#austinunder40

On Saturday night more than 800 people gathered at the new JW Marriott for the 17th annual Austin Under 40 Awards.

The sold-out event brought together some of Austin’s most influential and creative young professionals for a night recognizing those committed to business and community leadership.

The top honor of the night, Austinite of the Year, went to real estate professional Jonny Rodgers, of DEN Property Group LLC.  An attendee of Austin’s Westlake High School, Rodgers helped found the Austin Young Chamber (AYC) and has served on the board of the Young Men’s Business League (YMBL).  “Right now it feels like the city of Austin just came up and gave me a big hug,” Rodgers said.

In the new Mentor of the Year category, Heather McKissick was awarded the title.  A former President and CEO of Leadership Austin, McKissick continues to inspire young leaders – more than 25 of the nominated finalists have been involved in Leadership Austin’s programs.

Other winners included Leon Chen, of Tiff’s Treats, in the Entrepreneurship and Startup category, Chelsea McCullough in the Technology and Science category, and Lonny Stern, of Skillpoint Alliance, in the Community Service and Nonprofit category.  “People move to the coasts to try to be something, but they move to Austin to do something,” Stern said in his acceptance speech.

The evening included dinner, dancing, and presentations from the Young Women’s Alliance and the Young Men’s Business League, whose organizations benefit from the gala.

Congratulations to the 2015 Austin Under 40 award winners!

   Arts, Sports, Media and Entertainment: Matthew Hinsley

   Community Service and Nonprofit: Lonny Stern

   Culinary Arts and Hospitality: Shaady Ghadessy

   Energy, Cleantech and Environmental Services: Jose Beceiro

   Engineering, Architecture and Design: Matt Fajkus

   Entrepreneurship and Startup: Leon Chen

   Financial Services and Insurance: Adam Flagg

   Government and Public Affairs: Gerardo Interiano

   Legal: Evan Young

   Marketing, PR and Advertising: Jenifer Sarver

   Medicine, Healthcare and Sciences: Andrea Campaigne

   Real Estate: Jonny Rodgers

   Technology and Science: Chelsea McCullough

   Youth and Education: Matthew Abbott

   Mentor of the Year: Heather McKissick

The Austin Under 40 Awards, thrown in conjunction with the Young Men's Business League, is the Young Women's Alliance's biggest annual event.  Honoring the achievements and community efforts of driven young Austinites, Au40 brings together outstanding members of the community for a night of celebration.

Now, what to wear?

It is a gala - which means that you can do a long gown.  If you've never tried Rent The Runway, you can temporarily rent some gorgeous gowns and give them a spin before sending them back.  (They'll even send you different sizes to get the one that fits just right.)

To add a little subtle sparkle, you can't go wrong with some glittery heels.  Or for a bigger sparkle, some of-the-moment statement jewelry.  (Fun fact: jewelry designer Kendra Scott was Au40's "Austinite of the Year" in 2013.)

Make It An All-Night Event

If you want to stay the night and test-drive the brand new JW Marriott, discounted rates are available at the hotel for Au40 attendees.

Haven't purchased your tickets yet?  Make sure you get them here.  (There are only a few left!)  This will be an event you don't want to miss.

Now that the 2015 Austin Under 40 Awards finalists have been announced, and tickets for the event are on sale, get to know one of the prestigious award’s past winners:  Mousumi Shaw.

In 2014 you won the award for the Business & Entrepreneurship category.  Briefly, how would you describe what your job entails? As founder & CEO of Sikara & Co., a modern fusion jewelry brand, I get to wear many hats.  Lately my job has been more about leading a vision for the company going forward as well as working with our leadership team to help them grow our wholesale, retail and online divisions.  Since our jewelry is inspired by my travels around the world, I also get to wear the creative hat, working with creating new country collections based upon my travel photography.  Finally, we really care about the communities our stores are in (Austin, Boston & San Francisco) so I love developing partnerships with non-profit organizations that are empowering others and / or building global awareness around a cause. As a young professional, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges for people looking to start their own business? Actually I believe the challenges have come down over the years, due to the advances of technology, making it easier for people to launch ideas.  There are more incubators, business plan competitions, and tech platforms (like Square, Hootsuite, Hubspot, Shopify, Social Media platforms, etc.) to make start-up costs much lower.  The flipside is that this brings on more competition.  Therefore, the winner will be the company that can execute the best and attract the best talent. The Austin community means something different to each of us, what does it mean to you? I’ve lived in many cities from NYC to San Francisco and they each offer something amazing and unique.  For me, Austin is one of the most collaborative communities.  I have lived here for 10 years now, and it’s been amazing to see our city develop, grow and continue to be open to new ideas and residents.  Also, our company has a retail storefront downtown in the 2nd St. District.  It’s been a privilege to be part of the growing downtown.  In Austin, people love to help each other out.   There is a general optimistic energy that surrounds this city.  It’s a fabulous place to live, do business and call home. Do you have a mentor?  What has been one of the more important things that you’ve learned from them, or from the mentorship experience? I recently joined EO’s (Entrepreneur Organization) Ignite program.  EO brings together entrepreneurs and offers a platform for discussion, mentorship and growth.  With my Ignite program, we have a dedicated formal mentor whom we meet in a group setting monthly.  My mentor, Jeff Carpenter, a successful software entrepreneur (founder of PeopleAdmin & AcademicWorks), has provided both personal and professional advice from his experiences.  For entrepreneurs in the Austin area, I highly recommend checking out http://www.eonetwork.org/  In addition, I make time to mentor other entrepreneurs.  I find that I learn just as much from them, as they do from me! What are you working on today?  Any new projects on the horizon? There’s never a boring moment at Sikara, as the challenges and opportunities are always changing.  This year, we officially launch our new Indonesian and Israel inspired jewelry collections.  On the wholesale front, we are trying to partner with more museums and galleries as they showcase our jewelry as art.  On the online front, we are expanding our website www.sikara.com and partnering with exciting companies like www.shoptiques.com.  Finally with retail, we are hoping to test a few new markets.

