🔒Editor’s Note: ‘40 Under 40’ honorees offer interesting stories, unexpected responses

Each year we’ve had 40 Under 40 I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the responses from honorees to the questions asked.

This group is serious about their professions but also serious about their passion projects and the books they read and even the shows they watch.

As in the past two years Mainebiz has presented the honor, the mix includes people from a range of industries: insurance, financial services, law, health care, small business consulting, nonprofits, food-and-beverage makers, the arts, HR, real estate and construction, tech, government, biotech, professional sports, retail and more.

Among the favorite quotations, people cited Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill. They also cited living sources, author Alice Walker to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky to poet Amanda Gorman.

Among the favorite books there were classics, like “East of Eden,” by John Steinbeck, “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, and even “The Prince,” by Machiavelli, as well as meaty biographies, like Ron Chernow’s “Grant.” This year’s honorees also cited a number of influential business books, like “Random Walk Guide to Investing,” by Burton G. Malkiel, “The Best Place to Work,” by Ron Friedman, and “BE 2.0,” by Jim Collins and Bill Lazier.

I believe this is also the first year we’ll honor two people whose parents have also received Mainebiz awards. Clay Maker, co-president of Penobscot General Contractors, is the son of Andrea Cianchette Maker, the director of FocusMaine and a Woman to Watch from 2016. Jack Davies, director of finance at MaineWorks, is the son of Margo Walsh, founder of MaineWorks and Woman to Watch from 2014.

Congrats to all of this year’s class of 40 Under 40 honorees.