Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | April 1, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 3 Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special issues in May, September, October, and December by New England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester, MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal, PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894. Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for $54.95. For more information, please email wbjournal@ cambeywest.com or contact our circulation department at 845-267-3008. Fax: 845.267.3478 Advertising: For advertising information, please call Mark Murray at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860. Worcester Business Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does not return them to the sender. Worcester Business Journal 172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604 508-755-8004 tel. • 508-755-8860 fax www.wbjournal.com A division of: Worcester Business Journal WBJ E arly last month, I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel discussion at the YWCA Cen- tral Massachusetts to talk about the lack of women and people of color in leadership positions at area businesses. e conversation, to say the least, was quite frank. e panel revolved around e Board- room Gap series WBJ published last year detailing how women held 33 percent of executive and board of director positions at 75 prominent Central Massachusetts firms and nonprofits, which is below both the state and national averages. e series update News Editor Grant Welker did this year showed the region improved slightly with women now holding 35 percent of these jobs, although still behind state and national averages in most categories. I was the only man on the six-person YWCA panel, which included Yuisa Pérez Chionchio from the Family Health Center of Worcester, who wrote a very insightful opinion column appearing on page 33 of this edition. e panel and the YWCA leadership – which is 98-percent women – weren't shy about asking very pointed questions about the study and the role women should play in leadership. Much of the questions directed at me centered around why WBJ hadn't includ- ed a breakdown for people of color in leadership positions, in addition to the gender breakdown. e short answer is when we examined the 1,600 publicly available names at the 75 organizations, it was (somewhat) easy to tell people's gender from their names, pronouns and photos, but nearly impossible to tell their race or ethnicity. e YWCA panel and the event crowd, which was a mix of men and wom- en, collectively said this reason wasn't good enough and challenged WBJ to do the dif- ficult job of developing a similar series on the boardroom racial gap. YWCA leaders said the difficulty in tracking down data shouldn't be a reason for a lack of advocacy for more diversity in business leadership. WBJ, of course, is a news organization and not an advocacy organization. We present the facts as they are. If e Board- room Gap research had come back saying women made up 54 percent of business leadership positions, we would have published that, too. Yet, in doing in-depth investigations like this, we shine a light on truths people don't realize and provide I N T H I S I S S U E data for organizations like the YWCA to advocate. While we are not advocates, we will continue to provide a critical eye toward all goings-on in the Central Mass. business community, in order to spur more thoughtful discussions, however pointed they may be. - Brad Kane, editor W NEWS & ANALYSIS DEPARTMENTS 4 Central Mass. In Brief 5 Flash Poll 12 WBJ Manufacturing Excellence Awards 26 The List: Largest local manufacturers 28 The Struggle is Real 29 Know How 30 Movers & Shakers 32 Photo Finish 33 Opinion 34 Shop Talk: Susan Sarro, American Diabetes Association 4 Airport value A Massachusetts Department of Transportation study found Worcester Region Airport has a $97-million economic impact. 33 "The best person gets the job" is a myth Viewpoint columnist Yuisa Perez Chionchio says companies aren't getting the best potential applicants to apply for job openings. Let's keep having lively discussions Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com News Editor, Grant Welker, gwelker@wbjournal.com (Real estate, higher education, health care) Staff Writer Zachary Comeau, zcomeau@wbjournal.com (Manufacturing) Contributors Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon, Sarah Connell Research Director, Stephanie Meagher, smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com Research Assistant, Heide Martin, hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com Production Director, Kira Beaudoin, kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com Art Director, Mitchell Hayes, mhayes@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Matt Majikas, mmajikas@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Senior Special Accounts Manager Mary Lynn Bosiak, mlbosiak@wbjournal.com Marketing & Events Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Distribution and Database Coordinator A Guide to STUFF, a publication of New England Business Media Patty Harris, pharris@nebusinessmedia.com COO, Mary Rogers, mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark, vclark@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel, rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com Human Resources, Jill Coran, jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Joseph Zwiebel jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com CORRECTION: A March 4 profile on Large Business Leader of Year Jeff Robinson incorrectly said he worked as a board certified behavioral analyst. He was a special education consultant before founding BCI.

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