Boston Magazine’s FULL ARTICLE & FEATURE
Power 2016: Family Ties
By Julie Dugdale Boston Magazine, May 2016
It takes more than money to build a dynasty. You need multiple generations of wisdom and work ethic to transform humble beginnings into powerful bloodlines. In business, real estate, politics, and more, these are the families shaping our city and our lives.
Too often, people talk about our city’s power players as an elite cabal of the über-rich. But in an ancient town like Boston, family names are worth far more than any Forbes ranking. Power, at its core, is about having a lasting voice that effects change, whether you were born into a stately Brahmin house or got your start pushing a souvenir cart outside Fenway. Many families on this list—all include at least two successive generations—first made their mark here decades or centuries ago: a rags-to-riches tale of launching a business just to stay afloat only to reach unimaginable heights. Today, we know those humble beginnings as empires built on the inherited wisdom, work ethic, and ambition passed down from generation to generation. From our biggest money movers and development moguls to our most dedicated public servants and media pioneers, here are Boston’s power families.
To see all families featured and full article, click HERE.
The Shields Family
Shields Health Care Group
In a time of skyrocketing out-of-pocket medical expenses, the Shields’ long-standing approach to healthcare—creating outpatient clinics that offer critical services at lower costs—is being hailed as visionary. Since 1972, the Shields Health Care Group has grown from its humble nursing-home roots into an expansive dialysis center and now into one of the largest independent medical-imaging companies in the Northeast, offering regional MRI, PET/CT scanning, and radiation oncology services that are more affordable and accessible than they are at major city hospitals. When founder and lifelong philanthropist Thomas Shields died in April 2015, his kids, Thomas and Carmel, took the reins and set out to expand his legacy: They expect to add seven new locations this year to the 30 already operating in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.