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Congrats to the Forty Under 40 winners!

 

Forty Under 40 is an award designed to recognize talented individuals in Maine - under the age of 40 - who are making a difference. They are the emerging generation of leaders who are bound to make a memorable mark in the business community and beyond.

Each year, we ask our readers to submit nominations describing who they think deserves to be highlighted. All of the nominations (which totaled more than 100 this year) are reviewed by our internal selection committee, scored, and then reviewed. Once the final list is compiled, we celebrate the honors with a fun networking event.

The event this year will be held on May 25 in partnership with the Portland Sea Dogs. All honorees will be recognized on the field, and some of them may even throw a pitch! We will continue to celebrate their successes with a networking picnic at the game.

The 40 individuals who were selected as the class of 2012 are featured below.

 

 

Meet the 2012 Forty Under 40

 


El-Fadel Arbab, 28

Lecturer and Secretary
Darfur Community Center of Maine

El-Fadel Arbab's life ambition is to travel to all 50 states, stopping in as many towns as possible to talk about the horrors of the Darfur genocide in a way so personal that it can't help but capture the hearts and minds of the American people. El-Fadel has known more than his share of hardship and hard work in his 28 years. He was 12 years old when the Janjaweed, militias backed by the Sudan government, began terrorizing villages like his, killing indiscriminately to discourage popular revolutions.
> Read more about El-Fadel


James Beaudoin, 37

Regional Manager/VP Sales for Portland Pirates
Front Row Marketing Services

Jim Beaudoin’s professional sports work in Maine began in 1996 with the Portland Sea Dogs, for whom he held a number of roles before eventually becoming Assistant General Manager. In 2004, he left the Sea Dogs to become general manager of the Columbus Catfish, becoming one of the youngest GMs in minor league baseball, and helping turn the organization around by immediately increasing attendance.
> Read more about James Beaudoin


Joshua Bodwell, 37

Executive Director
Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance

Joshua Bodwell became executive director of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance (MWPA) in August 2010, since which time the 37-year-old organization has nearly doubled in paying membership, to more than 1,200 people. He has revitalized the MWPA in many ways, as his Forty Under 40 award nominator, board president Sibyl Masquelier, notes.
> Read more about Joshua Bodwell


Eric Boucher, 38

Chief Financial Officer
Avesta Housing

Avesta Housing is Maine’s largest non-profit affordable housing agency, owning or managing 1,800 apartments and an assisted living facility in southern Maine. As Avesta’s chief financial officer since October 2010, Eric Boucher plays a key role in the steady growth of the 100-employee agency, which has more than $140 million in assets and an annual operating budget exceeding $25 million.
> Read more about Eric Boucher


Rebecca Darr, 38

Senior Fellow, Corporate Programs
The Aspen Institute

By day, Forty Under 40 Award winner Rebecca Darr, 38, of Brunswick, is a senior fellow at The Aspen Institute Business & Society Program, working for systems change in capital markets and business education. By night, she’s a “Jill of all trades” as cofounder and co-owner of Atayne, an apparel company that makes highperformance outdoor and athletic gear from trash.
> Read more about Rebecca Darr


Gavin L. Engler, 27

Intern Architect
Carol A. Wilson Architect

“An exceptionally talented young architect, totally committed to the practice of architecture, to the quality of the work, and more specifically, to seeing Maine architectural design compete on a national level.” So writes nominator Carol A. Wilson of Forty Under 40 award-winner Gavin L. Engler, intern architect at Wilson’s architectural firm in Falmouth. “His work and dedication has turned the heads of Portland’s established design community,” she adds.
> Read more about Gavin L. Engler


Richard Fortin, 26

Library Director
Charles M. Bailey Public Library

Since becoming director two years ago, Richard Fortin has “transformed” the Charles M. Bailey Public Library in Winthrop. Circulation and attendance have nearly doubled, and 500 new members joined in Fortin’s first year, notes Margy Burns Knight, an author who nominated him for the Forty Under 40 award. “Thanks to Richard the library is, once again, a central part of our rural community,” Knight continues.
> Read more about Richard Fortin