Congratulations to all of the nominees for the 2015 AustinUnder 40 Awards!

Join us at the JW Marriott on March 7 when the winners in the 14 categories, plus the new “Mentor Of The Year” category will be unveiled.

** **

Arts, Sports, Media & Entertainment

Matthew Hinsley, Austin Classical Guitar

Matt Swinney Fashion & Style Events, LLC

Laura Villagran-Johnson, KLRU-TV, Austin PBS, Austin Social Planner

Sally Hernandez, KXAN-TV

Aaron Ross, Professional BMX Rider

 Community Service & Non-profit

William Meredith, MFI Real Estate, Ax5 Resources

Angela-Jo Touza-Medina, Caritas of Austin

Amy Mills, Emancipet

Lonny Stern, Skillpoint Alliance

Hannah Nokes, EZCorp

 Culinary Arts & Hospitality

Phillip Brown, Vince Young Steakhouse

Natalie Paramore, The Cameleon Group

Shaady Ghadessy, W Hotel

Allison Stevens, Prep Dish

Mason Ayer, Kerby Lane Café

 Energy, Cleantech & Environmental Services

Jose Beceiro, Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas

Michael Dadashi, MHD Enterprises/Infinite Recovery

Chad Blevins, The Butler Firm/GeoCF

Zeina El-Azzi, SUNEDISON, INC.

Tim Greeff, The National Security Technology Accelerator

 Engineering, Architecture & Design

Keri Burchard-Juarez, City of Austin Public Works Department

Matt Fajkus, MF Architecture, University of Texas

Allison Jaffe, Allison Jaffe Interior Design

Stefan Molina Duncan, G. Stroik Architect

Matt Pickens, Beck

Entrepreneurship & Start Up

Leon Chen, Tiff’s Treats

Ashley Clauer, Wanderlust Yoga

Jessica Honegger, Noonday Collection

Ruben Cantu, The Core Media Enterprises

Pepper Ammann, Tidbits Media Group

 Financial Services & Insurance

Blake Absher, BB&T

Rich Coffey, The Hay Legal Group

Brian May, Pioneer Bank, SSB

Adam Flagg, Upstream Investment Partners

Jonathan Levy, Oxbow Advisors, LLC

 Government & Public Affairs

Gregorio Casar, Austin City Council

Gerardo Interiano, Google

Veronica Lara, City of Austin’s Small & Minority Business Resources Dept.

Matthew Giannini, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Economic Development Admin.

Elizabeth Hadley, Greenberg Traurig, LLP

 Legal

Kevin Terrazas, Weisbart Springer Hayes LLP

Evan Young, Baker Botts LLP

Carlos Romo, Baker Botts LLP

James Nortey, Duggins Wren

Sujata Ajmera, Jackson Lewis, PC

 Marketing, PR & Advertising

Melissa Anthony Sinn, anthonyBarnum

Jennifer Gooding, Prime Tech PR

Jenna Oltersdorf, Snackbox

Maria Orozova, The MOD Studio

Jenifer Sarver, Sarver Strategies

 Medicine, Healthcare & Sciences

Kate Henderson, Seton Healthcare Family

Sujit Iyer, Dell Children’s Medical Center

Andrea Campaigne, Nurture

Shailee Gupta, St. David’s Foundation – Dental Program

Christie Johnson, Communities in Schools Central Texas

 Real Estate 

Jason Crabtree, Premier Partners, LLC

Chris Skyles, Skylee Bayne

Patrick Ley, ECR

Kristi Simmons, AQUILA Commercial

Jonny Rodgers, DEN Property Group

 Technology & Science

Chelsea McCullough, Texans for Economic Progress

Luke Martinez, Bank of America

Todd Nienkerk, Four Kitchens

Jeffrey Palermo, Clear Measure, Inc.

