WBJ Staff

If an old downtown Worcester building is being brought back to its former glory, the chances are good Menkiti and his firm are involved.

As it has for decades with three of Worcester’s most popular restaurants, the Worcester Restaurant Group adapted and survived, first by adapting to the initial wave of the crisis by offering takeout with the same high level of service, and then by installing high-quality air filtration systems to ensure guest safety.

At the heart of all decisions made by the Worcester Red Sox – leaving Pawtucket after 50 years, picking the Canal District as its new site, designing the baseball stadium, the formation of its charitable foundation – is Larry Lucchino.

In February 2020, when Allen W. Fletcher opened his Worcester Public Market off of Kelley Square in the Canal District, it marked a high point in his four-year effort to convert a dirt lot into a vibrant mixed-use development with a European-style market at its core.

As the managing partner of Wormtown Brewery, the largest brewery in Worcester, David M. Fields takes advantage of this position to be one of Worcester’s biggest hype men, spreading passion for his hometown as his beer gains a wider audience.

Luis Antonio Fraire and Birgit Straehle, the duo behind Worcester’s Sprinkler Factory, have become connections between local artists and the community in the seven years they’ve been involved in the gallery, all while collaborating on exhibitions and events.

As the head of a public company with more than 6,500 worldwide employees and more than $3.3 billion in annual revenue, Stephen MacMillan has held considerable power since he became CEO in 2013. That influence played out in new ways during the coronavirus pandemic.

Carolyn Langer has gone from her time in the military to a medical career with many of the biggest names in Massachusetts health care: Fallon Health today, and previously Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Tufts Health Care, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Steve Kerrigan’s career has taken him to some of the highest levels in the Democratic Party, having run both of President Barack Obama’s inaugurations and as the CEO of the Democratic National Convention in 2012. But it was when Kerrigan, who was born in Worcester, returned home he met a new duty at the most critical of times.

Carolyn Jackson has been at the forefront of the fight against the powerful Massachusetts Nurses Association union, which has been trying for years to raise the nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.