Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | February 20, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 13 B U S I N E S S L E A D E R S F O C U S W B J H A L L O F F A M E I N D U C T E E Michael P. Angelini Chairman, Bowditch & Dewey Location: Worcester Employees: 125 Influential: In 2016, he helped pick the new CEO of the Hanover Insurance Group, Joseph Zubretsky. As the chairman of Worcester law firm Bowditch & Dewey, the Leominster native has helped dozens of lawyers launch their careers and grow into competent and successful attor- neys. As the chairman of the board of the Hanover Insurance Group, he has helped set the agenda for one of the largest employers in Worcester, and spearheaded the search process for its latest CEO, Joseph Zubretsky. He is the chairman of the board of the Massachusetts Port Authority, influenc- ing such actions as the redevelopment of the Worcester Regional Airport. And as a person with considerable influence in Worcester and a detailed knowledge of the region, he has his hands in economic development and, most recently, public education. "He is an exceptional individual, and his ultimate goal is to make a differ- ence," said Robert Johnson, the presi- dent of Becker College in Worcester, who has worked with Angelini on com- munity issues since 2010. Universal talent Angelini could have been anything he wanted to be – a politician, or a manag- ing partner of an international law firm – but he chose to stay in Worcester, said Louis Ciavarra, partner and leader of the Bowditch litigation practice area. Ciavarra said that says more about Angelini than any of the individual things he has done or accomplished. "It can't be understated how lucky Angelini connects the dots of Worcester's community O ver the course of his 50 years in Worcester, Michael P. Angelini has had his hands in a lot of different ventures. Worcester is that Mike Angelini decided to work and stay here," said Ciavarra, whose office at Bowditch has been next to Angelini's for more than 30 years. Angelini is interested in making Worcester a more efficient and better place to live and work. A few years ago, he proposed consolidating the econom- ic development efforts of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, the Worcester Business Development Corp., and other groups. The merger didn't happen, but now, those institu- tions work more closely together. "We have learned to work together. [Worcester] used to be controlled by a relatively small group of people – gen- erally people of privilege – and that's all changed," Angelini said. "We have dis- parate groups of people, we know each other pretty well, and we all work together pretty well." Lately, Angelini has been helping improve the quality of the Worcester public schools, something he sees as the key to making the city a more appeal- ing place to live. "One ambition is each school will have connection with either a business, charity, or educational organization," he said. "Those are little things we can do as part of this process that will help dis- tinguish us." Angelini has a way of making his cli- ents and the people who work closely with him feel at ease, said Ciavarra. "He combines natural intellect and street smarts with a work ethic like nobody I've ever seen," he said. W BY LAURA FINALDI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer P H O T O / N A T H A N F I S K E Mike Angelini, who has worked in Central Massachusetts since the 1960s, has left his fingerprints all over the community's economic development.

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