From the Editor

From the Editor

An Occasion to Celebrate

It’s been over a year since the COVID-19 lockdowns began, and we’re not quite out of the woods yet. The anniversary of the start of the outbreak has come with reflections on what the world has gone through, lessons learned and predictions about the future.

In this issue, Middle Market Growth is putting its own spin on the 2020 retrospective by profiling the winners and finalists of our first-ever MMG Awards.

We asked corporate applicants last fall to tell us about their achievements over the past year related to growth, innovation, job creation and retention, and workplace culture. For the Young Professional category, we asked emerging leaders to detail what they’ve accomplished this year, and how they’ve contributed to their own organizations and to the middle-market community more broadly.

Admittedly, it was a strange year to launch an awards program. Many businesses struggled or didn’t make it. Thousands of Americans lost their lives, loved ones or jobs. But if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that tragedy can co-exist with optimism. The awards applications showed the resilience of middle-market businesses as they overcame adversity, and the role they play in creating and preserving jobs. The hard work and creativity that it took to steer these companies through a global pandemic is remarkable, and a cause for celebration.

Similarly, the Young Professional Award applicants were exceptional. They detailed their hard work helping their firms and clients navigate the crisis. Our judges were impressed by their achievements, which made narrowing the pool to just 10 winners a challenge in and of itself.

Launching a new program—pandemic or otherwise—is never easy, so I’m incredibly grateful to the judges who worked with us this year to evaluate our candidates. As you’ll see in their profiles on p. 8, our judging panel comprises a distinguished group of seasoned M&A professionals and business leaders, and they were instrumental in making our first awards program a success.

On behalf of the MMG editorial team and our judges, I want to congratulate this year’s winners and finalists on their achievements, particularly in a very difficult year. Here’s hoping that the through-line for our awards issue next year will be less “adversity” and more “Roaring Twenties.” We’ll see what the next eight months have in store. // KATHRYN

MULLIGAN

Editor-in-Chief, Middle Market Growth kmulligan@acg.org

MIDDLE MARKET GROWTH IS PUTTING ITS OWN SPIN ON THE 2020 RETROSPECTIVE BY PROFILING THE WINNERS AND FINALISTS OF OUR FIRST-EVER MMG AWARDS.