Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 20, 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. Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for $100.00. For more information, please email circulation@wbjournal.com or contact our circulation department at (508) 755-8004 x242. 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 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 Accounting Degrees Clarku.edu/business M.S. in Accounting M.S. in Accounting Analytics MBA with Accounting Concentration MBA/M.S. Accounting Dual Degree Generous Scholarships for Central Massachusetts Residents Preparing the Next Generation of CPAs School of Business C L A R K U N I V E R S I T Y TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S 4 Central Mass. In Brief 12 Focus on Banking & Finance 18 List: Notable venture capital deals 19 Advice 20 Movers & Shakers 21 Opinion 22 Shop Talk: Worcester Railers 12 Tech support Community banks are partnering with fintechs to deliver a competitive mobile banking experience while keeping the human touch. 19 Chase passion and be productive with proper time management Know How advice columnist Neelu Mohaghegh offers four tips to maximize your time to create the best business opportunities and personal fulfillment. T he early days of the internet were such promising times. With this new tool, infor- mation previously confined to libraries, encyclopedias, newspapers, and text books could be accessed with just a few clicks and shared with anyone who had access via a computer. Moreover, the internet democratized information gathering and information sharing. Traditional gatekeepers and barriers began to erode, and eventually anybody could share any information with anybody. No longer do you need to have correct information. Now, you just need to be good at wield- ing the microphone (or the keyboard or the smartphone). is is the great failure of the digital age: the loss of truth. ousands of web- sites, blogs, podcasts, media organiza- tions, and influencers are all too happy to feed their core audiences with the exact information they want to hear, re- gardless of its truth and all for the sake of clicks, attention, and money. Politi- cians will deny obvious truths or make up lies until a large enough portion of their base agrees with them. Businesses will spin information to put themselves in the best possible light. We are slowly losing all collective sense of reality. In this edition, Staff Writer Mica Kanner-Mascolo dives into the industry where pervasive misinformation has the most dire consequences: health care. In her "Informing a misinformed world" on page 8, she talks with exacerbat- ed providers who find it increasingly difficult to offer informed health care in a world where modern snake oil salespeople peddle mis- and disinfor- mation for their own benefit. is latest discussion was kicked off by President Donald Trump's claims that Tylenol and its active ingredient acetaminophen cause autism, and providers throughout Central Massachusetts were compelled to immediately respond to refute the false information being spread by the most powerful person in the world. At WBJ, we take our allegiance to the truth extremely seriously. We don't always get every fact right, but when we are wrong, we admit our mistake and loudly correct it. Ultimately, we are all Defenders of the truth I N T H I S I S S U E beholden to the truth. Lies only provide short-term benefit at the sacrifice of long- term stability. Always tell the truth. – Brad Kane, editor W CORRECTION: An article in the Oct. 20 edition entitled "Delacruz Davila breaks down barriers to necessary care" incorrectly said Car- la Delacruz Davila is a licensed social worker. While Delacruz Davila earned her master of social work degree, she is not licensed. CORRECTION: An article in the Oct. 20 edition entitled "Rising tariffs, rising prices" incorrectly stated Northbridge manufacturer Riverdale Mills was founded in the 1970s. In fact, it was founded in 1980.

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