From Boardrooms to Locker Rooms: Boston’s Big Voices

On today’s program, we talk with the CEO and President of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Jim Rooney about the current business climate. We’re joined by Mike Marshall of Marshall Wealth Management as he lays out the best retirement plans. Also, Marty Walsh, former Mayor of Boston, former US labor Secretary, joins Kim and me to talk about his new position at the National Hockey League Players Association. And finally, the Executive Editor of the Boston Business Journal, Doug Banks,  will be along to discuss this week’s biggest business stories.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Carragan, a weekly round up in discussion
of the top business news impacting our New England economy.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the New England Business
Report on the Sunday, June the first. Wow, Can I
believe it's already June the first?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Say?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I said, we are cooking with gas. My friend, I'm
Kerrigan here along with Joe short Sleeve. Good to be
with you, Joe.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Yeah, I think we've been waiting for June first for
a long time. Now is my my old weather body
at Channel four WBC TV, ed Carol would say at
this point, talking about you know how quickly times move along,
he'd say, well, you know what, Joe, Whe're setting off
bottle rockets at this point because here you go, you know,
it is four before you know it.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, that's so true. Hey, you know what I was
thinking about this one of the things that happens when
we hit like June first, And actually I researched this
and it actually does happen on June first. Having said
cooking with gas, we get the summer blend at the pumps.
Joe starting today. I always find this to be such
a forest.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
I wasn't aware of that. I was not aware of that. Kim.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yes, I know, it's just another reason to charge a
different price at the pumps. I'm just absolutely convinced of that.
So when you go today, I just know that the
summer blend is in effect. It'll be there until sometime
in September.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Okay, And you know this month June, my daughter gets
married as well. I do talk about a business story, well.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Line up, that would be a good way we should
do the business of weddings, because boy, this is wedding
season now, right, Oh, certainly is right, my friend. Well,
listen today, We've got lots of great guests joining us,
and I'm looking forward to this. Obviously the summer season
getting underway, which means tourism here in the city. It means,

(01:51):
you know, businesses are hoping to maybe make up what
they may have lost in some of this slack time
or over the winters when it's been cold and people
have not been moving around. So we're going to be
joined and kicked off this morning by the President and
CEO of the Boston Chamber of Commerce. Jim Rouney is
going to be with us. In addition to a number
of things he's going to talk about. One of them
is that they have just announced the relaunch of the

(02:14):
Business for Federal Research Funding Coalition. It's in thirty states,
it's some sixty chambers that belong to this coalition. This
is all in response to cuts in Washington, d c.
And how this is affecting research and states. A lot
of people saying that, you know, when we start to
affect research, we start to affect the economies of states.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Yeah, and I mean it's hit in Massachusetts really hard,
you know. So, I mean that's obviously a great topic
of the Chamber to be taken up at this point,
you bet.

Speaker 5 (02:42):
So.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
We're going to talk about that many other things with
Jim Rooney this morning. Mike Marshall of Martial Wealth Management
is going to be our guest this morning. Mike wants
to talk to us today about the importance of having
a comprehensive financial plan long before you plan to retire.
You know, I think we all get, you know, really
caught up in our late thirties and our forties raising kids,

(03:05):
not thinking about retirement, not you know, there's so many
other expenses at that point and I know that. Mike says,
you know, really those are the times when you're in
those prime earning years that you should be thinking about
a plan. So he's gonna chat with us about that.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
And don't go anywhere because on the second half of
this program, we are kicking it off with mister Marty Wallscheff,
former mayor of Boston from twenty fourteen to twenty one
and anyone became the US Secretary of Labor and the
Biden administration, and of course he left there in twenty
twenty three and became the executive director of the National
Hockey League's Players Association. So you know, we've got Marty.

(03:44):
We're going to have him on the phone, so we're
going to do our best, you know, talk about his
new gig. Sure we want to hear about that and
how he likes it in the whole bit. But obviously
we'd love to, you know, hear what he has to
say about Boston politics. And there's a lot to discuss there,
whether you're talking about the mayor's race or this this
race for governor which is starting to take shape. And
then of course Doug Banks will be along. He's the
executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, and he's going

(04:07):
to talk about this story, you know, sort of popped
up last week.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Right, How does this happen again?

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Market Basket again? I mean it's like talking about going
back in time. I remember doing live shots for Channel
four up there in Tewksbury when this was going on
some ten or eleven years ago. So anyway, Yeah, the
market Basket's a longtime CEO is put on administrative leave.
So we will talk to Doug about that, and he's
got a bunch of other business stories going on as well.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
It certainly does, you know, going back to the market
Basket storry. You know, the Demula's family has been obviously
involved with Market Baskets since its inception. They now have
ninety stores and some thirty thousand employees, which is unbelievable.
But what gets me about this story always is which
one of them are we talking about? Because there's Arthur

(04:54):
T and there's Arthur So hopefully Doug Banks can can
straighten us out there.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
We want to welcome back a regular guest here to
the program. Here, of course, it's the president's CEO of
the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce that won Jim Rooney
all around, a great guy and seems to know a
lot about what's going on with the business of Boston
and beyond. Jim, welcome to the program and it's been
a while also once we chatted with you, So why
don't we start with just you know, what's on your desk?

(05:22):
Big picture? You know, what does Rooney think about the
business climate in Boston? What are you concerned about? What
are your thoughts these days?

Speaker 6 (05:29):
Well, I think, like most people, a lot of focus
on what's coming out of Washington, DC right now with Kallis,
with research funding, with immigration policy and how that affects
the local economy. I have the opportunity to talk to
my peers and chambers all over the country, and all
of those things seem to be top of mind for

(05:49):
people here in Massachusetts. The research funding issue is particularly
an acute issue. And what's going on you know that
we all hear and read about but university. So I
have to say those are kind of taking over the
focus of business leaders and organizations like the Chamber.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Well, Jim, I know that you guys have been integral
in relaunching the Business for Federal Research Funding Coalition. It's
sixty chambers across some thirty states that are members. And
this all goes back to what you've just mentioned. You know,
this research funding, these cuts and the effects that that's
having on a number of states. Delve into that a

(06:32):
little deeper for us and give us an idea of
really the repercussions for the state of Massachusetts.

