Worcester Business Journal

90 Worcester Business Journal | October 28, 2024 | wbjournal.com 35th Anniversary WBJ at's what they said! 1990 "[CityPlaza] is a great project. Maybe that's the one we end up with, and maybe what we do is, we give them a little kick in the tail and get them moving, or maybe we find something else. But we lose nothing by looking, by asking and by opening up our options." – Raymond V. Mariano, then-city councilor and eventual four-term mayor, expressing impatience at the lack of progress at Lot 44 and CityPlaza, the doomed precursor to CitySquare 1993 "I think it's to [New England De- velopment]'s advantage to promote downtown development and not just the mall. e mall is the linchpin to a successful downtown, and a healthy, vital downtown is a very important element to a successful mall." – Janet Slovin, executive director of Target Worcester, an advocacy group akin to Discover Central Mass. Trivia answer key Here are the answers to the photo trivia from pages 12 & 13. 1. Paul Carey 2. Ann Tripp 3. James "Jim" Joslyn 4. Hemendra Shah 5. George Photakis 6. Leslie Greis 7. Mary Dean 8. James Wallace 9. Harold Cotton 10. Robert Babcock 11. Joseph Barbato 12. Hamid Mohaghegh 13. John Nicas 14. Irene Schmitt 15. Bud Paras 16. Maria Heskes-Allard 17. Chris George 18. Craig Blais 19. Dr. Peter Levine 20. Deborah Ledwell 21. Robert "Bob" Lavine 22. Patricia Jones 23. Richard Egan 24. Anthony Scola 25. Franklin Loew 26. Richard Kreswick 27. Steve Rotman 28. Karen Koller 29. David Dunn 30. Chris Watson 31. Ignatius Chang 32. Kathryn "Katie" Crockett 33. Ken Ansin 34. Roy Angel 35. Scott Richardson WBJ FILE PHOTOS MARIANO: COURTESY WORCESTER SUN / WORCESTER HISTORICAL MUSEUM LESHIN: COURTESY BILL INGALLS / CC BY-SA 4.0 Quotes of note from the last 35 years, compiled from regular WBJ features Grapevine, Overheard, Verbatim, and other published articles. 1995 "To keep good people, you have to grow, because everybody wants to move ahead." – Gordon Lankton, president & CEO, Nypro Inc. 1999 "Be a little careful in character- izing [$300 million] as a lot, or a premium or overpay. ose are judgments that are awfully difficult to support. … If you take $215 million, [Chronicle Publishing Co.'s] initial investment here and you just increase that at infla- tion … you get up over $300 million anyway. So who says that's high?" – T&G publisher Bruce S. Bennett answering a question from WBJ editor Steve Jones-D'Agostino about why the newspaper fetched such a substantial purchase price from The New York Times Co. (John Henry sold the T&G in 2014 for a reported $17.5 million, a year after paying $70 million for both the T&G and Boston Globe.) 2005 "It's not just about the millions you can make, it's about what you leave behind. I want to be able to drive by ev- ery one of my projects 25 years from now and feel good about them – I consider it a privilege to live in a day where I can do what I do." – Peter Bovenzi, Leominster developer and co-founder of Leominster Land Trust 2009 "I love this business. I get up every day, including on the weekends, and I can't wait to get on the computer and see how we've done and what we can do better." – Laura Sen, CEO of Natick-based BJ's Wholesale Club 2014 "ere's something very inter- esting about this job that people want to have their picture taken with you. It's so sweet." – Laurie Leshin, then-WPI presi- dent-elect, about the number of "selfie" requests she'd gotten on campus 2018 "We know they wanted to be treat- ed like the legitimate businesses they are. You can't do that when you're wandering around with all kinds of cash all over the place." – GFA Federal Credit Union CEO Tina Sbrega, on the institution's decision to become the first bank to service marijuana business in Mass. 2020 "We literally turned this on in two days. It was thrust upon them very quickly and they adapted to it." – Dr. Larry Garber, Reliant Medical Group director for informatics, on the use of virtual telehealth technol- ogy at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 "Sometimes it's the small project that makes no economic sense that unlocks the authenticity and the energy of a neighbor- hood." – Bo Menkiti, founder of The Menkiti Group, a real estate developer that quickly became a major landlord in downtown Worcester 2023 "For innovation to thrive at Waters, we must continue to nurture an inclusive workplace where our LGBTQIA+ col- leagues feel valued and encour- aged to bring their whole selves to work." – Udit Batra, president and CEO of Milford medical device mak- er Waters Corp., on receiving a perfect score from Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index Laurie Leshin

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