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Asset Management One	[ "Mizuho Financial Group", "Financial services companies established in 2016", "Financial services companies based in Tokyo", "Asset management companies" ]	594	6,654	Asset Management One Co., Ltd. (アセットマネジメントOne株式会社), abbreviated as AM-One, is a Japanese asset management company. It is a subsidiary of the Mizuho Financial Group and is one of the largest asset management companies in Asia. AM-One acts as one of the investment managers for the Government Pension Investment Fund and is the largest manager of Japanese public pension assets. History AM-One was formed on 1 October 2016, as a joint venture between Mizuho Financial Group and Dai-ichi Life using the pre-existing asset management units within each company. There were four companies which were merged to create AM-One. They were DIAM Co, Mizuho Asset Management, Shinko Asset Management, and Asset Management Division of Mizuho Trust & Banking. Currently, Mizuho Financial Group holds 70% of the company's shares and 51% of voting rights while Dai-ichi Life holds 30% of the company's shares and 49% of voting rights. While initially focused on Japan, the company has expanded its presence to Asia, Europe and America. Business overview AM-One's investment product range includes: Equities (Both active and passive investment strategies) Fixed Income (Both active and passive investment strategies) Quantitative Alternatives (Including REIT, Commodities and Private equity) Its European product range also includes UCITS funds. AM-One operates various Exchange-traded funds which are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange such as " One ETF Nikkei 225" and "One ETF TOPIX" . AM-One is headquartered in Tokyo with additional offices in London, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong.
123 Money	[ "Insurance companies of Ireland", "Financial services companies based in Dublin (city)", "Financial services companies established in 2002", "Irish companies established in 2002" ]	660	7,059	123 Money Ltd, trading as 123.ie, is an Irish insurance company with registered offices in Dublin. It sells personal insurance products online, including motor, home, health and life insurance. It became a subsidiary of RSA Insurance Ireland Ltd. in 2010 and it is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. In 2012, it reported sales worth €91 million and 270 employees. The company was incorporated in March 2000 by Dublin insurance broker Derek Richardson. It was the first online broker in Ireland, selling motor insurance, home and pet policies under-written by the Irish office of US Travelers Insurance. By March 2010, it had a consumer base of 170,000 policyholders and annual income of €60 million. It was acquired by the RSA Insurance Group in July 2010 for €65 million. 123.ie became a tied insurance agent for Irish Life in 2013, offering mortgage life insurance and lifelong insurance policies. In March 2013, it reported a €7m profit and an increase in turnover of 31%. In November 2013, it won Contact Centre Management Association awards for its customer retention programme and credit management team. Acquisition by RSA 123.ie was acquired by the RSA Insurance Group in July 2010 for €65 million. It had reported gross assets of €20m at the time. RSA became the underwriter of policies sold by 123.ie after the acquisition, and took on its online infrastructure and physical offices. 123.ie continues to trade under its own name branding after the acquisition.
Louis Ah Mouy	[ "1820s births", "1918 deaths", "19th-century Australian businesspeople", "20th-century Australian businesspeople", "Businesspeople from Guangzhou", "Australian carpenters", "Chinese emigrants to Singapore", "Chinese emigrants to Australia", "Naturalised citizens of Australia", "People who lost Chinese citizenship", "Australian gold prospectors", "Singaporean people of Cantonese descent", "Chinese-Australian history", "Businesspeople from Melbourne", "Activists from Melbourne", "Asian-Australian culture in Melbourne" ]	1,033	9,863	Louis Ah Mouy (; 182628 April 1918; also known as Louey Amoy and Louey Ah Mouy) was a Chinese–Australian community leader and businessman. Early life Louis Ah Mouy was born circa 1826, in Guangzhou, China, and grew up in Singapore. Career Ah Mouy emigrated to Victoria before the Victorian gold rush period, and served as a community leader of Melbourne's Chinese community. Considered as one of Melbourne's earliest Chinese immigrants, he also worked as a house constructor and a carpenter. It is claimed that the very first houses in South Melbourne and Williamstown were built by Ah Mouy, who at that time was working under contract for Captain Glendining. When gold was discovered in Yea, Ah Mouy decided to take up gold mining, at the same time urging his family back in China to join him. It was through gold mining that his wealth increased significantly, making him one of Melbourne's richest merchants of that time. He went on to open several gold mines across Australia. A letter addressed to his brother on the issue of gold in Victoria is claimed to have attracted some 37,000 Chinese compatriots to Victoria. As such, he is also called the "Father of the Chinese of Victoria". Ah Mouy was also the co-founder and a major shareholder of the Commercial Bank of Australia. Ah Mouy was an active campaigner against racism in Australia, when, it is said, that "racism had too strong a foothold". Personal life and death Ah Mouy married Mary Rogers, a teenage Irish orphan, in Melbourne on 13 November 1855, with whom he had a daughter and a son. She died in Melbourne on 22 July 1862 at the age of 23 years. Ah Mouy also married Ang Chuck in 1861. At the time of this marriage, Ang was only sixteen. They had eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. Ah Mouy died on 28 April 1918 at his home in Middle Park, aged 92.
Christel DeHaan	[ "1942 births", "2020 deaths", "20th-century American businesspeople", "20th-century American businesswomen", "20th-century German businesspeople", "21st-century American businesspeople", "21st-century American businesswomen", "21st-century German businesspeople", "American billionaires", "American women philanthropists", "Businesspeople from Indianapolis", "Female billionaires", "German billionaires", "West German emigrants", "Immigrants to the United States", "German philanthropists", "German women philanthropists", "People from Nördlingen" ]	533	5,544	Christel DeHaan ( Stark, October 20, 1942 – June 6, 2020) was a German-American businesswoman and philanthropist who was the owner of Resort Condominiums International and the founder of Christel House International. Early life DeHaan was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany, the daughter of Adolf Stark, a German soldier who died shortly before the end of World War II, and his wife Anna Stark. Her stepfather, Wilhelm Riedel, died when she was 16. At the age of 16, she moved to the United Kingdom to become a nanny. At the age of 20, she emigrated to the United States, settling in Indiana. Career In 1974, DeHaan co-founded the pioneering timeshare company Resort Condominiums International, with her then-husband Jon DeHaan. In 1979, he had a heart attack, and she took over the running of the company. In 1987, they divorced; she was awarded half the company and bought the rest for $67.5 million. In 1995, she sold RCI for $825 million. Philanthropy DeHaan founded and donated $220 million to Christel House International. The nonprofit organization has opened schools in eight cities: Bangalore and Naya Raipur, India; Mexico City, Mexico; Cape Town, South Africa; and Indianapolis. The schools are designed to provide an education to poor children around the world. Christel House announced in July 2017 that a ninth school would open in Jamaica in August 2019. Personal life In 1972, she married Jon DeHaan (b. 1940). She had three children and lived in Indianapolis. She died on June 6, 2020, at her home.
