Small Business

Framingham and Worcester have made the list of 99 cities linked to 99 beers, with Jack's Abby Brewery in Framingham and Worcester's Wormtown Brewery being listed as reasons why these communities are a great place to call home.

In November, Dean J. Mazzarella was elected to his 12th two-year term as Leominster mayor, extending his lead as longest serving mayor in the city's 375-year history. This January, when Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn retires, Mazzarella officially will be the longest currently serving mayor in Massachusetts.

Fostering a business-friendly atmosphere takes a village, but leading the charge in Marlborough are two key players: Mayor Arthur Vigeant and Susanne Morreale Leeber, president and CEO of the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Venkat Kolluri, CEO of Chitika Inc., has made an art of creating an inviting workplace to employees of his Internet advertising firm in Westborough.

Inside Route 128, incubators for early-stage companies are numerous, but in MetroWest and Greater Worcester, the options are far more limited. But two local nonprofit leaders, Kevin O'Sullivan, president and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives in Worcester, and Barbara Finer, CEO of TechSandBox in Hopkinton, have been pioneers on the incubation frontier and are leading ongoing efforts to increase resources to help local startups thrive.

Amy Lynn Chase is an entrepreneur, who has helped build up the Canal District as she builds her own businesses, but this relative newcomer is increasingly being leaned upon by the established Worcester business community for both her social media prowess and her fresh perspective.

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.

When it comes to understanding marijuana policy and its potential implications for Massachusetts, some senators are willing to go a mile high for their work.

Results published in the journal Scientific Reports suggest that Marlborough-based Ocata Therapeutics has developed technology that can...

Small Business Saturday saw 14-percent year-over-year growth as the day devoted to shopping local following Thanksgiving completed its sixth official year.