Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

Updated: October 6, 2025

A common thread with the 2025 class of the Mainebiz 40 Under 40 is family

AI Illustration / Adobe FireflY

Whether they were talking about heroes or who would be their dream dinner guests, the honorees mentioned family members. Grandparents came up most frequently, but so did parents, children, siblings and a favorite uncle.

Spare time companions

Spare time may be spent with family — with spouses or partners and children cited as frequent companions, as were dogs.

Heroes and dinner guests

When it comes to heroes and dream dinner guests, grandparents hold sway with the honorees: Nearly half of honorees, 19 in all, cited at least one grandparent as a hero and/or preferred dinner companion. Moms and dads, or the combined parental unit, got some love, but not like grandparents.

Quotable

Favorite quotes tend to reveal an idealistic or aspirational side of a person.

In the four years Mainebiz has put together the 40 Under 40, two historic figures in particular have been frequently cited: Winston Churchill’s quotes around the theme of never giving up have been popular, as has a passage from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the arena” speech.

In the case of this 40 Under 40 class, favorite quotes were from sources as diverse as Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr., Dale Carnegie, Ani DiFranco, Henry Ford, Dr. Seuss, Vince Lombardi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Baldwin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Non-family dinner guests

We asked honorees to pick three “dream dinner guests,” living or dead.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama was on the guest list for seven different honorees. Only Anthony Bourdain, with three votes, came close. Jane Austen had two votes.

Other dream guests ran the gamut from tech leaders to entertainers, authors, thought leaders, sports heroes and historic figures: Steve Jobs, Conan O’Brien, Maya Angelou, Melissa McCarthy, Taylor Swift, the Dalai Lama, Malcolm Gladwell, Maggie Smith, Billie Jean King, Abraham Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Toni Morrison, Queen Elizabeth (and her corgis) were among those named.

It was a common idea to invite food people, including Bourdain, Gordon Ramsey and Ina Garten — which seems like it might create a lot of stress around menu planning and execution.

One honoree said her three dinner guests would be Michelle Obama, Anthony Bourdain and Elon Musk, which would undoubtedly make for a lively conversation.

Sign up for Enews

Mainebiz web partners

Most Recent

Most Recent

Related Content

Thumbnail 'Shake up your routine': Business leaders offer 60 ideas in 60 minutes at Mainebiz forum
40 Under 40: Emily Yearwood is connecting people through the outdoors
40 Under 40: Katie Wise combines a love of design and building with an iconic Maine brand
40 Under 40: Tracey Spinato works to strengthen Maine’s tech talent pipeline

0 Comments

Order a PDF