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12 Worcester Business Journal • www.wbjournal.com 25 YEARS: IMPACTFUL PEOPLE saversbank.com • 800.649.3036 Member FDIC Member SIF Equal Housing Lender Congratulations Worcester Business Journal on your 25 years of leadership. K nown as the "E" in "EMC," the late Richard "Dick" Egan served as a helicopter pilot during the Korean War. Decades later, the blunt-spoken ex- Marine became the scrappy co-founder of information-storage and computer-software giant EMC of Hopkinton. Egan and his college roommate, Roger Marino — the "M" in "EMC" — founded EMC in 1979. To raise money to pay for the startup and hire a handful of employees, they sold office furniture. As CEO until 1992 and chairman until 2001, Egan led the pub- licly traded company through a suc- cessful IPO. By the time he stepped down, EMC had become a global lead- er. One of the world's most successful technology businesses, it's now a $22-billion global operation. Egan, once hailed as one of the nation's most notable entrepreneurs, was ranked 701st on Forbes' list of the world's billionaires in the last year of his life. He also served as a director of the Massachusetts High Technology Council and founded the Hopkinton Technology for Education Foundation. Upon retiring from EMC in 2001, Egan accepted a post as U.S. ambassador to Ireland — his family's ancestral home — serving from August 2001 to December 2002. Later, he resumed fundraising work for the Republican Party. He died in 2009 after being diag- nosed with lung cancer. His family con- tinues to maintain the family founda- tion he established. n RICHARD EGAN V alentin Gapontsev founded IPG Photonics in 1990, in his native Russia. Nearly 25 years later, the impact- ful business entrepreneur serves as chair and CEO of the Oxford-based, publicly traded company, which now controls 80 percent of the world's fiber-laser market and sells high-powered lasers for less than what it costs competitors to make them. The path to success was an uphill climb for Gapontsev. He founded his company in the basement of a small laboratory near Moscow. At 52, he had lit- tle in the way of financial resources and no experience in business management. He had spent most of his life in the former Soviet Union, where private enterprise was outlawed. What Gapontsev lacked in both money and experience, he made up for in expertise. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Previously, he served as senior scientist in laser-material physics and head of the laboratory at the Soviet Academy of Science's Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in Moscow, becoming known world- wide for his research and as author of many scientif- ic papers and holder of several international pat- ents. Despite industry skep- tics, Gapontsev demon- strated it was possible to produce high-powered fiber lasers. With time, he predicted accurately, more companies would start to trust and use the technology. Gapontsev's quest for new clients brought him across the Atlantic to the U.S., specifically Oxford, where he launched IPG's American operations in 1998. n VALENTIN GAPONTSEV F red Eppinger, who pitched for the Holy Cross baseball team more than three decades ago, likes to say he just happened to be the head of The Hanover Insurance Group when all good things happened for the company. Not one to display his influence, he credits the rest of the Hanover team. Under Eppinger's leadership, which began in 2003, Allmerica Financial Corp. was reborn as The Hanover, which sig- naled a renewed focus on the property and casualty markets. In 2010, the long- awaited groundbreaking for downtown Worcester's CitySquare finally took place, thanks to Hanover's $70-million investment. The Hanover also donated $2 million to help catalyze the restoration of the former Showcase Cinemas into the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts. Fred and his wife, Patty, privately added a six-figure donation. And, in 2005, The Hanover agreed to pay $480,000 annually over 10 years for naming rights to the baseball side of Holy Cross's Fitton Field, once home of the now-defunct Worcester Tornadoes and now home of the city's new Futures Collegiate Baseball League team, the Bravehearts. n FRED EPPINGER