Airport app lands just in time

Local entrepreneur Wayne Chen wants his new app to take off with harried air travelers — literally.

The 67-year-old has created Connect On Time, a free app for iPhones and iPads that provides customized maps of 42 global airports and calculates how much time travelers actually need to reach their respective flight gates upon their arrival.

"In doing my research, there isn't any place else you can get this kind of info," Chen, president of Mo'zippity Apps in Marlboro, told the Herald. "I've flown enough and gotten lost enough to say, 'There's a way to solve this.' "

Connect On Time, the first app from Mo'zippity, a division of Chen's IT company WT Chen & Co. Inc., comes free with three activated airports — Abu Dhabi International, Honolulu International and London's Stansted Airport.

The app's other 39 airports, including Logan International Airport, can be accessed for $1.99 apiece, Chen said.

Connect On Time users can view a detailed yet scaled map of an entire airport, complete with gate locations, and passport and security control checkpoints they must pass through. Upon typing in a starting location and a "go to" location, the app calculates within 15 to 30 seconds how long it can take to get from one checkpoint to the other, Chen said.

Connect On Time also contains dropdown menus with information about terminal shuttles and airline locations.

Chen added Mo'zippity is working to increase the app's airport count to include all of the world's top 100 busiest airports; make the app available for Android devices; and give it multiple language capabilities.

"Last year the number of individuals that flew exceeded one billion for the first time and that number is expected to increase in the next 10 years by another billion," Chen said. "Lots of travelers are going to be seniors as well as Asians flying to Europe and the U.S., which is a driver and motivator for me to have multiple language versions."

Chen said Connect On Time's database of airport information was largely collected by him and other staff physically walking through all airports included on the app.

"Every airport just confirmed for us that airport signage is confusing, airport personnel aren't helpful and comprehensive airport maps are scarcer than hen's teeth," Chen said. "The information is needed because millions of people are late and hundreds of millions of people are always stressed out."

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Leaders laud contest to grant $ to struggling communities

Community leaders from the Hub's more economically hard-hit cities hailed a competition launched by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston last week as a necessary tool to spur cross-sector partnerships and improve the health and well-being of lower-income residents.

"You just have to walk down Broadway Street and you will see hundreds of people that wake up every day to open their small businesses. The ideas, the willingness, the energy to work and be creative is there," said Lawrence CommunityWorks Co-Executive Director Nelson Butten about the Working Cities Challenge. "This is a great opportunity for promoting collaboration within the different organizations, both private and nonprofits."

All 20 cities eligible for multi-year grants, including Brockton, Everett, Lowell and Fall River, have submitted letters of intent to enter the competition.

The Commonwealth, Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and Living Cities, a philanthropic collaborative of 22 of the world's largest foundations and financial institutions, will provide up to eight awards ranging from $50,000 to $700,000.

Winners will be chosen in January 2014, officials said.

"America looks mostly like these small cities and not like the big cities, so we need to figure out ... how do we build upon what we have," said Living Cities President and CEO Ben Hecht.

Lawrence is hoping to increase the earning power of residents, promote better community health, and allow local and immigrant businesses to grow.

Chelsea-based nonprofit, The Neighborhood Developers, meanwhile, is working with other partners to improve the city's Shurtleff-Bellingham neighborhood, and create a community school in Revere that provides educational opportunities for families and working adults, said Executive Director Ann Houston.

"It's certainly gotten a lot of important conversation going," Houston said about the initiative.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren added, "This project alone can't turn around the employment situation in Massachusetts, but in these cities I think that it can help lay the groundwork for why both the communities and the businesses will look to expand in Massachusetts."

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Cities: deal us in big time

Host cities and towns negotiating with proposed resort casino operators shouldn't get too greedy, according to one gaming expert.

"It does not help you to encourage massive promises — the politicians may like it, the lawyers may like it, but it doesn't help," said Jacob Miklojcik of Michigan Consultants, which does gaming industry financial analysis. "If you make outrageous demands, then the people say yes and two weeks later they try to renegotiate."

Community costs and benefits of building gambling resorts in East Boston/Revere, Everett and Milford will be the subject of a free "Casinos: Deal Us In?" forum at Suffolk University on Thursday.