Equity Bank Kenya Limited	[ "Banks of Kenya", "Banks established in 2014", "Banks established in 1984", "Kenyan companies established in 2014", "Kenyan companies established in 1984", "1984 establishments" ]	1,393	13,950	Equity Bank Kenya Limited is a Kenyan bank and financial services provider headquartered in Nairobi providing retail banking and commercial banking services. The bank is licensed as a commercial bank by the Central Bank of Kenya, which is the national banking regulator of Kenya. In 2010 the bank introduced the Agency banking model, which has proved a success and is regulated by Central Bank of Kenya Prudential guidelines. History Equity Bank Kenya Limited was incorporated in 2014, as a result of the corporate restructure of its parent company Equity Group Holdings Limited. Prior to November 2014, Equity Group Holdings Limited operated both as a licensed bank and a holding company for its subsidiaries. On 31 October 2014, Equity Bank announced its intention to incorporate a new, wholly owned subsidiary Equity Bank Kenya Limited, to which it would transfer its Kenyan banking business, assets and liabilities. By converting Equity Group Holdings Limited into a non-trading holding company (as defined under the Banking Act) that owns both banking and non-banking subsidiary companies and provides strategic, brand, risk and personnel management to its subsidiaries, the group would be better able to invest and develop the businesses. During an extraordinary shareholders general meeting held on 24 November 2014, it was resolved to restructure the firm, leading to the formation of Equity Bank Kenya Limited. Equity Bank Kenya won the most Socially Responsible Bank of the Year by the African Banker Awards for the year of 2019 and also Bank of the Year in Kenya award by The Banker for the year 2019. According to the business daily, the bank rebranded in 2019 in a bid to do business under one brand for the next phase of growth as the bank was marking 35 years. In 2020, Equity Bank acquired Banque Commercial Du Congo (BCDC). Ownership The Equity Bank Kenya Limited is wholly owned by the Equity Group Holdings, which has a customer base in excess of 14 million in six East African countries, making it one of the largest commercial banks on the African continent by number of customers. Branch network Equity Bank maintains a network of 190 branches across Kenya, which includes 52 branches in Nairobi. Governance The eight-member board of directors is chaired by Ambassador Erastus J O Mwencha. Gerald Warui, serves as the managing director of the bank. Controversies and fraud Equity Bank has found itself in the midst of controversies, especially cyber fraud associated with its ATM cards, Equitel SIM cards, and Eazzybanking (a mobile banking platform) services that lead to the loss of clients' savings. Although the cases are scattered, they have been relatively consistent recently, prompting the bank to issue statements warning customers about the same and adding more security layers to its services. For instance, the bank introduced a one-time PIN to its mobile banking and internet banking services. It is also suspected that some cases are a result of inside job from unethical employees and agents and that refunds are not guaranteed with some clients reporting threats and intimidation when making followups. In the past, Equity Bank employees have also been implicated in tax evasion scandals. In 2016, the bank surrendered two of its employees to the KRA for prosecution over their role in facilitating tax evasion, in which Ksh.124 million in import duty was lost. In January 2021, Equity Bank Congo was embroiled in a controversy with the Congolese Central Bank after its merger with the country’s second-largest bank, Banque Commerciale du Congo (BCDC). In the middle of the controversy was a memo in which James Mwangi unilaterally announced plans to integrate BCDC's operations and data into Equity Group's database, set up an initial management committee, and appoint two managing directors. The Banque Centrale du Congo disapproved of the decisions arguing that the "Legal and regulatory requirements do not allow for two managing directors to oversee one institution" and that Mr. Mwangi had no capacity to make the decisions as he was only a "representative of a shareholder and has not been mandated by the acquiring company to make decisions on its behalf." In May 2023, a customer sued the lender for an alleged breach of their privacy after the bank shared his information with an unauthorized third party without consent. In April 2024, reports emerged that a 7-day hackers expedition made away with Ksh 179,677,736 from 551 customers through debit card fraud. See also List of banks in Kenya Central Bank of Kenya
Columbia Pictures	[ "Columbia Pictures", "1918 establishments in California", "1924 establishments in California", "1920s initial public offerings", "Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange", "1982 mergers and acquisitions", "1989 mergers and acquisitions", "Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners", "American brands", "Coca-Cola acquisitions", "Companies based in Culver City, California", "Entertainment companies based in California", "Entertainment companies established in 1918", "Entertainment companies established in 1924", "Film distributors of the United States", "Film production companies of the United States", "Film studios in Southern California", "Mass media companies established in 1918", "Mass media companies established in 1924", "Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group", "Sony Pictures Entertainment", "Sony subsidiaries" ]	12,960	112,518	Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., doing business as Columbia Pictures and formerly Columbia Pictures Corporation, is an American film production and distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures, which is one of the "Big Five" film studios and a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. On June 19, 1918, brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and their business partner Joe Brandt founded the studio as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name on January 10, 1924 (operating as Columbia Pictures Corporation until December 23, 1968), went public two years later, and eventually began to use the image of Columbia, the female personification of the United States, as its logo. In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others such as the most successful two reel comedy series, The Three Stooges, Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbia's major contract stars were Jean Arthur and Cary Grant. In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studio's premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford and William Holden also became major stars at the studio. It is one of the leading film studios in the world, and was one of the so-called "Little Three" among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. Today, it has become the world's third largest major film studio. The company was also primarily responsible for distributing Disney's Silly Symphony film series as well as the Mickey Mouse cartoon series from 1929 to 1932. The studio is presently headquartered at the Irving Thalberg Building on the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (currently known as the Sony Pictures Studios) lot in Culver City, California, since 1990. Columbia Pictures is currently one of the five live-action labels of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, alongside TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, and 3000 Pictures. Columbia's most commercially successful franchises include Spider-Man, Jumanji, Ghostbusters, Men in Black, Robert Langdon, The Karate Kid, Sony's Spider-Man Universe, and Bad Boys, and the studio's highest-grossing film worldwide is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which grossed $1.92 billion worldwide. History Early years as CBC Film Sales (1918–1924) The studio was founded on June 19, 1918, as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jack's best friend Joe Brandt, and released its first feature film More to Be Pitied Than Scorned on August 20, 1922. The film, with a budget of $20,000, was a success, bringing in $130,000 in revenue for the company. Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood. The studio's early productions were low-budget short subjects: Screen Snapshots, the Hallroom Boys (the vaudeville duo of Edward Flanagan and Neely Edwards), and the Charlie Chaplin-imitator Billy West. The start-up CBC leased space in a Poverty Row studio on Hollywood's famously low-rent Gower Street. Among Hollywood's elite, the studio's small-time reputation led some to joke that "CBC" stood for "Corned Beef and Cabbage". Reorganization and new name CBC was reorganized as Columbia Pictures Corporation by brothers Harry and Jack Cohn and best friend Joe Brandt on January 10, 1924. Harry Cohn became president in 1932 and remained head of production as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He would run Columbia for a total of 34 years, one of the longest tenures of any studio chief (Warner Bros.' Jack L. Warner was head of production or CEO longer but did not become CEO until 1956). Even in an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was particularly notorious for having a number of Harry and Jack's relatives in high positions. Humorist Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, "because it has so many Cohns". Brandt eventually tired of dealing with the Cohn brothers, and in 1932 sold his one-third stake to Jack and Harry Cohn, who took over from him as president. Columbia's product line consisted mostly of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the second tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists and Universal. