Member News.

May 2009

• The Canadian parent of TD Bank recently pumped nearly $1 billion into the New England bank, a measure of protection against an investment portfolio riddled with risky mortgage-backed securities. TD Bank, one of the four big commercial banks operating in Boston, revealed a capital infusion of $999 million in a quarterly filing with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. TD inherited problem securities in the acquisition of Commerce Bancorp Inc. In Massachusetts, TD Bank has about 160 offices and ranked fourth in deposits with $7.53 billion as of June 30.
  
  
• Edward Boches, chief creative officer at the ad agency Mullen, recently wrote a blog post titled “10 Reasons why every CEO has to get on Twitter now.” “It’s a quick way to catch up with people. It’s also fun to figure out how to say something in 140 characters,” said Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who joined the microblogging site late last year and now has more than 1,500 followers.
  
  
• Law firm Goulston & Storrs has expanded its New York outpost with the new hire David J. Rabinowitz as a partner. Boston-based Goulston & Storrs has about 180 lawyers in Boston and a total of 195 lawyers firm-wide.
  
  
• The Boston Children’s Museum has received a 2009 Promising Practice Award from MetLife Foundation and the Association of Children’s Museums, an honor accompanied by a $7,500 cash award. The award was in recognition of the Museum’s KIDS @fterschool project, a curriculum created for afterschool programs. KIDS @fterschool is the first free online interdisciplinary curriculum for afterschool programs in the United States, featuring a year’s worth of afterschool activities that align with state and national learning standards. Since the Museum launched KIDS @fterschool in October 2008, it has been downloaded by afterschool programs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and in nine countries.
  
  
• International newspaper group Metro International S.A. has sold its U.S. newspaper operations to Seabay Media Holdings LLC. Seabay Media was launched and is controlled by Pelle Tornberg, the former CEO of Metro International. The Metro is published in Boston through a partnership with the Boston Globe. Globe parent company The New York Times Co. owns a 49 percent stake in the Boston Metro.
  
  
• Owen Pollock has joined the public affairs team at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications Inc. He will be responsible for day-to-day account management, legislation research, gathering political intelligence, and conducting government outreach.
  
  
• Legal Sea Foods owner and chief executive Roger Berkowitz will be honored with the Corporate Citizenship in Public Health Award at a breakfast tomorrow hosted by the Massachusetts Public Health Association.
  
  
• Husk Insulation was named the winner of the $200,000 MIT Clean Energy Prize, a national student competition founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the US Department of Energy, and NSTAR to accelerate the pace of clean energy entrepreneurship. Husk Insulation is a team of MBA students from the University of Michigan that came up with an idea to make more efficient insulation for refrigerators and other products.
  
  
• Bailed-out insurance giant American International Group wants to sell Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont. AIG, which is divesting some of its noncore assets, has received a number of unsolicited queries from qualified buyers.
  
  
• The U.S. Air Force awarded a $521 million contract to Raytheon Co. to provide several types of air-to-air missiles. Under the terms of the contract, the Raytheon will produce 105 advanced, medium-range air-to-air missiles as well as 72 captive air training missiles, along with test kits, upgrades and support services to the Air Force.
  

• Air travelers departing from Boston Logan International Airport will have new options to fly to Minneapolis and San Francisco. JetBlue Airways will restart its service between Boston and San Francisco. The announcement comes seven months after Jet Blue cut the route as part of a reduction in long-haul flights between Boston and California destinations. Meanwhile, Sun Country Airlines, a St. Paul air carrier, will begin summer service between Boston and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
  
  
• Reebok International Ltd. has unveiled the latest in jock couture - baseball cleats with pink accents. The cleats are part of a Mother’s Day initiative to help raise awareness and money for breast cancer research, and during Major League Baseball games on Mother’s Day this Sunday, many players will don pink cleats, with a select number of the game-worn cleats to be auctioned off post-game to benefit the Avon Foundation for Women. Among Red Sox team members expected to wear the pink Reebok cleats are manager Terry Francona as well as David Ortiz, Jonathan Papelbon, and Tim Wakefield.
  
