Weather Co. CEO back in Boston

Kenny became CEO at The Weather Co. in early 2012, after leaving Akamai the previous fall. The hitch? The parent company of The Weather Channel is based in Atlanta, making for a rough commute as his family held onto its Wellesley house.

Then IBM came along this year, with a goal of pumping all of this newly acquired weather data into its powerful data computing system known as Watson and building its “Internet of Things” business. The Weather Channel TV station will stay with its current owners — Comcast, Bain Capital, and Blackstone Group — at least for now and will become a customer of IBM’s weather services.

IBM hasn’t yet specified Kenny’s new role. But weather will be just a small part. Kenny says he’ll be focused on expanding Watson’s reach, looking at ways to use its computing power to crunch numbers for everyone from stock investors to shopkeepers.

“There are a lot of other things happening at other companies in Massachusetts where we can connect,” Kenny said. “IBM is so committed to the area [because of] the talent pool that comes out of the universities and the research.”

JON CHESTO

The seventh floor of 101 Seaport Blvd. is empty right now, but it gets a fair bit of foot traffic — from people coming to look at the hole in the ground next door.

Skanska USA is under construction on the only so-called “spec” office building going up in Boston right now, its 450,000-square foot tower at 121 Seaport. And while they don’t have an anchor tenant lined up yet, they’re getting a lot of lookers.

“We get a shot at every major tenant in the market,” said Shawn Hurley, who runs Skanska’s Boston office.

So Skanska’s marketing team has set up shop on the empty seventh floor in its new building next door, with carpet over cement floor and a folding chair with tables. There are big posters with images of the new tower. The views are comparable, to be supplemented with drone shots once the permitting works out. And there’s that view down into the hole, where work began over the summer and is set to be completed by early 2018.

Hurley and Charley Leatherbee, who’s taking over Skanska’s Boston operation in January when Hurley moves up to a national job for the big developer, wouldn’t say who’s been through to take a look. Nor would they say how close they are to signing an anchor tenant. But they sound optimistic. PWC took most of the space in 101 Seaport sight unseen, Leatherbee noted. The place just opened, and about all that’s left is the empty seventh floor.

“I think that speaks a lot to the broader fundamentals here,” he said.

TIM LOGAN

When TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver first started thinking Tom Brady would be the perfect pitchman for his Swiss watch company, Deflategate wasn’t yet a household word and the Wells report was still months away.

Biver had been paying attention to the famous New England Patriots QB for a few years and thought he would be right for the company’s revival of its “Don’t crack under pressure” tagline. Little did Biver know how appropriate that slogan would be for Brady — off the field as well as on — in 2015.

Biver was in town last week to speak to students at Harvard Business School. But he also took some time to chat with the media about the new campaign. Let’s not forget, he’s got luxury timepieces to promote.

The Swiss exec says Brady agreed to a three-year contract with TAG Heuer over the summer, just before a federal judge ruled in favor of Brady in the Deflategate mess. Brady, Biver notes, maintained his composure throughout the controversy: “It’s good he didn’t crack. He wins on the field of sport, he wins on the legal field.”

Most people like the new ads, Biver says. But not everyone — and not everywhere. Putting Brady’s face on a billboard on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel probably didn’t win over New York Giants fans, especially the weary ones who saw the sign as they headed home after their team’s 27-26 loss to the Pats on Nov. 15.

JON CHESTO

Think of an important job in the Massachusetts health insurance industry, and chances are Bruce M. Bullen has done it. His resume includes running the state’s Medicaid program and one of its largest health insurance companies.

Bullen, 68, is now the chief operating officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, running the day-to-day business of the state’s biggest health insurer. But at the end of the year, he’s retiring.

Much of that career was spent alongside now-Governor Charlie Baker. Bullen and Baker worked on health care together in the Weld administration. Later, when Baker became the chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Bullen became his No. 2, the chief operating officer, working with Baker to turn around the troubled company. When Baker left to enter politics in 2009, Bullen did a stint as interim CEO of Harvard Pilgrim before moving over to competitor Blue Cross about five years ago.

PRIYANKA DAYAL MCCLUSKEY

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