2026 Honorees

Bob Youngentob

Ex Executive Chairman and a founding partner of EYA, LLC

Robert (Bob) David Youngentob passed away on October 18, 2025, at the age of 64, following a courageous battle with cancer. A devoted husband, father, son, brother, and respected leader, Bob is survived by his beloved wife, Linda; their daughters, Lisa, Jamie, and Casey (Nick); his parents, Eugene and Alane; brother Stuart (Bonnie); sister Suzanne Gladstone Denning (Will); sister-in-law Lauren Fryefield (Andy); and mother-in-law Carol Ablow; and a large, loving extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews. He is predeceased by his father-in-law, Herbert Ablow.

Bob was the Executive Chairman and a founding partner of EYA, LLC. For more than three decades, Bob shaped how people live and connect across the Washington, D.C. region. Through his leadership, vision, and care for design and community, Bob helped EYA redefine urban living, creating neighborhoods that are welcoming, sustainable, and thoughtfully connected. Bob’s legacy is woven into every part of EYA. He built communities that bring people together and created a company that stands for purpose, integrity and impact.

Bob will be remembered for his devotion to family, service to the community, his deep friendships, and many passions including photography, travel, golf, and live music, especially the Grateful Dead. He lived his life to the fullest and to Bob, the cup was always half full.

Cathy Bernard

Founder and President of HCM Corporation

Cathy Bernard is the founder and President of HCM Corporation, a real estate investment firm with holdings across the region. Cathy has grown the HCM portfolio to include ownership and management of apartment buildings, office buildings, retail space and storage facilities. HCM also conducts audits, accounting, insurance and maintenance functions for other property owners.

A Montgomery County resident of more than 45 years, Cathy has made her home and raised her children here while becoming deeply involved in the community. Cathy was the Greater Washington Community Foundation of Montgomery County’s Philanthropist of the Year in 2025, and currently serves on the board of directors at Signature Theatre, Imagination Stage, Strathmore, the Upcounty Hub, and Sunflower Bakery. She was the Greater Bethesda Chamber of Commerce William Prescott Allen Award winner in 2018, and received the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County Individual Patron Award in 2016. Cathy was named to the Top 100 Women in Maryland in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and a Top 25 Women in Business in Montgomery County in 2008.

An ardent supporter of budding entrepreneurs in the region (particularly at the Universities at Shady Grove where she has mentored, judged pitch competitions, and sponsored a speaker series), Cathy believes in helping people start their own businesses and create their own destinies.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Cathy earned her undergraduate degree in business and an MBA at George Washington University, and holds a M.Ed. from the University of Miami.

Cathy is the founder of the annual Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Awards. The acclaimed awards were inspired by her uncle Fred Ebb, who with songwriting partner John Kander, wrote “New York, New York,” and iconic musicals such as “Cabaret” and “Chicago”.

David Blair

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, LucyRx

A lifelong Montgomery County resident, David Blair has spent decades building healthcare organizations that expand access to care and create value for health plans, patients, and providers. Today, he serves as Chairman and CEO of LucyRx, a next-generation pharmacy benefit management company he launched in 2023 to bring transparency, innovation, and patient-centered service to prescription care. LucyRx has grown into one of the fastest-growing healthcare companies in the nation, serving more than nine million members and thousands of clients across all 50 states.

Blair first gained national attention with Catalyst Health Solutions, which he founded and led as Chairman and CEO beginning in 1998, growing it into a Fortune 500 company that doubled in size roughly every two years, earned a spot on Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list five times, and was named one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies before its $4.8 billion acquisition in 2012. His leadership has since earned him a place on Forbes’ list of America’s 15 Most Powerful CEOs Under 40 and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 Mid-Atlantic Award.

After selling Catalyst, Blair continued founding and investing in healthcare ventures, including Gateway Health Partners, aimed at improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. He chairs the board of the Partnership for a Healthier America and, with his wife, Mikel, established a family foundation supporting literacy, educational equity, youth development, and access to affordable healthcare. He remains engaged in Montgomery County’s civic life, backing initiatives in entrepreneurship, economic development, and workforce opportunity throughout the county that has been his lifelong home and where his entrepreneurial ventures were launched.

A Clemson University finance graduate, Blair is guided by the belief that innovation and compassion can coexist and that businesses have a responsibility to improve people’s lives. His leadership has left a lasting mark on Montgomery County, the healthcare industry, and communities nationwide.

Dr. Kam Lau

CEO and CTO of Automated Precision

Dr. Kam Lau is CEO and CTO of Automated Precision, Inc. (API). API is a leading innovative technological company supporting dimensional metrology applications within science and industry. Dr. Lau’s first commercialized invention, the Laser Tracker, pioneered the advancement of quality systems for dimensional metrology throughout the world.

Dr. Lau earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison before he started his career as a research scientist at the former US National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in the early 1980s, now known as National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr Lau founded Automated Precision, Inc. in 1987 to commercialize not just the Laser Tracker, but several other innovative products serving the precision machine tool industry. Today, API employs over 400 employees on four continents providing an array of precision instrumentation, software, automated inspection systems and dimensional metrology services for its more than 2000 customers.

