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Articles by Jon Chesto
Former Reebok executives team up with Patrice Bergeron to launch new shoe business
Hockey players know to skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. A trio of entrepreneurs are hoping that they’ll be able to apply that maxim — true in business as it is on the ice — to their new training-shoe venture, Unsung. It’s a new company with Reebok DNA: Two of the cofounders worked at the Boston sneaker company, and they’ve recruited former Reebok chief executive Paul Fireman to lead their board of strategic advisors.
Casinos argue allowing ‘historical horse racing’ machines at tracks will cut into their business
While normally rivals, the state’s three main casinos have teamed up to fend off a new competitive threat: developer Richard Fields’ proposal to allow what are known as historical horse racing machines at former race tracks. It’s shaping up to be a major sticking point in House-Senate negotiations over a wide-ranging economic development bill. House leaders included the horse-racing machine language in their version, but the Senate balked at the measure.
Wu reaches across the river again with Somerville business confab
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu did it again: She crossed the Charles River to drum up economic development for the entire region, not just for the city she leads. It’s certainly a break from the M.O. pursued by her former boss Tom Menino. As mayor, he famously celebrated the relocation of Vertex Pharmaceuticals from Cambridge to the Seaport, and lamented the decision by Partners HealthCare (now known as Mass General Brigham) to move to Assembly Row in Somerville.
Real estate consultant Taidgh McClory joins Massport board
When Massport’s board members gather on Thursday for the first time since their summer breaks, there will be a new face at the table. Real estate consultant Taidgh McClory has been appointed by Governor Maura Healey to be the port authority’s newest board member. He’s the first newcomer since Fidelity Investments executive Pam Everhart joined two years ago.
Sosik leads Hometown Financial, the state’s fastest growing bank, to new heights
Next up: completing the purchase of Primary Bank in New Hampshire, Hometown Financial’s ninth acquisition in the past 10 years, while preparing to convert from a mutual bank to a shareholder-owned one in early 2027. Hometown Financial’s depositors will be able to buy shares before the general public, and some of the newfound capital will be used for the Primary purchase. “You’ve got this industry that has very low margins,” Sosik said. “Scale becomes absolutely critical. . . .
Somerville’s Form Energy lands $750m investment, in part to expand its West Virginia battery factory
MetroWeatherPoliticsSportsBusinessPuzzlesRhode IslandGlobe MagazineOpinionHealth careArtsLifestyleEducationCambridge & SomervilleMoney, Power, InequalitySpotlightTechnologyClimateCarsReal EstateEvents Utility-scale battery maker Form Energy has received a big jolt from investors, securing $750 million in new equity investments to help power the expansion of its West Virginia factory.
Biotech entrepreneur Greg Verdine scores a victory after leasing big office in Watertown
LifeMine has developed a radically new drug for organ transplants, one that avoids the kidney damage caused by the drugs in use over the past three decades. Two of Verdine’s other startups, VidaVinci and DoveTree, are also in the building. Verdine estimates around 70 people work in the building at one of the three startups today, including LifeMine’s new chief commercial officer Yves Zinggeler (recruited from Vertex Pharmaceuticals), leaving plenty of room for future growth.
Boston Globe: Biotech is back, baby! A wave of life science deals is pumping cash into the sector.
The following is an excerpt from Jon Chesto and Shirley Leung’s Power Play newsletter on July 23, 2026: Now, head up to the 40th floor at 53 State St. Drop in on Jeff Leerink and his merry band of health care investment bankers. Leerink Partners just handled its first pair of $10 billion transactions, representing Crinetics in its sale to Boston’s Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and GSK in its purchase of Cambridge-based Nuvalent. Everyone is bustling and hustling.
Meet the Media 2026
Note: Doors open for networking at 8 AM. The program will run from 9 to 10:30 AM. Innovating. Pivoting. Creating niches in a fractured landscape. The regional media market continues to adapt and evolve to economic pressures, searching for sustainable models and launching new platforms within legacy media. Meanwhile, the challenges for local journalists only intensify. Their work is more essential than ever and yet they see their ranks diminishing and more disruption around the corner.
Nestle executive set to take reins of Ocean Spray
ABSTRACT Abigail Buckwalter will lead a 2,000-person company that generates about $2 billion in annual revenue, mostly from its juices and other fruit beverages. BODY Abigail Buckwalter is CEO of Ocean Spray Cranberries. Abigail Buckwalter is heading back to the farm.
