Corp America April 2016 by AI Global Media

CORP

April 2016

AMERICA HOW DID CEO ANDY KHAWAJA BUILD A $20 BILLION COMPANY?

Innovator of the Month 10 We caught up with Alireza

Ghazizahedi at Cisco Systems, Inc. to check out the techniques employed by the firm to ensure it stays at the top of its game.

We speak to Andy Khawaja, the founder and CEO of Allied Wallet, Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fastest growing online global credit card processor.

The Business Elite: 18 CEO of the Year - Colorado

We profile InfoMedia, Inc. CEO Joel Comm and explore the various aspects of his work that make him so successful.

The Business Elite: 14 CFO of the Year - New Jersey

We spoke to Tumi Holdings, Inc. Mike Mardy (right), our CFO of the Year, about the firm and the role he has played in its success. 1

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CONTENTS

EDITOR’S NOTE/CONTENTS Welcome to this month’s edition of Corporate America Magazine. In this issue, we offer you an insight into the mind of Andy Khawaja, CEO of Allied Wallet, and how he is continuing to grow his billion dollar company worldwide. Also we share the success story of Alireza Ghazizahedi, the Manager of Metadata Services Group at Cisco Systems Inc, and what he has learned over the past 16 years being at Cisco. In addition, we had the pleasure of speaking to Mike Mardy, the CFO of Tumi. Walking us through his career milestones, Mike gave us a one to one on how he attained this level of success in his industry. Looking into how using apps in business will contribute to earning more success and how reading books aimed at top skilled personnel will increase your industry knowledge and further develop your skillset. Alongside these motivating features, we have the latest news updates to keep you on track with the world of Corporate America. I hope you find this issue helpful and enjoy reading through.

CEO OF THE MONTH – CALIFORNIA

PRICELINE GROUP CEO DARREN HUSTON RESIGNS; CHAIRMAN JEFFERY H. BOYD APPOINTED INTERIM CEO

INNOVATOR OF THE MONTH - CALIFORNIA

USA TECHNOLOGIES UNVEILS EPORT® INTERACTIVE

THE BUSINESS ELITE: CFO OF THE YEAR - NEW JERSEY

THERIUM LAUNCHES IN U.S. TO MEET INCREASING INDUSTRY DEMAND FOR LITIGATION FUNDING

FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS INC.

ON THE APP

THE BUSINESS ELITE: CEO OF THE YEAR - COLORADO

CONSIDERATIONS IN PREPARING FOR THE SALE OF A PRIVATELY HELD BUSINESS

CAN SUCCESS IN BUSINESS BE LEARNT FROM BOOKS?

TECHNOLOGY IN CORPORATE AMERICA: DEALS/INVESTMENTS & FOIBLES

SOLAR POWER IS THE WAY FORWARD

ANDY KHAWAJA

CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

TUMI HOLDINGS, INC.

16 18

THE BUSINESS ELITE: CFO OF THE YEAR - CONNECTICUT

INFOMEDIA, INC.

BLACKLINE RANKS NO. 7 ON 2016 LIST OF ‘50 FASTEST-GROWING WOMEN-OWNED/ LED COMPANIES’

DELTA ORDERS ADDITIONAL AIRBUS A321 JETS

FORD INVESTS $1.6 BILLION IN U.S. PLANTS, CREATES 650 HOURLY JOBS IN MICHIGAN AND OHIO

CORP NEWS

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE COCA-COLA COMPANY ELECTS OFFICERS, DECLARES QUARTERLY DIVIDEND Helen Smith Price, Christine Quinn Elected as Vice Presidents.

The Board of Directors of The Coca-Cola Company today elected Helen Smith Price and Christine Quinn as Vice Presidents of the company, effective immediately. Price was named Vice President of Global Community Affairs for The Coca-Cola Company and President of The Coca-Cola Foundation, effective April 16. In this role, she is responsible for driving the Foundation’s global operations including grant making, financial requirements, and regulatory compliance for domestic and international philanthropy. Price joined the company in 1993 as Corporate External Affairs Director and from 2001-2016 served as Assistant Vice President and Group Director of Global Community Affairs and Executive Director

of The Coca-Cola Foundation. Before joining Coca-Cola, she held roles in the tax and accounting departments at BellSouth Corporation and Arthur Andersen & Co. She was licensed as a certified public accountant in the state of Georgia, and has a Masters of Business Administration from Clark Atlanta University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Spelman College. Quinn was named Director, Flavor Ingredient Supply, replacing Mary Riddle, who is retiring from the company after more than 45 years of service. In this role, Quinn leads the company’s supply chain activities for all flavor ingredients used across the global system. Prior to this role, Quinn was Assistant Director, Flavor Ingredient Supply. She

joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1981 and has held positions of increasing responsibility in Quality Assurance, Recycling Programs and Crisis Management for Coca-Cola North America. Quinn received her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Idaho and her Masters of Business Administration from Georgia State University. The Board today also declared a regular quarterly dividend of 35 cents per common share. The dividend is payable July 1, 2016, to shareowners of record as of June 15, 2016. The Board earlier this year approved the company’s 54th consecutive annual dividend increase, raising the quarterly dividend 6 percent from 33 cents to 35 cents per common share. This is equivalent to an annual dividend of $1.40 per share, up from $1.32 per share in 2015.

CORP NEWS

EFG COMPANIES NAMES RICHARD CHRISTENSEN AS NEW VICE PRESIDENT OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT OEM and Reinsurance veteran leads the next chapter in the company’s heritage of industry-leading innovation.

Christensen offers a wealth of direct experience in initiating and launching corporate strategic initiatives with companies like Hyundai Capital America and Nissan North America. In his previous roles, Christensen has overseen the launch of global strategic alliance formations with product, brand development and rollout, in conjunction with development of sales processes, reinsurance models, and regulatory and compliance practices. This experience will be well utilized as he leads the strategic efforts of EFG’s product development team, including product lifecycle and relationship management.

increase dealer profitability. At EFG, we consider ourselves one of those partners. The addition of Rick to our leadership team strengthens our position in leading the industry in terms of product innovation and administration of quality consumer protection products that benefit consumers, dealerships and the industry as a whole.”

EFG Companies has upped the ante in F&I innovation by adding Rick Christensen as VP of Product Development With over 25 years of retail and wholesale automotive and reinsurance experience, Christensen most recently served as a Senior Director at Hyundai Capital America (HCA), where he was responsible for launching and managing a captive insurance subsidiary of HCA. He also served as President, Nissan Global Reinsurance, Ltd based in Bermuda, and functioned as a Sr. Manager of Vehicle Service Contracts for Nissan North America, in Los Angeles. “Today’s dealers are under an immense amount of pressure, from undertaking stringent compliance initiatives to incentivizing new consumer groups to enter an automotive market with ever higher entry-level price tags,” said John Pappanastos, President and CEO of EFG Companies. “Dealers need agile partners who are constantly looking ahead to see where the industry is going and to look at new challenges as opportunities to

“Dealerships and lenders need better ways to connect and retain purchase behavior with a more informed and demanding consumer,” said Christensen. “We’re doing very progressive work that is aligned with our goals of leading the industry in focusing on customer service and consumer benefits, with an eye towards compliance and sales process for the dealers and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

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CORP NEWS

SKY GLOBAL ONE POWER PLANT IN TEXAS OPENS, FEATURING FIRST OF GE’S 60-HERTZ J920 FLEXTRA GAS ENGINES IN THE US • • •

The Sky Global Power One Power Plant Provides One Solution to Help Solve Texas’ Energy Challenges Due to Increasing Installed Base of Renewable Power in ERCOT Region, Plant Must Provide High Flexibility to Offset Volatility of Wind and Solar and Ensure Grid Stability Six-Unit Order Represents Largest North American Power Project for GE’s 60-Hertz J920 FleXtra Gas Engine Technology

ROCK ISLAND, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-GE (NYSE:GE) today announced the opening of Sky Global Partners, LLC’s “Sky Global Power One” power plant, which features six of GE’s Jenbacher J920 FleXtra gas engines—representing the first six 60-hertz, 8.6-megawatt (MW) units to be in commercial operation in the United States. The plant is located in Colorado County, Texas, and will supply peaking power to meet the power demands of the 18,000 members of San Bernard Electric Cooperative (SBEC) in an eight-county region of south Central Texas. “This project is a testament to our strong relationship with Sky Global Partners. The plant will not only serve the electrical needs of our membership when needed, but it also will be a merchant plant for others when not serving our needs” GE provided six of its 60-hertz, Ecomagination qualified, 8.6-megawatt (MW) J920 FleXtra ultra-fast response, natural gas-fired engine generator sets for the 51-MW Sky Global Power One project, including a multiyear service agreement to increase asset availability. The plant will use no more water than a single residence. Sky Global Partners will sell peaking power generation to the San Bernard Electric Cooperative, Inc. (SBEC), which supplies electricity to more than 18,000 members. This partnership between Sky Global Partners and SBEC allows SBEC to participate in the value of the project through its investment in the purchased power over time.

