Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | March 4, 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 for people less fortunate than himself. Holmes and Youngblood are just two of the Business Leaders of the Year and WBJ Hall of Famers featured in this edition. In their profiles, you'll read about their success and how they've leveraged that to improve their communities. Beyond this storytelling, I like to consider the type of people they are, which is where the foun- dation for excellence lies. – Brad Kane, editor W B ack in 2019, Kevin Holmes and I were walking around the large Shrewsbury campus of his Advantage Truck Group, conducting an interview for a story about the expansion of his truck dealership and service empire. At one point, Holmes asked a worker how his day was going, and the man com- pletely broke down with emotion. To this day, I have no idea why that employee was so upset, but the man was clearly dev- astated. Recognizing his worker's need, Holmes paused our interview, wrapped his arm around the employee, and walked off to a place where they could have a private conversation. ey talked for an extended length of time, and Holmes was clearly responding with compassion. Holmes and I never discussed what happened, but the poignant moment always stayed with me. What type of boss must he be where his employees are that comfortable with him? And Holmes has nearly 400 employees. By sheer volume, it must be extraordinarily difficult to know the names of everyone, let alone have a forthright relationship with them. At the time, I didn't know the story of Advantage Truck Group's success, but I understood what made Holmes a business leader. Fast forward to 2021, and I was attend- ing the first Worcester Homecoming, an event where professionals from the city who found success elsewhere were invited back as a showcase of the progress made in the last decade. Among the festivities was a panel discussion, which included cannabis entrepreneur Ulysses Youngblood. He had opened his Major Bloom dispensary less than a year before and his inclusion on the panel was in contrast to other professionals with longer lists of accomplishments. Still, Youngblood was the star of the panel, largely because he disagreed with everyone in a very constructive way. At an event designed to be a celebration of ev- erything good about the city, Youngblood reminded everyone about the significant portions of the population still missing out on the city's success, the unique space the cannabis industry occupied, and how he planned to improve the community. Youngblood receiving an invite to speak in front of Worcester's most powerful people past and present was already a coup for him, and then he used his platform to chal- lenge conventional wisdom and advocate Compassion, bravery, and weed 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 11 2024 Business Leaders of the Year 23 WBJ Hall of Fame, Class of 2024 28 List: Advertising, marketing, and communications firms 30 Know How 31 Movers & Shakers 33 Opinion 34 Shop Talk: Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging 9 West-East Rail In a Q&A with Staff Writer Eric Casey, the new director of Massachusetts' ambitious passenger rail project lays out how $108 million will lay the groundwork for Northeast connectivity. 30 Employment lessons learned in 2020 we're failing to remember Know How advice columnist Julia Becker Collins says employers are limiting their workforce bases by ignoring the new normal and hoping to move on from remote-work cultures.

• Cover