Partners HealthCare hires ex-White House adviser

THE REGION

Partners HealthCare said it hired Geoffrey Grant, a former White House science adviser and federal grants administrator, to oversee its annual $1 billion-a-year research organization, the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health funding. Grant is a former director of the NIH Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration. He also worked for the National Science Foundation in the White House office of science and technology policy. Partners is the parent of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital. (Christopher Rowland)

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reduced the time Boston lawyer Evan M. Slavitt was suspended from practicing law from one year to two months. The September suspension stemmed from Slavitt's recommending a man for admission to the Massachusetts bar despite knowing he had once falsely claimed to be a lawyer licensed in California. Slavitt said he vouched for the man because he believed he had eventually been admitted to the bar. The order, issued Friday, will be followed by an opinion explaining the decision to reduce the sanction by Board of Bar Overseers. Slavitt, a former federal prosecutor, said he expects to return by week's end to his law firm, Bodoff & Slavitt. (Sacha Pfeiffer)

Federal regulators have approved a Spectra Energy Corp. subsidiary's construction and operation of an undersea natural gas pipeline. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has authorized Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC to build the 16-mile line. Construction is expected to begin in spring with operations anticipated to start by December. A private company, Excelerate Energy LLC, is building the Northeast Gateway Energy Bridge deepwater port, which will be located about 13 miles southeast of Gloucester in federally controlled waters. The federal government approved that project in February. (AP)

The head of financial services company State Street Corp. received compensation last year valued by the company at about $19 million, according to a regulatory filing. Ronald E. Logue, chairman and chief executive since July 2004, received $1 million in salary and $5 million from the company's incentive plan. The bulk of his compensation came from stock and option awards valued about $12.9 million, the company said in a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Logue also received $109,820 in perks, which included health screening, a company car and driver, valued at $30,210, and security at his residence and while traveling, valued at $38,860. (AP)

Fidelity Investments, the world's largest mutual-fund company, plans to introduce performance-based fees for 19 stock funds with $50 billion in assets after all but two of them trailed their benchmarks last year. Fidelity would earn an additional fee of 20 basis points if the funds beat their benchmarks over three years. The funds' annual management fees, which range from 1.1 to 1.7 percent of assets, would be reduced by 20 basis points if they failed to outperform, the Boston-based company said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fees would rise or fall by as much as $100 million, based on current assets. (Bloomberg)

THE NATION

Bank of America Corp. chairman and chief executive Kenneth Lewis received compensation worth nearly $23 million in 2006, according to a regulatory filing. Lewis received $1.5 million in salary, $6.5 million in nonequity incentive plan compensation, and stock and option awards that were valued by the company at $14.6 million on the dates they were issued. He received $219,969 in other compensation. (AP)

The Chicago Board of Trade will enter talks with Intercontinental Exchange Inc. on its unsolicited $9.48 billion takeover bid, aimed at breaking up a planned $8.37 billion merger with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The board of CBOT Holdings Inc., parent of the exchange, authorized talks and the provision of information to ICE, CBOT Holdings said. (Bloomberg)