“This project is a testament to our strong relationship with Sky Global Partners. The plant will not only serve the electrical needs of our membership when needed, but it also will be a merchant plant for others when not serving our needs,” said Billy Marricle, president and general manager of San Bernard. “This is a significant part of our power strategy going forward and provides us with protection from electricity exchange price spikes and the opportunity to increase the value of our cooperative.” Due to the increasing installed base of renewable power generation in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region and the intermittent nature of these energy sources, the power plant must be able to provide a very high degree of flexibility within a short period to offset the volatility of the wind and solar resources, thus ensuring grid stability. While GE supplied the core equipment consisting of six engines and the exhaust emission reduction systems, Sky Global Partners contracted with Haskell to design and construct the overall power plant. Sky Global Partners is the managing partner. SBEC’s participation in the project includes not only purchasing power, but also active participation in the management of the power plant. The financial collaborators for the plant are Sky Global Partners, Prudential Capital Group and The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company. “For over a decade, Sky Global had been seeking a means to improve the value of power supply for the public power sector in

Texas. This project is the first to achieve that vision, which is largely due to the combined efforts of GE’s technology, Haskell’s execution, Prudential Capital Group’s unique financing structure and the strategy of SBEC’s leadership,” said Frank Rotondi, president and CEO of Sky Global Partners. Texas produces and consumes more electricity than any other state, accounting for more than one-tenth of total U.S. energy use. Contributing factors include its large and growing population, extreme summer temperatures and extensive industrial/ manufacturing sector. When compared to the rest of the country, Texas has a higher concentration of energy-intensive industries such as aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass and petroleum refining. “Currently, more than one in six people in the world lack access to electricity, and one in three can’t depend on the sources they have1. Countries like the U.S. that have reliable access face big challenges as they look to upgrade aging infrastructure while making economic, environmental and efficiency improvements. Reliable and flexible power is key to economic success,” said Heiner Markhoff, president & CEO for GE Water & Distributed Power at GE Power. “As Texas continues to grow, it must invest in more power generation to ensure a reliable and affordable supply during peak power, and the Sky Global Power One project is one solution to help solve Texas’ energy needs. The best-in-class electrical efficiency of GE’s Jenbacher J920 FleXtra gas engines adds up to big savings in fuel over the life cycle of a plant.”

FEATURE

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CEO OF THE MONTH â&#x20AC;&#x201C; CALIFORNIA

ANDY KHAWAJA

Company: Allied Wallet Web Address: www.alliedwallet.com Address: 9000 W. Sunset Blvd. Suite 820, West Hollywood, CA 90069 Telephone: 310-424-5495

FEATURE

Andy Khawaja is the founder and CEO of Allied Wallet, America’s fastest growing online global credit card processor, providing state-of-the-art services to merchants and consumers over a global platform.

The company accommodates global merchants to transact different currencies from banks around the world, also giving users the opportunity to shop online and pay through a secure and safe online gateway of finance. Everything is based in-house, so no services are outsourced via third party to make sure customers’ credit card data and security is of paramount importance and is kept in secure. As CEO, Andy’s role involves overseeing the company’s day to day operations as a whole, and ensuring each department is run with efficiency and ease. Andy shares his entrepreneurial knowledge with his team members, bringing out their best and helping grow his brand bigger and better. Getting involved with his team members is something Andy takes pride in as he believes this brings new innovative ideas to the table and inspires his team to become future pioneers. Not only does Andy dedicate his time to his team members, but he also devotes equal energy and time directly to his customers, getting involved in every way possible, from taking customer query calls, to reading up on any dissatisfied customer complaints and coming up with solutions to keep customers happy and running the business successfully. Being strong minded and focused is something Andy passes down to his employees and promotes within the business, creating a positive and free thinking environment.

them with ways to generate more money and profit, making them the premier company in the market. The company recognises its users and stores their credit card details online on their secures system so that users are able to pay by the click of a button, rather than having to type out all their credit details numerous times to make payment on various online platforms. Having their own facility as part of their online service makes the company one of the safest and secure credit card processors in the world, allowing its users to gain control and enjoy a safe and easy service that also protects their sensitive information from being hacked or misused.

solutions, as he himself gave up a career in computer science to venture into the world of innovation. Since then he has always had a vision to make a difference in the technology industry.

The innovative, pioneering functions that Allied Wallet offers are the result of Andy’s vast travels through Europe and Asia, where he discovers new ideas and finds inspiration for advanced, unique solutions. Andy is heavily involved in the firm’s technological development sector, plays a big part in developing ideas and solutions to take the company forward to new heights and stay on top of the market.

“We’ve also seen apps and social media increase in popularity, so we plan to offer state-of-the-art solutions and features in these markets moving forward,” he continued.

This hands-on approach stems from Andy’s interest in entrepreneurship. Andy has always been drawn to innovative people who create new ideas and breakthrough

As CEO, Andy realises it is imperative to produce products that customers would like to use as the company caters to a wide range of clients and merchants around the globe. Making sure the merchants and customers are satisfied with the quality of service and products received is one of Andy’s keys to success, along with constantly developing innovation to produce breakthrough content. Allied wallet has always found a way to accommodate merchants with functions that other companies don’t have; providing

Looking to the future, Andy provides us with a fascinating insight into what is to come for Allied Wallet. “We are launching a new product called ‘Next Generation’, an API platform that will be able to integrate itself to any system, making the process easy and simple. We are looking at launching the product in early June 2016,” said Khawaja.

Lastly, Khawaja added, “…through our partnership with Merrill Lynch we are looking at launching an IPO in the New York stock exchange and are very happy about the future of our alliance. It’s a great achievement to partner up with them and we are excited to see what the future holds.”

FEATURE

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INNOVATOR OF THE MONTH - CALIFORNIA

CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

Company name: Cisco Systems, Inc. Contact: Alireza Ghazizahedi Address: 3750 Zanker Road, San Jose, California 95134, United States Email: aghaziza@cisco.com Telephone: +1-408-853-0733 Website: www.cisco.com

FEATURE

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, that designs, manufactures and sells networking equipment. We caught up with Alireza Ghazizahedi to check out the techniques employed by the firm to ensure it stays at the top of its game.

Founded in December 1984, Cisco has since grown to become a vast, industry leading corporation with around 70,000 channel partners and 380+ global sites doing business in over 165 countries with more than 19,000 patents. Cisco is active in a range of market including enterprise, commercial, service provider and the public sector. My role is as Manager of the Metadata services group, which acts as part of employee experience at Cisco Systems, utilizing machine learning and Big Data techniques to enhance employee and partner experience. My role encompasses several functions from planning, scheduling, budgeting, leading technical teams and projects, providing technical expertise, managing client requirements and relationships etc. My key responsibilities include championing institute and leverage machine learning and big data analytics capabilities for the organization, as well as leading the initiative to define the necessary assets needed to capture the right types of metadata. I also promote DevOps, continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) model utilizing agile methodology and automation tools in software development lifecycle for coding, building, testing, packaging, releasing and monitoring. DevOps is the practice of operations and development engineers participating together in the entire service lifecycle, from design through the development process to production support, and integrating it into our processes at all levels and partner with performance engineering to conduct thorough end-to-end analysis with concrete recommendations to pinpoint and solve performance and scaling issues. I continuously investigate new technology that can be leveraged to build world class products.

promoting innovation in an environment that requires high levels of scalability, security and reliability. Managing the talent strategy including attracting, assessing, developing and retaining talents is another crucial aspect of my role, and I adopt a supportive approach to staff management, always endeavouring to ensure that they have clear and manageable goals and objectives, and encouraging them to innovate, be bold and take calculated risks wherever possible. Having a strong background in technology not only has prepared me for this role but also has made it simple when looking for new ideas and innovations within my current position. Since I have a passion for software-based solutions and am interested in solving complex problems, after finishing my master degree in Electrical Engineering (on Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits â&#x20AC;&#x201C; VLSI) I was attracted to working with banking systems as an Automation Consultant, advising commercial banks on how to use the latest technology to automate branches to improve customer service and lower costs. Following this, I moved on to computer network area focusing on wireless networks

Other key aspects of my role include developing strategic planning, budget forecasts and management; managing the expectations of stakeholders; and

and I was able to work and start my Ph.D. education in Electrical Engineering (wireless Communication) and finally I completed my Ph.D. degree on 1997 in Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA. I worked in different companies including GTE, 3Com and Cisco. At GTE, I was responsible for a proof on concept for utilizing wireless network for New York stock exchange (NYSE) on summer of 1998. In 3Com, I focused on network management and consolidation of different platform for managing network of computers to streamline the network management suite and make it more cohesive. I joined Cisco in 2000 as an architect focusing mostly on IT projects in different groups starting with enterprise content management and then I moved to Sales group in charge of integration of different systems to make it real-time and more productive for Salesforce. One of critical software solution was customer relationship management (CRM) and due to heavy customization the functionality that Sales team needed was deteriorated. I was able to present an alternative solution based on Software as a service model on the cloud and replace the deteriorated CRM solution which improved user experience, provided better and consistent performance worldwide and lowered the cost.