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was a horizontally integrated company. It controlled production and distribution; it did not own any theaters. Helping Columbia's climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra. Between 1927 and 1939, Capra constantly pushed Cohn for better material and bigger budgets. A string of hits he directed in the early and mid 1930s solidified Columbia's status as a major studio. In particular, It Happened One Night, which nearly swept the 1934 Oscars, put Columbia on the map. Until then, Columbia's business had depended on theater owners willing to take its films, since it did not have a theater network of its own. Other Capra-directed hits followed, including the original version of Lost Horizon (1937), with Ronald Colman, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), which made James Stewart a major star. In 1933, Columbia hired Robert Kalloch to be its chief fashion and women's costume designer. He was the first contract costume designer hired by the studio, and he established the studio's wardrobe department. Kalloch's employment, in turn, convinced leading actresses that Columbia Pictures intended to invest in their careers. In 1938, the addition of B. B. Kahane as vice president would produce Charles Vidor's Those High Grey Walls (1939), and The Lady in Question (1940), the first joint film of Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Kahane would later become the President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1959, until his death a year later. Columbia could not afford to keep a huge roster of contract stars, so Jack Cohn usually borrowed them from other studios. At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the industry's most prestigious studio, Columbia was nicknamed "Siberia", as Louis B. Mayer would use the loan-out to Columbia as a way to punish his less-obedient signings. In the 1930s, Columbia signed Jean Arthur to a long-term contract, and after The Whole Town's Talking (1935), Arthur became a major comedy star. Ann Sothern's career was launched when Columbia signed her to a contract in 1936. Cary Grant signed a contract in 1937 and soon after it was altered to a non-exclusive contract shared with RKO. Many theaters relied on westerns to attract big weekend audiences, and Columbia always recognized this market. Its first cowboy star was Buck Jones, who signed with Columbia in 1930 for a fraction of his former big-studio salary. Over the next two decades Columbia released scores of outdoor adventures with Jones, Tim McCoy, Ken Maynard, Jack Luden, Bob Allen (Robert (Tex) Allen), Russell Hayden, Tex Ritter, Ken Curtis, and Gene Autry. Columbia's most popular cowboy was Charles Starrett, who signed with Columbia in 1935 and starred in 131 western features over 17 years. Short subjects At Harry Cohn's insistence, the studio signed the Three Stooges in 1934. Rejected by MGM (which kept straight-man Ted Healy but let the Stooges go), the Stooges made 190 shorts for Columbia between 1934 and 1957. Columbia's short-subject department employed many famous comedians, including Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, Andy Clyde, and Hugh Herbert. Almost 400 of Columbia's 529 two-reel comedies were released to television between 1958 and 1961; to date, all of the Stooges, Keaton, Charley Chase, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, and Joe DeRita subjects have been released to home video. Columbia incorporated animation into its studio in 1929, distributing Krazy Kat cartoons, taking over from Paramount. The following year, Columbia took over distribution of the Mickey Mouse series from Celebrity Productions until 1932. In 1933, The Mintz studio was re-established under the Screen Gems brand; Columbia's leading cartoon series were Krazy Kat, Scrappy, The Fox and the Crow, and (very briefly) Li'l Abner. Screen Gems was the last major cartoon studio to produce black-and-white cartoons, producing them until 1946. That same year, Screen Gems shut down but had completed enough cartoons for the studio to release until 1949. In 1948, Columbia agreed to release animated shorts from United Productions of America; these new shorts were more sophisticated than Columbia's older cartoons, and many won critical praise and industry awards. In 1957, two years before the UPA deal was terminated, Columbia distributed the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including Loopy De Loop from 1959 to 1965, which was Columbia's final theatrical cartoon series. In 1967, the Hanna-Barbera deal expired and was not renewed. According to Bob Thomas' book King Cohn, studio chief Harry Cohn always placed a high priority on serials. Beginning in 1937, Columbia entered the lucrative serial market and kept making these weekly episodic adventures until 1956, after other studios had discontinued them. The most famous Columbia serials are based on comic-strip or radio characters: Mandrake the Magician (1939), The Shadow (1940), Terry and the Pirates (1940), Captain Midnight (1942), The Phantom (1943), Batman (1943), and the especially successful Superman (1948), among many others. Columbia also produced musical shorts, sports reels (usually narrated by sportscaster Bill Stern), and travelogues. Its "Screen Snapshots" series, showing behind-the-scenes footage of Hollywood stars, was a Columbia perennial that the studio had been releasing since the silent-movie days; producer-director Ralph Staub kept this series going through 1958. In the 1940s, propelled in part by the surge in audiences for their films during World War II, the studio also benefited from the popularity of its biggest star, Rita Hayworth. Columbia maintained a long list of contractees well into the 1950s; Glenn Ford, Penny Singleton, William Holden, Judy Holliday, The Three Stooges, Ann Miller, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Doran, Jack Lemmon, Cleo Moore, Barbara Hale, Adele Jergens, Larry Parks, Arthur Lake, Lucille Ball, Kerwin Mathews and Kim Novak. Harry Cohn monitored the budgets of his films, and the studio got the maximum use out of costly sets, costumes, and props by reusing them in other films. Many of Columbia's low-budget "B" pictures and short subjects have an expensive look, thanks to Columbia's efficient recycling policy. Cohn was reluctant to spend lavish sums on even his most important pictures, and it was not until 1943 that he agreed to use three-strip Technicolor in a live-action feature. Columbia was the last major studio to employ the expensive color process. Columbia's first Technicolor feature was the western The Desperadoes, starring Randolph Scott and Glenn Ford. Cohn quickly used Technicolor again for Cover Girl, a Hayworth vehicle that instantly was a smash hit, released in 1944, and for the fanciful biography of Frédéric Chopin, A Song to Remember, with Cornel Wilde, released in 1945. Another biopic, 1946's The Jolson Story with Larry Parks and Evelyn Keyes, was started in black-and-white, but when Cohn saw how well the project was proceeding, he scrapped the footage and insisted on filming in Technicolor. In 1948, the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust decision forced Hollywood motion picture companies to divest themselves of the theater chains that they owned. Since Columbia did not own any theaters, it was now on equal terms with the largest studios. The studio soon replaced RKO on the list of the "Big Five" studios. Screen Gems In 1946, Columbia dropped the Screen Gems brand from its cartoon line, but retained the Screen Gems name for various ancillary activities, including a 16 mm film-rental agency and a TV-commercial production company. On November 8, 1948, Columbia adopted the Screen Gems name for its television production subsidiary when the studio acquired Pioneer Telefilms, a television commercial company founded by Jack Cohn's son, Ralph. Pioneer had been founded in 1947, and was later reorganized as Screen Gems. The studio opened its doors for business in New York on April 15, 1949. By 1951, Screen Gems became a full-fledged television studio and became a major producer of sitcoms for TV, beginning with Father Knows Best and followed by The Donna Reed Show, The Partridge Family, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Monkees. On July 1, 1956, studio veteran Irving Briskin stepped down as manager of Columbia Pictures and formed his own production company Briskin Productions, Inc. to release series through Screen Gems and supervise all of its productions. On December 10, Screen Gems expanded into television syndication by acquiring Hygo Television Films (a.k.a. "Serials Inc.") and its affiliated company United Television Films, Inc. Hygo Television Films was founded in 1951 by Jerome Hyams, who also acquired United Television Films in 1955 that was founded by Archie Mayers. In 1957, two years before its parent company Columbia dropped UPA, Screen Gems entered a distribution deal with Hanna-Barbera Productions, which produced classic animated series such as The Flintstones, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Yogi Bear Show, Jonny Quest, The Jetsons and Top Cat among others. Screen Gems distributed the company's shows until 1967, when Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting. In 1960, the animation studio became a publicly traded company under the name Screen Gems, Inc., when Columbia spun off an 18% stake. 