Speaker 6 (06:39):
Well, Massachusetts is one of the largest recipients of nah
National Institute of Health spending, largely due to our university
and hospitals that we have here that research everything from
all timers to cancer to als, treatments and cure and

(07:01):
there's been so many breakthroughs over the years. So the
medical science is important. But beyond that, you know, we
look at the economic and jobs impact, and there's many
people in our economy, not just the sciences themselves, but
when you think about it, the law firms and the

(07:23):
accounting firms that support the introduction of new treatments, new drugs,
startup companies that build and deliver these things. Overall, if
you look at it in this country, the research supports
about a half a million jobs in the country in
all fifty states. But there's other types of research. There's
defense industry.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
R and D.

Speaker 6 (07:46):
There's aeronautics research. There's a lot of types of research
that the federal government has sponsored and all fifty states benefits.
So our strategy was to launch a coalition involving, as
you said, over sixty chambers across the country and red
and blue states who benefit from this kind of investment

(08:11):
in the economy, and then includes Alabama, it includes Michigan,
and includes Pennsylvania and California and Texas because we all
benefit it from it. And strategically and on the political side,
it's to talk to each of our congressional delegations and say, you, look,
this matters at home, you know, going back to the

(08:32):
all politics as local strategies and trying to make the
case that not just here in Boston in Massachusetts, but
all over the country research funding is important.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
Well, the Globe has an article out about how Trump
is after Massachusetts in particular, targeting US. And then of
course we have the Harvard issue that you've already raised.
I guess I'm wondering what are you seeing, you know,
on as the rubber meets the road here, you talked
about the possibility of jobs cut backs and things like that,
So what do you how is this what has this

(09:06):
done to the business climate.

Speaker 6 (09:07):
Well, what it's meant is is that there's uncertainty, and
uncertainty creates paralysis in the business community. You know, it's
uncertainty is is the enemy of economic development, economic growth,
business decisions. And I've seen surveys that have said that
businesses are freezing hiring, that they're freezing major capital investments.

(09:34):
We saw the decision by Hasbro to postpone the relocation
to Boston, all based on the tariff issues because much
of their product comes from Asia. So it creates a
paralysis because you just don't know what direction, either from
a tariffs perspective, research funding perspective, or from a workforce

(09:56):
perspective related to immigration, things are going to go. Oh
so right now, companies are behaving that way. And when
I say that, I'm talking about some of the major companies.
The ones I really fee for are the small businesses
who really can't sustain for a long time if the

(10:17):
market goes away. And we have about nine thousand small
businesses and messages that depend on international trade. They're making
things and messages and shipping them all over the world,
and if the tariff rules impact their ability to do that,
they can't sustain for a long time like a big

(10:39):
business can, so we may lose some of them, you.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Know, Jim, there was a lot of business owners who
said the fact that these tariffs had been put on
hold for ninety days, and now, of course this past
week a court has ruled that the president didn't even
have the right to, you know, talk about or to
put these kinds of tariffs in place. But the idea
of holding for ninety days was worse than had those

(11:05):
tariffs gone into effect, because at least business owners would
know what they were dealing with. Are you getting that
kind of feedback.

Speaker 6 (11:13):
Yeah, that's a great point, Kim, that it just speaks
to the to the uncertainty if you and even if
it's bad news, certainty is something that the business community appreciates.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
You know.

Speaker 6 (11:28):
If there's going to be tariffs, if we're going to
have reciprocal tariffs in other countries putting on Massachusetts produced goods,
businesses can pivot. Businesses can plan around that. Businesses can
either seek alternative markets, to seek alternative supply chains. We've
heard a lot of talk, for example, about sourcing product

(11:51):
that was brought from China and Vietnam because we have
a better relationship where the Trump administration has developed a
better relationship with Vietnam. So when you have that certainty,
even if the you know it isn't what you're used to,
you can you can plan, You can you can figure

(12:12):
out how you're going to how you're going to move forward.
But not knowing and having ninety days of this and
you know, this deferral or this change, it just paralyzes things.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Jim Muni's our guests. He is the CEO and President
of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Jim taking a
look at an article that John Chester wrote in The
Globe about your annual meeting there. I guess a week
or so ago at the Omni Hotel, you had some
fourteen hundred people there. Your guest was the US Chamber
of Commerce, the US Chamber of Commerce, the chief executive,
Suzanne Clark, and you asked her a question. And you know,

(12:48):
you're a guy who strikes me you don't ask a
question unless you already know the answer. But what she
had to say, I guess it had to do with,
you know, Boston and do people feel welcome here? And
her answer good. He talks about this, you have to
decide what inclusive means to you. As she talked to
the business leader Throne, does diversity include conservative thought? A

(13:08):
lot of people in this country who aren't sure right
and quoting her again, now, theres a lot of conversation
about would I be welcome in Boston, would I be
welcome at some of the elite institutions, would my viewpoint
be welcome? What are your thoughts about what she had
to say?

