NEW YORK, March 1 (Reuters) - Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc (SHO.N) has promoted its head of asset management to chief operating officer, a move that comes as the company gears up to buy more hotels.

Marc Hoffman, who joined the company in 2006 as senior vice president of asset management, will now take on the title of COO, a new position for Sunstone. Sunstone is a real estate investment trust that owns 38 hotels.

Hoffman is one of seven employees promoted at Sunstone, based in San Clemente, California, including Chief Financial Officer Ken Cruse, who was promoted to executive vice president from senior vice president.

"While the increased responsibilities came from a corporate reorganization from last May, the promotions reflect enhanced responsibilities and increased performance from these individuals," Chief Executive Arthur Buser said.

The decision to promote the executives comes shortly after Buser and Executive Chairman Robert Alter said they would forgo part of their pay for 2009 and 2010.

The pay cuts were made so "they could fund additional compensation to additional members of the team," Cruse said in an interview.

Buser said through a spokeswoman that details about pay increases for the executives would be detailed in a forthcoming securities filing.

Like many hotel owners, Sunstone was hit hard last year as companies cut back on travel spending. Sunstone cut 40 percent of its workforce last May and shortly after said it would forfeit its luxury W San Diego hotel, a property that was worth just half the value of the loan at the time.

This year, the hotel owner handed back keys on 11 other hotel after it failed to come to a compromise with its lender Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. The company is now looking to unload three other hotels from the MassMutual portfolio.

At the same time, Sunstone is also aiming to buy more hotels and hopes to take advantage of any firesales as some owners struggle with their debt payments. The company is looking to buy hotels ranging from luxury and select-service properties, a departure from Sunstone's focus on upscale hotels.

"We're not ruling out anything that has potential to being complementary to our business plans," Cruse said.

Solomon Gold PLC (AIM: SOLG) said it has appointed Alex Thin as chief operating officer, with operational responsibility over the company's projects in the Solomon Islands and Queensland, Australia.

This newly created position has become necessary due to the Solomon's expanding exploration and project development activities, together with the opportunity for the rapid definition of gold resources across its projects.

Thin holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering from the Camborne School of Mines in the UK, together with Mine Manager's and Mine Overseer's Certificates of Competency gained from work experience in South Africa.  His previous experience encompasses roles in Australia and South Africa for Southern Uranium Ltd, Emperor Mines Ltd, DRD Australia Ltd, Durban Roodepoort Deep Ltd and SRK Consulting, including roles as a senior mining engineer, business development manager, manager of growth projects, and long-term planning engineer.

To date, Solomon Gold and its subsidiary Australian Resource Management (ARM) Pty Ltd have expended approximately A$20 millio on the search for a giant gold copper porphyry system on the island of Guadalcanal in Solomon Islands. 

The company currently holds tenement interests over 612 square kilometres covering highly prospective terrain on the southwest Pacific rim of fire, a region known for very large copper gold porphyry and epithermal gold deposits, such as Lihir, Bougainville and Ok Tedi in Papua New Guinea and Batu Hijau and Grasberg in Indonesia. 

Only last week, Solomon announced it received high-grade samples of  up to 169 grams per tonne (gpt) of gold  from reconnaissance work and systematic stream sampling at the wholly-owned Fauro Island project in Papua New Guinea.

IP-based networking solutions provider UTStarcom Inc (Nasdaq:  UTSI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced on Monday the appointment of Jack Lu to chief operating officer effective immediately.

According to the company, Lu will oversee the broadband business unit, multimedia communication business unit, global supply chain and China sales and marketing functions. He will report to Peter Blackmore, the company's CEO and president.

Lu recently served as co-chief operating officer and general manager, China at Source Photonics, an opto-electronic component company. Before that, he held numerous positions at Fiberxon, which was sold to MRV Communications Inc in July 2007, including CEO, COO and vice president of marketing and sales.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., March 1 /PRNewswire/ -- US Logistics, a wholly owned subsidiary of private equity consolidator Ranger International Services Group, announces the appointment of Major General (US Army, retired) Chuck Swannack as its Chief Operating Officer. US Logistics is a government outsourcing contractor specialized in tactical vehicle overhauls and repairs, technical staffing, base logistics, and aircraft technical services. General Swannack retired from the US Army in 2005 after 33 years of service, culminating as the Commander of the fabled 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. As the new Chief Operating Officer of US Logistics, Swannack will help guide the continuing aggressive growth of that award winning company, with constant vigilance on quality, safety, and F.A.R. compliance. US Logistics has strong backing from large institutional shareholders, and a deeply experienced management team at multiple levels which Swannack now joins in the COO role.

MG Swannack served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and led elements of the division in the advance to Baghdad and in the succeeding year in western Iraq. MG Swannack is a 1971 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in progressive leadership and staff positions throughout his distinguished career. Since leaving active duty, MG Swannack has mentored US Army Reserve and Army National Guard senior military leaders in soon to be deployed units to help prepare them for the rigors of combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chuck Swannack said: "I am proud and enthused to join this fine organization. Our commitment to our customers and to our own people is simple, to be the best we can be every day. We're on the move, we're growing steadily, and US Logistics is very good at its job. I met most of our major customers just last week at an AUSA gathering, and they all know how committed we are to serving their technical services needs with high quality and cost-effective pricing."

The founder and CEO of US Logistics, Mike Boyce, said to all of his employees: "We are fortunate to have a leader of Chuck's caliber and experience come aboard with us. Our customers know him and respect him. He knows every aspect of the heavy equipment on which we perform technical services, and every nuance of serving the warfighter."

US Logistics provides technical and labor services in support of US Department of Defense contracts worldwide, with hundreds of its personnel deployed overseas. In addition to tactical wheeled and tracked vehicle MRO services, US Logistics also services aircraft programs. USL's aircraft programs include corrosion control, wash services, transient alert, maintenance and operations support, technical labor services, and contract field teams.

US Logistics operates in the growing military outsourcing arena. The US Government is pursuing competitive sourcing and privatization to free up dollars for its highest priorities, especially modernization. It is within this arena that US Logistics has established its strong reputation for quality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. The company provides expertise in program and project management, with diverse capabilities which allow it to quickly and proficiently respond to contract requirements and missions. In an array of challenging contracts over its history, US Logistics has completed projects in eight countries and 38 states. The company maintains a lean cost model, and is able to offer its Government or Prime Contractor customers an absolute cost advantage combined with measurably superior quality metrics on a consistent and reliable basis.

Chuck Swannack can be reached directly at: Office 910-223-1208, Cellular 910-322-4498, Email chuckswannack@us-L.com.

Companies

Suffolk Construction of Falls Church named Glenn Little vice president for health care and institutional projects in the Mid-Atlantic region.

A.T. Kearney of the District named Erik Peterson, former senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, director of the global business policy council.

Leo A Daly of the District named Mitchell Alguadich, former principal and company officer for Cannon Design, director of health care.

Crystal Gateway Marriott of Arlington named Sharon Lockwood general manager.

Powertek of Rockville named Dan Mintz, former chief information officer with the U.S. Department of Transportation, chief operating officer.

Bourntec Solutions of Reston named Victor Ciardello executive vice president and director of the region.

Attain of Vienna named Michael Fox, formerly with SRA International, corporate business development and chief strategy officer; Timothy Hays, former federal director of the research, condition and disease categorization project at the division of program coordination, planning and strategic initiatives within the National Institutes of Health, partner in research and health-care solutions; Richard Roberts, former chairman and executive vice president of global public services and chief operating officer at BearingPoint, president of federal services.

Condominium Services of Alexandria named Joe Riviere president and chief operating officer.

L-3 Communications of the District named retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James Lovelace corporate vice president of international programs.

Associations/Nonprofits

Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing named Linda Kelleher director of community and resident relations, and Kerry Lutz resident services coordinator for Columbia Grove Apartments.

NatureServe of Arlington named Thomas Brooks, former vice president of conservation priorities and responses at Conservation International, vice president for science and chief scientist; Kyle Copas, former director of online strategy, acting director of marketing and communications.

The Consumer Bankers Association of Arlington named David Pommerehn counsel in legislative and regulatory affairs, Marybeth Leongini vice president of marketing and communications and Rebecca Shaw special assistant and PAC administrator.

Real Estate

West, Lane & Schlager of the District named Mindy Saffer principal.

Health Care

GetWellNetwork of Bethesda named Tony Cook, former vice president of Americas marketing at Tandberg, vice president of marketing; Michele Perry, former chief marketing officer at Sourcefire, chief operating officer.

Financial

Ames & Gough of the District named Tom Marchetti, formerly with United Insurance Consultants, client executive.

Legal

Latham & Watkins of the District named Matthew Moore, formerly with Howrey , partner in the litigation department.

Arnold & Porter of the District named Marc Daniel counsel.

Blank Rome of the District named Andrew M. Miller, former associate at Wiley Rein , associate in the commercial litigation group.

Kilpatrick Stockton of the District named Paul S. Pilecki and Michael Mancusi, formerly of Winston & Strawn, partners, joining its financial institutions team; Eric Gold, associate focusing on complex business litigation and insurance coverage; Lindsay Kaplan, associate focusing on trademark and copyright law; and Lindsay Tingley, associate focusing on corporate, securities and regulatory matters.

Alston & Bird of the District named Christina LaVera counsel in its financial services and products group.

AAP

Bank of Queensland Ltd (BOQ) has appointed chief financial officer (CFO) Ram Kangatharan as its chief operating officer (COO) to oversee the daily operations of the bank.

Mr Kangatharan stepped into the newly-created role on Monday and will manage the consolidation of BOQ's non-regulatory and legal operating units.

This includes responsibility for marketing, distribution, IT and direct banking, BOQ said in a statement on Tuesday.

Managing director David Liddy said Mr Kangatharan would have responsibility for driving BOQ's daily operations so that the bank achieved a cost to income ratio of 45 per cent by 2010/11 and return on equity of 15 per cent by 2011/12.

"The group executives responsible for these areas will report directly to the COO, however will retain their role as a member of my core advisory group," Mr Liddy said.

BOQ is now searching for a new CFO.

VINELAND, N.J., March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sun Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNBC) and its wholly-owned banking subsidiary, Sun National Bank, today announced that Robert B. Crowl was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of the Company and the Bank.

Previously, Crowl, 46, was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the $150 billion in assets Cleveland-based National City Corporation, which was acquired in December 2008 by PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

"We are pleased to have Rob, a seasoned, strategic financial executive, join the Sun Bancorp organization," said Thomas X. Geisel, president and chief executive officer.  "Rob's diverse financial background and skill set will complement our management strategy and strengthen our efforts to grow our franchise in our core New Jersey markets.  Despite the current economic environment, there are many opportunities for a strong, long-term leader such as Sun Bancorp in the financial services industry."

From 2007 until 2009, Crowl served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of National City Mortgage, a national retail mortgage lender with annual production of approximately $20 billion, where he was primarily focused on reengineering the mortgage business and loan origination process to improve the customer experience, loan quality and profitability.  His responsibilities included production operations, quality control, compliance, secondary markets and strategic initiatives.

Crowl also previously served as senior vice president and comptroller of National City Corporation from 2004 through 2007.  In this capacity, he was in charge of the business line CFO functions, management reporting and planning, corporate real estate, corporate purchasing, accounting services, asset/liability management, and mergers and acquisition support.

From 1998 through 2004, he was senior vice president and manager of National City Bank's Asset, Liability and Securitization division, where he was responsible for all aspects of asset/liability management, including interest rate risk, net interest income forecasting, liquidity analysis and capital planning.  In addition, Crowl developed the bank's credit card, auto and home equity securitization functions, and led multiple issuances of asset-backed debt.

Prior to joining National City, Crowl spent 12 years in a variety of positions at Crestar Bank, a $25 billion regional bank headquartered in Richmond, VA (acquired by SunTrust in 1998), where he was responsible for financial analysis, interest rate risk measurement and evaluation of hedging strategies for the company. 

Crowl earned a bachelor of arts and an MBA, both from University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia.

Sun Bancorp, Inc. is a $3.6 billion asset bank holding company headquartered in Vineland, New Jersey.  Its primary subsidiary is Sun National Bank, serving customers through 70 locations in New Jersey.  The Bank is an Equal Housing Lender and its deposits are insured up to the legal maximum by the FDIC.  For more information about Sun National Bank and Sun Bancorp, Inc., visit www.sunnb.com.

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Richard Ferst has been named chief executive officer of URDANG, a global real estate investment boutique and part of BNY Mellon Asset Management.  Ferst, who had been chief operating officer and president, retains his title of chief operating officer.  E. Scott Urdang, who founded the firm in 1987, had been chairman and chief executive officer. He retains the title of chairman.

In addition, Todd Briddell, URDANG's chief investment officer, has been named president of the investment manager.  He will continue as URDANG's chief investment officer.

"We are excited about URDANG's growth prospects as we transition to new leadership," said Ronald P. O'Hanley, president and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management. "Scott Urdang has done a tremendous job in building URDANG into a successful real estate investment firm well positioned in both the public and private real estate markets and developing momentum. Richard Ferst has played a key role in shaping this growth, and we are confident that his leadership will benefit URDANG as it moves into new areas such as real estate debt." The firm's private real estate group, operating under Urdang Capital Management, continues to report directly to Ferst.

Ferst, who joined the company in 1998, has been overseeing all aspects of the company's business activities and has more than 35 years of management expertise.  Prior to joining URDANG, he was a partner, member of the governing board, and a regional managing partner for Laventhol & Horwath.  He also served in executive positions at Arthur Andersen LLP and lectured at The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Entrepreneurial Center, Drexel University and Temple University.

He received his bachelor's degree in accounting from American University and his MBA from The George Washington University. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Regarding the promotion of Briddell to president, Scott Urdang said, "Todd has been the driving force behind the growth and performance of our domestic and global REIT business. Over the past 15 years, Todd developed Urdang Securities Management into a well-respected asset management organization."  Looking ahead, Urdang said, "Todd will focus much of his energy on growing Urdang Securities Management and expanding URDANG's efforts in the debt market."

Briddell joined URDANG in 1993 as a member of its private equity acquisitions group, founded the listed property securities group in 1995, and led the design and development of its commercial real estate debt team in 2009.  He was awarded a bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is a member of NAREIT, the CFA Institute/Society of Philadelphia and PREA, where he was co-chair of the Green Building Committee.

 PARIS, March 1 (Reuters) - French carmaker Renault (RENA.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) expects a tough 2010 as prospects for an economic recovery look more and more distant, its Chief Operating Officer said in a newspaper interview.

"A few weeks ago we expected a European (car) market down 10 percent. This assumed an economic upturn. But the information we now have is not as good as two to three months ago," Patrick Pelata told Liberation.

"The scenario of a recovery is being more and more delayed in time. That makes us rather cautious," he added.

The annual Geneva International Motor Show starts this week as many crisis-hit carmakers battle for their survival.

[Satellite TODAY 03-01-10] Indian DTH platform, DishTV is still a year away from launching HD services in India, COO Salil Kapoor told Satellite News. “We are working on HD services, but...

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., March 1 (UPI) -- Military and government outsourcing contractor U.S. Logistics announced the appointment of a new chief operating officer.

U.S. Logistics in North Carolina selected 33-year Army veteran Chuck Swannack as the company's chief operating officer. U.S. Logistics provides tactical vehicle repairs, military base logistics and technical support for aircraft among other government and military outsourcing requirements.

Swannack joins U.S. Logistics following his retirement from the Army after serving as the 82nd Airborne Division commander at Fort Bragg, N.C. He retired with the rank of major general.

"I am proud and enthused to join this fine organization," Swannack said in a statement.

"Our commitment to our customers and to our own people is simple; to be the best we can be every day."

Soso.com, under the aegis of Tencent Holdings Ltd. (SEHK: 0700), is brewing to invite Ye Peng, former chief operating officer of Baidu, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), to join in and help it develop its search business, disclosed a well-informed source.

Soso.com inputs a lot into self-developed search engine, indicating that the company is bullish on the prospect of the Chinese-language search market.

The size of the Chinese search engine market will top CNY 10 billion in 2010, jumping 40% year on year, according to the data by technology, media as well as telecom (TMT) market researcher Analysys International.

The board chairman of Chinese e-commerce bellwether Alibaba once reportedly also met Ye Peng and hoped he to join in Alibaba.

On October 20, 2009, Taobao.com kicked off Beta testing on its independent search engine. Taobao is forecasted to increase its share in the Chinese search market to 22% in 2010, pointed out analyst Wallace Cheung.

New Executives Add Significant Global Health and mHealth Expertise to Rapidly Growing Organization

SAN DIEGO, March 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The West Wireless Health Institute (WWHI) today announced Amir Jafri has joined the Institute as its chief operating officer (COO).  Jafri joins WWHI from Cardinal Health and is responsible for driving the Institute's organizational effectiveness across departments.  In addition, WWHI has named Mitul Shah as its senior director of programs and partnerships for engineering.  Jafri's appointment is effective immediately and Shah will begin his new role on April 12.

WWHI, founded in March 2009 with a $45 million gift from the Gary and Mary West Foundation, is one of the world's first medical research organizations dedicated to cutting the cost of health care by identifying, creating, validating and accelerating the use of wireless technologies to transform medicine.  In addition to founding the Institute, Gary West is chairman of the board of directors.  The nonprofit Institute is headquartered in San Diego, California, the global hub for wireless life science research and development.

"Adding both Amir and Mitul to our team is not only another notable milestone for our organization, but sends the message that WWHI is 'the place to be' to truly transform healthcare," said West.  "Amir brings a strong track record of executing strategic growth centered on innovative healthcare, and I am excited about the energy and experience he brings to our team.  He is acutely aware of the crisis we are facing in healthcare and as COO will help ensure our operations correspond directly with our primary mission to cut costs and eliminate the waste that exists in medical practice."

In addition to overseeing the Institute's operations, Jafri will drive collaboration between the Institute's clinical and engineering teams to ensure quality control and regulatory adherence of research, development and validation activities.  Prior to joining WWHI, Jafri spent seven years at Cardinal Health, most recently serving as vice president of strategic programs.  He has held numerous senior management positions throughout his 20 year career in global healthcare and has founded successful healthcare startups in the areas of clinical and business services, enterprise technologies, and software engineering.  He has a B.S. with a double major in chemistry and biology, with a minor in history from Houston Baptist University.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to take this unprecedented journey with an organization on the cutting edge of technology, committed to empowering consumers and above all saving lives," said Jafri.  "I believe the West Wireless Health Institute will quickly become one of the most visionary research institutes in healthcare worldwide.  There is no better time to foster the collaboration of engineering and medicine, and we will be at the forefront of this movement through our educational initiatives, research and development activities, and clinical validation studies."

As senior director of programs and partnerships for the Institute's engineering department, Shah will work with the WWHI engineering team led by Dr. Mehran Mehregany as well as the Institute's business development staff to translate its engineering expertise, resources and capabilities into program and business opportunities.  Shah is recognized as an instrumental leader in the emerging wireless health industry, previously serving as senior director of technology partnerships for the United Nations Foundation (UNF) where he was responsible for its partnership with the Vodafone Group Foundation.  Prior to joining UNF, Shah held positions at the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and Inforte Corporation.  He holds a MBA from the University of Maryland at College Park, and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California at Riverside.

"I've traveled the globe in support of the widespread scale of wireless health and now will have the chance to work alongside the engineers building the most cost-effective, ground breaking products," said Shah.  "I look forward to watching the evolution of this amazing industry from an entirely new perspective, and being part of an organization that will nurture the next generation of wireless health innovators through its education, engineering and collaborative leadership."

"The Institute's engineering team is focused on developing solutions that meet unmet medical needs around the world.  Mitul has a vast network of connections in the mHealth sector and beyond, and will bring invaluable knowledge to the organization throughout the process of identifying productive partnerships that align with our educational and R&D initiatives," added West.

For more information on WWHI, please visit www.westwirelesshealth.org.

NDIANAPOLIS, IN -- (Marketwire) -- 03/01/10 -- The Schneider Corporation (http://www.schneidercorp.com), a provider of creative solutions for land, infrastructure and facilities projects that help increase revenue, lower costs and mitigate risk, announced that Karl Browning has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer.

Browning previously was commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), where he served in Governor Mitch Daniels' cabinet. Prior to being named commissioner of INDOT, Browning was Chief Information Officer of Indiana's Office of Technology (IOT).

Browning left public service in 2009 to return to the private sector. At that time, Governor Daniels said, "Karl Browning has been spectacular in this job. I did everything I could to keep him as long as I could. His legacy will live for generations through record-breaking road building that he has put in motion for Indiana."

Browning has spent nearly two-thirds of his career managing service delivery organizations with two Ross Perot service companies, EDS and Perot Systems, helping customers improve their operations and profitability. Immediately prior to joining the Daniels' administration, Browning served on the executive team of Golden Rule Insurance as senior vice president and Chief Information Officer.

"We are delighted to welcome Karl to The Schneider Corporation," said Victoria Schneider Temple, CEO and chairman of The Schneider Corporation. "Karl's background in customer-focused service delivery will enhance Schneider's momentum of increasing value to our customers, improving our efficiency and finding creative solutions to our clients' problems."

"This is an exciting time to be joining The Schneider Corporation," said Browning. "While the engineering, construction and architecture industries have changed dramatically over the past few years, Schneider has emerged as a financially sound company with a renewed focus on the customer. I look forward to helping take the company's growth to a new level."

