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Power 100 for 2024: The most influential professionals in Central Mass.
Every year when the WBJ newsroom staff begins the lengthy process to determine the power players in the Central Massachusetts business community, we ask ourselves one key question: Who most effectively wielded their power to influence the economy in the last 12 months? It doesn’t matter how much power they hold, or whether they wielded it for good or ill. Being included in WBJ’s Power 100 is all about leveraging your power to have outsize influence on the region, whether you’re a small business owner or the CEO of a global operation with thousands of employees.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: David Bagdon
As local news outlets are struggling just to stay alive, the Community Advocate excels at the important service of providing Central Mass. communities with the information they need, under the longtime leadership of David Bagdon.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Eric Batista
Emily MicucciEric Batista says managing the second-largest city in New England and its $848 million budget is like managing a busy household.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Udit Batra
Emily MicucciDespite Waters' broad reach, under Udit Batra the company remains closely tied to the local community with its 1,800 employees in Central Massachusetts and is highly regarded as a great place to work.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Andrea Bazarian
Nancy CampbellFor 20 years, Nativity School of Worcester has been providing a Jesuit middle-school education free to underserved boys of all faiths. Now, Andrea Bazarian is about to open the school to the other half of the population.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Rachel Blessington
Emily MicucciAs outcomes for mothers and newborns worsen, Blessington is striving to revolutionize the way babies are born.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Mark Borenstein
Borenstein has represented developers who are looking to permit hundreds of new housing units, helping Central Massachusetts address its shortage of housing stock.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Angela Bovill
Emily MicucciBovill manages revenue of $126 million, according to an Internal Revenue Service filing, to run programs reaching new immigrants as well as many others serving children in foster care, the elderly, and people with developmental disabilities to offer housing support, family services, jobs support, and more
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Julie Bowditch
Emily MicucciAn average of 2,000 children live in foster care across Worcester County on any given day, and Julie Bowditch leverages connections to help those kids on their path to permanent homes as executive director of CASA Project Worcester County.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Lou Brady
After the coronavirus pandemic threw an already strained healthcare system into chaos, Lou Brady appears to have pulled FHCW out of a deep dive and turned around a once-tenuous financial position.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Eric Busenburg
Emily MicucciAs the Central Massachusetts life sciences industry looks to grow, Busenburg and Euro-American provide an important link to the rest of the world.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Allie Catlin
Emily MicucciRunning a small dairy farm and creamery was something Allie Catlin and her co-owners had to learn, but seven years in, they seem to have the right idea.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Parth Chakrabarti
Emily MicucciFormerly an executive with top biopharmaceutical companies such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi Genzyme, and Johnson & Johnson, Parth Chakrabarti has dedicated his life to developing and bringing to market therapies for multiple diseases in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Amy Chase
Emily MicucciChase may be reserved, but her impact as a trendsetter in the Central Massachusetts small business community cannot be overstated.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Dr. Michael Collins
Emily MicucciUnder Collins' leadership, the UMass Chan footprint has grown, making space for cutting-edge research, and new partnerships are bringing students to valuable training sites in other parts of the state.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Anthony Consigli
Anthony Consigli and his brother, company President Matthew Consigli, have propelled the construction company founded in 1905 by their great grandfather to a $2.5-billion powerhouse, with offices throughout New England, New York, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and the Caribbean.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Joseph Corazzini
Emily MicucciJoseph Corazzini had big shoes to fill when he stepped into his role in November 2021, and now the university’s long-held positive relationship with the low-income Main South neighborhood hangs in the balance.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Ralph Crowley Jr.
