It’s been nearly 15 years since Andrew Farkas was named as one of Crain’s New York Business’ “40 Under Forty,” but the people who make up 2011’s class seem to hold just as much promise—especially Sush Torgalkar, a CEO whose path to success sounds similar to the one that Farkas himself took. Torgalkar began as an associate at Westbrook Partners, and after bonding with co-founder Paul Kazilionis over a difficult coffee machine in the break room, began his journey to the top of the company. Now he oversees the fund, which owns more than $20 billion worth of real estate, including office space, multi-family residential buildings, hotels and retail areas, similar to Andrew Farkas’ Island Capital Group LLC (ICG).

Just as Torgalkar dominated the real estate category of the 2011 class, Farkas was the most notable real estate entrepreneur of the class of 1997, and he continues to work in the industry, overseeing ICG as well as Anubis Advisors. Separating the most recent class from previous years is an increased involvement in the digital area—Crain’s reported that 50 percent use Twitter and 77.5 percent use Facebook.