Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 7, 2025 27 POWE R 50 H artford Mayor Arunan Arulam- palam entered his second year in office trying to push forward on several economic devel- opment initiatives, while also navi- gating headwinds like the city's high downtown office vacancy rate. Arulampalam, last year, hired new economic development and development services directors. He also created a new govern- ment office dedicated to helping businesses navigate the city's sometimes-cumbersome regulations. The mayor says those appoint- ments are already paying dividends. He announced in January, for example, that his administration has cut in half building permit wait times. Arulampalam and East Hartford Mayor Connor Martin have also launched a deep-dive investiga- tion into the possibility of sharing personnel and other costs, and devel- oping a joint vision around economic development, tourism and culture. Hartford is one of three Connecticut municipalities in the running for a piece of the state's $100 million "Innovation Clusters" grant pool. Hartford's proposal would create a "Center for Applied AI," where corporations could test artificial intel- ligence-fueled business applications and train a local AI workforce. J oseph Nolan Jr. is the chairman, president and CEO of the state's largest utility, Eversource Energy, which is dual headquartered in Hartford and Boston. He began his position at the helm of Eversource in April 2021, previously serving as executive vice president of strategy and customer, and before that, as executive vice president of customer and corporate relations. He's overseen a number of major decisions since taking over as CEO of a publicly traded company that provides electric service to customers in Connecticut, New Hampshire and western Massachu- setts. Eversource also distributes natural gas throughout Connecticut via an affiliate, Yankee Gas. Last year, Nolan led the decision to divest Eversource's offshore wind business, a move that was driven by increased construction costs, economic uncertainty and other factors. In January, Eversource also announced that it had reached a deal to get out of the water business. It plans to sell its Aquarion Water Co. subsidiary to the New Haven-based South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority in a $2.4 billion deal. Eversource acquired Aquarion in 2017 in a deal valued at $1.7 billion. Nolan said the sale will allow the company to pay down debt and Meanwhile, top staff from the city, state and Capital Region Develop- ment Authority are working on a plan to reshape or "right-size" downtown Hartford's struggling commercial office market. The effort will likely improve its regulatory diversity. The deal comes as Eversource remains at odds with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in Connecticut over the agency's decisions to significantly reduce the utility's recent rate requests. The high-profile battle has led lead to the conversion of more underused office buildings into new uses, like apartments. The son of Sri Lankan refugees, Arulampalam was born in Zimbabwe. Prior to being elected mayor, Eversource to file a lawsuit accusing PURA Chair Marissa Gillett of bypassing the authority of fellow commissioners and issuing hundreds of unilateral decisions in rate cases. The case remains ongoing. Nolan earned his undergraduate he served as the CEO of the Hart- ford Land Bank. He also served as a deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, and a lawyer at Updike, Kelly & Spellacy P.C. communications degree and MBA at Boston College. He started his career running a customer service center for the former Boston Edison Co., a small utility operator. 7 Joseph Nolan Jr. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER 6 Arunan Arulampalam

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