Who Holds the Most Power in Rhode Island?

Our April cover story highlights the forty-five most powerful Rhode Islanders in business, politics, education, development, philanthropy and more.

April 20, 2023

Lauren Clem, Jamie Coelho, Bob Curley,

INDEX:

Business

Lisa Ranglin

Lisa Ranglin is not afraid to use her voice.

During the pandemic, the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Black Business Association spoke out when the state suspended a law that requires at least 10 percent of all contract dollars be awarded to minority-owned businesses, a waiver that resulted in a field hospital in North Kingstown being completed with no minority contractors at all.

She’s also been a vocal advocate for investing in small businesses, working with organizations such as Rhode Island Commerce to award microloans and the Papitto Opportunity Connection to create a forgivable loan program for business owners of color.

“Too often what we see are these Band-Aid solutions for our community,” Ranglin says.

Her own path to RIBBA was nontraditional. Born in Jamaica, she emigrated to the United States with her mother and put herself through an undergraduate degree at the New England Institute of Technology and graduate degree at Johnson and Wales University. She spent twenty-two years in the corporate sector, rising to vice president and regulatory compliance program manager at Citizens Bank, before becoming RIBBA’s first full-time CEO last year. Involved as a volunteer and board member from the start, Ranglin had the idea to found the organization after attending a Black Chamber of Commerce event while visiting Charlotte, North Carolina, on business in 2010.

“I came back to Rhode Island very inspired and said, ‘We’ve got to do this here,’” she says.

Thirteen years later, RIBBA continues to invest in the community, opening a new headquarters and small business hub on Smith Street this spring. Two years ago, the organization partnered with the University of Rhode Island to launch an Emerging Leaders Development Program. Her top priority now, Ranglin says, is providing adequate resources to help scale minority-owned businesses so they can be ready for state and other contracts when they arise.

“If you build the pipeline of businesses, you won’t have to go search. They’ll be readily available,” she says. “It’s a win-win.”

Dale Venturini

With the heart of a lion, the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association helped Rhode Island’s restaurants and hotels weather the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges that have impeded the industry over the years. She and her team created and implemented programs like Take it Outside and Bring Your Own Blanket to drum up outdoor business for restaurants during a challenging climate, and the Please Be Kind campaign to promote fair treatment of hospitality workers. RIHA also strategized a hospitality jobs database when the industry suffered due to the lack of a returning workforce. Venturini capped off last year by earning the 2022 Person of the Year award from the Italo American Club of Rhode Island. When the hospitality industry needs someone to go to bat for them at the state level, she lets officials hear her roar.

Kristen Adamo

When Kristen Adamo, president and CEO at the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau, commands a podium — often in a colorful blazer and killer heels — she gracefully wrestles the crowd into silent submission. Adamo has worked in marketing at PWCVB for eighteen years, the last four at the top. She steered the city through a global pandemic, coming to the aid of small businesses, event venues and major hotels and restaurants with a drive to bring tourism back to the Creative Capital. She led the effort to establish a Tourism Improvement District in Providence and brought Three Nights of Lights to life for the holiday season with WaterFire, the Avenue Concept and FirstWorks. And when the 2023 Army-Navy Game comes to Gillette Stadium in December, Rhode Island will play host to more than 3,000 Naval Academy midshipmen, as well as fans and alumni, thanks to her team’s collaboration with the Rhode Island Convention Center.

“Leadership isn’t about doing what you want to do. It’s about doing what needs to be done. Sometimes that’s not easy. You always wonder if you have what it takes to make the hard decisions and now I know that I do.”—KRISTEN ADAMO

Laurie White

Laurie White has always been a major player in supporting small businesses in their sustainability goals, fostering economic activity for the state and bringing new businesses to Rhode Island as president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce since 2005. She has grown the state’s innovation economy through encouraging entrepreneurship, medical and academic collaboration, technology, recruitment and competitive tax policies. A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, she has earned multiple Distinguished Achievement Awards from her alma mater and has been honored by multiple nonprofits from the Sisters of Mercy to the Girl Scouts of Southern New England. White also founded the Taricani Lecture Series on First Amendment Rights at URI in honor of her late husband, television journalist Jim Taricani.

Lisa Raiola

Hope & Main was the culinary incubator to launch all culinary incubators by successfully starting up more than 450 local food businesses (60 percent of which are women-owned, and 40 percent by minority business owners). Now Lisa Raiola, founder of Hope & Main in Warren, recently opened the Hope & Main Downtown Makers Marketplace in Providence and is working on launching new shared-use commercial kitchens in the West End, too. The Providence expansion is in partnership with the Papitto Opportunity Connection and Joseph R. Paolino of Paolino Properties, which will make starting a food business more accessible to people who live in the city and nearby Pawtucket and Central Falls. More food baby businesses are baking in the oven, and we can’t wait to taste the results.