"Given that this summer many of the communities will be voting on host benefit packages, we thought it might be useful to have a comparative conversation, or a collective conversation, around these community benefits," said Richard Taylor, business law director of the Sawyer Business School's Center for Real Estate at Suffolk.

Host community agreements will play a key role in the application process for prospective casino operators Suffolk Downs/Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts and Foxwoods Resort Casino as they compete for the sole Greater Boston casino license. The plans — which stand to bring tens of millions of dollars to the communities, infrastructure improvements and jobs — must be included in their site-specific, phase two applications to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that are due by December.

"Community mitigation is critically important in the application process, and every applicant will be expected to really put their best foot forward in introducing an effective and innovative (plan)," spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said.

So far, only Everett has an agreement, and a June 22 city vote on Wynn's proposed $1.2 billion casino along the Mystic River has been set.

Wynn has agreed to give hiring preference to Everett citizens for 8,000-plus construction and permanent jobs, and make a good-faith effort to hire Everett contractors and suppliers.

Host community plans for Boston and Revere are expected next.

"We've had great dialogue with both our host communities … over the last year and look forward to completing host community ... agreements in the coming weeks," said Suffolk Downs chief operating officer Chip Tuttle.

Cash flow during the final planning and development also is a big concern for communities.

"The casino should be asked to front-load some type of fund for the expenses of the community, even if those dollars are offset against any future payments by the casino once operating," Miklojcik said.

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Job news boosts markets

A largely positive U.S. jobs report sent the stock market soaring as the Dow Jones industrial average traded above 15,000 for the first time before closing just below the mark and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at a record 1,614.

"The Dow was at 14,000 in March. It's more than doubled since early 2009," said Paul Edelstein of IHS Global Insight.

"Investors seem to have more confidence," Alan Clayton-Matthews, an associate professor of economics and public policy at Northeastern University, told the Herald. "And the Federal Reserve made interest rates so low that if you put your savings in the bank, it won't earn much. The only place to put (your savings) is in commodities like gold or equities like stock. It seems like a pretty safe bet because businesses are doing well and profits are high."

The nation added 165,000 jobs in April, with increases reported in professional and business services, food services and drinking establishments, retail trade and health care, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"It's an improvement from what many people were expecting," said Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. "I'd still like to see better improvement than what we've seen to date."

The number of unemployed Americans last month — 11.7 million, or
 7.5 percent of the work force — ticked down a tenth of a percent from March and has declined by 673,000, or 
0.4 percent, since January.

Another bright spot: Due to revisions of earlier estimates, employment gains in February and March combined were 114,000 higher than previously reported, federal data shows. Also, the number of people not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them decreased by 133,000 from a year earlier to 835,000 last month.

"Overall, April's job report was consistent with the stubbornly slow pace of economic growth the nation has been experiencing this year, but with a few silver linings," said Michael D. Goodman, associate professor and public policy department chairman at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "These include strong upward revisions to the February and March data that suggest that the employment recovery is continuing, albeit not fast enough to be much consolation for the more than 4 million American workers who have been unemployed for over 26 weeks."

And the jobs people are getting may not be the ones they want. The number of involuntary part-time workers, for example, increased in April by 278,000 to 
7.9 million, largely offsetting a decrease in March.

Ira Kantor contributed to this report.

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Luxury rises to top 
at penthouse condo

Plagued by slow sales upon its completion in 2009, 45 Province St. is benefiting from the hot real estate market and is now building out some spectacular penthouse condos with fantastic views of downtown, the harbor, Back Bay and Cambridge.

While it was a big risk to build a high-end 137-unit condo building in an untested midtown location just off Downtown Crossing, the quick sales at nearby Millennium Place and the resuscitation of the Millennium Tower project on the site of the former Filene's have really given 45 Province a boost. Last year, 41 of the condos in the building were sold, and in the past few months, several units priced from $3.5 million to $4 million have found buyers. There are only 25 units left for sale in the building, from a 1,300-square-foot loft for $975,000 to a 2,741-square-foot, three-bedroom-plus penthouse on the 31st floor that's under construction and will be listed for $4.5 million.

We took a look at a recently built-out duplex penthouse condo, Unit 2404, a three-bedroom-plus unit with its own 500-square-foot outdoor roof deck that arguably has the most spectacular residential views along the Back Bay and Cambridge sides of the Charles River. This 3,319-square-foot condo, with custom Italian kitchen cabinetry, bamboo floors throughout and high-end porcelain tile bathrooms, is on the market for $4.39 million.