FEATURE

Then I moved to Enterprise Architecture group, which gives architectural guidelines to the whole company to apply best practices and also develop foundational solution that is beneficial for enterprise usage. At EA I was manager of master data management group responsible for two critical repositories for Cisco: Single source of Truth for Customer and product information. The product information is extremely critical to Cisco and more than 70 business units use this repository to create product and services, which produces roughly $50B revenue for Cisco annually. In this assignment I managed a very large cross-functional team, which was geographically distributed to retire legacy tools and develop a state of the art application using a de facto standard packaged application to provide first class functionality to the business. Then I moved to metadata services (MDS) group part of employee experience. In MDS we process unstructured data and extract knowledge from the content and save it in a scalable data store. In this group I am the manager of MDS responsible for resources, budget, engagement with stakeholders and MDS service portfolio, which includes recommendation, auto-tagging, localization, personalization, query assist, content bundling and cluster services leveraging open source solutions. I have been working in my current position for seven years providing management and technical skills along with leadership to grow talents and promote innovation for Cisco Systems. At the beginning of my managerial track, I was in charge of two critical enterprise components: customer and product data as the single source of truth for the whole organization.

time for searching relevant documents for their engagement. Throughout my career I have faced many challenges, which I have aimed to overcome through innovation and ingenuity. Currently, One of the challenges for all managers is to show continuous productivity improvement, which essentially means doing more with fewer resources and be prepared for the next wave that is digitization of different processes. I follow a multi-pronged approach to continuously improve our productivity: firstly through utilizing agile software development as an effective and efficient process to reduce development time and maintain quality software delivery, secondly by leveraging feature rich open source software solution and thirdly with hiring talents and continue to train current resources in critical areas for our organization. Creation a center of excellence with skilled staff that can be called upon to digitize processes quickly would help organization to move faster. Another challenge was to increase our customer satisfaction rate by improving our relationship with our clients. I faced this challenge when I was in charge of Master Data Management at Cisco. It was a complex problem because we were working with more than 70 business units with different subject domains, leadership style, management characteristics and high expectation since these 70+ business units generate $50B annually for Cisco. Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com

These responsibilities provided me with the opportunity to increase productivity and enhance user experience by retiring multiple legacy tools. I also partnered with our stakeholders to optimize and streamline mega processes in the company for faster time to market. My next assignment was to improve user experience for partners, selling Cisco’s product and services to our customers, and employees for finding relevant document faster. I managed the team to leverage machine learning and big data techniques to provide recommendation for partners for their engagement with customers. Our recommendation increased partners’ productivity significantly by saving them

In order to overcome this problem I sent our subject matter experts to the business units. With this approach, we were able to create a bridge with our clients that improved our relationship considerably since our clients had immediate access to our resources without going through heavy engagement process. Another benefit was to develop and use a common vocabulary with our clients, which removed most of the ambiguity and miscommunication. As a result it created a trusted relationship with our clients. As we move into the future, Cisco continues to innovate and optimize in multiple areas critical to business growth, including digitization, cloud, video, collaboration, data center and Internet of Everything. The Internet of Everything (IoE) in particular is an exciting development which will bring together people, process, data, and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever beforeturning information into actions that create new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunity for businesses, individuals, and countries. I see myself well aligned with Cisco’s goal to have much more impact on Cisco’s employees and customers by not only expanding my knowledge but also my capabilities in new areas to become a greater leader and play a bigger role in the future of the firm.

FEATURE

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THE BUSINESS ELITE: CFO OF THE YEAR - NEW JERSEY

TUMI HOLDINGS, INC.

Company: Tumi Holdings, Inc. Phone: 0800 145 6069 Email: service@tumi.com Website: http://uk.tumi.com

FEATURE

Tumi Holdings, Inc., is a South Plainfield, New Jersey-based manufacturer of suitcases and bags for travel. We spoke to the firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CFO Mike Mardy about the firm and the role has played in its success.

Tumi is a lifestyle travel brand that operates 177 company-owned retail outlets around the world, with a focus on North America and Western Europe. Our products are sold in over 1500 stores globally. Around 44% of our products are luggage; the remainder of our product offering is bags and travel accessories such as wallets, technology, jackets and toiletry kits.

of customer shopping patterns, and trends in suitcase purchasing. We also have to be aware of restrictions within the airline industry, such as limits on the size of cases. In addition, as we are a premium brand, we have to pay close attention to the stock markets around the world, as the financial outlook in each region will determine the travel habits of its citizens.

As a business we pride ourselves on offering quality products that will stand the test of regular travel, as well as offering customer service that is second to none. When a client buys a Tumi product we take care of them for as long as that product is in their possession. We are renowned as a business travel brand, because clients who are traveling rely on the high quality of our brands to see them through when they are regularly making business trips.

My role within the firm is multi-faceted, and I am currently Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, and I also oversee the operations team and IT team of the business as well. My role encompasses a number of the attributes of a Chief Operations Officer, and I have been working with the firm since 2003, providing me with a vast experience of the company and strong background knowledge of how it operates.

This quality and drive towards excellent customer service has provided the firm with an extremely high customer promotion score, with clients positively responding to our brand on consumer surveys. In order to ensure we are consistently delivering these high standards we conduct rigorous research, asking our customers about various aspects of new products so our products are meeting their exact needs. We also conduct research within the wider industry to see what potential Tumi customers think of the brand. We often find that once we have explained the benefits, we are able to easily convert potential clients to our products because of their quality and functionality. The international travel accessories market is worth around $30bn, and with a valuation of around $0.5bn Tumi, although not an insignificant player in the industry is still relatively small. However the firm has been growing its top line at around 15% to 20% compound annual growth rate for several years, and our bottom line has also grown during this time.

During my time at Tumi, I also served on the Board of Directors of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, where I acted as audit committee Chair and a Member of the Compensation Committee. I have also previously served as Interim Chairman of the Board at GMCR, and on the Board of Directors of ModusLink Global Solutions where I was Audit Committee Chair and served on the Compensation and Governance Committees.

Working in the retail and travel industries we have to be aware of many different factors. For example, we need to be aware

I was then hired by the private equity firm which had just purchased Tumi to assist the firm through a tough period, and have

My career initially started as a professional basketball player after University, and I was lucky to be able to play in Europe. I taught History at secondary school and attended Graduate school before eventually attending business school. After graduating I worked for PwC for five years, before being hired by one of my clients. Later in my career I became CFO for one of the largest suppliers to McDonaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in the world, travelling around the globe and gaining a vast amount of valuable experience.

since, helped Tumi to not only overcome its initial problems but to grow from a $90mn turnover per year to the $600mn it obtains per annum currently. This rapid growth has helped the firm to pay off the vast amount of debt which we were in when I first started, and this enabled us to open many of our retail outlets. Throughout my career I would say that my work with Tumi has been the most enjoyable, as I have not only been able to help rescue the company, but to help it to expand and provide jobs for many people around the world. I am motivated because I really enjoy what I do, and I like the people I work with, and I am proud to have provided a better standard of living both for our consumers and those who work with and for the business. Ultimately I view my role now the same way I viewed my athletic career: as a labor of love. I truly enjoy what I do, which is how I have been able to excel in it and perform to the best of my ability. Looking to the future, the firm is aiming to become a billion dollar business, as well as increase our exposure to new global markets such as Asia. I personally believe that the brand has a strong future ahead of it. With regards to my personal career, I have been proud of my association with Tumi, and am working to make the brand an even bigger success. I will continue to do work as a board advisor in the public arena. Overall I feel honored to have been given this prestigious accolade and am proud of the work I have done with Tumi, and look forward to an exciting future.

FEATURE

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THE BUSINESS ELITE: CFO OF THE YEAR - CONNECTICUT

FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS INC.

Company: FactSet Research Systems Inc. Phone: 203-810-1000 Website: http://www.factset.com/

FEATURE

FactSet delivers the world’s best insight and information to investment professionals through superior analytics, service, content, and technology. We profile the firm’s dedicated CFO Maurizio Nicolelli and explore his role in the firm’s success.