With the passing of Worcester Red Sox chairman and former principal owner Larry Lucchino and the taking over of the franchise by Diamond Baseball Holdings, a New York-based corporation that now owns dozens of minor league teams, minority owner Ralph Crowley Jr. has arguably become the local face of the franchise.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Elizabeth Cruz
Cruz founded LABO in 2013 driven by a passion for community empowerment.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Meg Delorier
Delorier stepped in as the head of Devens for state-backed lender and developer MassDevelopment in September 2022 applying years of military base management and economic development to act as the interim point-of-contact for the 4,400-acre mixed-use development community.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Dr. Eric Dickson
The past 12 months have been full of ups and downs for Dickson and UMass Memorial, while he navigated the turmoil in the healthcare industry.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Marc Dohan
Emily MicucciUnder Dohan’s direction, NewVue runs home ownership and community development programs, while redeveloping often historic buildings into affordable and market-rate apartments.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Mark Donahue
Donahue has played a role in major real estate development projects in his nearly four decades with Fletcher Tilton, earning himself a selection as one of the best lawyers in America in 2023 by Best Lawyers.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Don Doyle
Emily MicucciCentral Massachusetts finance industry veteran Don Doyle knew banking was the right sector for him when he saw he could make positive change in the community.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Travis Duda
Emily MicucciTravis Duda is leading something of a counterculture business movement in Worcester. Made up of like-minded Worcester company owners, professionals, and residents who want to network and collaborate, the No Jerks Network pokes a bit of fun at the Worcester establishment.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Marlina Duncan
With Duncan’s influence, UMass Chan added a diversity, equity, and inclusion pillar to the university’s IMPACT 2025 strategic plan in 2022, picking 10 of the university’s departments to front new action plans.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Pete Dunn
Emily Micucci“My interest in building institutions and supporting the growth of community philanthropy coincided with GWCF's needs here,” Dunn said.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Peter Dunn
Emily MicucciSince becoming Chief Development Officer in 2020, Dunn has been instrumental in leading policy through pivotal years of Worcester’s economic evolution, striving to clinch the elements of a vibrant, larger city.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Cheryl Eidinger-Taylor
Despite these hurdles to overcome, Cheryl Eidinger-Taylor has helped turn ERA Key Realty into one of the most important firms in the Central Massachusetts residential real estate scene.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Kory Eng
Emily MicucciWhen floods devastated the city of Leominster in September, United Way of North Central joined forces with other nonprofit groups to help those displaced, raising nearly $500,000 to support 600 people with basic needs and home repairs.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Lisa Fiorentino
Emily MicucciLisa Fiorentino leads Central Massachusetts’ performing arts gem, Groton Hill Music Center, home of a new, 1,000-seat concert hall and music education facility featuring two world-class stages and 35 classrooms in the 126,000-square-foot venue.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Paula Fitzpatrick
Emily MicucciFitzpatrick plays a vital role in helping WPI create a culture of health and well-being, something the school grappled with in the wake of seven student deaths in less than a year, nearly all of them suspected to be suicides.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Caroline Frankel
Caroline Frankel has been breaking down barriers in the legal Massachusetts cannabis industry since its beginning, and her latest breakthrough will make it easier for entrepreneurs and small businesses to find a foothold in an industry.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Raffi Garabedian
Emily MicucciThe rise of Electric Hydrogen since its founding in 2020 could be described as stratospheric, owing to its promising technology to decarbonize hydrogen production.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Tim Garvin
Emily MicucciThe philanthropic community nonprofit with $8.5 million in annual revenue and its partners have learned to follow Tim Garvin’s lead for the good of the 30 cities and towns they serve.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Stephen Genatossio
Nancy CampbellStephen Genatossio not only talks the talk, he walks the walk, in sneakers. Sneakerama was founded with his father in 1978 in a small storefront in Webster Square.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Brian Gibbs
Gibbs joined UMass Memorial as the hospital system’s inaugural vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer in 2020, selected from a nationwide search.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Khalil Guzman-Jerry
Emily MicucciKhalil Guzman-Jerry is a young artist with an agenda. He founded his company, theWorcesterWorkshop, for that purpose in 2020, offering interior and exterior murals, prints and paintings, and graphic clothing for sale.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Gloria Hall
Worcester’s art scene wouldn’t be what it is today, if not for the impact of Gloria Hall.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Meredith Harris
Emily MicucciWhen you’re leading economic development in a bustling hub like Marlborough with ideal highway access and plenty of amenities, you can afford to be picky. For Meredith Harris, adhering to a vision is the driving force, and the efforts pay off in real results.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Jeannie Hebert
Emily MicucciLeading the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce since 2008, Hebert saw a need to improve non-conventional workforce education in the state.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Vincent Hemmeter
Vincent Hemmeter is part of the vanguard of the informal movement to keep Worcester weird.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Sam Hendler
Sam Hendler sees his influence in the Central Massachusetts business community as providing a critical component of any well-lived life: fun.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Kurt Isaacson
Kurt Isaacson and Spectrum Health Systems stand at the forefront of treating the rising problem of addiction.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Carolyn Jackson
