NOMA Members featured on Zweig Group’s 2024 Rising Stars In the AEC Industry

Ricardo&melanie

Ricardo Jesus Maga Rojas and Melanie Ray

The Start of Celebration: Zweig Group’s 2024 Class of Rising Stars

An introduction by Kyle Ahern, Employee Experience and Data Strategist, Zweig Group

The announcement of Zweig Group’s 2024 class of Rising Stars marks the start of my favorite time of the year—award season.  This is the time of the year where we begin our annual tradition of honoring and celebrating the amazing accomplishments of people and firms who are Elevating the AEC industry.  For me, Rising Stars is the perfect way to start the awards season.  By recognizing the young professionals already making a profound impact on the AEC industry, we are able to get a full view of its future.  The 2024 Class of Rising Stars have already made their mark on the AEC industry through exceptional technical capability, leadership, effective teaching and research, and public service.

Through this work, this year’s class of Rising Stars have directly benefited the design profession, their employers, project owners, and society.  This impact also extends to work done in their communities as well as leadership and mentorship within their firms.  The result is their influence over new ideas, practices, and impacts beyond technical capabilities.  Each new class of Rising Stars represents a diverse set of young professionals from places across the United States holding positions throughout the organizational chart.  This trend has only continued this year, only proving that Rising Stars can come from anywhere throughout our wide-ranging industry.

As a part of this celebration, I would also like to acknowledge and thank all of the coworkers, colleagues, and teammates that nominated our 2024 Rising Stars winners as well as those who didn’t win this year.  When it comes to advancing a young professional’s career, recognition of their accomplishments, skill, and leadership can go a long way.  Knowing that there is someone out there who recognizes what they are doing and takes the time to nominate them for an award like this is very important, and I encourage everyone to try to think of the young professionals in your firms who deserve this type of recognition.  Letting the next generation of leaders know that their work is getting noticed is not only good for their career but can be very helpful for the long term success of your firm.

Zweig Group’s Awards are at the center of one of the five tenets of our vision, Elevate the Industry; that tenant is “Celebrate.” There is so much good that this industry brings to the built environment and to the lives of the people who work in it. We want to celebrate the firms, people, and accomplishments of the AEC Industry. These awards give the winning firms and people the recognition that they deserve in an industry that is often overlooked by society. The winners of our awards truly do help to elevate the industry as a whole. Celebrate your success, celebrate your accomplishments, celebrate your employees, and help Zweig Group Elevate the Industry.
Through our awards program, we also recognize revenue growth with our Hot Firm List. We recognize outstanding marketing through our Marketing Excellence Awards. We recognize those who are showing courageous leadership with our highest professional honor, The Jerry Allen Courage In Leadership Award. We honor those new firms who are already making an impact with our Top New Venture Award. And we honor those firms impacting their employee’s live by creating great workplaces with our Best Firms To Work For award. We will be announcing and celebrating these winners over the next few months culminating with our awards celebrations at the 2024 Elevate AEC Conference in Tampa Bay, Florida, September 18-19.