Is there anyone in Boston who is not in John Werner’s Rolodex?
Well, maybe a few people. But Werner’s local network is as deep and wide-ranging as they come, as evidenced from the way he assembled 70-plus speakers and performers last Thursday for 15 hours of TEDx talks — short presentations that are often aimed to inspire or express bold ideas, to be videotaped and then shared online.
The marathon session took place at the ‘Quin House, formerly known as the Algonquin Club, the Back Bay social club that Paul and Sandy Edgerley acquired and rechristened. More than 500 people attended; tickets were free, and went fast. The presentations were projected on five different walls inside the building, providing for a more immersive experience.
Werner is a venture capitalist by day, as managing director of Link Ventures. On the side, he has been producing TEDx talks and videos for more than a decade, through a licensing agreement with TED Conferences. (The name is an acronym for Technology, Education, and Design, although TEDx talks are not limited to those topics.)
The spark for the “Ideas in Action” event at the ‘Quin was a conversation Werner had with renowned food journalist Mark Bittman in September for a separate project. Werner invited Bittman, who recently published the book Animal, Vegetable, Junk, about the food industry’s environmental impacts, to Boston to produce a TEDx video.
As soon as Bittman said yes, Werner went to work on scheduling an entire day (and night) of TEDx talks. Within a matter of weeks, he had an eclectic group of committed presenters, from an aerialist (Zoe Heywood of the Moody Street Circus) to a zookeeper (John Linehan, president of Zoo New England).
The lineup, to name a few others, included Jennifer Hedrington, the Malden math teacher who was named Massachusetts Teacher of the Year in 2021; Tom Grilk, the head of the Boston Athletic Association; Jon McNeill, the former Lyft and Tesla executive; and Helen Greiner, the roboticist who runs Tertill Corp. Roughly one-quarter of the speakers were from out of state.
Bittman chalks up the event’s success to Werner’s enthusiasm. “I think everybody who is here is here because he is so convincing and so charismatic,” Bittman said.
Werner said this TEDxBoston event will be the first of many in this format, at the ‘Quin and at other venues in the area.
“I want to rally the Boston community to think about what are the topics we should continue to talk about, and what are the topics we should be talking about, that we’re not talking about,” Werner said. “Something really special happened last week. There’s no turning back.”
From Boston to Glasgow
The business executives who traveled to Glasgow in recent days for the COP26 climate summit weren’t just coming from the energy sector. Financial companies such as Boston-based State Street Corp. also sent emissaries to Scotland.
Chief executive Ron O’Hanley, who attended along with executive vice president Rick Lacaille, has made addressing climate and carbon emissions a big priority for State Street. Among the steps the company is taking: developing tools that will allow investors to measure the carbon intensity of various companies, and setting a goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions for State Street itself by 2050.
That’s not to say energy wasn’t well represented at COP26. Boston-based General Electric, for example, sent its chief sustainability officer, Roger Martella, as well as the head of its renewables business, Jérôme Pécresse, and GE Aviation chief executive John Slattery. And the Northeast Clean Energy Council sent its departing president, Peter Rothstein, as well as its incoming one, longtime Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone.
In previous years, O’Hanley said, the United Nations climate summit was dominated by government and nonprofit leaders. This year, he is seeing more business executives in key roles.
“Business, and in particular finance, is an equal leader and in some cases out in front of the governments and NGOs,” O’Hanley said. “Ultimately, this transition needs to be financed. It’s important that business is at the table to figure out how this gets done.”
Growing their team
It took more than a decade, but Jason Weissman and Wil Catlin have finally landed finance chief Bill McIntyre for their growing real estate business, Boston Realty Advisors.
The two initially met with McIntyre over lunch about 15 years ago. McIntyre, who worked for Coldwell Banker at the time, was intrigued. As he recalled: “I was probably a pen stroke away from coming over.” But McIntyre said he was persuaded to stay by his boss at Coldwell Banker.
Flash forward to 2021. McIntyre had left Coldwell and was working with Stuart Pratt at commercial real estate firm Hunneman, when he heard that Weissman and Catlin were looking for a comptroller. Maybe that old job offer still stood?
Weissman and Catlin jumped at the opportunity. The timing was perfect because they were looking to expand in the residential sales arena, which is where McIntyre spent most of his career. They brought McIntyre on as chief financial officer for Boston Realty Advisors and Advisors Living, the firm’s residential affiliate.
McIntyre now works with Advisors Living president Merit McIntyre, another relatively recent recruit who was once a top Coldwell executive.
“I jokingly call him my cousin,” Bill McIntyre said, “but we’re not related.”
LGA + ALL = More CPAs to serve local firms
Is bigger better? John Geraci certainly hopes so.
The managing partner of accounting and consulting firm LGA has overseen several acquisitions of smaller practices in the past few years. But the deal that took effect on Nov. 1 is its biggest one yet, bringing ALL CPAs, the Chestnut Hill accounting and consulting firm, into the fold.
Now, LGA has more than 125 employees (including 40 from ALL CPAs), working from offices in Chestnut Hill and Salem, N.H., as well as its Woburn headquarters. The firm has come a long way from where it was when Geraci first joined in 2009, when it had only about 20 employees.
Geraci said his firm has tried to be opportunistic about M&A, with many smaller CPA firms having partners who are nearing retirement age without an internal succession plan in place.
He said LGA will stand out amid a number of New England firms who have instead chosen to merge with bigger accountancies outside of the region. The options available to small and midsized businesses who prize local leadership and decision making are shrinking. Getting bigger, Geraci said, will help LGA stay in the mix by offering more depth and expertise to those clients and potential clients.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.