FactSet was founded in 1978 and has been publicly held since 1996. The Company is dual listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol “FDS.” 2015 marked the Company’s 37th year of operation, its 35th consecutive year of revenue growth and its 19th consecutive year of earnings growth as a public company. As of August 31, 2015, FactSet has a market capitalization of $6.5 billion, which is up 22.6% over last year. The Company currently has 38 office locations in 21 countries employing 7,360 individuals. In March 2015, FactSet was ranked #48 on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” marking the Company’s seventh appearance on the list in the last eight years. FactSet was also recognized as one of the UK’s “Best Workplaces” by the Great Place to Work® Institute UK for the seventh consecutive year, listed in Crain’s

“Chicago’s Best Places to Work” for the third year in a row, and included in the “2015 Best Places to Work in France” list for the fourth consecutive year. In addition, in July 2015 the Company was awarded the Best Research and Analytics tool at the 2015 Systems in the City Awards. Since becoming a public company in 1996, FactSet has evolved from a U.S.-centric software firm into a global company generating approximately a third of its revenues from clients outside the U.S. Through technological proficiency, a dedicated workforce, and an unwavering commitment to client service, the Company has driven revenue and earnings per share to new heights, as well as increased its international presence, and ultimately, its competitive edge. Maurizio Nicolelli has been the Chief Financial Officer of FactSet Research

Systems Inc. since October 18, 2013 and has been its Senior Vice President since October 1, 2009. From 2002 to 2009, he served as Vice President and Comptroller of the Company. From October 2009 to 2013, he occupied the position of Senior Vice President, Principal Financial Officer and was named Chief Financial Officer in fiscal 2014. Prior to joining FactSet, he was employed at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He holds a B.S. degree in Political Science from Syracuse University and an M.B.A. degree in Accounting from St. John’s University. He is also CPA licensed in the state of New York. Ultimately, the firm is in a strong, industry leading position thanks to its dedicated team, which includes Maurizio, and under his guidance the firm has experienced unprecedented growth, which it will endeavour to continue in the future.

FEATURE

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THE BUSINESS ELITE: CEO OF THE YEAR - COLORADO

INFOMEDIA, INC.

Company: InfoMedia, Inc. Website: http://joelcomm.com

FEATURE

InfoMedia, Inc. is a new media marketing firm focused on developing software, services and training materials for entrepreneurs, small businesses and consumers. We profile its dedicated CEO Joel Comm and explore the various aspects of his work that make him so successful.

Established by Joel Comm in 1995, InfoMedia, Inc. is known for content-based websites, iPhone application development and more. Founder Joel has been building online businesses since 1995. His first website was amongst the first 18000 sites in the world, and his efforts have brought experience in creating and selling websites, licensing content, affiliate marketing, internet marketing, blogging, podcasting, online video creation, social media marketing, joint ventures, mobile app creation and marketing, authoring books, public speaking, conducting live training events and more.

account to creating multiple successful businesses, Joel is uniquely poised to instruct and inspire when it comes to using the various forms of new media as avenues towards the greater goal of business success.

and Twitter, among many others. Whether you are seeking general direction or you require in-depth marketing strategy, Joel brings his varied experiences to you and is available for consulting by the hour or by the day.

Utilising his more than 20 years of Internet business experience, Joel has found success in multiple niches. Corporations, small-to-medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs trust him for sound, practical advice and creative thinking. He has consulted with, trained or developed strategic partnerships with Microsoft, IBM

In order to remain competitive in the fast paced corporate landscape, Joel is always exploring new methods of leveraging his expertise and technology to educate, inspire and entertain others, and moving forward he will continue to innovate and create.

Joel hosted and produced the world’s first competitive Internet reality show, The Next Internet Millionaire, and he has also created a #1 best-selling iPhone application which became one of the most talked about novelty iPhone apps of all time. Alongside his work with InfoMedia, Joel is the New York Times best-selling author of 12 books, including The AdSense Code, Click Here to Order: Stories from the World’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs, KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays and Twitter Power 2.0. He has also written over 40 ebooks. He has appeared in The New York Times, on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, on CNN online, on Fox News, and many other platforms. As a public and motivational speaker, Joel speaks on a variety of business and entrepreneurial topics. He presents a step-by-step playbook on how to use social media as a leveraging tool to expand the reach of your brand, increase your customer base, and create fierce brand loyalty for your business. Joel is also able to speak with authority on the various ways to harness the marketing power of mobile applications to explode profits. He offers an inspiring yet down-to-earth call to action for those who dream of obtaining growth and financial success. As someone who went from having only 87 cents in his bank

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BLACKLINE RANKS NO. 7 ON 2016 LIST OF ‘50 FASTEST-GROWING WOMEN-OWNED/ LED COMPANIES’

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CEO and Founder Therese Tucker Recognized for Accomplishments Building Finance Controls & Automation Software Company.

BlackLine, a leading provider of Enhance Finance Controls and Automation (EFCA) software, took the No. 7 spot on the 2016 list of the ‘50 Fastest-Growing WomenOwned/Led Companies’ as ranked by the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) (in partnership with American Express and reported at Fortune.com) in the ninth annual listing of top-performing femaleled organizations worldwide. 2016 marks the fifth year in a row BlackLine has made the Top 20, and the first year the company ranked in the Top 10, rising from the No. 14 spot in 2015. Eligible companies are required to be privately held, woman-owned/led and are

ranked according to a sales growth formula that combines percentage and absolute growth. The list is open to applicants on a global level provided each company has generated at least $500,000 in annual revenue as of January 1, 2011. BlackLine CEO Therese Tucker was honored in 2015 by the American Business Awards as ‘Maverick of the Year’ for her continuous accomplishments growing and building the software company into a leader in its space. She was also named to the 2015 socalTECH 50, the annual list of the top 50 people to watch in Southern California. Additionally, BlackLine has made the Software 500 list of the “largest and best

performing software and service providers in the world” for the past five consecutive years, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list for the past six years, and the prestigious Inc. 500/5000 for the past eight years, joining the ranks of such companies as Jamba Juice, Microsoft and Patagonia. A recognized leader and inspiration for young entrepreneurs and other women looking to excel in business, Ms. Tucker has been invited to speak to accounting and business students at leading U.S. universities including Harvard Business School, Columbia University/Barnard College and New York University’s Stern School of Management.

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DELTA ORDERS ADDITIONAL AIRBUS A321 JETS Andrey Khachatryan / Shutterstock.com

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Order for 37 more A321s brings the total order book to 82 of the large narrowbody aircraft, improving customer experience while lowering operating costs.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) has reached an agreement with Airbus to acquire 37 additional A321s as part of its efforts to renew its narrowbody fleet. The fuelefficient A321s will replace older-generation jets, including the MD-88. The agreement follows an announcement Thursday that Delta would become the U.S. launch customer for Bombardier’s C-Series small narrowbody aircraft. “The Airbus A320 family of aircraft continues to be a cost-efficient, reliable and customerpleasing mainstay of our narrowbody fleet,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s incoming chief executive. “The order for the A321s is an opportunistic fleet move that enables us to produce strong returns and cost-effectively accelerate the retirement of Delta’s 116 MD88s in a capital efficient manner.” The additional Airbus A321s, which are being acquired near the end of the model’s production cycle, increases Delta’s A321

fleet to 82 and is consistent with the company’s previously announced domestic fleet plan. Delta is focused on reshaping its narrowbody fleet with customer-focused aircraft that offer lower operating costs and better fuel efficiency. The 37 aircraft will be delivered concurrently with existing A321 orders through 2019. These transactions are part of Delta’s broader fleet strategy allowing the company to achieve its long-term financial targets, including 15 percent EPS growth and generation of $4-5 billion in free cash flow annually, while replacing 20 percent of its mainline narrowbody fleet over the next five years. Delta’s A321s will feature an all-new interior with cabin elements including high-capacity overhead bins, the latest in in-flight entertainment, full spectrum LED ambient lighting, standard 110v power available at every row, as well as in-flight Wi-Fi and Delta Studio. The A321s will also feature

Philip Pilosian / Shutterstock.com

wingtip Sharklets, which will provide up to 4 percent improvement in fuel efficiency. The additional Airbus 321s will join 126 A320 Family aircraft—featuring CFM56 engines—already flying in Delta’s fleet. The airline took delivery of its first A321 in March with the inaugural flight scheduled to depart Monday, May 2 between Atlanta and Orlando, Fla. “Delta is an industry leader in many ways, not the least of which is contributing to the trend toward larger, more fuel-efficient aircraft for their single-aisle fleet,” said John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer – Customers. “The A320 Family continues to be the backbone of every airline in the world that is paying attention to what their passengers want and their investors need. In 2015, nearly 40 percent of our A320 Family deliveries were A321s, up some 10 percent from the previous year. Our customers, like Delta, know where to find the best comfort, economy and reliability.”

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FORD INVESTS $1.6 BILLION IN U.S. PLANTS, CREATES 650 HOURLY JOBS IN MICHIGAN AND OHIO

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• • •

Ford is investing a total of $1.6 billion in its Livonia Transmission and Ohio Assembly plants The investment is part of the company’s commitment to invest $9 billion and create or retain 8,500 hourly jobs in its U.S. facilities during the next four years In the past five years, Ford has invested $12 billion in its U.S. plants and created nearly 28,000 total U.S. jobs

Ford Motor Company is investing $1.6 billion to upgrade two of its manufacturing facilities in Michigan and Ohio, and creating or retaining 650 hourly jobs in the United States.

other automaker,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president, The Americas. “We are committed to manufacturing in the United States, as we have been for more than 100 years.”

