Entrepreneur Mike Salguero is getting political.
First, the ButcherBox chief executive agreed to help with a state ballot question that would legalize the use of plant-based psychedelics. Now, he’s leading a charge to protect another ballot question, this one from 2016 when voters supported more humane confinement rules for pigs and chickens that eventually end up in Massachusetts food stores.
Salguero sent a letter last month to the leaders of the two congressional agriculture committees, urging them to reject a proposal known as the EATS Act that would override state agricultural rules such as those adopted by Massachusetts voters and a similar measure in California. There’s a growing fear among animal rights groups that Congress, at the urging of agricultural lobbyists, will adopt the EATS Act as part of its next farm bill.
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Salguero said he reached out to business contacts to get about 25 companies to sign on to his letter, including rival Walden Local Meat in Tewksbury and Kettle Cuisine in Lynn. He said this wasn’t about helping his eight-year-old Watertown company, which generates about $600 million in annual revenue selling humanely raised meat and wild-caught seafood.
“We’re not doing it because we think it’s a good thing for our business,” Salguero said. “We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do. . . . A good deal of people in Massachusetts and California are saying there’s a different way to do this. Unfortunately, people are trying to have the federal government step in and tell us as a state how we should be shopping.”
Salguero’s farm-bill letter follows his decision to donate to the psychedelics campaign. Salguero was approached by Flipside Crypto chief executive Dave Balter and Pillar VC general partner Sarah Hodges after the couple had seen Salguero write on Twitter about a profound psychedelic experience, and asked him to get involved. He fears that if the federal government undermines the Massachusetts animal rights question, then the proposed psychedelics question, expected to go before voters in November, could be in jeopardy, too.
Salguero said this activity represents the first time he has become significantly involved in politics.
“It’s an attempt to reverse what was on the Massachusetts ballot and the California ballot,” Salguero said of the EATS Act. “I see it as a threat to democracy in general.”
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Health care keeps lobbying shops busy
It’s official: Smith, Costello & Crawford is number one for five years in a row.
The state’s lobbying records for 2023 just became public — and Smith, Costello & Crawford led the way again, with $5.5 million in lobbying revenue. Tremont Strategies was second again, with $4 million. Notable climbers included former House Ways and Means chair Brian Dempsey’s firm, Dempsey Associates, which rose to fourth from sixth, with $3.4 million in 2023, as well as Dan Cence’s Issues Management Group, finishing in 8th place, with $2.2 million, up from 14th.
The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association and the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans led the way in lobbying spending again; both trade groups cleared $1 million last year. Many top corporate spenders were in health care as well, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (first among corporate clients, $495,000), Mass General Brigham (third, after National Grid, $444,000), and Beth Israel Lahey Health (fourth, $384,000). With all the tumult in this sector, having eyes, ears, and a voice in the State House has probably never been more important.
A year later, SVB has its mojo back
One year after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and its government-orchestrated sale to First Citizens, SVB president Marc Cadieux wants you to know that SVB has its mojo back.
In a letter to clients and employees marking the anniversary, Cadieux wrote that thousands of customers returned to SVB, now a commercial banking arm of First Citizens focused on tech clients, when they didn’t find what they wanted at rival banks. About 6,600 people work for SVB today, including around 500 in Greater Boston.
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Cadieux, a Hingham native who got his start in Boston banking before moving to California, said Boston remains “a huge market” for SVB, with a local base at 53 State St. (Separately, five SVB Private branches in the Boston area, vestiges from SVB’s purchase of Boston Private Bank, will be rebranded as First Citizens this year.)
“A year in, we’ve been really left to operate pretty autonomously,” Cadieux said. “We are very much back in business.”
Roberts throws his energy behind clean energy
When venture capitalist Carmichael Roberts moved to the Boston area in the 1990s, it was to join the burgeoning life sciences scene as this region was becoming the global leader in that industry.
Now, Roberts is focused on clean energy and other climate-tech endeavors, as managing partner of VC firm Material Impact and investment committee leader at Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Roberts joined the Environmental League of Massachusetts last week to help catalyze support for Governor Maura Healey’s plan to set aside $1 billion over 10 years for the state’s climate-tech sector, a plan somewhat inspired by a similar effort more than 15 years ago to help the life sciences sector under then-Governor Deval Patrick.
The competition in the energy space is fierce, Roberts said. While Massachusetts is already a leader, he said, Healey’s plan would make the state even more competitive.
“Whatever extra energy, extra oomph we can [provide] to get behind the governor,” Roberts said, “we should definitely do it.”
Getting hacked is no fun, says Mandia
Kevin Mandia, chief executive of the Google-owned Mandiant cybersecurity business, had some sobering news for Boston executives last week.
Speaking at the Boston College Chief Executives Club with Rapid7′s Corey Thomas, Mandia recalled how one top executive once asked when he could go back to his “day job” during a cyberattack. Mandia’s response: After a hack, dealing with it is your day job. Don’t “outsource the challenge.”
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In contrast, Mandia praised the response of local executive Aron Ain, who led HR software firm UKG during a ransomware attack in late 2021. Ain ended up calling hundreds of clients as a result, Mandia said.
“As a CEO going through a breach,” he said, “you have to call your customers and get yelled at.”
Mariano: No fan of Steward boss de la Torre
Like any good politician, House Speaker Ron Mariano came to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce with a laundry list of accomplishments and previews of future actions — as well as some one-liners to keep people’s attention.
Speaking to the chamber at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel last week, he started by saying, “I always look forward to this when I agree to do it, until the time I have to show up and actually do something.”
He referred to various state reps in the room, including his top lieutenant, Ways and Means chair Aaron Michlewitz. “Aaron and I converse daily,” he said, “not always pleasantly, but daily.”
Mariano noted the biggest difference from his previous visit to the chamber a year ago, before state revenues started regularly falling short of forecasts: “The last time I was here, I had money.”
He did spark a round of applause when he promised a vote on a version of Governor Maura Healey’s housing bond bill in the coming months. As the claps began, he warned the crowd: “Hold your applause until I finish.” That’s because he went on to say he is considering a property transfer fee on high-end sales, to build affordable housing — similar to a controversial proposal backed by Healey but opposed by the chamber.
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His best line, though, was an off-the-cuff remark to a reporter. As he left, Mariano was asked if he had spoken to Steward Health Care chief executive Ralph de la Torre, given the financial crisis engulfing the hospital chain. Mariano responded by referencing Steward’s closure of his hometown hospital, Quincy Medical Center, years ago : “Not since he pissed through my hospital.”
Jon Chesto can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @jonchesto.