Despite federal uncertainty, Mass. economic development secretary remains bullish on state's prospects
Photo | Courtesy of Sartorius
(From left) Marlborough Mayor Christian Dumais; René Fáber, CEO of Sartorius Stedim Biotech; Maurice Phelan, president of Sartorius North America; and Massachusetts Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hao attend the opening of Satorius' newest Marlborough-based facility.
Despite all of the uncertainty and changes coming out of Washington and the chronically high cost of living in Massachusetts, Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao says her confidence level is "high" because a new state law gives the state what it needs "regardless of what happens in D.C."
Much of Beacon Hill has been on edge since November, waiting to see how President Donald Trump's second term in office unfolds. The president's now-postponed plan to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico threatens to raise energy and other costs in Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey has said, and Trump's opposition to offshore wind could spell trouble for an industry that the Bay State is trying to nurture.
"We are living in interesting times, and we have been very lucky in our state -- and not just luck, we've worked very hard. We have led for a long time. Two hundred and fifty years ago, it started with throwing some tea in the harbor, but all the way up until now, we've led in leading in these important industries. And this is not a time to stop," Hao said during an appearance on WCVB's "On The Record" this Sunday. "Passing the economic development was really important because it ensures that we have all of the resources to keep investing in all these important ecosystems here, regardless of what happens in D.C."
Hao, who previously worked at Bain Capital and McKinsey & Company and led the online pharmacy PillPack that was acquired by Amazon in 2018, said the roughly $4 billion economic development law Healey signed in November also positions Massachusetts to keep trying to be the leader in offshore wind, even without support from the federal government.
"Yes," the secretary said when asked if that was still possible. "Let's step back for a second. This is the existential crisis of our time. We believe in science. We believe in climate change. We've seen the impact in Los Angeles, so devastating, and here even our state with floods. We know there's going to be a need for these technologies, and we have been great beneficiaries of support from D.C. But regardless of what happens, we're going to continue to invest here from our state. And the Mass Leads Act has a billion dollars dedicated to climate tech and this space."
The secretary also touched on the fast-moving artificial intelligence space during her TV appearance, telling co-hosts Ben Simmoneau and Sharman Sacchetti that the recent emergence of the DeepSeek model out of China and the waves it made in the sector in this country proves that the technology is in its infancy.
"Things are evolving by the day, the week, the month. And so this is not game over by any means. We have probably the best shot of anywhere to win at this," she said when Simmoneau asked if there is an opportunity for Massachusetts to host smaller-scale AI startups. "And to your point, what this means is that these big open language models don't necessarily require all the billions of dollars or all the compute power. It means that our startups can have a better shot."
Hao referenced the recommendations that came out of the governor's AI Task Force in December, which launched a state AI hub at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to help build the ecosystem here, and to work on applying AI to problems in health care, life sciences, and climate. And she told Sacchetti that the state has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to the energy needs of computing-heavy AI companies.
"One of the things that's our secret sauce is we have this site ... the Mass. Green High Performance Computer Center. It's in Holyoke, where we have a lot of very clean, very inexpensive water power," Hao said. "So that is where we're going to be putting a lot of our compute. So that is going to be important for our AI hub."
Hao, the daughter of immigrants, told WCVB that she had been thinking a lot about Trump's move to end diversity, equity and inclusion considerations in federal hiring and that the topic is something she cares deeply about. Data from Harvard Business School, the secretary said, makes clear that more diverse teams end up with better business results.
"So it is the best thing to do for business and for state government, I would argue, to have diverse teams of people who bring different ideas, think about things differently, argue with each other, et cetera. Also, by the way, it's the right thing to do. And also, by the way, it's way more fun to have people who are different from you and to be able to learn from each other," Hao said. "And so I don't think we are going to vary or stray from kind of the commitments that we have as an administration, and certainly not in our office."
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