Massachusetts economic development Secretary Yvonne Hao told her staff on Tuesday that she is leaving the Healey administration, to spend more time with her family.
Hao became a pivotal member of Governor Maura Healey’s Cabinet in January 2023, bringing extensive industry expertise and a relentless optimism that made her popular in the business community. Her departure, however, comes at a time when the state’s economy faces an unprecedented threat in the form of major cuts in federal funding to the biggest local research institutions.
Among Hao’s accomplishments as secretary: quarterbacking a sprawling $4 billion economic development package that the Legislature approved in November to provide a big infusion of new money supporting the clean-tech sector and fostering artificial intelligence startups, among many other programs.
“Yvonne has been the Energizer Bunny for economic development, and really has been an incredible catalyst for some transformative approaches,” Healey said in an interview. “Nobody hustled more over the state than Yvonne.”
Undersecretary Ashley Stolba, a top lieutenant of Hao’s, will take over as interim secretary next Tuesday, and Hao will stay on until May 2 to help with the transition.
In an interview, Hao said she needs to devote more time to her family, including her mom in California and her teenage daughters, something that’s tough to pull off while keeping up with the demands of the job. She said she has no other job in mind, and isn’t even sure what her next career steps will be. However, she’ll be available to the Healey administration as necessary as an unpaid adviser, she said.
“I feel very confident we have the right team in place, with all the momentum behind us,” Hao said. “I’m excited to wear sweatpants and walk the dog and spend time with my family.”
Hao had only met Healey once before when the then-governor-elect called her in December 2022 to discuss the job. Hao’s background was in business, not government — a big reason Healey recruited her. Much of Hao’s career has been in private equity, including with Boston-based Bain Capital, and she was later a top executive at PillPack, the venture capital backed pharmacy startup, when it was sold to Amazon in 2018. She was working with local PE firm Cove Hill Partners when Healey called her up.
She quickly became a ubiquitous presence at business events, and launched a listening tour that took her across the state to craft an economic development plan. That plan became the foundation for the economic development bill, dubbed the “Mass Leads Act,” that the administration filed and lawmakers eventually approved with some modifications last year. Other accomplishments include attracting an office of federal health research agency ARPA-H to Cambridge and creating a new “Business Front Door” online portal that will launch this spring to coordinate access to potential state resources.
Along the way, she adopted “Team Massachusetts” as a catchphrase, and tried to make just about everyone she encountered feel like they were part of that team. Hao said she got the idea from a promotional video that MassEcon, an economic development nonprofit, had produced. Hao used the motto so frequently that it prompted Healey to joke at the ceremonial signing of the economic development bill that Hao must have given everyone in the room a bracelet with the phrase on it; Hao then joked that she said it often enough that people suggested it should be a drinking game.
“I would not have known that she didn’t invent it,” Reshma Kewalramani, chief executive of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, said on Tuesday. “Her spirit around ‘Team Massachusetts’ is infectious.”
One reason for Hao’s success, Kewalramani said, is her acute awareness of how the various elements of the Massachusetts economy fit together: academic institutions, hospitals, investors, startups, small businesses, big employers, government.
“I would have loved to have seen Yvonne in the role for many years to come,” Kewalramani said.
Brian Kavoogian, chief executive of National Development in Newton, has worked closely with Hao on the board of the quasi-public agency MassDevelopment, which Hao has chaired.
“It’s going to be a loss for the administration,” said Kavoogian, vice chair on the MassDevelopment board. “She brought her very successful business career to bear in solving complex problems. . . . To have someone with her experience and knowledge base and track record communicating with the business community is just very reassuring for people running businesses in this state.”
Julie Chen, chancellor at UMass Lowell, said Hao deserves credit for pushing state government to think more entrepreneurially and to act with a sense of urgency. Hao was determined not to get bogged down with bureaucracy, she said.
“We were fortunate as a state for somebody to come from her background and basically take a gigantic pay cut because she wanted to help Massachusetts make things happen,” Chen said.
Hao does leave Beacon Hill with some unfinished business, including the state’s still-unresolved efforts to attract Hasbro’s headquarters. Chief executive Chris Cocks said last week that the toy company, currently based in Pawtucket, R.I., would delay its decision about where its next home base will be, in part because of the economic uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s tariff changes. Providence and Boston are considered the top two contenders.
And some dark clouds loom for Hao’s successor: The state now faces unprecedented economic challenges caused by the Trump administration’s cuts in federal funding to the research and health care institutions that are considered the cornerstones of the local economy.
Healey said she plans to recruit someone for Hao’s job with a similar level of business experience, and, hopefully, a similar level of passion and energy.
Hao said she found it inspiring to constantly meet with smart people from every line of work. Not surprisingly, despite the threats to federal funding, she predicts a bullish future for Massachusetts, and its innovation economy in particular.
“When things are hard, that’s when this state steps up,” Hao said. “We innovate and we solve big problems. . . . I honestly can’t think of a better place to live in the world.”
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