BRYAN CASHMAN
Deloitte Consulting
Consultant
Age: 25

When nominator
and Deloitte manager Britton Josey says, “Bryan Cashman is all fun and games,” she really means it. Consultant Cashman works on game Web sites and with media companies who develop the next big interactive adventure. “I always wanted games to be a part of my work life, and I’m happy Deloitte Consulting allows the flexibility to pursue different career goals in the same year, including in my case,” Cashman says, “supporting system redesigns while also providing depth on media projects by providing an entertainment software angle to our strategies.”

Cashman has been with Deloitte for three-and-a-half years, and might have never gotten there if Binghamton University in New York had offered a journalism major. Instead, he pursued the management program there, and followed the path to consulting.

Thankfully, that path has allowed Cashman to bring his gaming and business skills together. He recently authored a whitepaper about potential revenue streams in mobile gaming. One of the reasons Cashman can see the potential for those revenue streams is because he doesn’t see the average video game player as a 16-year-old boy in a basement. “Do you know how many times I’ve been asked about [Nintendo] Wii this holiday by coworkers?” he asks. “It’s exciting to see today how games are accepted by people of all ages. How many people reading this magazine play games on their Blackberries?”

Cashman doesn’t plan on abandoning his first love any time soon, but as technology evolves, he leaves the door open for other possibilities. “So much has changed so quickly, whether it’s shifting media consumption patterns, new forms of interaction, or new methods of distribution. Looking into the future, I’m excited that I can play some role in helping clients impact how it all unfolds.”

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CHRIS YOUNG
BusinessEdge Solutions
Solutions Partner
Age: 26

Chris Young didn’t know he wanted to be a consultant while he was working for Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey. But then the company had a supply-chain project that required a consultancy on site. “That’s where I fell in love with consulting. And I haven’t looked back,” says Young, who then went to work for Capgemini and has been with BusinessEdge Solutions (which was recently acquired by EMC) for two years.

At BusinessEdge, Young is a senior project manager and business analyst—and so far, he’s made the most of his time there. He participated in two global initiatives and has been “an integral part of a $20 million client engagement for a tier one client,” says nominator Ann Mahon, director of marketing at BusinessEdge. Additionally, says Mahon, “Clients have provided feedback on how his excellent technical skills and strong abilities led the team to effective and productive solutions.”

Young’s work has been primarily with pharmaceutical companies. He saved one, Mahon says, an estimated $12 million. Young, though, says his true joy comes from working with a client to solve a business technology problem. He says regardless of his employer, he wants to be a trusted adviser within the industry. “What’s interesting,” Young says, “is you really have to go with the tide of where the industry takes you.”

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THEODORA MARTIS BUFFOLINO
Deloitte Consulting
Manager
Age: 29

Change may be hard, but Deloitte Consulting’s Theodora Martis Buffolino wants to make it easier. “Oftentimes people are adverse to change,” says Buffolino, a manager in the Human Capital Organization and Change practice in New York. “I try to really put myself in the shoes of the drug rep or the line person or the cashier of the supermarket and say, ‘What would I want to know if I were that person?’” That empathy has helped Buffolino climb the corporate ladder at the firm, where the ex-Arthur Andersen employee handles financial and pharmaceutical clients, among others.

Buffolino has a passion not only for implementing change, but for studying it as well. While at Cornell, she was awarded the Verizon/GTE Foundation Research Grant. Her research through that program provided fodder for her honors thesis, which tackled—what else?—the relationships between executive leaders and organizational cultures. She says she’d like to go back and build on that research. “I see myself eventually writing a book,” she says.

When Buffolino, who recently married a Deloitte colleague, isn’t working or researching, she says she and her husband enjoy golf and watching local sports teams—especially the Yankees. Buffolino says she sees herself ideally on Deloitte’s partner track, saying of the firm, “I think it’s an exciting place to be right now.”