Bret Bero, the former owner of ECHO Industries in Orange, has launched an exploratory campaign for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.
The Boston resident is new to partisan politics and said he wants to talk to and hear from residents across the state before making a decision, which he expects will come after Labor Day weekend. In an interview with the Greenfield Recorder, he cited the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic as his primary reason for considering statewide office.
“Coming out of quarantine, Massachusetts is now at an inflection point,” Bero said, adding that there is nothing more important to have and more difficult to achieve than a thriving small business. “So I think small business development needs to be at the center of our recovery plan.”
Bero said he and a business school classmate in 1997 purchased the assets to a small, deep-draw metal forming company his father had owned in Orange with a partner for 10 years. The two new partners rechristened it ECHO Industries and Bero owned it until New Year’s Eve 2019.
The 62-year-old said 99 percent of businesses in Massachusetts are small businesses and employ nearly half the state’s workforce. He said his experience equipped him with a valuable perspective.
“As an economic optimist, I think small business needs a seat at the table,” he said.
Bero explained the state grants funding to small businesses so they can acquire more assets, but that is not where the money should be going, he said. Bero said small businesses need cash to hire more people and pay them well. Working parents, he said, also need better access to services like child care. He said there is false belief that Americans are reluctant to return to work following the pandemic.
“I just think there are a lot of structural barriers to their being able to,” Bero said.
He said tax holidays are a fine short-term fix, though they can spread workers even thinner than they already are.
Bero said that, if elected, he would like to facilitate a top-to-bottom review of all the regional, state and federal programs available to small businesses. He said there should be more focus on getting small businesses some capital to create strong business plans so they can get started. He would also like to see regional roundtable discussions to examine small business economics.
Bero said a community in Berkshire County, a corporation in central Massachusetts and a small business on Cape Cod all have unique challenges that must be understood.
He is a Democrat for “two key reasons,” he said. The first is his belief that the Republican Party, at the national level, has moved too far to an extremist position, citing party members’ embrace of or refusal to disavow conspiracy theories such as QAnon. The second is the Democratic Party’s progressive thinking on programs that help people.
“I just think the Democratic Party is on the right side of history,” he said.
Bero said he grew up in Concord and for more than 20 years lived in Carlisle, where he served on the Finance Committee and an ad hoc revenue enhancement committee.
Following his business career, Bero joined the faculty of Babson College, where he teaches strategic problem solving, management consulting and leading business turnarounds. He holds degrees from Middlebury College and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. His wife, Joan, is an occupational therapist in Weston Public Schools. The two were high school sweethearts and have two adult children and two grandchildren.
More information is available at bretbero.com.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.