Charles Friedman, 23

Owner/Founder
Flowfold

“Carry The Future” is the motto of Flowfold, the Peaks Island manufacturer of wallets made from high-tech racing sailcloths.
“It’s a play on words, certainly,” says 23-year-old Charles Friedman, Flowfold founder and co-owner. “All the things we make are used to carry something – money, or an iPad, or whatever.
“We try to do everything locally and sustainably, to help ‘carry’ the future. So the motto alludes to sustainability, keeping things good for future generations.”
> Read more about Charles Friedman


Aron Gaudet, 38

Film Director & President
Sunny Side Up Films

Old Town native Aron Gaudet and his fiancee were visiting Aron’s mother, Joan Gaudet, in Bangor in 2004. They accompanied her to Bangor International Airport, where she and friends Jerry Mundy and Bill Knight had been greeting U.S. troops being deployed to or returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Deeply moved by the greeters’ dedication, and intrigued by their day-to-day lives, the couple and cameraman Dan Ferrigan (a Winslow native) created “TheWay We Get By,” an independently filmed documentary.
> Read more about Aron Gaudet


John Hatzenbuehler, 34

Associate Director of Sports Medicine
Maine Medical Center

In the growing field of sports medicine, Dr. John Hatzenbuehler is a rising star, both locally at Maine Medical Center – where he has been instrumental in creating and sustaining a research program – and nationally, as illustrated in his recent acceptance as Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. Hatzenbuehler, who lives in Portland with his wife, Stephanie, and young children Miles and Eva, volunteers as a team physician and/or consultant for local teams – including the Portland Pirates...
> Read more about John Hatzenbuehler


Matthew Hoidal, 39

Executive Director
Camp Sunshine

Matthew Hoidal discovered Camp Sunshine in 1999, when he and his brother Dave were planning to run the Disney Marathon and wanted to fund-raise for a worthy charity. Inspired by the Sebago Lake camp’s mission and by his visits there, Hoidal in 2001 organized the Miracle Marathon, in which he and nine other athletes combined to run 1,600 miles from Florida to Maine. Their 12-day, tagteam odyssey brought in more than $90,000. That same year Hoidal became Camp Sunshine’s executive director.
> Read more about Matthew Hoidal


Sarah Holmes, 39

Assistant Director of Student Life & Diversity
University of Southern Maine

Sarah Holmes, 39, has polysyllabic job titles at the University of Southern Maine – not only Assistant Director of Student Life and Diversity, but also Coordinator of the Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity. But Holmes’s work extends well beyond her alma mater, as her MaineToday Media Forty Under 40 Award nominators make clear: “Sarah Holmes is a statewide and regional leader in her field of higher education administration in student life and diversity..."
> Read more about Sarah Holmes


Matt Hutton, 36

Associate Professor
Maine College of Art

Matt Hutton co-founded the Woodworking & Furniture Design department at the Maine College of Art soon after arriving at the college in Portland a decade ago. The nationally recognized program was launched with the conversion of a men’s bathroom into a woodworking studio; last summer, Hutton led the construction of the department’s new 5,000-squarefoot studio/work space. “The department was a natural fit for Maine, with its rich history of wood products,” says Hutton, an Associate Professor at MECA.
> Read more about Matt Hutton


Jonathan LaBonte, 31

Executive Director
Androscoggin Land Trust & Mayor of Auburn

Jonathan LaBonte, the youngest mayor in the Auburn’s history and the first executive director of the Androscoggin Land Trust in almost five years, is well known for his efforts to improve Auburn’s quality of life and economic climate.
Originally a volunteer group working to save 1,900 acres of river land in Turner, the Androscoggin Land Trust (ATL) now has three staff members and a downtown office.
> Read more about Jonathan LaBonte


Ryan Lilly, 36

Associate Medical Center Director
VA Maine Health Care System

Ryan Lilly’s dedication to public service is as apparent as his strong work ethic.
He first worked at the Department of Veteran Affairs Health Administration Center in Denver in 1999, became Chief Financial Officer there in 2000, and in 2002 became Chief Financial Officer at the VA Medical Center at White River Junction, Vt., “at an age when most peers were not yet in supervisory roles,” notes one VA Maine HCS official.
> Read more about Ryan Lilly


Emma Lishness, 26

Manager of Marketing and Communications
Tilson

Nearing graduation from Cape Elizabeth High in 2004, Emma Lishness undertook an ambitious Senior Transition Project – promoting the creation of bike lanes on narrow Mitchell and Shore roads. The lane idea didn’t come to fruition, but Lishness succeeded in raising awareness of an alternative form of transportation and of biking safety issues. The project is an early example of the drive and talent that contributed to Lishness’s selection as a Forty Under 40 honoree.
> Read more about Emma Lishness


