When all was said and done, and the plaques had been presented to BusinessWest’s inaugural Forty Under 40, the consensus was that the Class of ’07 would be a hard act to follow.

Well, the Class ’08 did just fine, as the stories in this special edition of the magazine will attest.

Like the first group of 40, this one is compelling and, in a word, diverse — in many ways. It’s also a little younger — there’s a 20-year-old, another who’s 21 (last year’s youngest was 26), and several more who would have a hard time remembering the ’80s.

These 40 were chosen, as last year’s were, from a field of roughly 100 nominations. Our five judges agreed that this is a very talented group of individuals, and noteworthy for what they do for a living and how they give back to the community.

Fifteen of the 40 are business owners. Their ventures include technology start-ups, marketing firms, restaurants, a production company specializing in children’s entertainment, a recycling outfit that makes its pickups on two wheels — bicycles — instead of four, and a set-building and design firm that creates displays for film, television, museums, and trade shows, to name a few.

There are many examples of pure entrepreneurship — from IT solutions pioneers to an individual who first sold boxes out of his car and eventually turned his venture into a thriving provider of everything from bubble wrap to mailing tubes.

Meanwhile, there are dozens of companies and institutions that are benefiting from the work of several of our winners. One of the 40 increased individual giving to her nonprofit organization by 500% in a year. A public-relations director was charged with organizing events to welcome a Saudi Arabian prince to the Berkshires, and a former line cook became a proprietor, not before accepting a ‘chef of the year’ award along the way.

Beyond a wide range of job titles and responsibilities, however, this is a group with a few constants. For one, it’s ‘green,’ and that’s not another reference to age. Instead, it’s an acknowledgement of a trend, or movement, impacting all sectors and business owners. Members of the class of ’08 are working in sustainable energy, recycling computer equipment, responsibly managing forestland, and inventing new types of green technology.

This is also a class that seems focused on the human aspects of life. One is working to help would-be adoptive families with often-prohibitive costs. One devotes countless hours to raising money for hospital-bound children. A third is calling attention to the dangers of food allergies.

The list, and the images, of lives that are not devoted to any one thing, but rather to several important facets of life — including work, family, community, and wide-open spaces — goes on and on. There are softball coaches and hockey players, dog lovers and cat rescuers, blood donors and world travelers, musicians and politicians, foodies and techies, moms and dads. All in all, it’s a class that represents the best and brightest, and in some cases the youngest, members of the region’s business landscape.

With that, we give you the class of ’08. —Jaclyn Stevenson

The Class of ’08

Meet Our Judges This year’s nominations were scored by a panel of five judges, who took on the daunting task of reviewing more than 100 nomination forms and choosing 40 winners from that impressive pool. BusinessWest would like to thank these outstanding members of the Western Mass. business community for volunteering their time to the second annual Forty Under 40 competition. They are:

Sandra Coyne-Westerkamp, a marketing professor who has taught at various area institutions, including Springfield College, Western New England College, American International College, and, most recently, Bay Path College. She is also an original founder of the Ronald McDonald House in Springfield.

Janine Fondon, co-founder, president, and CEO of UnityFirst.com and the African American Newswire, a networking, communication, and outreach service for African-Americans and other people and organizations interested in diversity-related news.

Herb Heller, finance manager for Hot Mama’s Foods in Northampton and former program manager for the Western Mass. Food Processing Center, a nonprofit entity that operates under the Franklin County Community Development Corp. Heller is also a veteran of the Peace Corps.

Donald Holland, a partner with the Longmeadow-based law firm Holland & Bonzagni. One of the region’s most respected intellectual property specialists and frequent contributor to BusinessWest, he has provided counsel to many individuals and teams working to bring new concepts to the marketplace.

Nathan Winstanley, owner of Winstanley Associates and Lenox Softworks in Lenox, founded his marketing and design firm in 1984 and its software-based sister company about a decade later. He, too, is a Peace Corps veteran.