EF branches out into adventure tours

This will be the first time EF has offered bike tours. The launch builds on the success of the cycling teams that the privately held Swiss company sponsors, and they’ll share some resources. The men’s team is featured prominently in the Netflix series, “Tour de France: Unchained,” while EF-sponsored cyclist Kristen Faulkner won the gold medal in the women’s road race at the Paris Olympics in July.

EF Education First is best known for its language schools and student travel immersion programs. Durflinger said educational and immersion elements will be critical to these new trips, and will help differentiate EF from rival bike and hike tour operators that don’t provide much connection to the communities they’re passing through. Generally speaking, an average 9-day itinerary will cost between $4,500 and $6,000, she said, and EF offers payment plans with low down payments and no interest.

Durflinger’s interest in travel goes back to her childhood in Kansas. Her family hosted numerous exchange students, inspiring her to be curious and learn more about the world. She moved to the Boston area two decades ago to work for EF in sales, and has worked her way up through the ranks. She’s also taken a personal interest in active travel; her next big adventure, later this month, will be a 120-kilometer run-hike race across the Canary Islands with friends.

“There’s nothing like bringing a group on a hike [in a place like] the middle of the Alps,” Durflinger said. “There’s something special that happens when you’re biking, or hiking, or stand-up paddleboarding that brings a sense of community in a special way.”

For Faro and Lupoli, the pasta wheel keeps spinning

Joe Faro and Sal Lupoli go way back. They’re both food entrepreneurs with roots in the Merrimack Valley who branched out into real estate development — Faro in Salem, N.H., and Lupoli in Lawrence. They’re now working on a $100-million-plus casino project in Salem, N.H., with Cordish Cos. And they’re old friends; Faro says he even made his favorite mushroom ravioli for Lupoli’s wedding in 1995.

Now, they share something else: ownership of the Buitoni Food Co. pasta and sauce brand. The Lawrence-based venture Faro and Lupoli co-own, Artisan Chef Manufacturing Co., acquired Buitoni and its Danville, Va., factory last week from private equity firm Brynwood Partners, for an undisclosed price. In a rotini-shaped twist, it was Buitoni, then owned by Nestlé, that acquired Faro’s first business, Joseph’s Gourmet Pasta, in 2006. Faro said he and Lupoli were in Danville last week, meeting with their new employees.

“It’s great fun,” Faro, chief executive of Tuscan Brands, said of working with Lupoli. “Sal’s my closest friend. . . . We’re like mirror images. He’s like the brother I never had.”

Joseph’s, now owned by LaSalle Capital, did not come back to Faro as part of the deal. But some things never change: Buitoni still buys the mushroom filling that Joseph’s produces in Haverhill, for Faro’s favorite pasta dish.

O’Hanlon takes the wheel at CarGurus

Mike O’Hanlon is changing lanes: He’s switching from a top job at ezCater to become chief revenue officer at CarGurus, just as the online auto marketplace moves from Cambridge to its new headquarters in the Back Bay this fall.

O’Hanlon joined CarGurus this month, following six years at ezCater in downtown Boston, and another 12 at Wayfair.

O’Hanlon said he was attracted to the team and the culture at CarGurus, along with the rapid changes underway in the auto industry. He said he believes CarGurus, which runs one of the country’s busiest auto shopping websites, has built “the best mousetrap” to take advantage of those changes.

“The way people shop for cars is rapidly evolving,” O’Hanlon said in an email. “What was once a largely in-person experience where data and transparency were limited for both shoppers and dealers has quickly evolved with more online tools and insights. . . . Where there is disruption, there is opportunity.”

New chief of Ad Club has plans to grow

During their time as board cochairs of the Ad Club, Andrew Graff of Allen & Gerritsen and Barbara Goose of Rocket Software helped stabilize membership after the trade group was hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of in-person events. Graff and Goose hired a new president to run day-to-day operations, Barb Reilly, in the spring of 2023, and under her guidance, Ad Club membership blossomed again.

Now, it will be Arnold chief executive George Sargent’s turn to help grow membership to the next level. Sargent succeeded Graff and Goose as board chair last week. And with Reilly, a longtime friend, he hopes to grow membership by 50 percent within the next year, from its current level of around 55 corporate members.

Sargent said he accepted the role as a way to give back to the local advertising community, in which he believes the demand to meet up in real life has not quite yet been fulfilled since the pandemic.

“There’s so much new energy and new ideas,” Sargent said. “There’s just a pent-up energy for community engagement.”

Hao happy to be on Team Massachusetts

The State House News Service event was called “They’re Leaving Massachusetts.” But the keynote speaker, state economic development Secretary Yvonne Hao, gave a rousing speech to the crowd last week about why people should stay.

In her portion of the event, which also featured two panels moderated by Boston Globe reporters and a presentation by Doug Howgate of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, Hao said she regularly hears about people talking about how they’re considering leaving. Even her financial adviser suggested she would be better off in income-tax-free New Hampshire.

However, she rattled off the pluses to staying: a talented workforce, strong schools and universities, a powerful health care sector, a promising new industry in climate-tech.

Inspired by a reenactment she saw on the Lexington town green, she likened staying in Massachusetts to taking on the British army in the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. “It’s improbable that this ragtag group of colonists, they started a revolution, they led a revolution, and they won a revolution,” Hao said. “That’s the original ‘Team Massachusetts.’ ”

Stay on the team, she added. It’s worth fighting the fight to keep Massachusetts competitive, she said, just like it was more than two centuries ago.

Along those lines, Hao talked about how Governor Maura Healey launched the Massachusetts 250 initiative last week, to celebrate 250 years of independence and this state’s legacy in making it happen. She said she has heard from her counterparts in Pennsylvania and Virginia, who argue that they should get credit for the country’s birth.

Hao’s not buying it.

“We threw the tea in the water,” Hao said. “We know we’re the place with the shot heard round the world. We’re going to celebrate the hell out of it.”

Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.