Young. Talented. Motivated. Crazy good at what they do. That would aptly describe our 2010 list of 20 Under 40 young professionals.

The annual 20 Under 40 feature is a way to recognize young professionals (all under 40 years of age) who are achieving great things and are on an upward track in their professional careers–at a relatively young age.

These 20 professionals range in age from 29 to 39. Many have multiple careers and concurrent business ventures. The asterisk (*) symbol denotes the multi-business professionals. Although they may have up to six companies they currently work with, the information listed may only touch on one or two of their current business endeavors.

One of the questions I asked related to “your nightmare job.” The individual responses varied with many claiming they’ve never had a nightmare job (yeah…right!). Some of the more interesting responses included: working in a grocery store deli, ski instructor, shredding and weighing meat at a fast food restaurant, landscaper, office cleaning crew and roofing houses.

We had an overwhelming response to our call for nominations. Individuals were nominated by their friends, colleagues, family members and peers. Our selection panel included a 2009 20 Under 40 featured professional, Mary Eberle, co-president of NME Inc. (dba aNeMonE Paper Flowers), Julie Prafke, founder and chairman of the board for Humanix and Promanix staffing firms, Gordon Budke, owner of Budke Consulting, PLLC and former managing partner of Coopers & Lybrand (retired), Vince Bozzi, owner of Bozzi Media and the publisher of this magazine and myself as the editor of smagazine.

Each person was asked several questions to help us get to know what makes them tick professionally. This information is the basis for each profile, but not every profile includes the same questions and answers. In some cases, the individual photos used illustrate an award, a passion or hobby rather than a traditional workplace setting. Congratulations to our 20 Under 40 featured professionals!