1 ANDREW BIALECKI AND ED HALLEN Klaviyo / SOFTWARE (see page 15)

2 RICK COHEN Symbotic / ROBOTICS (see page 17) 3 YVONNE HAO State of Massachusetts VENTURE CAPITAL

Hao, appointed in January 2023, spent her first year as secretary of economic development working to expand the state’s support for technology and biotechnology while facing some of the toughest business conditions in years. She played a leading role in crafting the Healey administration’s $3.5 billion economic development bill. Before joining state government, Hao spent two decades building, running, and financing businesses, including cofounding the private equity firm Cove Hill Partners.

4 JASON ROBINS DraftKings / CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

Robins, chairman, CEO, and cofounder of DraftKings, has brought his company’s sportsbook offerings to 27 states and grown DraftKings’ stock market value to about $20 billion. It all started with a fantasy — fantasy sports, that is. Robins, Matt Kalish, and Paul Liberman launched DraftKings from a Watertown apartment in 2011, first offering daily fantasy games with cash prizes and then expanding into gambling as states legalized sports betting.

5 DHARMESH SHAH AND YAMINI RANGAN HubSpot / SOFTWARE

Rangan, the CEO, and Shah, chief technology officer and cofounder, lead the state’s biggest software company, driving innovation both at the company and throughout the region’s tech ecosystem. Rangan, who succeeded cofounder Brian Halligan, has led HubSpot to new heights, introducing new products and technologies, including artificial intelligence. Shah is one of the region’s most active entrepreneurs and mentors, having invested in more than 80 startups.

6 CARMICHAEL ROBERTS Material Impact / VENTURE CAPITAL

Roberts has made it his mission to lift up companies tackling global issues. As cofounder and managing partner of venture capital firm Material Impact and co-lead of the investment committee for climate-focused Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Roberts has funneled money into companies developing solutions to make the world more sustainable, from lab-grown cotton production to air conditioning that consumes less electricity than traditional cooling systems.

7 KATIE RAE Engine Ventures / VENTURE CAPITAL

After six years at the helm of MIT spinout The Engine, Rae narrowed her focus in 2023 when the organization split into two entities: a public benefit corporation dubbed The Engine

Accelerator and the venture capital firm Engine Ventures. Rae is now leading the VC operation, continuing her long record of investing in up-and-coming tech firms that are developing “tough tech” solutions to global problems.

8 JEREMY ALLAIRE Circle / FINTECH

Allaire is the chief executive of Circle, which since 2013 has steadily grown to one of the most respected companies in the cryptocurrency industry. Circle is best known for its “stablecoin,” or USDC, which is pegged to the value of the US dollar. Circle hopes to join a handful of public crypto companies after filing in January for an initial public offering.

9 COREY THOMAS Rapid7 / CYBERSECURITY

As CEO of Rapid7, Thomas has made the Boston company into a powerhouse of threat intelligence, ransomware prevention, and digital forensics, providing cybersecurity tools to some 10,000 companies. He was appointed to the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee last year and chairs the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

10 NIRAJ SHAH Wayfair / CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

Over the last 20-plus years, Shah has built Wayfair into an e-commerce powerhouse. The online retailer of couches, dining room tables, and decor netted $12 billion in revenue in 2023. The company — which

Shah took public a decade ago — is making another foray into brickand-mortar retail this spring when it opens a large-format store outside of Chicago.

11 TYE BRADY AND ROHIT PRASAD Amazon / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Amazon pair lead the tech giant’s operations in Greater Boston.

With the company looking to add more generative AI products, Prasad shifted from overseeing Alexa to become head scientist for artificial general intelligence. Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics, is helping develop new robots for packing goods and testing humanoid robots in the company’s warehouses to see whether they have a place there.

12 AMAN NARANG Toast / SOFTWARE

Narang, a Toast cofounder, became CEO this year, after serving as chief operating officer and helping guide the restaurant technology company through its 2021 initial public offering. The company has streamlined the operations of more than 100,000 restaurants through its products — such as point-of-sale and kitchen display systems — and has a stock market value of about $13 billion.

13 BRIAN HALLIGAN Propeller Ventures / CLEANTECH

After shaking up marketing as a founder and CEO of the software powerhouse HubSpot, Halligan is now making waves in the world of climate tech. Halligan, who left HubSpot in 2021, is one of the entrepreneurs behind Propeller Ventures, a fund that has invested in more than a dozen companies developing sustainable technologies related to the ocean, from electric-powered boats to carbon-removal processes.

14 CLAIRE HUGHES JOHNSON Stripe / FINTECH

Hughes Johnson has driven innovations at Stripe — a payment processing company whose clients include Amazon and Marriott — first as chief operating officer and now as a corporate adviser. She helped the company grow to more than 6,000 employees, from fewer than 200. Hughes Johnson was a leader at Google for more than 10 years, overseeing aspects of Gmail and consumer operations.

15 ED PARK Devoted Health / HEALTHTECH

Park’s company, Devoted Health, provides health care software. The company recently raised $175 million to back its mission to help seniors, boosting its total venture funding to $2 billion. Devoted Health offers clinical care and uses proprietary technology to serve more than 200,000 members across 13 states, making it one of the fastest-growing and most successful health care companies in the country.

