Era of the CFO | On Main Street goes to Mattapan | Pandemic pay raises for hospital execs | 40 under 40!
Boston Business Journal
The Boston region's source for local business news & events. Part of the American City Business Journals network.
Welcome to the BBJ's LinkedIn Weekly Edition! I'm Digital Editor?Jess Aloe, bringing you the business knowledge you need this week.
Era of the CFO
Christopher Ling, a chief financial officer in the Boston area for years, first noticed a shift last summer in the type of inbound inquiries he was receiving from recruiters. The economic outlook was deteriorating, tech companies were talking about layoffs, fundraising was dropping and there was even talk of a recession.
“The conversations certainly did flip from talking about fundraising to, 'Have you ever actually run a business that’s actually made money?' and getting to a 12-, 24-, 36-month plan to get to a breakeven, and then putting the company in the black,” said Ling, who's held CFO roles at Waltham-based Veo Robotics, Inc. and, more recently, Woburn-based water tech company ZwitterCo . “Those were conversations that had not come up when others had reached out to me in the past.”
Boston-area executive recruiters, CFOs and other startup executives say they’ve noticed a similar trend over the past year as the economy resets itself after years of sky-high valuations and optimistic growth. They say the conversation has shifted from hiring CFOs and fractional, or part-time, financial leaders with a "grow fast and furious" mentality to a more long-term, strategic mind-set with an emphasis on operational skills. Some recruiters and founders said they’ve even seen an increase in requests for financial leaders, making it more difficult to fill this key position.?
Read more from Hannah Green in this week’s cover story.
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Join the BBJ for our State of Diversity program on September 21st! Our panel of business leaders will be discussing DEI efforts at work and in the community and share their reflections on the priorities for Greater Boston.?Get your tickets now!
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Here's what else happened this week
Hospital execs got big pay raises during pandemic
Since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Massachusetts hospitals have been under financial stress, suffering from low staffing levels and capacity issues that prevented patients from being admitted. And for years, these hospitals have pointed to these challenges causing a financial crisis putting them in the red quarter after quarter.
But once again, reports show that executives saw pay raises over salaries in prior years, despite these challenges.
Every August, Massachusetts' nonprofit hospitals file publicly required documents that include the compensation of their highest-paid executives. The most recent reports include the salaries for the their most recent fiscal year, from October 2021 to September 2022. While there have been changes in earnings and leadership, these reports provide a snapshot into how much executives were making as hospitals bled red during the pandemic.
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On Main Street
In 2019, Mattapan finally got two stops on the Commuter Rail's Fairmont Line, at Blue Hill Avenue and Morton Street. It was one of the biggest improvements Mattapan has seen to public transit in decades, and Olivier credits the advocacy of her community.?
Several more changes to public transportation are coming to Mattapan soon, including upgrades to existing stops, an overhaul of the Mattapan Trolley and schedule changes to make buses more frequent.
That's important, because similar to other communities of color around the U.S., Mattapan's public transit has suffered over the years. Recent studies show that Black and African-American residents represent 74% of Mattapan's population, compared to 23% for the city overall.
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A twist in a retail dispute?
A real estate courtship that once turned nasty has ended with namaste.
The national yoga apparel chain Alo Yoga has leased ground-floor space at 149 Newbury St., a new Back Bay mixed-use building at the center of a recent legal dispute between Alo and the building’s developer, Chicago-based L3 Capital . Get the details of how Alo ended up moving in.
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BBJ names 40 under 40
The Boston Business Journal has announced this year’s 40 Under 40 honorees, and they range from young founders and CEOs to rising stars at some of the region's biggest companies.
The 2023 group includes 13 founders, just as many CEOs and five executive directors. They span retail to life sciences, charitable organizations to banking and financing, among others. Meet the honorees.?
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