wbjournal.com | April 29, 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
W
hen I first took over as
WBJ editor in 2015, the
publication only had
one regular columnist,
Ken Cook, who wrote
advice columns for salespeople. Ken
is great, and his columns were always
informative; but he is based out of state,
and his columns weren't unique to the
Central Massachusetts economy and
appeared in other publications.
So, for more than two years, I tried to
cultivate a regular columnist from the
Greater Worcester economic community.
I was looking for a businessperson who
could use his or her own experiences to
provide a combination of great storytelling
and advice for other business people.
Aer exploring the possibility with
about a half dozen different professionals,
WBJ in August finally found the right
columnist in Renee Diaz, owner of
Worcester bakery e Queen's Cups. In
her monthly column called e Struggle
is Real, Renee writes very open-heartedly
about her experiences as an entrepreneur
and a small business owner. By all possible
measures – quality of content, reader
response, etc. – e Struggle is Real has
been a smashing success.
Renee's column is such a success that
I wanted to see if I could get a second
columnist to complement e Struggle is
Real. Since WBJ is biweekly and typically
publishes two editions per month, I
figured a second columnist could appear
in the issues where e Struggle is Real
doesn't. Again, I explored this possibility
with a handful of business professionals
and now finally found the right person for
the role.
I am now more than pleased to
introduce the column Outside the
Box with Bonnie J. Walker, who is the
executive director of diversity & inclusion
strategy at Worcester Polytechnic
Institute.
In her column, Bonnie will combine
her own experiences as a woman of color
with her expertise in helping organizations
achieve diversity goals, all to offer advice
to WBJ readers on how they can use
the entire population to enhance their
workforces and customer bases, which
I N T H I S I S S U E
will ultimately help them become more
profitable. Check out Bonnie's first Outside
the Box column, which focuses on
branding, on page 18.
- Brad Kane, editor
W
Knowledge +
Experience +
Trusted Advice.
It all adds up.
Large enough to serve the
needs of most businesses
and individuals; small
enough to offer the
personal attention you
expect and deserve.
Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull & Bitsoli, PC
Certified Public Accountants
306 Main Street, Suite 400 • Worcester, MA 01608
508.791.0901 • www.grkb.com
NEWS & ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENTS
4 Central Mass. In Brief
5 Flash Poll
12 Focus on Small business
16 The List: Top SBA lenders
17 Movers & Shakers
18 Outside the Box
19 Know How
20 Photo Finish
21 Opinion
22 Shop Talk: Tara McRae, CLARKS
8 Changing the health
of a generation
With $38 million more in funding,
the Framingham Heart Study eyes a
fourth generation of research.
19 10 Things I know about …
Employee fraud
Advice columnist Kenneth C. Pickering
says fraud is more prevalent than you
think and small businesses are
particularly vulnerable.
Thinking outside the box with Bonnie J. Walker
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
