Helping radio experiment and innovate at WBUR

Meg Siegal describes herself as a “rogue agent” working within the confines of WBUR, Boston University’s National Public Radio station. But the 39-year-old director of the station’s “BizLab” is no loose cannon: General manager Charlie Kravetz has given her full license to dig up growth from all pockets of the NPR affiliate station. 

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Local sailing executive pushes the sport to the inner city

Sailing, complemented with education in science and navigation, is part of a national push to revive interest in the sport. However, the new crop of sailor in the Bay State is not coming from yacht clubs but instead Boston’s inner-cities, according to David DiLorenzo, executive director of the Boston nonprofit Courageous Sailing.

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Cask ’n Flagon sees big business when Red Sox play

In the ’80s, the Cask ’n Flagon was a “dive bar” where guys went to watch Red Sox games and often stirred up trouble, according to the tavern’s 45-year-old owner, Dana Van Fleet. By the mid 1990s, change was in the air. As a newly minted bartender, Van Fleet saw more women were coming to games. He said a more civil atmosphere ensued. “It became a much friendlier place,” he said. Today, the Cask employs about 125 people at its Fenway location and another 125 at a second location in Marshfield. On a typical game day, the Fenway location will serve between 3,400 and 4,000 visitors.

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A gaming company embraces print and digital

Jen MacLean, StoryArc Media president, has seen the best and worst of the gaming industry. MacLean, who started gaming at 7 years old, now builds online games that help millions of kids have fun while learning. Prior to joining StoryArc, she was an executive at 38 Studios, the gaming company founded by former professional baseball player Curt Schilling. That story ended abruptly with the company defaulting on a $50 million loan from Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corp. With everything she’s learned, MacLean is building a kids entertainment company across print and digital.

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Health care and higher ed dominate Massachusettes largest employers list

This year’s Boston Business Journal list of the 50 largest employers in Massachusetts, which excludes government jobs, totals more than 410,000 Bay State employees. Led by No. 1-ranked Partners Health Care System’s 67,600 Massachusetts employees, the 13 health care companies on the list alone comprise more than 172,366 (in some cases this includes per diem and temp workers) of those employees.

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UMass Lowell event highlights revenue potential of entrepreneurship, innovation programs

University of Massachusetts Lowell is behaving like a budding venture capitalist these days, supporting programs in entrepreneurship and innovation with an eye toward potential payoffs down the road. A recent example of the opportunities at hand: UMass Lowell secured $3.8 million earlier this year from its ownership stake in Anterios, a biotech startup driven by intellectual property created on campus. Anterios, which developed a topical version of Botox that can be applied on the skin rather than through needle injection, was sold to global pharmaceuticals company Allergan for $96 million in January.

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Startups make their pitches at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Digital Health Expo

Brigham and Women’s Hospital last week invited more than a dozen startups to pitch their products to an audience that included investors and hospital executives. Representatives from 16 startups lined along a hallway just outside the small encampment that is the hospital’s Innovation Hub at 70 Francis St. The majority of startups there were developing consumer-facing, health-related apps — everything from a digital pill box to an app for end-of-life planning.

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With Trump in Boston for fundraiser, protesters take to streets

Dozens of protesters took to the street in front of the Langham hotel on Franklin Street in Boston, where presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump held a luncheon fundraiser. The scene outside — filled with protesters with signs that read “Trump: Outsourcer in Chief” and “Boston rejects racism”

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After much speculation, Mark Cuban says this isn’t his yacht docked in Boston

The internet was alight with specious reports over the weekend that Mark Cuban’s 288-foot yacht had been docked in Boston’s North End. That Cuban might have sailed to the shores of Boston was actually believable, since the entrepreneur, investor and Dallas Mavericks owner has backed several Boston-area startups.

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My experience running the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge in Boston

While years of teamwork in the trenches can’t be easily replaced, quick camaraderie can be found by collectively free falling into a competitive run without much warning. We were called to arrive on Charles Street between Boston Common and the Public Garden for a 7:15 p.m. start. The race actually began earlier that morning for us. In the office after receiving shirts and racing tags, there was a heightened sense of imminent exhaustion, but the intensity with which we refused to be bothered by the challenge also increased.

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