John F Fish

When he took over the embryonic Suffolk from his father at 22, Fish didn't even make as much as a good plumber. Meanwhile, the older and larger family business, Peabody, went to his brother Ted. Twenty-four years later, Suffolk is the biggest construction company in New England, with an estimated $1.1 billion in annual revenue, competing regularly with the smaller Peabody for jobs (and usually winning). Fish's fingerprints are all over the state: He put up the $10.7 million Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, managed the $147 million John Adams Courthouse renovation, and is building the $278 million Mandarin Oriental and the $150 million Westin Boston Waterfront hotel. Now he's plowing some of his fortune back into causes including the Boston Pops, whose big Presidents at Pops event he chaired last year. Mr. Fish serves on the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is also the Chairman of the Red & Blue Foundation, Suffolk’s non-profit initiative, and sits on boards and executive committees for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, Catholic Schools Foundation, Boston College, Tabor Academy, Boston Symphony Orchestra. He is a trustee at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and serves on the Executive Committee for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, Jobs for Mass, Boston Plan for Excellence and the Private Industry Council. Mr. Fish has received an Honorary Doctor of Engineering Technology degree at Wentworth Institute of Technology. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science.