Gen XYZ: Colorado's Top 25 most influential young professionals.

• Author: Cote, Mike
• Position: GEN XYZ [Top 25 young professionals]

If you've passed the age when few would call you a "young" professional, it's mighty humbling to read the stories about the people on the following pages.

As the judges of the inaugural Top 25 Most Influential Young Professionals in Colorado reviewed more than 150 nominations, we were wowed by the level of success these 21- through 39-year-olds have achieved in their relatively brief careers. We had a tough time selecting just 25, even though we focused not only on business success, but on impact in the community through mentoring, volunteer work and philanthropic efforts.

As we look toward the future and a time when our current economic slump is but a distant memory, here are some people whom you can bet on to help to lead the way. We selected five young professionals from among the 25 for special recognition both on these pages and at our Gen XYZ celebration that ColoradoBiz held on Sept. 30.

JENNIFER CHANG, 29

Global Technology Resources Inc.

Engineering grad has found success in technology industry--and with helping others.

Jennifer Chang has been honing her leadership skills since she was a high school student in California. That's when she became involved with Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership. The Westlake Village, Calif.-based organization provides leadership training for students who are nominated by their schools. Chang was selected to attend a seminar where topics included world hunger and other issues.

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"It was life changing for me," she says. "I learned the world is bigger than high school, that there is more out there."

She also learned that she can help, and that she can lead other people to help, too. When she was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, she founded Project V.I.P., a mentoring program for at-risk middle school kids.

Chang holds a B.A. and M.A. from UC Berkeley, a graduate certificate in engineering management from Drexel University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado Denver. She worked for Lockheed Martin and was accepted into its Operations Leadership Development Program. She chaired the Space Systems Recruiting Committee and traveled to different colleges to recruit. She also led the Lockheed Martin Women's Network.

She now works for GTRI (Global Technology Resources Inc.), a Denver-based technology consultant provider. As a federal account executive, Chang markets GTRI programs to defense program managers.

Chang is a young Asian-American woman succeeding in an industry that historically attracted mostly white men. Nikki Brown, a UC Berkeley classmate and longtime friend, nominated Chang for the ColoradoBiz Top Gen XYZ Most Influential Young Professionals. When she needed to gather biographical information, Brown told Chang it was for a case study about successful women and she wanted to include a nonwhite young woman. (This was true; Brown is taking classes and plans to begin a doctorate program in January.)

"Jen leads by example," Brown says. "You influence others when you are constantly trying to improve yourself to become more successful."

Chang says being determined and passionate and also being humble and having flexibility are important skills in both volunteer work and in the workplace. Today she mentors high school students and helps them handle the college application process. The students ask the usual questions about how to get into certain schools, and they sometimes ask bigger questions.

"A common theme that comes up is, can one person really make a difference," Chang says. "They want to know, does it matter if I try hard, and who really is going to be affected?"

She says her role is to encourage them to focus on helping even one person. "I met with my mentor, and she said the same thing, that if she is able to touch one person, she knows she has succeeded."

Brown, who now volunteers with Hugh O'Brian Youth, says Chang also sets an example by seizing opportunities instead of waiting for things to happen. "Her attitude is, I am at a great company; I have been given a great opportunity; let me use it as much as possible," Brown says. "She has master's degrees and certificates, but she does not sit back and think she is owed anything."

--Nora Caley

MATT SHOUP, 29

M & E Painting

Faced with a layoff, this Loveland resident painted his way to success.

Sometimes, a little hardship is just the incentive needed for a successful venture. In March 2005, Matt Shoup was laid off from his corporate job. Recently out of college, with debts and a mortgage to pay off, he faced his challenge head on.

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"I had no money to my name," Shoup says. "But I had a wife who was supportive, and I knew I had to make it happen. It was a good time to test myself and see what I was made of."

He's made of the stuff that creates a successful painting company, even in the face of a bad economic situation. This year, M & E Painting, which serves residential neighborhoods in Northern Colorado, had a client base of more than 40 people. As of the end of 2009, Shoup had grown M & E Painting to a company that pulled in more than $2 million in revenue.