  
• State Street Corp. passed the Federal Reserve's "stress test" for the nation's 19 largest banks, meaning regulators believe the Boston financial services giant has enough capital to withstand an unforeseen financial shock, such as a deepening of the recession.
  
  
• In addition, State Street Corp. is teaming with Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and other city officials to sponsor the inaugural Boston Book Festival. Free and open to the public, the event will feature authors representing many genres. It is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24, in Boston’s Copley Square. Authors will be giving presentations and will participate in issue-driven panels. The speaker line-up will include fiction and nonfiction writers, scholars, critics and commentators.
  
  
• Bunker Hill Community College, which is based in Boston, plans to offer a handful of truly late-night courses to accommodate a growing number of working students. The semi-weekly courses could start as late as 11 p.m. and would last for 1.5 hours, said spokeswoman Colleen Roach. The courses are expected to carry three credits. The concept was still in the “planning stages,” but that the administration was moving quickly to implement it.
  
  
• Wachovia Securities will begin using the Wells Fargo Advisors name, officially rebranding its business under its new parent, Wells Fargo & Company. The Wells Fargo Advisors name was selected following research that included financial advisor input, customer surveys and competitive analysis. The new name will be seen on marketing materials, business cards and other promotional pieces beginning this month, and will be introduced on other material throughout the year.
  
  
• Babson MBA student business Lazybones, a laundry delivery, dry cleaning, and storage service for college students, is winner of the 2009 Douglass Foundation Entrepreneurial Prize Competition at Babson College. Lazybones currently generates more than $1.2 million a year in revenues and 20 percent net profit margins. Lazybones plans to achieve explosive growth by franchising the business, increasing its revenues tenfold during the next five years. The Douglass Foundation Entrepreneurial Prize Competition is a graduate business plan contest that awards cash prizes of $35,000 and additional services in kind totaling more than $40,000 to the winners and runners-up.
  
  
• Simmons School of Management in Boston earned a LEED Gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council for its new academic center. The LEED Gold certification — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — was given to the school for converting a former parking lot into a student center. The parking lot was redeveloped into a 66,500-square-foot academic center and new green space called the Simmons Quadrangle. The building was designed by the Boston architecture and engineering firm Cannon Design.
  
  
• Live Nation Inc has agreed to sell three well-known theaters in Boston for about $22.5 million, using the proceeds to pay down debt. The company said that it would sell the Boston Opera House, Orpheum Theatre, and Paradise. The deal, expected to close in the third quarter, also includes an earnout clause at the Orpheum Theatre over the next five years. The buyer wasn't named and the company was not immediately available to comment. Live Nation will continue to promote concerts at the three venues.
  
  
• Citizens Bank received $300 million in new capital from its overseas owner as loan losses accelerated during the first quarter of this year and its operations, predominantly in New England, lost $98.7 million.
  
  
• Elaine Construction was honored with the Paisner Award (outstanding Family Business-50- Employees or Less) at the 3rd annual Massachusetts Family Business of the Year awards program on April 29, 2009. The Massachusetts Family Business of the Year Awards program was originally created in a partnership between Northeastern University's Center for Family Business and The Family Firm Institute New England Chapter to promote and highlight some of the great achievements of Massachusetts-based, family-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.
  
  
• Boston Private Bank & Trust Co. saw deposits in the first quarter rise 9 percent to $2 billion from a year ago as the lender’s solid balance sheet continues to attract new business. The bank, a subsidiary of Boston Private Financial Holdings run by CEO Mark Thompson, continued to keep a clean loan portfolio. The bank said it charged off only $32,000 worth of problem loans in the first quarter. That compared with about $1 million charged off in the year-earlier period.
  
  
• Frank Petz has been appointed executive vice president at Richards Barry Joyce & Partners, a full-service commercial real estate advisory firm headquartered in Boston. Petz will lead the firm’s newly expanded Capital Markets Group. Prior to joining the firm, Petz was a managing director at Eastdil Secured, a real estate investment banking company.
  