As the leader of the largest for-profit hospital system in Central Massachusetts and the region’s second largest hospital, Jackson has been the focus of the ire of politicians and workers for nearly all of 2024.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Michael Jacobs
Jacob’s fingerprints are all over Central Massachusetts, but he has played a particularly important role in the redevelopment of Worcester’s Canal District in the wake of the construction of the $160-million Polar Park baseball stadium.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Kathleen Jordan
Emily MicucciTying together the varied programs for adults and children with complex needs is Kathleen Jordan, who was promoted in 2023 to lead the nonprofit she joined in 2003.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Jennifer Julien Gaskin
As the main organizer behind the Worcester Caribbean American Carnival Association, Jennifer Julien Gaskin brings the increasingly popular festival into the mainstream.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Rita and Jay Kapur
Since taking over the businesses from their parents, Rita and Jay have proven to be effective executives who aren’t afraid of innovation or thinking outside the box.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: William Kelleher IV and James Umphrey
Chances are, if you are buying, selling, or leasing commercial property in Central Massachusetts, you’re dealing with the firm run by Umphrey and Kelleher.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Edward Kelly
Emily MicucciWhile Kelly understood the position of board members and the larger community to keep Milford Regional independent, he recognized it was time to link up with its longtime clinical partner as operating losses mounted.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Steve Kerrigan
Just three years after joining the health center, Kerrigan reported in his 2022 “From the Desk” letter it had provided care to a then record-breaking 31,356 patients in 85 languages, issuing 137,707 prescriptions.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Robert Kilroy and Paul Carey
Emily MicucciRobert Kilroy and Paul Carey will carry the torch held by former Mirick O’Connell Managing Partner David Surprenant for more than 20 years. In April, the duo took over as the first-ever co-managing partners of the 108-year-old firm.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Tiffany Lillie
Emily MicucciNow the dust has settled and programming has resumed, Tiffany Lillie is tasked with putting the nonprofit back on solid ground, reassuring its diverse employee and client base while keeping funding levels up.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Debra Maddox
Emily MicucciCentral Massachusetts born and educated, Debra Maddox has a firm hand on the pulse of the people she and her team serve at the Multicultural Wellness Center, founded in 2005.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Michael Mahoney
While Boston Scientific has been through its ups and downs over the years, the company had a strong 2023, as its revenue of $14.24 billion was a 12.3% increase from 2022.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Sue Mailman
Nancy CampbellLike her well-known father before her, Mailman uses her influence to improve the Greater Worcester community, particularly advocating for women, people of color, and disadvantaged populations.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Barry Maloney
Emily MicucciAs the higher education industry struggles with falling enrollment, Worcester State University is bucking the trend.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Carla McCall
Emily MicucciCreativity, emotional intelligence, and humor are intrinsic to the work McCall does leading the largest Metrowest accounting firm of 325 employees.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Michael McDermott
Emily MicucciMichael McDermott has helped the news media in Central Massachusetts get its swagger back.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: David McLaren
Emily MicucciDavid McLaren is proof that nice guys win. As the founder of one of just four certified B Corps in Central Massachusetts, McLaren has a commitment to improving clients’ lives through tax, business valuation, and forensic accounting services central to his company’s mission
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Satya Mitra
Emily MicucciAs chairman of the board of the 2,100-member Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, tax guru, nonprofit leader, and biochemist, Satya Mitra’s influence in Worcester is decidedly multilayered.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Shruti Miyashiro
Emily MicucciThe new national scope of the Marlborough-based credit union has accelerated under Shruti Miyashiro, who has seen 9% growth in the credit union’s commercial portfolio.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Rachel Monarrez
Emily MicucciThe former superintendent in San Bernardino, California, now brings a vision for creating a more inclusive school district.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Dominique Muldoon
Emily MicucciMuldoon paid one of the highest prices in standing up for what she believed in: She lost her job.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Bob Mumgaard
Nancy CampbellAs the world races to find clean, renewable energy, Bob Mumgaard envisions CFS and Devens becoming the center of the global fusion industry.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Timothy Murray
Emily MicucciA longtime inside power broker in Worcester and beyond, Timothy Murray pushes hard for economic development, with his latest efforts including the launch of a news organization and the development of a fund for workforce development.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Roy Nascimento
Emily MicucciRoy Nascimento is the go-to resource for professional connections in the region and one of North Central’s biggest business advocates.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Girish Navani
Emily MicucciNot only an innovator, Navani is something of a gatekeeper as eClinicalWorks and most other large technology companies move to incorporate artificial intelligence into their products, advocating for a measured approach making AI a tool, not an automated boss.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Mike Nicholson
Emily MicucciNicholson, a Gardner native who is the city’s first Latino mayor, has met the problems of blight and economic depression head on.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Chip Norton
As the largest commercial property owner in Central Massachusetts, Chip Norton plays a key role in keeping the region’s economic engine running.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Mike O’Kronley