Jeremy Litchfield, 34

CEO/Founder
Atayne

Jeremy Litchfield founded Atayne LLC, which makes highperformance outdoor and athletic apparel, exactly five years ago. After finishing an 8-mile run in Washington, D.C., one hot day, he was disturbed to see his legs and shorts incarnadined by red dye from his shirt.
The next day, Litchfield left his job at a marketing firm and launched Atayne, whose gear “is safe for people and for the planet” and all made from 100 percent recycled materials – recycled polyester, recycled cotton, activated carbon, and Chitosan.
> Read more about Jeremy Litchfield


John Lowery, 32

Resident Physician, Family Medicine
Central Maine Medical Center

Being the first student to pursue and complete a dual D.O./Ph.D. program from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine is one of many reasons Dr. John Lowery of Falmouth is being recognized as a Forty Under 40 award winner.
A dedicated husband and father of two, Lowery has spent the past several years balancing family, education, and volunteering efforts in pursuant of his Ph.D. and medical residency. It was in his second year at UNECOM when the idea of combining both research and clinical medicine began.
> Read more about John Lowery


Jamee Luce, 35

Teacher- Math and Computer Science
RSU 18

It’s one measure of Jamee Luce’s teaching gifts that Messalonksee High School was recently named to the College Board’s second annual Advanced Placement Honor Roll – the only school in Maine to be so recognized. A math and computer science teacher at the Oakland school since 2004, Luce has taught AP calculus and AP computer science, plus other math classes and geometry at the middle-school level.
> Read more about Jamee Luce


Glen Marquis, 36

Project Development Manager
Ocean Renewable Power Company

“Pretty cool.”
Co-workers rarely hand out such high praise, but Glen Marquis surely earned it.
Marquis, 36, works for Ocean Renewable Power Co. as project development manager for the Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project being installed off Lubec and Eastport. When completed and connected to the Bangor Hydro grid, it will be the first commercial-scale project of its kind in North America.
> Read more about Glen Marquis


Nat May, 39

Executive Director
SPACE Gallery

As the executive director of Space Gallery, the downtown Portland arts venue, Nat May "supports emerging artists by presenting 220 events annually to forward contemporary art, artists, and ideas from all over the country," says his MaineToday Media Forty Under 40 award nominator, Jessica Tomlinson. "Nat’s innovative programming earned him recognition from the Americans for the Arts as an Emerging Leader. He was selected as a presenter at the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts..."
> Read more about Nat May


Justin McIver, 29

Founder, President
Main Eco Homes

“Conscience With A View,” is the motto of Justin McIver’s Main Eco Homes, which builds “custom homes that support healthier living, are more energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and less expensive to maintain,” in the words of the company’s mission statement.
Or, in the words of McIver’s MaineToday Media Forty Under 40 award nominator, Deanna Miller, the firm “demonstrates that people can live in comfort and still not create a negative impact on the environment.
> Read more about Justin McIver


Liz McMahon, 39

Director
Lucid Stage

“Creative, warm, bright, enthusiastic, and committed,” in the words of her Forty under 40 nominator, Liz McMahon of Portland is co-founder of Lucid Stage on Baxter Boulevard. Lucid, which opened in October 2010, is a multi-use, nonprofit performance, rehearsal, educational and gallery space for many local arts organizations, including theaterin- residence Mad Horse. As Lucid’s director, McMahon is indeed “a mainstay of Portland’s creative community,” says Ellen Murphy, who has known McMahon for several years.
> Read more about Liz McMahon


Bill McQuaid, 39

Chief Information Officer
Parkview Adventist Medical Center

Why have IT personnel from hospitals in England, the Bahamas, Australia and elsewhere visited Parkview Adventist Medical Center in Brunswick, checking out the facility’s scanning and archiving medical records procedures? The short answer must be Bill McQuaid, Parkview’s chief information officer, and a winner of the MaineToday Media Forty Under 40 award.
> Read more about Bill McQuaid


