Worcester Business Journal

16 Worcester Business Journal | February 5, 2024 | wbjournal.com MANUFACTURING M I T & Business Journal's EXCELLENCE AWARDS MANUFACTURING S U M M I T & EXCELLENCE AWARDS WBJ Worcester Business Journal The Worcester Business Journal will be recognizing some of the area's top manufacturing firms with our 9th annual Central Mass "Manufacturing Excellence Awards". Winners will be profiled in the special section on Manufacturing in our April 1 issue of the Worcester Business Journal, and we'll hold a special awards ceremony along with a keynote address and panel discussion on the manufacturing industry in late April 2024. NOMINATION DEADLINE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2024 We will be recognizing manufacturing companies in the following categories: CALL FOR NOMINATIONS! Supporting Sponsor: PARAGUS STRATEGIC I.T. Presenting Sponsor: For details and nomination form visit www.wbjournal.com/manufacturing n GENERAL EXCELLENCE – C ompanies that are the best of the best. • Under 25 employees • 25 -99 employees • Over 100 employees n EMERGING MANUFACTURER n PRODUCT DESIGN & INNOVATION n WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTIVITY n GREEN MANUFACTURING n COLLABORATION IN MANUFACTURING n MANUFACTURING CHAMPION Corporate Sponsor: F O C U S W O M E N I N L E A D E R S H I P U.S. top executives, by gender Male Female Estimated number of top executives 1,804,117 812,870 Percentage 68.9% 31.1% Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 American Community Survey Data is an influence, said Valerie Zolez- zi-Wyndham, the founder of Promoting Good, an Upton-based consulting firm specializing in assisting companies with diversity, equity, and inclusion. "If you think about who hires the CEO, it's the board," she said. "It's really important for boards to have gender and other representation so different perspectives inform decision making." Recruitment firms oen play a role in the C-suite hiring process. Zolezzi-Wyndham said firms authentic in their desire to increase gender diversity need to look at the track re- cord of recruitment firms in hiring diverse candidates. "Using data to examine your hiring partners and their outcomes is a tactic that will be important," she said. Having a hiring committee that accounts for bias is key, she said. Culture change brings benefits A lot of factors play in the lack of female CEOs, Beaupre said, originating from how women workers are per- ceived. Women who are attempting to move up the corporate ladder are oen tasked with what she described as non-promotional tasks, like organiza- tion and training, which aren't usually acknowledged when considering an employee for higher office positions. A 2022 study conducted by research- ers from the University of Minnesota, the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy, and Yale University in Connecticut examined yearly performance review data of 30,000 management-track employees from a large unnamed retail chain and found women were given lower rankings for their potential despite ranking higher in performance metrics. is study's results can be partially explained by the fact employers perceive men as being more likely to leave an organization in pursuit of a higher-rank- ing position elsewhere, while women are perceived as being less ambitious and more likely to stick around, Beaupre said. Companies that don't promote women seem to be sacrificing their perfor- mances as a result. A number of studies, including one conducted by the Harvard Business Review in 2021, have found having female representation in top management positions leads to positive results. e Harvard Business Re- view study in particular found top management teams of European companies working in activities associated with strategic innovation were more open to embracing transforma- tion, while simultaneously seeking to reduce the risks associated with it. ese findings just add to existing evidence of benefits from having women leaders, Beaupre said "ere are definitely positive outcomes when there's women and diversity in leadership," she said. Valerie Zolezzi- Wyndham, founder of Promoting Good Continued from previous page Average compensation of Central Mass. public company non-CEO executives, by gender When not accounting for the 14 CEOs, who are all male and typically have the highest compensations at their organizations, the male and female executives of the large Central Massachusetts public companies have roughly the same average total compensation. Male executives (non-CEOs) Female executives Number of executives 40 10 Average total compensation $2,825,968 $2,754,382 Notes: The executives included in this chart are the named executive officers of public companies headquartered in Central Massachusetts and traded on the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange. Allurion Technologies is not included since it has been listed on the NYSE for less than a year and comprehensive data on its executives isn't available. Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR filings. W On the page 14 photo illustration, the male executives (from top and left to right) are Hologic's Stephen Mac- Millan, BJ's Wholesale Club's Paul Cichocki, Boston Scientific's Michael Mahoney, Hanover Insurance Group's Richard Lavey, Lifeward's Larry Jasinski, Waters' Udit Batra, American Superconductor's Daniel McGahn, Hanover's Jeffrey Farber, Hologic's Kevin Thornal, Insulet's Eric Benjamin, IPG Photonics' Eugene Scherbakov, Hanover's Dennis Kerrigan, Hanover's Bryan Salvatore, BJ's Bob Eddy, and Hanover's John Roche. The female executives (from top) are BJ's Laura Felice, Waters' Jianqing Bennett, and Hologic's Karleen Oberton.

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