Since I am a female business owner I get asked to do a lot of things. I think that often times you are filling a slot. I think that as we engage, as different demographics get added to different tables, it is up to us to really engage with groups so their voices are heard. Since I have been doing it for a long time now, I feel that my role is to make sure younger people who are coming along and sitting at a table with a lot of old white men, that we give their voices a chance to speak and to be heard because that’s the future.
Susan Coghlin was born in Shrewsbury Massachusetts in 1962 and attended Shrewsbury High. She then moved to Worcester at the age of 18 and took evening courses at various Worcester colleges. She completed her MBA at Northeastern University. Susan took on the family business of electrical contracting at Coghlin Electrical in 1985 and become the owner in 2003. In this interview Susan discusses the growing challenges in Worcester and why she believes Worcester to be the wonderful and thriving community that it is. She discusses the challenges she faced as a woman business owner in Worcester and her various supportive peers that helped her along the way. Susan gives inspiration to the younger population while focusing on younger women especially and the challenges they face for their voices to be heard and recognized. She discusses the different community projects she is a part of and the projects Coghlin Electric is involved in. She is an ambitious woman full of passion and inspiration that transfers to her peers and corporation.