Speaker 6 (13:21):
Yeah, Suzanne is a very smart leader of the US
Chamber of Commerce. She's exercises a great deal more diplomacy
than her predecessor did, who is much more of a
firebrand leader. She's traveled, she's all over the country, she's
all over the world, and she gets a sense of

(13:44):
the way that city, states and regions are approaching economic
development and so forth. And I get a chance, through
the US Chamber and through other mechanisms to interact with
people all over the country and from other countries as well.
And I'm always owned into sort of what reactions they
have about Boston and Massachusetts. And just wanted to give

(14:06):
Susannah platform to share what she had to say. And
it is a feeling that's out there that you know
where the bluest of blue states are very progressive liberal
state politically with that type of agenda, and the question
of whether or not views on certain public policies like

(14:30):
energy and the environment, immigration, whether or not an intellectually
honest discussion can take place that welcomes maybe more conservative
views that might exist in at least half of the
rest of the country is welcome, or whether they would

(14:53):
be just out of hand rejected. You're either all in
with us, or you know, you're one of them. And
I think it's a val a point. Sometimes we and
not just Boston, Massachusetts, other parts of the country to
live in our own bubbles and don't appreciate and understand
the way that other people are thinking about things. So

(15:14):
I was I was glad, and others were glad that,
you know, someone with a fresh set of eyes made
the point that was somewhat provocative that said, you know,
maybe we don't listen to other points of view well enough.
And that's not saying to abandoned principles. What it's just
saying is to you know, welcome other other dog processes.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
He's Jim Rooney, and he is the president and CEO
the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and we appreciate him
joining us this morning on the New England Business Report.
Up next, What are we talking about, Mike Marshall, About
folks who are retiring and what they're facing these days.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the voice of Boss w RKO six eighty. Joe and
Kim will be right back.

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Speaker 8 (17:08):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff. Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what? Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,

(17:29):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshall Wealth Management and
creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that
will help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
cost or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three
four two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three four

(17:51):
two ten thirty. Well check us out online at Marshallwealth
dot Com. Marshall with two l's Marshallwealth dot Com.

Speaker 9 (17:58):
Advisory services offered your capital analysts, Lincoln Investment Registered Investment Advisors.
Security is offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member fin SIPC,
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Speaker 2 (18:11):
Welcome back everybody. You know, frequently, when we're in the
prime working years of our lives and family rearing, as
we mentioned earlier, that's forties fifties, retirement seems like a
lifetime of way. But as we all know, those years
pass very quickly, don't they. Joe, and suddenly boom, You're like,
where are we here?

Speaker 4 (18:28):
What are you saying? I'm old? Kim?

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Is that what you say? No, it's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying you know what I know, and that's that
those child rearing years like that. Mike Marshall is president
of the Marshall Wealth Management Company. It's good to have
him with us. And Mike, I know that you say
that the key really here when it comes to a
successful retirement. You got to get started early. Whether you

(18:52):
like it or not, you.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Really do, Kim, I mean, and Joe, thanks for having me.
You know, I don't think people realize when they're in
the middle of their you know, first few years of
marriage and they're starting to have children and build a
family and grow the last thing they're thinking about is, oh, wait,
I need an estate plan or I need a retirement plan,

(19:16):
or an income tax plan. They're not thinking about those things. Retirement,
as you said, might be twenty five thirty years away.
The thought is, hey, we've got plenty of time, you know,
let's take care of the kids now and then we'll
think about ourselves later. And that's just not the most
effective approach. The way retirement planning and basically wealth management

(19:39):
planning works is that you've got to have a plan
in place when you're young so that when you are
approaching retirement, you've got something there to work with. In
other words, your four oh one K you've got to
get make sure that when you're young, you're in your
four oh one k at work, or if you don't
have a four oh one k, you've got to be

(20:00):
thinking about iras and some sort of a savings plan
for retirement. Obviously, that's one key area. A state planning, though,
is probably the most key area. There are seven altogether.
I'm going to name all seven so you get an
idea of what we're talking about. So I think the
most urgent of the seven is a state planning, and

(20:20):
that's when you're talking about wills, powers of attorney, healthcare proxies.
You're caring for minors. You're making sure that your a
state is probate free. Perhaps you could benefit from a
family trust. That's a state planning. Then we've got retirement planning.
Obviously I touched on it a bit. You want to
be saving for retirement. You want to try to max

(20:43):
out those pre tax retirement accounts, because not only do
you get an immediate tax advantage by putting the money
in in the year you earn it, but you also
get tax deferred growth on that money until you retire.
Tax deferred growth. Compounding interest with tax deferred growth will
make your account value explode over time. Then we've got

(21:06):
investment planning. Obviously, you know there are short term goals
that you're going to want to accomplish in addition to
your long term retirement goals. So investment planning is very
important when it comes to achieving short term goals. The
next one would be cash flow and budget. I mean
it all really starts with a cash flow and budget plan,

(21:26):
because if you don't have a solid cash flow and
budget plan, it's impossible to save money at the end
of the day. Too many people pay their bills and
then save what's left over. What I recommend for our
clients is decide how much you want to save, put
that away first, pay yourself first, and then pay the
bills and all the other obligations that you have on

(21:49):
a monthly basis. We've also got insurance and risk management.
I mean, insurance is one of those things that nobody
wants to deal with, but everybody wants to make sure
it's place when they need it. And that's the thing
about life insurance and disability insurance and all the other
insurances that you need. They've got to be in place
before you need them. As you know, you can't buy

(22:11):
life insurance after you've been diagnosed with the terminal illness.
You've got to have these things in place prior to
any of these events. Insurance needs retirement estate planning. You've
got to have a plan in place. And then the
last of the seven key areas is assistance to love ones.
So many of us today are caring for elderly parents,

(22:33):
maybe even children in their late twenties and thirties that
are looking for financial help. You've got five twenty nine
college funds, You've got people going at school that are
requiring I mean, think about the cost.

