From multinationals to media, catering to communications and law to landscaping, they represent the region's most dynamic, successful and community-minded businesspeople. They formulate national environmental policy, operate travel blogs, mine for gold in Mexico, sell in Silicon Valley, consult patients with sleep disorders and spin spooky yarns for a living.

They are notable for their achievements, expertise, desire to give back the community and, not least, their age. They are all under 40. And they now have one other thing in common – they are recipients of the Ottawa Business Journal's Forty Under 40 Award.

For the eleventh time, the OBJ has recognized 40 rising stars who each call Ottawa home.

After three months of soliciting nominations, three weeks of poring over almost 1,000 pages of nominations and a four-hour meeting to review rankings, the judging panel arrived at a decision.

"This sure doesn't get any easier," said OBJ publisher Michael Curran, who's chaired the awards program since 2002. "We presented the judges with more than 100 nominations for consideration. Together, I'm sure we spent about 100 hours reviewing the nominees. It was a very strong year."

Each nomination was scored on a 40-point basis – 20 available points for business achievements, 10 available points for professional expertise and 10 available points for community involvement.

This year's judging panel consisted of Rogers Communications regional president Robin McIntyre, a recent Businesswoman of the Year recipient; OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre manager Michael Burnatowski and Forty Under 40 alumnus Nick Quain, who is also CEO of Cellwand Communications.

The Forty Under 40 award recipients will be profiled in OBJ's June 16 issue.

This year's Forty Under 40 awards gala will take place at the Hilton Lac-Leamy Hotel on June 19. The event will be hosted by local comedian Andrea Jensen and the KISS FM morning team and feature cocktails, fine food and live music. The event will also raise money for the Ottawa Hospital Foundation through a charity draw that includes a trip for two to any Sandals Resorts. More information on the event can be found at www.fortyunder40.com.

This year's recipients are:

• The Hon. John Baird, Member of Parliament

• Ami Barakat, Dentistry@Main

• Denis Barbeau, Systemscope

• Paul Barbeau, hyperNET

• Dr. Nathalie Beauchamp, Beauchamp Wellness Group

• Stephen Beckta, Beckta Dining & Wine

• Kerri Brooks-Richard, The Artistic Group

• Jody Burton, Stoneworks Technologies

• Martin Chenier, Spherion

• Paula Clancy, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

• Jock Climie, Emond Harnden LLP

• Christopher Crupi, Paramount Gold and Silver

• Trevor Doyle, Doyle Homes

• Dean Drevniok, Frecon Construction

• Marc Dufresne, Macadamian Technologies

• Eric Girard, Deloitte

• Eric Graham, Xmark

• Keelan Green, Thornley Fallis Communications & 76design

• Geoffrey Eden, Knowledge Circle Learning Services Inc.

• Brenda Hollingsworth, Auger Hollingsworth

• Huiping Iler, Wintranslation.com

• Brenda Jenkins, Sign Language Interpreting Associates of Ottawa

• Steve Lachance, Les Traiteurs Bytown Catering

• George Langlois, Gartner Canada

• Luc Levesque, Travelpod

• Michel Lipski, Cistel Technology

• Ann Mainville-Neeson, TELUS Communications

• Claude Miron, Binks Insurance Brokers

• Natalie Morin, Sleep Strategies

• Blair Patacairk, Dell

• Alexandra Psica, Interis Consulting

• John Roese, Nortel Networks

• Steve Ryan, Epiphan Systems

• Michelle Scarborough, OCRI

• Glen Shackleton, Haunted Walks

• Phillip Shaer, MOSAID Technologies

• Denis Shank, GVA Devencore

• Justin Shimoon, Sitebrand

• Marisol Simoes, Kinki-Helsinki-Mambo

• Kimothy Walker, CTV Ottawa