2021 40 Under 40

It's not easy to land a job as general manager of an auto dealership at age 25, but it helps if you started at 12.

Emily Dube Gray began helping at the family dealership at a young age. And she took it seriously — even asking to get on the payroll after researching child labor laws in New Hampshire.

"When I was a kid, I would always tag along to the dealership and always wanted to be doing something," Dube Gray told Automotive News. "I just wanted to work and be part of the business."

Her title in 2011 when she left her grandfather's original dealership, Bill Dube Ford-Toyota, was administrative assistant. From there, Dube Gray went onto college in Washington, D.C. She graduated early with a business degree, attended the NADA dealer academy and returned home to work at the family Hyundai dealership in Wilmington, Mass.

"I was ready to check the college box, move on and just sort of get into it," she said. "And then it just snowballed from there." She worked as service manger in 2015 and moved up to general manager in 2018.

Dube Gray has worked closely with her father, Scott Dube, to revamp the dealership's processes and bolster its staff of 30. The store sold a record 92 new cars in April and 80 in May. "We're more interested in hiring quality people over quantity," Dube Gray said of herself and her father, who is the dealer.

During the COVID pandemic, Dube Gray made two big moves for the Hyundai store. She hired a fixed operations manager and a general sales manager, both of which were new positions.

Most recently, she and her father shifted the dealership to a one-price model starting in January, creating a more relaxed sales environment for employees and customers.

"The launch went off without a hitch, and we had a solid January," Dube Gray said. During her time as general manager, the store has gone from losing money to making money.

Dube Gray is a longtime sailing fan, and when she was a child, her family sailed from New Hampshire to the Bahamas and lived on their sailboat there for a year.

"It had a huge influence on my work ethic," she said, "and gifted me with a problem-solving mindset that has served me well in my career."

 — Laurence Iliff