“I am thrilled that through our collective bargaining with Ford we were able to secure a substantial investment for the communities of Southeast Michigan and Northeast Ohio”

Ford’s latest investment creates or retains 500 hourly jobs in Michigan at Livonia Transmission Plant to build a new 10-speed transmission to be first introduced in the all-new F-150 Raptor and certain F-150 models. The investment and 150 hourly jobs at Ohio Assembly Plant, located in Avon Lake, will be used to build Super Duty chassis cab. Both F-Series trucks are part of Ford’s toughest, smartest, most capable truck lineup ever.

The $1.4 billion investment in Livonia Transmission Plant and $200 million investment in Ohio Assembly Plant are part of the $9 billion commitment the company made in the 2015 UAW-Ford collective bargaining agreement to continue investing in its U.S. plants. Ford has invested $12 billion in its U.S. plants and created a total of nearly 28,000 U.S. jobs in the past five years. “We are proud that Ford employs more hourly workers and builds more vehicles in the United States than any

Ford has committed to 2,800 U.S. jobs in the past five months. The company has committed to a total of 8,500 hourly jobs in the U.S. during the next four years in communities across Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New York and Ohio. “I am thrilled that through our collective bargaining with Ford we were able to

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secure a substantial investment for the communities of Southeast Michigan and Northeast Ohio,” said Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president, National Ford Department. “The men and women of both Livonia Transmission and Ohio Assembly have shown a great commitment to manufacturing quality products, and we look forward to their continued success.” Livonia Transmission Plant Livonia Transmission Plant employs more than 1,550 people. It builds a six-speed transmission that is used in a number of products including Mustang, F-150, Transit and Expedition. Production begins in June for the new 10-speed transmission. Ohio Assembly Plant Ohio Assembly Plant employs more than 1,650 people. It began building F-350, F-450 and F-550 Super Duty chassis cab configurations earlier this year. The plant also produces Ford F-650 and F-750, which was insourced from Mexico last year, as well as Ford E-Series cutaway vans and stripped chassis.

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PRICELINE GROUP CEO DARREN HUSTON RESIGNS; CHAIRMAN JEFFERY H. BOYD APPOINTED INTERIM CEO

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Gillian Tans named Chief Executive Officer of Booking.com

The Priceline Group (Nasdaq: PCLN) (the “Company,” the “Group,” “we,” “our” or “us”) announced today that Darren Huston has resigned from the Company, effective immediately. The Company has appointed former CEO and current Chairman Jeffery H. Boyd as Interim Chief Executive Officer and President of The Priceline Group while the Board conducts a search to name a successor. Mr. Boyd is a 16-year veteran of The Priceline Group, previously serving as President and Chief Executive Officer from 2002 to 2013, during which time he led the Company through a period of significant global expansion and growth in stockholder value. The Company also announced that current Booking.com President and Chief Operating Officer Gillian Tans has been named Chief Executive Officer of Booking. com, a Priceline Group subsidiary, replacing Mr. Huston who also served as CEO of this business unit. Ms. Tans has been a leader at the company since 2002, most recently serving as Booking.com’s President sinceJanuary 2015 and Chief Operating Officer since September 2011, responsible for leading the development and execution of Booking.com’s business strategy and directly overseeing all aspects of the brand’s operations.

Board’s thorough review of this issue. The performance of the business under Darren has been strong, and the Company is very well-positioned to continue executing on its strategy for growth. Jeff is deeply familiar with the Company’s strategy and leadership team, which consists of highly accomplished entrepreneurs and seasoned professional executives with long-tenure in the business. We are confident the Company is in strong hands while we conduct a search for a new CEO.” An independent committee of the Board of Directors overseen by Mr. Guyette will work to identify Chief Executive Officer successor candidates. Mr. Boyd said, “The culture of our brands and the quality of our leadership have been critical to the Group’s success over the years. I commend Gillian on her promotion to CEO of Booking.com and I am

Mr. Huston resigned following an investigation overseen by independent members of the Board of Directors of the facts and circumstances surrounding a personal relationship that Mr. Huston had with an employee of the Company who was not under his direct supervision. The investigation determined that Mr. Huston had acted contrary to the Company’s Code of Conduct and had engaged in activities inconsistent with the Board’s expectations for executive conduct, which Mr. Huston acknowledged and for which he expressed regret. James M. Guyette, Lead Independent Director, said, “I am satisfied with the

confident she will do a great job leading the business. The outstanding leadership of our independent brands – Booking.com, priceline.com, KAYAK, Agoda, Rentalcars. comand OpenTable – have an excellent track record of executing on what I believe is a winning strategy. The Board and I continue to see tremendous potential to build the Group’s global platform and create value for our stockholders.” Prior to serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Mr. Boyd was the Company’s President and Co-Chief Executive Officer from August 2002 to November 2002 and Chief Operating Officer from November 2000 to August 2002. He previously served as the Company’s Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from January 2000 to October 2000. The Company will announce Q2 earnings on May 4th 2016, as previously scheduled.

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USA TECHNOLOGIES UNVEILS EPORT速 INTERACTIVE

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Next-generation, interactive content delivery and payments platform comes to the self-serve retail market.

USA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:USAT) (“USAT”), a premier payment technology service provider of integrated cashless and mobile transactions in the self-service retail market, today unveiled ePort® Interactive. This is USAT’s most progressive solution to date, and one of the industry’s most advanced cloud-based interactive media and content delivery management systems, enabling delivery of nutritional information, remote refunds, loyalty programs, and robust, multimedia-marketing campaigns for the unattended and self-serve retail markets. With nearly 11,000 customers and 369,000 connections, USAT is poised to leverage this new platform to change the way consumers interact at the unattended retail point of sale. “As the leader in payments and consumer engagement services for unattended retail, we are committed to keeping our finger on the pulse of consumer and payment trends so we can leverage the progression to cashless and mobile payments technology on behalf of our customers” In response to the demand of today’s digital consumer, USAT’s ePort Interactive solution delivers the latest innovations in payment and unattended retail technology, and expands the current ePort Connect platform to provide the industry with feature-rich, interactive capabilities that leverages next-generation retail trends. The ePort Interactive technology transforms the relationship between companies and consumers in the unattended retail market through an advanced technology platform that provides a new universe of engagement, marketing and analytical capabilities. This technology will begin to deliver enhanced vendor management system (VMS) integration to the approximately 6000 ePort interactive units already deployed in the field. “As the leader in payments and consumer engagement services for unattended retail, we are committed to keeping our finger on the pulse of consumer and payment trends

so we can leverage the progression to cashless and mobile payments technology on behalf of our customers,” said Michael K. Lawlor, chief services officer, USA Technologies. “The ePort Interactive platform enables customers to engage with consumers through loyalty programs and onscreen functionality, providing a superior customer experience through instant refunds, nutritional information and feedback capabilities. Additionally, CPG companies and retailers now have the ability to impact consumer behavior in real time - at the point of sale. We believe this platform is truly heralding in the next generation of technology for the unattended retail market.” The ePort Interactive platform and related touch-screen technology enhances the existing ePort Connect Service, and joins the popular ePort G9 payment system in USAT’s product portfolio. Both offer PCI DSS compliant security, and support traditional magnetic stripe credit and debit cards, as well as NFC (Mobile Wallet) payments including Apple Pay and Android Pay. USAT expects that the new features will also help grow customer loyalty and drive recurring sales, via coupons, digital advertising and rewards, as well as add additional benefit to USAT’s MORE™ and Premier Services programs. Now vendors can engage their customers in real time at point-of-sale, which we believe would encourage repeat visits and incremental sales. Key Features of ePort Interactive: • On-Screen Nutritional Facts: Dynamically displayed, detailed product information made available prior to purchase. • On-Screen Advertising with Interactive User Interface: Engages and incentivizes consumer purchasing behavior with eye-catching on-screen digital ads, and enables the use of promotional codes for discounted or free purchases. • On-Screen Assistance: Consumers can receive digital refunds with unique

credit codes that can be sent via SMS text message. • Cross-platform Compatibility: enables seamless integration with all major VMS systems for plan-o-gram information, including full integration with VendMax, Cantaloupe and VendSys with export functionality well suited for Parlevel and Vagabond.

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THERIUM LAUNCHES IN U.S. TO MEET INCREASING INDUSTRY DEMAND FOR LITIGATION FUNDING

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Eric Blinderman to Lead Operations as CEO, Patrick Dempsey Named CIO.