Veolia Transportation Inc. announced that Ken Westbrook has been promoted to chief operating officer (COO) of its Transit Division. Previously, he was senior vice president, Eastern Region for the same division. In his new role, Westbrook will work with Chief Executive Officer Mark Joseph to continue Veolia Transportation's growth as the largest private-sector operator of multiple modes of transit in the United States.

As COO, Westbrook will lead the company's transit operations for its bus, paratransit, brokerage and bus rapid transit (BRT) contracts with transit authorities. This includes 120 locations and contracts in leading cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and others. He will be responsible for the work of over 17,000 employees organized into seven regions.

Westbrook will lead the teams responsible for continuing to enhance the Transit Division's operational and financial performance, including safety, maintenance, customer service, technology, budgets, planning and staff development. He also will be responsible for the company's compliance with contract terms, as well as contract renewals and business growth.

"Ken brings a powerful combination of operational experience, strong customer relationships and a proven record of successful leadership to his new role at Veolia Transportation," said Joseph. "The experience he has gained in managing a diverse array of transit operations and his high-energy, people-oriented style will enable him to make a major positive impact in this new role."

Westbrook has had a distinguished career in transit operations. Early in his career, he was general manager for Jackson, Miss., and Pensacola, Fla., transit operations as part of ATC, a well-known private-sector operator of transit contracts. In 1999, he was promoted to regional vice president of the South/Central Region for ATC, and in 2007, to senior vice president of Veolia Transportation for the Eastern Region of the United States. Veolia Transportation acquired ATC in 2005.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., March 1 (UPI) -- Military and government outsourcing contractor U.S. Logistics announced the appointment of a new chief operating officer.

U.S. Logistics in North Carolina selected 33-year Army veteran Chuck Swannack as the company's chief operating officer. U.S. Logistics provides tactical vehicle repairs, military base logistics and technical support for aircraft among other government and military outsourcing requirements.

Swannack joins U.S. Logistics following his retirement from the Army after serving as the 82nd Airborne Division commander at Fort Bragg, N.C. He retired with the rank of major general.

"I am proud and enthused to join this fine organization," Swannack said in a statement.

"Our commitment to our customers and to our own people is simple; to be the best we can be every day."

* Q4 adjusted loss/shr 4 cents vs Street's 13 cent loss

* Q4 revenue up 8 pct, tops Street view

* Sees Q1 revenue $155 mln-$160 mln above Street view

* Says CEO to retire, names COO as replacement

* Shares fall 13 pct in after-market trade

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Shoe maker Crocs Inc (CROX.O) reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss and shocked Wall Street with the sudden departure of its chief executive who has served for a year, sending its shares crashing 16 percent.

Chief Executive John Duerden, who was appointed a year ago, said he would be resigning effective March 1 and would be replaced by Chief Operating Officer John McCarvel.

The seller of once-trendy colorful plastic shoes has spent the last year trying to right its business, which has seen plummeting sales and suffered the attendant losses.

"The primary focus in 2010 will be restoring profitability," McCarvel told analysts during a call. "We're positioned for top line growth and full year profitability."

Crocs said it expects to break even in the first quarter on revenue of between $155 million and $160 million. [ID:nWNAB2179]

For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, Crocs posted a net loss of $11.5 million, or 13 cents a share, down from a loss of $34.7 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, it reported a loss of 4 cents a share.

Analysts, on average, were looking for a loss of 13 cents a share, on revenue of $117.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue at the Niwot, Colorado-based company rose 8 percent to $136 million, boosted by a 26 percent jump in retail sales.

Crocs' vibrant resin shoes were the rage midway through the decade. But the company found its operations out of line with reduced sales volume due to the economic downturn and shoppers' waning interest as the brand's novelty wore off.

On Wednesday, the shoe maker won a federal appeals ruling over a disputed patent covering the design of its plastic shoes. [ID:nN24120211]

Duerden came to Crocs from consulting group Chrysallis and managed to narrow the steep losses that had dogged the company by stabilizing its operations and cash position.

Soon after his arrival, the company avoided a cash crunch with an extension of its credit facility and Duerden began to focus on increasing the company's cash position.

The company has also tried to reinvigorate its product designs while opening retail stores to stem weakness in its wholesale division.

Croc's shares fell 16.5 percent to $6.50 after the bell after closing at $7.79, up 2.3 percent, on the Nasdaq.

Tim Conley, FaceTime Communications

The Belmont provider of tools for the use of Web 2.0 and unified communications appointed Tim Conley chief financial officer. Previously, he was CFO at Tumbleweed Communications.

Dave Corbin, NanoGram

The Milpitas developer and manufacturer of advanced materials and solutions for energy, optical and electronic materials named Dave Corbin chief executive officer. He was president and CEO at BrightScale.

Fred Corsentino, Exalt Communications

The Campbell provider of next-generation microwave backhaul systems appointed Fred Corsentino senior vice president of North America sales. He is former president of Saturn Ventures.

Gary DiCamillo, Eaglepoint Advisors

The San Francisco restructuring and crisis management firm appointed Gary DiCamillo as a partner. Recently, he was president and chief executive officer at Radia International.

Toby Gabriner, Adap.tv

The San Mateo creators of OneSource — the open and universal platform that provides publishers, advertisers and ad networks with an end-to-end video ad management platform — appointed Toby Gabriner president. Previously, he was president at Tribal Fusion.

Adrian Hall, Bytemobile

The Santa Clara provider of mobile Internet tools appointed Adrian Hall chief operating officer. Previously, he held global management positions at Hewlett-Packard.

George Rekouts, Efficient Frontier

The Sunnyvale Internet performance marketing provider named George Rekouts vice president of engineering. Previously, he served as senior vice president at ValueClick.

Paul Rolls, Integrated Device Technology

The San Jose provider of essential mixed signal semiconductor tools for digital media named Paul Rolls senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. Recently, he was senior vice president at International Rectifier.

Maria Swiatek, Nixon Peabody

The international law firm named Maria Swiatek as counsel in the Palo Alto office. Previously, she served at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Jason Wang, The Global Semiconductor Alliance

The San Jose agency that helps accelerate the growth and increase the return on invested capital of the global semiconductor industry named Jason Wang to its board of directors. He is president of United Microelectronics.

MUMBAI: Global Entertainment Holdings has roped in motion picture and television producer Daniel A. Sherkow as the chief operating officer of Global Universal Entertainment, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary and the U.S. production arm of GBHL.

GBHL CEO Gary Rasmussen said, “Our U.S. film operations will now be lead by a man that knows every facet of the entertainment and motion picture business. Dan has arranged financing and produced successful and award winning films for ABC, NBC and CBS television, Time-Life Films, Paramount Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, and Dick Clark Productions. Dan has also produced numerous successful Broadway projects and has advised foreign concerns such as Seoul Movie, the Korean animation company and The China Film Group, Corp., the official government agency of The People’s Republic of China, on financing, distribution and production of major motion pictures.”

Following senior management positions at NBC Television and Time-Life Films, and then Vice President, Production at Paramount Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures, Sherkow produced the feature motion picture Suspect.

Sherkow recently financed and produced the feature motion picture Being Michael Madsen, starring Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Harry Dean Stanton, Virginia Madsen, and David Carradine.

Global Universal Entertainment COO Daniel A. Sherkow said, “Our unique financing strategy coupled with mitigating investor risk has certainly been proven correct. Three major motion pictures financed and completed in less than fifteen months in this uncertain economy speaks volumes as to the GBHL development strategy. GBHL’s first two pictures, Blue Seduction and American Sunset have been successful and we expect continued success and profitability with the Murder/Horror thriller Plaster Rock.”

If I was given R100-million, I'd play a round of roulette hoping for R200-million, then I'd take my family and friends on holiday. And the rest I'd invest wisely ...

I am ... grateful for having a close family and really good friends.

Where were you born? Durban.

Where do you live? Umdloti.

Who do you share your house with? My wife, Jane, and my two wonderful kids, Caine and Inez.

What have you learnt running a skin-care company that caters mainly to women? That women have become frustrated with skin-care products that over-promise and, in most cases, under-deliver.

Men who follow a skin-care regime are ... an anomaly. There is change under way.

One place in Durban you'd like to visit? I'd like to go to the top of the new Moses Mabhida Stadium.

The best joke you've ever heard is? That the country would fall apart after 1994.

What makes a brand? I would say that consumers create brands. When a product makes a connection in the heart and mind of a consumer, that product has become a brand.

What is it like to work with your brother? It's fantastic. Justin and I are both passionate about the business, the people that work in the business and the brand. Our skills are very different and this allows us to get on with what we are good at without questioning each other's next move.

If your house burnt down, what would you save? My family and staff and as many photo albums as possible. Especially the picture of my 18 month old smiling and looking into the camera - that doesn't happen often.

What do you think about the state of Durban's beaches? It saddens me. The council needs to get it right because it is affecting tourism and jobs.

What was your first car and when did you sell it? An old Alfa Romeo Giulietta. I bought it in 1989 and sold it the same year. It looked cool - which is important when you are 18 - but it became too expensive to run.

What is your our favourite possession? My home. It is the anchor for my family, and family is the most important thing to me.

Do you and your wife have date night? We do. Unfortunately, it is inconsistent as a result of my work.

What is the most romantic spot in Durban? Whatever place holds a special meaning for you and your partner.

I'm predisposed to ... being happy.

What's your favourite building in Durban? The City Hall. I prefer old architecture, but I appreciate the new and modern when it is done tastefully.

What's the ugliest thing about Durban? Durbanites that harp on about the negatives of living in Durban. They should count all the positives first.

What is the most memorable moment you've had in Durban? Getting married and the births of my two kids probably top the list. There have been many others, including returning to Durban after living in other cities for nine years.

How do you get around? In my reliable BMW.

I can't go a day without ... aircon. This is Durban we are talking about.

If you inherited R100-million what would you do with it? Put it on red on the roulette table - hoping for R200-million. I'd also use some of it towards a good holiday with family and friends and invest the rest wisely.

What CDs are you playing in your car? Ismael Lo's Jammu Africa and Yazoo's Upstairs at Eric's.

What are you reading? I wish I had more time for novels. A novel that I believe is worth a read is The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. It's the story about a man's rise from lowly origins, through his experiences working in a teashop and on the streets of Delhi, to becoming an entrepreneur in Bangalore. It includes his views on India's caste system and its political corruption.

When I go out at night ... I never look as good as my wife. She has serious style.

My friends and I like ... good food, good fun and memorable times spent together.

If you made a movie about Durban, what would you call it? Zululand.

Perfect happiness is: Needing less not wanting more.

Have you ever taken public transport in Durban? My friends and I used to take the 4.15am bus on Saturday mornings from Durban North to go surfing at "the Bay of Plenty" - Durban Beach. A 30-minute ride with some fond memories. I was 12 years old at the time.

Everything in moderation but ... laughter.

I met my partner ... in the reception area of a multinational skin-care company. She was supplying "point of sale" material to them. I was running through some numbers on a spreadsheet. I did not ask her out then and there, although I should have. We met two years later by chance. I guess it was meant to be.

If money could buy happiness ... happiness would not be for sale.

Masco Corp announced that President and Chief Executive Officer Timothy Wadhams and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Donald DeMarie will present at the Raymond James 31st Annual Institutional Investors Conference in Orlando, Florida on March 9, 2010 at 7:30 a.m. ET.

Masco Corporation's presentation will be webcast live on the Internet at http://www.wsw.com/webcast/rj54/mas/ or via the Company's Web site at www.masco.com. A replay of the webcast will be available via the above link or via Masco's Web site through March 23, 2010.

Headquartered in Taylor, Michigan, Masco Corporation is one of the world's leading manufacturers of home improvement and building products, as well as a leading provider of services that include the installation of insulation and other building products.

Provincial Tourism Chief Operating Officer Dindo Generoso has refused to renew his contract as Consultant of the Capitol citing the failure of the administration to implement most of the legal infrastructure designed to boost the local tourism industry.

Generoso’s resignation letter dated February 28 is hereby reproduced in full: “My functions are mainly dependent on the Provincial Tourism Governing Board, created by Sangguniang Panlalawigan Ordinance No.7 Series of 2005, which has not been operationalized by this administration.”

“The said Board had been legislated to exploit the more than 500M worth of our people’s money invested by the previous provincial administration in tourism-related infrastructures to capture a bigger share of the industry market and create a myriad job for Oriental Negrenses. These include the Negros Oriental Convention Center and Hotel, Sidlakang Negros Village, the Twin Lakes and the Mabinay caves, among other “white elephants” now draining more public funds instead of generating revenues for government and prosperity for our constituents.”

“I have issued numerous advisories, largely ignored by this administration, including one urging the activation of the Provincial Tourism Governing Board to pursue the government policy to “encourage, promote and develop tourism as a major socio-economic program of the Province.” “Tourism service providers in the private sector, whom he had organized for stronger participation as defined in the Board and envisioned by our legislators, remain paralyzed while waiting action by this administration.”

“For having been rendered unable to act to avert such squandering of tax payers’ money, manpower and infrastructure resources, I find my position untenable and feel it no longer necessary to remain Chief Tourism Operations Officer.”

CommonPlaces e-Solutions, LLC, an open source Web Application and Drupal development firm, is pleased to welcome Michael Fairbrother to the company. Fairbrother joins CommonPlaces as COO. His addition supports the continued and consistent growth within the company and reaffirms the company’s dedication to the success of its clients’ projects.

"Michael is the right person for our COO position without question,” expressed CommonPlaces President and CEO Ben Bassi, “and represents a major step in the continued growth plan for CommonPlaces. Fairbrother’s vast engineering experience, years of leadership roles within the software development industry, and his understanding of custom Web applications in particular, make him the right person to lead our talented engineering and project management teams to the next level – we’re all very excited to have him on board!”

For more than two decades, Michael Fairbrother has continually advanced in his career from Software Engineer, Consultant, Chief Architect, and most recently as Vice President of Software Engineering. His industry background includes mobile-technology, marketing management software, and privacy technology projects. Michael has the technical depth, and the product and business instincts to successfully lead and deliver value to CommonPlaces’ clients. He holds a B.A. in Computer Information Sciences from Merrimack College.

CommonPlaces is one of the fastest growing private companies in the US as listed in the 2009 Inc. 500. CommonPlaces is also featured in Forbes Magazine as one of the top 10 best web firms in the US and is winner of Web Marketing Association’s Web Innovation Award.

CommonPlaces e-Solutions (www.commonplaces.com) is a full-service open source development and online marketing firm focused on the integration of Web Content Management (such as Drupal), custom e-Commerce, and advanced online Communities and Social Networks to build profitable online business applications for Fortune 500 clients, national organizations, and educational institutions.

The debate over when and how Twitter will offer marketers paid placement among its 50 million daily tweets heated up last week when rumors emerged that Twitter will finally unveil its ad platform this month. For now, it's speculation, but clues to how Twitter might integrate advertising can be found in the clutch of companies already integrating brand messages in the Twitter ecosystem.

Twitter is unique in that it's a decentralized system. Its open application programming interface has allowed hundreds of developers to build programs that display and parse tweets. This has helped fuel its growth, and allows experiments in how brand advertising can work in the world of real-time status updates. Several startups over the past few months have introduced advertising to Twitter updates by various means, including matching up ad content to breaking news, brokering deals for celebrities and other tweeters to push products, and ad networks that plumb tweets for clues to a user's interests.

Twitter COO Dick Costolo promised late last year that Twitter's own advertising solution would be "fascinating" and "nontraditional." Yet the road to advertising in real-time status updates is filled with potholes as users will likely resist them. There's also the question of whether ads will work well in a communications environment.

"Relevance is going to be huge," said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i. It'll be about "where marketers [insert] themselves in conversations."

Twitter's search and trending topics are likely the first place advertising will appear because that's where users reveal their interests and where the most popular topics are visible. Clues can be found in real-time status search engine OneRiot that for the last two months has concentrated on media companies looking for traffic from hot chatter topics. Its RiotWise ad net takes a feed of headlines from Web publishers and matches them to what's trending on Twitter. A person looking for information about the whale killing a trainer at SeaWorld would get a link to a news story along with their Twitter search results.

Publishers and brands, particularly those that publish regularly, can use OneRiot's self-service system, which is much like Google's AdSense.

Hard-sell ad approaches won't work well on Twitter, said Tobias Peggs, gm of OneRiot. "Brands ... have to realize they have to come with different creative."

Search is only part of Twitter's strength; brands also tap its conversational power. That means getting into the stream of updates Twitter users see, whether on Twitter.com or the multitude of Twitter apps. Companies like Izea and Ad.ly are building networks that pump ads into the stream on behalf of publishers.

Izea was first out of the gates eight months ago with Sponsored Tweets, which closely resembles its controversial PayPerPost system for sponsored blog posts.

Users of all sizes can sign up to be matched with advertisers wanting to broadcast messages. Over 3,500 advertisers are using the self-service system, which lets users craft the company pitch but requires a #ad hashtag disclaimer.

A recent Sponsored Tweet from @mhandy1 read: "Cool Savings Calculator from Dish Network...Hockey fans they have Versus ;)... major plus!" Ad.ly has a similar system, only it standardizes the ad messages to give advertisers control. It's also relying more on established publishers like Newsweek and celebrities like Kim Kardashian.

"We're trying to be the AdSense of the stream," said Sean Rad, CEO of Ad.ly. Ad.ly claims 30,000 publishers have signed up, with Microsoft and NBC running campaigns generating click rates of between 1 and 3.5 percent, he said. Publishers get right of refusal for each placement, which typically doesn't happen in Web ad nets. "The model is new," Rad said. "We wanted to a take a sensitive approach."

Not everyone is sold on the idea of advertisers infiltrating the stream with messages that appear to come directly from users. 140 Proof has developed a more tried-and-true ad approach, crafting ads in the forms of tweets for advertisers such as Sears, which it places in ad units that show up on Twitter readers like UberTwitter and HootSuite.

Sears has used Twitter ads to promote, among other things, the cash for appliance clunkers program. It targeted Tweeters in the three states the federal rebate program is active, finding many retweeted the advertising post or followed up directly with Sears on Twitter with questions. "If you can combine targeting with conversations, that's very sexy," said Shaunak Dave, director of multi-channel integration at Sears Hometown Stores.

With 140 Proof, advertisers can reach users both on the desktop and phone, with targeting based on the content of a person's tweets, and who they follow. 140 Proof uses those factors to create a tag cloud for users it matches up to a similar word grouping for an advertiser. It also has a self-service system for small advertisers as well as a direct sales team for large brands. "We think there's a future advertising premise that is stream based, very focused on individuals and on real time," said Jon Elvekrog, CEO of 140 Proof.

Simplicity is going to be key for Twitter, said Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus.

It has to temper its desire to build something completely innovative at the risk of alienating users due to an influx of commercials, and confusing advertisers with a new system that operates outside their other ad buys, he added. "It needs to be done in a very accessible way that even a caveman can understand," he said. "Otherwise, [it'll] be a tough sell."

Glens Falls Hospital

Dr. Karissa Scarabino joined the staff of Wilton Family Medicine, a service of Glens Falls Hospital. Most recently, she was with Neighborhood Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Pittsfield, Mass. Scarabino earned her doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine. Scarabino begins her new position in March.

Andrew Kearney joined the staff of Broad Street Medical Group, a service of Glens Falls Hospital. Most recently, he was a physician assistant at Orthopedic Associates in Saratoga Springs.

MEDIA

Patricia Lynch Associates

Patrick McCarthy was named the Albany firm's managing partner. McCarthy, PLA lobbyist and partner for the last seven years, was press officer, deputy press secretary, director of intergovernmental affairs and appointments secretary in Gov. George Pataki's administration. He was also executive director of the New York State Republican Committee in 2001-2003.

Shorey Public Relations

Joslyn McArdle joined the Saratoga Springs public relations agency as an assistant account executive. She previously worked for MVP Healthcare.

NonProfits

New York Council of NonProfits

Kelly Mathews was promoted to chief operating officer at the Menands-based statewide association. Mathews has been with NYCON for 12 years. She is currently senior vice president of Financial Accountability and Compliance Services, a position she will retain in addition to her new COO responsibilities.

PROFESSIONS

Burke, Scolamiero, Mortati & Hurd LLP

Melissa J. Smallacombe was named partner of the firm at the new office in Hudson, 437 East Allen St.

Megan B. Van Aken, Thomas A. Cullen, Sharon A. Siegel and Adam C. Hover were named associate attorneys at the law firm. The firm has offices in Albany, Rome and Hudson.

CSArch Architecture/Construction Management

Ruby Silvious, a graphic design professional, joined the marketing team at the Albany office. From 1997 to 2008, she was marketing and creative services associate for the Primaloft Division of Albany International Corp.

Malcolm Pirnie Inc.

Maryam Amr joined the Clifton Park office of the environmental engineering firm as an energy engineer.

Alexander Michaels joined the Clifton Park office as an energy engineer.

The Chazen Companies

Eric Johnson of Delmar was promoted to senior project manager/senior project engineer at the engineering and landscape architecture services company. Johnson has been with the company since 2005.

Arlette Meader of Glens Falls was promoted to senior scientist/project manager. Meader has been with the company since 2007.

Tully Rinckey PLLC

John Predovan joined the Albany law firm as a marketing associate. He previously was a sales and marketing representative for a national Internet software company in Albany.

REAL ESTATE

Pinnacle Realty Saratoga LLC

Glory Gilbert of Mechanicville joined as a new agent.

Weichert, Realtors

Jill Birdsall was named manager of the Northeast Group office in Delmar.