1950s By 1950, Columbia had discontinued most of its popular series films (Boston Blackie, Blondie, The Lone Wolf, The Crime Doctor, Rusty, etc.) Only Jungle Jim, launched by producer Sam Katzman in 1949, kept going through 1955. Katzman contributed greatly to Columbia's success by producing dozens of topical feature films, including crime dramas, science-fiction stories, and rock'n'roll musicals. Columbia kept making serials until 1956 and two-reel comedies until 1957, after other studios had abandoned these mediums. As the larger studios declined in the 1950s, Columbia's position improved. This was largely because it did not suffer from the massive loss of income that the other major studios suffered from the loss of their theaters (well over 90%, in some cases). Columbia continued to produce 40-plus pictures a year, offering productions that often broke ground and kept audiences coming to theaters. Some of its significant films from this era include the studio's adaptation of the controversial James Jones novel From Here to Eternity (1953), On the Waterfront (1954), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) with William Holden and Alec Guinness, all of which won the Best Picture Oscar. Another significant film of the studio was the free adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1956). Columbia also released the productions of the English studio Warwick Films (by producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli), as well as many films by producer Carl Foreman, who resided in England. Columbia distributed some films made by Hammer, which was also based in England. In December 1956, Jack Cohn, co-founder and executive vice-president, died. In 1958, Columbia established its own record label, Colpix Records, initially run by Jonie Taps, who headed Columbia's music department, and later Paul Wexler and Lester Sill. Colpix was active until 1966 when Columbia entered into a joint agreement with RCA Victor and discontinued Colpix in favor of its new label, Colgems Records. 1960s: After Harry Cohn's death Shortly after closing their short subjects department, Columbia president Harry Cohn died of a heart attack in February 1958. His nephew Ralph Cohn died in 1959, ending almost four decades of family management. The new management was headed by Abe Schneider, who had joined the company as an office boy out of high school and become a director in 1929, rising through the financial side of the business. In 1963, Columbia acquired music publisher Aldon Music. By the late 1960s, Columbia had an ambiguous identity, offering old-fashioned fare such as A Man for All Seasons and Oliver! along with the more contemporary Easy Rider and The Monkees. After turning down releasing Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions James Bond films, Columbia hired Broccoli's former partner Irving Allen to produce the Matt Helm series with Dean Martin. Columbia also produced a James Bond spoof, Casino Royale (1967), in conjunction with Charles K. Feldman, which held the adaptation rights for that novel. By 1966, the studio was suffering from box-office failures, and takeover rumors began surfacing. Columbia was surviving solely on the profits made from Screen Gems, whose holdings also included radio and television stations. On December 23, 1968, Screen Gems merged with Columbia Pictures Corporation and became part of the newly formed Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. for $24.5 million. Schneider was chairman of the holding company and Leo Jaffe president. Following the merger, in March 1969, CPI purchased Bell Records for $3.5 million (mainly in CPI stock), retaining Larry Uttal as label president. 1970s Nearly bankrupt by the early 1970s, the studio was saved via a radical overhaul: the Gower Street Studios (now called "Sunset Gower Studios") were sold and a new management team was brought in. In 1972, Columbia and Warner Bros. formed a partnership called The Burbank Studios, in which both companies shared the Warner studio lot in Burbank. In 1971, Columbia Pictures established sheet music publisher Columbia Pictures Publications, with vice president and general manager Frank J. Hackinson, who later became the president. In 1973, Allen & Co took a financial stake in Columbia Pictures Industries and Alan Hirschfield was appointed CEO, succeeding Leo Jaffe who became chairman. Stanley Schneider, son of Abe Schneider (who became honorary chairman before leaving the board in 1975) was replaced as head of the Columbia Pictures studio by David Begelman, who reported to Hirschfield. Some years later Begelman was involved in a check-forging scandal that badly hurt the studio's image. On May 6, 1974, Columbia retired the Screen Gems name from television, renaming its television division to the name of Columbia Pictures Television. The name was suggested by David Gerber, who was then president of Columbia's television division. The same year, Columbia Pictures acquired Rastar Pictures, which included Rastar Productions, Rastar Features, and Rastar Television. Ray Stark then founded Rastar Films, the reincarnation of Rastar Pictures, which was acquired by Columbia Pictures in February 1980. Columbia Pictures also reorganized its music and record divisions. Clive Davis was hired as a record and music consultant by Columbia Pictures in 1974 and later became temporary president of Bell Records. Davis's real goal was to revitalize Columbia Pictures' music division. With a $10 million investment by CPI, and a reorganization of the various Columbia Pictures legacy labels (Colpix, Colgems, and Bell), Davis introduced Columbia Pictures' new record division, Arista Records, in November 1974, with Davis himself owning 20% of the new venture. Columbia maintained control of the label until 1979, when it was sold to Ariola Records. In addition, Columbia sold its music publishing business (Columbia-Screen Gems) to EMI in August 1976 for $15 million. Both would later be reunited with Columbia Pictures under Sony ownership. In December 1976, Columbia Pictures acquired the arcade game company D. Gottlieb & Co. for $50 million. In 1978, Begelman was suspended for having embezzled money from Columbia. Hirschfield was forced out for his refusal to reinstate him. Begelman later resigned and was replaced by Daniel Melnick in June 1978. Fay Vincent was hired to replace Hirschfield. Frank Price became president of production in 1978. In March 1979, he would become president of Columbia Pictures, succeeding Melnick. During Price's tenure he was responsible for turning out 9 of the top 10 grossing films in Columbia's history. In the fall of 1978, Kirk Kerkorian, a Vegas casino mogul who also controlled Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, acquired a 5.5% stake in Columbia Pictures. He then announced on November 20, that he intended to launch a tender offer to acquire another 20% for the studio. On December 14, a standstill agreement was reached with Columbia by promising not to go beyond 25% or seeking control for at least three years. On January 15, 1979, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Kerkorian to block him from holding a stake in Columbia while controlling MGM. On February 19, 1979, Columbia Pictures Television acquired TOY Productions; the production company founded by Bud Yorkin and writers Saul Turteltaub and Bernie Orenstein in 1976. In May, Kerkorian acquired an additional 214,000 shares in Columbia, raising his stake to 25%. On August 2, the trial began; on August 14, the court ruled in favor for Kerkorian. In 1979, Columbia agreed with Time-Life Video to release 20 titles on videocassette. 