Therium Group Holdings Limited, a leading provider of litigation financing with over $300 million in committed capital, announced today that it is launching operations in the United States with the creation of Therium Inc., a U.S. subsidiary headquartered in New York City. “I am particularly attracted to Therium’s portfolio financing model because it enables law firms to take on significantly more viable cases at little or no cost to the claimant and it allows corporations to utilize funding to prosecute unrealized claims while generating cash flow for the firm and/or company.” Founded in London and Jersey in 2009, Therium is one of the largest and most established litigation financing firms in the world. Therium is expanding its services in North America with a dedicated business in response to the increased demand for litigation financing by law firms and businesses. It is the first European firm to establish such an operation in the U.S. and aims to be a go-to litigation financier for corporations and law firms in the region within the next three to five years. Therium Inc. will be headed by Eric Blinderman, who leaves his post as International Litigation Counsel at Proskauer Rose LLP to become Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Blinderman brings substantial expertise in litigation financing, having represented Therium for many years while at Proskauer. In addition, Mr. Blinderman is a seasoned international and commercial litigator and arbitrator who has represented a multitude of international governments and private entities.

the opportunity is substantial. Therium is extremely well positioned to transform the litigation financing landscape in the U.S., the world’s largest litigation market.” Mr. Blinderman added, “I am particularly attracted to Therium’s portfolio financing model because it enables law firms to take on significantly more viable cases at little or no cost to the claimant and it allows corporations to utilize funding to prosecute unrealized claims while generating cash flow for the firm and/or company.” In addition, Blinderman’s former Proskauer colleague, Patrick Dempsey, has been appointed as Chief Investment Officer of Therium Inc. Mr. Dempsey, an experienced litigator and trial lawyer, joins Therium from Hogan Lovells US LLP. “With the U.S. litigation finance market still relatively young, Therium’s funding model and expertise make it ideally situated to capitalize on the untapped potential here in the U.S. I’m also very much looking forward to being reunited with my former colleague and friend, Eric Blinderman, to grow Therium’s footprint in the U.S.,” said Mr. Dempsey.

“We are delighted to appoint Eric Blinderman CEO of Therium’s U.S. operations to build on our existing success and to extend Therium’s offering to corporations, institutions and law firms who require innovative structures to finance litigation,” said John Byrne, Co-founder and CEO of Therium Group Holdings. “I believe

Neil Purslow, Co-Founder of Therium Group Holdings, said, “We are thrilled that Eric and Patrick have joined Therium at this time to lead the expansion of our business in the U.S. Eric is a world-class attorney with an impressive track record of advising on highly complex litigations and international commercial arbitrations. Patrick’s litigation expertise and judgment across a wide range of industries will be invaluable as Therium grows.” In addition to the hiring of Blinderman and Dempsey, Robert Dwyer has agreed to join Therium Inc. as chairman of the investment committee and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Therium Inc. Mr. Dwyer, retired from the practice of law, is the former head of Dorsey & Whitney’s New York Office and a past member of Dorsey’s Management and Policy Committees. He brings decades of finance, structuring and corporate experience to Therium as he spent his entire career advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financing, tax planning and compliance, and has represented dozens of start-up and development-stage companies. He has a degree in Business Administration,summa cum laude, from the University of St. Thomas, a law degree, cum laude, from the University of Minnesota, and is a certified public accountant on inactive status.

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ON THE APP Mobile apps can be an exciting and innovative marketing tool for companies looking to target their customers through the popular technology.

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Two-thirds of American own a smartphone, according to research by Pew Research Center, with the technology now featuring heavily in modern life. Apps help to integrate the technology with modern life by performing time saving functions such as allowing the transfer of money or data to another person, allowing users to shop on their phones or providing the user with an interactive map of their trip home. Businesses can capitalize on this by offering function apps to customers, either for free with a fee for use or by making consumers buy the app. By integrating the function with their own products firms can attract customers using the convenience of the app. An example of this is GoEuro.co.uk’s new app, which simplifies the process of booking international travel. The app offers users the ability to search and book travel by train, coach and air around Europe and can source travel from 33,000 unique destinations and offices the travel services of three apps in one. This eliminates the confusion caused in booking foreign travel through contact with numerous different languages. Leisure apps are also increasingly being created by businesses to integrate their products or services into apps focused on social media, games or clothes shopping. Styloko, an online fashion directory service, has recently launched a shopping app, The WantList. Available on iOS, The Wantlist allows users to save products, receive offers and sales alerts and interact with a global community of fashion lovers, integrating with Styloko’s primary services. Retailers connected with the app includes FarFetch, Net-a-Porter, Matches Fashion, Yoox, Bloomingdales and more. This provides customers with a large choice, as well as an easy way to shop for clothes online, as well as promoting the firm’s online services. However it is important to know the environment before plunging in. Research by ebuyer.com, an online retailer, has mapped out the market making it easier for businesses to find see where to aim an app.

By conducting research using their customers ebuyer established market trends, such as the most popular style of apps. These proved to be functional map apps, with 85% of survey respondents installing them on their phone.

25% installed a new app every week, probably owing to the larger storage capacity of modern smartphones, which highlights the need to maintain visibility in app stores once the software has been launched.

However, the other most popular apps were all leisure orientated, with 71% of participants having games, 67% having music and 65% social media. Although maps were the most popular, the figures for the leisure apps are not far behind, indicating that whilst maps are ultimately the most important to users, they are also highly likely to have recreational apps.

With regards to the question of revenue, 72% of the survey’s participants would pay for apps, whereas 28% would never pay for one. Additionally 75% would trust an app with their personal details, offering the scope for businesses to both charge for the initial installation of the app then offer the user additional in app purchases to enhance the experience. 70% would purchase in app products, which are particularly prevalent in game apps where users can often buy tokens to skip difficult levels or increase their game playing time.

On a daily basis social media is used the most, with 52% stating they used these apps every day, followed by news apps at 48%, and games with 45%. Again the evidence highlights the popularity of recreational apps and apps aimed at informing users. Phones trump tablets as the most popular way to use apps, with 71% using them on their smartphone compared to just 29% who accessed them on tablets, showcasing the importance of convenience. However, remote use was clearly not as important a factor as 65% of participants told ebuyer that they sued apps at home, indicating that less access to tablet technology rather than a need to use apps on the move was to blame for fewer users accessing apps on tablets. Android was found to be the most popular operating system with 61% of ebuyer’s customers using it, , followed by Apple’s iOS system with 31%, whilst windows trailed behind with just 7%. Android’s popularity is unsurprising considering that the appeal of apps is focused around both convenience and choice: Google’s mobile OS currently has over 1.3 million apps for its users to choose from. Half of participant’s in the survey also found themselves hoarding apps, with 50% stating that they had 25 or more stored on their device, illustrating that initial marketing of an app is crucial, as customers are less likely to delete them once they have downloaded them.

Ages is also an important factor, with the ebuyer survey determining that those in the 65-75 age group were 65% more likely to use tablets than smartphones, whilst 91% of 17-24 year olds use smartphones over tablets. Older users were also less likely to pay for their apps, with 45% of 65-75 year old stating they would never pay for apps and 52 % that they would never make an in app purchase. By contrast 71% of 17-24 year olds don’t mind paying for their apps. This information will enable businesses to assess what the best style of app to use to reach their target audience and to potentially release multiple apps aimed at different segments of their customer base. Ultimately, apps are an exciting technology which allow businesses to experiment with different ways of interacting with their customers. By examining the market firms will be able to make informed decisions about how to market their app and what style and genre would be best suited to their customers.

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CONSIDERATIONS IN PREPARING FOR THE SALE OF A PRIVATELY HELD BUSINESS Carl D. Roston, M&A and Private Equity Practice Co-Chair, Akerman LLP talks us through the best means to structure a business for sale.

