Laurie Masiello, 2026 Outstanding Women in Business Recipient

Laurie Masiello is the CEO & Co-founder of Predictive Monitor

Laurie Masiello
CEO & Co-founder, Predictive Monitor

While the COVID-19 pandemic left some companies struggling to survive, it delivered a watershed moment for Laurie Masiello’s business.

Laurie is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Predictive Monitor, a Nashua company whose flagship product, Over-Shield, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to safeguard refrigeration systems used by biopharma companies. The company employs 21 people.

Before Predictive Monitor, Laurie served as CEO of Masy BioServices, a company she founded in 1984 with her husband, John, in Pepperell, Mass., that provides biostorage and other services.

During the pandemic, Masy received an order from a customer that helped pave the way for its eventual purchase, ultimately leading to the spinoff company Laurie oversees today.

“We not only survived COVID, we thrived in COVID.

We supported the pharmaceutical world. Our normal 8-to-5 operation became 24-7,” Laurie says. “We were supporting all the big players. We signed confidentiality agreements with our customers, so we won’t name them, but you can think of anybody in the COVID world who made a difference, and we were right there by their side.”

One of those customers nudged the company to do something it had never done before.

“We had a very particular poignant moment where a big player called us and said, ‘I need someone to help me with a project like this,’” Laurie says. “And we said, ‘Well, we don’t really do that.’” “He said, ‘But normally you come to the table and help me with whatever I need, and I’m really counting on you now.’ It started at 4 o’clock on a Thursday afternoon. The purchase order, which normally takes days and weeks to get through, we had by 4 a.m., so a 12-hour turnaround.”

Masy BioServices quickly became a key player in fighting the pandemic.

“We were the single source in the middle that had to tie it all together over a 36-hour period. It was pretty amazing. After that so many people in that company wrote us these endearing letters about what a valuable service we provided, not just to that company, but to the world.”

That project helped elevate the company’s status, making it a target for acquisition, she says.

Masy was acquired in 2021 by Alcami, a U.S.-based pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing company. Laurie and her husband have worked side by side for nearly 40 years, and several other family members currently work with them.

Q. Before starting Predictive Monitor, you and your husband founded Masy BioServices, which became a family company. How did that evolve?

We definitely started Masy from the ground up. Our children were 7 and 10, and they each got $5 a day — maybe it was a week — to load paper in the printer, empty the trash and answer the phone and, if I needed them to, help me with computer problems, because they were much more advanced at it than I was. As that matured, our adult children continued to work with us. Their spouses worked with us. My brother, his wife, his daughter, John’s brother, his wife, his nephew. I’m missing a whole bunch of family relatives in there, but it was definitely a family business. We grew to 202 people. We had offices in five states.

Q. What led to the sale of Masy BioServices and the start of Predictive Monitor?

Sometime after COVID, we looked really appealing. We finally decided to entertain one of those offers, so we sold Masy, and I thought there was a beach in my future. I was retiring at the end of December. And then on Dec. 11, we had our closing. As the new owners were being introduced to my staff, one said, “Laurie, how do you think people will feel when they hear you leaving? … I think it comes across as no faith in new management.”

So we stayed for three months, and I was so clear. I gave up my gavel. … Then they said, “The next thing we’re going to do is cut that new technology you created (now called Predictive Monitor). Do you want to buy it back?” We said, “Well, if you’re throwing it away, it’s too important for our industry.” We provided vital services for the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries, so to throw away new really important technology was just wrong. So here we are all over again.

Q. What do you do to unwind when you’re not working?

When we moved to Hollis, it came with a heated swimming pool. I am positive that means on April 1, my pool is open, and by Nov. 1, my pool closes. The air could be cold, but my pool feels fabulous. And that electric bill is turning. This is my guilty pleasure.