  
• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are among 46 newly-established "Energy Frontier Research Centers" across the nation being partially funded by federal stimulus dollars. Three groups of local researchers -- two at MIT and one at UMass-Amherst -- will receive between $30 million and $75 million in total over the next five years as part of an effort to spur scientific breakthroughs.
  
  
• Boston Properties, Inc. announced that the 1.4 million-square-foot Prudential Tower is one of nine Boston buildings to earn the Energy Star rating. This means that 2.6 million-square-feet of office space at the Pru is Energy Star labeled.
  
  
• The Boston Bar Foundation has awarded $185,000 in grants to eight nonprofits that all work to prevent homelessness. Organizations that received grants include the Action for Community Development’s Housing Court Advocacy Program, the Community Legal Services and Counseling Center’s Homelessness Prevention Project, and Metrowest Legal Services’ Post-foreclosure Eviction Defense Project. The grants were made possible by the 2009 Boston Bar Foundation John and Abigail Adams Ball, held in January
  
  
• Martin M. Fantozzi has been elected as co-managing director of Goulston & Storrs, the law firm announced. Fantozzi will manage the firm alongside co-managing director Douglas M. Husid. Fantozzi replaces Kitt Sawitsky, who will continue to serve as co-chair of the Boston-based law firm’s business group.
  
  
• Staples Inc. is the recipient of the Recycling Works Award from the National Recycling Coalition. "Staples is honored to be recognized by the National Recycling Coalition's Recycling Works Award," Mike Miles, Staples president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. "We're making it easy for our customers to recycle used office products, from empty ink cartridges to old printers, and to buy new products with recycled content."
  

April 2009

• Mullen broke another ad for the Boston Bruins after the B's won a play-off sweep against their archrivals, the Montreal Canadiens. The ad is the latest in a series of spots with the theme of "Bruins Hockey Rules." According to Mullen, ads from the campaign have already been viewed more than 500,000 times on YouTube.
  
  
• JetBlue Airways plans to announce that on Sept. 9 it will begin daily flights from Logan International Airport to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.  JetBlue, which already has six daily nonstop flights between Boston and Washington Dulles International Airport, will offer four daily flights to Baltimore. Introductory prices will start at $39 for one-way fares purchased before May 4.
  
  
• CRA International Inc. said it will manage cranberry concentrate auctions for Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. on an Internet-based global trading platform for the sale of Ocean Spray's cranberry concentrate. CRA International Inc. provides management, economic, and financial consulting services. Based in Lakeville and Middleborough, Ocean Spray is a cooperative of cranberry and grapefruit growers.
  
  
• Berklee College of Music has bought a 13,300 square-foot parcel of land from the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston for $6.25 million. Berklee plans to use the buildings, which cover 154-174 Massachusetts Ave., as part of its institutional master plan. Currently, the buildings are leased to Berklee, McDonald’s Restaurant Corp. and Arirang Restaurant.
  
  
• Dunkin' Donuts announced that Red Sox star Dustin Pedroia will be its latest sports celebrity pitchman. The MVP second baseman is scheduled to star in a new advertising campaign to highlight the brand’s “Turbo Boost” promotion. The promotion offers customers a free Turbo shot with all coffee purchases from April 22 through June 2, and the promotion is available at participating Dunkin’ Donuts shops throughout Massachusetts, Maine, and southern New Hampshire.
  
  
• Raytheon has received a $27 million contract for engineering services for the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System. The contract is in addition to a $132.2 million engineering services contract awarded to the Waltham, Mass defense contractor in January. Raytheon will provide these services to the U.S. army and 11 foreign militaries using the Patriot system.
  
  
• The top executive at Boston Beer Company, Inc, (the brewer of Sam Adams beer), realized nearly $7 million from exercising stock options in 2008. Boston Beer CEO Martin Roper acquired $197,520 shares on option exercises, realizing $6.57 million. Overall, top executives at the company realized $8.6 million from option exercises in 2008. Boston Beer shares fell 25 percent in 2008.
  
