wbjournal.com | September 22, 2025 | 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 2025. All rights reserved. Postmaster:
Please send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal,
PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894.
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at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860.
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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
Managing Editor, Eric Casey,
ecasey@wbjournal.com (real estate,
manufacturing)
Staff Writer
Mica Kanner-Mascolo,
mkannermascolo@wbjournal.com
(health care, diversity & inclusion)
Editorial Interns
Jill McSorley, jmcsorley@wbjournal.
com; Charlotte Powers, cpowers@
wbjournal.com
Contributors
Sloane M. Perron, Giselle Rivera-
Flores, Emily Micucci, Livia Gershon
Photographers
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 Clerk, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Event Coordinator,
Patty Harris,
pattyh@wbjournal.com
Director of Audience Development
and Operations, Leah Allen,
lallen@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
Where You Belong
www.stmaryscu.org (508) 490 8000
Grace Lee
President & CEO
St. Mary's Credit Union
Join SMCU
Scan the
code or visit
stmaryscu.org
At SMCU, we know that every member has a
unique story. Whether you're a lifelong
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
4 Central Mass. In Brief
8 Focus on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
22 List: Largest minority-owned
businesses
23 Advice
24 Movers & Shakers
25 Opinion
26 Shop Talk: HaBBQ
20 A gathering place for marijuana
Designed as a way to help more people
from disadvantaged populations open
businesses, cannabis cafes are close to
becoming a reality, although the finances are
difficult.
25 Europe's smarter justice system
In the Viewpoint opinion column, Ronald
Waddell and Dave McMahon detail the ways
to make the U.S. justice system better for
the local economy.
B
efore this year, my biggest
concerns over the long-term
success of the diversity, equity,
and inclusion movement in
the business community were
apathy and ineptitude.
As the lessons and feelings following
George Floyd's murder in 2020 faded in
the rearview, my worry was company
leaders would deprioritize DEI in favor of
other pressing issues, or their haphazard
rollouts with wavering commitments and
resources would cause their DEI initia-
tives to collapse. Still, even if a quarter of
the companies who made DEI commit-
ments five years ago stuck with them
long enough to make meaningful and
structural change, I considered that a win.
Progress is progress, however uneven.
en, the second term of Donald
Trump's presidency began, and DEI
was no longer a slowly fading corporate
commitment. Instead, Trump's anti-DEI
fervor became unrelenting, threatening
the financial stability and mere existence
of any U.S. organization still pushing
inclusive efforts. Now, companies still
wanting to provide opportunities for their
most-talented recruits and employees are
largely trying to do so in the background.
e DEI industry is more cautious now.
At WBJ, we briefly considered what
this meant for our annual special edition
focused on diversity, equity, and inclu-
sion. e focus topics for all WBJ print
editions are picked based upon what our
readers find most interesting and what
our advertisers want to be associated
with. Since its launch in 2021, this special
edition on DEI has typically been one of
the better ones for advertisers to sign up,
the bulk of which place their logos on the
cover and will oen write sponsored con-
tent about their DEI efforts. With the U.S.
president openly hostile to any company
with public DEI commitments, we won-
dered if it was better to switch the name
of this special edition to include words
like opportunity and belonging, in order
to provide a safe space for companies to
promote their inclusion initiatives.
However, even if we didn't change the
content, changing the name of this special
edition still felt like capitulating to the
anti-DEI crowd who doesn't have the best
interests of businesses or people in mind.
Moreover, the events of this year mark the
most significant DEI developments since
Staying focused on DEI
I N T H I S I S S U E
Floyd was murdered, so there are plenty of
interesting topics to write about, as you will
see in the following pages. We are already
planning out the special DEI edition for
2026.
– Brad Kane, editor
W