A big selling point of 
45 Province, besides its downtown location, is that there are dozens of different floor plans because the building gets slimmer as it rises.

There's a large lobby tended by a 24/7 concierge.

Although the condo fees are high, they include two valet garage parking spaces, heating and central cooling and use of the building's 12th floor rooftop heated pool, a fitness and spa facility, a clubroom with a kitchen and a large movie theater room with a projection-screen TV.

Unit 2404 is on the 24th and 25th floors atop a setback that rises seven more slimmer stories. It sits at the end of a carpeted hallway with recessed doorways.

Off the foyer and adjacent to a half bathroom is the unit's signature space: a two-story open dining room with downtown views through a 20-foot high wall of glass plus a private balcony.

The adjacent custom kitchen features Italian-made walnut cabinets with frosted-glass cabinets above gray onyx counters. There's a separate onyx-topped island with a Miele five-burner gas stove, a built-in wine cooler and a fluted Zephyr hood above. There's also a stainless-steel Miele wall and convection oven and dishwasher and a large Sub- Zero refrigerator.

The living room has great city and harbor views from two walls of windows.

The condo's large master bedroom suite is at the rear of the 24th floor with spectacular views down the Charles River from a wall of windows. It features a large walk-in closet and an en-suite bathroom with porcelain tile floors with nickel insets. There's a crushed white glass double-sink vanity with Waterworks nickel fixtures. There's also a porcelain-tiled walk-in shower.

A glass-walled bamboo staircase leads up to a large open space on the 25th floor that can be used as a family room or home office and overlooks the dining area. It has glass doors leading out to a 500-square-foot private roof deck. The deck has jaw-dropping views down both sides of the Charles River.

There are also two smaller guest bedrooms, one with a private balcony, but both have en-suite porcelain tile bathrooms with Waterworks nickel fixtures. One bathroom has a porcelain walk-in shower, the other a whirlpool tub.

Broker: C. Wayne Lopez at 45 Province St. sales center at 617-742-0942.

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Economic CUV practical but fun

When the all-new 2013 Subaru Crosstrek rolled up, I looked forward to kicking its tires and thought this could be a nifty replacement for the Outback Sport.

It's better.

I found the new Crosstrek to be an easy- and fun-to-drive CUV that got fantastic gas mileage, nearly 30 mpg on average, yet still had a feisty temperament that didn't mind some rough and tumble driving.

The car at its core is an Impreza hatchback sharing the 148-horsepower, 2.0-liter Boxer engine and CVT transmission, but it's hardier.

The wider, taller body provides a spacious five-passenger cabin, and with the rear seats down, a large cargo area, and the beefed-up suspension is up to the task of absorbing in-town rumble and light off-roading.

The engine is torquey and responds well under acceleration although the CVT gearing could be re-engineered to maintain more power through the middle gears. Like the Impreza it gets whiny in the those gears, losing some of the torque, but once at highway speed the car was very confident and happily flows with traffic. The all-wheel-drive steering is nimble and the Crosstrek refreshingly darts through traffic and around corners as the power is meted out to the wheels as needed.

The reinforced framework is more substantial than the Impreza and it's outfitted with oversized brakes. Riding almost nine inches off the ground on 17-inch blacked-out alloy wheels with flared fenders, the Crosstrek strikes a bit of a macho profile. In fact, if you squint, it resembles the last-generation Outback. The driver sits very tall in the cockpit and hopping in and out is quite easy.

The interior is simply appointed, but well-constructed. The fit and finish are polished and the ride is comfortable and fairly quiet. Conversations on the Bluetooth-connected phone are clear and not drowned out by road noise. Subaru has updated the infotainment center, but it may be the weakest element of the cabin. It's quite small and the dark screen is a strain to see.

The XV Premium trim, one of two available, starts at $22,995 and comes well-equipped with Bluetooth, power options, heated seats and mirrors and tinted glass. We had the $2,000 Navigation and Moonroof package added on for a total of $25,790. The base Limited starts at $25,000 and adds leather, an upgraded Bose stereo and the Navigation and Moonroof package are standard. As with all Subarus, there's an endless list of options to dress your car up so although you can get a nicely appointed one for a competitive price, it can add up quickly with adornments. Unless you really want leather seats, stick with the tester combination for the best sticker value.