Speaker 5 (22:47):
Of education today.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
So if you've got a child who you've just put
through four years of college and now they want to
go to get their master's degree. You're talking about a
lot of money. So all of that stuff needs to
be planned prior to the event. So again proactive versus reactive.
Reactive is when you haven't done any planning and now
you're fifty eight years old and you're talking about retirement,

(23:10):
but you haven't done the work prior to this to
have a successful retirement. So again, wealth management needs to
be comprehensive and it needs to be all seven key areas.
If you're working with an advisor and they're not talking
to you about all seven key areas, you need to
find an advisor who can talk to you about and
educate you on the importance of having a plan for

(23:33):
all seven. Having a plan for one or two doesn't work.
It's got to be comprehensive and it's going to cut
across all of those seven key areas that I spoke about.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Yeah, he's Mike Marshall of a Martial Wealth Management. To Mike,
is your phone ring in these days? I mean, what's
going on? How would you say business is for you
in this current climate?

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Well, business is very booming right now because of the
fact that, as you know, we've talked about this, this
ten thousand Americans turning age sixty five every day in
this country, and the overwhelming wave of people that are
either retiring or getting ready to retire is at an
all time high in this country. We're the baby boomers,
remember the baby boomers. That goal that stilver Tsunami, Joe,

(24:16):
and that's not going to stop. That's going to continue
for the next fifteen years. There's a lot of people
to talk to about wealth management, but I'm concerned that
people don't realize that wealth management and planning for their
financial future involves all seven key areas, not just your
retirement planning, not just your estate planning. You've got to
have a plan for all seven.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
All right, he's Mike Marshall. We thank you so much
for being a part of the show. And if you'd
like to speak to Mike and part of his team,
you can go to Marshallwealth dot com. Still come in
your way. Former Boston mayor and now the head of
the NHL players Union, Marty Walsh, She's going to be
our guest. This is the New England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.

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Speaker 8 (26:05):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff? Congratulations, you worked hard to build your retirement.
Nest egg but now what Let me help you break
through the nonsense and financial speak so we can get
to the questions that are important to you. As you know,
nothing gets built without a set of plans, and neither

(26:26):
will your financial future. My name is Mike Marshall, President
and CEO of Marshall Wealth Management and creator of the
Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that will help you
answer important questions in all seven key areas. You don't
have to do it alone. There is no cost or obligation.
Call us at eight five seven three four two ten thirty.
That's eight five seven three four two ten thirty. Well

(26:49):
check us out online at Marshallwealth dot com Marshall with
two ls Marshallwealth dot Com.

Speaker 9 (26:55):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Link Investment Registered
investment advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer member
s IPC. Lincoln Investment dot Com, Martial Wealth Management and
the above firms are independent and not affiliated.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
And welcome back to the New Engle Business Support on
this Sunday morning, June the first folks, Yep, here we
go and don't go away, because in just a few
moments we're gonna be talking with Mady Walsh, you know,
former mayor of Boston and his new job at the
Nhlso stick around for that. But a couple of other
business stories that Kim and I, you know, wanted to
talk about briefly. Here a Jet Blue, of course in

(27:28):
the United Airlines are announcing a new partnership, right, I mean,
it's not a merger, but I guess basically what it
is is, if you're a loyal customer of Jet Blue
and United, you now can earn and use miles on
Jet Blue, while Jet Blue's True Blue members can earn
and use points on United flights. Looking at an article
here by Christopher Muther of the Boston Globe, So you know,

(27:49):
I think that's sort of a big deal here in
the Boston market because I know a lot of people
are very very loyal to Jet Blue, and now you
can access each airline's loyalty program. You know, talked about
priority boarding, an extra lag room, all in favor of
that same day standby, blah blah blah. But anyway, that's
not a convenience.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
We just get a little bit nervous when we have
two airlines that are buddying up together, you know, because
the last thing we want is another merger of airlines. Yeah,
you know, because they're just they're they're just killing us
left and right here.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
So but.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
I'm sorry, listen, I'm flying to Missouri to see my family.
And if I could have flown to Japan for the
price to go to Saint Louis from Boston. So I mean,
it's just sometimes it's just a little ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
But my nephew Brian's running for governor and he's still
looking for a running mate, Kim, So.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
You know what I mean telling you, I will, I
will say let's get rid of rid of the summer Blend,
and let's get rid of these airline mergers. That's the
platform you think Brian wants me.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
That sounded pretty good. Nothing like get that that press
conference going over at Logan Airport.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
All right, Joe, We have been promising, and our next
guest is certainly somebody who's familiar to our audience. The
former mayor of Boston. He is the former labor secretary.
He's now the executive director of the NHL Players Union.
Of course, we're talking about Marty Walsh. Good morning, sir,
Good morning.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
It's great to be on again.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Great to hear your voice.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Yeah, welcome, Marty. We were delighted that you joined us,
So we're really delighted. So go ahead, Kim.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Well, we've got lots to talk to you about today, Marty,
but we want to get started with I tell you
this grabbed my attention. Glob brought a couple of weeks
ago about a wonderful program that is now started over
at PC, but has been on a number of campuses,
and you were instrumental in making this happen over at PC,
and it's an opportunity for professional athletes in the NHL

(29:46):
and the MLB to get their degrees. So tell us
a little bit about this program and why it's so
important to you.

Speaker 5 (29:54):
Yeah. So, when I took over the National Art League
Play Association, they were working on a program for players
to be engaged in thinking about business opportunities for them
and getting the experience they need to kind of grow
their profession off ice, with the intention of not just
intens have to play hockey, but a lot of these players,

(30:15):
you know, they went to college, they left college, they
didn't do any college. They came into the NHL, they
started playing competitive hockey at a young age, so the
education kind of wouldn't. It was put in the backgroner,
It wasn't front and center. Now they make it into
the NHL. Not everyone plays twenty years at NHL. Some
players play play two years, some players play three years,

(30:35):
some players play ten years. And when their career is over,
they're still young young men, younger men, and they're looking
to what's their skill? What can they do after hockey.
Not everyone could be a broadcast and not everyone built
to be a coach. Some people want to go into
business and what have you. So we decided to We
had some agree with some We had agreements with some

