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For labor leader Flynn, a new job and an audience with Trump
Chris Morris for The Boston Globe

Tom Flynn (right) was the national political director for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters during President Barack Obama’s second term. But it took a Republican president’s arrival to bring Flynn to the White House.

Flynn just became head of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, but before the job change, he had a rare meeting with President Trump.

With little notice, he was one of a handful of labor leaders summoned to the White House in January, right after the inauguration. They covered a range of construction-related topics with Trump and his team, including the fates of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines and the Jordan CoveLNG project.

Flynn’s membership leans Democratic. But he says he left that meeting with an appreciation for Trump’s approach to the economy. “It was refreshing … that the president wants to identify levels of bureaucracy that are an impediment to creating good-paying jobs,’’ he says.

Flynn takes over following Mark Erlich’s retirement as the New England Regional Council of Carpenters’ executive secretary-treasurer, the top position in an organization with about 100 staffers and nearly 20,000 members.

This means a much shorter commute from Flynn’s Milton home. He previously flew to Washington every week. Now he just heads to the council’s Dorchester headquarters.

One of Erlich’s biggest causes was exposing contractors that underpaid workers and took advantage of immigrants. Flynn says he plans to take a similar approach as Erlich did, by working aggressively to identify bad actors in the “underground economy.’’

He says he will also redouble the union’s efforts to gain a stronger foothold in areas outside of Boston. “Boston’s a boomtown right now,’’ Flynn says. “We want to make sure we have the ability to spread that out to the suburbs.’’ — JON CHESTO

What’s a new VC worth?

When Cambridge venture capital firm Accomplice started looking for new Boston-area investors to join the team, it eschewed paid headhunters. Instead, partners Jeff Fagnan and Ryan Moore figured they should turn to their contacts in the Boston area.

But they’re still making it interesting. Earlier this month, Fagnan announced that successful referrals would be rewarded with a $100,000 stake in Accomplice’s current $200 million venture fund.

Hey, it worked the first time: two years ago, Accomplice gave a $25,000 stake to the guy who suggested its current name (they were seeking a new moniker after splitting with the biotech VCs of Atlas Venture).

“I think people must know that we don’t like paying for professional services at this point,’’ Fagnan chuckled. “We didn’t want to pay for a branding consultant, and now we don’t want to pay for a recruiter.’’

Accomplice has backed well-known Boston startups like fantasy sports operator DraftKings, online pharmacy PillPack, and cybersecurity software developer Veracode, recently acquired for more than $600 million.

The push for new investors follows the recent departures of general partners Jon Karlen, who left Accomplice at the end of 2015, and Chris Lynch, who stepped down in January.

Accomplice is also looking for a new hire in the San Francisco area, but only the Boston jobs are subject to the new-partner bounty. Fagnan said the new people should be ready to write checks.

“This is not the traditional VC apprentice model of ‘Here, let me carry your bags to the board meeting,’ ’’ he said. “We want hunters.’’ — CURT WOODWARD

Barney Frank goes back to school

Many Boston University finance majors were just 12 years old when the 2008 financial crisis threatened to bring down the global economy. On Tuesday night, they got to hear about the near meltdown from someone who was in the thick of it, and who helped to craft rules intended to prevent such a collapse from happening again.

Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank told close to 500 students crowded into a BU auditorium that he doesn’t believe President Trump and Republicans will gut the Dodd-Frank regulations — designed to keep banks and Wall Street firms from making bets that put the entire economy at risk — but he predicts enforcement and consumer protections could slide.

“What you will see is the appointment by Donald Trump of regulators who will be lax-er, or less stringent,’’ said Frank, who retired from Congress in 2013 after a 30-year career. He also said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could lose its independence and clout.

Some students asked about Trump’s claim that cutting regulations would mean more jobs. Frank said creating jobs by allowing more environmental pollution, or self-dealing in finance, would be “a tradeoff society has to make.’’

Frank came to BU at the invitation of finance professor Mark Williams, whose book “Uncontrolled Risk’’ chronicled the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In fact, in a roadtrip that might have been worthy of a chapter in a Michael Lewis book, Williams drove Frank from his home in Maine to Boston for the presentation. — BETH HEALY

Can’t keep a secret? Tell us. E-mail Bold Types at boldtypes@globe.com.