1980s: Coca-Cola, Tri-Star, and other acquisitions and ventures On September 30, 1980, Kerkorian sued Columbia for ignoring shareholders' interest and violating an agreement with him. Columbia later accused him on October 2, of scheming with Nelson Bunker Hunt to gain control of Columbia. In 1981, Kerkorian sold his 25% stake in Columbia back to CPI. Columbia Pictures later acquired 81% of The Walter Reade Organization, which owned 11 theaters; it purchased the remaining 19% in 1985. Around this time, Columbia put Steven Spielberg's proposed follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Night Skies, into turnaround. The project eventually became the highest-grossing film of the time, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Columbia received a share of the profits for its involvement in the development. On May 17, 1982, Columbia Pictures acquired Spelling-Goldberg Productions for over $40 million. With a healthier balance-sheet (due in large part to box office hits like Kramer vs. Kramer, Stir Crazy, The Blue Lagoon, and Stripes), Columbia was bought by The Coca-Cola Company on June 22, 1982, for $750 million. Studio head Frank Price mixed big hits like Tootsie, Gandhi, The Karate Kid, The Big Chill, and Ghostbusters with many costly flops. To share the increasing cost of film production, Coke brought in two outside investors whose earlier efforts in Hollywood had come to nothing. In 1982, Columbia, Time Inc.'s HBO and CBS announced, as a joint venture, "Nova Pictures"; this enterprise was to be renamed Tri-Star Pictures. In 1983, Price left Columbia Pictures after a dispute with Coca-Cola and went back to Universal. He was replaced by Guy McElwaine. In the early 1980s, Columbia and Tri-Star Pictures set up a film partnership with Delphi Film Associates and acquired an interest in various film releases. In 1984, Delphi Film Associates III acquired an interest in the Tri-Star and Columbia film slate of 1984, which would make a $60 million offering in the financing of film production. Also that year, Columbia Pictures had bought out the rights to Hardbodies, which was once premiered on The Playboy Channel. Columbia Pictures expanded its music publishing operations in the 1980s, acquiring Big 3 Publishing (the former sheet music operations of Robbins, Feist, and Miller) from MGM/UA Communications Co. in 1983, Belwin-Mills Publishing from Simon & Schuster in 1985, and Al Gallico Music in 1987. On June 18, 1985, Columbia's parent acquired Norman Lear and Jerry Perenchio's Embassy Communications, Inc. (including Embassy Pictures, Embassy Television, Tandem Productions, and Embassy Home Entertainment), mostly for its library of television series such as All in the Family and The Jeffersons, for $485 million. On November 16, 1985, CBS dropped out of the Tri-Star venture. Many changes occurred in 1986. Expanding its television franchise, on May 5, Columbia's parent also bought Merv Griffin Enterprises for $250 million. The company was notable for: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Dance Fever, and The Merv Griffin Show. Months later on August 28, the Columbia Pictures Television Group acquired Danny Arnold's Danny Arnold Productions, Inc.. The deal included Arnold's rights to the sitcom Barney Miller (Four D Productions) among other produced series such as Fish (The Mimus Corporation), A.E.S. Hudson Street (Triseme Corporation), and Joe Bash (Tetagram Ltd.). Arnold had dropped the federal and state lawsuits against the television studio, who was accusing them of antitrust violations, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty. Coca-Cola sold the Embassy Pictures division to Dino de Laurentiis, who later folded Embassy Pictures into Dino de Laurentiis Productions, Inc. The company was renamed as De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Coca-Cola also sold Embassy Home Entertainment to Nelson Entertainment. Coca-Cola, however, retained the Embassy Pictures name, logo, and trademark. HBO was the last partner to drop out of the Tri-Star venture and sold its shares to Columbia Tri-Star later expanded into the television business with its new Tri-Star Television division. The same year, Columbia recruited British producer David Puttnam to head the studio. Puttnam attempted to defy Hollywood filmmaking by making smaller films instead of big tentpole pictures. His criticism of American film production, in addition to the fact that the films he greenlit were mostly flops, left Coke and Hollywood concerned. Puttnam then discontinued multi-picture pacts with various filmmakers, including Norman Jewison, which was permitted to expire before all of the promised product could be delivered. Under Puttnam's control, he set up a $270 million package of in-house pictures and acquisitions, and the average lineup of 25 features was expected to be $10.78 million, about $4 million less of the cost at Columbia before Puttnam came on board, and a number of low-cost acquisitions such as Spike Lee's $5 million picture School Daze. On October 22, 1986, Greg Coote was appointed by Columbia Pictures as key executive of the studio, to complement David Puttman's pledge on Columbia Pictures to fix its sights over its international market. On December 17, 1986, the company acquired a 30% share in Roadshow, Coote & Carroll, a company Greg Coote headed, and decided that they would pick up films and miniseries to put an effort to add it up to Columbia's shares, and listed dozens of theatrical and television films and dozens of miniseries throughout the addition of the Columbia slate. On June 26, 1987, Coca-Cola sold The Walter Reade Organization to Cineplex Odeon Corporation. On October 14, 1987, Coca-Cola's entertainment division invested in $30 million in Castle Rock Entertainment with five Hollywood executives. Coke's entertainment business division owned 40% in Castle Rock, while the execs owned 60%. Columbia Pictures Entertainment era (1987–1989) The volatile film business made Coke shareholders nervous, and following the critical and box-office failure of Ishtar, Coke spun off its entertainment holdings on December 21, 1987, and sold it to Tri-Star Pictures for $3.1 billion. Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. was renamed as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (CPE), with Coke owning 80% of the company. Both studios continued to produce and distribute films under their separate names. Puttnam was ousted from the position after only one year. Puttnam was succeeded by Dawn Steel. Other small-scale, "boutique" entities were created: Nelson Entertainment, a joint venture with British and Canadian partners, Triumph Films, jointly owned with French studio Gaumont, and which is now a low-budget label, and Castle Rock Entertainment. On January 2, 1988, Columbia/Embassy Television and Tri-Star Television were formed into the new Columbia Pictures Television and Embassy Communications was renamed as ELP Communications to serve as a copyright holder of the Embassy television productions. In early 1988, CPE relaunched Triumph Films as Triumph Releasing Corporation, which handled administrative services related to distribution of Columbia and Tri-Star's films for the North American market, while Triumph was responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of Columbia and Tri-Star films under the direction of each individual studio internationally, with Patrick N. Williamson serving as head of Triumph. On January 16, 1988, CPE's stock fell slightly in the market on its first day trading in the New York Stock Exchange. Coke spun off 34.1 million of its Columbia shares to its shareholders by reducing its stake in CPE from 80% to 49%. On April 13, 1988, CPE spun off Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. as a reformed company of the Tri-Star studio. In April 1988, CPE sold its music publishing operations to the British company Filmtrax. (Filmtrax was acquired by Thorn EMI in 1990.) In June 1988, CPE announced the sale of Columbia Pictures Publications (consisting of the print music operations) to the investment firm Boston Ventures and was renamed CPP/Belwin. CPP/Belwin was acquired by Warner Chappell Music of Warner Bros. in 1994. On February 2, 1989, Columbia Pictures Television formed a joint-venture with Norman Lear's Act III Communications called Act III Television (now Act III Productions) to produce television series instead of managing. Sony era (1989–present) On September 28, 1989, the Columbia Pictures empire was sold to the electronics giant Sony, one of several Japanese firms then buying American properties, for the amount of $3.4 billion. The sale netted Coca-Cola a profit from its investment in the studio. Sony then hired two producers, Peter Guber and Jon Peters, to serve as coheads of production when Sony also acquired the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company (the former game show production company, Barris Industries) for $200 million on September 29, 1989. Guber and Peters had just signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. in 1989, having been with the company since 1983. Warner Bros., then a subsidiary of Warner Communications, sued Sony for $1 billion. Sony completed CPE's acquisition on November 8, and the Guber-Peters acquisition was completed on the following day. On December 1, 1989, Guber and Peters hired a longtime lawyer of GPEC, Alan J. Levine, to the post of president and COO of Columbia's newly formed company Filmed Entertainment Group (FEG). FEG consisted of Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, Triumph Releasing, Columbia Pictures Television, Columbia Pictures Television Distribution, Merv Griffin Enterprises, RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (internationally known as RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video), Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, and ancillary and distribution companies. In 1990, Sony ended up paying hundreds of millions of dollars, gave up a half-interest in its Columbia House Records Club mail-order business, and bought from Time Warner the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio lot in Culver City, which Warner Communications had acquired in its takeover of Lorimar-Telepictures in 1989, thus ending the Burbank