Mayor Wu has reached outside City Hall for a new economic development chief, naming Emily Knight, the head of a Cambridge-based technology incubator, to the key cabinet post.
Knight, a Roslindale resident who has led The Engine as president and CEO, will take over on Oct. 19. She will succeed Donald Wright, who has served on an interim basis since the departure earlier this year of Segun Idowu, one of the more prominent members of Wu’s first-term cabinet.
Idowu served as chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion from early 2022 until Feb. 27 of this year. He left City Hall to devote more time to caring for his elderly grandmother.
Knight’s appointment puts someone with a higher profile in Boston’s technology and startup sector atop an office that, under Idowu, placed considerable emphasis on neighborhood businesses, supplier diversity and economic equity.
Knight joined The Engine in 2017 and rose through the management ranks to become president and CEO. The Cambridge-based organization specializes in what it calls “Tough Tech”—science and engineering focused on difficult global problems—and now supports more than 150 companies, according to Wu’s office.
“Emily Knight has spent her career bringing people and institutions together to turn ambitious ideas into companies, jobs, and lasting economic growth,” the mayor said in a statement. “Emily understands what entrepreneurs and businesses need to succeed—and how to ensure that success reaches every neighborhood in our City. I’m thrilled to welcome her to our team and look forward to her leadership to grow our economy, strengthen our communities, and make Boston the best place to build a life and build a business.”
“Boston has extraordinary talent, institutions, and ideas, and this role is an incredible opportunity to connect those strengths into economic growth that lasts,” Knight said in a release announcing her appointment. “I want to help companies start here and grow here, while making sure the jobs and industries they create are felt in every neighborhood across the City.”
Before The Engine, Knight worked in operations, strategy and product development at Workbar, the coworking-space company. She is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. The mayor first met her earlier this year at an innovation summit hosted by Harvard’s Rappaport Institute, according to city officials.
The timing of Knight’s appointment is notable as Mayor Wu is scheduled to deliver her annual address on Wednesday morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Forum, where more than 600 business, civic, nonprofit and community leaders are expected. The mayor will likely use that stage to explain what Knight’s appointment says about the administration’s evolving agenda.
