40 Under 40 Class of 2018

John Veit

Senior Marketing Associate, Firm Recruiter, Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.; Age 31; Education: BBA, Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst

John Veit

John Veit

Veit is a marketing and recruiting professional with Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. He has served as a thought leader in the Pioneer Valley and beyond, facilitating events and roundtables on marketing and recruiting topics at venues such as the Employer’s Assoc. of the NorthEast Finance Roundtable, the Pioneer Valley Family Business Center, and the national conference for the Assoc. of Accounting Marketing. In addition, he has authored content for BusinessWest and HCN. Veit is also an auxiliary police officer, a working musician, a martial-arts practitioner, and serves as a Jimmy Fund Rally Against Cancer team captain.

What did you want to be when you grew up? A police officer or a rock star.

What three words best describe you? Persistent, creative, passionate.

What do you like most about Western Massachusetts? The diverse mix of people, entertainment, history, education, and the availability and accessibility of nature and hiking.

Who has been your best mentor, and why? My grandmother. Her life story is one of the most heartbreaking and challenging you will ever hear, but through pure willpower and determination, she has led a humble life of success, service, and commitment to her family and community. She has always been an inspiration to me, and always knows how to give a life lesson without preaching.

What actor would play you in a movie about your life? Paul Rudd.

What fictional character do you relate to most, and why? I love the fated noble hero archetype. I think people relate to this type of character because, at the end of the day, a call to service resonates with most, if not all of us. Having that manifest and distilled into a character with a single purpose provides a sense of clarity that is much harder to find in real life.

What person, past or present, would you like to have lunch with, and why? Martin Luther King Jr. and the Founding Fathers. With the advent of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, I feel as though meaningful conversation between diverse groups devolves too often into stereotyping, judgment, and finger pointing. I would love to speak with the minds who created and shaped our country, as they all had a way of creating conversation and meaningful discourse, focusing not on who is right, but what is right. I would love to know how they might approach today’s issues and encourage people to speak with one another, rather than at one another.


Photography by Leah Martin Photography