Some of Dr. Lau’s inventions include. 3/6-D laser tracking system, 6D laser interferometer system, 9D Dynamic Ladar, and the CNC machine geometric and thermal error mapping and compensation system. These products and more have become products of choice for the aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding, robotics, machine tool, and energy industries. Dr. Lau currently holds 30+ patents. He is also recipient of many international awards including SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award; IRIOO Best Product Award; Photonics Circle of Excellence Award; US DOC Certificate of Achievements Award and US Defense Advanced Technology Award.

Patrick J. Caulfie

Co-founder of Coakley & Williams Construction

Patrick J. Caulfield is the co-founder of Coakley & Williams Construction, a leading design-builder and general contractor for commercial, institutional, and governmental projects, both locally and nationally. Pat served as President of the firm for forty years, retiring from that role at the end of 2024. The company’s current business lines include Education, Life Sciences, Hospitality, Multifamily, Institutional, and Interiors. The company has earned hundreds of awards for its work from the Design Build Institute of America, NAIOP, American Institute of Architects, Associated Builders and
Contractors, and other industry organizations.

Throughout his career, Pat has been an active leader in the community. He served as Chair of the Board of Bullis School (Potomac, Maryland) and as Chair of the Board of Connelly School of the Holy Child (Potomac, Maryland). He currently serves as Chair of the Board, Our Lady of Good Counsel High School (Olney, Maryland). Pat also was longtime Chair of the Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the National Capital Area and served as Chair of the Board of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Metro Washington.

Pat also actively served on the Boards of St. Anselm’s Abbey School, the Universities at Shady Grove, Adventist Behavioral Health Foundation, Consortium of Catholic Academies, Catholic Coalition for Special Education, Georgetown Prep Alumni Board of Governors, Mitchell College, Victory Youth Centers, and others. He was the Treasurer of Associated Builders and Contractors of Maryland, and served on the Board of Directors for ABC National. He currently serves on the Montgomery County Regional Board of Directors of HEROES, Inc.

Reflecting his strong commitment to philanthropy and service, Pat has been honored with the Mother Mary Xavier Medal, the William F Bullis Benefactor Award, the Distinguished Contributor Award by the University of Maryland Football Program, Philanthropist of the Year (Bullis School), Man of the Year (Big Brothers Big Sisters), Special Achievement in Business and Philanthropy (BBBS), and was the first Honorary Alumnus of St Anselm’s Abbey School.

Pat attended Georgetown Prep and the University of Maryland. He is an aviation enthusiast and is an active helicopter pilot. Pat and his wife Connie have four children and two (so far) grandchildren.

Verelyn Gibbs Watson

CEO of the Watson Works Group

Verelyn Gibbs Watson is CEO of the Watson Works Group, a firm that owns and operates multiple locations of Nothing Bundt Cakes bakeries throughout Montgomery County. Gibbs Watson owns locations in Bethesda, Germantown, Rockville, and Maryland’s very first Nothing Bundt Cakes location, in Gaithersburg. Born in Georgetown, Guyana, Verelyn immigrated to the US as a child, growing up in Brooklyn, New York where she graduated from one of New York’s top high schools, Brooklyn Tech. She went on to obtain her undergraduate degree in Marketing from Morgan State University and her MBA in Marketing Management from Pace University, while working full time. Additionally, Verelyn holds post graduate certifications in leadership and executive management from Harvard University- Kennedy School of Government and The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). She is also a proud graduate of the 2017 Leadership Montgomery program.

Prior to embarking on her entrepreneurial adventure, Verelyn gained decades of executive level leadership experience in both the for profit and non-profit sectors. She spent 10 years with Fortune 100 financial services firm, New York Life Insurance Company. Starting in an entry level, customer service position in the call center, she worked her way up to Assistant Vice President in the Agency Division, where she focused on launching new markets and helping to support agents building their businesses in those markets. From there she was recruited to serve as Senior Director of Member Engagement with a higher-education focused non-profit, The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). Verelyn spent 7 years there, growing membership, increasing scholarships and developing the next generation of leaders within the organization. While at NSCS she was promoted to Chief Strategy Officer and ultimately served as President and Chief Operating Officer. It was in this role that she discovered Nothing Bundt Cakes during a business trip to Houston, fell in “love at first bite” and became determined to help bring the brand to the east coast.

A few years (and more than a few calls and conversations later) that dream became a sweet reality and the DMV’s first Nothing Bundt Cakes finally made its debut in January of 2016. What Verelyn loves most about running her bakeries is the level of impact they allow her to have in connecting with the community and that they help rewrite the narrative that it is not possible for small businesses to start, scale and succeed in Montgomery County. A special source of pride are the special career pathways she has been able to develop to support young adults with learning differences, in partnership with Sunflower Bakery – and the other for returning citizens, in collaboration with the Montgomery County Prerelease Center’s “Sweet Release” program. Verelyn believes that seeing people, who may not otherwise get a chance to show how brightly they can shine, do just that – is a reward unto itself.

Verelyn’s passion for business is matched only by her heart for advocacy. She has served on numerous non-profit boards, holding leadership positions on many of them. She previously served as Board Chair for the Children’s Equity Coalition (CEC) and currently serves as Chair of Fundraising and Gala Planning for The Upcounty Hub, an organization dedicated to fighting food insecurity. Verelyn is Immediate Past Chair of the Greater Bethesda Chamber of Commerce and also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Inc. Gibbs Watson credits her husband, Sean and daughter, Channing for supporting her dreams and keeping her grounded. They make their home in upper Montgomery County, along with two precocious pups, Ashe and Bella.