Spinelli leaves on a high note. The Wall Street Journal ranked Babson second last year, for the second year in a row, after Stanford University, among all institutions of higher education in the United States. And this month, Babson emerged as the top regional college in the Northeast, per US News & World Report, while topping that magazine\u2019s rankings for entrepreneurship yet again. <\/p>\n
Babson received nearly 11,000 applications for its current school year, up from 6,400 in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, while 1,720 students were accepted and 750 enrolled. Applications spiked significantly in 2024, as Babson rose in the Journal\u2019s rankings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gold vein is deep,\u201d Spinelli said of Babson\u2019s applicants. \u201cI\u2019ve got to tell you, it\u2019s hard to find a bad one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spinelli\u2019s ties to Babson go back to his Jiffy Lube days. That\u2019s when he got his MBA, studying part time, often driving to Babson on Thursday nights. He taught there from 1993 through 2007, before decamping for Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
When Spinelli returned as president in 2019, he set about broadening the focus of the curriculum from entrepreneurship to entrepreneurial leadership: skills and approaches necessary for successful founders that could apply to just about any management role.<\/p>\n
Spinelli added: \u201cIf you say to someone, \u2018Listen, we\u2019re going to equip you to lead in a highly chaotic environment, . . . they say, \u2018I\u2019m listening to that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The pandemic prompted more online and digital learning. The school packaged lessons, lectures, podcasts, and other presentations to be sold as modules to corporate buyers and other schools.<\/p>\n
Spinelli led a $750 million fund-raising campaign, with Home Depot cofounder and alum Arthur Blank\u2019s foundation donating the largest single gift, and launched a doctorate program.<\/p>\n
Spinelli credits Babson\u2019s rise in the rankings to an increased emphasis on outcomes like career success. But he doesn\u2019t have the energy he once did, and realized it\u2019s time for someone else to take over. Babson\u2019s board has started a search for a successor.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy competitive advantage really is I outwork people,\u201d Spinelli said. \u201c[But] I will even admit there\u2019s an end to this whole experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who will win the race to impose safeguards on the AI industry \u2014 Beacon Hill or Capitol Hill?<\/p>\n
That question loomed at a press conference US Representative Lori Trahan and state Senator Barry Finegold held at the State House last week to generate momentum for their respective AI-regulation bills.<\/p>\n
Finegold, cochair of the Legislature\u2019s economic development committee, would prefer a federal standard to avoid a state-by-state patchwork. But if Congress refuses to act, Finegold added, then state legislatures need to step in.<\/p>\n
For now, at least, his state legislation addressing the country\u2019s largest AI labs, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, shows far more promise of becoming law than Trahan\u2019s federal bill. The state version was already approved by the Senate, and included in a broad economic development bill that Finegold and others are negotiating. Of particular concern to the tech industry: a measure that would require independent third-party reviews of large AI labs every 120 days, to prevent catastrophic risks. Anthropic is championing that language, while OpenAI and others fight it. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Trahan says her bill in Washington, cosponsored by Republican Jay Obernolte, is being blocked by GOP leaders at the behest of President Trump. Trahan hopes recent news around AI bots breaking free of human control and concerns raised by researchers and executives represent a tipping point in public opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversation has completely changed,\u201d Trahan said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we can wait on the catastrophic risks posed by these frontier labs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Changes at the top for ELM<\/p>\n
For nearly a decade, Elizabeth Turnbull Henry grew the Environmental League of Massachusetts into an environmental advocacy force, assembling a small army at ELM\u2019s downtown digs.<\/p>\n
Now, she\u2019s moving on.<\/p>\n
Last week, Henry announced that she is stepping down as ELM\u2019s president to become executive director of the Blue Horizons Foundation. Casey Bowers, ELM\u2019s executive vice president of government relations, takes over as interim president.<\/p>\n
Bowers worked closely with Henry for eight years, after joining ELM from the American Lung Association. She\u2019s been focused on ELM\u2019s legislative activities, as well as its political work through the affiliated ELM Action Fund.<\/p>\n
Over Henry\u2019s tenure, Bowers said, the organization grew from seven people to 25. Its annual budget is now around $5 million, with revenue coming from philanthropic grants and donations, fund-raising, and fees paid by members of ELM\u2019s corporate council. <\/p>\n
The board, led by chair Gordon Burnes, will consider external candidates to fill the president\u2019s role, though Bowers expects to apply.<\/p>\n
\u201cELM grew so much,\u201d Bowers said. \u201cA lot of it had to do with Elizabeth\u2019s leadership and the team she has built out. We were able to show how we could work in the State House and with policy makers [to have] the biggest impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bigger digs for downtown law firm<\/p>\n
John McGivney is trading a good view from his office at 53 State for an even better one a few blocks away at One Federal.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not why the managing partner at law firm Rubin Rudman is planning the change in scenery. Rubin Rudman is bursting at the seams, and the new office on floors 23 through 25 at Tishman Speyer\u2019s One Federal will feature one-third more space: 58,000 square feet versus 43,000 today. And it will be on contiguous floors, unlike at 53 State. (One side of the new office will overlook the harbor, while the other shows off a panorama featuring the Charles River.)<\/p>\n
When Rubin Rudman first moved to 53 State in 2017, it had 60 lawyers. Now, it has around 100, with 190 employees in total. Two other firms\u2019 dissolution aided the growth: All eight lawyers from Pabian & Russell joined as that firm folded, while others joined from the now-defunct Burns & Levinson. <\/p>\n
Rubin Rudman tapped Gensler to design the new space, with a move-in date expected in early 2028. Most people come into the office four days a week, but it\u2019s not a requirement.<\/p>\n
McGivney would like to have room for 125 attorneys eventually, so the firm has rights of first refusal to lease adjacent areas at One Federal should they become necessary. \u201cOur firm has been in the city for 106 years,\u201d McGivney added, \u201cand our intention is to stay and continue to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chamber leads DC push for more dollars<\/p>\n
As the once-steady flow of federal research funding remains at risk under the Trump administration, a growing group of chambers of commerce from across the country has a key goal: making the case in Washington to support science.<\/p>\n
Jim Rooney of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, a ringleader for the Business for Federal Research Funding Coalition, now has nearly 90 business groups from 40-plus states at his side. Around 25 members trekked to Washington, D.C., this month to meet with staffers in Congress and the National Institutes of Health, in their second such \u201cfly in\u201d since the spring of 2025. <\/p>\n
Rooney said he noticed more of an appreciation for the business community\u2019s voice on the topic this year. The chamber members, he said, are arguing that research grants don\u2019t just support scientists, but also boost other sectors, such as construction and manufacturing: \u201cLocal chambers making the business case for jobs and economic activity is far more compelling than hearing what is currently being perceived as self-serving arguments from universities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney has tried to ensure that red states like Texas are represented, so these missions don\u2019t come across merely as grievances from Democratic strongholds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am more hopeful this year than last year,\u201d Rooney said. \u201cThere seems to be, on both sides of the aisle, an embrace of the need for research funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @jonchesto<\/a>.<\/p>\n