Studios partnership. Initially renamed Columbia Studios, Sony spent $100 million to refurbish the rechristened Sony Pictures Studios lot. Guber and Peters set out to prove they were worth this fortune, but though there were to be some successes, there were also many costly flops. The same year, Frank Price was made the chairman of Columbia Pictures. His company Price Entertainment, Inc., which he founded in 1987, was merged with Columbia in March 1991. Price left Columbia on October 4, 1991, and was replaced by Warner Bros. executive Mark Canton and reactivated Price Entertainment as Price Entertainment Company with a nonexclusive deal with SPE. Peters was fired by his partner Guber in 1991, but Guber later resigned in 1994 to form Mandalay Entertainment the following year. The entire operation was reorganized and renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) on August 7, 1991, and at the same time, TriStar (which had officially lost its hyphen) relaunched its television division in October. In December 1991, SPE created Sony Pictures Classics for arthouse fare and was headed by Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom, who previously operated United Artists Classics and Orion Classics. Publicly humiliated, Sony suffered an enormous loss on its investment in Columbia, taking a $2.7 billion write-off in 1994. John Calley took over as SPE president in November 1996, installing Amy Pascal as Columbia Pictures president and Chris Lee as president of production at TriStar. By the next spring, the studios were clearly rebounding, setting a record pace at the box office. On December 7, 1992, Sony Pictures acquired the Barry & Enright game show library. On February 21, 1994, Columbia Pictures Television and TriStar Television merged to form Columbia TriStar Television (CTT), including the rights to Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! after CTT folded Merv Griffin Enterprises in June. That same year, the company also purchased Stewart Television, known for producing game shows such as Pyramid and Chain Reaction, among others. On July 21, 1995, Sony Pictures teamed up with Jim Henson Productions and created the joint venture Jim Henson Pictures. In the 1990s, Columbia announced plans for a rival James Bond franchise since they owned the rights to Casino Royale and were planning to make a third version of Thunderball with Kevin McClory. MGM and Danjaq, LLC, owners of the franchise, sued Sony Pictures in 1997, with the legal dispute ending two years later in an out-of-court settlement. Sony traded the Casino Royale rights for $10 million, as well as the Spider-Man filming rights. The superhero became Columbia's most successful franchise: The first movie came out in 2002, and as of 2021, there have been seven follow-up movies with US grosses in excess of $2.5 billion. Between the releases of the first and second sequels in 2004 and 2007, Sony led a consortium that purchased MGM, giving it distribution rights to the James Bond franchise. In 1997, Columbia Pictures ranked as the highest-grossing movie studio in the United States, with a gross of $1.256 billion. In 1998, Columbia and TriStar merged to form the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group (a.k.a. Columbia TriStar Pictures), though both studios still produce and distribute under their own names. Pascal retained her position as president of the newly united Columbia Pictures, while Lee became the combined studio's head of production. On December 8, 1998, Sony Pictures Entertainment relaunched the Screen Gems brand as a horror and independent film distribution company after shutting down Triumph Films. In 1999, TriStar Television was folded into CTT. Two years later, CPT was folded into CTT as well. 2000s In the 2000s, Sony broadened its release schedule by backing Revolution Studios, the production/distribution company headed by Joe Roth. On October 25, 2001, CTT and Columbia TriStar Television Distribution (CTTD) merged to form Columbia TriStar Domestic Television and was renamed as Sony Pictures Television on September 16, 2002. Also in 2002, Columbia broke the record for biggest domestic theatrical gross, with a tally of $1.575 billion, coincidentally breaking its own record of $1.256 billion, set in 1997. The 2002 gross was primarily raised by such blockbusters as Spider-Man, Men in Black II, and XXX. The studio was also the most lucrative of 2004, with over $1.338 billion in the domestic box office with films such as Spider-Man 2, 50 First Dates, and The Grudge, and in 2006. Columbia's box office successes of 2006 included such blockbusters as The Da Vinci Code, The Pursuit of Happyness, Monster House, Casino Royale, and Open Season. The studio not only finished the year in first place, but also reached an all-time record high sum of $1.711 billion, which was an all-time yearly record for any studio. It was surpassed by Warner Bros. in 2009. 2010s On October 29, 2010, Matt Tolmach, the copresident of Columbia Pictures, stepped down to produce The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel. Doug Belgrad, the other copresident of Columbia, was promoted to sole president of the studio. Belgrad and Tolmach had been copresidents of the studio since 2008 and had been working together as a team since 2003. The same day, Hanna Minghella was named president of production of Columbia. On November 18, 2012, Sony Pictures announced it has passed the profit line of $4 billion worldwide with the success of Columbia's releases Skyfall, The Amazing Spider-Man, 21 Jump Street, Men in Black 3, and Hotel Transylvania and Screen Gems' releases Underworld: Awakening, The Vow, and Resident Evil: Retribution. On July 16, 2014, Doug Belgrad was named president of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group. He exited the post in June 2016. On June 2, Sanford Panitch, who had been the head of international local language production at the studio, was named president of Columbia Pictures. In 2019, Sony Interactive Entertainment launched PlayStation Productions with the purpose of adapting PlayStation game franchises into films and television shows and with this, an emphasis was placed on SIE working with Sony Pictures Entertainment, and thus most of the films from PlayStation Productions would be released under Columbia Pictures. In April 2021, Sony signed a deal with Netflix, Inc. and The Walt Disney Company that allows Sony's titles from 2022 to 2026 to stream on Netflix, Hulu and Disney+. Netflix signed for exclusive "pay 1 window" streaming rights, which is typically an 18-month window following its theatrical release, and Disney signed for "pay 2 window" rights for the films, which would be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu as well as broadcast on Disney's linear television networks. On December 17, 2021, Columbia released Spider-Man: No Way Home. The movie grossed over $1 billion in the box office, being the first film since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to gross $1 billion. The film became Sony Pictures' highest-grossing release. On January 10, 2024, Sony Pictures celebrated the centennial anniversary of the founding of Columbia Pictures with a new motion logo; the centennial print logo was previously revealed on November 14, 2023. The motion logo, which was used throughout Columbia's 2024 slate, made its theatrical debut in the 2024 re-release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). On January 31, 2024, it was announced that Columbia Pictures have collaborated with Kojima Productions for a game under the working title Physint. Described as both the film and game, it is scheduled to enter full development after Death Stranding 2. International film production In 1998, Columbia Pictures began launching local-language film units to produce local films in Brazil, Germany, Russia, Asia, India and had short-lived units in Spain and Mexico. Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion produces and markets films for German-speaking territories. The unit's first film was Anatomy, which became the highest-grossing German-language film of 2000. However, after the box office failures of What to Do in Case of Fire?, Viktor Vogel – Commercial Man, Big Girls Don't Cry and Anatomy 2, the unit was closed down in 2003. The unit was later revived in 2008, with its first film Friendship! being released in 2010. Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia produces and markets films for Chinese-language territories and was based in Hong Kong. The unit's notable productions are Not One Less, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Big Shot's Funeral and Kung Fu Hustle. The unit closed after the release of the Hong Kong film Jump in 2009. In 2014, Columbia Pictures began striking partnerships with Chinese production companies to make Chinese-language films starting with Monk Comes Down the Mountain in 2015. Logo The Columbia Pictures logo, featuring the Torch Lady, a woman carrying a torch and wearing a drape (representing Columbia, a personification of the United States), has gone through six major changes. It has often been compared to the Statue of Liberty, which was an inspiration to the Columbia Pictures logo. History Originally in 1924, Columbia Pictures used a logo featuring a female Roman soldier holding a shield in her left hand and a stick of wheat in her right hand, which was based on actress Doris Doscher (known as the model for the statue on the Pulitzer Fountain) as the Standing Liberty quarter used from 1916 to 1930, though the studio's version was given longer hair. In 1928, Columbia used two logos. The first introduced a new woman wearing a radiate crown and a peplos, and holding a torch in the center of a ribbon-shaped ring similar to the MGM logo, with the slogan "Gems of the Screen", itself a takeoff on the song "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean". The second had her wearing a draped flag and holding a torch that radiates flickers. The woman wore a headdress, the stola and carried the palla of ancient Rome, and above her are the words "A Columbia Production" ("A Columbia Picture" or "Columbia Pictures Corporation"), written in an arch. The illustration for the latter logo was based upon the actress Evelyn Venable, known for providing the voice of the Blue Fairy in Walt Disney's Pinocchio. The former logo continued to be in use for films intertitles with "The End" until 1933. Its slogan later inspired the renaming of the Charles Mintz Studio into Screen Gems. In 1936, the logo was changed into the well known look: the Torch Lady now stood on a pedestal, wore no headdress, and the text "Columbia" appeared in chiseled letters behind her. A new form of animation was used on the logo as well, with a torch that radiates light instead of flickers and a cloudy background. Pittsburgh native Jane Chester Bartholomew, whom Harry Cohn discovered working as an extra at Columbia, portrayed the Torch Lady in the logo. There were several variations to the logo over the years—significantly, a color version was done in 1943 for The Desperadoes. Two years earlier, the flag became just a drape with no markings. The latter change came after a federal law was passed making it illegal to wear an American flag as clothing. In the 1950s, the woman's robe was redrawn and shaded with a plunging neckline and an exposed slipper-clad foot. 1976's Taxi Driver was one of the last films released before the "Torch Lady" was revamped. A majestic horn sounder (a la 20th Century Fox) was used as the theme for the two 1928 logos and the 1936 logo. To date, the 1936 version is the studio's longest used logo after forty years. From 1955 to 1963, Columbia used the woman from the 1936 logo under the Screen Gems banner, officially billing itself as part of "the Hollywood studios of Columbia Pictures", as spoken at the end of some Screen Gems series. From 1976 to 1993, Columbia Pictures used two logos. The first, from 1976 to 1981 (or from 1975 for promotional material until 1982 for international territories) used just a sunburst representing the beams from the torch, although the woman appears briefly in the opening logo. The score accompanying the first logo was composed by Suzanne Ciani. The woman returned in 1981, but in a much smoother form described as resembling a Coke bottle. The studio hired visual effects pioneer Robert Abel to animate both logos, using over fifty light exposures that included streak and special filter passes. The slogans for the 1976 and 1981 logos were "Let us entertain you" and "Movies That Matter", respectively. Jane Chester Bartholomew was the studio's longest serving model of the Torch Lady from 1936 to 1993. From 1982 to 1985, Columbia used the 1981 logo for Triumph Films, with the woman under the Arc De Triomphe in the logo. During the studio's run with Coca-Cola, a golden version of the Torch Lady was used for the Columbia Pictures Television logo with the byline "A Unit of the Coca-Cola Company" from 1982 until 1987 when it was replaced with the 1981 version and the byline was removed after Coke sold Columbia to Tri-Star Pictures. The 1981 logo along with the 1936 and 1976 versions would be later used in 21st century Columbia releases, generally to match the year a given film is set in. In 1992, the longest-running, and perhaps best known, iteration of the logo was created; the television division was the first to use it. Films began to use the new logo the year after, when Scott Mednick and the Mednick Group were hired by Peter Guber to create logos for all the entertainment properties then owned by Sony Pictures. Mednick hired New Orleans artist Michael Deas, to digitally repaint the logo and return the woman to her "classic" look. An urban legend is that actress Annette Bening was the model for the current logo. Bening's face was later superimposed onto the Torch Lady in the opening intro of What Planet Are You From? (2000) as an inside joke. Michael Deas hired Jennifer Joseph, a 28-year-old graphics artist for The Times-Picayune, as a model for the logo. Due to time constraints, she agreed to help out on her lunch break. It was the first and only time she ever modeled. Joseph had recently discovered she was pregnant at the time. Deas also hired The Times-Picayune photographer Kathy Anderson to photograph the reference photography. The animation was created by Synthespian Studios in 1993 by Jeff Kleiser and Diana Walczak, who used 2D elements from the painting and converted it to 3D. Jonathan Elias composed the current logo's score. The studio being part of Sony would not be referenced on-screen until 1996. VHS promos featured the current logo with a stylized "75” behind the Torch Lady, commemorating the studio's 75th anniversary in 1999 with the slogan, "Lighting Up Screens Around the World". In 2012, the current logo was displayed as a painting at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Deas gave an interview to WWL-TV: "I never thought it would make it to the silver screen and I never thought it would still be up 20 years later, and I certainly never thought it would be in a museum, so it's kind of gratifying." On November 14, 2023, Sony unveiled a special centennial logo ahead the studios' 100th anniversary, consisting of the current Torch Lady within a stylized "100” and later posted an animation that showcases the older logos in the same vein as the Spider-Verse films on January 10, 2024, the 100th anniversary of the founding of Columbia Pictures. This logo was used on Columbia's 2024 releases. The current logo was also used for Screen Gems Network and Columbia Showcase Theatre, both now defunct programming blocks that featured syndicated airings of Sony Pictures-owned shows and films, respectively. Film series TitleRelease dateNo. FilmsNotes The Three Stooges 1934–65 200 190 short subjects from 1934 to 1959, and 10 feature films from 1941 to 1965 The Lone Wolf 1935–49 15 Charles Starrett 1935–52 131 Westerns, including 64 features as The Durango Kid Mr. Deeds 1936–2002 2 Blondie 1938–50 28 theatrical distribution only; co-production with King Features Syndicate Five Little Peppers 1939–40 4 Ellery Queen 1940–42 5 George Formby 1941–46 7 From South American George to George in Civvy Street; released by Columbia outside the United States Boston Blackie 1941–49 14 Cantinflas 1942–82 34 From Los tres mosqueteros to El barrendero; released by Columbia outside the United States Crime Doctor 1943–49 10 The Whistler 1944–48 8 Rusty 1945–49 8 Gene Autry 1947–53 33 Jungle Jim 1948–55 16Gasoline Alley 1951 2 13 Ghosts 1960–2001 Matt Helm 1966–68 4 The Trouble with Angels 2Guess Who 1967–2005 James Bond 1967–2015 5 From Casino Royale to Spectre; co-production with Famous Artists Productions (1967), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Eon Productions (both 2006–15) Death Wish 1974–82 2 International distributor; released in the US by Paramount Pictures and produced by Filmways Pictures Spider-Man 1977–81 3 International theatrical distribution only; co-production with Danchuck Productions and Charles Fries Productions Fun with Dick and Jane 1977–2005 2 The Blue Lagoon 1980–91 Gloria 1980–99 Annie 1982–2014 3 Co-production with Rastar, Overbrook Entertainment, Village Roadshow Pictures, Storyline Entertainment, Chris Montan Productions and Walt Disney Television (1999 TV movie only) Ghostbusters 1984–present 5 Co-production with Village Roadshow Pictures (2016) and Ghost Corps (2016–) The Karate Kid 1984–present 6 Co-production with Overbrook Entertainment (2010), China Film Group (2010), JW Productions (1984, 2010), Westbrook Studios (2025) and Sunswept Entertainment (2025) Flatliners 1990–2017 2 City Slickers 1991–94 Co-production with Castle Rock Entertainment, Nelson Entertainment (1991) and Face Productions My Girl Co-production with Imagine Entertainment El Mariachi 1992–2003 3 RoboCop 1993–2014 2 Co-production with Orion Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Little Women 1994–2019 Co-production with Di Novi Pictures (1994), Pascal Pictures and Regency Enterprises (2019) Street Fighter 1994–present 1 