Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | March 5, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 3 GET THE CAREER YOU DESERVE. GET THE CAREER YOU DESERVE. Are you thinking about going back to school to get your graduate degree or a certificate? Clark University's School of Professional Studies offers programs designed for the busy, adult learner. We make it easy for you to get the skills you need to move forward in your career. We offer: • Scholarships and tuition discounts • Fall, winter, spring, and summer course terms • Flexible online, accelerated, evening, and Saturday courses • Master's degrees in Public Administration, Information Technology, and Professional Communication, as well as multiple fast-track certificates Try Before You Decide Test the waters before you officially enroll in a program by taking a class at a discounted rate of $750 (summer term only). Now is the time to do something for yourself and get the career you deserve. LEARN MORE AT CLARKU.EDU/SPS Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com News Editor, Grant Welker, gwelker@wbjournal.com (Real estate, higher education) Staff Writers Zachary Comeau, zcomeau@wbjournal.com (Manufacturing) Emily Micucci, emicucci@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 Senior Accounts Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Senior Special Accounts Manager Mary Lynn Bosiak, mlbosiak@wbjournal.com Marketing & Events Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Events & Marketing Intern Megan Irish, events@wbjournal.com Distribution and Database Coordinator A Guide to STUFF, a publication of New England Business Media Patty Harris, pharris@nebusinessmedia.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, Jill Coran, jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Joseph Zwiebel jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com O ver the past three issues, WBJ has detailed the gender disparity in Central Mass. business leadership through The Boardroom Gap series. The first part on Feb. 5 showed women are vastly underrepresented in the region's senior executive and board positions. Part two on Feb. 19 showed companies with greater gender diversity perform better. This issue's final part shows how the dis- parity can be decreased. If progress will be made on this issue, it will come down to local business lead- ers reprioritizing their value systems and ceding power. Family businesses always passing the company down to the oldest son or male-dominated firms preferring to promote from within must see the value to the bottom line in changing that thinking. Reaching an equitable gender breakdown isn't about always hiring women; it's about changing your criteria to include varied expertises and skillsets. In the 36-year history of WBJ awarding our Business Leaders of the Year, the hon- oree class had never been 50 percent or more women. A woman was the honoree twice in the 1980s and 1990s when only one person won annually, but since BLOY expanded to categories in 2003, the win- ners had been majority male. This year, as BLOY expanded to five categories and included three WBJ Hall of Fame inductees, about 50 nominees were under serious consideration for the awards, and we included criteria we wouldn't have considered even a decade ago. Amy Lynn Chase is among the youngest BLOY winners ever, but there's no denying her impact on Worcester's Canal District. Rachel Lopez is her com- pany's No. 2 executive, but she's played an outsized hand in growing it from a small startup to a multi-state agency. Amjad Bahnassi's excellent work for nearly 30 years as a psychiatrist has been out of the limelight, but he elevated his profile in the Greater Worcester econo- my by developing an office building. Many great nominees were left on the cutting-room floor, and one or two might have won in previous years under BLOY's traditional criteria. And that's the Now comes the hard part 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 2018. 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 12 Focus on Business Leaders of the Year 21 The List: Highest-paid nonprofit chief executives 22 The Rainmaker 23 Know How 24 On the Move 28 Photo Finish 29 Opinion 30 Shop Talk: David McLaren, forensic accountant 4 Atlantic Union College to close Struggling with finances and a lack of accreditation, the Lancaster school will stop offering classes. 22 In sales, don't let your brain get ahead of you Yuor brian is a cdoe crakcing mahcine. For emaxlpe, it deson't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr. I N T H I S I S S U E Worcester Business Journal WBJ point. In order to create a better value sys- tem, you have to change your values. Sometimes that means good people get reshuffled in the changes. That's the hard part. But by improving your value system, you improve your results. - Brad Kane, editor W CORRECTION: In the Feb. 19 Flash Poll about the College of the Holy Cross not changing away from the Crusaders name, 38 percent of respondents said they wouldn't change their business strategy because it may offend a small group of people. The published poll incorrectly said those respondents were concerned about profit margins. The Feb. 19 story "Gender diversity = profits" incorrectly described Fidelity Bank's financials. It was total deposits, not assets, that rose to $659 million in 2016.

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