Worcester Business Journal

16 Worcester Business Journal | May 1, 2023 | wbjournal.com P O W E R 5 0 T E C H N O L O G Y Residence: Shrewsbury College: Gujarat University in India, Boston University In 1999, when Navani co-founded eClinicalWorks, a healthcare software company hosting patient records, he had a background in robotics but a curiosity about health care and a desire to develop something to help patients and physicians alike. To do this, Navani created a company revolutionizing the medical records process, moving to a digital format. To do this well, eClinicalWorks does everything in-house rather than reselling or retrofitting other products from other companies, powered by its more than 6,000 employees, 700 of whom are based in Central Massachusetts. The company reported more than $800 million in revenue in 2022. Now, eClinicalWorks creates holistic technology solutions to address key pain points in the healthcare industry, including physician usability, physician burnout, and patient safety. Worldwide, more than 150,000 doctors and nurse practitioners and 850,000 medical professionals use eClinicalWorks software. Striving to stay ahead, the company has been utilizing data science and artificial intelligence tools for years, including eClinicalWorks Scribe, which assists physicians in the documentation process with the goal of improved engagement with patients. To invest in its next steps, Navani led the company to a $110-million investment in Microsoft Azure to move its offerings to the public cloud. n How should professionals best use the power they wield? "With responsibility — or power — comes accountability. Every leader needs to use the power they've been given to help others succeed. Create a work culture that allows everyone to flourish. Create a collective where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." n When it's time to relax: While work is a fulfilling hobby for Navani, he plays cricket and fantasy football for fun. BOB MUMGAARD CO-FOUNDER & CEO COMMONWEALTH FUSION SYSTEMS, IN DEVENS MIKE O'KRONLEY CEO ASCEND ELEMENTS, IN WESTBOROUGH Colleges: MIT in Cambridge, University of Nebraska When President Joe Biden's secretary of energy travels to Devens for the groundbreaking of your company's facility, you must be onto something. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm did just that for Mumgaard and CFS in February, highlighting the list of dignitaries also including two U.S. senators for the ceremonial milestone at the company looking to revolutionize the way electricity is generated. Mumgaard co-founded CFS in 2018 out of MIT with the goal of commercializing fusion energy, a puzzle whose solution has eluded scientists since the 1940s. Unlike its cousin, fission nuclear energy, fusion can theoretically generate power with almost zero waste products using basically the same process that powers the sun. As the world seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow the impact of climate change, fusion energy is the golden goose to presumably solve all these problems, and President Joe Biden has outlined a bold plan to make it part of the global energy supply. The problem is no one has cracked the code on how to sustain a net-positive fusion reaction for more than a few moments, where the reaction generates more power than it consumes. With his SPARC system, Mumgaard believes he can achieve a net- positive fusion reaction shortly after construction is complete at the 47- acre Devens facility in 2025. CFS has raised more than $2 billion toward the effort from heavy industry hitters like Bill Gates and hired more than 430 employees, nearly all of whom are based in Devens. While the SPARC remains the focus, the company plans to expand the Devens campus for additional advanced research-and-development facilities and future manufacturing capabilities for fusion power plants, which could potentially make Devens a key center in the next generation of electricity generation. Residence: Novi, Michigan, and Westborough, Mass. College: University of Michigan Electric cars are coming, and there's no stopping them. Well, maybe if there's not enough of the precious metals used to make lithium batteries that EVs run on. That's where Ascend Elements and O'Kronley come in. The Westborough company has begun to form partnerships around the globe with the likes of Honda Motor Co., the South Korean battery company EcoPro Group, and Waltham-based Koura Global on various projects to grow its lithium- recycling business. On top of that, O'Kronley has been at the helm of the company as it opened North America's largest EV battery recycling facility with its $1-billion plant in Covington, Georgia, on March 30 and broke ground on a $43-million plant in Kentucky. Under O'Kronley's leadership, Ascend closed $300 million in a funding round in 2022, and the company received more than $480 million grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, where O'Kronley participated in a press conference with President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. With all of that capital, Ascend has become a vital player in the U.S. economy, tying itself to the emerging EV technology market by making itself invaluable as a company that can recycle and reuse expensive and hard-to-procure materials necessary to build the batteries for these vehicles. n How should professionals best use the power they wield? "We need to recognize sustainability as an opportunity for business growth. We need to move from a consumer mindset to a conservation mindset. Instead of using resources once and throwing them away, we need to create business models that succeed when resources are reused and repurposed." n A deadly skill: O'Kronley is adept at ax throwing. GIRISH NAVANI CO-FOUNDER & CEO ECLINICALWORKS, IN WESTBOROUGH PHOTO | COURTESY OF ECLINICALWORKS

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