The secret to his success, says the owner of the Loveland-based company, is a positive attitude.

"It's a tough time for a lot of home-improvement companies, but if you keep the quality up and you have a good team, you'll be fine," Shoup says. "If you say you're going to be down 30 percent, you will be. We decided to grow. We have a belief in excellence, and that helps build the company."

Because of the seasonal quality of his work, Shoup employs contract crews that work in the spring through autumn, and he has a staff of around 15 full-time people.

A solid reputation has led M & E Painting to be recognized by the Northern Colorado Business Report as one of Northern Colorado's Fastest Growing Companies in 2010. ColoradoBiz also featured M & E this year as one Colorado's Companies to Watch, a program sponsored by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

"I have an amazing team," Shoup says. "They do a great job, and that positive reputation is so important to our customer base."

David Sward, who worked with Shoup painting houses when they were in college, is one of those team members.

"He is truly a wonderful man first and a businessman second," Sward says. "He believes in benefits for the employees and freedom for us to work and reach our own individual potentials through his motivation."

His humanitarian efforts, Sward says, help Shoup stand out in the community.

The team that Shoup praises gets together when M & E Painting holds its annual free paint makeover.

"It all started in 2007, when we had a customer call and say she couldn't afford to have her house painted because her husband had died of a heart attack," Shoup says. "I was on my way to give her deposit back when I thought, 'Hey, we should do this for free.'"

This year, the company will paint three houses for needy families. Paint and labor are all donated.

"What you get from it is incredible," he says. "It's the intangibles. You can't even describe the look on someone's face when you tell them you're going to paint their house for free. It builds positive energy."

--Maria Cote

KIMBERLY SMITH. 38

Avenue West Corporate Housing

Entrepreneur balances corporate-housing business with raising her family.

Kimberly Smith entered the corporate-housing world on a fluke. Near the end of her college days as a political-science major, she took a trip to Vietnam, but decided to try a business internship in San Francisco when she returned. By the time she showed up to the Golden State, the only internship left was in corporate housing - not a job little girls dream about, she said.

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Nonetheless, inspired by weekend meetings her professor set up with "amazing entrepreneurs," such as the founders of PowerBar and Odwalla, Smith excelled. She worked in the corporate-housing field in the Bay area with her new husband for a while. In 1999, the couple decided they could do better. They moved to Colorado, where Smith grew up, and launched a business of their own.

"It grew way faster than we could have imagined," said the CEO of AvenueWest Corporate Housing, a multimillion-dollar venture and the largest corporate housing property management company in Colorado.

Smith, 38, attributes her success partly to good genes. Her childhood memories include stuffing mailers and licking stamps for one of her dad's three companies or her mom's 160-year-old family business. "We were always doing something related to business."

More importantly, her parents instilled problem-solving skills and a view that there are no limitations in life - two virtues Smith aspires to every day, her colleagues say.

"She's always ready to ask the tough questions and to get people to think about things in a new perspective," said Mary Ann Passi, executive director of the Corporate Housing Provider's Association, for which Smith is an elected member of the board.

One of Smith's most notable innovations came when she realized her company - which provides upscale, furnished, urban housing for corporate business people in Colorado Springs, Denver and San Francisco - wasn't fulfilling the whole need. Every week, she would get calls from owners or prospective renters wanting to rent housing, sometimes nonurban, from all over the country. "I'd have to say: That's not what we do."

So in 2005, she and her husband, who live in Highlands Ranch, launched CorporateHousingByOwner.com. "It was a little scary. You are making a product that, in some ways, is competing with your own business," said Smith, whose CHBO clients range from family vacationers to people who lost houses in the recent Boulder fire to recession casualties forced to move to find work but not ready to completely uproot.

Most recently, knowing that her company could expand far beyond her reach, Smith created AvenueWest Global Franchise. "The most rewarding part is watching...