COEUR d'ALENE - North Idaho got a sneak peek Wednesday at tomorrow's business leaders, and it was quite a sight.

Twenty-six professionals under the age of 40 were honored by North Idaho Business Journal during a celebration at The Cellar in downtown Coeur d'Alene. The festivities were sponsored by Kootenai Health and The Cellar.

"This is the fifth year North Idaho Business Journal has honored our best young business leaders, so we decided to put a much brighter spotlight on it than we have in the past," said Jim Thompson. Thompson was the event's master of ceremonies and is regional publisher for Hagadone Newspapers' North Idaho publications, including North Idaho Business Journal.

Ron Nilson, president of Ground Force Worldwide and the event's keynote speaker, shared stories about the time he and his management team worked with Idaho State University students after Nilson was named Idaho Business Leader of the Year. He also tapped into his own reservoir of experience bringing Ground Force up from the brink of financial disaster years ago.

"Take the long cut, not the short cut," he advised. "Don't be afraid to get your head kicked in, and learn from your mistakes."

He emphasized three steps toward success:

1. Love what you do.

2. Be present; live in the moment.

3. Find your purpose outside your job.

Nilson referred to the group as "not the 30 richest people in North Idaho, but the 30 up and coming leaders of Kootenai County." And, after his talk, Nilson reiterated how impressed he was with the winners. In preparing for his speech, Nilson had read all the nomination forms and questionnaires that had been completed by the winners.

"What struck me wasn't what they said about themselves," he said, "but what their co-workers said about them."

Caring for others was a dominant theme with all the winners, he added.

Dr. Erin Elliott of Post Falls Family Dental was one of this year's honorees.

"There's a lot of great, hard-working young people in Coeur d'Alene," she said, "so this is a great honor."

One anomaly this year: Only 26 winners were selected by the panel of judges - Eve Knudtsen of Knudtsen Chevrolet; Dan Klocko from Kootenai Health; and Steve Griffitts of Jobs Plus, Inc.

"I think we had some problems in cyberspace," Klocko said. "I'm just concerned that maybe there was a glitch somewhere that prevented us from receiving all the nominations online.

"We'd like to have 30 but we didn't want to include people we just didn't think were qualified. We feel very strongly that these 26 belong."

26 Under 40

Jaime Arnold

Josh Burton

Kevin Cole

Erin Elliott

Ben Fairfield

Andreas John

Scarlet Kelso

Jonathan Kersey

Nick Lilyquist

Charlie Linder

Luke Malek

Joe Malloy

Sean Moglia

April Needham

James (J.R.) Norvell

Jeffrey R. Owens

Jennifer Peat

Todd Putren

Tyler Schwenk

Luke Stavros

Ben Toews

Ben Tran

Mike Varga

Tiffinay Walker

Rachel Wickham

Tyler B. Wilson, Esq.

COMING TUESDAY

- Read all about the 26 young business leaders honored last night. Their profiles will appear in the October issue of North Idaho Business Journal, which will be inserted in The Press next Tuesday and be available at other locations through October.