Forty Under Forty

Forty business people under the age of 40 in the Syracuse area were honored Wednesday, as the 11th annual "40 under 40" event was held at the OnCenter. The Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University sponsored the event. Melvin Stith, the school's dean, stressed the importance of involving the business school at the event because of the concern of losing young business people from the area. "It's such an effort to get young people to stay here," Stith said. "People tend to get their degrees and leave. We ought to be a part of [getting them to stay]." If it weren't for Stith, there may not have even been an event. Bernie Brigman of CNY Business Journal said the Whitman School was a last-ditch effort to get a sponsor. "It was sort of a hail mary pass on my part because it had been decided already that if we didn't have a sponsor, we wouldn't do the event this year," Brigman said. A committee of business firms in the region nominates and selects the 40. Some of the honorees talked about what it meant to receive their awards. "It's really a huge honor to be acknowledged by your community as contributing to the positive climate of Upstate New York," said Jennifer Weil, the director of education for the Nano-Bio Technology Center. "I think it's deserving because of the work I do with girl scouts and the society of woman engineers and trying to empower other people to feel like they can make a difference like I have," said Monica Cutillo, the assistant engineer for Bristol Myers Squibb.