wbjournal.com | January 9. 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
Staff Writers
Laura Finaldi, lfinaldi@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing, energy, technology,
higher education, finance, nonprofits)
Emily Micucci,
emiccuci@wbjournal.com (Health care)
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub
Livia Gershon
Research Director,
Stephanie Meagher,
smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Associate Art Director,
Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Matt Majikas,
mmajikas@wbjournal.com
Custom Publishing Project Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel,
rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Kim Vautour,
kvautour@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Joseph Zwiebel
jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
I
might as well have asked Rick Walton
to choose his favorite child.
For this issue's Shop Talk feature
(page 34), I visited Walton at his
Gardner Ale House brewpub to discuss
the his latest move to distribute its Moon
Hill Brewing Co. beer for the first time in
December. As part of the Q&A feature, I
thought it would be fun to have Walton
identify the three Moon Hill beers every-
one should try. Based on his immediate
pained reaction when I asked the ques-
tion, you could tell the short answer is
that everyone should try all 14 Moon Hill
beers sold at the Gardner Ale House.
Walton and his brewers have spent the
last 10 years crafting these beers, so each
one has a special emotion tied to it. Even
though it was difficult for him to pick
three, he is in the extremely fortunate sit-
uation of doing what he loves. Walton
grew up loving beer and has a passion for
creating inventive and trendy brews. He
has designed a professional life where he
gets to live his passion every day.
Luckily for me, I know how he feels.
Every biweekly issue WBJ is not without
its challenges and as the clock ticks
toward our press deadline (t-minus 104
minutes as I write this), the pressure to
make each issue perfect builds. Yet, the
overwhelming pride that comes from pro-
ducing this publication every other week
makes it all worthwhile.
I imagine this is the case for nearly all
the people feature in WBJ. In this issue
alone, it is easy to tell the passion
Framingham Town Manager Robert
Halpin (page 10) has for community
building when he talks about changes to
encourage different types of development.
Over at UMass Medical School (page 8),
Michael Collins – who everyone calls
"Chancellor" – sees the coming shortage
of doctors and is using his position to
ensure the areas most in need are served
by the next generation of physicians.
When I was at the Gardner Ale House,
I didn't try any beer (I was working, but
seriously, "What was I thinking?") so I
can't recommend which of Walton's beer
you should try. But after some tough deci-
sion-making, he was able to come up with
his three recommendations. When it
What we were born to do
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
published bi-weeky, 24x per year, including 5 special
issues in April, July, September, November and
December, by New Engand Business Media. 172
Shrewsbury St., Worcester, MA 01604. Periodicals
postage paid at Worcester, MA. Copyright 2015. 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
$54.95. For more information, please email wbjournal@
cambeywest.com or contact our circulation department
at 845-267-3008. Fax: 845.267.3478
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
A division of:
NEWS & ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENTS
4 Central Mass. In Brief
5 Flash Poll
12 FOCUS on WBJ Best of Business
25 The List: Top advertising & PR firms
26 The Rainmaker
27 Know How
28 On the Move
31 Photo Finish
32 Business Leads
33 Opinion
24 Shop Talk: Rick Walton
8 Urban health care
UMass Medical School is expanding its
reach by providing opportunities for
graduates to work in underserved areas.
10 On the cusp
Framingham officials say pending
residential projects are key to a new era
downtown.
I N T H I S I S S U E
Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
Thank you for voting
the Beechwood Hotel
"Best Hotel for Business Clients" and
"Best Venue for a Business Meeting."
The only AAA Four Diamond-rated Hotel in the region
invites you to discover the most unique independently
owned hotel in Worcester, Massachusetts.
the Luxury of
Business cLass even
after you Land.
363 plantation st. | Worcester, Ma. | 508.754.5789 | beechWoodhotel.coM
comes to taking people's advice, it is smart
to listen to people who have passion about
what they do. They clearly have something
figured out.
- Brad Kane, editor