MassDevelopment Board Chair Announces Robert Culver to End Seven-Year Run as President
December 29, 2010
Contacts:
Janet Hookailo, MassDeveloment, 617-330-2018 & 617-755-2042
Kofi Jones, Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, 617-788-3652 & 617-721-2231
MassDevelopment Board Chair Gregory P. Bialecki today announced that Robert L. Culver will step down after serving as the agency's President and CEO since 2004. Culver will remain in the position during the search for a successor.
"I would like to thank Bob for his unwavering dedication to MassDevelopment and the Commonwealth," said Board Chair Greg Bialecki. "His passion for rebuilding communities and providing economic opportunities throughout Massachusetts has made an indelible mark on this state."
“Leading the MassDevelopment team has been an honor and a rare privilege; and I thank the Governor for the opportunity to serve,” said outgoing MassDevelopment President and CEO Robert L. Culver. “I am proud to leave behind a strong, well-capitalized statewide organization ready to build on its impressive record of leveraging private investment to build homes, create jobs, and reclaim blighted property around the Commonwealth.”
Culver was appointed president and CEO in 2004. Under his leadership, MassDevelopment won national acclaim for building out the 4,400-acre Devens project and attracting Bristol-Myers Squibb and Evergreen Solar, which together employ nearly 1,000 skilled workers. Among other major accomplishments under Culver's direction, rehabilitated and branded 1550 Main, a former federal building in downtown Springfield, bringing hundreds of workers into the area; finished the development of South Coast Research and Technology Park in Fall River, now home to a fully leased 60,000-square-foot R&D building at 151 Martine Street and a 125,000-square-foot facility built by Massachusetts-based software company MEDITECH where 550 area residents work; implemented the merger of Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Agency into MassDevelopment which saved nearly $2 million in staff and operating costs and creating a one-stop finance shop for non-profit and for-profit borrowers statewide; and leveraged more than $9.5 billion in investment in the Commonwealth since FY2005 by financing or managing more than 1,250 projects statewide.
MassDevelopment, the state's finance and development authority, works with businesses, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2010, MassDevelopment financed or managed 238 projects in 104 communities across the state generating investment of nearly $1.4 billion in the Massachusetts economy.