  
• Northeastern University has received a $500,000 grant to fund nurse-training programs. Northeastern is partnering with the Cambridge Health Alliance to fund education and credentialing programs for nurses and other health professional as part of the grant. The funding is for over a three-year period for helping registered nurses attain a bachelor’s degree in the field.
  
  
• Richards Barry Joyce & Partners LLC has hired a real estate industry veteran to launch a capital markets group. The real estate brokerage firm recruited Frank Petz as an executive vice president. Robert Richards, a partner at Richards Barry, said he hired Petz to assist clients who need to stabilize assets and bring in new capital sources. Richards said that despite a slowdown in the investment sales market, clients are struggling with commercial assets and looking for solutions.
  
  
• Genzyme Corp. reported net income of $195.5 million in the first quarter of 2009, up 35 percent from $145.3 million during the same period last year. Genzyme achieved such a robust profit in part due to cost cutting. The company trimmed research and development costs to $206.9 million in the first quarter of 2009, down from $262.8 million during the same period last year.
  
  
• Reebok’s “You Got Rondo’d” campaign was cited for the “Best Use of Mobile” award at the Festival of Media 2009. The campaign, which starred Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics launched during the National Basketball Association playoffs last year. The campaign included a “You Got Rondo’d” ringtone for consumers to download to their cell phones, and during a game, whenever Rondo made a great play, thousands of phones would be called and when people picked up the phone, they heard voices of ex-Celtics saying: ‘Did you see that? He just got Rondo’d’.
  
  
• Fidelity Investments announced that Brian B. Hogan has been named president of the Equity Division of Fidelity Management & Research Co., the investment advisor to Fidelity’s family of mutual funds. Hogan succeeds Walter C. Donovan, who recently left Fidelity to take a similar job at Putnam Investments, a rival Boston mutual fund firm.
  
  
• Simmons College has received a $1 million gift for its graduate school of library and information science. The gift came from the family of the late Allen Smith, a former professor at the school. It will be used to enhance a scholarship fund and create a visiting scholar program. The gift is the largest from an individual in the graduate school’s history.
  
  
• Delta Air Lines is adding Logan International Airport to its in-flight recycling program, which will include paper, plastic and aluminum on all Boston flights.
  
  
• In honor of Earth Day, Citizens Financial Group announced a Green$ense incentive program to reward Citizens Bank and Charter One customers with nearly $2 million for helping the environment by reducing paper with electronic banking-payment transactions. Green$ense rewards customers 10 cents for each electronic payment they make, up to $10 per month and $120 per year. Based on current enrollment, Green$ense will provide significant benefits to the environment in 2009 alone, including: more than 220,000 pounds of paper saved, more than 1,300 trees preserved, nearly 2 million square feet of forest saved and more than 6,300 garbage bags not filled.
  
  
• Advanced Communication Technologies, a Rockland-based designer and installer of custom electronic systems, announced it has signed an agreement to acquire AViX, the largest electronic systems integrator based on Cape Cod.  Under the terms of the agreement, ACT will take over AViX’s existing customer base, projects, and service work.
  
  
• Delaware North Cos., owner and operator of Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden, together with the venue’s naming rights partner, TD Banknorth, announced the arena will be officially renamed “TD Garden” in July. The new name of the arena comes at time with TD Banknorth prepares to re-brand their New England operatiosn to TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank, in fall 2009.
  
  
• Putnam Investments, which is working to rebuild amid a rapid decline in assets under management, hired Walter Donovan, Fidelity’s former equities division president, to serve as chief investment officer. Putnam CEO Robert Reynolds, a former Fidelity executive himself, has made a number of new hires over the past year to reinvigorate the company’s management ranks.
  
  
• Convenience store chain Cumberland Farms has done a deal with the Boston Red Sox to become the team’s official convenience store, the company said on Monday. With the new sponsorship, Cumberland Farms customers will soon see the Red Sox logo on drink cups and elsewhere in the convenience stores and game attendees at Fenway Park will see a new electronic Cumberland Farms sign in the right field roof area.
  
