Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | February 5, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 3 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 2023. 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 manuscripts or materials and in general does not return them to 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 division of: Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com Staff Writer Eric Casey, ecasey@wbjournal.com (real estate, manufacturing) Contributors Giselle Rivera-Flores, Laura Finaldi, Monica Benevides, Alan Earls, Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon Photgraphers Matt Wright, Edd Cote, Christine Peterson 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 General Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Accounts Manager Timothy Doyle tdoyle@wbjournal.com Human Resources Manager, Tracy Rodwill, trodwill@nebusinessmedia.com Director of Finance, Sara Ward, sward@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Account Receivable Specialist, Patty Harris, pharris@nebusinessmedia.com Director of Audience Development and Operations, Leah Allen, allen@nebusinessmedia.com Business Office Assistant, Nicole Dunn, ndunn@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Tom Curtin tcurtin@hartfordbusinessjournal.com e struggle for a better world will always be a struggle, at least for my lifetime and probably for yours, too. Yet, regardless of the many individual highs and lows that will come, simply striving for something better is a worthwhile achievement in itself. – Brad Kane, editor W G auging the status of women in the workplace is a difficult task, especially as we strive for an economy and business community where people are valued for their talents and expertise regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or background (i.e. a place where everyone thrives, to the betterment of all). On one hand, we have all these great anecdotes of women achieving greatness and trendsetting, such as the stories about Caroline Frankel and Marie Beam on pages 8 and 9 in this edition. Aer years of taking the Discovery Museum's fund- raising to new heights, Beam is now lead- ing the organization with an eye toward inclusivity. Frankel has been a trendsetter in the cannabis industry from its early years, first by teaching herself the legal ins and outs in order to avoid legal costs ex- ceeding six figures. Now, she has pushed her host community to refund more than $1 million in unjust community-impact fees, which has led the industry to call for refunds of this magnitude statewide. On the other hand, statistics show we are far from achieving an equitable gender balance throughout the Central Massa- chusetts economy. In his research for the story "Steady, but too slow" on page 14, Staff Writer Eric Casey found less than 16% of top executives at the region's public companies are women, which is slightly less than the statewide average among top firms. Even the most optimistic projections say we are between six and 11 years from achieving gender equality in corporate leadership globally, and – frankly – the reality of getting to that point feels decades away. Furthermore, the post-pandemic workplace flexibility is eroding, despite its benefits to women professionals, who on average shoulder the greater portion of responsibilities at home. As WBJ Corre- spondent Livia Gershon discovered for her "Keeping schedules flexible" story on page 12, Central Massachusetts companies are far from reverting to their pre-COVID in-office demands and see the benefits of providing workplace options to their em- ployees. Still, the numbers aren't trending in the right direction for female profes- sionals on the whole. Hope & despair Award-winning service, right in Worcester County. For more information, contact: Peter Staiti SVP, Commercial Lending Center Manager 100 Front Street | Worcester, MA 01608 508.769.5725 Peter.Staiti@RocklandTrust.com RocklandTrust.com/Worcester CREDIT | BANKING SER VICES | ADVICE Recognized by the Massachusetts District Office as the #1 504 Third Party Lender in 2023 Rated #1 in Massachusetts & #5 in the Nation according to the 2023 list of The World's Best Banks Recognized in 2023 as #5 on the list of Top 50 Public Banks # 5 Member FDIC T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S 4 Central Mass. In Brief 8 Focus on Women in Leadership 17 The List: Highest-paid nonprofit chief executives 19 Know How 20 Movers & Shakers 21 Opinion 22 Shop Talk: Willard House & Clock Museum 18 Align your voice, values, and actions Advice columnist Bonnie J. Walker in her Outside the Box column offers eight tips for business leaders to create nimble and sustainable organizations with capacity to support diverse workforces. 21 The broken rung in the corporate ladder In her sixth annual look at the status of women of color in corporate leadership, Viewpoint opinion columnist Melanie Bonsu details the reasons why they are promoted from entry-level positions at a lower rate than men.

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