Name John Fish | Role Businessman | |
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John Fish is an American businessman. He is the longtime chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction Company, the largest building company in New England, and was chair of the private effort to secure Boston’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Fish was the chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and was the chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In 2012 and 2015, Boston magazine named him the #1 most powerful person in Boston, and the 6th most influential person in Boston philanthropy in 2013. The Boston Globe named Fish Bostonian of the Year in 2015.
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Early life and education
Fish was raised in Hingham, Massachusetts, with four siblings. Fish grew up with dyslexia. He attended Tabor Academy where he played football. He was captain of the team his senior year, and continued to play in college until he suffered a neck injury. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1982 with a political science degree.
Career
After college, Fish worked for Peabody Construction, his father's company. When he was 23, In 1982, Fish and his father established Suffolk Construction Company, an offshoot of the family construction business. In 2006, Fish bought out his father's stake in the company. Fish built the company into a top national construction company responsible for high-profile projects such as Boston’s Millennium Tower and a new facility at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. $2 billion in annual revenue, and almost $6 billion in projects under way in Boston. By March 2017, the company had 1,715 employees and $3 billion in annual sales.
Fish was a vocal advocate for hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics in Boston, and he was chair of the Boston 2024 Partnership, a private group that worked on the bid until the city ultimately withdrew its bid to host the Games on July 27, 2015.
Philanthropy
In 2008, the Lewis Family Foundation honored Fish with a CEO Social Leadership Award at the Boston Business Journal's Corporate Philanthropy & Citizenship Summit.
Fish has provided scholarships for multiple children to attend Tabor Academy. In 2009, Fish founded Boston Scholar Athletes, an organization aimed at helping student athletes improve their academic performance, and he has donated $6 million to the program. The multimillion-dollar nonprofit runs tutoring centers in 20 high schools and supports underfunded athletic teams with uniforms, equipment and coaching clinics.
In 2010, Fish joined a group of 14 chief executives from the largest companies in Massachusetts to establish the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP). Fish was named chairman of the organization. In 2011, Fish and his wife were inducted into the Seneca Society of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
He has served as fundraising campaign chair for Brigham and Women's Hospital's “Life.Giving.Breakthroughs” $1 billion capital campaign, and has donated $5 million to the cause.
In 2014, Fish was named Chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. He also served as chair of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's board of directors until 2017. He was named chairman of Boston College’s Board of Trustees, the first non-alumnus in that role. Fish is also on the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston.
Fish has donated to Republican and Democrat political campaigns. He supported the Obama campaign in 2007 and raised between $100,000 and $200,000 for Obama's 2012 bid for re-election.
In November 2015, Fish was given the Ralph Lowell Distinguished Citizen Award for service to others from the Boy Scouts of America Spirit of Adventure Council.
Personal life
Fish is married to Cynthia (Gelsthorpe) Fish, daughter of American marketing executive Edward Gelsthorpe, whom he met at Tabor Academy. They have three daughters.