Consulting startup Catalant hires former AMC boss to be its new chief financial officer
As Catalant chief executive Pat Petitti looks to the next phase of his startup’s growth, he hoped to find a chief financial officer with significant experience among high-profile companies. He succeeded with Christina Spade, Catalant’s new CFO. She’s a longtime finance executive from the TV industry, including as a chief financial officer for Showtime, its corporate parent CBS, and then for the newly merged ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global).
Mass. retailers predict a lean holiday season
Local retailers are predicting a lean holiday shopping season this year amid concerns about consumer confidence and rising expenses. That’s the word from the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, which on Wednesday unveiled the results of its latest annual membership survey.
Woods Hole seeks to raise $500 million, billed as largest-ever campaign for ocean research - The Boston Globe
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has been quietly raising money for most of the five years that Peter de Menocal has been leading it. WHOI’s goal, set in anticipation of its centennial celebration in 2030, started out around $250 million. Then, as donors stepped up, it was moved to $300 million, and then to $400 million.
Boston Globe: At BIO convention, Healey offers upbeat message to life sciences crowd
The following is an excerpt from a Boston Globe story published on June 18, 2025: The headaches keep coming for Massachusetts biotech firms: tariffs, pricing crackdowns, research funding cuts, an exodus at the Food and Drug Administration. Governor Maura Healey and Marc Casper, the chief executive of Waltham-based lab equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific, made subtle nods to those challenges when they spoke at the annual BIO conference at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center on Tuesday.
Boston Globe: Kendalle Burlin O’Connell wants biotech industry to look to Massachusetts for solutions
The following is an excerpt from Jon Chesto’s Bold Types in the Boston Globe on June 10, 2025: Kendalle Burlin O’Connell has seen plenty of industry ups and downs in her two decades at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. This period, though, feels more challenging than any other. Big cutbacks to biomedical research funds. Tariffs that drive up drug prices. An exodus from the Food and Drug Administration. Perfect time to bring one of the world’s biggest biotech conferences back to Boston, right?
Eversource says Connecticut’s utility rate crackdown could affect Mass. and N.H. customers
Share The rate cuts affect not just the parent company and its Connecticut operations, but also Eversource’s electric and natural gas systems in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. For example, S&P dropped its “issuer credit rating” for the former Columbia Gas and NStar gas systems to BBB+ from A-. The ratings for the company’s electric utilities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire also dropped one notch, but to A-, still a rock-solid rating.
Massachusetts is making a billion-dollar bet on climate tech. Here’s how.
Share This economic development bill, as with previous ones, includes money for a number of existing programs: the MassWorks infrastructure funds for cities and towns, brownfields cleanup money, an extension of that much-ballyhooed life sciences subsidy program. There will be new incentives for various lucky industries, from A.I. to data centers to theatrical productions . (Yes, the next “Hamilton” might just start here ...
Former state revenue commissioner Navjeet Bal tapped to run MassDevelopment
Share Bal, who ran the Department of Revenue under then-governor Deval Patrick, has been at Boston-based national nonprofit Social Finance Inc. for nearly a decade, working there as its general counsel and chief compliance officer, and at law firm Nixon Peabody before that. Governor Maura Healey is bringing Bal back to state government to take over for Dan Rivera, a Baker administration appointee who left earlier this year .
Economic bill packs tens of millions in earmarks for Boston development projects
Share But the bill also packs in tens of millions of dollars worth of earmarks for specific developments — and that’s just in Boston. For example, the bill allocates $50 million for a life sciences training center at the “Blair lot,” near Nubian Square in the heart of Roxbury.
Its stock is up 50 percent. Billion-dollar deals for breakfast. How did Boston Scientific get its mojo back?
Share Boston Scientific’s once-powerful mergers and acquisitions machine essentially ground to a halt, tanking the stock, prompting layoffs, and putting many other jobs at risk. By the time Mahoney, who was recruited by the Boston Scientific board from J&J, became chief executive in November 2012, the stock was at $5. The company was only worth about $8 billion — less than one-third of what it paid for Guidant six years earlier.
MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind lays out cleanup plan for damaged turbine, but doesn’t say when wind farm will resume spinning
August 12, 2024 — Officials with the Vineyard Wind energy project and turbine manufacturer GE Vernova unveiled a new plan on Friday to recover from the failure of a wind turbine blade in July that scattered debris into the ocean and onto nearby beaches. What they didn’t say, though, was when construction would resume on the massive wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard, or when the project would start generating electricity again.
