Bob Rivers and Steve Walsh are two people who — in their own ways — stepped to the front of the line in dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and both have been recognized for their work by Boston Magazine.
Rivers (No. 5) and Walsh (20) were named two of the magazine’s 100 Most Influential Bostonians in this month’s issue — Walsh for the first time; and Rivers for the third time in the Top 10.
Walsh, a former Massachusetts state representative from Lynn, is the president and CEO of the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association (MHA); and Rivers is the chair and CEO of Eastern Bank.
Eastern is a community-minded bank with more than two centuries of service to the various communities it serves. The highest concentration of its workforce is on Market Street in Lynn. Rivers has been its CEO since 2017, and has been with the bank since 2006.
“Rivers successfully took Eastern Bank public in 2020, then springboarded into a mergers-and-acquisitions phase (including one with Century Bank earlier this month), solidifying his status as the head of one of the city’s most important financial institutions,” Boston’s story said.
“But it’s his leadership on social issues that insiders keep pointing to,” the magazine article said. “After stepping up big on COVID relief and racial justice issues last year, Rivers has now launched a business coalition to advocate for universal childcare and early-childhood education in Massachusetts.”
Walsh, who now lives in Lynnfield, served on Beacon Hill from 2005 to 2014, when he stepped down to become executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals. Three years later, he was named CEO of the MHA.
He is “essentially the authority on what the state’s medical facilities need, want, are capable of, and won’t do,” the magazine wrote in its article, and “has been in daily contact with the governor and the secretary of public health throughout the pandemic.
“But the trade association honcho was influential long before the COVID crisis,” the magazine said. “After joining MHA in 2017, he quickly welcomed community hospitals into the fold to expand the group’s clout, then started racking up successes on Beacon Hill. Healthcare industry insiders say Walsh now holds the mightiest sway of anyone in the field.”
While on Beacon Hill, Walsh was credited with being one of the architects of the 2012 health care cost control and reform law. At the time he resigned from the legislature, he was House chairman of the Health Care Financing Committee.
The MHA is a voluntary, nonprofit organization of hospitals, health systems, caregivers, and related organizations with a common interest in promoting good health in the Commonwealth. It represents and advocates for the collective interests of its members and supports their efforts to provide high quality, cost-effective and accessible care.
Also on the list is Kimberly Budd, chief justice of the state Supreme Judicial Court, who spent much of her young life in Peabody, at No. 40.
Budd, daughter of former U.S. Attorney Wayne Budd, is the first African-American woman to hold the state’s top judiciary post.
“Budd leads an entirely Baker-appointed team of seven — and, at just 54 years old, could easily hang onto the position for well over a decade,” according to the magazine. “But even as Budd reshapes state law from the bench, it doesn’t look like she intends to stay quiet on it. In March, she participated in a public forum on racism in the court system, and in January, she publicly called for the state to increase funding for legal aid for low-income residents.”
