Bharat Puri, 35

By Elizabeth Davies

Next time you’re enjoying a bread bowl at Panera or Oreo Overload ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery, say a quiet thank you to Bharat Puri.

The 35-year-old financier is one of the driving forces behind First Rockford Group, the development company responsible for much of the city’s east side growth. In the 10 years since he began working for his uncle, Sunil Puri, at First Rockford Group, this Bombay native says he’s been on a learning curve to prove himself in the business.

“Your word is everything,” he says. “Your word and your delivery: that you deliver what you say.”

Puri also has learned the value of perseverance as he’s wooed national retailers to the Rock River Valley.

“You have to prove to them that this is where you need to set up shop,” he says. There’s lots of swallowing your pride. You don’t take no for an answer.”

Local realtor Michael Dunn is acquainted with Puri through his work at FirstRockford, and also from the time they spend together as Rockford Airport Commissioners. Dunn says he’s noticed the young businessman’s honesty and integrity.

“I believe that the combination of both his ability to analyze a very complicated deal, combined with his very sharp instincts for what works and doesn’t work, make him a very competitive business person,” Dunn says. “I’ve come to appreciate what a terrific young man he is, and what a great thinker he is.”

Puri calls himself a “boomeranger”—a young professional who initially left Rockford, only to return for a job in the family business a few years later. The time away from Rockford made him that much more of a booster for the city.

“You’re an hour between Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago,” he says. “It’s the best-kept secret.”