Weigh this against the Mini Cooper Countryman, Mazda 5, Nissan Juke and I think you'll find the Crosstrek to be a great value and a very intriguing CUV.

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B&N to add Google Play app store to its Nook HD

NEW YORK — Barnes & Noble is teaming up with Google to vastly increase the number of apps available on its Nook HD tablets.

The bookstore chain says it will add Google's Play app store to its 7-inch Nook HD and 9-inch HD+ products in the U.S. and U.K. via a software update Friday. The move expands the number of apps available from the roughly 10,000 the Nook already offered in its own store — such as Angry Birds and Netflix — to 700,000-plus apps and games offered on Google Play. And it comes after a weak holiday sales season for the Nook, which is struggling to gain market share in the rapidly expanding tablet market.

CEO William Lynch said research and sales during the holidays show that consumer preference is shifting toward all-purpose tablets rather than simple e-readers.

"We saw coming off holiday the market moved to multifunction tablets," he said. "Consumer research showed us the breadth of applications available is really critical."

Lynch said the company had been in discussions with Google "on and off" for the past several years.

"This addresses the one perceived gap that we had with other tablets virtually overnight," he said. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

The update is automatic and will occur over-the-air to all devices connected to Wi-Fi. It will also include other Google Inc. services like the Chrome browser, Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps. Google Play Music includes millions of songs as well.

The prices and styles of the Nooks that Barnes & Noble offers are not changing. The 7-inch Nook HD starts at $199 and the 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet starts at $269. Barnes & Noble also sells non-tablet e-book readers, the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, which will not offer Google Play.

Barnes & Noble Inc., based in New York, has invested heavily in its Nook e-book readers and a digital library as more readers shift to electronic books and competition has grown from discount stores and online rivals.

The retailer launched high-definition versions of its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets in September in an effort to better compete against Amazon.com's Kindle Fire as well as other tablets like the iPad, iPad Mini and Google's own Nexus 7.

The company's Nook unit has attracted investors — Microsoft Corp. owns 16.8 percent, while U.K. publisher and education company Pearson PLC has a 5 percent stake. But aside from investor funding, it has not been profitable. In its most recent quarter, which included the holiday season, Nook revenue fell 26 percent to $316 million. Barnes & Noble recorded $21 million in returns due to weak demand during the holiday season, and $15 million in allowances for promotions.

Meanwhile market share has slid. Barnes & Noble had a 1.9 percent share of the worldwide tablet market in the fourth quarter, making it the No. 5 Tablet player behind Apple, Samsung, Amazon and Asus, according to data from IDC. But by the first quarter it had slipped out of the top 5, replaced by Microsoft.

At the same time, competition is proliferating, with the global tablet market growing quickly. It more than doubled to 49.2 million units during the first quarter, according to IDC's estimate.

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Casinos brace for impact of Internet gambling

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — With legal gambling now moving beyond the casinos and onto the Internet, the industry is bracing for the most far-reaching changes in its history.

A Las Vegas firm, Ultimate Gaming, on Tuesday became the first in the U.S. to offer online poker, restricting it, for now, to players in Nevada. New Jersey and Delaware also have legalized gambling over the Internet and expect to begin offering such bets by the end of this year.

And many inside and outside the industry say the recent position taken by the federal government that states are free to offer Internet gambling — as long as it doesn't involve sports betting — will lead many cash-hungry state governments to turn to the Web as a new source of tax revenue.

Ten other states have considered some form of Internet gambling so far this year, but none has legalized it yet. Efforts to pass a national law legalizing online poker have sputtered, leaving states free to pass laws as they see fit.

"It's no longer a question of if Internet gaming is coming; it's a question of when," said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, the trade organization for the nation's commercial brick-and -mortar casinos. "Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in the United States. I don't think that's what anyone intended, but it is what we're seeing."

The brave new world for gambling brings with it a host of questions and concerns. Will letting people bet online result in fewer visits to casinos, and therefore fewer dealers, beverage servers and hotel and restaurant workers at the casinos? Will Internet bets create a new revenue stream from new players, or will it simply redirect money from gamblers who otherwise would have visited a casino, and might have eaten dinner and seen a show, as well? And will it create even more problem gamblers?