16 WILL AHMED AND EMILY CAPODILUPO Whoop / CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

Ahmed, founder and CEO of

Whoop, and Capodilupo, the first full-time employee, have helped grow the company to a multibillion-dollar valuation. Whoop has advanced consumer technology through its fitness wearables. Ahmed has worked with athletes such as basketball legend LeBron James and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. Capodilupo helped create the Whoop Recovery Score, which tells users how ready their bodies are to train on a given day. DANIELA RUS Liquid AI / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Rus, an innovator in robotics and AI, cofounded Liquid AI, an MIT spinoff that came out of stealth mode last year as it develops a new generation of artificial intelligence. She is also the director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. Rus, who developed self-driving golf carts and the BakeBot robot chef, has two books out this year examining robots and AI.

18 ERIC PALEY AND DAVID FRANKEL Founder Collective VENTURE CAPITAL

Since cofounding Founder Collective in 2009, Paley and Frankel have been at the forefront of the state’s venture capital scene, investing in such standouts as ride-hailing titan Uber, fitness wearables company

Whoop, ticket marketplace SeatGeek, and online pharmacy PillPack. Even with a slowdown in the VC market, the New York- and Cambridge-based firm continues to thrive, announcing its fifth fund in late 2023, with a total of $95 million.

19 PAUL ENGLISH Boston Venture Studio SOFTWARE

English, best known for cofounding the travel booking site Kayak, is a serial entrepreneur who has launched companies such as Boston Venture Studio, an incubator for consumer technology startups. He is a cofounder of Embrace Boston, the nonprofit that aims to dismantle systemic racism and brought the sculpture The Embrace to Boston Common; and BannedBooksUSA. org, which sends books banned in Florida to anyone there who wants them.

20 LARRY BOHN AND DAVID FIALKOW General Catalyst / VENTURE CAPITAL

Bohn and Fialkow, through the Cambridge-based venture capital firm General Catalyst, have placed winning bets on startups over the past two decades. They have invested in companies including the software company HubSpot, which went public in 2014; software companies Datalogix and Vitrue, both of which were acquired by Oracle; and PathAI, which uses AI to help medical diagnoses.

22 YAN WANG AND ERIC GRATZ Ascend Elements / CLEANTECH

Wang, a materials engineering professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and his former postdoctoral colleague Gratz developed a nontoxic method of extracting the costly minerals from used lithiumion batteries. Their company, Ascend Elements, has raised more than $1 billion in venture funding, including $542 million in the biggest VC round in Massachusetts last year. The company opened a factory in Georgia in 2023 and is building another in Kentucky.

23 UDI MOKADY CyberArk / CYBERSECURITY

After 18 years of leading the company he founded, Mokady last year gave up the role of chief executive but remains chairman of the board and active in the Boston cybersecurity scene. Mokady joined venture capital firm General Catalyst as an adviser for startups in AI, business software, and in Israel. Ten years after going public, CyberArk reached a stock market value of $10 billion in 2024.

24 MARK BARROCAS SharkNinja / CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY

Barrocas, the CEO of SharkNinja, has helped lead the Needham-based maker of vacuums, blenders, and other household and kitchen appliances since he joined as president in 2008. Under Barrocas, SharkNinja has expanded its products, global footprint, and bottom line. Barrocas helped lead the company’s spinoff from Hong Kong company JS Global Lifestyle Co. in 2023.

25 JASON KELLY AND RESHMA SHETTY Ginkgo Bioworks / HEALTHTECH

Kelly and Shetty, two of the cofounders of Ginkgo Bioworks, push the boundaries of technology and biotechnology. Their company aims to program cells like computers, for applications in the pharmaceutical, consumer, and energy industries. Ginkgo went public in 2021 in a merger with a so-called blankcheck company that generated some $1.6 billion for Ginkgo. The company in 2014 participated in the famed Y Combinator program.

26 JANE MORAN Mass General Brigham HEALTHTECH

As chief information officer for consumer products giant Unilever, Moran oversaw a massive shift toward cloud computing. Now she’s in charge of the IT systems at one of the nation’s most prestigious health care companies. Moran plans to use AI to better manage patient records and clinical research data. She’s also tackling the challenge of integrating the digital systems of MGB’s far-flung network hospitals, clinics, and providers.

27 JEFF BUSSGANG Flybridge / VENTURE CAPITAL

Bussgang, an investor, teacher, and author, is seeking to increase diversity in Boston’s tech sector and integrate AI in classrooms and companies. A cofounder and partner at Flybridge, he cofounded and chairs Hack.Diversity, which mentors Black and Latino tech professionals. In 2023, he created an AI chatbot to help Harvard Business School students learn case studies. And he’s writing a book to help startup founders understand AI.

28 YOUNGME MOON AND KARIM LAKHANI Harvard Business School EDUCATION

Moon and Lakhani, professors of business at Harvard Business School, are each focused on the intersection of AI and technology. Moon is the author of the best-selling book Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, about redesigning business strategies. She has sold more than 2 million case studies on businesses such as IKEA and Uber. Lakhani is founder of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard and has worked closely with NASA.

29 MIGUEL DE ICAZA Xibbon / SOFTWARE

A longtime champion of open-source technology, de Icaza returned to his roots as a programmer in 2022 when he launched Xibbon, a Boston startup that builds game