Immediate opening for a COO for a design/ production women’s swim wear/sports wear company-

Duties:

    * Facilitate growth and expansion of the company’s current distribution chain of retail stores

    * Manage and oversee Connecticut office/staff as well as off shore design office

    * Integrate new inventory system and processes

    * Oversee Production department and coordinate production facilities both domestically and oversees

    * Have knowledge of financial’s, P/L and banking arrangements

Requirements:

    * 7-10 years of increasingly supervisory experience

    * Demonstrate knowledge and success in all facets coordinating internal operations

    * Show evidence of leadership and being a self motivated

    * BA degree and MBA preferred

Please respond with resume and salary requirements.

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)-Mobile Telecommunications Co. Saudi Arabia (7030.SA), or Zain Saudi Arabia has exceeded 6 million active subscribers, the state-run Saudi Press Agency, or SPA, reports Sunday, citing the operator's chief operating officer Ismail Fikri.

Zain Saudi Arabia an affiliate of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co., better known as Zain Group, launched its operations in the oil-rich kingdom 18 months ago.

Saad Al Barrak, Zain Saudi Arabia's  chief executive officer, said earlier this month the firm's subscribers are expected to hit 7.5 million in 2010 compared with 6 million in 2009.

SignficantFederation, LLC, the holding company of Educacion Significativa, LLC, the new owner of InterAmerican College, announces the organization of the leadership team of InterAmerican College effective immediately. Dr. Yoram Neumann (formerly the President, CEO, and founder of TUI University) has assumed the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of InterAmerican College (IAC). Before founding TUI University in 1998, Dr. Yoram Neumann served as the Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Throughout his career, Dr. Neumann has been committed to excellence in higher education while enhancing the access and opportunities for underserved groups.

Dr. Edith Neumann (formerly the Vice President for Academic Affairs at TUI University) has been appointed as the Provost and Chief Academic Officer of IAC.

Tom Finaly (formerly Vice President for Administration at TUI University) has been named as the Chief Operating Officer of IAC.

Roy Finaly (the former Vice President for Information Technology at TUI University) has been appointed as the Chief Information Officer of IAC.

“The new leadership team will enable us to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of InterAmerican College and to provide the best learning experience to our students as a Hispanic serving institution” said Dr. Michael K. Clifford, the Chairman of SignificantFederation, LLC.

“The new leadership team has the proven track record with all the qualities synonymous with the InterAmerican College’s vision, mission, and values of meeting the professional needs of working adults from underserved groups, primarily those from the Hispanic communities, through high quality and student-centered learning” said Surendra Naidoo, President and Chief Executive Officer of SignificantFederation, LLC. “We are humbled and looking forward to InterAmerican College's future under Dr. Yoram Neumann’s leadership”.

“Our shared vision for InterAmerican College will allow it to continue expanding its learning-centered environment and to be responsive to the educational needs of diverse adult learners and the Hispanic communities, in general, and in Southern California, in particular” said Dr. Yoram Neumann. “We are honored to partner with SignificantFederation, LLC, a firm that brings a distinguished track record with a clear commitment to educational quality and integrity”

About InterAmerican College
Founded in 1997 to provide a unique learning environment based on academic rigor, personal attention, and fulfilling the educational needs of underserved populations including the Hispanic and Latino communities in Southern California, InterAmerican College (www.iacnc.edu) is uniquely successful in serving its target population and attaining its academic and social missions. The College offers degree programs in Nursing, Health Science, Education, Spanish, and Interdisciplinary Studies, is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), and is based in National City, California.

The failed Hershey-Cadbury deal in January has opened a new rift between top management of Hershey Co. and the Hershey Trust philanthropy that controls the chocolate company, according to observers and a company source with direct knowledge of the relationship.

This would be the second round of turmoil in three years between the trust, a sprawling philanthropic organization with prominent Republicans on its boards, and the candy company's top executives.

Wall Street analysts say that they don't know which direction the company is heading, and that they have seen this before.

Richard Lenny, the previous Hershey Co. chief executive officer, retired in 2007 in a dispute with the trust over his dealings with Cadbury in 2007, according to published reports. He was replaced by his chief operating officer, David West.

Now "the trust and David West weren't on the same page with Cadbury," said Samuel Weaver, a former Hershey executive who is a finance professor at Lehigh University. "They need to work on their relationship."

The $7 billion Hershey Trust was looking for a transformative deal that would quickly take Hershey bars and Reese's peanut butter cups to the global stage. Buying Cadbury would do that. The trust, according to sources, had arranged $19 billion in financing in late 2009, and trust board members met with Cadbury officials in October in the Stafford Hotel in London to pledge support for a combination.

West, meanwhile, has preached in presentations on Wall Street of incrementally growing the Hershey brands in overseas markets, as well as signing joint ventures and buying smaller companies. He had expressed concern about taking on too much debt in a big deal.

West declined to comment for this story, and trust spokesman Tim Reeves declined to comment on the relationship.

"We get mixed signals out of this company," said Jack Russo, senior consumer analyst with Edward Jones. "They should come clean. . . . There are a lot of inconsistencies."

B. Craig Hutson, bond analyst with the rating firm Gimme Credit, said, "The problem here is that you have a trust whose interest is not aligned with those of other public shareholders. They want the income stream and they want control, and control is the biggest thing. It puts them at a disadvantage and is not consistent with the best way to enhance shareholder value."

The Hershey Trust, indeed, is not the typical shareholder. It's a nonprofit charitable organization that owns golf courses, hotels, and amusement parks, in addition to an 80 percent voting control of the candy company.

Its entities employ about 13,000 in the Harrisburg area and the dividends from the for-profit ventures finance its main philanthropic mission - an 1,800-student school for poor children in the same town as the Hershey Co. headquarters. The trust estimates that one-third of the profits from Hershey candy sales directly support the school through stock dividends.

The trust functioned for decades without controversy. Then in 2002 a trust board negotiated to sell the chocolate company to Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. Mike Fisher, who was state attorney general then, aborted the Wrigley sale and helped oust trust board members connected with it. Leroy Zimmerman, a former two-term Republican state attorney general, was appointed chairman of the new board with the goal of reconnecting the trust with the community.

Other Republicans joined Zimmerman on three paid boards connected to the trust. The boards are for the Hershey Trust Co., the Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Co., and the Hershey Co., the famed candy-maker.

Among the members on trust-related boards are former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge on the Hershey Co. board, former Pittsburgh Steeler and gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann on the entertainment company board, and James E. Nevels, the former chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, on the Hershey Trust Co. and Hershey Co. boards.

Swann's role on the entertainment board has no direct bearing on the fate of the chocolate company but is part of the broader Hershey Trust structure that finances the school.

Robert Sitkoff, a Harvard law professor and expert on the Hershey Trust, said Republican influence in the trust flows from Pennsylvania's regulation of charitable trusts, which resides mostly in the Attorney General's Office. Pennsylvania voters have always elected a Republican attorney general.

Supporters say that the trust is now far more responsive to local concerns and that post-2002 trust boards brought a wealth of talent and skills to the philanthropic organization that controls the chocolate company and the other companies.

"You are talking about some of the most prominent Pennsylvanians getting involved in the administration of Mr. Hershey's trust," said Ernie Preate, who once regulated the Hershey Trust as state attorney general. "They are very intelligent and very good, conservative people. You will not see them making radical moves," he said.

Charles Gerow, a political consultant in Harrisburg, said, "It's fair to say that Leroy Zimmerman is at the pinnacle of influence in Pennsylvania. He is one of the most sought-after senior statesmen in the state."

But others say the changes have politicized the trust, and trust-related board positions are lucrative for those who hold them.

The boards pay $100,000 to $200,000 a year, although an individual who sits on more than one can earn more. Zimmerman, as chairman of the Hershey Trust Co. board and member of the candy and entertainment boards, earned $436,367 in compensation and retirement benefits, according to a nonprofit IRS filing for the year ended July 31, 2008.

John W. Schmehl, a partner with Dilworth Paxson L.L.P., said director fees on Hershey Trust-related boards has risen in recent years and the directors should forgo or return the fees to the trust so the money would "be available for the Hershey Trust's child-saving mission."

Reeves, the spokesman, said the trust periodically surveys the compensation practices at other nonprofits. "Board service on the Hershey Trust has a magnitude of responsibility and liability unlike other traditional nonprofit organizations," he said.

Reeves said that politics hasn't played a role in the trust and that Zimmerman was a logical choice to head it because he understood the workings of the Attorney General's Office.

"The trust's actions - whether you love them or hate them - are as obligations of the trust," Reeves said. "There is nothing partisan about the trust's obligation to serve needy kids. There is no political work to be done."

Reeves said there was a Pennsylvania Democrat on the Hershey Trust board: James Mead, who was an official in Gov. Milton Shapp's administration.

As for the company, Reeves said the trust was a "vigorous and tenacious advocate for creating value for all shareholders." The trust has stated publicly that it would maintain control of Hershey and that it would keep the company "rooted" in Pennsylvania, he said.

But the issues remain: how the trust and the company can get along, and how to bring Hershey Co.'s candy products to the global stage.

The trust and the company have looked for a transformative deal since the late 1980s. The company is No. 1 in the chocolate industry in the United States but No. 4 globally in candy-market share. Most of its potential merger partners are paired up and it will be facing a new bigger threat with Cadbury eventually being bought by Kraft.

"They are in a difficult spot," said Gimme Credit's Hutson. "There is always the risk when you are up against a much larger and better-financed competitor that you will be at their mercy for pricing and you won't be the category captain with the retailers."

Russia's No.3 oil firm TNK-BP expects 2010 hydrocarbon output to rise by 1-2 percent excluding the Slavneft business, chief operating officer Bill Schrader told Reuters in an interview late Friday.

"Our target this year is for growth between 1 and 2 percent (for hydrocarbon output)...excluding Slavneft," Schrader said.

In 2009, oil and oil equivalent output was 1.69 million barrels per day.

The executive at the company, which is half owned by oil major BP (BP.L), also stressed that the joint-venture recorded a profit in 2009 despite a number of business and legal disputes.

"There are rules and regulations you have to follow to operate in this country," the executive said,

"The rules we have here are understandable and we can operate in this environment profitably and you will see it in the announcement of 2009 results.

TNK-BP is scheduled to release its financial results for 2009 on March 1.

POINTS OF CONTENTION

The company is currently involved in a dispute over its East Siberian Kovykta gas field, with Russia's RosPrirodNadzor environmental watchdog recommending stripping TNK-BP's licence. [ID:nLDE61G1OX]

Schrader declined to comment on the matter.

The company was involved in a similar dispute in 2007, when it agreed to sell Kovykta to state-controlled gas transport monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM) for around $1 billion in a deal that has thus far failed to materialise.

The following year a dispute erupted between BP and its mainly Russian partners which resulted in the departure of then-chief executive Robert Dudley.

Schrader said this dispute is in the past, and that all shareholders are united behind a single strategy.

"Now we have got a new board, independent directors...I think the company is operating very well and the shareholders dispute is truly in the past," he said.

"I think the dispute actually brought all parties closer together and 2009's performance will demonstrate that it probably has made the company stronger."

In a separate interview on Friday, TNK-BP co-owner German Khan told Reuters his company was seeking either to keep Kovykta or sell the field for around $1 billion.

Khan added that talks with Gazprom were not active and that TNK-BP is "looking for other options." [ID:nLDE61P1OZ]

EXPANSION PLANS

Schrader also said he is looking forward to working with new chief executive Maxim Barsky, who will join the company in 2011 and continue to pursue TNK-BP's new strategy of international and domestic expansion adopted after Dudley's departure.

"There are lots of things to work on both in Russia, around Russia and a number of CIS countries, as well as opportunities internationally," Schrader said.

TNK-BP plans to invest $1.7 billion in two Siberian projects over the next three years, as well as $180 million in Venezuela.

The company could also form a strategic partnership with PKN (PKNA.WA) in order to manage the Polish company's Mazeikiu refinery in Lithuania.

"Our business is healthy now and we are looking for opportunities for growth," Schrader said.

John Duerden, 69, announced he will be stepping down as CEO of Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX). He will be replaced by company Chief Operating Officer James McCarvel.

While the stock peaked in fall 2007 around $70 per share, it was trading at just $6.97 per share near the end of trading on Friday. The stock has shed 10.27% the day following the announcement.

Loss of popularity and its diminishing cult-like following contributed to the full year revenue loss of 10.5% ($42.1 million) or about $0.49 per share.

On the topic of his successor, former CEO Duerden had this to say: “He brings a long track record of success in managing Crocs’ global operations. His broad experience in all aspects of Crocs’ business makes him the right person to lead the company into the next stage of its development and to build on Crocs’ many strengths."

An investigation into a Jackson consulting firm found employees of the firm hidden on the hospital payroll, free apartments and allegedly stolen e-mails that got an executive fired.

In a glaring example of how the Jackson Health System has wasted money, a new investigative report reveals how a Chicago consulting firm was paid $1.8 million over 2 ½ years -- including money for three little-used downtown Miami apartments and four employees hidden on the system's payroll in a plan intended to disguise how much money was being spent.

The no-bid contract of Capitol Consulting LLC was terminated last July, after Eneida Roldan took over as chief executive. According to the report, a Jackson executive accessed Roldan's e-mail account to authorize payment of $31,568.74 for Capitol expenses.

The deception was caught and payment stopped. The executive, unnamed in the report, was fired.

``I terminated that contract,'' Roldan said in an interview. ``I believe it was in the first week after I took over. And that employee was dismissed the first day.''

Capitol Consulting managing partner David LeClercq told The Miami Herald Friday that his firm behaved honorably and had nothing to do with underhanded payments. He said the company worked more than 1,100 hours it didn't bill for. He said the firm got caught in a change of administrations. ``A lot of things were going on.''

The report, by JM Advisory Group, recommended that the ``appropriate authorities'' conduct a legal review of the procurement policies of the Public Health Trust, which governs Jackson, and identified ``broader issues that the Trust must address in order to protect the integrity of the organization.''

The report, finished earlier this month, was ordered by Roldan and the Public Health Trust. It was obtained by The Herald under a public records request. It has not yet been formally presented to the PHT.

The PHT chairman, John Copeland, did not return a phone call.

Capitol was brought in to find labor savings and other efficiencies to help Jackson reduce costs, but the report chided the company several times for adding to the troubled system's costs, not reducing them.

The consultants started at Jackson in January 2007. Eugene Bassett, then chief administrative officer at Jackson Memorial, and Marvin O'Quinn, then CEO, were ``the two JHS executives primarily responsible for bringing Capitol Consulting to Jackson,'' the report said.

O'Quinn, who left Jackson in December 2008 for a job in California, did not respond to a request for comment. Bassett, who became chief operating officer and then interim chief executive after O'Quinn left, stepped down last summer after Roldan took the top position and could not be located.

Jackson regulations require that the Public Health Trust approve any no-bid contracts over $100,000, but the dealings with Capitol were set up to appear to be below that threshold.

After three consultants were working for 11 months, four other Capitol employees were put on the Jackson payroll starting in November 2007. ``Two high-ranking Human Resources officials said former Jackson executives told them they needed to put the consultants on the payroll to avoid the cumbersome process of getting a contract through the PHT board,'' the report said.

LeClercq said Jackson wanted the Capitol employees on its payroll ``for ease of the payroll process,'' not to hide anything. In fact, he said that ultimately the Public Health Trust approved the contract.

The report said that only the ``third and final contract with Capitol'' went before the board. It was approved on Aug. 8, 2008 -- about 1 ½ years after the consultants had started. The board approved a $660,000 contract. That was ``technically accurate,'' but the approved final contract didn't mention the $1.016 million in payroll costs, the report said. It's not clear how much time those payroll payments covered. The report went on:``The HR officials said they were promised the PHT board would be presented with a contract for Capitol once the consultants had time to prove their worth, at which time they would be removed from the payroll,'' said the JM report. ``That didn't happen.''

 According to the report, ``Jackson payroll clerks said they were ordered to automatically enter time sheets for the Capitol consultants, resulting in payment for time not worked on holidays,'' the report said.

Three consultants, not on the payroll, were paid through three separate contracts. ``Several times the consultants were signed in as working eight hours on holidays. For example, Capitol Consulting Managing Partner David LeClercq was paid for eight hours on Dec. 25, 2007, and eight hours on Jan. 1, 2008.'' Travel records show he wasn't even in Miami those days, the report said.

``Asked about this phenomenon, a JHS payroll clerk said she was instructed by a former JHS executive to `auto-enter' a set schedule for the consultants into the Kronos time-keeping system without documentation,'' the report said.

``The payroll clerk said she pointed out that the consultants were being paid for holidays but was told `not to ask questions, just do it.' Given that part of Capitol's mission was to educate staff about the importance of accurate time-keeping, the optics of this arrangement are less than desirable.''

LeClercq said that's completely untrue. Capitol billed only for hours worked, he said, and in the end waived collection of $100,000 in billings because it recognized Jackson's precarious financial position.

However, a Jackson internal audit in July 2009 questioned $132,836 in Capitol billings -- ``nearly half of it time billed for holidays,'' the report said. It's unclear if Jackson paid these billings. The report noted that ``no one has conducted a review of the value of Capitol's work in terms of whether JHS achieved the labor savings and budget efficiencies promised by Capitol.'' But Capitol did present bi-weekly reports, the report said.

The three outside consultants each were given $1,630-a-month apartments at the Yacht Club at 1111 Brickell Ave., where they typically stayed for no more than nine days a month, the report said.

``Capitol has stated that renting apartments was cheaper than paying for hotels,'' the report said. ``This is probably true, but the question arises as to whether Capitol needed three separate apartments rather than one that could be commonly shared. This is not an insignificant point, given Capitol's push to enforce concepts of efficiency on JHS staff.''

At some point last year, Jackson security ``concluded that a former JHS executive who was responsible for the day-to-day administrative management of the Capitol contract had unauthorized electronic access to the CEO's Outlook calendar.'' Security found on the unnamed person's computer a memo supposedly from Roldan to authorize the $31,000 payment to Capitol. In an exit interview, ``the executive denied breaching the CEO's computer or any wrongdoing.'

The fired executive couldn't be located for comment.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Operating Officer Wasim Bari visited Naudero to inspect the progress of the under construction Ghari Khuda Bakhsh Cricket Stadium.

PCB is managing the up gradation of facilities at the ground through the District Cricket Association Larkana. Bari reviewed the progress on the works so far such as the Nets area, and the tube well facilities at the ground. He assured the provision of an auto cutter to further improve the quality of the field.

Bari urged the timely completion of the ground works so that the entire district can benefit from the world class facilities. “The provision of the new world class ground would be a huge boost for cricket enthusiasts in the area,” said Bari.

“The new stadium will harness the huge talent pool of players in the district as well as provide local clubs and associations a top quality venue to organize their tournaments,” he added.

RenaissanceRE Holdings Ltd (NYSE:RNR) has promoted its current Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Peter Durhager, to the position of Executive Vice President.  Durhager will continue to report to the company’s Chief Executive Officer Neill Currie.  He will also serve as the Chief Administrative Officer and as a member of the company’s Executive Committee.

Durhager joined the company as the Chief Administrative Officer in 2003.  He has served as the President of the Company’s Global Shared Services division with responsibilities such as human resources, organizational development, marketing, communications, operations and information technology.  Previous to his time at RenaissanceRE, Durhager served as the co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of Promisant Ltd., Chairman and CEO of Logic Communications Ltd., and President and CEO of Millennium International Limited.

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (RenaissanceRe) is a provider of reinsurance and insurance coverages and related services. The Company’s principal products include property catastrophe reinsurance, which it writes through its operating subsidiary Renaissance Reinsurance Ltd. (Renaissance Reinsurance) and joint ventures, principally DaVinci Reinsurance Ltd. (DaVinci) and Top Layer Reinsurance Ltd. (Top Layer Re); specialty reinsurance risks written through Renaissance Reinsurance and DaVinci, and primary insurance and quota share reinsurance, which it writes through the operating subsidiaries of the RenRe Insurance Holdings Ltd. (RenRe Insurance). It operates in two segments, Reinsurance and Individual Risk. During the year ended December 31, 2009, the Reinsurance and Individual Risk segments accounted for approximately 69.3% and 30.7%, respectively, of the Company’s total consolidated gross premiums written.

Radio City has announced the elevation of Ashit Kukian to COO and President – Ad Sales. Prior to this, he was President - Sales at Radio City. Besides Kukian, there have been some other senior level elevations – Anil Dimri has been elevated to CTO and Senior EVP, Sagorika Kantharia is now EVP & Head – HR, while Reshma Khalid has been elevated to CFO & VP, and Rachna Kanwar to VP - Digital Media & New Business.

In conversation with exchange4media, Apurva Purohit, CEO, Radio City, said, “The organisation has done very well in the last one year, and the next couple of years will only be full of opportunities, because slowly and steadily the economic environment is improving, and hopefully with further de-regulation in the radio industry, there will be lot many opportunities of growth. What we are doing at Radio City is just preparing the road that would lead the organisation to the next level.”

“We will look at organic growth and non-radio sectors to expand. For instance, we launched our audio book, Planet Radio City, etc. So, we will be looking at more such opportunities where we can use our core competency of audio expertise and see how we can expand. In the non-radio segment we are certainly working very aggressively but, on the radio sector we will have to wait and watch,” Purohit added.

In recent months, Radio City has been consolidating its position in the radio industry and has reportedly emerged as the No. 2 network across all its markets as per the latest IRS 2009 survey, especially in the key markets of Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Radio City recently launched a new business venture – ‘The City of Tales’, an audio book for children with two titles in Hindi and English.