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In our experience as a law firm nationally recognized for middle market M&A, the principal goals of most sellers of privately held businesses are to maximize the likelihood that the transaction will close while maintaining confidentiality and minimizing disruption, and to maximize the proceeds (after taxes and potential indemnity claims). Yet a surprising number of entrepreneurs who have spent all or a considerable portion of their professional careers devoted to increasing the value of their businesses fail to implement a planning and sale process designed to maximize the likelihood of achieving these dual objectives. For the successful and sophisticated entrepreneur who is relatively inexperienced in planning for a sale process, an unwillingness to devote sufficient focus, energy, time, and resources to an unfamiliar, stressful, and timeconsuming sale process often destroys significant value that the entrepreneur worked so hard to create. Whether the enterprise value of the business is $50mn or $1bn, our clients tell us they find great value in a handful of pragmatic initiatives. Professionals The purchase price rarely increases once negotiations and diligence are in advanced stages, so value is added by engaging experienced professionals well in advance of the sale process (up to two years before being ready to sell) to implement best practices designed to optimize the value of the business from a buyerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective and identify and remediate issues that could give a buyer ammunition to terminate negotiations, reduce the price, or demand less favorable terms. Calls to ascertain whether a prospective accounting firm, law firm, and/or investment bank have successfully and recently executed sale transactions for businesses of a similar size and sector is highly correlated with a successful sale process. The right traits include pragmatism, an ability to find creative solutions to getting deals done confidentially and on optimal terms, and an aptitude for prioritizing and balancing factors that maximize value and manage risk. The cost of audits for at least a couple of years prior to sale as well as a quality of earnings analysis is often dwarfed by the consequences of failing to do so: a failed transaction process often taints the business in the view of other putative buyers and damages the business significantly if word of the potential sale is leaked to customers, suppliers, and employees; a substantial decrease in purchase price as a result of discovery of financial statement deficiencies late in the sale process is commonplace; and

potentially catastrophic post-closing purchase price adjustments and claims by the buyer may also result when financial statement deficiencies are uncovered post-closing. A seasoned investment bank can recommend business strategies in the years prior to the sale process designed to make the business most attractive to buyers. The right M&A law firm should quarterback the process in furtherance of accomplishing these goals, and also effectuating advance tax planning designed to mitigate estate, gift, and income taxes. It is also constructive to develop relationships prior to beginning the sale process with insurance brokers, wealth managers, and family counselors, as all of them can support accomplishing these dual goals. Managing Risk and Maximizing Value Addressing skeletons in the closet and material contingencies (e.g., environmental and other regulatory issues and litigation) that may jeopardize the transaction or cause a putative buyer to reduce the price it is willing to pay should be undertaken well prior to the sale process, as waiting until the sale process may be too late to remediate issues. Likewise, implementing a number of best practices can preserve value. It is advisable to lock up key executives with non-competes and ensure that intellectual property is owned by the company (and not its employees or others). Many companies also seek to align interests with key members of management whose views may significantly impact the success of the transaction by offering transaction success bonuses, severance, and other incentives. Optimizing contractual relationships (e.g., avoiding change of control and non-competes that burden the business, diversifying key customer and vendor concentration, and entering into key agreements for reasonable duration) also adds value. Likewise, maintaining an organized digital inventory of all key agreements, permits, litigation, and other material due diligence data facilitates an organized process that mitigates surprises that can jeopardize transactions and create liability. Process, Process, Process The sale process is a marathon that often takes a year or more, so advance planning enables management to be less distracted by the process and able to focus on running the business. A number of best practices in the process should be implemented. The members of management who are aware of the process should meet regularly both to keep their eyes on the sale prize and remain vigilant about keeping the process confidential. Disclosing the most sensitive confidential

information and bringing incremental members of management under the tent about the sale process should occur only when necessary as the process advances. Careful consideration should be given to whether the investment bank should reach out to all potential buyers in order to maximize price or run a narrower process designed to maintain confidentiality. It is typical in a sale process that after a number of buyers complete preliminary due diligence, one will enter into a letter of intent with the target and be granted a period of exclusivity to negotiate and close the transaction; as the leverage shifts to the buyer once exclusivity is granted, it is essential that the target investigate the reputation of the putative buyer for actually closing without re-trading price and make available all relevant due diligence, so as to mitigate the risk that a putative buyer will be surprised (or feign surprise) and terminate negotiations or seek to reduce the purchase price. Likewise, a target should avoid agreeing to exclusivity for as long as possible, and, ideally, until the putative buyer has either provided comments to a purchase agreement and other material documents or provided a detailed issues list, in each case containing tentative understandings as to key terms including conditions to closing, price, tax, structure, non-competes, employment agreements, purchase price adjustments, remedies, and indemnity. So as also to minimize surprises (or feigned surprises) by the putative buyer, it is recommended that when the sellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s counsel delivers the first draft of the purchase agreement to the buyer, the disclosure schedules (which describe potentially problematic exceptions to the representations and warranties of the seller) be attached. A seller should also consider including with the draft purchase agreement preliminary bids from insurance companies on representation and warranty insurance (which is typically purchased by the buyer). This increasingly common insurance effectively eliminates exposure of the seller for most post-closing breaches of representations and warranties, reduces the risk of sellers for post-closing claims, and streamlines negotiations (thus reducing the risk that the parties will be unable to agree on terms and terminate negotiations). Failing to begin advance planning a couple of years prior to a sale process can destroy the value that the entrepreneur has worked so diligently to create; and these pragmatic steps increase the likelihood of accomplishing the dual goals of closing the transaction on a confidential basis while mitigating disruption to the business and maximizing the proceeds.

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CAN SUCCESS IN BUSINESS BE LEARNT FROM BOOKS? A new range of books aimed at top-level managers in business proposes to teach executive skills and offer insight into complicated corporate issues, but is there anything a book can teach that canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be learned on the job?

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Managing a business is always a stressful and demanding role, and many fail where other succeed. There are many aspects of business that can become pitfalls if not handled correctly, such as mergers, transitions in management and general corporate change. A new book called Transitions at the Top: What Organizations Must Do to Make Sure New Leaders Succeed by Dan Ciampa and David L. Dotlich (Wiley) aims to help deal with the issue that companies make a transition of leadership, especially of the CEO, the success rate is dismally low. One of the author’s, Dan Ciampa, outlines why books around this topic do not always address the correct aspect of the problem. “It is important to master the transition challenge. But, there has been insufficient attention paid to it. That began to change with the publication of Right from the Start. Since its release, there have been over a dozen books on this topic; and it also led to intense effort of many companies to improve the onboarding of senior executives. But, the body of literature that has explored top leadership transition has focused on the new leaders who are hired or promoted—their personalities, skills, behavior, attitudes, preparation and management of the taking-hold process. Little has been written about the other, equally important, factor in a leadership change—the company and what it does, or does not do, to make the transition a success.” The text is aimed at most of the senior management of firms experiencing CEO transitions, from current CEOs and Board Chairmen to Chief Human Resources Officers. The book is written by Dotlich, a former academic who is now Chairman and CEO of Pivot Leadership, one of the world’s largest providers of top-level customized executive programs and consulting and Ciampa, who was named one of the top five CEO advisors by Business Week and has lectured at Harvard’s Graduate School of Business. Both writers clearly have the experience to back up the teachings they deliver through their book, with the book aiming to bring to focus an often overlooked topic. Ciampa highlights how the book takes a new perspective on culpability in CEO transitions. “The net result of missteps early on in a new leadership role is that new leaders do not achieve notable successes within their all-important first 18 months. That,

in turn, limits the commitment of a critical mass of people to support their agendas. Ultimately, the person at the top in this situation never attains the loyal followership needed for effective leadership. I believe that the person assuming the senior spot can do much to succeed once in the top position if she moves quickly to avoid or resolve these common mistakes. But, there is a second answer to the question of why more leaders do not succeed: that the organizations that have hired or promoted them have not done their part to ensure success. Until a company that hires or promotes leaders into its top position does its part, the problem of transition failures will not be solved. By “the company,” I mean the major players who most determine its strategy, how it operates day-to-day, who is hired and who stays, how its various parts are expected to coordinate, and its culture. In particular, the players on the company’s side of the transition equation who have the most significant roles in determining whether a transition at the top is successful are its board of directors, the incumbent CEO, the chief human resources officer, and the other key senior managers who report to the CEO. Not “doing its part” means that the major players on the company side of the equation commit errors in how they think about and in how they execute the transition task.” Another recent addition to the body of business related books is Samir Parikh’s The Consultant’s Handbook (Wiley), which offers insights into the broader consulting industry, with examples of the types of work that consultants do, the techniques that they apply to structure projects and drive results as well as approaches that have been used successfully to deal issues and obstacles in the industry. Parikh is keen to emphasise that The Consultant’s Handbook is not like ordinary business literature. “Many business books contain valuable content but can be hard to digest, leaving the reader with the challenge of translating theory into practice. The writing style employed in The Consultant’s Handbook was therefore a particular point of consideration: to the point, enlightening and easy both to absorb and to implement. Each chapter is built around a set of industry examples, considering both good and poor practice, that bring the content to life but also challenge the reader to reflect upon their own experience and professional work situation.”

