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22 Worcester Business Journal | January 8, 2024 | wbjournal.com B E S T O F B U S I N E S S O W N E R S H I P Aer 90x growth, Coghlin keeps a family atmosphere BY LIVIA GERSHON Special to WBJ C oghlin Cos. is a Central Massachusetts institution founded way back in 1885 by engineer John P. Coghlin. Today, it's a much different beast than it was even 30 years ago, when the fourth generation of the family began its turn running things. Chris Coghlin, now the president and CEO, said back when he started in the early 1990s, the company had only about 10 employees and the work mostly involved making cables and cable assem- blies. Gradually, that changed. Work- ing with longstanding customers, the company began building more complex products. "ey allow you to try new things be- cause they trust you, and then you begin to market those capabilities," Coghlin said. Today, Coghlin has close to 900 em- ployees, operating out of 11 buildings. It's made up of two divisions, Cog- medix, which focuses on the medical device industry, and Columbia Tech, which operates in sectors ranging from defense to water treatment. Customers generally come to the company with a prototype for a product, and Coghlin engineers and other experts turn it into something viable, addressing everything from aesthetics to developing a supply chain for its manufacture to ensure it's compliant with all relevant regulations. e business remains in the family, with Chris as CEO and his brother, Jim, as chief operating officer. ey and the rest of the executive team put a lot of energy into keeping the company's culture strong. Chris Coghlin describes how sometime eight years ago he was up at night thinking about how to make sure individuals felt seen and had their accomplishments celebrated. "I felt we were getting too big, losing BEST FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS (TIE) Coghlin Cos. Westborough, Northborough, and West Boylston www.coghlincompanies.com Top executive: Chris Coghlin, president, CEO, and chief culture officer Founded: 1885 Employees: About 900 Notable runner-up: Harvey's Farm & Garden Center the family feel," he said. e answer the company came up with is the Cultural Pillar mentoring program. It recognizes a group of established employees with perks like a budget to take their teams out for lunch. In exchange, these pillars of the company each take on two mentees, helping them to make connections within the organization and gain the skills to move upward. Coghlin has an active philanthrop- ic and volunteer program. Over the course of 15 years, this program has built up Westborough-based DetecTo- gether, which focuses on educating the public about early detection of cancer. Members of the Coghlin family are part of the nonprofit's leadership team. More broadly, the company invites em- ployees to advocate for causes they care about. Each quarter, one of these orga- nizations is chosen to receive financial support and get the opportunity to share its mission with the company's workers. For Chris Coglin, this helps create the kind of culture he wants the organi- zation to have, one that goes back to his key motto: "Customers will never love your company until your employees love it first." BEST FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS (TIE) Pagano Media Worcester paganomedia.com Top executive: President Joe Pagano Founded: 1981 Employees: 9 In 2023, Pagano won a W3 Web Design Award for its work on dienesusa.com for Spencer manufacturing DIENES USA, which grew the company's organic web traffic by 140%. Pagano, a boutique digital marketing agency, fuses design, digital technology, and data to spark growth for its customers. Notable runner-up: Harvey's Farm & Garden Center n BEST WOMAN-OWNED BUSINESS PENTA Communications* Westborough www.pentamarketing.com Top executive: Founder & CEO Deborah Penta W PENTA Founder Deborah Penta with Worces- ter Mayor Joe Petty Coghlin Cos. operations include Co- lumbia Tech in Westborough and Cogme- dix in West Boylston.