NEW YORK-Pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF) Chi-X Europe will not replace former chief operating officer (COO) Hirander Misra, who resigned Feb. 19, saying he planned to pursue other interests.

Misra's broad role at the MTF reflected its needs at its inception, but because Chi‑X has expanded its management team with specialists dedicated to regulatory and technology issues, many of Misra's ...

Craig Axford has been named executive director of the Citizens Education Project. Most recently, he was with the Utah State Democratic Party.

Ken Klaer has been appointed to the Broadcast International Inc. Board of Advisors. Klaer is vice president and general manager of Cisco's International CATV business unit, part of Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group.

Annette Jarvis has been named co-chair of the Finance and Restructuring Department of law firm Dorsey & Whitney. Jarvis is a partner in the firm's Salt Lake City office. She has experience representing various parties in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases.

Greg Butterfield and Glen Mella have been named to the board of directors at ContentWatch. Butterfield is managing partner of mentor capital firm SageCreek Partners and has held executive positions at several technology companies. His education includes a degree from Brigham Young University. Mella is president and chief operating officer of Control4 and has held management positions at large publicly traded companies and early-stage technology ventures. His education includes a degree from Brigham Young University.

Mike McGown and Sam Quigley have joined Magnum Gas Storage LLC. McGown has been named chief financial officer. Previously, he was chief financial officer for an oil company and has worked in the energy investment banking group and the corporate finance groups of a pair of other companies. Quigley is the company's general manager. He has more than 38 years of experience in the Utah mining industry. His education includes a degree from the University of Utah.

Teresa Leavitt has been appointed senior director of human resources for Wilson Sporting Goods and Amer Sports Americas. She moves from Ogden, where she was director of human resources for Amer Sports Winter & Outdoor Americas since 2007, to Chicago, the headquarters for Wilson. Leavitt will provide human resources guidance and support for Amer Sports Latin America and all the Amer Sports U.S. brands. She also will be responsible for developing regional human resources initiatives for Wilson and Amer Sports Americas. Her education includes degrees from the University of Utah.

Brad Llewelyn has been promoted to senior land surveyor and head of land surveying operations at Focus Engineering & Surveying. Llewelyn has more than 24 years of field survey mapping experience.

Bradford W. Pack has been appointed as a new partner at the Accend Group. Pack previously was vice president of finance and accounting for a Salt Lake City investment company. He also has experience in the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia for industries including construction, manufacturing, information technology services, software and telecommunications. His education includes a degree from Brigham Young University.

John C. Rooker, Richard G. Sorenson, Jason M. Yancey and Tiffany Brown have joined the Salt Lake City office of the law firm Jones Waldo. Eric P. Lee and Robert C. Dillon have joined the firm's Park City office. Stephanie Charter has joined the firm's St. George office. Rooker's litigation practice focuses on construction and real estate development disputes. His education includes a degree from Brigham Young University. Sorenson's practice consists primarily of commercial litigation, with an emphasis in construction disputes, real estate and contract law. His education includes a degree from the University of Utah. Yancey's practice focuses on commercial litigation in the areas of construction, land development, real estate and contracts. His education includes a degree from Brigham Young University. Brown practices in the firm's domestic and family law practice group. Previously, she worked at a Utah-based law firm, as a prosecutor at the Salt Lake County District Attorney's office, an assistant attorney general in the Child Protection Division and as an attorney in the Utah State Court Office of the Guardian ad Litem. Lee has more than 20 years of legal experience. He provides both affirmative and defensive litigation services to a variety of clients in business, construction and real estate, among other fields. His practice also includes zoning, planning, land use and entitlement work. Lee's education includes a degree from the University of Utah. Dillon focuses his practice on real estate transactions. He has more than 35 years experience in commercial real estate. Charter focuses her family law practice on adoption, termination of parental rights, custody and divorce.

W.W. Clyde & Co. has reorganized its management and created two new divisions: a heavy/highway division and a special projects division. David R. Hales, president and chief executive officer, will oversee both divisions. Joe Woolley, a 30-year veteran of the industry, joins W.W. Clyde & Co. from sister company Geneva Rock Products. Woolley will manage business development efforts for both divisions. Vice president Jeffrey R. Clyde will lead the Heavy/Highway Division. The rest of the management of the division will be Dustin Olson, operations manager, and Allan Scheib, area manager of construction. Vice president Scott Okelberry will manage the Special Projects Division. Okelberry's management team includes Jeff Cochran, formerly of W.W. Clyde's sister company Geneva Rock Products, as project sponsor; Mike Bigsby, senior project manager; and Alan Preston, also formerly of Geneva Rock Products, as project manager.

Russ Bradshaw has been appointed managing partner at Child, Van Wagoner & Bradshaw LLC, and Natalie Murphy, KristoferHeaton and Ryan Hiller have been promoted at the firm. Bradshaw has been a partner at CVB for four years and has worked in public accounting for more than 23 years. His education includes degrees from Brigham Young University. Murphy has been promoted to audit manager. Since joining CVB in 2001, she has specialized in audits of SEC registrants and has experience with audits of HUD, not-for-profit and privately held entities. Her education includes a degree from Weber State University. Heaton has been promoted to senior auditor. He has worked for CVB for more than a year and specializes in HUD audits and not-for-profit entities. His education includes degrees from Brigham Young University and Weber State University. Hiller has been promoted to senior auditor. He has worked for CVB for more than two years and specializes in private and publicly traded companies. His education includes degrees from the University of Utah.

Cody Jensen and Lisa Ercanbrack have joined Grand America Hotel as line chefs. Both are graduates of the Davis Applied Technology College.

Tony Palma has been named chief executive officer of Ogio. Palma previously worked at another sporting goods company as CEO for 14 years and later as CEO of a merged company. He also spent eight years with an accounting firm.

Eliot Management Group has announced several management changes. Jeff Hodlmair is vice president of operations and business development. He has been with the company for 10 years. Shane Schut is director of sales development. Amber Keyes is director of marketing. She has been with the company for nine years in several positions, including the past two years as senior marketing and brand manager. Alvaro Vides is director of information technology and facilities. He has been with EMG since 2001.

Leslie Ashton has been named a vice president and wealth management consultant for the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank, working at the bank's location in downtown Salt Lake City. Ashton has more than 20 years of experience in the industry.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Cablevision Systems Corp. is testing a new mobile phone that can work with Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

Along with other cable operators, Cablevision is looking for a way to counter the growing trend of consumers disconnecting their landline phones in favor of cell phones.

Tom Rutledge, Cablevision's chief operating officer, talked about the company's mobile phone plans to analysts during the company's fourth-quarter earnings conference call.

QUESTION: Can you tell us more about the wireless voice test and would you be more likely to build or rent a cellular network?

RESPONSE: We are trialing phones that switch from Wi-Fi to cellular and back as you move in and out of Wi-Fi and cellular zones. So when you are in a Wi-Fi zone, the traffic goes over our Wi-Fi and ... cable network. And when you are outside of our footprint or outside of this Wi-Fi footprint, the signal travels through a cellular network.

The test is so far proving to be good and consistent with our view of what is possible and gives us some hope that we will be able to launch additional products using the Wi-Fi network that will look like what some people think of as cellular telephone.

We haven't made those decisions (about whether to build a cell network or lease capacity), but the latter outcome would be a less capital-intensive, higher-return business.

WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX) plans to continue its growth by expanding into biotech, safety evaluation and manufacturing. In fact, to make the growth a reality, the company invests about $60 million each year in capital expenditures.

The overview of WuXi’s outlook and operations was published recently in the China Daily, including an interview with Edward Hu, COO of the company (see article).

"The majority of our clients are big international firms, with Pfizer (PFE) and Merck (MRK) ranking as the top two,” said Hu. “As business expands, we want to win more clients, big or small, and get more orders from current customers.”

As ChinaBio Today reported earlier this week, WuXi PharmaTech received AAALAC accreditation for its Suzhou tox lab, which began operations in 2009.

Also this week, WuXi PharmaTech was granted GMP compliance from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), for its c-GMP drug product manufacturing and analytical testing facilities located in Shanghai.

Revenues for 2009 are expected to rise by 10% to about $270 million. That’s a far cry from the 100% growth the company reported in the 2005-8 period. But considering that most of the CRO industry has experienced cutbacks in the last year, WuXi has reason to be proud of its performance. For 2010, Hu would say only that revenues will rise "above last year's level."

WuXi is also expanding its manufacturing capabilities with plans to build a large-scale biological manufacturing facility in the works. At the beginning of 2008, WuXi PharmaTech bought AppTec, a US-based company that included a biologics manufacturing business. Unfortunately, the bottom dropped out of that sector, and WuXi closed the biologics unit at the end of 2008. Now, apparently, it wants to establish the business in China.

Big pharma companies continue to increase their R&D, though the 3% to 4% rate is not spectacular. However, more and more of their work is being outsourced – about a 6% to 8% growth rate in that category. And an increasing percentage of that work is being done in China, whose CRO industry is increasing revenues at an 18% rate.

Or, as WuXi’s COO Hu says modestly, "Growth for China's CRO market will be far above the global average.”

Cathay Pacific plans to raise its stake in Air China when the time is right, revealed Cathay's chief operating officer, John Slosar.

"It is certainly on the cards. There are no restrictions on how and when we could do that. And when the time is right, when the business is good, we will certainly look at doing that," Slosar told CNBC on Friday.

Cathay currently owns an 18% stake in Air China. The Chinese carrier, meantime, upped its holdings in Cathay last year to 30% from 17.5% by buying shares in the airline from Citic Pacific.

His comments came on back of a cargo joint venture announcement between both companies, which will see Cathay investing $125 million to tap the growth in China's Yangtze River Delta region.

"I think it deepens our partnership with Air China and we see a lot more room to do great things with them in the future," said the COO. "We think by bringing together our shared strengths, we can do the best for both of us."

"(The deal) greatly expands Cathay Pacific's footprint in China, which certainly is a strategic goal for us," added Slosar. "We want to have more exposure to China."

Slosar expects the joint venture to be up and running by mid-year and has expressed that the airline will "make all the necessary applications that (it) needs to get this venture through safely".

CHICAGO, Feb 26, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Veolia Transportation Inc. announced that Ken Westbrook has been promoted to chief operating officer (COO) of its Transit Division. Previously, he was senior vice president, Eastern Region for the same division. In his new role, Westbrook will work with Chief Executive Officer Mark Joseph to continue Veolia Transportation's growth as the largest private-sector operator of multiple modes of transit in the United States.

As COO, Westbrook will lead the company's transit operations for its bus, paratransit, brokerage and bus rapid transit (BRT) contracts with transit authorities. This includes 120 locations and contracts in leading cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and others. He will be responsible for the work of over 17,000 employees organized into seven regions.

Westbrook will lead the teams responsible for continuing to enhance the Transit Division's operational and financial performance, including safety, maintenance, customer service, technology, budgets, planning and staff development. He also will be responsible for the company's compliance with contract terms, as well as contract renewals and business growth.

"Ken brings a powerful combination of operational experience, strong customer relationships and a proven record of successful leadership to his new role at Veolia Transportation," said Joseph. "The experience he has gained in managing a diverse array of transit operations and his high-energy, people-oriented style will enable him to make a major positive impact in this new role."

Westbrook has had a distinguished career in transit operations. Early in his career, he was general manager for Jackson, Miss., and Pensacola, Fla., transit operations as part of ATC, a well-known private-sector operator of transit contracts. In 1999, he was promoted to regional vice president of the South/Central Region for ATC, and in 2007, to senior vice president of Veolia Transportation for the Eastern Region of the United States. Veolia Transportation acquired ATC in 2005.

Apple’s Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook reckons that people will ditch their Netbooks because of the ‘magic’ of the iPad.

Cook was talking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco and although he discussed a wide range of topics, he particularly focussed on the iPad.

Nothing unusual about that, after all it was only launched last month but what is interesting is his take on how the iPad will impact on Netbooks.

“The netbook is not an experience people are going to continue wanting to have,” Cook said.

“When they play with the iPad and experience the magic of using it… I have a hard time believing they’re going to go for a netbook.”

So let’s see. If I recall recent media reports, far from giving a magical experience, the iPad is quite likely to frustrate people with what it can’t do and hasn’t got.

Now the Netbook on the other hand that’s magic. Who could argue about how successful that humble little device has been and continues to be whether you like them or not?

Cook says he’s been using the iPad for a period of six months and reckons “the experience is absolutely incredible”.

Well he would say that wouldn’t he, more than his job’s worth not to.

“It’s got a number of things that are appreciably better than anything available today,” added Cook.

I’m inclined to disagree. The iPad is a tablet device and the Netbook is a mini computer and never the twain shall meet. I don’t think they can be compared.

Personally, I think that Apple missed the boat when they decided not to produce a netbook when everyone else did and now they’re trying to say they’ve come out with something new and better than a netbook ever will be.

Cook also reckons that the only thing that consumers love about netbooks is the price. I agree the low cost is appealing, but then again Netbooks happen to be pretty useful too.

Also, if it’s the price that’s attracting them why would they fork out twice the amount of dosh for an iPad that can’t do everything a Netbook can?

Nope, I don’t the iPad will make any difference to netbook sales, most of those who are buying netbooks probably wouldn’t buy an iPad even if there were no netbooks, they’d probably go for an ultra thin instead.

Now if Apple had produced an Apple Netbook, we might be telling a very different story today.

Crocs, Inc. (CROX 7.22, +0.17, +2.41%) today announced that its board of directors has promoted John McCarvel to president and chief executive officer effective March 1, 2010. He succeeds John Duerden, who is retiring from the company and resigning as president and CEO and also from his position on the company's board. Duerden will assist with McCarvel's transition as needed.

McCarvel has spent the last six years in various executive management positions at Crocs, serving as chief operating officer and executive vice president since 2007. Previously, McCarvel was senior vice president for global operations from October 2005 to February 2007, and as vice president for Asia from January 2005 to September 2005, after providing consulting services to Crocs during 2004.

"In 2009, we made significant progress in strengthening both our financial position and our market position," said Richard Sharp, Crocs chairman of the board. "John Duerden has led this remarkable turnaround. With his leadership, we have taken steps to strengthen our product line, re-engage the consumer and reposition our iconic global brand. We also have improved our capital structure and liquidity significantly, repaid all of our debt and entered into a three-year asset-backed securitization agreement. On behalf of our board, I want to thank John for his leadership and contributions during the past year."

"As we work to build on these achievements, we need to begin planning and managing the next phase of the company's turnaround," Sharp said. "John McCarvel is well-positioned to lead this next phase because he has played a key leadership role in developing and implementing the company's strategic and operational plans. His management experience at several global companies and his in-depth knowledge of Crocs will serve us well as we move forward."

During his tenure at Crocs, McCarvel spearheaded the successful expansion of Crocs' direct channel business through retail stores and the Internet, while also working to stabilize the company's wholesale channel. He led the effort to align the company's cost base with the size of the business, including consolidation of the company's global warehouse capacity, significant reduction in inventory levels and rationalization of sponsorship programs. He also was responsible for investments in customer systems to enhance global order entry and the company's retail and Internet businesses.

"I would like to congratulate John McCarvel on his promotion to chief executive officer," Duerden said. "He brings a long track record of success in managing Crocs' global operations. His broad experience in all aspects of Crocs' business makes him the right person to lead the company into the next stage of its development and to build on Crocs' many strengths. I have enjoyed my time with the company and the opportunity to lead the restoration of a great brand."

"We've spent the last 18 months stabilizing the company while reinvigorating our product line and brand, and realigning our cost structure," McCarvel said. "I look forward to guiding the company back to profitable growth, with the help of our talented management team and employees around the world and the support of our board."

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (RNR  55.80, +0.44, +0.79%)  announced today the promotion of Peter C. Durhager, currently Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, to Executive Vice President. Mr. Durhager will continue to report to Neill A. Currie, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, and to serve as Chief Administrative Officer and as a member of the RenaissanceRe Executive Committee.

Mr. Currie said: "Peter has made substantial contributions to RenaissanceRe, leading many of our global integration initiatives and helping ensure that we have a robust, state-of-the-art infrastructure that ably supports our increasingly diverse operations. Thanks in no small part to Peter's contributions, we are well positioned to execute on our strategic plan and to accommodate future expansion as market needs warrant. I'm delighted to recognize Peter's leadership through this promotion."

Mr. Durhager, 39, joined RenaissanceRe in 2003 as Chief Administrative Officer, and has served as President of the Company's Global Shared Services division, with responsibilities including human resources, organizational development, marketing, communications, operations and information technology. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Durhager was co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of Promisant Ltd., Chairman and CEO of Logic Communications Ltd., and President and CEO of Millennium International Limited. Mr. Durhager is also a Director of KeyTech Ltd., ASCENDANT Group Limited, and the Centre on Philanthropy.

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. is a global provider of reinsurance and insurance. Our business consists of two segments: (1) Reinsurance, which includes catastrophe reinsurance, specialty reinsurance and certain joint ventures and other investments managed by our subsidiary RenaissanceRe Ventures Ltd., and (2) Individual Risk, which includes primary insurance, commercial insurance and quota share reinsurance.

Cypress Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: CYPB) today announced that Sabrina Martucci Johnson, its Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, will participate in the RBC Capital Markets Healthcare Conference on March 2, 2010.

The RBC conference is being held at the New York Palace Hotel in New York, NY. Ms. Johnson is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion titled 'New Developments in Neurology' on Tuesday, March 2nd at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The audio broadcast of this presentation can be accessed at http://www.wsw.com/webcast/rbc116/panel3.

A replay of the presentation will be available at the same web address as well as on Cypress' website, http://www.cypressbio.com/events.php.

About Cypress Bioscience
Cypress Bioscience, Inc. provides therapeutics and personalized medicine services, facilitating improved and individualized patient care. Cypress addresses the evolving needs of specialist physicians and their patients by identifying unmet medical needs in the areas of pain, rheumatology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation, including challenging disorders such as fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. This approach to improving patient care creates a unique partnership with physicians. Current products include Savella® (milnacipran HCI) and the Avise PGSM and Avise MCVSM therapeutic monitoring, diagnostic and prognostic tests for rheumatoid arthritis.

For more information about Cypress, please visit the Company's website at www.cypressbio.com.

NEEDHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– BigBelly Solar, Inc., the world’s first waste collection systems company that integrates renewable power and information technology to dramatically lower the operating costs, fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the waste and recycling collection process, today announced the appointment of Barry Fougere as Chief Operating Officer. Fougere brings more than 20 years of senior leadership in business management and services to BigBelly Solar and its customers.

“I have known and advised the BigBelly Solar management team for several years and am thrilled to be joining the company to help drive its next stage of growth,” said Fougere. “The BigBelly Solar approach is a powerfully elegant one – using the principles of solar-powered compaction and network information management to reduce waste collection trips by up to 80%. In times when municipalities, commercial haulers and other institutions are looking for ways to provide high levels of service while wrestling with tightening budgets, the patented BigBelly Solar waste and recycling collection system is a compelling answer. We have received tremendous validation from our customers on not only the dramatic cost savings that are realized, but also the benefits provided by the BigBelly solutions family in increasing recycling rates and reducing overflow waste.”

Fougere’s executive leadership experience includes serving as CEO of Colubris Networks (NYSE:HPQ, acquired by Hewlett Packard’s ProCurve division), a global leader in bringing wireless LAN solutions to large network operators and vertical enterprise markets. While at Colubris, Fougere was selected as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. His career also includes operating and executive leadership roles in several business and professional services companies, including A.T. Kearney and Heidrick & Struggles.

“Barry is a proven company builder, with a real passion for delivering system-level solutions to customers that allow them to dramatically improve their operations,” said Jack Kutner, CEO of BigBelly Solar. “We have benefitted from his ideas and enthusiasm as a company advisor over the last few years and are thrilled that he has decided to join us at this exciting stage in the company’s growth. We are revolutionizing the waste collection process and feel that Barry’s operating experience and vision will be a critical element in scaling our business to be the leading global provider of waste collection efficiency systems.”

About BigBelly Solar, Inc.

BigBelly Solar is a leading provider of waste collection solutions to the global waste management industry. The BigBelly waste collection system combines solar-powered trash compaction, efficient recycling solutions, and network management software and services into a powerful approach that enables municipalities, commercial haulers and other institutional customers to reduce the operating costs associated with collection by up to 80%. The BigBelly waste collection system also provides a pragmatic path to a greener future: reducing collection trips dramatically reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse gas generation while allowing the productive redeployment of labor to recycling and other critical services. For more information visit www.bigbellysolar.com.

The Cardinal Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: CFNL) appointed Alice P. Frazier Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cardinal Financial Corporation and Cardinal Bank. Before joining Cardinal, Ms. Frazier worked as the Loudoun County Area Executive for BB&T Corporation.

Stratus Media Group, Inc., a live entertainment company, announced today that William Kelly has been appointed to the position of Chief Operating Officer of both Stratus Media Group and ProElite, Inc. Mr. Kelly previously held the position of Chief Operating Officer of ProElite from its inception until October 2008.

“I am very pleased to appoint William as Chief Operating Officer,” stated Paul Feller, President and CEO of Stratus, “Due to Stratus’ plans for rapid growth over the next year, we identified the need to hire a person of exceptional talent and experience as COO to manage the daily operations of both our existing companies and the integration of newly acquired companies and events. In addition to his experience at ProElite and his knowledge of the MMA business, Mr. Kelly’s background is an ideal fit for our requirements and we are happy to have such a valuable addition to our team.”

