Ashley Bauman, 39

Ashley Bauman likes to joke that she’s been to more groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies than most members of Congress, which is funny because it’s probably true.

As the City of Tampa’s director of marketing and communications under former Mayor Bob Buckhorn and current Mayor Jane Castor, Bauman, for nearly six years, had a front-row seat to one of the past decade’s greatest runs of economic development: the rise of Tampa and the Tampa Bay region as one of the nation’s most desirable places to live, work and start a business.

“There’s no greater job in politics than working for a mayor,” she says. “I miss having my finger on the pulse of the city.”