(30:57):
colleges to do online courses. Nothing really firm in Boston
College and myself I went to.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
A night school.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
We end up having a conversation about creating a program
to get college former college players back into school or
or players that haven't had any college the ability to
go to college. And I work with the Wood School
at Boston College, that's where I went to school. I
was a state rep in the daytime. I was going
to school at night. Took me a long time to
get my degree, but I also got my degree. So

(31:25):
we started to talk about this, it makes sense to
emback on a conversation. We start a conversation which turned
into an agreement a program, and the program turned into reality.
Really work with Boston College to have a graduate program
undergrad and graduate schools students that they wanted to as
graduate students of Boston College, which school, and we have

(31:45):
an agreement. Now we have a couple of players in
there getting their education. They're playing hockey, they're getting their education.
It helps them enhances their opportunities after hockey. You know,
not every professional athlete is a millionaire. Not every professional
athlete made millions at all. Is playing sports that people
think they do but they don't. And if they don't
have that opportunity, they're going to do need to do

(32:06):
something for the rest of their life when they've done
playing hockey and having an education. Having that degree, as
everyone knows, is important in a lot of ways. I mean,
they're probably not going to go into the building trades,
they're probably not going to go into manufacturing. So we're
looking to how do we create opportunities and pathways into
better careers for them when they've done playing hockey.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Oh, it makes a lot of sense. We're talking with
the Marty Wallace, of course, the former mayor of Boston
and now the executive director of the National Hockey League's
Players Association.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
I get.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
I'm curious, Marty, is what percentage of players say in
the NHL. I mean, I know it also covers the
other major sports leagues as well, but in the NHL,
how many players find themselves in this situation where they
want to go back and get that college degree.

Speaker 5 (32:46):
I think. I think as they get old, a lot
of them build you know what I mean. You get
a player that plays I college hockey and left after
a year or two, and now they're out of college
for a while, and they've been in NHL three or
four or five years. As they get older, like oh
of us, you get old, you start thinking about you know,
what might be next, and how do you create opportunities
and unlimit the way for them if they want to
get into business, if they want to create expand their relationships.

(33:09):
Helps them, but a lot of them do. They'll grab
me on the side, I'll explain my story to them,
how I went to school. I was thirty five, thirty six,
three seven years old going to school, and they kind
of perck up and watch it and like, well we
could do that too. You know, a lot of these
a lot of these players found up kids. They want
to have the college degree for the because the children,
they want the children's college degrees. I don't have a percentage,

(33:30):
but there's a lot. The agreement that we have is
just with the NHL Players Association and the Boston College
would School Baseball has a separate agreement, but it's all
under the same premise. It's about creating opportunities and pathways.
All of these different unions that represent all of these
different players in different leagues, all are all thinking about,
what you know, helping their player, you know, after their career.

(33:52):
You know, I often say this, I represent the players
while they're in the union, while they're in the COLLECTIBACIC agreement,
but when they're out, we still represent them because they're
phoning members. So you want to make sure that they've
set up set up successful the leads.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
All right, so let's talk a little bit about the
new gig. We call it the new gig. You've been
there for a couple of years. You have really started
to have some impact on the NHL. I know you
were intimately involved in the Four Nations tournament which turned
out to be a huge success. You've got players going
back to the Olympics, which I know the players were
very much looking forward to that. Talk a little bit

(34:25):
about some of the impact that you've had on the NHL.

Speaker 5 (34:28):
Yeah, I mean it's interesting to go there. When I
first went to you know, it was not something I
was expecting to happen. It just happened with when a
recruiter reached out to me and asked me if I'd
be interested in having a conversation, and I started to
talk to players and the board that was set up
to recruit a new executi director, And as they got
more into the conversations, I thought, it kind of brings

(34:50):
me back to my beginning rules. So being in the
label moment a little different because you're in the labor moment,
but you're also on the business side, development side of
growing the game of And one thing the players said
to me in the very beginning, almost all of them
with International Hockey Best on best competition is an important
place for them they want to get back into. And

(35:11):
we start to negotiate with the league, not negotiate with Lee,
but talk to the league about the Olympics and getting
the NHL players back into the Olympics, and we're able
to sit down the NHL and the player Association along
with the International Hockey Federation and the IOC. You don't
have the committee and get an agreement done that the
players will come back into the twenty six and twenty

(35:34):
thirty Olympic Games. And then they wanted to also talk
about the World Cup of Hockey. As a hockey fan
anyone who works hockey growing up, there are certain periods
that wasn't consistent. It was every you know, maybe every decade,
there was a World Cup of Hockey tournament. And now
we have it on a consistent base. We're going to
do World Cup of Hockey and twenty eight and thirty two,

(35:55):
so every two years now in nonth of February, we'll
have best on Best hockey with with with countries around
around the world competing against each other on the ice
to see is the best hockey team in the world
and the four Nations. We didn't have enough time to
do a full wall couple of hockey in twenty twenty four,

(36:15):
so we decided to take the route that we could
do it with all NHL players, which we did. It
was Sweden, Finland, Canada, and the United States. We were
looking at the cities to have it in and we
ultimately landed on Montreal and Boston, two great hockey towns,
and I think it was more exciting than people would

(36:36):
have thought. You know, everyone was talking about the ratings
were incredible, and people were talking about it that not
the you know, everyday hockey fan. We actually just got
awarded from the Sports Business Journal the other night, myself
and Guarantment accepted the best hockey event of the year,
which was the Four Nations, which was exciting. And the players,

(36:57):
I mean from the drop of the first puck in
the first game, the players really into this tournament. And
you could see the intensity. There's a lot of intensity
people obviously you know the USA Canada game, but it
was intensity in the Swede and Feinland game. Swede US games,
Finland Canada game. There's a lot of great intensity there
because these are all sech honkeey players that are all
start every one of them, you know, was on the

(37:18):
first one, most of them on the first line in
the teams. And it was great for the fans. I
think the fans loved it. I mean, it was just
one of those things. I mean, it was great having
in Boston. The great side of having in Boston was
in Boston. The backside having in Boston, it was in Boston.
So I got a lot of com Yeah, last a minute.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
Take this thing.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yeah yeah, yeah, folks, it's Marty Walls, right. He is
the former man of Boston. And so Marty, you know,
you were the star player with the Biden administration between
twenty twenty one and twenty thirty three until you left.
You still talk to the former president?