Mr. Kelly brings over two decades of entertainment and media operations and management experience to Stratus. Prior to ProElite, Mr. Kelly Co-founded Television Korea 24 Inc. (tvk24) in 2003, where he served as Chief Operating Officer. In 2001, Mr. Kelly joined the Extreme Sports Channel as Chief Operating Officer International…

Synovus Financial Corp. has named Kessel Stelling, the president and CEO of its Bank of North Georgia subsidiary, the president and chief operating officer of the overarching holding company.

Monday’s announcement fills a hole in Synovus’ management structure left vacant since the May 2009 departure of former COO Frederick Green.

Columbus, Ga.-based Synovus (NYSE: SNV), the No. 2 banking company based in the state, lost $1.4 billion in 2009, and has taken a beating from souring residential development loans. The Atlanta region has been among the hardest hit in Synovus’ loan portfolio.

Synovus revealed in September it had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with state and federal regulators. The MOU, a form of regulatory order, directs Synovus to improve its balance sheet and risk management practices, shed bad assets, increase capital and develop a plan of succession.

Synovus has operated without a president since Green, who had previously been seen as Anthony’s successor, left the company.

Donald D. Howard, the chairman of the board of Bank of North Georgia and Synovus regional CEO, will head the Alpharetta-based bank.

“With deep roots in Georgia and long-standing relationships with regulators and other key state officials, Kessel is one of the most highly-respected bankers in the state and is well-known as a visionary leader in the banking industry,” Richard Anthony, chairman and CEO of Synovus, said in a statement. “As Synovus continues to execute our strategy to navigate the difficult economic environment and prepares for the consolidation of our legal charter structure, choosing a leader who is intimately familiar with our company and who has established relationships throughout the Synovus family and our geographic footprint in the Southeast is the best decision for our team members, customers and shareholders.

"This transition comes at an important time in our company’s history, and I am confident that Kessel has the expertise and skills to help position us for long-term growth and success.”

Stelling, rumored for months to be the top internal candidate to slide into the No. 2 slot in the banking company’s hierarchy, is now the heir apparent to Synovus Chairman and CEO Richard Anthony. Atlanta Business Chronicle first reported in December Stelling’s candidacy for the post.

“I am honored to be selected to serve Synovus team members, customers and shareholders as president and COO,” Stelling said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the exceptional team at Synovus to continue to build a strong company that brings value to customers.”

Stelling is the former chairman and CEO of Riverside Bancshares Inc. He has both an outsider and insider perspective at the $35 billion-in-assets regional banking company.

A highly respected banker, business and civic leader, he joined Bank of North Georgia after Synovus acquired Riverside in 2006. Since then, Stelling has headed Synovus’ Atlanta region, and been the point man on the integration of several smaller bank subsidiaries into Bank of North Georgia, now Synovus’ largest bank with $5.5 billion in assets. He has also been an integral part of purging the company of toxic assets in metro Atlanta.

Bank of North Georgia lost $52.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. More than 15 percent of its loans are in some form of delinquency, default or foreclosure.

More than 10 percent of its total loans, or $390 million, were considered non-accrual, meaning Bank of North Georgia did not expect repayment.

But many of Bank of North Georgia’s credit problems stem from the consolidation of the bank with smaller Synovus subsidiaries throughout metro Atlanta, industry observers contend.

Stelling’s job will be to help implement the consolidation of Synovus’ 30 bank charters into one. Though the banking company will continue to operate 30 individual banks, it is consolidating its charters to better manage its capital flow and make the company less cumbersome from a regulatory perspective.

He will oversee the company’s day-to-day banking operations, its retail banking efforts and the diversification of Synovus' commercial banking system.

Synovus officials have said credit issues will continue in the first quarter of 2010 at a similar clip to the fourth quarter, but it expects credit conditions and margins to improve and for the bank to swing to a profit by fourth quarter 2010.

The consolidation, which comes on the heels of some internal operations mergers and other cost cutting efforts over the past five to six years will likely have a positive affect on capital, industry insiders say.

Stelling will also play a roll in the company’s efforts to raise capital and eventually pay off the $968 million in TARP investment from the federal government.

HOUSTON, Feb. 19 -- Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has promoted Al Walker to president and chief operating officer. Jim Hackett, formerly chairman, president, and chief executive officer, will remain as chairman and CEO.

Walker has more than 25 years of experience in the energy industry, with a focus on exploration and production. He joined Anadarko in 2005 as senior vice-president, finance, and chief financial officer.

Firm Appoints Fred Schmidt to Chief Role

Thirty-year industry veteran Fred Schmidt was promoted to president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates LLC. He will take charge of a franchise system that includes more than 200 offices and 2,300 commercial real estate professionals operating in 20 countries. Schmidt replaced Rick Davidson who after nearly four years at CBC moved to Century 21 Real Estate LLC as president and chief executive officer. Both firms are entities of real estate company Realogy Corp. The transition will start immediately.

Schmidt will report to Jim Gillespie, president and COO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. He was also named president of ONCOR International LLC, the commercial real estate referral network that includes 50-plus independently owned brokerage firms.

Schmidt has a specialty in advisory services and new business development. He joined CBC seven years ago most recently serving as senior vice president of Realogy Global Client Solutions and head of six specialty groups. Before CBC, he spent 21 years in various leadership roles at CB Richard Ellis including first vice president of corporate services. Schmidt was also managing director for United Systems Integrators Corp.

He is a member of CoreNet Global and has an undergraduate degree from Seton Hall University.

Stratus Media Group, Inc. a live entertainment company, announced today that William Kelly has been appointed to the position of Chief Operating Officer of both Stratus Media Group and ProElite, Inc. Mr. Kelly previously held the position of Chief Operating Officer of ProElite from its inception until October 2008.

"I am very pleased to appoint William as Chief Operating Officer," stated Paul Feller, President and CEO of Stratus, "Due to Stratus' plans for rapid growth over the next year, we identified the need to hire a person of exceptional talent and experience as COO to manage the daily operations of both our existing companies and the integration of newly acquired companies and events. In addition to his experience at ProElite and his knowledge of the MMA business, Mr. Kelly's background is an ideal fit for our requirements and we are happy to have such a valuable addition to our team."

Mr. Kelly brings over two decades of entertainment and media operations and management experience to Stratus. Prior to ProElite, Mr. Kelly Co-founded Television Korea 24 Inc. (tvk24) in 2003, where he served as Chief Operating Officer. In 2001, Mr. Kelly joined the Extreme Sports Channel as Chief Operating Officer International and prior to Extreme Sports Channel, Mr. Kelly held the following positions:

    -  NBC Internet - Vice President and Head of International (San
       Francisco).CNBC Asia - Vice President (Singapore)
    -  Turner Broadcasting International (Asia)- President (Tokyo)
    -  Long Term Credit Bank of Japan (Tokyo)
    -  Allied Irish Banks (Ireland)

Kelly, a native of Ireland, holds various qualifications in banking, international business and foreign languages.

"I'm pleased to be joining Stratus at this exciting stage of the company's growth," stated William Kelly. "I believe there are tremendous opportunities in expanding the Stratus model into new geographic and market areas to aggregate live entertainment content on a global basis."

Aegon has appointed Adrian Grace as chief operating officer for life and pensions as it reports a 23 per cent drop in new business for that sector.

The provider’s finanical results for 2009, published today, show life and pensions new business for the year was £943m, down 23 per cent on 2008. However, life and pensions new business quarter-on-quarter increased to £237m in Q4, 9 per cent up on Q3.

Under International Financial Reporting Standards, underlying earnings for Q4 were £30m, up 131 per cent for the same period the previous year.

Aegon Asset Management generated gross sales of £270m for the quarter, an increase of 55 per cent on the same quarter in 2008. For the year new business was £1,07bn, an 99 per cent increase on 2008’s £542m.

Chief risk officer Mark Laidlaw has been promoted to a new role in Aegon’s global operations in The Hague, leading Aegon’s response to Solvency II.

Director of life and pensions operations Feilim Mackle and director of marketing and customer strategy Steve Clode are to leave the firm.

Aegon UK chief executive Otto Thoresen says: “Although 2009 was a challenging year for the life assurance sector, Aegon UK achieved a solid performance. We saw encouraging growth in the fourth quarter, with increased pension volumes one of the main drivers.”

He adds: “Aegon must continue to push forward and build on the success of recent years. The market drivers of people living longer and the continuing trend for businesses to move from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions schemes present clear opportunities for the UK life and pensions sector and we continue to see good potential for growth.”

MUMBAI: Shortly after elevating Rajesh Kamat to group COO, Viacom18 has roped in NDTV imagine EVP - business operations and content sales Gaurav Gandhi.

Gandhi will be joining Viacom18 on 8 March in a newly-created post as chief commercial officer and head - international business. He will be reporting to Kamat.

"Given our exponential growth as a group in the last 18 months and our future growth plans, it is now critical that we centralize our cost and commercial functions, thus ensuring synergies between various group businesses. Given Gandhi's relevant experience and proven track record, I am confident in his ability to add value across the group," Kamat said.

Prior to NDTV Imagine, Gandhi spent close to four years at Star India, where he handled various assignments including content acquisition, business planning and syndication.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Medical-supply distributor Owens & Minor Inc. said Wednesday that Charles C. Colpo will become its executive vice president and chief operating officer beginning next week.

Colpo, a 29-year company veteran, previously served as executive vice president of administration, overseeing company operations, product development, supplier relations and other departments.

He will take the new position March 1. No successor was announced.

In trading for the day, shares fell 44 cents to close at $45.40.

Owens & Minor, Inc., a leading distributor of medical and surgical supplies to the acute-care market and a healthcare supply chain management company, announced today that Charles C. Colpo has been named Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of Owens & Minor, effective March 1, 2010. Colpo, 52, previously served as Owens & Minor's Executive Vice President, Administration, with oversight of company operations, supplier relations, supply chain management, product development, marketing, category management, and certain strategic initiatives.

"With this appointment, we are turning to one of our team's experienced and knowledgeable leaders," said Craig R. Smith, president & chief executive officer of Owens & Minor. "Charlie has extensive operations experience and knows our business very well; he also led the successful integrations of two recent acquisitions. Charlie has served in senior leadership for the last ten years, and we are very pleased that he is taking on a larger, more significant role. He is well-respected both inside and outside of Owens & Minor, and we are thankful that he has agreed to take on this new challenge. I look forward to working with Charlie for many years to come."

After joining the company in 1981, Colpo worked in a variety of capacities at Owens & Minor, including 19 years in the corporate office and 10 years in the field. He served as Senior Vice President, Operations for nine years, during which he also had oversight of the information technology team. Before becoming an officer in 1994, Colpo held management positions in supply chain process improvement and inventory management, and also served as a field manager with oversight of sales and operations for four distribution centers.

Colpo serves his industry and community in a number of volunteer capacities. He is a member of the board of directors of the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA), and serves on the board of Strategic Marketplace Initiative, a collaborative organization of leaders from integrated healthcare networks, suppliers, and healthcare distributors and providers.

A graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Colpo is from Lynchburg, Virginia. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife, Debra, and their daughter. His adult son lives in Houston.

Owens & Minor, Inc., (OMI 45.44, +0.79, +1.77%) a FORTUNE 500 company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a leading distributor of national name-brand medical and surgical supplies and a healthcare supply-chain management company. Owens & Minor is also a member of the Russell 2000(R) Index, which measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe, as well as the S&P MidCap 400, which includes companies with a market capitalization of $750 million to $3.3 billion that meet certain financial standards. With a diverse product and service offering and distribution centers throughout the United States, the company serves hospitals, integrated healthcare systems, alternate care locations, group purchasing organizations, and the federal government. Owens & Minor provides technology and consulting programs that improve inventory management and streamline logistics across the entire medical supply chain--from origin of product to patient bedside. For news releases, or for more information about Owens & Minor, visit the company Web site at www.owens-minor.com.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Feb 25, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- American Manganese Inc. (CA:AMY 0.21, 0.00, 0.00%) (PINK SHEETS: AMYZF) ("American Manganese" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Michael MacLeod, P.Eng, to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Mr. MacLeod will be responsible for all project development, operational activities, assembling and leading an experienced team of professionals for furthering the Artillery Peak Manganese Project.

Mr. MacLeod's formal education includes a B.Sc. Eng. (Mining), an M. Eng. (Mining) and an MBA. A seasoned mine developer, Mr. MacLeod has more than 30 years experience as a consultant for, or an employee of, several major and junior mining companies. He has been responsible for major capital projects, feasibility assessments, marketing and environmental studies. He was V.P Project Development from February 2005 to October 2006, Chief Executive Officer and President from October 2006 to March 2008 and Chief Operating Officer of Adanac Molybdenum Corporation from March 2008 to June 2008. Since June 2008 he has consulted for various junior mining companies including American Manganese Inc.

Mr. MacLeod is looking forward, with enthusiasm, to the challenges of transforming the Artillery Peak Manganese Project into a producing mine.

The Directors and Management of American Manganese welcome Mr. MacLeod.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BB&T Corporation (NYSE:  BBT) today said that Chief Operating Officer Chris Henson is scheduled to present at the CLSA AsiaUSA Forum in San Francisco on March 1 at 12:30 p.m. EST (9:30 a.m. PST).

A live audio webcast of Henson's presentation will be available at www.BBT.com/webcasts and will be archived for 30 days.

At Dec. 31, Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) had $165.8 billion in assets and operated more than 1,800 financial centers in 12 states and Washington, D.C. More information about the company is available at www.BBT.com.

 LONDON, February 25, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In an interview on broadcaster http://www.cantos.com, BAT Chief Executive Paul Adams discusses the company's "excellent performance in 2009" and talks about why he is confident that BAT can still deliver in 2010.

In further interviews, COO Nicandro Durante talks about brand and market performances around the world and FD Ben Stevens discusses the progress towards both the cost savings and margins targets BAT has set.

The interview and transcript are available now on http://www.cantos.com.

Cantos.com, the online financial broadcaster, features in-depth interviews, documentaries and webcasts with senior company executives. If you would like to contact us, please email amanda.alexander@cantos.com or phone +44-207-936-1352.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat, February 25, 2010 / IndiaPRLine / — Veeda Clinical Research announced the appointment of Mr. Venu Madhav as the new Chief Operating Officer of its unit in India.

“We are happy to have Venu join the Veeda family and we are sure that with his experience and knowledge he will help to continue Veeda grow in early clinical development and augment our position in the market as leaders in this field”, said Binoy Gardi, Group Managing Director, Veeda.

Mr. Venu Madhav is post graduate in pharmacy and having 19 years of experience in diverse areas of clinical research. He has been associated with reputed companies likes Ranbaxy and Sun Pharma especially in the growth period of these organizations. His contribution for the growth of these organizations is noticeable.

Mr. Venu carries rich experience in planning bioequivalence studies from pilot to pivotal stage for generic formulations. He has designed clinical, bioanalytical, pharmacokinetic and statistical aspects of bioavailability and bioequivalence studies. He is credited to have coordinated for more than 450 pilot and pivotal biostudies for conventional formulations and extended release formulations.

He has held the responsibility for developing complex bioanalytical methods for hormonal and peptide products apart for the effective utilization of 250 methods. He has also handled more than 150 pilot and 300 pivotal bioanalytical projects with GLP compliance. Pivotal biostudies were audited by most of the regulatory inspections and subsequent approval.

During his tenure Mr. Venu has also handled pharmacokinetic and statistical evaluation of data for ANDA/ NDA submissions. He has conducted a workshop as well on ‘Bioequivalence Studies’ for Bahrain and Oman regulatory officials.

His last stint has been with Sun Pharma Advanced Research Center (SPARC) Baroda as Sr. General Manager – Pharmacokinetic Department.

Puravankara Projects Limited has appointed Jackbastian Kaitan Nazareth as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). Prior to joining Puravankara, Jack, as he is known among friends, was the Executive Director of Sobha Developers Ltd overseeing their International operations, based out of Dubai.

Jack did his schooling from St.Pauls high school (1983) has a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from Gogte institute of Technology Belgaum(1990) and an MBA from the Goa Institute of Management with a specialization in Marketing and Finance.

He started his career as an entrepreneur with M/s. Trinity Consultants and Engineers in Belgaum and Goa. Apart from handling International operations at Sobha Developers, he had also handled Sales, Marketing, CRM, Corporate Affairs and Facility management in the past. He was also associated with Tishman Speyer as Managing Director, Head -Sales & Marketing in their Bangalore office.

Acknowledging the new assignment, Jack said: “We need to create a vision whereby our name becomes synonymous with excellence, innovation, honor, integrity and outstanding quality and service. As COO at Puravankara, I am looking forward to all the new challenges that come our way and will draw on tried-and-tested experience as well as introduce new thinking and approaches where feasible.”

Jack told this blog that, “ he is one of those many Belgaumites who got the best education, climate and vegetables and all I needed was to pursue a dream to fulfill. I learnt languages and made friends in that place who are still close to my heart. And when you have what life truly has to give you, it becomes a passion to pursue perfection.

I am truly blessed to be what I am today and I owe it to my family, friends and above all my Alma Mater St. Pauls. The Jesuits turned around my life twice, once at St. Pauls and then at Goa Institute of Management, Goa.

GIT was just about 3 idiots, infact we were many idiots so to say. Am so glad that all of the students are doing well in life.

But all said and done there is no place on earth that gives you the language ‘kaay be’ or the chai of the railway station. From Mahantesh Nagar to Udyambag and from Ganeshpur to the Dhabas on Bangalore highway, Belgaum reckons me to be back there And I will maybe retire there in the company of the wonderful friends that I made there and the large family that still lives life to the full. Belgaum it is and I am a Belgaum boy!”

Puravankara Group began operations in Mumbai and has established a considerable presence in the real estate industry in the metropolitan cities of Bangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mysore and overseas in Dubai.

OTTAWA (MNI) - Tiff Macklem, Associate Deputy Minister of Finance in the Canadian government, has been appointed to a seven-year term as Senior Deputy Governor and chief operating officer of the Bank of Canada, in which he has long and deep roots.

The BOC Friday announced Macklem's return to the Bank of Canada, where he had risen from the research department starting in 1984 to being a deputy governor of the Bank.

He has been with the federal Finance department, on a second tour, since 2007, as Associate Deputy Minister and as Canada's deputy for finance at the G-7. He has chaired financial stability efforts in the G-7 and G-20 groupings and, according to the BOC, "has been closely involved in developing the global response to the ( international financial) crisis."

Macklem replaces Paul Jenkins, who announced last October he would not seek renewal of his term of office when it expires in April. Jenkins had previously been a deputy governor of the Bank for 10 years, and had started there in 1972.

Channel veteran, Garry Henley, has become CEO of ASX-listed entity, Synergy Plus (ASX:SNR).

Henley previously spent 11 years at Alphawest, initially as managing director in 1999 before being promoted to CEO in 2002.

He led Alphawest through its sale to Solution 6, as well as its acquisition by Optus/Singtel in 2005. He stayed on as CEO until 2008.

Henley said it was always a part of the plan to take some time off when Alphawest had successfully integrated into Optus.

“It was my choice to come back into the industry. I approached Synergy because I though it was a great opportunity,” Henley told ARN.

“I made a commitment to stay with Optus for two years to see through the integration of Alphawest and over time the company grew from 400 to more than 800 staff.”

In his new role, Henley plans to consolidate the company’s acquisitions.

“The different acquisitions have brought in different skills to the business,” he said.

“There are lots of pockets in the business that we need to take, expand and leverage.”

Opportunities for Synergy to expand its services and managed services business are ripe, Henley said.

“It’s got a national footprint and the right momentum that is capable of adding acquisitions to and being flexible in adapting to some of the changes in the market,” he said.

The newly appointed CEO assured he’ll be with the company for the long run.

“I think when you’re going through the process of building a business, you have to be there long term,” he said. “Synergy has gone through a lot of challenges, but it’s also a business that’s very similar to Alphawest.”

In a statement, Synergy Plus chairman, Domenic Martino, said the integrator needed someone to drive the company’s growth.

“We committed to the market that we would wait to ensure we found the right candidate before formally appointing a new CEO,” he said.

Acting CEO, Peter Cappendell, will stay with Synergy as its newly appointed chief operating officer (COO).

“We’re really lucky to have Henley on-board,” Cappendell said.

Cappendell said it was an extensive recruitment process that almost took seven months to find the right candidate.

“We knew it was going to be a long period, but it was critical to get the right guy to lead us,” Cappendell said. “There was a lot of interest in the position.”

In the short term, he said he would be managing the transition with Garry and will take on his new role after that.

“It was a role I planned to go into, prior to becoming the acting CEO,” Cappendell said.

Henley’s remuneration package includes a balanced fixed salary of $312,000 per annum, including statutory superannuation, as well as performance-based incentives determined by Synergy’s board.

The integrator recently released its half-yearly financial results showing a 3 per cent increase in revenue to $76.8 million. Net profit totalled $824,000 compared to the $753,000 loss in the corresponding half.

ComputerCorp rebranded to Synergy Plus in November after acquiring IBM specialist, Synergy Plus last March in an effort to establish a listed IT integration powerhouse.

Plano, Texas-based Safety-Kleen has appointed David A. Eckert to be the company’s new CEO. Eckert, who previously served as the CEO of Iron Age Corp., succeeds Frederick Florjancic, who announced his retirement in 2009. Eckert will be elected to Safety-Kleen’s Board of Directors later this year.

