This year’s class of 40 Under 40 honorees includes a variety of professionals who are succeeding in business and making a contribution to the community around them. They include lawyers, construction and real estate professionals, entrepreneurs, accountants, marketing professionals and a doctor, among others.

The Business Journal called for nominations through our website, the newspaper and via fax and accepted entries for six weeks. We then convened a panel, including editors, our research director and our president and publisher, to make selections from the 150 nominations we received.

As always, we had to make some difficult choices, as each of the nominations represented an up-and-coming professional who is making a difference in his or her community and industry.

A number of winners have recently been integrally involved in a rebranding process at their company and many others have helped their company to achieve growth — both in workforce and in revenue — in a difficult economic environment. The one thing they all have in common is a dedication to their industry and to the people around them.

We hope you’ll be inspired by the profiles in this section and we congratulate and salute the Jacksonville Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class of 2011. Please click on the links below to view profiles and photos of each of this year’s winners.

For Erica’s profile, click below:

• Erica Courtney