division Manager | Brasfield & Gorrie
- Emilee Woods — Owner and Principal Engineer | Athena Engineering
