Looking back, moving forward

Lessons from the history of Rising Stars, Civil+Structural Engineer Magazine, and Zweig Group.

I’ve been a part of Zweig Group’s Rising Stars award going on five years. Half a decade moves quickly, but I’ve relished the small role I get to play every year in this award that spotlights the AEC industry’s future leaders. It’s not always the same. I’ve gotten to write profiles for winners and publish them in Civil+Structural Engineer Magazine. I’ve been able to read through piles and piles of submissions to give my evaluation. Most importantly, though, I’ve had the opportunity to see firsthand the impact this award has on young professionals, and I’ve seen the joy and pride swelling on their faces when they hear the news. 

A lot goes into the making of a Rising Star, and I’ve gladly and humbly played whatever role was needed to make it happen. I usually get a bit of a laugh or questioning look when I blabber on about my excitement over the process, but I maintain this love for the little details that go into making this award happen. Why? Because I know what the Rising Stars award means. I know what it means for the trajectory of a young professional’s career. I know what it means for a firm when their young people find success. I know what it means for an industry that is shifting toward a more interconnected future – both digitally and professionally. 

The Rising Stars award is special, but not necessarily because of what it is. Almost every city – big, small, or in between – has a 40 under 40, or 30 under 30, or another combination of mirrored numbers. There is certainly no shortage of awards across the U.S. that celebrate young professionals from every profession and from every walk of life. But Rising Stars does more than celebrate young professionals; it represents a long relationship of growth and development for the industry it celebrates. 

The history of the Rising Stars award and its publication gives us some context into this relationship and how it developed over time. Rising Stars has grown alongside the publications in which it has appeared. When the award was first introduced in 2010, it was published in a magazine focused on civil engineers, so that’s where our winners came from the first few years. However, over time, the scope of the award changed as did its publishing home. The next field included in Rising Stars was structural engineering, which, again, made sense with Zweig Group’s position in the AEC publishing space. On top of CE News, Zweig Group producedtwo other AEC-focused magazines: Structural Engineer and Rebuilding American Infrastructure. While the move to expand the scope of the award made sense from an editorial perspective, it also reflected a deeper acknowledgement of an increasingly interconnected industry. 

This ability to reflect the changing landscape of the built environment has been a part of Zweig Group’s identity since it was founded in 1988 by Mark Zweig as Mark Zweig & Associates. Our business evolved regularly, eventually becoming ZweigWhite before arriving at the name Zweig Group that’s in use today. This ability to adapt elevated Zweig Group beyond a consulting firm. In many ways, Zweig Group has been an ambitious experiment in reshaping how AEC firms think about growth, leadership, and culture. Fueled by early success, growing 30 percent annually for its first 13 years, Zweig Group eventually built out a robust media and publishing platform. This growth allowed Zweig Group to continue serving AEC firms in new ways. 

Rising Stars may have begun with a focus on civil and structural engineers, but it’s always been about more than the credentials on a resume. Rather, it’s about momentum – the kind that shows the rest of the industry what’s coming. Its importance is in both the now and the future – balancing impact with possibility. We see it every year in the engineers, architects, designers, and innovators who are among the winners. These are the leaders actively building our future. 

In 2016, publication of the Rising Stars award shifted to Zweig Group’s next media entity: Civil+Structural Engineer. The decision was made to combine Zweig Group’s three magazines into one media platform. The seeds of an interconnected industry were laid when the award expanded its scope, but this new media platform from Zweig Group became the fruit born from its sowing. Building its foundation from the belief that the AEC industry will continue to grow more interconnected, Civil+Structural Engineer Media was designed to bridge the gap between the past and present, between print and digital, between silos and an open AEC industry. 

In many ways, this point is just the beginning of the story. Much has changed since Rising Stars first found its home in Civil+Structural Engineer Magazine. We went fully digital with publication at the end of 2019, which, in hindsight, feels incredibly lucky with how world events unfolded. We lowered the age cutoff for our Rising Stars from 40 to 35. We’ve expanded the scope of Rising Stars since then too, including fields like architecture and adapting roles based on a changing industry. The common thread for all these changes is that they were made with one intention in mind: to better serve the needs of a changing industry. Rising Stars has been elevated to more than just an award. It’s a snapshot of where the AEC industry is going and the leaders who are going to take us there. 

Now, we have arrived at a new chapter: The Zweig List. Our decision to rebrand Civil+Structural Engineer as The Zweig List is a way of honoring what we’ve built. A new name, perhaps, but still with the same heart beating passionately for an industry that deserves celebration and recognition. The Zweig List will be the home for celebration for the AEC industry. It starts now with Rising Stars, but soon it will be home to Zweig Group’s full awards program winners from Hot Firms to Best Firms To Work For. 

This represents the next step in something that has always been dynamic, something that has always adapted to a changing industry. More than a new name, The Zweig List is a promise that we are not just observing and recording change. We are part of it. We are immersed in this momentum, shaping it as it shapes us. The AEC industry has never been more interdisciplinary, and it deserves a media platform that moves with it into the future. The Zweig List is a foundational way of embracing that future, one that will be more directly connected to the ideas, innovations, and individuals shaping the built environment today. Within this new landscape, Rising Stars will continue to grow and burn brighter every year.

See the 2025 Rising Stars of the AEC Industry here.

Luke Carothers is a senior content manager at Zweig Group and editor of The Zweig List. Contact him at lcarothers@zweiggroup.com.