Speaker 5 (37:51):
I do.

Speaker 7 (37:51):
I talked.

Speaker 5 (37:52):
I haven't talked to him since obviously he's been diagnosed
with cancer, but I talked to him. He's doing great.
You know, we's I've talked, so you know, we talk
a lot about what we accomplished in the first couple
of years of the administration, the bipodistant legislation, the infrastructure bill,
the ships and science aacked.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
All of that.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
You know, He's I was supposed to go see him,
and a couple weeks ago I was wasn't able to.
He went to to go to the Popes funeral. But
other I mean, the cancer diagnosed obviously is sad in
my opinion, and you know, and it's It's also bothers
me what what some members of the media doing to
him right now? You know, they don't go back to

(38:30):
twenty twenty one. In January when he took over as president,
the country was in it was major concerns. January sixth
just happened. Those major concerns in our country. We would
head COVID. President came in, uh steadied the ship, worked
across the aisle, got things done. And you know, seeing

(38:51):
some of the people speak out against the president now
that work for him bothers me a lot, because they're
doing pretty well themselves, and they're doing it off his back.
And they didn't do it not because of they are
great leaders, because they had an opportunity that president gave
them to work in the administration. So it allows me
to see what's happening here with the president. You know,
I think I think that people look back at history
and see this moment in time when he was the president.

(39:13):
What do you accomplish? Just take the infrastructure bill alone,
I mean one point for a trillion dollar infrastructure bill.
We've never done a build out lodge in the United
States history. And that's the infrastructure, roads, bridges, highways, trains,
and you look at China that invests trillions of dollars
every year in their infrastructure. I mean, infrastructure is the

(39:37):
is the lifeline of America. We need to make sure
we have good infrastructure. And he's not getting the credit today,
but he will eventually.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
So Marty, I know that you keep an eye on
city Hall even from Afar. And of course we've got
a big mayor's race coming up this fall. Of course,
Mayor Michelle who running against Josh Kraft. Give us a
sense of what you're thinking about when you're watching that race.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
Yeah, well, I think you know Josh Josh. I talked
to Josh a bunch of times. He called me before
he decided to run. He loves the City's passionate about
the city. He you know, he works for the Boys
and Girls clubs for years. A lot of people in
the communities know him, and you know, and he's just
passionate about making sure Boston continues to move forward. I

(40:21):
had not spoken to the mayor in a while. You know,
she ran, she was running against me in twenty twenty
twenty one. When I decided before I left Washington, I
was just fine. I mean, it's open, you can do
whatever you want. I think it's going to be an
instant race. I think the problem is that for both
of them, that people don't always pay attention to the

(40:41):
man's race until after living ding. And you know, I
remember when I ran in twenty thirteen. I was out
there working hot every day, seven days a week, you know,
eighteen hours a day, literally out knocking doors, and then
all of a sudden, labor they came and everyone in
the world knew there was a mass race.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Like before that.

Speaker 5 (40:57):
He's like the people you bumped into the mis rate.
So it'll be interesting to see what happens. I think
I think I think races are good. I think it's
good to have an opponent. I had Togo Jackson my
my first reelection. It's good to have because you have
to talk about It gives you an opportunity to reflect
on your administration, to see where the problems are and
where the challenge is are. It gives you, It gives
people in Boston an opportunity to to see if there's

(41:19):
another another alternative. And you know, what we'll see is
that some of those on It's going to be a
long summer. There's gonna be lots of jaw knocking and
lots of lots of activity out there, and we'll see
what happens.

Speaker 4 (41:29):
Well, Marty, we know you have a great job and
you're very busy at this point. But where are you
on elected politics as we talk about.

Speaker 10 (41:34):
You know, I mean home.

Speaker 5 (41:36):
I pay attention to it obviously, you know, it's in
the blood. I was talking to somebody the other day
about about callings in life, and I think, like, you know,
some people have religious calling, some people have political calling.
People have different types of callings in life.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
And you know, I was, I was.

Speaker 5 (41:48):
I say fortunately, because I still think the elected office
is very important to our democracy and to our city
democracy on a national level and our city on a
local level. You know, I just hope that, you know,
I hope it comes around a bit. I mean, I
know a lot of people are down on politics today,
but you know, you're elected representative is the person that

(42:09):
represents you in whether it's Congress to the state House,
city hall, where it might be, town halls across the Massachusetts.
So I'm still very much watching it and paying attention
to it. Sometimes it's hard because you get frustrated with
with decisions being made, or you're frustrated with with some
some like the officials are saying, like down in Washington,

(42:30):
you know, towards the end, you know, I'd be called
in front of Congress one of hearing on the budget,
and there's Congressional members that wouldn't ask me a question
about the budget. They asked me ridiculous questions about foolishness.
And I think that they don't think the public's paying attention.
But the public is paying attention, and I think that's
part of the problem with today's politics. I think some
of them are are, you know, trying to grab headlines

(42:52):
or juice a post on social media, and they don't
really take into account the people I represent.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
So Marty, you said it's a calling. Is the Governor's
office going to call you back here to Massachusetts eventually?

Speaker 5 (43:04):
No, Well, Governor mar Hilly hasn't call.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
Me, Solly, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (43:11):
And also, you know mar Hilly, Governor Heally has been
been governor. You know, everyone has different different challenges. You know,
Governor bakerhead COVID and before that he's worked in the economy.
Governor Heally has the migrant situation and lack of federal
funds now potentially coming so every governor has different challenges.

