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Mulhern said this isn’t about putting a succession plan in place. Kennedy isn’t going anywhere.
“It’s just an opportunity for us to expand the efforts in that space,” Mulhern said of his new role. “As best as I can tell, Bill is not slowing down. ... I think he’s probably in this building more than any other lawyer.”
Mulhern’s move to Nutter in 2022 represented his first private-sector job since graduating law school two decades earlier. He got his start in the state attorney general’s office, working full time for Tom Reilly while attending Suffolk Law at night. Then, his career as a prosecutor began in the Middlesex DA’s office, then led by Martha Coakley. In 2003, the Boston native joined the Suffolk prosecutor’s office under then-DA Dan Conley, and he took a five-year detour to City Hall to lead Boston’s Office of Public Safety during Marty Walsh’s administration. In 2019, Rollins brought Mulhern back to the Suffolk DA’s office as her number two, running its day-to-day operations.
Despite a long public-sector career, the private-sector shift wasn’t as jarring as Mulhern expected.
“The skill set I’ve developed over the years fit nicely into the business of the law firm,” Mulhern said. “Of course, I’m still learning each and every day [but] the learning curve wasn’t as steep as I might have anticipated and that has allowed me, in many respects, to hit the ground running.”
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Nutter’s collaborative culture helped, too. Mulhern hopes to grow Nutter’s reach in the real estate, higher ed, and nonprofit sectors in particular.
More broadly, Mulhern wants to use his government experience with lining up public-private partnerships to help Nutter’s corporate clients. They have a number of reasons, he added, to be aligned with the Massachusetts governor and Boston mayor on various issues. “We’re well positioned to be a bridge for corporate Boston [leaders],” Mulhern said, “to position them as strong community stakeholders and corporate citizens.”
Climate-tech heads downtown
Can Mayor Michelle Wu make downtown Boston a hub for climate-tech?
Maybe her administration’s efforts can get a jolt from the state’s big economic development bill, which, if passed this week on Beacon Hill, would pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the sector. Or maybe they get a boost from a big party on City Hall Plaza to showcase local climate-tech companies — like the one Wu hosted last week with help from global energy company Schneider Electric, the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, the Northeast Clean Energy Council, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
A few dozen companies with local ties set up booths for the day on City Hall Plaza. Some were from Boston but many came from outlying communities. Among those from the neighborhood: EnergySage, whose offices overlook the plaza from across Cambridge Street, and Schneider, whose North American headquarters office is a short walk away, off Washington Street. (Coincidentally, downtown won another climate-tech business two days later when car-charger supplier EVPassport announced it would open its East Coast headquarters in the Financial District.)
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Outside City Hall, Wu was joined by Schneider executive Bryan Stevens, state economic development secretary Yvonne Hao, and NECEC president Joe Curtatone, the former longtime mayor of Somerville.
Curtatone injected some hyperbole when he introduced Wu to the crowd, forcefully referring to her as “the national and global leader on forging a new equitable economy.”
Once it was her turn to speak, Wu couldn’t help but admit that “it’s always great being introduced by a former mayor.”
Seeing green with Irish visitors
Peter Burke has only been Ireland’s minister for trade and enterprise since April. Naturally, it didn’t take long for Burke to make his way to Boston.
Leo Clancy, head of Enterprise Ireland, that country’s government VC arm, joined Burke for his trip to New York and Boston this month. They met with a number of Enterprise Ireland clients with offices here, as well as Massachusetts clients of IDA Ireland, another economic development agency. The list included the likes of Workhuman (which has dual headquarters in Framingham and Dublin) as well as several Massachusetts-based companies with Irish operations such as Boston Scientific, State Street, and Analog Devices. Burke and Clancy also visited state economic development secretary Yvonne Hao at One Ashburton Place, where they talked about shared economic development priorities and Governor Maura Healey’s trip to Ireland last year, among other topics.
It was the start, Burke said, of what he hopes will be a great business relationship that could help companies on both sides of the Atlantic. “She was very engaging,” Burke said of Hao. “We had discussions about the talent pool, and about the mutual benefit that we can have working together.”
In an email, Hao noted that Ireland is Massachusetts’ fourth largest import partner, and contributes to the state’s life sciences and health care sectors in particular. She said Massachusetts is lucky to have longstanding ties with Ireland, and the Healey administration looks forward to continuing that partnership.
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Shari gets ready for Paramount sequel
So what does life after National Amusem*nts Inc. mean for Shari Redstone?
Redstone talked with an Axios reporter about her plans following the upcoming sale of Norwood-based National Amusem*nts, a theater chain operator that’s also the holding company for the Redstones’ controlling interest in Paramount Global, to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
Redstone is co-producing a Broadway play, “Job.” But more importantly, she’s going all in with her work to fight antisemitism, a cause that drew her increased focus after the Hamas invasion of Israel last October.
“My father created a great company,” Redstone told Axios, referring to the late Sumner Redstone. “He put together a combination of terrific assets, but I think it was time for my family to move on and to create our own legacy. ... And frankly, with everything that’s going on in the world right now, I want that legacy to be around philanthropy, around fighting hate, around civic and moral leadership, and that’s what I’m really excited about.”
SharkNinja revs up its marketing
SharkNinja is heading to the racetrack.
The new trailer for “F1,” the upcoming auto racing movie starring Brad Pitt, reveals a supporting role for SharkNinja, the Needham-based consumer products company best known for its Shark vacuum and Ninja blender lines. The company does not sponsor any race cars or drivers in real life. But in the Apple Studios movie, SharkNinja’s logo is featured quite prominently in the center of the helmet Pitt is wearing, as well as on the chest of his racing uniform.
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Among those who noticed: TV host Jim Cramer. Earlier this month on CNBC, Cramer talked about the movie’s product placement deals. He declined to recommend investing in Expensify, another featured sponsor. SharkNinja, though, earned a rave review. (The stock is up by more than 50 percent this year after all.)
“Apple was brilliant to have sponsors come in,” Cramer enthused. “The most brilliant one was SharkNinja, I think. ... If you want to buy that one, it’s a fantastic company. Fantastic. They make so many different products.”
Yes, SharkNinja sells everything from espresso machines to picnic coolers. No, nothing in automotive just yet. But there’s still time.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.
