Photo courtesy of Ardurra Construction
Ardurra Construction Manager Sharath Venally reviews site operations. He is one of 30 winners of ENR’s 2026 Texas and Southeast Top Young Professionals.
ENR Texas and Southeast now includes states that were previously under ENR Texas and Louisiana and ENR Southeast. The format of the Top Young Professionals competition remains consistent with previous years. Judges reviewed more than 100 submissions to select the region’s top 30 professionals, all aged 40 and under. Top Young Professional judges were excluded from scoring an entry that represented a conflict of interest, such as workplace.
This year’s jury included:
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Megan McPhilimy, Transit Planning Project Manager at HNTB
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Prateek Tare, Executive Vice President and Founder of Distributed Energy Infrastructure
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OBBS KING, associate vice president AECOM
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Matthew Calvey, architect at AECOM, Boston
The selected young professionals will be featured in the February 16, 2026 edition of ENR Texas & Southeast, recognizing professional achievements, industry leadership and community contributions.
Below is the list of Top Texas and Southeast Young Professionals of 2026, listed alphabetically by last name.
Congratulations to all the honorees.
- Stephen Abbey — Executive Vice President of Infrastructure | RNGD
- Erik M. Alcantara — Customer Service Manager/Senior Project Manager | AECOM
- Imtiaz Ali — Project control – Calendar review manager | AECOM
- Chase Anderson — Associate Director | Thornton Tomasetti
- Jamal Atkins — Vice President of Construction Engineering and Inspection | Volkert, Inc.
- Kristy Baumer — Company manager | Turner Construction Company
- Rosslyn Cooper — Senior Vice President – Center of Excellence for Project and Operations Management | WSP
- Ryan Eisenhower — Director, Facilities Construction Services | STO Building Group
- Marc Grano — Director of Substation Engineering | Primoris Services Corporation
- Cyndi Hallman — HSE Director, Corporate | Primoris Services Corporation
- Bibek Karki — Regional Director of Engineering | IPS PowerServe
- Donny Kiehn — Responsible for design and implementation | PCL Construction, Solar Division
- Milan Mendapara — Development Manager | Thakkar Development Group LLC
- Mary McGowan — Civil Engineer, Vice President | Kimley-Horn
- Nathan Mozeleski — Senior Engineer | AtkinsRealis
- Ricardo Jesús Maga Rojas — Project Assistant | Stantec Architecture Inc
- James Olden Jr. — Design Manager, Associate | Gensler
- Tanner Oetjen — Road Engineer | AECOM
- Andrew Reid — Responsible for transport practices | Burns and McDonnell
- Mike Ritchie — Vice President/Division Director | Brasfield and Gorrie
- Natalie Rogers — Head of the water resources team | stocking
- Matt Schrodel — Senior Vice President of Operations, Dallas Business Unit Leader | McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
- Diana Sosa — Head of project | Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp.
- Anthony Taylor — Regional Director | Harper General Contractors
- Maksym Tkachuk — Head of project | Rosendin
- Estefania Tovar — Superintendent | Flintco, LLC
- Sharath Vennavelly — Director of work | Ardurra
- Katie West — Head of project | AtkinsRealis
- Nick Wilson — Vice President/Division Director | Brasfield and Gorrie
- Emilee Woods — Owner and Chief Engineer | Athena Engineering