“David brings to the position more than 30 years of experience as a director, chief executive officer, senior executive and management consultant across a wide range of industries,” said Ronald W. Haddock, chairman of the board of Safety-Kleen, in a press release. “He has a track record of success in increasing the value of organizations under his leadership, and we are excited about him joining Safety-Kleen and moving the company forward.”

Eckert also has served in the following positions: senior executive vice president of Kessler Financial Services; president, COO and a director of Clean Harbors Inc.; and co-chairman of the board and co-CEO of Smith Valve Corp.

Flint Telecom Group, Inc. (OTCBB: FLTT) announced today that it has appointed Bernard A. Fried as President and COO with immediate effect. Mr. Fried will also join the Company's Board of Directors.

Mr. Fried has over 30 years of telecom and technology experience. He has applied his business development, operations, and sales skills to consult with Fortune 1000 and international companies in the US, India, the Philippines, and Australia. His clients included such companies as American Electric Power, AT&T, Capital One, Telstra, and Nippon Telephone. During his career, he has held numerous executive positions in the call center, telecommunications, and biometric industries. Since 1975, Mr. Fried has developed and implemented successful sales and marketing strategies and marketing programs for telecommunications companies.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Internet Industry Association, and is a former Board member of Ascent (merged into Comptel), one of the primary telecommunications industry associations. Throughout his career, Bernie has helped companies introduce programs, products, and services for entering new markets; taught telecommunications and proposal writing courses for corporate and government officials at the State University of New York; and currently teaches management and leadership courses in the School of Professional and Graduate Studies at Baker University in Kansas.

Flint Telecom Group's CEO, Vincent Browne, said, "We are delighted to add Bernie's experience and leadership skills to the team as the Company completes its cost cutting and restructuring and prepares for the next stage of growth in 2010. Bernie has worked in a consulting role with the Company for over 12 months, understands our strategies, and has helped the Company continue to build its business throughout this difficult capital market environment. It is a great vote of support for me personally and for the Company for Bernie to join us in this senior leadership role. I look forward to working with him to take our business to the next level."

Bernie Fried, Flint Telecom's new President and COO, commented, "I am very excited in joining Flint Telecom Group as the Company completes its restructuring and prepares the way for future growth. As the global financial uncertainty shows signs of improvement, we believe that Flint Telecom Group is clearly in the right place at the right time, and we are excited to build the business to be a market leader in the competitive VoIP and technology space for the continued benefit of our shareholders. Our short term focus is on strengthening the balance sheet and completing the plan to get the business cash flow positive in the short term."

The Company also announces the departure of Anthony LaPine and Robert Lanz from the Board of Directors. The Company's Board of Directors now includes Vincent Browne, Chairman and CEO, Bernard Fried, President and COO, and Mr. Michael Butler. The Company expects to make additional appointments to the board as part of the restructuring process.

The Main Street America Group has appointed Steve Peeters as vice president of commercial lines product. He will be a member of senior management team and report to Tom Van Berkel, chairman, president and CEO.

Mr Peeters replaces Henry Pippins, the organization’s former head of commercial lines, who has moved into a new role as president of the company's Midwest Region.

Most recently, Mr Peeters served as president and COO of Florida-based Zurich Insurance Services. Prior to being named as president and COO of Zurich Insurance Services in December 2007, he was executive vice president and chief underwriting officer.

Mr Peeters also served in several executive roles at Zurich North America including senior vice president and chief underwriting officer, Zurich Small Business; president, East Region, Zurich Small Business; and vice president, small business solutions underwriting. He also served at Hartford Financial Services.

Van Berkel said: “Steve will be responsible for all product development, underwriting standards, pricing processes and compliance for Main Street America’s full portfolio of commercial lines products and coverages. Steve is also responsible for ensuring the sustained profitability and growth of our company’s commercial lines business.”

Strategic Resource Acquisition Corporation ("SRA") /quotes/comstock/11v!srz.h  (CA:SRZ.H  0.02, 0.00, 0.00%)  is pleased to announce the appointment of two senior officers to its management team and one new Director to its Board. Mr. Terence Chandler has been appointed to the position of Executive Vice-President and Mr. Terrence Byberg has been appointed to the position of Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Peter Calder joins the Board of Directors of SRA as an independent Director. Both Mr. Chandler and Mr. Byberg bring extensive corporate management experience as well as expertise in the areas of project acquisitions, mine permitting and development, and operations. Mr. Calder adds a wealth of experience in Engineering and Operations to the Board.

Mr. Chandler brings 35 years of exploration and development experience in the Americas, Africa and Europe to SRA, particularly in polymetallic VMS and gold deposits, with Falconbridge Ltd. and Homestake Canada Ltd. His Canadian experience includes the exploration, feasibility evaluation and development of remote northern deposits in Nunavut and Northern British Columbia. Mr. Chandler, as CEO of Redcorp Ventures Ltd., successfully obtained environmental assessment approvals in complex multi-jurisdictional processes at the Tulsequah Chief Mine project in northwest British Columbia, culminating in over $250 million in project development financing and a further $125 million in contingent capital facilities for its development.

Mr. Byberg has 37 years of international mining experience gained in Northern Canada, Greece, the Philippines, Australia and Mexico. He started his career at Campbell Red Lake Mines and has held the position of General Manager at operations of Royal Oak Mines Inc., TVX Gold Inc., and Exall Resources Ltd. He was previously President and COO of Philippine Gold PLC, and most recently, from 2003 to 2009, was Founder, President and CEO of Silver Eagle Mines Inc., where he arranged over $55mm in financing which was used to develop an underground Ag, Pb, Zn, mine and mill property, in Zacatecas State, Mexico.

Mr. Calder was Mine Superintendent with the Iron Ore Company of Canada at the Carol Lake project in Labrador in the mid 1960's. From 1977 to 2007 he was at Queen's University, Department of Mining Engineering, and was Head of the Department from 1980 to 1990. He has extensive experience as a consultant in the areas of blasting, rock mechanics, equipment selection, mine design and project valuation. He has been involved in major research and consulting projects with numerous clients, including the Iron Ore Company of Canada, INCO, Falconbridge, Barrick Gold, Quebec Cartier Mining, Algoma Steel, JCI and CODELCO.

These additions to SRA's management team will work closely with Victor Wyprysky, President and CEO, in the identification, acquisition, financing and development of mineral assets for the company.

Strategic Resource Acquisition Corporation is a Toronto-based mineral development company, focused on acquisition and development of base and precious metal properties in Canada and in low-risk foreign jurisdictions.

On behalf of the board of SRA I welcome Messrs Calder, Chandler and Byberg and look forward to working with them as we rebuild SRA.

"Victor Wyprysky", President and CEO

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. announced Wednesday that the company's chief operating officer, Richard Kramer, has been named the tire maker's chief executive after being groomed to take over the company.

Kramer, 46, succeeds Robert Keegan, who will remain executive chairman of the board. Kramer, who became COO last June, spent the previous three years leading the Akron, Ohio-based company's North American tire business. He will become CEO effective April 13 at the company's annual meeting.

Keegan said he has been working with Kramer for more than 10 years.

"I'm picking my guy, basically," he said.

Keegan glossed over the details of the CEO search process, but said he and the board have been working on the plan for Kramer to succeed him for more than a year.

"Some people might have been a little surprised by the timing," he said. "But other than that, internally, this is the way people thought it would go."

Keegan, who has been president and CEO since 2003, said he is not ready to retire just yet, though he turns 63 in July. He said the details of his new role are still being worked out.

Last week, Goodyear reported an 8 percent increase in volume due to growing global demand.

The company said it earned $107 million, or 44 cents per share, on sales of $4.4 billion in the three-month period that ended Dec. 31. Goodyear lost $330 million, or $1.37 per share, on fourth-quarter 2008 sales of $4.1 billion.

In 2009, Goodyear lost $375 million, or $1.55 per share, on sales of $16.3 billion, compared with a 2008 loss of $77 million, or 32 cents per share, on sales of $19.5 billion.

Goodyear reduced its work force by about 5,700 in 2009 to about 70,000. The company wants to reduce production by 15 million to 25 million units over the next two years.

The tire maker has nearly 70,000 employees and has production facilities in 24 countries.

When asked about his plans for the company's future, Kramer said Goodyear must continue to cut costs, drive innovation and explore emerging markets in Asia.

Goodyear shares rose 12 cents to $12.86 in midday trading.

Kenneth Matzick, a 41-year Beaumont Hospitals administrator, and president and CEO for the last five years, will retire effective May 31, when he turns 67, the Royal Oak health system announced Tuesday.

Beaumont's board of directors named Gene Michalski, executive vice president and chief operating officer, to take over for Matzick effective June 1.

The announcement gave no reason for Matzick's retirement. It comes at a critical time, as the health system enters its final year of work to gain accreditation for a new medical school it hopes to open with Oakland University on its Rochester campus by the fall of 2011.

Beaumont lost money in 2008, its first in decades. Matzick oversaw a financial turnaround of cuts, postponement of construction projects and layoffs that returned Beaumont to profitability last year, the hospital system said.

Michalski has been with Beaumont since 1978, excepting a stint in 1992-96 as an executive at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill. He has been Beaumont executive vice president and chief operating officer since 2006.

Michalski has a bachelor of science in biology, a master of science in physiology and a master of science degree in business administration, all from Wayne State University.

Here are some snippets from Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook's keynote at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

-- On mobile: Apple is a mobile device company. That transition began in 1991. Even the Macintosh business has become mostly mobile. The vast majority of Apple's revenue comes from mobile devices or content for mobile devices.

-- On Google: Partner on maps and search, compete on mobile operating system and hardware phone space.

-- On digital media: Thinks Apple is the largest digital media company in the world.

-- On the iPhone: "We've just gotten started."

-- On the iPad: Cook says he's been using the iPad for about six months.

-- On how Apple priced the iPad. "We didn't want to leave a pricing umbrella for competition, so we got very aggressive on this."

-- On AppleTV: A hobby but "our gut tells us there is something there."

Capcom Chief Operating Officer (COO) Mark Beaumont passed away suddenly yesterday morning, suffering a heart attack, reports MCV. Beaumont started at Capcom in 2005, rose to senior vice president and executive vice president, and was promoted to COO in April of 2008. He had previously worked at a variety of other game developers, including Midway, Warner Interactive, Activision, Data East, Mindscape, Psygnosis, and Atari. Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time.

The Capcom Unity Blog mourned his passing with its own note. "We're all still recovering here at Capcom, and his loss has left us with a deep sadness," the entry read. "Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We will remember him for his humor, passion and commitment to Capcom and our industry. He was a great leader and visionary and his spirit will carry on in everything we do. Please join us in our memory of Mark." 

 Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) will pay Dennis Strigl $18.55 million in "separation benefits" for retiring as the telecommunications giant's president and chief operating officer.

Strigl, a long-serving Verizon executive, with over 41 years in the ...

Sujit Singh Recognized for Helping Manufacturing Customers Weather the Recession

WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Supply Chain Consultants (www.supplychain.com), designer and supplier of the Zemeter suite of supply chain management (SCM) software products, announced today that the company’s chief operating officer, Sujit Singh, has been recognized as a Provider Pro to Know by Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine.

 Supply & Demand Chain Executive, which created three separate sets of criteria for the Practitioner, Practitioner Team and the Provider Pros to Know, issued a call for Pros to Know nominations in November 2009. Beginning in January, the magazine's editorial selection committee culled through more than 400 submissions to find the applicants that best fit the criteria.

"This year's Provider Pros to Know have shown themselves to be thought-leaders in the Supply Chain industry," said Andrew K. Reese, editor of Supply & Demand Chain Executive. "Highlighting the learnings that the Provider Pros to Know have taken out of the Great Recession provides our readers with a wealth of best practices that they can apply in their own supply chains, as well as insights into how leading organizations are positioning themselves for competitive advantage in the Great Recovery ahead."

Singh has been instrumental in the supply chain planning process and has overseen the development and implementation of a number of software solutions that have helped customers realize tremendous savings through inventory reduction and improved planning.

“It is an honor to be listed among the Provider Pros to Know, and I credit the entire SCC team for our success and that of our customers,” stated Singh. “We continually strive to deliver quality software solutions and support to our customers to help them realize the full potential of their supply chains and improve their bottom line.”

This year’s winners are featured in the February/March issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive as well as online at www.SDCExec.com.

About Supply Chain Consultants

Supply Chain Consultants, founded in 1993, is a software and consulting company with headquarters in Wilmington, Del., and European operations in Antwerp, Belgium. The company provides a wide range of software solutions for enhancing productivity and reducing operating costs in the supply chain. Such major corporations as Hexion, Terra Industries, Sunsweet Growers, ANADIGICS, INEOS and Tempur Pedic use SCC’s Zemeter products. For more information see www.supplychain.com.

Leading Point-of-Sale (POS) Solution Provider in China Poised for U.S. Growth

ATLANTA & SHENZHEN, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PAX, the leading global provider of innovative electronic payment terminal products, today announced the appointment of Michael Mulcahy as President and Chief Executive Officer of PAX’s United States operations, effective immediately. Mr. Mulcahy is responsible for directing and driving business activities in the United States for PAX, one of the fastest growing point-of-sale (POS) solution providers in China. He replaces Ken Paull, who is leaving PAX to pursue other opportunities.

 “PAX has proven successes in China’s rapidly expanding payment card market, and Michael Mulcahy has the leadership and industry experience to successfully lead us as we establish ourselves in the United States,” said Thomas Xu, PAX Chairman. “We look forward to Mike’s leadership and contributions as we build on our global strength and concentrate on the U.S. electronic payment solutions market.”

Mr. Mulcahy previously served as Executive Vice President of Business Development for PAX. He joined PAX from ExaDigm, a provider of mobile payment terminal solutions where he served for 7 years, first as President and Chief Operating Officer then as Chief Executive Officer. Previously, Mr. Mulcahy held executive positions with Panasonic’s POS Systems Division, NBS in Canada, California Retail Data Systems and Pacific Data Systems.

Oceaneering International, Inc. (NYSE:OII) announced the promotion of M. Kevin McEvoy to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In this capacity, Mr. McEvoy will have the responsibility for all of Oceaneering’s business operations.

Mr. McEvoy has been with Oceaneering for 31 years, serving most recently as Executive Vice President. He started his offshore career as an officer in the U.S. Navy working in the areas of diving, salvage, and submarine rescue. Kevin has held a variety of progressively more responsible domestic and international positions in marketing, administration, and operations.

T. Jay Collins, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “I am pleased to have such a capable and experienced individual as Kevin to take over the additional operating responsibilities for our two largest business segments, Remotely Operated Vehicles and Subsea Products. I am confident he will continue to provide excellent leadership as we respond to the increasing demand for our products and services.”

Oceaneering is a global oilfield provider of engineered services and products, primarily to the offshore oil and gas industry, with a focus on deepwater applications. Through the use of its applied technology expertise, Oceaneering also serves the defense and aerospace industries.

Division reverts to classical single executive structure, prepares for growth

Philippe Gilbert has been named executive vice president and board chairman of forwarder Geodis Wilson. Peter Nevhagen, who had co-managed the division with Gilbert since 2008, will become chief operating officer and remain a board member, the company said.

Jean-Louis Demeulenaere, deputy CEO of parent Geodis Group, said the change will put the division under a single management after a transition period that followed the merger of Geodis with Wilson Group in 2007 and the subsequent merger with TNT Freight Management.

"During the recent phase following the merger of the networks, a co-headed management system was entirely legitimate. Now, in the context of strong future growth ambitions of Geodis Wilson and Geodis Group it is necessary to revert to a classical management structure. I am convinced this evolution in leadership will boost the strategic development of the division,” Demeulenaere said.

Gilbert said Geodis Wilson "needs to be able to compete in all major trades and selected vertical markets. Right now we are just outside of the Top 10 worldwide freight forwarders. And we are ready for the jump. Our growth strategy will move us forward.”

Gilbert joined Geodis in 2005 as senior vice president at Geodis Overseas and Groupage. He became chief operating officer of Geodis Wilson in 20007 and co-executive vice president with Nevhagen in 2008. He previously worked for Saga, Circle and EGL.

Nevhagen joined Wilson in 2002 as managing director of the company's Swedish subsidiary. He became vice president, Nordic and Baltic region, in 2005 and chief marketing officer of Geodis Wilson in 2007 before being named an executive vice president in 2008.

Kim Pedersen has been appointed chief marketing officer and a member of the Geodis Wilson board. He joined Wilson in 1994 and was managing director of the company's Danish subsidiary before succeeding Nevhagen as vice president, Nordic and Baltic region. For the last year he had been vice president, global sales, and deputy chief marketing officer.

Geodis Wilson has been part of the French rail and freight group SNCF since 2008.

Apple COO Tim Cook says Apple will continue to invest in its Apple TV set-top box "hobby," despite its relatively low popularity.

Why?

"We're continuing to invest in it because our gut tells us there's something there," he said this afternoon at the Goldman Sachs technology conference.

"...There's people -- and I'm one of those -- that they're avid Apple TV users, and so, because their gut says something there, we're continuing to invest in this. But today it's just a hobby."

Cook said Apple TV sales grew 35% year-over-year in the December quarter, but didn't offer unit sales figures.

Still, that's a much slower growth rate than the Christmas 2008 season, when Apple said December quarter sales were up "almost three times" versus the year-ago quarter. Not surprising: Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV hardware in a long time, and its software updates have been pretty boring.

Cook also said that Apple has no interest in becoming a TV maker, one of the potential markets that Apple watchers have long identified as a potential product area for the company.

"Today, the go-to-market model for Apple TV is very difficult. Because it would seem that that go-to-market model would lead to the TV. And we have no interest in being in the TV market."

This means that Apple will either continue to stay out of the TV market, or will come out with a TV in a year and proclaim that it's the greatest TV of all time.

Here's a transcript of Cook's chat, created live. Note that this is a paraphrased transcript unless in quotation marks.

4:08 Clapton's "Change the World" is playing leading up the presentation. Now "Sunny Came Home."

4:09 Getting underway. Tim Cook reads disclosure.

4:10 Q&A begins. Steve Jobs was very clear about leadership in mobile devices. Is that how we should think about Apple at this point? Tim Cook: Yes. Let me elaborate. If you look at Dec. quarter results, which included revenues of almost $15.7 billion, as we compared ourselves to every other company in the world, including Sony and Nokia and Samsung, which now have huge mobile device businesses, we found out we were the largest in the world, measured by revenues.

4:11 How are you channeling resources differently? Transition to mobile devices began in 1991 with first introduction of portable product for Apple with introduction of the TFT screen. During that time, the Mac business has become a predominantly mobile device business. Huge difference between us and the balance of the industry in portable share.

4:12 Ah, a history lesson. Going through all the mobile devices Apple has ever launched. Vast majority of Apple's revenue now comes from mobile devices and content purchased for those devices. Believe we're well positioned to do extremely well because we can seamlessly offer software and hardware.

4:13 Who are biggest competitors and who are biggest partners? Tim Cook: I wish the world were that simple. Many people you can't cleanly put in one or another. Take Microsoft. In Microsoft, we love the Mac Office division. They do a great product and we partner with them and work with them very tightly. Most of the balance of Microsoft we compete vigorously against, in OS, in mobile OS, etc. If you look at Google, I would say Google is similar in that respect. We partner with them in maps, in search for most of our products, but we also compete with them in the mobile OS space and now in the hardware phone space. So, it's difficult to put people in one camp or the other always. There are some companies like the media companies where we partnered with so well that Apple is now selling billions of dollars of digital content.

4:15 Also companies like carriers where we partnered with to bring iPhone to in 86 countries. Ones that draw the most attention are the ones that are more complex, where we're both competitors and partners.

4:16 Apple TV is still a hobby. We've been very clear about that. The reason that we call it a hobby... if you look at the other businesses we're in, these businesses are all in huge markets. The unit volumes in these things is huge. Apple TV is in a market that's very small. Today. Apple TV did grow in the quarter we just finished by 35% in a unit basis year-over-year.

4:17 No interest in going into the TV market. But still think there's something there. So we continue to invest in this as a hobby.

4:18 iMac is very key, will continue to be very key. I think people will continue to want a very gorgeous large screen, all-in-one, simple to use, very elegant machine, we're going to continue to deliver it.

4:19 Where growth coming from going forward? Here's the exciting thing. If you take a look at the Mac, the Mac has outgrown the market 20 of the last 21 quarters. 5 years in a row. Has outgrown the market. And in many of those quarters, outgrew it by multiple. The PC industry is over 300 million units per year. Last fiscal year, Mac did over 10 million units. Ceiling is far above. Continue to invest in enormous amount of energy and talent in the Mac. Doesn't take Market growth. 50% of customers in Apple store are from Windows.

4:20 iPod touch has been a runaway hit, and it helps the platform that you're talking about. If you look at the iPod touch, it grew 100% last fiscal year. 55% y/y last quarter. Each fuels more app sales, more developers. iPad? Haven't sold one yet. A lot of interest in it. I've been using one for 6 months or so, I'll tell you the experience is just absolutely incredible. Can't wait to start shipping it.

4:21 iPhone, I feel we've just gotten started.

4:22 Over 3 billion downloads on app store, over 140,000 apps for sale, these are incredible numbers. Who would have dreamed of these? I see opportunity all over the place.

4:23 The word "complete" is not in our dictionary. We're all about innovation. Many times that means we're all about obsoleting ourselves. Going to continue to make things better and going to continue to innovate. I'd say the ecosystem is really good, the platform is really good. Certainly all the foundation is in place. Will it get better? Clearly yes. But great now.