Boston-New York service grounded this summer after selling too few tickets
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So long, seaplanes: Boston-New York service grounded this summer after selling too few tickets - The Boston Globe
So long, seaplanes: Boston-New York service grounded this summer after selling too few tickets - The Boston Globe The route had not yet turned a profit for plane operator Seaplane service to New York arrived in Boston amid much fanfare three years ago. But now …
GE Vernova’s shares take a hit amid Vineyard Wind debacle
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New England’s largest fossil-fuel-fired plant is shutting down for good - The Boston Globe
New England’s largest fossil-fuel-fired plant is shutting down for good - The Boston Globe It’s the end of an era for the region’s electric grid as New England’s largest fossil-fuel-fired plant powers down for good. The Mystic Generating …
Drinks on the House
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FIRST IN PLAYBOOK:LIQUOR LICENSE BILL MOVING — The House is hoping to get more liquor flowing in Boston. Well, parts of it.Top House Democrats are releasing their version of a bill that would expand the number of liquor licenses available in certain corners of the state’s biggest city.
By Christian M. Wade Verified, Heather Bellow Verified, Jon Chesto Verified, Shelley Murphy Verified
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Nation’s biggest bank has big plans to grow in Mass.
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A new start for Faneuil Hall? New operator takes over historic marketplace.
The Boston Globe A new landlord is taking over Faneuil Hall Marketplace, raising hopes at City Hall that long-awaited improvements could be finally coming to a high-profile tourism destination that draws millions of visitors every year. The real estate arm of investment conglomerate J. Safra Group announced on Monday night that it is acquiring the Marketplace from Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which has held the property’s long-term lease with the city for the past 13 years. J.
Eversource stock is sunk in wake of company’s deep dive into offshore wind
Getting into the offshore wind business certainly wasn’t cheap for Eversource Energy. Getting out? That’s turning out to be pretty expensive, too. Eversource’s stock had already taken a beating before the company’s announcement last week that it will take up to $1.6 billion in write-offs related to its offshore wind ventures. This bad news sent the stock tumbling further — nearly 8 percent in one day.
Salem could soon have wind staging facility
Salem could soon have wind staging facility Dec 28, 2023Dec 28, 2023 11:28 am GMT 1 view By: By Jon Chesto|Globe Staff Within weeks if not days, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is expected to acquire a site for the state’s second wind farm terminal in a deal that will help make the city of Salem a pivotal player in the nascent offshore wind industry.
Dorchester Brewing to merge with Aeronaut, forming 'Tasty Liquid Alliance'
The Boston Globe The owners of Dorchester Brewing Co. and Aeronaut Brewing Co. have crafted a new recipe for expansion as their once-sparkling industry moves forward: joining forces through mergers. Dorchester- and Somerville Brewershas reached a merger agreement that will put Dorchester Brewing chief executive Matt Malloy in charge of the combined company.
Wind developer Vineyard Offshore hires Alicia Barton to lead expansion
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Like clockwork, it's time to debate daylight saving time again; The twice-annual debate over what time zone Massachusetts should be in has been revived anew
ABSTRACT The twice-annual debate over what time zone Massachusetts should be in has been revived anew. BODY Senator Ed Markey co-sponsored the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 to stop changing clocks twice a year. It's almost that time of the year, folks — time to turn back the clocks. But it's also time to talk about turning back the clocks. Will it be the last time for that? For a moment at the State House last Tuesday, the issue was up for debate.
How a big underground tank in Bedford could help boost state’s ‘bluetech’ economy - The Boston Globe
The state’s marine science sector reached an important milestonethis month — not in a coastal city but in an unassuming bunker-like building tucked in a suburban office park in Bedford, more than20 miles from the sea. Not-for-profit defense contractor MITRE Corp. finished filling up what is essentially a high-tech swimming pool, though it’s much deeper than what you’ll find at your local YMCA. Thistank, dubbed the BlueTech Lab, is so big it took roughly two weeks for MITRE to fill it.
New designs on office life: Companies hope the workplace can be ‘a magnet, not a mandate’
The Boston Globe State Street doubled the number of meeting spaces at its new downtown office. Sun Life added a fire pit, a prayer room, and treadmill desks. And when their new headquarters opens next year, CarGurus employees will be able to reserve their own private reclining chair to code or toggle through spreadsheets in peace for a few hours. Assigned cubicles and offices are out. “Touch-down spaces,” “coffee bars,” and “neighborhoods” are in. And video screens? They’re seemingly everywhere.
Companies hope the workplace can be ‘a magnet, not a mandate’
The Boston Globe State Street doubled the number of meeting spaces at its new downtown office. Sun Life added a fire pit, a prayer room, and treadmill desks. And when their new headquarters opens next year, CarGurus employees will be able to reserve their own private reclining chair to code or toggle through spreadsheets in peace for a few hours. Assigned cubicles and offices are out. “Touch-down spaces,” “coffee bars,” and “neighborhoods” are in. And video screens? They’re seemingly everywhere.