  
• Dunkin’ Brands Inc. has secured its first step in a planned foray into the lodging market with the opening of the brand’s first hotel-restaurant location at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, N.C., the company said Tuesday. Dunkin’ Brands is now offering a variety of store models to fit any lodging property, including full retail shops, kiosks and self-serve coffee stations that would fit into gift shops and general stores.
  
  
• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which houses 58 lawyers in Massachusetts, is offering associates one-third of their base salaries to take the year off. The purpose is to let associates pursue pro bono, community service or public interest work during that time, according to the firm. As of April 10, 125 associates had expressed interest about taking the deal, which was first offered to them a month ago on March 12.
  
  
• The Massachusetts Port Authority approved a $30 million project to consolidate security checkpoints in Terminal C at Logan International Airport - a move that officials say could help travelers more quickly connect to other flights and eliminate the need for additional screening.
  
  
• Pizza franchise Papa Gino’s Pizzeria is set to open a new concept restaurant called Pronto in Amherst, Mass., designed to appeal to the college set, the company announced.  Papa Gino’s Pronto will offer a scaled down menu for faster service and quicker delivery.
  
  
• Century Bank’s net income rose 5 percent in the first quarter after the bank realized nearly $1 million from the sale of investments. The Medford based bank reported net income of $1.89 million, up from $1.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Total assets increased 9 percent to $2 billion at the end of March.
  
  
• Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has extended its 107,000-square-foot lease for three years in Beverly, Mass. The lease was signed this week with  Cummings Properties LLC. Thermo Fisher is one of the largest tenants at Cummings Center. Grubb & Ellis Co. represented Thermo Fisher Scientific in the  lease transaction.
  
  
• The Boston Bar Association is pushing members of the MA legislature to maintain funding for both Committee for Public Counsel Services and district attorneys’ offices in next year’s budget. Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed a 13 percent budget cut for all CPCS funding and a 9 percent budget cut to DA offices. The BBA released a statement that said, “The governor’s proposed cuts come at a time of economic stress, when crime, especially domestic violence and child abuse- is expected to increase”.
  
  
• Citing the increasing number of households stretching their dollars to buy basic food items,BJ’s Wholesale Club is now accepting food stamps at all of its locations. The nation’s No. 3 warehouse club operator with 180 locations, joins rival Sam’s Club in allowing its members to make purchases using their government-issued electronic benefit transfercards.  Some 318,286 Massachusetts households were issued food stamps in January, up 23 percent from the same month last year and 91 percent since January 2005.
  
  
• Salem Five announced the opening of its 20th bank branch location with a new branch in Reading. It is the third branch opening for Salem Five in the last year, the bank said. A grand opening celebration for the new Reading branch is set for Saturday, and plans call for an appearance by Red Sox star Dustin Pedroia.
  
  
• Gulf Oil LP said it is running a ticket giveaway sweepstakes in conjunction with Major League Baseball. This is the fourth year that the company has run such a program, and the program includes Red Sox tickets. Gulf Oil said in a press release, "With every fill-up, Gulf Oil customers can enter for a chance to win choice seats at pre-selected Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, or 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies games this season."
  
  
• The Bruins just hired Mullen to break new ads that encourage B's devotees to get engaged at www.bostonbruinstv.com. The campaign is called "Bruins Hockey Rules.”
  
  
• Boston Bruins fans will have a fun (if frigid) way to spend the next New Year's Day: watching their favorite hockey team play at Fenway Park. According to a source familiar with the negotiations on the players' side, the NHL has given the Bruins the go-ahead to play this year's Winter Classic outdoor game at Fenway Park on Jan. 1, 2010. That same source indicated their opponent could be either the Capitals or Flyers, though no decision has been made.
  
