In conjunction with World Quality Month, ASQ’s Quality Progress magazine recently released its list of 40 rising young leaders and trailblazers under the age of 40. The feature, “Bearing the Torch,” appears in the November 2026 issue.
As a proud member of the ASQ family, Exemplar Global is also shining a spotlight on this notable program and celebrating these very deserving honorees.
In our most recent “Exemplar Talks” podcast, which will be released on November 11, we sat down with 40 Under 40 honoree Sam Arora, Quality Specialist at Honeywell Technologies. Arora has a background in chemical and systems engineering, which shapes how he approaches every quality challenge: not as a checklist exercise, but as a systems design problem. In his career Arora revitalized a quality management system that had gone dormant, built out a
successful ISO 9001 conformance infrastructure, deployed real-time dashboards, introduced layered process audits that were adopted site-wide, and built QA and QC frameworks that now hold up under real industrial pressure.
In our fast-paced podcast discussion, we talked to Arora about his pathway to the quality profession, the importance of mentorship (and paying it forward by mentoring in turn), and his views on technology and the future of quality.
In addition to Arora, three other 40 Under 40 honorees are members of the Exemplar Global Community:
Oluwafemi Thomas Adare, Management Systems Consultant, Sekrond AB. Adare has expertise spanning quality, food safety, occupational health and safety, sustainability and public health. His expertise involves translating quality principles into practical, sustainable management systems using risk-based thinking, process mapping, gap assessments, audits, root-cause analysis, CAPA, PDCA, performance indicators and continual-improvement reviews to identify weaknesses, prevent recurrence, strengthen conformance and improve operational consistency.
- Attrayee Chakraborty, Senior Quality Systems Engineer, Analog Devices (ADI). Chakraborty uses quality tools and concepts to make a practical difference by integrating AI, Six Sigma, lean, and risk-based thinking into quality systems for medical products. Many of the quality system designs have been adapted to global ADI sites as well (e.g., CAPA, training, and AI governance processes). For example, she developed an AI-powered CAPA agent that reduced documentation cycle time by 70 percent, built a CSA-based validation framework for high-risk AI use cases, and led AI adoption across multiple quality processes and global sites at ADI.
- Alejandro Lazala, Managing Director/Senior Consultant, Lazala Quality Management Solution (LQMS). Lazala has worked in quality management, continuous improvement, and operational excellence for 15 years, mainly within service and contact center environments. He focuses on helping organizations improve customer experience, productivity, compliance, and employee performance using tools such as DMAIC, PDCA, root-cause analysis, process mapping, voice of the customer, statistical analysis, and performance management to understand what is happening, why it is happening, and what actions will create the greatest impact.
The complete list of honorees is as follows:
- Ramsey Abdallah, Northwell Health
- Thomas Adare Oluwafemi, Sekrond AB
- Ameena Ahamed, Quality Edge Consulting and S.S.R. Medical College
- Jaid Alam Mohammad, King’s College Hospital London (Jeddah)
- Sam Arora, Honeywell Technologies
- Paul Augustine, Johnson Controls
- Attrayee Chakraborty, Analog Devices (ADI)
- Suvessa Chakrborty, Boeing
- Patrick Chesnut, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Neha Chowrasia, Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital
- Merve Cirik Weare, GKN Aerospace
- Kim Anh “Mickey” Dao, American Cell Technology
- Abhishek Dhanraj, Amazon
- Girish Kumar Gopalakrishnan, CNH
- Puneet Gupta, MG Environmental Consulting
- Zac Jarrard, Jarrard Consulting LLC
- Scott Jones, OneAmerica Financial
- Aarti Kamath, B. Braun Medical Inc.
- Michael Klaus, Newport News Shipbuilding
- Ken Knapp Jr., Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC)
- Amarnath Kolachelamala, KEO International Consultants
- Alejandro Lazala, Lazala Quality Management Solution (LQMS)
- Zhenpeng Liu, Amazon Web Services
- Kenneth Jun Logrono, Hamad Medical Corp.
- Colleen Lowe, Zoeller Custom Molding
- Abiola Mariah, BHMP
- Elchai Masil, KAFRIT IL
- Lines Millord, E-Quality Partners
- Nikhil Pal, Roche
- Priyank Patel, Smith+Nephew
- Shruti Patil, City of Tyler (Texas) Municipal Government
- Allen Saltzman, EQUASHIELD
- Susan Chong Samaroo, Precision Group
- Inkutatash Seid, Synergy Corp.
- Kumar Suggu Santosh, International Medical Industries Inc.
- Senthil Thiyagarajan, Medline Industries LP
- Anesh Tilwani, Johnson & Johnson Medtech
- Matthew Triplett, Triplett Machine Inc.
- Amanda Valentine, Memorial Hermann Health System
- Tia Streeter Walton, Lightship
These leaders represent an impressive group of young professionals who are helping lead our industry forward. We’ll be featuring some of these honorees in the coming months, so watch this space for further details.