Stacy Mitchell, 39

Senior Researcher
Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Stacy Mitchell, 39, is one of the founders of Portland Buy Local, as the Portland Independent Business and Community Alliance is generally known. She is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a national group based in Minneapolis, (Mitchell telecommutes) and a published author whose “Big Box Swindle,” (Beacon Books, 2007) was one of Booklist’s top 10 business books of the year.
> Read more about Stacy Mitchell


Stuart (Tuck) O’Brien, 36

Project Development Manager & Associate General Counsel
Ocean Renewable Power Company

Stuart "Tuck" O'Brien ("Tuck", as he is invariably known, "is a family nickname") notes that “my career path has taken different turns but I have always been fascinated by the development process and that has evolved into a focus on sustainability issues in infrastructure and economic development...So ORPC and the renewable energy industry are a really good fit for me, personally and professionally.”
> Read more about Tuck O’Brien


Heather Parent, 37

Policy Director
Maine Department of Environmental Protection

As policy director of the state Department of Environmental Protection, Heather Parent “sets and implements the environmental policies of the entire state,” writes her award nominator, Jennifer Eastman. “She is using her 12 years of experience in environmental law, and her love of her native state of Maine, to set policies on the diverse areas of environmental protection for the state.” Parent explains that she knew while in high school, at Mountain Valley in Rumford, that she wanted to be a lawyer.
> Read more about Heather Parent


Gita Pullapilly, 34

Film Producer & CEO
Sunny Side Up Films

Gita Pullapilly of Bar Harbor produced the Emmy-nominated independent 2009 documentary “The Way We Get By,” about the troop greeters of Maine at Bangor International Airport. Pullapilly’s is also the voice of the multiple-awardwinning film, written and directed by Aron Gaudet, also a Forty Under 40 award winner. An award-winning television journalist and film producer, Pullapilly has produced stories in the United States, India, and Jordan (she was the first filmmaker selected as a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Jordan).
> Read more about Gita Pullapilly


Kavita Pullapilly, 39

Founder & Executive Director
The Center for International Training, Education, & Development

Even a brief summary of 39-yearold Kavita Pullapilly’s career to date reveals an amazing record of accomplishment, in the for-profit and non-profit sectors, in the United States and around the world. As her Forty Under 40 award nomination details, Pullapilly from 1994 to 2000 was a senior manager in marketing and managing at General Mills, handling operational budgets exceeding $300 million, and then “worked in the financing and management of international development projects in Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.”
> Read more about Kavita Pullapilly


Erin Tucker Rice, 35

Director of Marketing and Development
Pine Tree Society

Last summer, Pine Tree Camp – which serves roughly 650 Maine children and adults with disabilities – opened a fully accessible, airconditioned dining hall for campers to great acclaim and applause. But that new dining hall would not have been built without the efforts of Forty Under 40 Award winner Erin Rice. Erin, 35, is the director of marketing and development for the Pine Tree Society. Her hard work resulted in a substantial grant from the Alfond Foundation to build the dining hall.
> Read more about Erin Tucker Rice


Ry Russell, 22

VR Marketing Consultants, LLC
Pine Tree Society

The Saco Drive-In is the place to be on Friday and Saturday nights in Saco, in large part because of the efforts of Forty Under 40 Award winner Ry Russell, 22, who revitalized and rebranded the theater to appeal to a younger audience.
What once was a fading memory for many older Mainers is now a popular venue again, this time for a younger generation who can enjoy the movies with family and friends in a more social setting than regular theaters.
> Read more about Ry Russell


Jeff Shaw, 35

Executive Director/Founder
Maine Academy of Modern Music

Jeff Shaw was nominated by a Falmouth mom whose young son, Jackson, attends the nonprofit Maine Academy of Modern Music (MAMM) which Shaw founded five years ago. “What really impresses me, and also led me to volunteer at MAMM, is how amazing Jeff is with the children, and the impact that he makes on them,” Suzanne Quinn explains. “Kids who might otherwise be playing by themselves at home are playing with other, likeminded kids, and the result is that their music is really brought to life, played for live audiences.”