Michael Frawley is chief operating officer of The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, perhaps the most endangered of Atlantic City's 12 casinos. A deal for it to be sold to the parent company of PokerStars, the world's largest online poker website, is up in the air. The Atlantic Club's owners said Wednesday the deal was dead, but PokerStars said the next day it still wants to salvage the purchase. It was not immediately clear whether the deal will ultimately get done.

Frawley said the Internet's vast reach could help double business at his casino, provided the right balance is struck between the online and physical gambling experiences for customers.

"If you go to the movies, you can watch one at home, or you can watch one in the theater," he said. "Both of them can be a great experience."

Regardless of whether PokerStars buys The Atlantic Club, Internet gambling is expected to take off in New Jersey before long. The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has said it is preparing to offer online gambling later this year, and Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment, has also said he expects his company's four Atlantic City casinos to grab a large share of New Jersey's online market.

Geoffrey Stewart is general manager of Caesars Online Poker. Parent company Caesars Entertainment's World Series of Poker brands, as well as its 37 casinos across the U.S., make it an early favorite to be a leader in online gambling. He said brick-and-mortar casinos such as Caesars Palace can use Internet play to complement their physical casinos.

"Someone comes to play with us online, we will be able to offer them seats to the real World Series of Poker, or offer them hotel rooms at Caesars Palace," he said. "Like any other business, you're always looking for what is the next distribution channel."

Not everyone in the industry is all-in, however.

The American Gaming Association conducted a study a few years ago on whether poker-only Internet gambling — which it supports — would cannibalize the existing brick-and-mortar casinos. The study determined that it would not. But when Internet gambling allows for casino games, such as in the bill recently adopted by New Jersey, the traditional casinos could suffer, Fahrenkopf said.

The most popular form of Internet gambling is online poker.

When the Justice Department charged executives of three online poker sites in April 2011 with conducting illegal transactions, it was a $6 billion a year industry. After the crackdown, it was largely on hiatus, because at the time, taking online bets from U.S. customers was illegal. But not long afterward, the U.S. Justice Department revised its stance, allowing states to take online bets so long as they didn't involve sporting events.

Eric Baldwin is a professional poker player who's eager to get back online again now that poker is once again available over the Net.

"The money's good when things are good," he said. On the other hand, he acknowledges, "Most people don't go to work for 12 hours, do their best and come home down a couple thousand dollars."

He plans to at least try out legalized Internet poker to see if the player pools are big enough to make it worthwhile.

Lawrence Vaughan, chief operating officer of South Point Poker, one of the first Nevada online licensees, said legalizing Internet poker removes the stigma some people had associated with it.

"You had to move money in shady ways around the world to even play online," he said. "Now it's the sort of thing your mom could sign up for."

Ultimate Gaming CEO Tobin Prior, whose firm started taking poker bets Tuesday in Nevada, added, "Players won't have to worry if their money is safe. They are going to be able to play with people they can trust and know the highest regulatory standards have been applied."

PokerStars, one of the parties charged in the 2011 crackdown that came to be known in the industry as "Black Friday," later bought Full Tilt Poker, another defendant, and reached a settlement with the federal government, paying $547 million to the Justice Department and $184 million to poker players overseas to settle a case alleging money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling. It admitted no wrongdoing and says it is in good standing with governments around the world.

Its parent company, The Rational Group, based on the Isle of Man in the U.K., would not say whether it plans to try to buy another casino or partner with one to gain entry into the U.S. online gambling market.

Introducing new players to poker over the Internet makes it less scary and potentially more popular, said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

"It was mostly old guys with cigars," he said. "It was very intimidating to walk into a poker room and see a guy who's a thousand years old, smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day, giving you dirty looks because you're taking the wrong card," he said. "What online poker did was let people get familiar with the game, feel a little bit of confidence and then they said, 'I want to go to Vegas and do the real thing.'"

Every week, it seems, a new study comes out touting the promise of Internet gambling for cash-strapped casinos and even more cash-strapped state governments.

Gambling Compliance, which tracks the online gambling industry, predicts Internet gambling in New Jersey will bring in nearly $262 million in its first year and nearly $463 million after four years. The group said that figure could go as high as $575 million after four years if online gambling takes off in New Jersey.