  
• Charles River Laboratories International Inc. plans to pay $46 million to acquire Piedmont Research Center LLC. Piedmont Research Center provides preclinical services focused on oncology and other therapeutic areas for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. PRC, which will continue to operate from its North Carolina headquarters, will significantly expand the oncology expertise offered through Charles River Discovery and Imaging Services.
  
  
• Law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP has opened a new office in Newport Beach, Calif. The new location is the firm’s 12th. Earlier this month, Boston-based Edwards Angell confirmed that it had cut 25 lawyers, 35 non-legal staff and deferred the hiring of first-year associates for the fall of 2009 to March 2010. It has roughly 250 lawyers in Boston.
  
  
• Marjin Dekkers, the CEO of laboratory products-maker Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., was paid more than $18 million in 2008 amid a strong uptick in revenue and a 31 percent jump in net income. Dekkers’ base salary in 2008 was $1.16 million. He received $15.5 million in option and restricted stock awards and another $1.87 million in non-equity compensation. His total compensation was just over $3 million in 2007.
  
  
• BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc., reported that March sales increased by 1.7 percent to $870.3 million from $855.9 million in March 2008. At stores open at least a year, a metric deemed a key measure of a retailer's health, March sales fell 0.1 percent, including a negative impact from sales of gasoline of 8.6 percent," the company said in a press release; BJ's refers to that metric as "comparable club sales."
  
  
• CBIZ Tofias, a leading provider of accounting and audit services, has announced the addition of Carl Jenkins, CPA, to help lead the expansion of its Valuation, Litigation & Forensic Accounting Group. Jenkins has joined the company as a Managing Director.
  
  
• Law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP has tapped Arthur G. Telegen as a partner in the firm’s labor and employment department. Telegen, who will be based in the firm’s Boston office, was previously chair of Foley Hoag LLP’s labor and employment department for over a decade.
  
  
• Genzyme Corp. announced that it will pay up to $2.8 billion to acquire the rights of three Bayer HealthCare drugs. The deal includes no upfront payments and Bayer will receive money based on its drugs' abilities to meet scientific milestone and revenue targets. Genzyme will pay up to $1.25 billion over 10 years if one of the drugs, Campath, already approved for leukemia, gains FDA approval for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
  
  
• Papa Gino’s Holdings Corp. has elevated Rick Wolf to the positions of president and CEO, the company said Wednesday. Previously, Wolf was president and chief operating officer at the Dedham, Mass.-based business, which is the parent company to Papa Gino’s and D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches. Wolf replaces Thomas Galligan as the company’s CEO. Galligan will remain as Papa Gino’s Holdings Corp.’s executive chairman of the board and will work with Wolf during the leadership transition.
  
  
• Dunkin’ Donuts supermarket version of its original blend coffee has been named as one of the most successful new products of 2008. Due to a partnership with J.M. Smucker Co. (the Ohio-based company known for its jams and jellies), Dunkin’ was able to get a packaged coffee product into roughly 40,000 supermarkets and stores last year.
  
  
• Raytheon Co. will sell its guided air to air missile to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company will supply its AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to the U.S. government, which will then supply an undisclosed number of missiles to the Royal Saudi Air Force for its F-15 aircraft.
  
  
• Putnam Investments has taken another senior executive from its cross-town rival Fidelity Investments. Investment industry veteran Benjamin Lewis will head its defined contribution retirement-plan business.
  
  
• NStar released its plans to integrate so-called smart grid technology into its service area this week, as part of a state-mandated plan to use efficiency to stem the demand for new power generation. The utility company will launch a pilot program in 2010 to send real time data on energy consumption to ratepayers via the home computer. NStar will link its automated meter-reading equipment to the ratepayer’s broadband Internet connection, providing a two-way communication infrastructure.
  
  
• Danvers Bancorp Inc. CEO Kevin Bottomley received stock worth $2.6 million last year after the company converted from a mutual holding company to a publicly traded stock company. In January 2008, Bottomley and three other top executives received a total of $5 million invested stock as part of the bank’s conversion to a public company, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.
  
