Meet Our Business Leaders Of The Year

PHOTOS/MATT VOLPINI

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By Rick Saia

A few years before he died at the age of 99 in 2010, John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach at UCLA, was asked whether leadership is something innate to human beings, or whether it can be taught.

The man who was still called "Coach," even by his oldest former players, quickly said leadership can be taught. Of course, there are those who can be leaders from a young age, such as the Little Leaguer who encourages his teammates from both the bench and his position on the field.

In business, leaders are required to perform similar actions — and for some miracles — for their organizations to nudge them to a higher level in the form of sales or industry stature.

In this, our annual Business Leaders of the Year issue, we honor the following individuals and organizations:

LARGE BUSINESS
Kris Canekeratne, Virtusa Corp., Westborough
Canekeratne founded Virtusa 18 years ago. The global information technology services provider has grown substantially over the past eight years, even despite a drop in revenue in 2010. As customers shift toward more online and mobile services, Virtusa's could be on the brink of another boom.

SMALL BUSINESS/ENTREPRENEUR
Philip V. Adams, World Energy Solutions, Worcester
Adams has been CEO for less than a year, but has been with World Energy for 10, and was president from 2007 until he was elevated to CEO last summer. The company has enjoyed five straight quarters of record-breaking revenue.

NONPROFIT
Dennis Rice, Alternatives Unlimited Inc., Whitinsville
Almost by accident, Rice wound up working in the service of people with disabilities, which led to him forming Alternatives 37 years ago. He's called a man of "extraordinary vision" who has helped bring the disabled out into their communities, while drawing communities into the organization.

CORPORATE CITIZEN OF THE YEAR
MCPHS University, Worcester
The school, known until recently as Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, has played a pivotal role in the ongoing transformation of downtown Worcester, led by its president, Charles F. Monahan Jr. Over the past 13 years, the school has purchased vacant and underused properties and renovated them into state-of-the-art educational facilities.

How We Chose Them
Each year, we invite members of the Central Massachusetts business community to nominate business leaders in each of the four categories. At the same time, we follow companies closely through the year as part of our news coverage. Near the end of the year, we gather all the nominations, evaluate them and come up with our selections. We thank the Clark University Graduate School of Management for its help in determining our Corporate Citizen of the Year honoree.