This Women's Network event will offer an insightful conversation with Dr. Melissa Gilliam, the 11th President of Boston University and both the first woman and the first Black woman to lead the institution since its founding in 1869.
06/18/2025
11:30am - 1:00pm
Fairmont Copley Plaza
Join the Chamber and Massachusetts Business Roundtable for a deep dive into employer insights, featuring analysis from McKinsey and a panel of experts.
06/26/2025
11:00am - 12:00pm
Virtual
Join us for our installment of the Pacesetters Doing Business series featuring Mass General Brigham on June 26, 2025.
1:00pm - 2:00pm
This program is in redevelopment. Click this page for DEI resources.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
Join us on June 12 for a highly interactive virtual workshop with Strategic Career & Leadership Coach Carole-Ann Penney.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
Small businesses are the backbone of the Boston economy. Learn more about the resources available through the Chamber.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For over 30 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
June 18, 2024
Dear Senate President Spilka, House Speaker Mariano, Senator Rodrigues, Representative Michlewitz and members of the House and Senate:
As leaders of Massachusetts-based business and trade associations, collectively representing more than 10,000 employers, we write to express our concerns about S.2770/H.4632, An Act establishing the Massachusetts data privacy act, which have been sent to the Senate and House Committees on Ways and Means, respectively.
We recognize the importance of data privacy and are supportive of a framework that is a consistent, thoughtful, and comprehensive approach for safeguarding consumers’ privacy, expanding consumers’ rights, and protecting personal information. We also believe that this approach must be balanced with employer feasibility, compliance costs, and avoiding unintended consequences that negatively impact the state’s economic competitiveness and our world-class innovation ecosystem. However, we are concerned that the current version of the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act would put companies operating in Massachusetts at a significant competitive disadvantage.
The bill, as redrafted, greatly diverges from a mainly uniform approach that has been adopted by seventeen states, including other New England states. This is an approach that many businesses in Massachusetts are already utilizing for customers, regardless of where they live, because it typically is more cost-effective and feasible to apply the same standard to all consumers. Adopting a unique Massachusetts-only law would be extremely burdensome on employers and cause significant unintended consequences for businesses who operate around the country and world, making us an outlier in an increasingly competitive economic environment. In addition, as redrafted, these bills include duplicative and extremely difficult to meet standards which could be confusing to employers and exacerbate the competitive disadvantage.
The compliance problems are only exacerbated by the proposed private right of action enforcement mechanism in the legislation. This new liability would expose Massachusetts businesses attempting to comply with the bill to an avalanche of litigation. It would also further cement the Commonwealth’s status as an outlier because Massachusetts would have the broadest private right of action of any state with existing privacy laws.
Next session, we stand ready to work with policymakers in a collaborative effort to safeguard consumer privacy while at the same time supporting the state’s overall competitiveness. Thank you for your consideration and thoughtful approach to this important policy matter.
Sincerely,
JD Chesloff, President & CEO, Massachusetts Business Roundtable
Brooke Thomson, President & CEO, Associated Industries of Massachusetts
Karen Andreas, President & CEO, North Shore Chamber of Commerce
Kendalle Burlin-O’Connell, President & CEO, MassBIO
Jonathan Butler, President & CEO, 1Berkshire
Chris Carlozzi, State Director, NFIB
Zach Donah, President & CEO, Massachusetts Society of CPAs
Jenny Erickson, President & Chief Executive Officer, Life Insurance Association of Massachusetts (LIAM)
Sara Fraim, CEO, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council
Andrew Guggenheim, Managing Director & Associate General Counsel, SIFMA- Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
Jon Hurst, President, Retailers Association of Massachusetts
Jim Klocke, President & CEO, Massachusetts Nonprofit Network
Kathleen Murphy, President & CEO, Mass Bankers Association
Tim Murray, President & CEO, Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce
Paul Niedzwiecki, Chief Executive Officer, Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce
Daphne Phalon, President, Mass Staffing Association
James E. Rooney, President & CEO, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Tamara Small, CEO, NAIOP Massachusetts, The Commercial Real Estate Development Association
Mike O’Sullivan, CEO, One South Coast Chamber
Christopher S. Stark, Executive Director, Massachusetts Insurance Federation
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