Monthly Newsletter
January 31, 2021 | In This Issue
Meet the EDIC: Angela Randolph

Board Member Looks for Ways to Support Entrepreneurs, Grow Small Businesses
“It was very intentional, moving here to Framingham,” says Economic Development and Industrial Corporation (EDIC) board member Angela Randolph. “We wanted diversity, we wanted our kids to have relationships with people who are comfortable with them but we also wanted them to know that not everyone thinks like you.”

Randolph, her husband Brandale, and her two sons Joshua and Josiah, moved to Framingham six years ago after she was named an assistant professor in Babson College’s entrepreneurship division. Her experience in the business world, and as a professor of entrepreneurship, has helped inform her thinking about the work of the EDIC, especially in helping to shape an environment that fosters growth for small businesses.

“Entrepreneurship is a way for people to move up, to build wealth,” says Randolph. “Small businesses and family businesses employ the most people in this country. So I tend to focus on what we can be doing more for entrepreneurship or from a small business perspective.”

Randolph is also interested in thinking about ways that the City and the EDIC can grow small businesses that have a positive impact on Framingham as a whole. “In teaching entrepreneurship, you learn that value creation is about more than just economic but also social value creation,” she says. “I want us to grow businesses that help the community.”

Randolph recognizes that over the last year, the EDIC has had to focus on managing the COVID-19 crisis. But moving forward, she expects that EDIC will continue to promote inclusivity as it continues outreach and to focus on ways to make it easier for the region’s entrepreneurs. “There is a lot of movement in the right direction, but I would like it to be easier for small businesses to get started and to grow,” she says.

Randolph is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she received a degree in chemical engineering, and the College of William and Mary, where she earned an MBA. She obtained her Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. She worked for PepsiCo and Wachovia Bank before studying for her doctorate.

In highlighting the things she loves about Framingham, Randolph mentioned the City’s open spaces and international grocery stores. And the City’s restaurants, which was a growing sector before the pandemic hit. “I miss the restaurants right now. I wish we had more locally-owned than we do, but we have some good ones here,” she says.

To learn more about Framingham’s EDIC, please visit our webpage here