Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/84881
The Connector B oston has arguably the largest concentration of smart people on the planet; we're a center of the biotech industry and we've got more venture capi- tal dollars per capita than anywhere in the world. One of the men making this happen is Tim Rowe, founder and CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center, who has created a community of nearly 500 start-ups and venture capital firms under one roof in Kendall Square, bringing together money and talent in a froth of creative energy. Mayor Menino invited Rowe to replicate his Cambridge model in the Seaport District—the Boston Innovation Center, which will be a public gather- ing space for entrepreneurs, broke ground this spring. This augurs well for Boston to remain com- petitive with Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley as a center of tech innovation. "We are number one in the world in some dimensions that really matter," says Rowe, 45. "We don't need more money, we just need to make sure everyone knows one another." The Aviators H ow do you eliminate costly overhead at a private jet company? By not owning any jets. That's the business proposition Worcester-bred cousins Joshua Hebert, 38, and Anthony Tivnan, 32, used when founding Magellan Jets four years ago. In private aviation, there's a basic inefficiency— most planes spend more time on the tarmac than they do in the air. Magellan mines that gap by con- tracting with a network of jet owners who aren't using their planes. The company then sells jet cards for a specified number of hours in the air to clients. Hebert took an indirect route into the business, first landing in stockbroking and then advertis- ing. And he'll never forget his first private flight: "It was a Gulfstream II, formerly owned by Frank Sinatra," Hebert says. "We just pulled the car up to the plane and boarded. I didn't really under- stand the convenience of that before that flight. And the catering was exquisite." "We are number one in the world in some dimensions that really matter."—TIM ROWE ON TIM: Carl jacket, Mackage ($690). The Tannery, 711 Boylston St., 617-267-5500; thetannery.com. Winter chinos, Gant ($165). The Tannery, SEE ABOVE. Dark check shirt, Ermenegildo Zegna ($345). Neiman Marcus, Copley Place, 617-536-3660; neimanmarcus.com. Silk skull scarf, Alexander McQueen ($295). Neiman Marcus, SEE ABOVE Tivnan's first private flight was a "party in the sky," he says, on a Boeing 757 tricked out as a VIP plane, with 32 guests for a client's birthday flight to Cabo. "This definitely wasn't in my 10-year plan after graduation," he says. But increasingly he's impressed less with the luxury of private aviation than with its efficiency for top executives, whether they are conducting business on board or dashing to a meeting across the country. Both men enjoy the access the industry has to local executives headed to conferences or the Super Bowl, as well as celebrities such as Red Sox players, Jay-Z, and Mark Wahlberg, the latter recently flying with Magellan Jets to the premiere for The Other Guys. And then there was the dog Magellan flew as its only passenger from Boston to St-Tropez. "The greatest part of our job is our clientele," says Hebert. 102 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM