wbjournal.com | October 3, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
Staff Writers
Timothy Doyle
tdoyle@wbjournal.com (Real estate,
higher education)
Kevin Koczwara
kkoczwara@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing, energy & environment))
Contributors
Giselle Rivera-Flores, Laura Finaldi,
Monica Benevides, Alan Earls, Susan
Shalhoub, Livia Gershon
Photgraphers
Matt Wright, Edd Cote
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
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Sr. Account Executive
Yasmin Nasrullah,
Ynasrullah@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accountant, Sarah Ward,
sward@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Account Receivable Specialist,
Patty Harris, pharris@
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 2022. 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 $84.00. For
more information, please email circulation@wbjournal.com or contact
our circulation department at 845-267-3008.
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
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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
t WBJ, we strive to be the
go-to source for business
news throughout all of Cen-
tral Massachusetts. at ge-
ography extends as far east
as Natick, west to Harwick, north to the
New Hampshire border, and south to the
Connecticut and Rhode Island borders.
Central Mass. is a tricky market to
cover for business news, though, given
how provincial all of New England is, the
pull of Boston, and the number of news
deserts in the region. In late September,
I discovered a Northborough tech firm
had announced plans for a $325-million
facility in Georgia back in February,
and we missed the news entirely. Since
Worcester is the economic center of Cen-
tral Mass., WBJ is headquartered in the
city, and Worcester is literally in the name
of this publication, it is very easy for us to
default to our coverage skewing heavily
toward Worcester business news.
Before COVID struck, the WBJ
newsroom was doing a decent job of
covering all the non-Worcester areas
of the region: Blackstone Valley, North
County, MetroWest, Central Mass South.
But once the pandemic hit, face-to-face
meetings fell off the calendar, travel out of
the newsroom subsided, and our coverage
defaulted to being too Worcester-centric.
Now, we're working to rebuild those
bridges. Over the summer, WBJ news
staff held a couple of sitdown sessions
with business leaders in Blackstone Valley
and North County, and we have plans to
have similar meetings in MetroWest and
Central Mass South. Turning one meeting
into comprehensive business coverage
of an entire region takes time, but those
connections are once again being forged.
You see a little bit of those efforts in
this edition, where the main subjects for
the two longest feature stories are from
Fitchburg and Framingham. In his "Many
hands sculpt a city" story on page 8, Staff
Writer Timothy Doyle writes of the many
ways Fitchburg is trying to center down-
town revitalization around the city's artis-
tic legacy. On page 10, Staff Writer Kevin
Koczwara writes in his "Beer's (almost)
missing ingredient" about how breweries
in Framingham are finding ways to adapt
to a carbon dioxide shortage.
In being Central Massachusetts' source
for business news, we recognize we'll have
to continually get out of our comfort zone
to meet the players and understand the
complexities of the entire region's economy.
And we remain committed to doing so.
– Brad Kane, editor
Going back on the road
N E W S & A N A LY S I S
4 Central Mass. In Brief
6
Worcester 300 trivia
12 Focus on Banking & finance
18 The List: Notable 2022 mergers &
acquisitions
19 Know How
20 Movers & Shakers
21 Opinion
22 Shop Talk: Solvus Global
16 New kid on the block
The nation's largest bank is opening its first
branch in Worcester, as local banks adjust
to a changing market.
21 Why a nonprofit?
Viewpoint opinion columnist Carla
Delacruz Davila details the reasons why
would-be entrepreneurs should consider
starting a nonprofit.
D E P A R T M E N T S
A division of:
I N T H I S I S S U E
W
Correction: A story entitled "Graduate union" in the
Sept. 19 edition of WBJ incorrectly said the Worcester
Polytechnic Institute Graduate Worker Union had met
with university administration to discuss labor issues.
e union has asked to meet with administration, but
the meeting has not taken place yet.
