Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com • Worcester Business Journal • 2021 Economic Forecast 3 My favorite business person of 2020 is… TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S Survey: WBJ readers look ahead to 2021 ........................... 5-7 List toppers from 2020 ...........................................................8 Column: The road ahead for manufacturing ..........................10 Column: Who will thrive in 2021 ...........................................11 Column: Is a federal tax increase in the new year likely? ..........................................................12 WBJ Editorial Staff's predictions for 2021 ............................ 13 Revisiting WBJ's 2020 predictions ........................................14 Major trends for key industries in 2021 • Real estate .....................................................................17 • Health care.....................................................................21 • Worcester Red Sox .........................................................25 • Diversity & inclusion .......................................................28 • Manufacturing ................................................................30 • Biotech...........................................................................32 • Higher education ............................................................36 ECONOMIC FORECAST 2021 Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com News Editor, Grant Welker, gwelker@wbjournal.com (Higher education, health care, real estate) Staff Writer, Monica Busch, mbusch@wbjournal.com (Manufacturing, equality & inclusion) Editorial Intern Aliya Larkin, alarkin@wbjournal.com Contributors Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon, Sarah Connell Lead Researcher, Timothy Doyle, tdoyle@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 Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Senior Special Accounts Manager Mary Lynn Bosiak, mlbosiak@wbjournal.com Marketing & Events Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com COO, Mary Rogers, mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Account Receivable Specialist, Patty Harris, pharris@nebusinessmedia.com Human Resources, Jill Coran, jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com Director of Audience Development, Valerie Clark, vclark@nebusinessmedia.com Operations Assistant, Leah Allen, lallen@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Tom Curtin tcurtin@hartfordbusinessjournal.com 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 2020. 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 $60.00. 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 Worcester Business Journal WBJ A division of: T his year has been defined by the coronavirus. In this vein, the Central Mass. business person who had the most admirable year was Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester. He has been a voice of reason, advocacy and strength, leading the efforts to combat the pandemic, dealing with financial and employment issues, all while keeping his top focus on fighting disease. e defining moment of my 2020, though, was the eight-minute video show- ing in excruciating detail George Floyd's killing at the hands of Minneapolis police. Twice, I watched as Floyd begged for mercy, cried out for his late mother, went limp and died before my eyes. In those two viewings, my entire thought process be- hind diversity & inclusion and institution- al racism changed. Before, my approach to anti-racism was well-intentioned but ulti- mately toothless, as my main concern was calling for equal opportunity and making sure I was saying the right things. I didn't want to say something wrong and offend somebody. at video forced me to come face-to-face with centuries of suffering at the hands of institutions who are not set up to help people or benefit society, but to protect the institutions themselves. I was no longer concerned with saying something wrong. I became concerned with not saying enough, or doing enough. WBJ's coverage changed aer that video, as diversity & inclusion became an integral part of our coverage, and we began to ex- amine institutional racism. Our first major effort came June 22, with a magazine dedicated almost entirely to diversity, led by the story "Black businesses matter". Each year in our Economic Forecast special edition, I detail my favorite busi- ness person: in 2017, it was e Queen's Cups owner Renee Diaz, for her honesty about small business struggles; in 2018, Dave Peterson from the Worcester Brave- hearts was my favorite, for his standing up to the Worcester city government; in 2019, it was marijuana entrepreneur Ross Bradshaw, for his perseverance against the roadblocks facing small cannabis firms. is year, my favorite business person in Central Massachusetts is Eurayshia Wil- liams Reed, the owner of Worcester salon Shi-Shi's Lounge. For that "Black business- es matter" story, WBJ writer Grant Welker struggled to find Black business owners to talk openly and frankly on the record, since it was (and still is) such a contro- versial time, and WBJ at the time had few established relationships with people of color. Yet, there was Reed, putting herself out there, talking about the difficulties of navigating being a Black business owner, amid the new calls for social justice. Hers was one of the bravest interviews I've seen. No matter who you are, 2020 le its mark on you. It was not a positive year. Yet, we can take positives from this year. Seeing Reed's bravery made me a little braver, too. at's why she is my favorite business person of 2020. – Brad Kane, editor Bo Menkiti, The Menkiti Group .......................................................... 17 Craig Blais, Worcester Business Development Corp. .......................... 17 Robert Hart, TruAmerica .................................................................. 17 Ravi Ika, RxAdvance ......................................................................... 21 Ava Collins, MetroWest Medical Center ............................................ 21 Parth Chakrabarti, UMass Medical School ....................................... 21 Alex Richardson, Worcester Red Sox ............................................... 25 Peter Dunn, City of Worcester .......................................................... 25 Denis Dowdle, Madison Properties ................................................... 25 Ahiela Watson, Clark University ........................................................ 28 Ross Bradshaw, New Dia ................................................................ 28 Neddy Latimer, Spanish American Center ......................................... 28 Dani Babineau, Redemption Rock Brewing Co. ................................. 30 Ellen Rosenfeld, Commonwealth Cannabis Co. ................................. 30 Karen Ares, Blackstone Valley Education Hub .................................... 30 Mike O'Brien, Galaxy Life Sciences .................................................. 32 Steve Lynch, King Street Properties ................................................. 32 Rodney Rietze, iVexSol ................................................................... 32 David Fithian, Clark University ......................................................... 36 Nichole Wheeler, Quinsigamond Community College ........................ 36 Milagros Rosal, UMass Medical School ............................................ 36 21 people to meet in 2021 W

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