(43:32):
So I mean, mar Hilly is, in my opinion, it's
done a good, very good job as as governor. She
looks like it seems like she's going to be running
for another term. Must She called me an ounce, But
you know, I think she's she's doing good.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
You know, he says, run against my nephew. You know that, right?

Speaker 5 (43:48):
I heard that. Oh my god, what I worked into?
Uh you know, well, I mean, you can never say no,
but you just you can't. I don't want to speculate.
It's about where you are in life and timing and
all that stuff. And you know where I am in
life now is the place of working with the Nhlpa's

(44:11):
still involved in a lot of different charities around Boston
and the Boston area, which is which I love, still
helping as many people as I can help. But I mean,
that's what I missed the most about the maximum ability
to help people every day, so you can still do
it when you're out of public. The are in you
have such a profound impacts is a profund impact on
so many people's lives.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Well, Marty, we got to leave it right there. We
thank you so much for being a part of the
show today. Of course, you're welcome anytime, so thank you
very much. When we come back, we're going to look
in depth to some of the business stories of this
week with the Boston Business Journal.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w r KO six eighty. Joe
and Kim will be right back.

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Speaker 4 (47:11):
England Business Support. On this Sunday morning, June the first,
Joe Short said, with Kim Kerrigan here with you. You know,
every week we talk to the executive editor of the
Boston Business Journal, one Doug Banks, you know, and every
every day when Doug's at work, he's talking about the
five things you need to know. Well, we always ask
him to put together the best business stories of the week,
and what are the five things that you need to
know on this Sunday morning and let's uh, well, Doug,

(47:32):
you know, I feel like I'm in a time machine.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
You know.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
I felt like I went all the way back to
Channel four and doing live shots in Tewksbury. When we're
talking about market baskets. Longtime CEO put on administrative lea,
oh my, oh my, what's going on here?

Speaker 10 (47:47):
So this was yeah, this is huge news. Thanks for
having me.

Speaker 11 (47:50):
It's we are blasting back in our time machine to
twenty fourteen, when this the longtime CEO of Market Basket,
Arthur T. De Mliss, has been put on, as you said,
administrative leave by his board this past week. And of
course he's already come out fighting, you know, claiming that
this is uh, it's it's a it's farcical what they're

(48:13):
trying to do to him. So here we are again,
ten years later. The first time around, it was his
cousin that was trying to take take ownership of the
company or take take part. Now it's the board is
saying to him that he has been trying planning to
disrupt the business, that he won't work with them on
issues such as succession planning, that he's going to just

(48:35):
sort of unilaterally appoint his children to take over the
company rather than rather than go through a process. And
so he's calling all of this a farcicle cover for
a hostile takeover, and he claims just to look at
the numbers, the company has been has paid off one
and a half billion dollars in debt since he's been

(48:57):
running the company. It's got they've got about thirty thousand employees,
over ninety ninety locations across New England. So the company
clearly is doing well, but for whatever reason, Arthur T
cannot seem famously, it cannot seem to get along with
his board.

Speaker 10 (49:13):
And so here we are again.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
So what happens next in this teleg because it does
seem like this is a standoff. Now before we watched
the employees take to the streets and they, you know,
they pushed very hard to get Arthur T back into
the position. Is he getting that same kind of support
and what do we anticipate will happen?

Speaker 11 (49:33):
That is the that's the one hundred thousand dollars question
right now, because you know it's we're just in a
different time. Twenty twenty five is different from twenty fourteen.
The board has pretty strong public relations firms helping it
out this time. I think they've been working on this
ouster for you know, for what they said, has been

(49:54):
building for years. I think if they can convince customers
that prices aren't going to change, that the company isn't
going to be sold, that it's going to continue to
be a family run business, and ultimately it's all about
it really is all about the pricing. I mean, everybody
knows market Basket is simply more affordable than its rivals
Stop and Shop and Star and Shaws. And as long

(50:14):
as they keep those prices down, I think customers all
at the end of the day, customers will say, you
know what, I don't care who the CEO is. I
just want my market Basket to look like market Basket.
That said, all those thirty thousand employees, they love RDT,
that's what they call him, RDT. They absolutely love him.
And so you could see, you know, people walk off

(50:35):
the job again. But I just don't know, I don't
know if that's going to happen, and I think it'd
be really interesting to watch in the next you know,
in the coming days and weeks.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
You know.

Speaker 4 (50:42):
I mean, it's just the story is so fascinating. I mean,
they use the board says he was trying to disrupt
the company, and yet you've already stated Doug and your
article here on the BBJ, written by Grant Welker, talks
about the companies expanded into Rhode Island. Revenue when twenty
twenty four was seven point seven billion. Employee headcount is
a thirty five thousand. It sounds like this company is thriving.

Speaker 10 (51:05):
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 11 (51:06):
And this is just I think this is what happens
with family businesses. We see it time and time again
with family run businesses where you have multiple shareholders, some
of them want to be actively involved, some of whom don't.

Speaker 10 (51:18):
They just want to.

Speaker 11 (51:18):
Get their their paycheck, their shares and their dividends. And
then when it comes to succession planning, when you have
to pass it off to the next generation, everybody has
different priorities. But in this case, I really do think
it's just a It's simply he doesn't want to work
with the board. He wants to make his own decisions,
and the board is saying, no, there's a process, you're
not following it. And apparently they got fed up and

(51:39):
now they're trying to see they're doing it again.

Speaker 10 (51:41):
So we'll see what happens next. It's going to be interesting.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
Let's change gears just a bit here. DCU and First
Tech Credit Unions they are working to merge. This would
make them the sixth largest US credit union, which is
amazing with twenty eight point seven billion dollars in assets.
Uh does it look like this is going to go through?