Eastern Bank will acquire Cambridge Trust, and sell its insurance division - The Boston Globe
Eastern Bank is making a major move to expand its private bankingwith a $528 million deal to acquire Cambridge Trust, while simultaneously selling its insurance business for $510 million to brokerage giant Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. The Boston-based bank’s holding company, Eastern Bankshares, announced both deals after the stock markets closed on Tuesday. They mean the bank will depart the insurance business while beefing up its wealth management operation.
Legal Sea Foods is leaving its harborfront plant. But the cod will remain.
The Boston Globe For two decades, the 45-foot-long sculpture of a cod with a color-changing eye has greeted boaters as they made their way past the South Boston waterfront. Those in the know understood that the giant metal fish meant one thing: Legal Sea Foods headquarters. Soon though, Legal is leaving the building.
Mass. likely to pay for Maine hydropower line
Mass. likely to pay for Maine hydropower line Jul 28, 2023Jul 28, 2023 11:57 am GMT 1 view By: By Jon Chesto|Globe Staff The cost of a 145-mile power line to bring hydroelectricity from Canada to Massachusetts via western Maine has risen by roughly 50 percent, to $1.5 billion, in the wake of a Maine ballot measure that delayed work for more than a year — and Massachusetts ratepayers could end up paying much of the tab.
What CEOs make of the Inflation Reduction Act depends largely on what their company’s selling
Corporate earnings season just ended, and the verdict is in: The Inflation Reduction Act was the hot topic this spring. Chief executives and chief financial officers raved about it — not because they think it will tame inflation, as the Orwellian-sounding name implies. No, many of them like it because of all the money that will flow into domestic manufacturing, and the clean-energy sector in particular.
Building a tower in the sea: First shipment of towers for offshore wind turbines arrives in New Bedford
Building a tower in the sea: First shipment of towers for offshore wind turbines arrives in New Bedford May 26, 2023May 26, 2023 11:32 am GMT 2 views By: By Jon Chesto|Globe Staff The UHL Felicity arrived this week in New Bedford, carrying tower sections made in Portugal for use in the Vineyard Wind project that is going up south of Martha’s Vineyard starting this summer.
Healey seeks $250m to boost offshore wind grid
Healey seeks $250m to boost offshore wind grid May 23, 2023May 23, 2023 1:28 pm GMT 3 views By: By Jon Chesto|Globe Staff If offshore wind is to become a big part of New England’s energy mix, the region will need huge upgrades to the electric grid onshore.
MBTA completes purchase of Widett Circle, plans for old meatpacking district to become a railyard
MBTA completes purchase of Widett Circle, plans for old meatpacking district to become a railyard The $255 million deal caps a saga that stretches back to Boston’s ill-fated bid to host the 2024 Olympics, though some hopes remain in City Hall for a mixed-use development near Widett.
From remote work to onshoring to the limits of a conglomerate, AT&T chief hits hot buttons
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Allston still in limbo after feds reject $1.2 billion request to help fund Pike realignment
Where to find the best bagels around Boston Nearly 2,000 readers shared their favorite places to get bagels. Bagel options are infinite. You can order one toasted or cold, with all the fixings or plain with cream cheese, or sandwiched or apart. However, one thing Bostonians can agree on is that our city has some delicious choices when it comes to bagels.
In Hardwick, a vote on horse racing divides the town
Thoroughbred racing disappeared from New England in 2019, when horses circled the Suffolk Downs track in East Boston for the last time. Now, the return of this sport of kings could be up to voters in the no-stoplight farming town of Hardwick.
For Betty Francisco, new startup fund puts money with disadvantaged entrepreneurs
For Betty Francisco, new startup fund puts money with disadvantaged entrepreneurs A new role for Callahan leads to a new name for MCBC; AT&T’s Boston boss now leads the whole Northeast; Donovan hangs up his own shingle; Comcast doles out dollars for digital equity By Jon Chesto and Shirley Leung , Globe Staff Betty Francisco remembers all too well how hard it was to find financing for her startup fitness business, Reimagine Play.
Wu highlights shared business goals
In her highest-profile speech focused on business since taking office last fall, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu made her case on Thursday morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce that her interests and goals were aligned with the executives in the room. Speaking at the Sheraton hotel in the Back Bay, Wu focused on four issues that are priorities for local business leaders — transportation, affordable housing, downtown revitalization, and workforce development.
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