Ucci named to 40 Under Forty

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Each year, Providence Business News selects 40 young people who are making a difference in Rhode Island. The 40 Under Forty list is comprised of pioneers in politics, innovators in business and some of the most successful up-and-comers in the Ocean State.
This year, Johnston Rep. Stephen Ucci made the cut.
“It’s a humbling experience when you’re picked among your peers and colleagues for an award,” Ucci said. “I asked the woman from Providence Business News, when she called to tell me I had been chosen, if she could hear my smile through the phone.”
While Johnston residents know him best from his political career, it is Ucci’s day job that garnered him attention from PBN. The 39-year-old Ucci is senior counsel for the defense contractor Raytheon Co. and general counsel for their Integrated Defense Seapower unit.
“Stephen R. Ucci’s job is all about risk. It’s just that instead of facing danger he spends a lot of time trying to avoid it,” Providence Business News reports.
As counsel for Raytheon, Ucci keeps an eye on financial risk facing the company and also acts as the company’s compliance officer. It’s interesting work, he says, which is what has kept him there for 13 years.
“I review things from a legal perspective but also from a business perspective. Not a day goes by that I don’t learn something new,” he said.
Ucci is the only attorney in the company’s history to receive the Raytheon Business Development award. That honor alone impressed PBN.
“Mr. Ucci has demonstrated ambition and achievement in the best sense. Professionally, he is the first Raytheon attorney to earn a Raytheon Business Development Award, meaning that he goes beyond providing legal advice to helping the company grow,” said Mark Murphy, editor of Providence Business News.
Ucci’s experience with the law, and business, has served him well at the State House, where he joined the General Assembly in 2004. He is vice chair of the House Oversight Committee and member of both the House Labor Committee and the Joint Defense Economy Planning Commission.
“For more than a decade, he has been a state representative, and so well respected, that he is the deputy majority leader in the Rhode Island House,” Murphy said. “Providence Business News chose Steve for the 2011 class of the 40 Under Forty because he is exactly what we celebrate with the program – a leader today and tomorrow for the state.”
When Ucci announced he was running for office, it came as no surprise to his family.
“Stephen has been very interested in politics all his life. I would say from when he was in elementary school,” said his mother, Constance Ucci. “We weren’t shocked when he headed in that direction.”
Constance admits her bias, but believes it’s her son’s personality that made him a winning 40 Under Forty candidate in the pool of 115 applicants.
“He’s a very loving, warm person. He’s very caring,” she said.
Constance and Ucci’s father, Thomas, also see their son as a strong individual. When he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Constance saw no change in his personality.
“He handled it extremely well. He’s just the same kind person he’s always been,” she said.
He overcame cancer and continues to be an advocate for other cancer patients.
“He’s always concerned with the other person more than himself,” Constance added.
Readers of Providence Business News got to see a playful side of their Johnston legislator as well in a question and answer section, “this and that,” that described the winners’ favorite things. He prefers Lady Gaga to Beyoncé, white wine over red, Yankees over the Red Sox and Stephen Colbert over Jon Stewart. Perhaps surprisingly, the Democrat picked Fox News over MSNBC.
And his favorite time of day? Ucci is a night owl.
Ucci’s 4-year-old daughter, Gianna, has an idea of where daddy goes when he’s at work and often asks him if he’ll see Mayor Joseph Polisena at the State House because “she equates him with government.” She might not realize the honor associated with 40 Under Forty, but Ucci’s wife, Dina, does, and he says Dina is a big part of the reason he’s gone so far.
“I’m very lucky to have a supportive wife,” Ucci said. “Obviously, work is busy and the State House is busy, but Dina is always understanding when I have to take a call or go into meetings.”
In his introductory letter to the section, Murphy points out that this year’s seventh annual 40 Under Forty section focuses on the positive things and inspiring people the state has to offer. Ucci’s honored to be in that company, and agrees that, despite the state’s economic condition, there are good things happening everywhere.
“We have, if you reach each of those bios, a very diverse economic base here in the state,” Ucci said. “Rhode Island really is a great place to work and to live.”

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