Emily MicucciAscend Elements, once a Worcester green technology startup that in the last two years has grown its workforce 500%, appears unstoppable as a leader in recycling elements of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Aimee Peacock
In her time at Flexcon, Peacock has led the company through an integration and alignment of the company’s global obligations.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Rozanna Penney
Penney has become the sole Heywood CEO and invested her efforts into turning around the healthcare system’s finances while focusing on the needs of communities.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Jessica Pepple
Emily MicucciRFK Community Alliance’s hire of Jessica Pepple into a newly created top leadership position is a model for how to infuse diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into an organizational culture.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Maurice Phelan
Leading the charge for Sartorius in North America is Phelan. Responsible for the company’s 2,600 employees on the continent, Phelan is an important figure in the company’s rapid expansion.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Larue Renfroe
Ask any North American-born hockey player at almost any level of competition if they have ever heard of Marlborough, Massachusetts, and there’s a high probability they’ll answer in the affirmative. That’s all thanks to the New England Sports Center and its founder, Larue Renfroe.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Jason Reposa
Reposa’s innovation stands out in the increasingly competitive and financially strained Massachusetts cannabis industry, where he is one of the few actively working to help other entrepreneurs succeed in the space.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Mary Craig Ritter
Emily MicucciToday, Ritter plans products and pricing fitting with Fallon’s ever-increasing focus on serving vulnerable populations. Fallon has 200,000+ members, making it a small but important link in the Mass. health plan market.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: John “Jack” Roche
Emily MicucciWith about 1,600 local employees, The Hanover Insurance Group is one of the 20 largest employers in Central Massachusetts.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Vincent Rougeau
Emily MicucciA strategic plan launched in February 2023 reinforces the school’s commitment to education as well as community. Among other things, Holy Cross will strengthen recruitment efforts of students and employees from Worcester, which helps meet one of Rougeau’s ideals – equity in higher education.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Clifford Rucker
It’s fair to say Clifford Rucker has a well-diversified portfolio. As the founder of Rucker Investments, he has his hands in a number of high-profile ventures in Worcester, including the Worcester Railers minor league hockey team, Off The Rails Restaurant & Bar, Worcester Ice Center, and the Palladium concert hall.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Kimberly Salmon
Nancy CampbellAs head of the The Hanover Insurance Group's charitable foundation, Salmon leads the mission to benefit communities where Hanover has a major presence, touching on academic support, job opportunities for diverse youth, and health resources.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Jessica Sassi
Emily MicucciNow, the next generation of the organization falls to Vincent Strully’s hand-picked successor: Jessica Sassi, who took over the top leadership role in 2023.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Mark Schwartz
The once unicorn company, meaning it was valued at more than $1 billion dollars, has faced a number of financial setbacks.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Amie Shei
Amie Shei’s career centers the health of the Central Massachusetts population, especially amongst those in disenfranchised communities.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Troy Siebels
Emily MicucciFor 20 years, Troy Siebels has led The Hanover Theatre & Conservatory to be a major cultural destination, bringing high-caliber productions on par with those in Boston and other bigger cities.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Danielle Spring and Julie Toupin-Spring
Emily MicucciAlthough it is a lesbian bar, Femme is open to everyone and seeks to be a safe space at a time when the LGBTQ+ community is increasingly under fire locally and nationally.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Sam Squailia
Nancy CampbellSam Squailia was elected as Fitchburg’s 46th mayor in 2023, the third female to hold the position in the North Central city of about 42,000.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Henry Tessman
Great Wolf is a Chicago-based company operating 21 locations across the U.S., and Henry Tessman has been at the helm of the company’s Fitchburg location since it opened in 2014.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: John Tocco
Tocco’s firm is behind the development of The Cove, a seven-story mixed-use apartment building set to hang over Polar Park like a towering home run.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Adriana Vaccaro
After founding Culture Redesigned in 2018 in Shrewsbury, Adriana Vaccaro is at the forefront of a small, new wave of entrepreneurs and businesses in Central Mass. helping companies fill their job vacancies amid the ongoing workforce shortage while achieving their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Grace Wang
Nancy CampbellEven before she came to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in April 2023, Grace Wang saw the school as a pioneer in project-based learning.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Jon Weaver
Nancy CampbellMBI is the state’s oldest life sciences incubator, working with early stage companies from concept to clinical trials. Since 2000, the nonprofit fostered 188 companies, which have created more than 1,800 jobs and raised $1.4 billion.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Greg Weiner
Nancy CampbellWhen three leaders of the country’s top universities were castigated for failing to call out antisemitism during a Congressional hearing, Greg Weiner, the nation’s first Jewish president of a Catholic college, felt compelled to comment.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Donald Young
The future of the transportation industry is electric, and a Central Massachusetts firm is playing an important role in advancing technology in that transformation.
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Power 1002024 Power 100: Valerie Zolezzi-Wyndham
Valerie Zolezzi-Wyndham gives major Central Massachusetts employers the tools, motivation, and accountability they need to meet the promises they made following the 2020 police murder of George Floyd. She founded Promoting Good as she saw this as an unmet need in her community.
