After a panel of industry judges reviewed the entries for the 2024 ENR Southwest Top Young Professionals, ENR Southwest is excited to announce this year’s winners.
The annual awards program recognizes 20 individuals under 40 years of age in each of ENR’s 10 regions who have shown exceptional leadership and service throughout their career.
Hailing from Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, this year’s winners will be profiled in more detail in the March issue of ENR Southwest. The winners were judged by three primary criteria: industry experience and education; career and industry leadership; and community service and involvement.
ENR Southwest’s independent judges did not score any applicants with whom there could have been a conflict of interest.
This year’s judges are: Ali Fakih, chief executive at Sustainability Engineering Group and Rob Walter, chief operating office at KHS&S Contractors.
Winners from each regional class have been put forward for consideration in the national round of judging, which will decide ENR’s 2024 Top 20 Under 40. The national winners will be celebrated at ENR’s annual Top Young Professionals conference, which will be held March 18-20 in Chicago.
This year’s contest was highly competitive, and we had so many talented individuals who were just on the cusp of making the list of Top 20—if your or your candidate was not named a winner this year but will still be under 40 in 2024, we highly encourage you to enter the contest again next year.
You can read more about each winner in the March issue of ENR Southwest.
2024 ENR SOUTHWEST TOP YOUNG PROFESSIONALS (in alpha order)
Atefeh (Ati) Abad, ITS analyst at Atkins, Henderson, Nev.
Valerie Ahyong, associate at Lloyd Sports & Engineering, Tempe, Ariz.
Carolina Lamartine, project manager at The PENTA Building Group, Las Vegas
Lindsay Penzenstadler, project manager, Sundt Construction Inc., Tempe, Ariz.
Michaela Rempkowski, director of design integration at McCarthy Building Cos., Phoenix
Cassie Robertson, regional prefabrication manager at DPR Construction, Phoenix
Kathryn Robinson, highway engineering technical manager at Atkins, Henderson, Nev.
Brian Arbogast, director of preconstruction at Metcalf Builders Inc., Carson City, Nev.
Tyler Bonwell, president at MMC Contractors, Las Vegas
Olin Brown, vice president at Bohannan Huston Inc., Albuquerque, N.M.
Zachary Byard, senior project manager at Adolfson & Peterson Construction, Tempe, Ariz.
Joey Ganser, principal of engineering at PK Electrical, Reno, Nev.
Mindy Haffke, principal / client executive at IMEG, Las Vegas
Philip Hensley, project manager at JE Dunn Construction, Tempe, Ariz.
Tim Hyde, sr. project manager at DPR Construction, Tucson, Ariz.
David McLane, mining dept. manager at Burns & McDonnell, Phoenix
Raybeau Richardson, structural engineering III at AECOM, Albuquerque, N.M.
Cassy Smith, project manager at The PENTA Building Group, Las Vegas
Janene Thomas, senior project manager at Sundt Construction Inc., Tempe Ariz.
Mina Wassef, general manager at The Weitz Co., Phoenix