Dustin Wells, Headspring

Guihua Yu, The University of Texas – Austin

 Youth & Education

Matthew Abbott, Wayside Schools

Kerry Leeders-Moll, Intersection Education

Marisa Limon, LIMON CONSULTING

Eva Maria Garza-Nyer, Texas College Advisor

Teresa Granillo, Con Mi Madre

 Mentor of the Year

Heather McKissick, UFCU

Mitch Jacobson, Austin Technology Incubator

Carol Thompson, The Thompson Group

Amber Carden, U.S. Trust/Bank of America Private Wealth Management

Before the 2015 Austin Under 40 Awards are held March 7, two former winners, and this year’s honorary hosts, Lemuel Williams and Terri Broussard Williams, share some words of wisdom about what the awards really mean.

Lemuel, you won an Austin Under 40 award in 2010 in the Technology category, can you describe a little about how you felt on the evening of the awards?

Lemuel Williams:  Being nominated for a technology award at that particular time in Austin's technology scene was an amazing honor.  I was honored to be a finalist but more importantly to be in the same discussion with Michael Dell, Corey Bell, etc., whom have won previously.  When all the names were called, I learned over to my, at the time fiancée and told her, "I am going to win.”  She said, "Are you sure?”  No doubt!   And, the rest was history.

What sort of impact did winning an Au40 award have for you?

LW:  Winning the award was good for the first couple of months then I realized, not too many people will win this award and I should take this and go make something of it.  I knew I could be an ambassador to other up and coming young professionals within the Austin community.  The award placed me within a special group of alumni, but more importantly it allowed me to raise the profile for the tech industry.

Terri, you won in 2014 in the Government and Public Affairs category, how did you feel the evening of the awards?

Terri Broussard Williams:  T​he crowd was energetic, so many servant leaders were in the room, and everyone was there to support the Austin community. That was the best part of the night.  It was all about where we lived and those who serve with compassion.

What sort of impact has winning an Au40 award had for you?

TBW:  It was truly a humbling experience. I received man​y congratulatory notes from individuals I'd never met.  I took the time to have coffee or schedule a conference call with those that reached out to me.  It was a great opportunity to share my journey, the mission of the American Heart Association, and love for The Junior League of Austin.

What can people expect from this year’s event that might be different from previous events?

LW:  People can expect more categories, more finalists and new people to Austin.  This is the time to put yourself out there and meet amazing people that you would not elsewhere.

TBW:  This year's event will be spectacular.  Not only will it be in the new JW Marriott, but there will be a new format.  You can expect some new partnerships with some of Austin's most giving companies like Tiffany & Co.  I won't spill all the beans and save some surprises for the big day.

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s event?​

TBW:  Austin Under 40 brings so many people to one venue.  I am looking forward to seeing my contemporaries.  It always feels like a big family reunion.  I am also looking forward to hearing about YMBL's Sunshine Camps and the scholarships ​recently given out by YWA.

Any advice for this year’s nominees?  ​

TBW:  Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Life's most urgent question is 'What are you doing for others?'”  Don't forget the night is not just about awards.  It's a time to recognize those who have lead their industry, but most importantly have exhibited a solid commitment to serving the Austin community.  While some will walk out with hardware, everyone who is nominated is truly the reason Austin is a phenomenal place to live.

Anything else that you’d like to mention?

LW:  I want individuals to know whether you are a finalist, past, or current winner, Austin Under 40 is group you will always be associated with, but this should not be your final stop.  You are being recognized because you care about causes that are keeping you awake all hours of the night and sacrificing important events in your life.  Be humble and stay humble.  Generations after generations will thank you for it!

Find out more about the 2015 Austin Under 40 Awards.

Have you put the Austin Under 40 Awards on your calendar yet?  Taking place March 7, this year’s gala relocates to the brand new JW Marriott.  One of the biggest events of the year for YWA and the Young Men’s Business League, the annual ceremony brings together some of the most influential members of the Austin community.  You won’t want to miss it.

But before the big night, you can help celebrate the more than 200 Austinites who received nominations this year.  Say cheers to the outstanding business and community leaders at Porter Ale House & Gastropub on Tuesday, January 27 from 5:30 – 7:30PM.  Hope to see you there!

Tickets for the awards will go on sale soon...  Stay tuned!