Speaker 5 (52:03):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (52:03):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that this is going to go through.
So everybody you know will know DCU as the sort
of the naming rights credit Union for the DCU center
in Wooster. And uh, you know, Digital Credit Union started
from Digital Equipment Corps, the old deck Tech company from
the eighties.

Speaker 10 (52:20):
That's how it got its start.

Speaker 11 (52:22):
And now the DCU credit Union, which is already the
largest in Massachusetts, as you said, is combining with First
Tech out of Silicon Valley. And just to put into
perspective that when I you know, when you say it's
the sixth largest in the country, you know, the fifth
largest credit union is Boeing Employees Credit Union at thirty
billion dollars. They're going to come in just under that

(52:44):
at six I mean, it's going to be a massive
credit union, you know, Navy Federal. We've seen the commercials
for Family. He's like, it's just gonna be massive right
here in our backyard. And so you know, it's going
to be bigger than by assets, almost all of the
banks here in massachusetse And so it's gonna be really
interesting to see what they do. And and we're gonna

(53:04):
be we're gonna be watching that closely. But it is
expected to close. That deal is expected to close in
the next month or so. So we've we've been watching
that deal, and you know, there's a lot of M
and A deals going on with banks and everything, but
this is sort of that that the quiet giant merger
UH deal that nobody's really paying attention to, that's gonna
you know, could could impact a lot of a lot
of borrowers in UH in Massachusetts, and I expect you'll

(53:27):
see that DCU.

Speaker 10 (53:27):
Brand in a lot more places after this merger is done.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Well, you know, Kim always worries about mergers. She's afraid
what's gonna happen next.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Uh don't like airline mergers.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
I mean, is this good for customers?

Speaker 10 (53:39):
Yeah, it absolutely can be.

Speaker 11 (53:41):
If if d C you you know, if you're a
credit union customer, you're you know, you're already going there
because they have fewer fees. There's less regulation on a
credit union than a bank. And so if DCU can
get that economy of scale that comes from a national
partnership and they want to you know, and they they
do decide to expand, then their credit union members will

(54:01):
absolutely have more access to capital. There'll be more places
they can go, They'll have more capital with which to
do to work, and it'll be really interesting to see
where DCU goes with its lending, especially right now with
the economy being what it is.

Speaker 10 (54:14):
You know, everybody needs access to capital. It's just a
question of.

Speaker 11 (54:17):
Where they're going to get it. So it could be
really interesting to say, will be fun, it's fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Let's talk. I was just laughing saying I don't like
airline mergers only because I can't get over the fact
that they're just charging so much international summer flights.

Speaker 10 (54:31):
Out of Logan. This is a really good thing.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
People are saying, this is a great year to go overseas.
So what's happening?

Speaker 11 (54:37):
So we yeah, Isabelle Hart has took a look at
some of the mergers. There's been several new flights coming
in and out direct from Boston, Edinburgh, Scotland, Madrid, Spain
with Jet Blue. Is going to be the first time
Jet Blue is flying to any Spanish city, and so
another opportunity to go to Madrid if you haven't been.

(54:58):
Porto Portugal Air Portugal, which has already been flying out
of Boston, but now they're going to be going four
times weekly, so many more times Barcelona and Milan with Delta.
So these are it's the Milan flight, I think is
the first direct link from Boston to Milan of any
airline here. So it just really goes to show you

(55:18):
you've seen probably that big, giant red Delta terminal over
at Logan Airport now, so this is you know, Delta's
got more space to work with, They've got more you know,
they've got more opportunities' got more planes, and it's just
you know, it's it's always a good thing for our
economy when Boston is on the international map and people
can whether it's tourism and visitors or really for our audience,
the business people can do business in Europe with a

(55:41):
much shorter flight, whether it's having a European company based
at the US headquarters here rather than the West Coast
because we're so much closer to Europe, or just you know,
doing business in Europe and you just got to get
there for a day or two and you got to
come back.

Speaker 10 (55:54):
So a lot of.

Speaker 11 (55:55):
Interesting flights coming in. Some of them have already started
this month, some will start next month, but lots of
good opportunities not only for for business, but leisure travel
as well.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
All Right, He's Doug Banks, he's the executive editor. Doug.
We got just a couple of seconds here left. But
June first obviously marked the start of Pride Month.

Speaker 11 (56:12):
Yes, so we uh, Pride Month is is June. We're
at June first now and it's it's exciting. We had
our Business of Pride event earlier this week, this past
week where we we honored a bunch of trailblazers in
the LGBT business community. We published our LGBT Owned Businesses List,
as we've been doing now for nine years, and and

(56:35):
we held held a big event at Boston Shops. It
was a real it was a fun celebration. We had
companies from like al Nylam, We had Cambridge Savings Bank
with them, the accounting firm and m B t A
where we we had Phil Ang himself came to UH
to celebrate with his group from the m B t
A and it was uh, it was it was a
great event to kick off kickoff Pride Month, and it

(56:56):
was uh. You know, we're continuing to focus on business
people of all types as hiring is challenging and it's
difficult to keep those workforces intact, especially at high cost
state like Massachusetts. It's good to see companies are doing
everything they can to keep all of their employees and
celebrating in that way.

Speaker 10 (57:15):
So it was it was a great event. We had
a lot of fun, all right.

Speaker 4 (57:18):
He's Doug Banks. He's the executive editor of the Boston
Business Journal.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Well, Joe, that's going to do it for this edition
of the New England Business Report. I think it's been
a great show and we're so glad that everybody could
be with us. He coming up next Sunday morning at
eight am. We're going to dive into this ongoing saga
over there at Harvard University. You know, it's a story
Joe that just keeps on giving Wow.

Speaker 5 (57:41):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
Diddy Coley from the Boston Globe is following this story
very closely, and she's going to be our guest. That's
all coming up next Sunday morning, eight am on the
New England Business Report, right here on the Voice of
Boston w r KO A M six eighty