wbjournal.com | March 7, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
Senior Staff Writer,
Monica Benevides,
mbenevides@wbjournal.com
(Health care, diversity & inclusion)
Staff Writers
Katherine Hamilton
khamilton@wbjournal.com
(Real estate, higher education)
Sloane M. Perron
perron@wbjournal.com
(Banking & finance, manufacturing)
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub, Sarah Connell
Sanders
Photographers
Matt Wright, Edd Cote
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 Managers
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Yasmin Nasrullah,
ynasrullah@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,
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I N T H I S I S S U E
T
he photo of me accompanying
this column is not the favorite
photo I've ever taken. WBJ
switched to this photo in early
2020, aer we deemed the
previous photo of me happily balancing on
the edge of the Hanover eatre marquee
not matching the tone of the column.
When this photo was taken, I hadn't
trimmed my beard, so the half smirk I
was giving the camera was covered by my
mustache. Instead of the smart, know-it-all
look I wanted, we ended up with this pho-
to, which I've since dubbed Angry Bearded
Man. Rest assured, though, the image is
100% me, which isn't something I had to
clarify a few years ago. But, here we are.
Twice in the same week in February, we
had to avoid publishing executive head-
shots on WBJournal.com stories because
the submitted photos were too heavily
Photoshopped or filtered. One photo was
for the hiring of a new nonprofit executive
director, where we luckily had another
unfiltered alternative. e other story
was about the retirement of a financial
executive, where the submitted headshot
from the company was so heavily altered,
the photo looked more like an oil painting.
We didn't have an alternative, so I initially
published the photo, but I later chose to re-
move it and run the story without a photo,
something we earnestly strive to avoid.
e core values of WBJ are honesty and
integrity, and publishing a heavily altered
photo would be disingenuous. In every as-
pect of our reporting, we strive to present
facts as accurately as possible. If we were to
publish a photo where a 65 year old looks
35 or where you wouldn't recognize the
person in real life based on the photo, then
we haven't reported the facts accurately.
Unfortunately, this problem is grow-
ing. Tools like Photoshop are much more
user-friendly, making it difficult to tell if a
photo has been altered. Social media apps
like Instagram have made the use of beau-
tifying filters so ubiquitous, photo subjects
expect their use. Over the summer, a Cen-
tral Mass. college president had no fewer
than three staff members reach out to me,
insisting we swap out the photos taken of
the president by WBJ's photographer with
ones submitted by the college.
is edition features many portraits,
particularly with our Business Leaders of
the Year and WBJ Hall of Fame inductees.
Before these photo shoots, I told the pho-
tographers to make the award winners look
good, and they made use of dramatic light,
varying poses, and interesting backgrounds.
What they don't do is de-age the subjects,
or smooth over human features with filters
or other tools. Trust us, when you see these
leaders in real life, you can recognize them
from these photos.
– Brad Kane, editor
is is my face
N E W S & A N A LY S I S
4 Central Mass. In Brief
5
Worcester 300 trivia contest
10 Business Leaders of the Year
18 WBJ Hall of Fame: Class of 2022
26 The List: Advertising, marketing &
communications firms
28 Column: Outside the Box
29 Know How
30 Movers & Shakers
32 Photo Finish
33 Opinion
34 Shop Talk: Broadway in Worcester
6 Business confidence
Why a new regional index shows local
employers as particularly optimistic.
29 Top tax tips & deduction secrets
KnowHow advice columnist Ryan Foley
lays out seven ways your company can add
to its bottom line by saving on taxes.
D E P A R T M E N T S
Member FDIC
Rockland Trust proudly
welcomes Eric Goodwine!
For more information, contact:
Eric Goodwine
Eric.Goodwine@RocklandTrust.com
508.361.3865
Or visit:
RocklandTrust.com/Worcester
VP, Commercial Lending
W