Parikh’s book aims to shed light on principals of consultancy, and whilst the book is not designed to directly teach the skills needed or replace valuable lessons that can only be learned through experience, it does aim to teach business leaders and other corporate managers how they can adapt and use consulting methods in their roles. “The ability to understand the essence of consultancy is one of the key principals this book explores. A consultant’s role is to help clients, drawing upon our own credentials and those of our colleagues to do so. Our ability to formulate a clear consulting proposition explaining the value that we can add shapes the relationships that we build with clients. The skill of engaging effectively in a structured, business driven way is fundamental to solving complex problems. And an understanding the mechanisms required to deliver a solution, yet deal with a wide range of obstacles and the unexpected, is key to the achievement of results. The book unravels these topics systematically, beginning with a fundamental question that many struggle to answer – What is consulting? After exploring the cornerstones of a consulting service a range of practical techniques for client engagement are introduced, whether collecting a client’s requirements, defining the scope of an assignment, or presenting solutions and recommendations. The art of proposal writing is considered, highlighting some of the most common pitfalls in proposal development. Finally a range of consulting delivery mechanisms are discussed, from the design of a project organisation, to the use of consulting methodologies, the handling of issues and methods for optimising the on going client relationship during delivery.” Many professionals within their respective fields of expertise are required to assume consultative roles, often in the absence of a consulting title. Large corporations delivering professional services to clients who rely upon the ability of their people to consult effectively as well as those working in internal support functions such as human resources, sourcing and finance are also among the target readership. The book is not trying to change these readers into consultants, but to help them apply the principals to their own roles. Ultimately then, whilst experience in business is always vital, books such as these serve as a useful guide to applying principals and explaining complicated subjects, offering an understanding which can help eliminate basic mistakes.

FEATURE

TECHNOLOGY IN CORPORATE AMERICA: DEALS/INVESTMENTS & FOIBLES With technological advancements running rampant, how can American financial institutions maintain security and still be ‘cutting-edge’? Where are the ‘safe investments’ and how can technology run amok leave you vulnerable?

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For the latter we can look at the situation in which Citizen Bank found itself in August. Even with the advanced technology at our disposal, there are still chances for error when depositing checks at the bank. Bank’s scanner may malfunction causing slips to be misread; totals slips may not match the true deposit. Many feel that when these rare occurrences take place the bank will notify you and correct the difference. Citizens however did not. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other federal bank regulators ordered Citizens, operating in 11 states, to refund at least $14 million to customers and pay $20.5 million in penalties for unfair and deceptive banking. After being tipped off by a whistleblower, regulators found that from 2008 until September 2012, Citizens did not investigate and correct deposit discrepancies under $50 which were flagged by its review system. The cut-off was changed in November 2013 to $25. In that time, the bank’s account disclosures reported to customers that all deposits were subject to verification. The action against Citizens is the first by the consumer bureau for deception in handling deposits. Regulators would not say whether other banks were being investigated for similar violations or whether Citizens could be criminally liable. Regulators do not have authority in criminal cases; however, they did note that by not correcting the discrepancies, Citizens would have cheated itself when a mistake was in the customer’s favour. Regulators conceded that Citizens, with assets over $100 billion, may have viewed the small discrepancies as not worth the time to review and fix. But a rounding error to a bank is real money to a customer. No amount of money should be trivial for banks In light of recent financial events, around the globe, banks need to work at reearning the public’s trust. This is an error in the mishandling of technology by a corporation; one which cost the bank more than just monetary assets. Of course there are other ways in which technology can be a foible to the corporations of America, ramifications of the IRS hack earlier in the year are still being felt. In August, the I.R.S. announced that a hack to its website in May was more problematic than originally thought. Accessing taxpayer information through the “get transcript” application, Hackers allowed users to recall information input in previous tax returns. Following the cyberattack, the system was shut dow s.

It was originally thought that there had been 114,000 successful breaches and 111,000 unsuccessful attempts. However a later review has identified an additional 220,000 successful and 170,000 unsuccessful incidents. This brings the total count to a total of 615,000 attempts, about three times more than the IRS formerly thought. The agency predicts that the breached information will be used in 2016 to file fraudulent tax returns. 15,000 fraudulent returns were filed this year as a result of the hack, likely amounting to under $50 million worth of refunds. The agency is attempting to review whether the number of fraudulent returns increased due to the hack. The IRS is mailing letters to taxpayers whose information had been breached to offer free credit monitoring including a new personal ID number ensuring next season’s tax returns will be unaffected. Of course technology is not just a foil to corporations, the eye-wearable device Google Glass is set to help workers at the world’s leading postal and logistics company pick products and pack them for shipping in a jiffy. Exel, part of the supply-chain division of Deutsche Post DHL Group, is replacing handheld scanners with Google Glass, fitted with a warehouse management software in two US warehouses later this year, Wall Street Journal reported. “The technology like Google Glass could prove especially useful during peak periods when Exel hires thousands of temporary workers,” Adrian Kumar, vice-president for solutions design with Exel, was quoted as saying. “These are people off the street who are not familiar with our warehouses, do not know where anything is, and we see huge potential for that type of situation, especially with training,” Kumar said. Google Glass will tell warehouse workers the fastest route to find products and can read bar codes. It will reduce the time needed to pick out an item and pack it for shipping. “The technology has the most application in e-commerce warehouses where workers might need to find a handful of items out of more than a million individual products,” DHL Group said. Google is finding other ways to promote its existing products as it has been announced that Google Earth can be a helpful resource

in lawsuits has come as a huge relief to many people who seek justice in the courts of law. When the US federal appeals court made a ruling to the effect that Satellite images obtained from Google Earth now qualify as evidence there was great relief from many. What this means is that you can now present photographs from the app to the courts, which will accept them as proof that the accused committed the crime. The reason for accepting the images from Google Earth as evidence is that they are impossible to tittle-tattle and that they do not make any assertion. When your lawyer wants to prove that you did not commit any crime, the courts will not reject the images from this app. If your lawyer wants to prove that somebody different committed the crimes, he is free to present the images from this app to support his claims and the courts will accept these as evidence. The fact that the program has GPS coordinates makes it exempt from human manipulation and intervention, thus acceptable in courts to prove innocence or lack thereof in a criminal case. The presence of the GPS coordinates eliminates the app from being subject to hearsay. On the other hand, this news does not lack challenges. People challenging the news regarding the use of such an app cite the fact that it is nothing more than a machine that can prove unreliable. The fact that information on Google Maps is susceptible to malfunction was also a concern to the judges that decided to allow images from the program as evidence in lawsuits. However, the judges stated that all concerns regarding malfunctioning, manipulation and evidence tampering associated with the program are easy to handle by adhering to the rules of authentication. With such rules, the following has to happen: • showing proof that the machine on which the Google Maps images were captured is not only properly calibrated, but also reliable • showing proof that the GPS coordinates, which are in the data, are accurate The evidence that Google Maps brings to the court could help you win a case regarding the exact location where you were at when you were alleged to have committed a particular crime. The program could shed some light on your exact location during the time of your arrest. The Google Maps app can help destroy any fabrication that the arresting officers might present against you. The program helps to pinpoint the locations where you were, when a crime was taking place.

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SOLAR POWER IS THE WAY FORWARD

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Equal Earth is a leading independent power company providing homes and businesses with renewable, solar electricity. We believe in a clean energy future and freedom of choice, especially when it comes to utilities. We own and operate solar facilities across the United States and are committed to helping customers pay less for power. Equal Earth is a new kind of Energy Company. One which is company focused on producing and delivering clean power for less than your current utility provider. We believe in a sustainable world, a world where power can be produced without harming the environment. We also believe that all this can be accomplished cost effectively. As a clean energy services company, we are excited to be providing renewable energy power to commercial and residential customers in Hawaii, California, Colorado, Fiji and Guam, alongside more states and new markets to follow later this year. Equal Earth is a part of the solar revolution and we are out to change the way the world is powered. Our goal is to deliver clean renewable energy to the masses and to empower others with energy independence.

have created a massive growth opportunity for clean, affordable solar energy. Our ownership of solar assets and our business model involves long-term, multi-decade contracts that allow customers to save money on their utility bills while generating recurring, predictable cash flows to Equal Earth. Our core values never change. We always ensure that we deliver quality and excellence in all we do. At all times we require a premium return on assets. We maintain to value our employees and our company behaves responsibly as a corporate citizen. Equal Earth sponsors professional athletes who inspire us and who represent the core values of our brand. These athletes are among the very best triathletes in the

We are on a mission to drive increased community adoption of solar power and are committed to delivering economic and environmental returns for our shareholders. We own and operate solar facilities throughout the United States and our portfolio of projects includes solar systems for residential, commercial, education and government customers. Equal Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solar facilities generate long-term cash flows in attractive markets, providing the company with a solid foundation for continued growth and investment. Today, a new solar installation is completed in the United States every 2.5 minutes and more than 91% of Americans support solar power, according to a 2015 Gallup poll. At present, customers could reduce their utility bills by up to 20-30%, which could save them thousands of dollars over the space of a year. We have disrupted the energy industry by providing solar-generated electricity directly to customers for less than they spend on utility rates. Rising retail electricity prices, coupled with inelastic demand,

world, and important partners in helping us to evangelize a clean energy future. Every day, Equal Earth athletes are out in the community helping raise awareness about the economic and environmental benefits of solar power. As Equal Earth continues to grow, so does our impact on the communities we serve. Examples of how we work with the community are through our partnerships with different athletes that we are very proud of. Equal Earth has a very positive reputation, boasting 53 US employees - a figure that is constantly growing.

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