  
• TJX has signed a new contract with chief executive Carol Meyrowitz through Jan. 29, 2011, with an annual base salary of at least $1.47 million, the current level of her base salary. That is consistent with TJX's freeze of merit increases for employees, according to the company, which runs T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.  Under the agreement, Meyrowitz is eligible to participate in TJX's two cash incentive plans, each with a target for award opportunities of 100 percent of her base salary.
  
  
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care ranked highest in member satisfaction among New England health plans, according to the 2009 National Health Insurance Plan Study just released by J.D. Power and Associates.
  
  
• Dunkin' Donuts, the Canton-based chain of coffee-and-baked-goods shops, announced an Iced Coffee Day on April 21 that aims to benefit injured veterans.On Iced Coffee Day, the price for a small cup of iced coffee will be reduced to 50 cents at participating Dunkin' Donuts shops, the chain said; for every small iced coffee purchased on this day, Dunkin' Donuts said it will donate five cents to benefit Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit organization that builds specially adapted homes for severely injured veterans.
  
  
• Diversified Project Management Inc. said it has been hired by Bryant University to manage the ground-up construction of new student housing as well as the renovation and expansion of its stadium field house at its 420-acre campus in Smithfield, R.I.

March 2009

• JetBlue Airways announced a special travel deal for its customers traveling between Boston and the West Coast, including Denver, Las Vegas, L.A./Long Beach, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco or Seattle. TrueBlue customers that register at www.jetblue.com/bostonwest before booking and traveling twice between Boston and any of these West Coast cities through May 31 will earn one free roundtrip travel certificate to any of JetBlue's more than 50 destinations.
  
  
• Legals Sea Foods’ advertising campaign featuring ribald fish humor aimed at T riders has broken a fresh batch of ads this week. New Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line ads feature the same type of insults, hurled by cartoon fish, that got two ads banned from subways and train stations last summer. The MBTA has approved all the lines that will be used this time around, including “Kiss my bass,” “Hey chumbug!,” “Darn, you smell like carp,” “Is that a worm in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” and “If that’s your girlfriend, I’d throw her back.” The campaign will run through May.
  
  
• Eastern Bank said it honored 49 nonprofit organizations with a total of $800,000 in grants from its charitable foundation. The grants were presented by Eastern Bank chairman and chief executive Richard E. Holbrook and football legend Doug Flutie, the Boston-based bank said.
  
  
• The Boston office of the law firm McCarter & English has added a new 12-member life sciences patent prosecution team. McCarter now has 45 patent attorneys on staff specializing in sectors including electronic and electro-mechanical technologies, fluidics, combustion engines, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The firm said it has handled almost 50 filings on behalf of pharmaceutical companies trying to fend off challenges by generic drug makers.
  
  
• Public relations shop The Castle Group Inc. has been selected to handle public relations for Friendly Ice Cream Corp. Castle Group will support product launches and brand-building initiatives for the restaurant chain, which has over 500 company and franchised restaurants along the East Coast. The Castle Group will also support the company’s “Sprinkle-Vision” year-long advertising plan that includes an online effort and ad campaign and promotes the chain as a fun, family-friendly place.
  
  
• George F. Cronin and Kelly O. Lynch have been named as principals at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, a Boston-based public relations firm. Cronin's previous title was senior vice president for public affairs overseeing government relations, grassroots organizing, and ballot initiatives. Lynch's previous title was senior vice president of the real estate and financial services practice areas.
  
  
• Ace Ticket Worldwide Inc., a Boston ticket agency, is now the official ticket partner of Phantom Gourmet, a show airing on TV38 and 96.9FM WTKK that features restaurant reviews and advice on where to eat.
  
  
• PKF Consulting, a national hotel and real estate consulting firm, has relocated its Boston office to the headquarters of commercial real estate firm Colliers Meredith & Grew, the company announced. The move comes as FirstService Corp. in Hollywood, Fla., the majority owner of both PKF Consulting and Colliers Meredith & Grew, integrates its real estate operations across the country.
  