H2 Gambling Capital, a U.K. consultancy for the Internet gambling industry, predicts 17 states will have approved Internet gambling by 2017, led by New York, California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey.

And Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2020, online gambling in the U.S. will produce the same amount of revenue as Las Vegas and Atlantic City markets combined bring in today: $9.3 billion.

Indian tribes are also moving to get into the online gold rush.

Two groups of tribes have already formed alliances to explore offering Internet gambling, and in April, the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribe reached a deal with Oklahoma allowing the tribe to offer Internet gambling to customers outside the U.S. through its pokertribes.com web site. The Shoshone tribe in Nevada has a deal with an online company to offer similar Internet gambling to foreign customers in a venture that could go live in May.

States across the country are also turning to the Internet to boost sales of their lottery tickets. Twelve states have either approved or are considering selling lottery tickets online, and Georgia and Illinois are already doing it.

What types of games can be played for money online varies by state.

New Jersey will offer people within the state all the games patrons can play in physical casinos. Delaware will do the same, along with bingo. Nevada only offers poker. A proposed Internet betting law in Massachusetts would prohibit online slot machine games.

But in most cases, the games can be accessed through computers, portable tablet devices and smartphones — putting a casino or a card game within reach at 3 a.m. in the kitchen, in the middle of the day at the beach, or on a crowded commuter train.

With the Internet putting legal gambling directly into so many more hands, some are concerned about an increase in problem gambling, particularly when social media sites offer real-money gambling in the U.S., as some do already in other countries. Zynga, for instance, began taking real-money bets earlier this year in England, and its stock price jumped 15 percent in a day.

"Compulsive gambling is an impulse disease: you get an urge, you jump in your car and drive to Atlantic City or you call your bookie and then wait to see the result of the game you bet on," said Arnie Wexler, the former chairman of New Jersey's Council On Compulsive Gambling and himself a recovered problem gambler. "Now you have Internet gambling and you wake up in the middle of the night and in your birthday suit, you can blow a lot of money. I know one guy who lost $30,000 in one night of Internet gambling."

___

Associated Press writer Haven Daley in Las Vegas contributed to this report. Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

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Outgoing Alibaba CEO Ma says he's 'old' for Web

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Alibaba founder Jack Ma, the billionaire who has run the Chinese e-commerce giant since 1999, says he's getting "a bit old" for the Internet.

That's what the outgoing chief executive told a charitable event in Santa Monica Thursday as he pledged $5 million toward a China-based fund that supports environmental conservation projects outside China.

"I'm young for new things but I'm a bit old for the Internet," the 48-year-old said.

Ma's gift doubles the amount raised for the China Global Conservation Fund, an offshoot of the Arlington, Va.-based organization, The Nature Conservancy.

Ma steps down as CEO from Alibaba Group on May 10, ahead of a widely expected initial public offering of stock that could create a windfall for Yahoo Inc., which owns nearly a quarter of the company.

Ma said that he prepared for his retirement for the last nine years and is looking forward to working on philanthropic causes such as environmental conservation.

He said he was inspired to act after visiting his home in China six years ago. A lake he nearly drowned in as a boy had mostly dried up. He also spoke to a farmer who used chemicals on produce that he wouldn't feed his family. "I know something is wrong," Ma said.

Ma will chair the Chinese board overseeing the fund once he steps down as CEO.

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CEO Club chief surprises members with retirement news

Peter Rollins, founder and president of Boston College's Chief Executives' Club of Boston, announced his retirement yesterday after 21 years leading the club.

"It's been enjoyable," Rollins, 69, told the Herald yesterday. "I love the program. It will go on."

A successor to run the program has not been named, said Rollins, a beloved host who surprised event-goers yesterday with the announcement and received a standing ovation.

The Chief Executives' Club of Boston invites the region's most powerful business leaders — chairmen, presidents and managing partners — to several luncheon forums each year at the Boston Harbor Hotel's Wharf Room. Each luncheon features a prominent CEO keynote speaker from outside the region who is introduced by a Hub corporate leader and addresses important issues affecting both business and the economy.

Recent speakers have included Honeywell International CEO David Cote and Aflac Inc. CEO Daniel Amos.

Ranked as one of the top executive forums in the world and viewed by many as the best business lunch in Boston, Rollins' program operates in association with Boston College's Carroll School of Management.

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