> Read more about Jeff Shaw


Joshua Shea, 36

Editor/Publisher
Lewiston Auburn Magazine

There are several reasons for Joshua Shea’s selection for a MaineToday Media Forty Under 40 award. As his nominator, Chip Morrison, president of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, notes: “Josh created a spectacular, fullcolor local magazine, Lewiston Auburn Magazine, which highlights the dramatic transformation of the Lewiston/Auburn area. The magazine began publishing in April 2010 as a bi-monthly 48-page issue. It currently is published 10 issues per year – and each issue is 96 pages.”
> Read more about Joshua Shea


Bodhi Simpson, 32

Program Manager
Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers

Bodhi Simpson is the director and clinician of the Teen Parent School Program at the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers in Waterville. The program is open to pregnant and parenting teens statewide, and provides prenatal and parenting instruction, and academic and life skills courses. Simpson, who has worked at the agency for seven years, brings special talents to her job. “Bodhi is unique in the clinical therapy world because of her knowledge and expertise in the wonderful combination of art therapy expertise and gifted ability with adolescents,” writes her supervisor, Elizabeth Dostie.
> Read more about Bodhi Simpson


Steven Trockman, 38

Director of Community Relations & Outreach
Mid Coast Health Services

Steve Trockman sees himself helping to transform Maine’s healthcare system. He’s already well on his way. In just 16 months as director of community relations and outreach at Mid Coast Health Services, Trockman “has quickly become recognized throughout the community and organization as a positive force for changing and transforming the way health care is delivered toward the goals of improving the health of the population, improving the access and quality of healthcare, while also working to decrease the cost of healthcare,” says Mid Coast CEO Lois Skillings.
> Read more about Steven Trockman


Annie Tselikis, 29

Education Coordinator
Maine Lobstermen’s Association

Growing up in Cape Elizabeth, Annie Tselikis was naturally drawn to the ocean. That love of the Maine coast, and of the people who live there and make a hard-won living from it, was reinforced when she worked as a deck hand at Casco Bay Lines on the Portland waterfront. Today, she is the Education Coordinator for the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA). Tselikis is an impassioned advocate for the MLA, most of whose 1,200 members are lobstermen, and whose mission is “to maintain a sustainable lobster resource and an economically viable fishery.”
> Read more about Annie Tselikis


Alicia ‘Lee’ Smilowicz, 38

Medical Director
HealthCalls, LLC

Alicia Smilowicz is an osteopathic physician who is distinguishing herself as an associate clinical professor at the University of New England, where she’s worked for six years. In the past 12-18 months, she’s completed a fellowship for the American Academy of Osteopathy, which is the highest academic honor of her specialty. There are only 70 AAO fellows in the U.S., and Alicia, at 38, is the youngest, having earned the honor on her first attempt, according to her husband, Jose Peralta, who nominated Alicia for the Forty Under 40 Award.
> Read more about Alicia ‘Lee’ Smilowicz


Christopher Thompson, 37

President
Parallax Partners, Inc.

What now is an unsightly amalgam of warehouses slowly deteriorating on an arm of land jutting into the mouth of the Fore River will, in the not-to-distant future, be transformed into a $105 million mixed-use real estate development, due in large part to the efforts of Chris Thompson. He is one of three partners leading the project known as The Forefront at Thompson’s Point, considered the gateway to Portland. Chris, 37, is president of Parallax Partners, which also is developing a downtown riverfront hotel in Lewiston and a large, mixed-use project in Portsmouth, N.H.
> Read more about Christopher Thompson


Chris Tyll, 34
Owner
Pat’s Pizza - Old Port

Chris Tyll began coming to Maine when he was 18, visiting with Annapolis roommate and good friend David Williams of Cumberland. Michigan-born Tyll fell in love with the state, and today, age 34, he remembers that “It was always in the back of my mind, that if I ever had a chance to move here and raise a family ...” The opportunity arose following Tyll’s four tours in Iraq and retirement from the Navy. His Naval Academy grad wife, Jen, left her high-powered job in D.C., and they “kinda followed” Williams, a fellow Navy Seal, to Maine.
> Read more about Chris Tyll


David Whitehill, 34
Executive Director
Bangor Symphony Orchestra

In his four-plus years with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, executive director David Whitehill has guided the ensemble from debt into the black, and helped deliver rapt and record-breaking audiences to hear one of the nation’s oldest continuously performing orchestras. “David’s leadership, sacrifice, resourcefulness, creativity, and commitment to the art above all else have been instrumental in our success,” says BSO board member Joyce Clark-Sarnacki.
> Read more about David Whitehill