Gustavo Quiroga may have just started as LISC Boston’s new executive director, but he’s already making waves.
On Wednesday, Quiroga plans to announce that the local LISC office’s name will change to LISC Massachusetts, to better reflect its ambitions to reach more of the state. He plans to make the announcement at the local LISC office’s annual “Story Slam” fund-raiser held at Artists for Humanity in South Boston, where guest speakers will include national LISC chief executive Michael Pugh and state housing secretary Ed Augustus.
Quiroga’s organization provides financing, grant funding, and technical assistance to local community development corporations and other developers to build affordable housing, retrofit existing homes with energy-saving improvements, and support small businesses. The small-business piece of that mission became particularly important during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Quiroga’s predecessor, Karen Kelleher, served as an advocate for businesses struggling under COVID restrictions and plunging revenue. Kelleher left LISC Boston last year to join BlueHub Capital, another community development finance institution.
LISC, short for Local Initiatives Support Corp., named Quiroga as Kelleher’s replacement in December. He previously worked at Graffito SP, a real estate advisory firm in Boston. Quiroga set out to broaden LISC Boston’s visibility in the business community, particularly among potential partners that share similar goals. Quiroga also picked up on previous discussions within the organization about a possible name change, and ran with them.
“The word is getting out there, a little bit,” Quiroga said. “It already has opened up new conversations and new dialogue and opportunities with businesses and corporate partners in other parts of the state whom we haven’t had a real relationship with in the past.”
He noted that banks and foundations in Western Massachusetts are particularly interested in having a partner like LISC active in their communities to address the challenges in that region. LISC, a national group with 38 local offices, has operated in Greater Boston for more than 40 years. Now, Quiroga said, it’s incumbent on him and his five team members to broaden the geographic reach by meeting with new community development partners across the state.
“The new name LISC Massachusetts . . . is a hugely important signal out to the community that we are a statewide organization,” Quiroga said. “I feel as though the name change is step one, but what comes next is a process [of] statewide community stakeholder engagement.”
Bob Maginn is back on the scene and keeping busy
A few years ago, Bob Maginn took a big detour from his life as a tech executive, taking time off for divinity school at Harvard.
But now he’s back, in a big way. He is returning to run Jenzabar, the 540-person software firm he cofounded in 1998, out of his basement while still working as a consultant with Bain & Co. The firm provides software to colleges and universities, and Maginn said he’s excited about how recent improvements in artificial intelligence will help boost the company’s services to its clients.
Maginn will balance his new chief executive role with another one: He’s been chief executive at MindEdge, an ed-tech firm in Waltham, since joining last year at the request of MindEdge founder Quinn Mills, who chairs Jenzabar’s board. (Maginn might be better known in some circles for his political work, including an unsuccessful run for state treasurer in 1998 and a subsequent two-year tenure as chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party.)
Maginn led Jenzabar, which has dual corporate offices in the Back Bay and in Virginia, since its founding before stepping down to focus on his divinity studies. Even after he left, he remained Jenzabar’s largest shareholder. Maginn already had his MBA from Harvard, but wanted a master’s degree in divinity from Harvard as well.
“I got to meet people whom I never would have met [otherwise], people from all over the world who have all kinds of different views,” Maginn said. “Divinity school was a great opportunity for me to see that in action.”
Cigna CEO: It’s time to tackle health care costs
Speaking to a crowd of Boston businesspeople on Friday, Cigna chief executive David Cordani gamely answered numerous questions in succession from Suffolk Construction owner John Fish, who shared the stage with the insurance executive.
But there was one question, posed by an audience member at the Boston College Chief Executives Club event at the Boston Harbor Hotel, that caused Cordani to audibly take a deep breath before proceeding.
The question came from Laurie Glimcher, chief executive of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Glimcher asked a question that’s on the minds of many executives at Dana-Farber and other academic medical centers: How do we balance the need to fund expensive research into vexing ailments, namely cancer and Alzheimer’s, while also keeping a lid on health care costs?
Phew. Cordani took a moment before diving in.
“It’s actually a great question . . . for all of us to lean into,” he said.
Cordani said health care organizations need to be relentless in generating efficiencies while providing for access to care. In many cases, that means moving services typically provided by a hospital into a doctor’s office, moving services provided in doctors’ offices to in-home care, or even shifting in-home care to virtual care.
“Some of what we’ve done in the past isn’t going to work [anymore],” Cordani said. “I’m optimistic . . . we’ll put ourselves in a better position, not perfect, but a better position going forward.”
When it comes to Cigna’s work on this front, maybe Cordani’s blue-collar upbringing in Waterbury, Conn., will help. His parents and grandparents instilled in him and his two brothers the importance of three basic tenets: hard work, community responsibility, and the “golden rule” of treating others the way you want to be treated.
“Nothing we confront is easy,” Cordani said. “But hard work helps a lot.”
Hale runs Boston, and gives along the way
Some celebrate a marathon finish with a hot shower, a cold beer, or an extra doughnut. Rob Hale went the extra mile, by breaking out his checkbook.
The Granite Telecommunications chief executive finished the Boston Marathon for the first time last week, a comeback after a stress fracture on a training run ended his marathon dreams in 2022. To celebrate, Hale sent an email to more than 70 local charities, announcing that he and his wife Karen Hale would be donating a collective $26.2 million to them, including $9 million to the Fieldhouse Plus project in Dorchester being developed by the Martin Richard Foundation and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dorchester.
Several other recipients included organizations along the route, such as the Newton Fire Department, Fenway Health, and the Boston Public Library. Newton Fire, in particular, held important resonance: During training runs on the course, Hale noticed that the firefighters would put out food and drinks for the runners, at the base of the first of the Commonwealth Avenue hills. They left out a boot to collect donations, but most marathoners aren’t carrying cash on their long runs.
The Hales gave the Fire Department $100,000 — more than enough to fill that boot.
It was on that hill past the firehouse that the Marathon day’s heat started to get the best of Hale. He said he never had to walk on his training runs, but was forced to do so there.
“Halfway up the hill, I felt like I got hit by lightning,” Hale said.
About 25 Granite employees ran the race. Hale ran with three Granite colleagues, as a member of the Boston Children’s Hospital team, and finished in a time of 5:15. As part of the $26.2 million round of donations, the Hales gave $1.2 million to Children’s. More than 2,700 fund-raising athletes participated this year.
“Yes, it’s arduous, it hurts, [but] I didn’t think it was going to be that hard,” Hale recalled. “Of course, when you come down Boylston and people are going bananas and screaming your name, it’s unforgettably positive.”
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.