Commerce Bank

Who made the cut? See which young professionals are making a difference now and into the future for the Central Massachusetts business community.

Amanda Misilo started working for Commerce Bank as a part-time teller at the age of 19 and became its youngest branch manager four years later.

Minor league hockey is once again returning to the DCU Center in Worcester, a year after the Worcester Sharks of the AHL moved to San Jose.

The South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) is set to open a new center in Worcester on Wednesday that will provide low-interest microloans to small businesses and underserved entrepreneurs throughout Worcester County.

Brian W. Thompson heads the leading small business lender in Central Massachusetts and the biggest Worcester-headquartered bank -- with $1.7 billion in deposits -- but it is his community connections that make him so intertwined with the business community.

Michael P. Angelini holds sway over Central Massachusetts in countless ways. He is chairman of one of its largest law firms, Bowditch & Dewey. He is chairman of the Massachusetts Port Authority and director at both Commerce Bank and the UMass Medical Center Foundation.

When Barre Savings Bank President and CEO Guy Boyer went looking for a partner bank to merge with, it was the culture of Fidelity Bank, headquartered in Leominster, that drove his final decision, not figures and numbers. With 146 years of serving the community in and around Barre, it was important to him that a partnering bank have the same outlook and attitude toward its customers and employees as Barre has.

SUSAN RHEAULT was promoted to supervisor of operations at Hometown Bank in Oxford. Rheault has been working...

Imperial Distributors, of Worcester and Auburn, is this year's Richard B. Kennedy Business of the Year. It is one of several awards announced Wednesday by the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, along with presenting sponsor Fidelity Bank.

Commerce Bank and Habitat for Humanity MetroWest/Greater Worcester have been awarded a $25,000 grant by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, to help fund the rehabilitation of a single-family home in Worcester for a wounded veteran and his or her family.