  
• The Fairmont Copley Plaza has decreed that the hotel will celebrate earth friendliness on March 28 with a promotion called "The Dark Side of the Fairmont." At 8:30 p.m. Saturday, plans call for the chain's locations to observe "Earth Hour 2009" by turning out the lights for one hour. That means that patrons at the Fairmont Copley can enjoy "Cocktails by Candlelight" in the hotel's famous Oak Room.
  
  
• Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine will receive $9.5 million from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to support its construction of a Level 3 biosafety lab in Grafton, Mass. The lab will be used to study infectious diseases that can move from animals to humans, such as avian flu, and investigate potential bioterror uses of those diseases. The lab will be one of 13 regional labs that are being funded in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The project will also include funding from Tufts University. The total price tag for the Tufts facility will be $33.7 million.
  
  
• Putnam Investments introduced a program to manage 401(k) retirement plans for companies and plan advisers, the latest new product from the Boston mutual fund firm. Putnam said its new 401(k) program will allow it to sell both its own mutual funds and those of other fund families.
  
  
• Staples Inc. is once again participating in a global competition to honor young social entrepreneurs. The third annual Staples/Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition is organized by Ashoka, a community of social entrepreneurs, and the Staples Foundation for Learning, a private foundation created by Staples.  The competition asks Youth Venture teams, which are made up of students between the ages of 12-24, to explain what course of action they have taken to address a social issue affecting their community, Staples said in a press release.
• The Joslin Diabetes Center has named Richard Crater to be its new chief financial officer, replacing interim CFO Mark Attarian. Crater spent 10 years at New York University Medical Center, most recently as CFO. Prior to that, he worked at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1986 to 1998.
• Gulf Oil L.P. said it has joined a discount program called Override that will enable consumers who buy groceries at Shaw's Supermarkets and coffee and baked goods at Dunkin' Donuts to get lower gas prices at Gulf stations. Consumers who shop at such retailers as Shaw's Supermarkets or Dunkin' Donuts will earn up to 10 cents off a gallon of gas when they use their rewards cards. 
• MassDevelopment has named four publicly owned brownfield sites as recipients of a low-cost loan program designed to attract site developers. The sites in Boston, Chelmsford, New Bedford and Springfield will received loans of up to $2 million apiece under the agency’s Brownfields Priority Project Program. The money will be released when each municipal government chooses a developer for their respective projects.
• NStar is proposing a 70 percent drop in rates for the summer. The company submitted a plan with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to drop the summer gas rate to 38 cents per thermal unit, from last summer’s average cost of $1.30 per thermal unit. A time line on when Nstar might receive approval was not disclosed. If approved, the average NStar gas heating customer will save $35 a month.
• Frank Laukien, the chairman and CEO of life-sciences equipment maker Bruker Corp., has padded his ownership stake in the company to roughly 23 percent, acquiring $10.7 million in Bruker stock between March 5 and March 10. His total stake in the company, some 38.2 million shares, is worth just shy of $200 million, based on Monday’s opening trading price of $5.09 a share.
• Richard R. Crater has joined Joslin Diabetes Center as chief financial officer. Crater spent 10 years at New York Medical Center, most recently as corporate chief financial officer.
  
  
• Staples Inc., announced that two long-time company veterans will be receiving promotions. Steven Bussberg, formerly vice president of finance is now senior vice president of finance for the company’s North American delivery business.  Luis Borgen has been promoted to senior vice president of finance for the company’s US stores business; Borgen was formerly vice president of finance.
  
  
• Dunkin’ Donuts is asking fans to create a donut of their own design. The winner, will receive $12,000 and have their donut featured at participating Dunkin’ Donuts stores. Beginning this week and running through April 7, visitors to www.dunkindonuts.com/donut can build their virtual personal donut masterpieces from dozens of flavors, toppings, fillings, and shapes.
  
  
• The Massachusetts Port Authority has awarded a $52 million job to Consigli Construction Co. of Milford to renovate the Terminal B parking garage at Logan Airport over the next 42 months. The project includes upgrading the roadway th