4:24 iPad new use case or replacement for netbooks? We haven't sold one. I'm a paranoid guy by nature, but I'm not losing any sleep over cannibalization, to be honest with you. Who would buy it? I've been very clear about my view of netbooks. I think they are an experience that most people will not want to continue to have. People were interested in the price and they got it home and used it and went 'Why did I buy this?' so I think when somebody looks at iPad and compares it to a netbook, I find it hard to believe that people are going to buy netbooks. Not everyone will make the comparison so I'm not suggesting that. But I think what I'd rather do with this question is report back to you.

4:26 iPad will launch in direct channel first, and indirect channels where we have assisted sales, such as store-in-store at Best Buy, and Internationally, Apple Premium Resellers. Initially, it will be around places with really great assisted sales. Over time, it will expand. Where it goes and how fast it goes, we'll see.

4:27 Why so cheap? We didn't want to leave pricing umbrella for competition. For those who haven't focused on this, it has best browsing experience you could ever imagine. Very anxious to start getting it out.

4:28 Extended key partnership with AT&T. Can you talk about advantages and disadvantages of having exclusive agreement? The primary advantages on a single carrier model, and I'll talk about the iPhone, is simplicity and in some cases, we're able to innovate along with the carrier and provide a feature it would be difficult to work with multiple carriers and provide. We brought visual voicemail to market, which took innovation from Apple and carrier partner. On a multi-carrier model, the question is, can you sell more units? And so what that gets at is, in some countries, carriers have very sticky relationships with their countries, so having more carriers and more distribution allows you to sell more units. If you look where are from the end of our Q1 in December, if you looked at top 10 iPhone countries, 5 were single carrier countries. 3 of those we had a contractual exclusivity, 2 we can add carriers when we desire. Across 2009, we added carriers in France, UK, Singapore, several Scandinavian countries. A great deal of our work on distribution side was expanding carriers in existing countries. Pleasantly surprised that in every single country, our units increased significantly, and our share with it. Feel like we made really good decisions. Not saying we would do it in every country. But that was our experience with the ones we did it in 2009. We do it on country by country basis.

4:32 Would another carrier need to match pricing on iPad to become carrier for it? I think AT&T's pricing is revolutionary. (Unlimited data for $30/month, 250 MB for $15/month.)

4:33 Talked a little before about virtuous cycle we have with devs. How do you protect user experience as developers go out and develop products? This is the privilege and curse of technology. Same as you'd see in PC world; at some point, if you include every hardware you've ever shipped, you stifle innovation. Because we've done this for so long, I feel like we've come to a really intelligent conclusion on these each time. I think that's part of our knowledge and heritage as a platform provider.

4:35 Which way is OS market moving? I don't see it as this or that -- iPhone vs. Mac -- or this over that. I think there is a place for both. What you're seeing for Apple is that the Mac OS is very scalable. Huge competitive advantage for Apple. Use the Mac OS in a lot of products. Don't think there's another company that can use the foundation of their OS that way. Move at a fast speed with many fewer people than it would take if we were geographically north. (Slap at Microsoft.)

4:36 Our surveys indicate Mac and iPhone are attracting significant interest in enterprise. What are you doing?

4:36 For the iPhone, 70% of Fortune 100 companies in US are either deploying iPhone or currently testing for deployment. 50% of the FT 100 are doing the same thing. Huge uplift in interest as we went to iPhone 2.0 software and then 3.0 because we put a number of enterprise features in the software. We clearly see this continuing. On Mac side, amazing how many CIOs are now visiting Apple and are interested in the Mac. We haven't put on a huge channel, and don't have a huge sales force, but many CIOs that once thought standardization was the most important thing in life, they now look at salaries of people and the importance of having peoples' creativity at peak, and are increasingly allowing employees to decide. This helps Apple immensely.

4:39 I think people in general and they think enterprise is bigger than consumer. But it's not. In PCs, it's 10%, which is sizable, but consumers are over 50%. Our heart and soul and DNA is in consumer. It just so happens there are consumers working in enterprises who want to use these products.

4:41 People are looking at this differently. At least the people with a lot of vision are.

4:41 Just short of 300 stores. Ron Johnson has built a retail team Bar None. We went into retail not as a test, not as pilot, but to sell to consumers, because many wanted it. We knew we'd never have enough stores to cover the world. So after we got going, we set a range of 25-50, reasonable range we could execute really well. Made a strategic call in 2008, we thought we'd see many more opportunities -- some top properties would come on the market with better economics. And guess what? Now, there's a lot of great properties on the market. So we're going to do about 50 this year. We've always had the team to do 50. It's not easy to do, it's very hard to do. But we're going to do it. We didn't lower the bar at all. These stores are among the best we've ever done. If you haven't been to NYC Upper West Side store, it will make your jaw drop. Next time you're in Paris, go to the Louvre; it's just amazing. Another store in China in Shanghai in the summer that is mind blowing. Another one in London that will also drop your jaw.

4:45 New chip. Apple has been in silicon design business for years. Not new to us to be in silicon design business. As we looked at some of the products that we are doing like the iPad, and some we will do in the future, we felt that we had the best knowledge of what we wanted the silicon to do. And were in the best ability to deliver that ourselves versus going out to somebody else and buying something that wasn't exactly what they wanted.

4:47 Acquisition strategy: Historically, we have acquired companies for technology and talent. And they have been on the small size. We've looked at large companies, but we have not had a large company pass a strategic and a financial test. We don't let our money burn a hole in our pocket. Unless we find something that really makes sense for Apple shareholders, we're not going to do it. The small ones have been incredibly valuable for us, mainly from the talent POV, but also from technology. If we find a large one, we won't be shy about it. But we won't do it to do it. We have never been about being the biggest, we've always been about making the best products. Not having highest market share or most revenue. Acquiring something that makes our revenue go higher wouldn't be a reason why we'd buy a company.

4:49 How do you stop hubris from creeping in? Executive team in the company spends a lot of time thinking and discussing how to retain and recruit the best talent in the world. At the end of the day, I know it's a cliche, but people are our most important asset in the world by far. It's people who deliver innovation. We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose. The table each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, yet Apple's revenue last year was $40 billion. I think any other company that could say that is an oil company. That's not just saying yes to the right products, it's saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones. I think this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris you talk about that happens to companies that are successful and sole role in life is to get bigger, I can tell you the management team at Apple would never let that happen. That's not what we're about. Small list of things to focus on.

Apple (AAPL) COO Tim Cook says the AppleTV remains a hobby - but he also notes that the company is now the largest seller in the world of digital content. Those were just a few of the many things he had to say in a session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference today at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco. He was interviewed on stage by Goldman analyst David Bailey.

Velocity Express, Westport, Conn., has named John McAlpin as president and chief operating officer, effectively immediately. He joins from Newgistics Incorporated, the provider of USPS-based small parcel delivery and return delivery package services, where he served as head of operations.

McAlpin will be responsible for all day-to-day operations and personnel, with a focus on customer service, IC drivers and facility level operations. All personnel will report directly or indirectly to McAlpin.

Vince Wasik will remain with Velocity as non-executive chairman, working directly with ComVest, Velocity's majority owner, and the Velocity board of directors on strategic initiatives and business development opportunities. Jeff Hendrickson will be retiring and provide consulting services to Velocity, a regional transportation provider.

McAlpin has over 25 years of experience in the transportation and logistics industry. Before joining Newgistics, McAlpin was vice president and general manager with Flextronics International in their Supply Chain Services division. Prior to that, he served as vice president of transportation with First Union Corporation and as a managing director with Federal Express Logistics Services. McAlpin holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Memphis and is an active member of the Parcel Shippers Association.

"John is a high-integrity, no-nonsense executive who will stress the core components of our business," said Jerry Vento, operating partner at ComVest. "He will ensure that the customer promises we make will be delivered on consistently every day at every level of the organization, from local city management to corporate headquarters."

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- Video game retailer GameStop Corp. said Wednesday that its chief financial officer, Catherine R. Smith, has resigned and taken a job at Walmart's international business.

Chief Accounting Officer Robert A. Lloyd has been appointed as CFO on an interim basis, effective immediately. Lloyd has been with the company for 14 years.

GameStop is based in Grapevine, Texas. Its stores sell video game hardware, software and accessories. It also operates stores under the EB Games name.

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Synovus Financial Corp. (SNV) promoted an executive from its most troubled market to help the Southern bank in its effort to recover from the financial crisis.

The Columbus, Ga., bank appointed Kessel Stelling Jr., the head of its Atlanta operations, as president and chief operating officer. "With deep roots in Georgia and longstanding relationships with regulators and other key state officials, Kessel is one of the most highly respected bankers in the state," Richard Anthony, chairman and CEO, said in a press release.

Stelling said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires ...

Developer and infrastructure company Puravankara Projects Limited today said it had appointed Mr Jackbastian Kaitan Nazareth as its Chief Operating Officer.

Prior to joining Puravankara, Mr Nazareth was the Executive Director of Sobha Developers Limited, overseeing their international operations based out of Dubai.

"We are extremely happy to have Jack as our COO. He brings to the table 20 years of strong, decisive executive leadership. I am sure with his strong business acumen and strategy skills, Puravankara will go places," Mr Ravi Puravankara, Chairman and Managing Director of Puravankara group, said.

"We need to create a vision whereby our name becomes synonymous with excellence, innovation, honor, integrity and outstanding quality and service. As COO at Puravankara, I am looking forward to all the new challenges that come our way and will draw on tried-and-tested experience as well as introduce new thinking and approaches where feasible," Mr Nazareth said.

Puravankara Group began operations in Mumbai and has established a presence in the real estate industry in Bangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mysore and overseas in Dubai.

Mindoro Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:MIO) recently today announced that Institutional Investors, including existing shareholders Asian Lion Ltd and Lion Selection Group Ltd, have agreed to subscribe for up to 80 percent of the 25 million units to be issued in the private placement to advance Mindoro's nickel laterite development options, announced on February 19, 2010.

As a condition of investment by the Institutional Investors, Mindoro is pleased to announce that the Board has approved the appointment of former Asian Lion President and current Mindoro Director, Jon Dugdale, to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer. Tony Climie has resigned as CEO of Mindoro and the Board has approved his appointment to the position of Director of Exploration. Tony retains the position of COO for Mindoro and CEO of MRL Gold Phils. Inc. Penny Gould has resigned as President of Mindoro and the Board has approved her appointment to the position of Vice President Investor Relations. Penny retains the position of Corporate Secretary. The former CEO of Mindoro, Tony Cimie, stated; "as the Company transitions from explorer to developer, additional skills and expertise are required to grow the Company. I am delighted we have been able to attract a person of Jon Dugdale's caliber to assume the role of President and CEO of Mindoro. This will allow me to focus on managing the primary subsidiary MRL Gold based in the Philippines, advancing our exploration program based on a strong project portfolio and strengthening our considerable asset base."

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Regions Financial has appointed David Turner, previously head of internal audit, as its CFO, The Wall Street Journal reports. He has replaced Irene Esteves, who resigned to pursue other interests. David Edmonds, previously head of human resources, has been moved to the position of chief administrative officer.

Grayson Hall, currently president and COO, will now become president and CEO. Regions’ CEO, Dowd Ritter, will be retained on his payroll for up to five years after his retirement on March 31, 2010.

Chairman Waxman, Subcommittee Chairman Stupak, Ranking Members Barton and Walden, members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today. My name is Jim Lentz, and I am the President and Chief Operating Officer of Toyota Motor Sales, USA.

In my testimony, I will address Toyota’s recent recalls and the decisive steps we are taking to restore the trust of the tens of millions of Americans who purchase and drive our vehicles. For two generations, we have provided Americans with cars and trucks that are safe and reliable.

And we fully intend to produce even safer, high quality vehicles in the future, even as we pave the way with the next generation hybrid and electric vehicles that our society needs.

In recent months, we have not lived up to the high standards our customers and the public have come to expect from Toyota. Put simply, it has taken us too long to come to grips with a rare but serious set of safety issues, despite all of our good faith efforts. The problem has also been compounded by poor communications both within our company and with regulators and consumers. While all auto companies have recalls and all major auto companies have experienced complaints about unintended acceleration, Toyota’s recalls have caused concerns among our customers.

I would like to assure the Committee, and the American people, that nothing matters more to Toyota than the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive. We are committed not only to fixing vehicles on the road and ensuring they are safe, but to making our new vehicles better and even more reliable through strict quality control, enhanced communication and a redoubled focus on putting our customers first.

Our 1,500 dealers are making extraordinary efforts to complete our recalls as quickly and conveniently as possible. Some dealers are staying open 24/7 and they are repairing vehicles at a rate of about 50,000 a day. To date, we have repaired close to a million vehicles.

We have rigorously tested our solutions and are confident that with these repairs, Toyota vehicles will be among the safest on the road today. Our engineers have identified two specific, mechanical causes of unintended acceleration covered by the recalls and we are currently addressing these through the open recalls. One involves floor mats that when loose or improperly fitted can entrap the accelerator pedal. The other concerns accelerator pedals that can, over time, grow “sticky” with wear. The solutions we have developed are both effective and durable.

We are confident that no problems exist with the electronic throttle control system in our vehicles. We have designed our electronic throttle control system with multiple fail‐safe mechanisms to shut off or reduce engine power in the event of a system failure. We have done extensive testing of this system and have never found a malfunction that caused unintended acceleration.

Additionally, in December we asked Exponent, a world‐class engineering and scientific consulting firm, to conduct a comprehensive, independent analysis of our electronic throttle control system with an unlimited budget. Their interim report confirms that it works as designed. Toyota will make the results of this comprehensive evaluation available to the public when it is completed.

Why did it take so long to get to this point? With respect to pedal entrapment, Toyota conducted investigations of customer complaints which focused too narrowly on technical issues without taking full account of the way customers used our vehicles. And in the case of sticking accelerator pedals, we failed to promptly analyze and respond to information emerging from Europe and in the United States.

We acknowledge these mistakes, we apologize for them and we have learned from them. We now understand that we must think differently when investigating complaints and communicate faster, better and more effectively with our customers and our regulators. Our recent voluntary recalls of certain 2010 Prius and Lexus hybrids and of certain 2010 Tacoma trucks illustrate this new approach.

We are also going further. Our President Akio Toyoda has announced a top‐to‐bottom review of our operations that he will lead personally, with the support of new Chief Quality Officers for North America and our other principal regions. We will ask independent, outside experts to evaluate the findings to make sure we meet or exceed industry standards.

We are expanding our network of technical offices in the U.S. so we can gather information faster and respond more aggressively to incident reports.

And, we will install advanced brake override systems in all our new models – making us one of the first full‐line manufacturers to offer this customer confidence feature as standard equipment. Additionally, we are announcing that we will install this system on an expanded range of vehicles – including the Tacoma, Venza and Sequoia models – that are capable of accepting the new software. We had previously announced that the system would be installed
onto the Camry, Avalon and Lexus ES 350, IS 350 and IS 250 models. These actions underscore that Toyota is going above and beyond making the necessary vehicle modifications and repairs to ensure that our customers can be completely confident in the safety and reliability of the cars and trucks they drive.

Chairman Waxman, Subcommittee Chairman Stupak, Ranking Members Barton and Walden, members of the Committee, these are only some of the steps Toyota is taking to earn back the confidence of Congress and the American people. Our 200,000 team members, dealership employees and suppliers in the United States are the backbone of that effort – and I am confident we will succeed in restoring customer trust in the quality, safety and reliability of our vehicles.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions.

NEW YORK, Feb 23, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Brian W. MacLean, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Travelers Companies, Inc., is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion entitled "State of the P&C Insurance Industry" at the 35th Annual Association of Insurance and Financial Analysts Conference on Monday, March 1, 2010, at 9 a.m. EST.

The panel discussion will be available in live audio on the investor section of the Travelers Web site at http://investor.travelers.com. A replay of the panel discussion will be available on the same site for 30 days.

About Travelers

The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV 53.04, -0.04, -0.07%) is a leading provider of property casualty insurance for auto, home and business. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Travelers has more than 30,000 employees and generated revenues of approximately $25 billion in 2009. For more information, visit www.travelers.com.

NEW YORK—XL Insurance, the global insurance operation of XL Capital Ltd., announced Tuesday the appointment of Seraina Maag as chief executive of XL's North America property/casualty unit.

Ms. Maag, who most recently served as president of Zurich North America Commercial's specialties business unit, will succeed Dennis Kane in her new role when he retires at the end of the year. She will be based in XL's New York offices.

Ms. Maag joined Zurich in 2002 and also served as chief financial officer for Zurich North America Commercial's specialties business. Ms. Maag was named as one of Business Insurance's Women to Watch in 2009.

NEW YORK, Feb 22, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Time Warner Cable Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!twc/quotes/nls/twc  (TWC  47.10, -0.07, -0.15%)  today announced that its Chief Operating Officer Landel Hobbs will participate in the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Monday, March 1, 2010 in San Francisco, CA.

Mr. Hobbs's remarks are expected to begin at approximately 4:00 pm ET (1:00pm PT). An audio Webcast will be available online at http://www.timewarnercable.com/investors.

To listen to the live Webcast, please go to the Web site at least 15 to 20 minutes prior to the start to register, as well as download and install any necessary software. Also, an archive of the Webcast will be posted on http://www.timewarnercable.com/investors and will run through midnight ET March 15, 2010.

PCS Edventures!.com, Inc., (OTC Bulletin Board: PCSV) a leading provider of K-12 programs that focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, today announced the promotion of Robert Orson Grover to the positions of President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Technology Officer at the Company.  Mr. Grover's expanded oversight responsibilities will include marketing, sales and product development.  He will continue to be heavily involved in PCS' international business initiatives. 

"Robert has been a key part of our Company for over twenty years," noted Anthony A. Maher, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Acting Financial Officer of PCS Edventures!.com, Inc.  "The Board and I have the utmost confidence in his abilities to execute these expanded responsibilities in a professional and highly effective manner."

"The assumption of these additional responsibilities by Robert will allow PCS to more effectively address the evolving nature of the educational market landscape," continued Maher.  "PCS products and services are designed to allow students to develop, in a fun and interesting way, the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in the 21st Century workplace.  The consolidation of our operational activities under one President/COO/CTO will allow me to focus my attention, as CEO, upon longer-term strategic initiatives, the evaluation of acquisition opportunities, financial planning and expanding our relationships within the investment community."   

Mr. Grover was one of the Company's original founding employees and over the past twenty years has been responsible for product development and technology initiatives.  A lifelong native of Idaho, he is a Boise State University alumnus, where he earned an AAS degree in Management and a BA degree in English.

Nearly nine months after the sudden resignation of its president and chief operating officer, Synovus Financial Corp. named a successor Monday.

Kessel D. Stelling Jr. now becomes second in command of the Southeastern banking firm, filling the position vacated by Fred Green III, who left the company in May 2009 with no reason given by the company for his departure.

“With deep roots in Georgia and long-standing relationships with regulators and other key state officials, Kessel is one of the most highly respected bankers in the state and is well-known as a visionary leader in the banking industry,” said Richard Anthony, Synovus chairman and chief executive officer.

Stelling, 53, comes to the corporate headquarters in Columbus from the Atlanta market, where he served as a regional CEO for Synovus.

He also was president and CEO of Alpharetta-based Bank of North Georgia, a Synovus affiliate and the seventh-largest bank in Georgia with $4.6 billion in deposits, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The bank has 43 branches and does business in 17 counties in metro Atlanta.

“I love banking,” Stelling said Monday. “I’ve been doing it since I was in high school. I say this not to brag about it. I’ve done just about every job in a bank, so I think I really do have a good understanding of how important everybody at every level of the organization is to our success.”

Stelling’s first banking job was in the printing department at Georgia Railroad Bank in Augusta, working a summer high school stint there in 1973.

“I cleaned printing presses my first summer,” he said. “We printed our own forms, and I cut forms. I wasn’t smart enough to operate the printer, but I knew how to clean ’em.”

Now, as the No. 2 executive at Synovus, Stelling will be called upon to finish cleaning up a devastated real-estate loan portfolio that has led to more than $2 billion in charge-offs over the last two years for the company.

Stelling has led Bank of North Georgia since its 2006 merger with Riverside Bank, a small community bank he started a decade earlier.

In June 2008, Synovus tapped him to oversee the Atlanta area operation just as that market was screeching to a halt due to the housing meltdown.

“At first we thought this was just a little higher tide than usual,” Stelling said of the Atlanta banking community’s initial perception of the downturn. “Then we thought that maybe this was a full moon or something, and then all of a sudden it’s a tsunami.”

Over the last several quarters, Synovus has worked those bad assets off its books, selling developed lots and other properties at cut-rate prices. Aside from Atlanta, areas in Florida and South Carolina have been particularly troublesome for the company.

In Atlanta, Stelling said his bank is now ditching about a third of its total non-performing assets in any given quarter. The toxic pie, he said, is getting smaller.

At PMA 2010, IR publisher Dave Etchells and Senior Editor Shawn Barnett had a chance to sit down with Kazuto Yamaki, Chief Operating Officer of Sigma Corp., one of the world's largest manufacturers of accessory lenses for SLRs. Yamaki-san has an unusual perspective on the photo industry in general and the lens business in particular, having been involved in the management of Sigma for 17 years now.

Read on to learn how modern computer ray-tracing software does the work of 10,000 1980's-era people. :-)

Dave Etchells, Imaging Resource:
SLR sales have really skyrocketed, compared to several years ago. As SLR sales have gone up, has there been an increase in lens sales? Or are the people that are buying SLRs as a step-up from from point and shoot cameras just sticking with the kit lenses?

Kazuto Yamaki, Chief Operating Officer, Sigma Corp.:
The interchangeable lens, including the kit lens, has grown significantly compared to five years ago, let's say. But as you said, in most of the entry growth, these users stick to the so-called kit lens. So that's the problem for the industry I think, because they do not buy the second lens or third lens for better photographs.

IR:
And those people that do buy accessory lenses, is there a difference in the type of lens that you sell now? Are there more zooms or fewer primes, or particular type of lens that you see? How's the product mix?

Yamaki:
Since the mid 90s, we started to focus on the high-end lenses. Before 1995, we had been mainly making the kit lenses for film cameras. At that time, the camera manufacturers did not bundle the kit lens themselves, so that was the market for us - we offered the kit lens for the dealer, and the dealers make a kit with the camera and our inexpensive lenses.

IR:
Oh, that's interesting. So it was a completely different market then?

Yamaki:
Yes, actually Sigma started the idea of the kit lens - the single kit zoom lens, and also the twin zoom lens kits. If I remember correctly, we started that business at the end of the 80s, and we sold tons of kit lenses for film cameras. The camera manufacturers watched how we were doing business, and they started making kit lenses once they started selling digital SLRs. They started shipping in the box together, the camera and a single zoom lens, or two zoom lenses. So since they started that business, we lost that part of our business. So we changed our strategy since the mid 90s, and started to focus on the high end lenses, such as prime lenses, telephoto lenses, wide angle lenses, macro, things like that. Of course, we had these kind of lenses in the past too, but we're more focused on the high end now. So our current main customers are older enthusiast users, basically - maybe 10% of DSLR customers. So 90% of DSLR customers are entry-class users, and just buy the entry-class camera with kit lenses.

IR:
Very long zooms have become popular, and that's an area you've been very strong in: 18-200mm, 18-250mm, etc. Are those the lenses that are more appealing to some of the step-up users, the point-and-shoot people coming into SLRs, do you think?

Yamaki:
Yes. There are two types of photographers for such super-high zoom lenses. One is as you said, entry class users. They don't like changing lenses depending on the situation, so they like one single super-zoom lens. But the super zoom lens is also popular for the photo enthusiasts, those who have a bunch of lenses, but who sometimes need a super zoom lens for occasions where they cannot move around and they need to go from wide to telephoto. Honestly speaking, super zoom lenses in the early days were not good in terms of quality, but since we innovated in optical design, current super zooms perform very well - even professional photographers can use them. So super zooms have a high demand for every type of customer.

IR:
Are you seeing divisions of the type of lenses different groups of people buy - for example, is there a soccer mom market and they're buying telephoto zooms for kids' sports, or families where there's a niche market for fast wide angle zooms? Other than the super zoom, have you seen other segments of your product line increase in recent years?

Yamaki:
Each category has its own market, so for example those who like landscape photography buy wide angles, those who like to take pictures of wildlife buy long zooms. Those like soccer moms - I don't know if its a worldwide phenomenon, but in Japan, amateur photographers have started buying very fast prime lenses, like 30mm F1.4 or 50mm F1.4. I don't know the situation in the US, but blogs are very popular in Japan, and they always have very nice pictures. They want to take pictures with very shallow depth of field, but they don't know how to make them. They fir t try with a compact camera but they fail. So they buy the DSLR with kit lens because it is said that DSLR creates a very good picture, but they never achieve it because of the great depth of field with a kit lens. Finally, they find that the lens makes a differerence. So sometimes I see that amateur photographers come to the store and they buy the entry-class DSLR plus our 30mm F1.4, or our 50mm F1.4. It's not a big trend, but it's a new thing. It's especially very good to take pictures of kids with a very shallow depth of field, very pretty.

IR:
So that's a trend that you've seen, that people are becoming aware of depth of field and they're buying fast lenses?

Yamaki:
Yes, as far as I know - the Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese customers, they care very much about shallow depth of field. And another trend is macro lenses, beacause one of the trends in blogs is cooking. They cook very nice dishes, and then take pictures of them to put in the blogs. But they don't know how to take good pictures with a compact camera, so they study by themselves and find they need a DSLR with a macro lens. I think it's a new trend. Traditionally, our market consists of photo enthusiasts who have a great knowledge about photography. But the new people entering photography have no interest in the camera gear itself; they're interested in the photographs, or hobbies like cooking and kids, and they pick up the specific gear for their own purposes.

IR:
Are there any "undiscovered gems" in your product line? What are the lenses you have in your lineup that are really good lenses that people don't know about, or aren't aware of what they can do for their photography?

Yamaki:
Honestly speaking, I think the customers are much smarter than the manufacturer at finding ways of using specific lenses. When we develop a specific lens, we aim for some target customers and guess how it will be used. But after we release the product, the customer finds ways to use those lenses, that are beyond our expectations. One thing: I think that current customers are very smart, but for some reasons their focal length lens spec is very conservative. Even though most DSLRs use APS-C size sensors, so new focal length ranges could be popular, people still buy 70-200 F2.8, 70-300, things like that. For example we have the 50-150 F2.8 which is a very nice lens for APS-C format size, which is equivalent to a 70-200 F2.8, but it's not so popular. Even though people have an APS-C sized camera, they still buy a 70-200 F2.8.

IR:
That's interesting - so they're still thinking in the old focal lengths.

Yamaki:
Yes. I don't know if they choose those lenses intentionally by multiplying the focal length [by the sensor crop factor - ed.], or they just think of the traditional lenses.

IR:
Many people have started taking more pictures now that digital is here instead of film, and many of those people are stepping up from point and shoots. Do you see digital as growing the enthusiast part of the market too? Are there more people becoming enthusiast photographers than you think was the case five or ten years ago?

Yamaki:
Yes. Compared to ten years ago, we have many more photo enthusiasts. My belief is that part of the reason is the Internet. By using the Internet, they have the opportunity to show their works in blogs or photo sharing sites, things like that. Photos have become the easiest art to share with the public. Even if you can play a musical instrument, it's difficult to have the opportunity to show it to the public, or drawing, painting... it's tough to have an exhibition. But in the case of photos, there's a very good harmony with Internet technology, so people can show their own works very easily. Once they show their work on the Internet, they want to make even better pictures - so it drives the enthusiasm.

IR:
It seems like lens quality in general has really improved in the last five or ten years.

Yamaki:
Yes, very much.

IR:
What actually has driven that? Are there certain key factors - the design capability is more advanced, or there are new manufacturing technologies, new materials, the glass is better - what can you say about what's made lenses so much better?

Yamaki:
Technical innovation has always been driven by demand, so the demand cycle creates innovation. Basically, customers want better equipment. For example, DSLRs have been increasing in pixel count, so they require better lenses to deliver the resolution. If you use the latest full-frame DSLR with a lens from ten years ago, you see that the lens is not capable of good results with such high pixel counts; it requires better performance. Also, by using big monitors, people can check the performance side by side. If you look at 100% pixel enlargement on a monitor, and translate that to a print, it would be a huge print which no one ever experienced with film cameras. So we're under a lot of pressure to make really good optics. In the film era there was always discussion which was more important - contrast, or resolution. Some people said resolution was more important, and some said contrast was better. Today, there's no question - contrast and resolution are both important.

IR:
. What changes have you had to make to meet the higher quality requirements?

Yamaki:
Many things. First of all, engineers need a lot of study to make better updates, and honestly speaking, higher performance PCs have helped with better optical design. The design process requires a lot of iterations, so by using a better-performing PC we can do ray-tracking simulations hundreds or thousands of times. It helps to make better optics. Also, we've started using a new glass type, FLD, for these new optics. These innovations in materials also help with better optics.

IR:
That's interesting. So you're saying you do the ray tracing thousands of times - that means you trace the path of light through the lens, and then you make a little change in the lens design and do it again, see how it works, then make another little change and so on. Is that kind of how the process works - you iterate like that?

Yamaki:
Yes. When we didn't have PCs, all the camera manufacturers had to have a very large room - say 50 or 70 people would sit together, and typically they were ladies. One optical designer sat in front of the ladies, and asked them to do calculations for the ray tracing - they would repeat it all manually. Since we have PCs, it has accelerated the speed of calculation. The powerful PCs are as if we are using a thousand or ten thousand ladies to perform the calculations. <grins>

IR:
You have a really unusual perspective, in that you've been in the lens business your whole life really. How old were you when you joined the firm? Your father started it, it's a family business...

Yamaki:
My father started the business in 1961, and I joined in 1993.

IR:
So seventeen years now. In the time that you've been involved, what changes in the lens business have most surprised you?

Yamaki:
Of course, digital imaging changed optics. The basic technology hasn't been changed drastically, but the market has become much larger than before, and the requirement from the customers for quality has become much higher. It's had a huge impact, so those who couldn't improve the quality or production capacity by themselves became the losers, and only those who could continuously improve their capabilities could survive in the industry.

IR:
It's a very cutthroat business, and tough to survive. What are you surpris d is still the same after all that time? What's changed the least that you would have thought would have changed more?

Yamaki:
Even though we changed the material from film to digital, good photography is still good photography - the definition hasn't changed. Achieving high contrast, high resolution, reducing ghosting flare as much as possible - the goals haven't changed. We didn't have to be so careful with ghosting flare in the age of film, because the surface of the film was matte: Although it has reflections, it scatters in every direction. The sensor has glass on it which is very smooth, so it reflects light back to the lens, and creates very severe ghosts and flare, so we have to be very careful about this. It changed the way the optics had to be designed. Now we simulate all the way, to reduce ghosts and flare.

IR:
Oh, so you can't just simulate the raytracing through the lens, you have to put the sensor back there and see what comes back...

Yamaki:
Yes, and we also simulate how the light goes if it hits the internal mechanical parts of the lens; we simulate it all. We didn't do this in the age of film.

IR:
Two questions about the economy. The economy has been down in the last year - has that led to changes in your production? Have you had to shift production to different plants in other countries, or has that not really happened?

Yamaki:
We only have factories in Japan. Right now Sigma is the only Japanese [lens] company that has just a single factory in Japan. All the other companies, their main factories are in other countries. But we have approximately 1,400 workers at our factory, so we have a real responsibility for them. Actually, it's really tough to keep such a facility in Japan, because the Japanese Yen is so appreciated, so it's easier to move the factory to China or other countries. Maybe we could be more profitable if we did that, but we have to protect those employees. So that's one of the reasons we shifted our business from the cheap kit lenses to the high-end lenses. We needed more added value.

IR:
Finally, this is a question we're asking everybody. We're trying to gauge what industry executives think is going to happen with the economy; trying to get a feeling for what their projections are. The global downturn has been hard everywhere, but I think imaging hasn't been hit as hard as some areas of the economy. What do you see coming up for the next year - are we in a fast recovery, a slow recovery, a double-dip, what do you think will happen?

Yamaki:
Actually, I want to ask you the same question! [laughs] I don't know; nobody knows what will happen this year, but my personal view is that probably it will be a very tough year for compact digital cameras. Probably the unit price will go down further, and total volume will be decreased. The DSLR and interchangeable lens market will increase slightly, but probably we'll see some price drop because the competition will become very great. But as you said, the photo business has not been so influenced by the general economy. It's a hobby business, so people save the money to use for their hobbies. Once the economy becomes bad, they try to save money - they stop eating at nice restaurants, stop going abroad for sightseeing, those kinds of things -- but they want to reserve the money for their hobbies even in a bad economy. So I'm not too pessimistic about the future. I think manufacturers hold the key. If we innovate and supply very attractive products, customers will keep opening their wallets for new products.

TULSA, Okla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veracity Technology Solutions, an AGC Aerospace & Defense company, appointed Glenn Andrew as Chief Operating Officer last week.

“As the technology and customer base from Veracity has expanded, so has our need for additional technical and operating support. With over 30 years experience in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) engineering, program management, and business development experience, Mr. Andrew is well positioned to manage the day to day operations at Veracity,” said Gary Hensley, President of Veracity.

In addition to having started and managed a small business, Glenn’s experience includes 15 years with SAIC where he assembled and led teams from federal government, university and industry on NDE engineering development contracts. He also led advanced NDE applications, transducer development and training program efforts at the division. Glenn’s past experience includes work for General Dynamics Electric Boat Division where he spearheaded an independent R&D project to develop ultrasonic imaging technology and specialized sensors for NDE applications on submarines.

Glenn, a recipient of the McDonnell Douglas Model of Excellence and Silver Eagle Quality Awards, has authored numerous technical papers and articles for industry publications. Glenn holds a BS in Ocean Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology and an MS in Ocean Engineering from the University of Rhode Island.

ABOUT VERACITY TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Veracity is a leader in developing customized solutions to provide faster, better, and more cost effective non-destructive inspection approaches for its customers in the aerospace and defense and power generator industries. Veracity operates within the Services Group of AGC Aerospace & Defense.

AGC Aerospace & Defense is a leader in supplying technologies, systems and services that support key commercial and military programs. Operating in multiple locations across the globe, capabilities within the AGC Aerospace & Defense portfolio range from financing, engineering, and integration services to manufacturing, logistics, and aircraft modifications.

For information: www.veracityts.com or www.agcaerospace.com

Cabot Oil & Gas, independent natural gas producer, has announced that Michael Walen, senior vice president and COO has indicated his intention to retire from the company on May 1, 2010.

Mr Walen has been an employee of Cabot Oil & Gas for 23 years and has lived and worked in all of the company's producing regions. Mr Walen started out as a geologist in the company's Denver office before moving to Pittsburgh as exploration manager and then to Houston.

Dan Dinges, chairman, president and CEO of Cabot, said: "His background of having operating experience in each of Cabot's regions has been a big contributor to our investment decisions over my tenure. Mike has done a tremendous job in putting Cabot in the right spots including east Texas and most recently our Pennsylvania position for the Marcellus."

Chief operating officer of European trading platform Chi-X Europe, Hirander Misra, has quit the firm "to pursue other interests" despite the system that he helped build and launch hitting new trading records last month.

Thomas J. Ciurej is the new chief operating officer at NDS Systems LC in Clearwater.

Ciurej will manage daily operations and the sales team. He also will oversee reseller and channel partnerships, coordinate technical product development and direct the company’s strategy.

Prior to joining NDS, Ciurej was president of Computer Management Consultants Inc., a software development and information technology staffing company in Tampa. He also served as chief operating officer at AGITE Software/Data Centrix LLC in Jupiter.

Ciurej holds a bachelor’s in natural sciences and an MBA from the University of Illinois.

Founded in 1985, NDS Systems provides Enterprise Resource Planning software systems and applications for small to medium sized businesses in the distribution, manufacturing, fulfillment and financial services industries.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation says that Michael B. Walen, its Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer has indicated his intention to retire from the Company on May 1, 2010. Walen has been an employee of Cabot Oil & Gas for nearly 23 years and has lived and worked in all of the Company's producing regions.

Walen started out as a geologist in the Company's Denver office before moving to Pittsburgh as Exploration Manager and then to Houston. He became an officer in 1998 while running the Gulf Coast regional office, was promoted in February 2001 to Senior Vice President, Exploration and Production in charge of all regions and became Chief Operating Officer in February 2006.

Walen, age 61, has been very instrumental in Cabot's strategic direction since joining Cabot. "His background of having operating experience in each of Cabot's regions has been a big contributor to our investment decisions over my tenure," said Dan O. Dinges, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.

"Mike has done a tremendous job in putting Cabot in the right spots including east Texas and most recently our Pennsylvania position for the Marcellus. The team he has assembled provides us with a deep bench of talent to continue the initiatives he started." Dinges added, "I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Mike and I wish him all the best in his retirement. He deserves to enjoy the many fruits of his labor."

Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) has named Kessel D. Stelling, Jr. as the firm’s president and chief operating officer. Stelling previously served as Synovus Regional CEO over the Atlanta market and president and CEO of Alpharetta-based Bank of North Georgia.

Donald D. Howard, Synovus Regional CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Bank of North Georgia, will serve as president and CEO of Bank of North Georgia and as Synovus Regional CEO over the Atlanta market. Howard helped form Bank of North Georgia in 1994.

As president and COO of Synovus, Stelling will oversee the company’s day-to-day banking operations, retail delivery and diversification of the company’s commercial banking efforts.

Stelling’s immediate focus will center on leading the company’s charter consolidation while guiding continued efforts to address credit losses, strengthen lending practices, manage risk and facilitate deposit growth, among other tasks.

The company said that Stelling was selected after a search process conducted by an independent firm and overseen by a special succession committee made up of members of Synovus’ board of directors.

Georgia-based Synovus is a financial services holding company that provides commercial and retail banking, as well as investment services, to customers through 30 banks, 330 offices, and 467 ATMs in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee.

Here at CommonPlaces, we’re pleased to welcome Michael Fairbrother to the team as a Chief Operating Officer. He comes to us with over two decades of experience in the technology sector. In his career he has advanced from Software Engineer, Consultant, Chief Architect, to most recently Vice President of Software Engineering. His industry background includes mobile-technology, marketing management software, and privacy technology projects. Michael has the technical depth, and the product and business instincts to successfully lead and deliver value to CommonPlaces’ clients.

CONTACT:
Bill Shepard
Chief Operating Officer Business Forum, Inc.
(408) 292-1593 phone
(408) 521-2180 fax
bshepard@COOForum.org
http://www.COOForum.org

Saratoga, California, March 3, 2008 -- Last month at the COO Forum, six Northern California meetings were held in San Jose, San Francisco, San Ramon, San Carlos, Monterey, and Marin. During these meetings, Members explored the challenges of leadership and decision-making in a recession. The meetings were attended by 46 COOs and Second-in-Command Executives across a spectrum of company sizes and industries. This article documents consensus thinking of the Members and guests at the COO Forum during these February 2008 meetings.

The Members drew no conclusion on whether the economy is or is not in a recession, knowing that the usual definition of two quarters of negative growth can only be determined after a recession has been in effect for six months. The Members also acknowledge that in a recession, not all regions, industries, and companies will experience the same brunt. While the overall opinion of the COOs is that if a company is being run 100% effectively, there are few, if any, changes necessary. Recognizing the truth that many companies will not hold up to the 100% standard, the Members identified best practices for being a COO of a company heading into recessionary times.

Scenario Contingency Planning
The initial best practice for COOs and their companies is to create a ‘no surprises’ approach to short-term scenario and contingency planning. The belief of COO Forum Members is that a divergent spectrum of ‘what if’ approaches must be explored in conjunction with multiple options and outcomes. As one COO indicated “We have created several different plans that only the Board and C-level knows about. We don’t want to scare our employees or stockholders, but we must be able to move with agility and efficiency if a recession begins to impact our operations.”

Maintain a Tight, Balanced Financial and Operational Approach While this is a seen as a best practice everyday, the COOs felt that higher emphasis on tight and balanced operational and financial decision-making was crucial in recessionary times. The discussions focused on the axiom ‘cash is king,’ recognizing that in recessionary times prudent use of cash may avoid liquidity challenges. As one COO indicated, “If we don’t have enough cash, we won’t make the best decisions.” The Members felt that revenue and margin pressures would occur and were concerned with demands to sacrifice margin, which was viewed as a slippery slope to watch closely. Other discussion emphasized tight expense control; thoughtful deployment of capital and longer term outlays; strong inventory level management; forceful collections; scrutinizing customer credit limits; and negotiation of better terms from suppliers, service providers, and contractors.

Look to Shedding Unprofitable Assets and Activities
The COOs felt that companies often hang on to unprofitable efforts due to the robust nature of their entire business. In a time of projected slowdown, extricating marginal and losing efforts may prove to be most sound. Area of suggestion from the COO Forum meeting included the following: plants, offices, equipment, product lines, suppliers, customers, divisions, businesses, and business processes.

Deal with Unnecessary Headcount
“Now is the time start the process of shedding low performing and unneeded employees and contractors before it’s too late,” indicated one COO. When those around the table reflected on lessons learned from prior recessions, getting the head count number right early on would have had a huge positive impact on a company’s success in riding out the recession.

Dial-up Communications
With all the media noise, COO Forum Members see employees becoming nervous. Employees sense the job losses and companies in trouble all around them and worry about their company. The prevailing COO message from the meetings was that increasing communication is the best practice. Employees want to know that leadership understands the economic realities and has plans to succeed in the potentially more challenging time. Employees want to hear from leadership more frequently. “If we don’t answer the employee communications need, the water cooler talk will answer it for us” said one COO. “What we say to our people is far more helpful to us and our company’s morale than leaving it to the grapevine.”

Hold Back Some of the CEOs Exuberance
COOs have the highest regard for their CEOs and appreciate the CEOs important responsibility to inspire, create a bold vision, and lead the company into the future. However, there is a belief that recessionary times call for the CEO to adopt a less optimistic and more down-to-earth charter for the company. The role of the Second-in-Command is one of appropriate tactics to deliver results. Bringing their CEO closer to the factual realities of the economic times becomes a COO mandate.

Exploit the Upside Opportunities
As with all downturns, there is an increase in turmoil and change which always presents opportunities for strong companies to become even stronger. The COOs indicated many ideas including: new acquisitions; attracting new customers from weak competitors; availability of great new employees; opportunities to open new markets; a great time to launch new products; and improving relationships and effectiveness within the supply chain. “We are a very solid company and I know that we’ll benefit from the shake-out of our weaker competitors,” said one COO.

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