Co-production with Universal Pictures, Edward R. Pressman Productions, (both 1994) and Legendary Pictures (2026) Bad Boys 1995–present 4 Co-production with Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films, 2.0 Entertainment (2020–2024), Overbrook Entertainment (2020), and Westbrook Studios (2024) The Craft 1996–2020 2 Co-production with Red Wagon Entertainment and Blumhouse Productions I Know What You Did Last Summer 1997–present 3 Co-production with Mandalay Pictures Men in Black 1997–2019 4 Co-production with Amblin Entertainment Stuart Little 1999–2002 2 Co-production with Red Wagon Entertainment Anatomy 2000–03 Co-production with Claussen + Wöbke Filmproduktion Charlie's Angels 2000–2019 3 Co-production with Leonard Goldberg Productions, Flower Films, Tall Trees Productions (all 2000–03), Wonderland Sound and Vision (2003), 2.0 Entertainment, Brownstone Productions and Cantillon Company (all 2019) XXX 2002–05 2 Co-production with Revolution Studios Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2002–07 3 Co-production with Marvel Entertainment and Laura Ziskin Productions Terminator 2003–09 2 International distributor; co-production with Warner Bros. Pictures The Grudge 2004–06 Co-production with Ghost House Pictures Jumanji 2005–present 4 Are We There Yet? 2005–07 2 Co-production with Revolution Studios The Pink Panther 2006–09 Co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Robert Langdon 2006–16 3 Co-production with Imagine Entertainment and Relativity Media Ghost Rider 2007–11 2 Co-production with Marvel Entertainment, Crystal Sky Pictures, Hyde Park Entertainment, Saturn Films, Imagenation Abu Dhabi, and Relativity Media Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2009–13 Co-production with Sony Pictures Animation Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2009–15 Co-production with Happy Madison Productions Zombieland 2009–present Co-production with Pariah Grown Ups 2010–13 Co-production with Happy Madison Productions The Smurfs 2011–17 3 Co-production with Sony Pictures Animation and The K Entertainment Company Dragon Tattoo Stories 2011–18 2 Co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Jump Street 2012–14 Co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Relativity Media, and Original Film The Amazing Spider-Man Co-production with Marvel Hotel Transylvania 2012–22 4 Co-production with Sony Pictures Animation The Equalizer 2014–23 3 Co-production with Escape Artists Goosebumps 2015–18 2 Co-production with Sony Pictures Animation, Scholastic Entertainment and Original Film Angry Birds 2016–19 Co-production with Rovio Animation and Sony Pictures Animation (2019) Attraction 2017–20 Russian film; Co-production with Art Pictures Studio Marvel Cinematic Universe 2017–present 4 Co-production with Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (licensed only) Peter Rabbit 2018–21 2 Co-production with Sony Pictures Animation (2018), Animal Logic, Olive Bridge Entertainment and Screen Australia Sony's Spider-Man Universe 2018–24 6 Co-production with Marvel, Arad Productions, Matt Tolmach Productions and Pascal Pictures Spider-Verse 2018–present 2 Co-production with Marvel, Sony Pictures Animation, Pascal Pictures, and Lord Miller Productions Escape Room 2019–present Co-production with Original Film PlayStation films 2022–present Co-production with PlayStation Productions 28 Days Later 2025–present 1 Co-production with DNA Films, British Film Institute and Decibel Films Highest-grossing films +Highest-grossing films in North America Rank Title Year Gross 1Spider-Man: No Way Home ‡ 2021 $814,108,407 2Spider-Man ‡ 2002 $407,022,860 3Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle 2017 $404,540,171 4Spider-Man: Far From Home ‡ 2019 $390,532,085 5Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ‡ 2023 $381,593,754 6Spider-Man 2 ‡ 2004 $373,585,825 7Spider-Man 3 ‡ 2007 $336,530,303 8Spider-Man: Homecoming ‡ 2017 $334,201,140 9Jumanji: The Next Level 2019 $320,314,960 10Skyfall 2012 $304,360,277 11The Amazing Spider-Man ‡ 2012 $262,030,663 12Men in Black 1997 $250,690,539 13Ghostbusters 1984 $229,242,989 14Hancock 2008 $227,946,274 15The Da Vinci Code 2006 $217,536,138 16Venom: Let There Be Carnage 2021 $213,550,366 17Venom 2018 $213,515,506 18Bad Boys for Life 2020 $204,292,401 19The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ‡ 2014 $202,853,933 20Spectre2015 $200,074,609 2122 Jump Street 2014 $191,719,337 22Men in Black II 2002 $190,418,803 23Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2018 $190,241,310 24Hitch 2005 $179,495,555 25Men in Black 32012$179,020,854 +Highest-grossing films worldwide Rank Title Year Gross 1Spider-Man: No Way Home ‡ 2021 $1,916,306,995 2Skyfall 2012 $1,142,471,295 3 Spider-Man: Far From Home ‡ 2019 $1,131,927,996 4Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle 2017 $962,126,927 5Spider-Man 3 ‡ 2007 $894,983,373 6Spectre 2015 $880,674,609 7Spider-Man: Homecoming ‡ 2017 $880,166,924 8Venom 2018 $855,013,954 9Spider-Man ‡ 2002 $825,025,036 10Jumanji: The Next Level2019 $800,059,707 112012 2009 $791,217,826 12Spider-Man 2 ‡ 2004 $788,976,453 13The Da Vinci Code 2006 $758,239,851 14The Amazing Spider-Man ‡ 2012 $757,930,663 15The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ‡ 2014 $708,982,323 16 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ‡ 2023 $690,824,738 17Hancock 2008 $624,386,746 18Men in Black 3 2012 $624,026,776 19Casino Royale 2006 $606,099,584 20Quantum of Solace 2008 $589,580,482 21Men in Black 1997 $589,390,539 22The Smurfs 2011 $563,749,323 23Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation 2018 $528,583,774 24Venom: Let There Be Carnage 2021 $501,546,922 25Angels & Demons 2009 $490,875,846 ‡ Includes theatrical reissue(s). See also Further reading
Hella Katz	[ "1899 births", "1981 deaths", "Photographers from Lviv", "Austrian women photographers", "Jewish women artists", "20th-century Austrian businesswomen", "20th-century Austrian businesspeople", "Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom", "20th-century British women photographers", "20th-century British photographers", "Photographers from Vienna", "Austrian women company founders", "20th-century British businesswomen", "20th-century Austrian photographers", "Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)" ]	1,032	9,548	Hella Katz (20 September 1899 – 20 January 1981) was the professional name of the Jewish photographer Helene Katz. Arriving in Vienna at the beginning of World War I, Katz became an influential photographer in the city in the interwar period. She has photographs in the collections of the Vienna Museum. Early life Helene Katz was born on 20 September 1899 in Lemberg, in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, which at the time was administered under the terms of the Third Partition of Poland by Austria-Hungary. In 1914 during World War I, she fled from the Russian advance with her German-speaking, Jewish family from eastern Galicia, in what is now Ukraine, to Vienna. In 1915, she enrolled in the , from which she graduated in 1920. Career Katz practiced her craft of photography for two years before applying for her trade license in August 1922. Within three years, she opened her own studio at #18 Stubenring Boulevard. It was a favorable time for women to engage in business, as workers were scarce, and many businesses were understaffed. Women who wanted to enter the workforce found openings in the arts including dance, film, photography, and radio studios, as well as in the theater. Katz built her reputation as a portrait photographer, taking pictures of society figures as well as artists and performers. Her repertoire expanded to include nude photographs and modern dance and by the 1930s, Katz was one of the most well-known photographers in Vienna. She participated in several art exhibitions and attracted students. Among those who studied with her were , Hans Popper (later known as John H. Popper), and Anton Josef Trčka. When the Nazis came to power in early 1938, initially Katz was allowed to continue teaching. Until Kristallnacht, she continued teaching and was allowed to produce photographs for emigrating Jews. Because she had approval to engage in business, she was not placed under surveillance and was able to liquidate her business and vacate the premises under the terms of her lease by 30 April 1939. After having given her notice, Katz terminated her registration as an Austrian Jew on 20 March 1939 and made plans with the assistance of William L. Shirer to leave the country. In April, she registered in London with the Jewish Refugee Committee. In May, she asked the committee for help in locating a shipping company to arrange the shipping of her luggage to the United States, but did not ultimately leave England, having found lodging in Oxshott, Surrey. Back in Vienna, under the Aryanization Laws, Franz Jungwirth, a Nazi bureaucrat, was assigned to liquidate Katz's business. His report, made in July 1939, indicated that the only remaining property at her studio were a few cameras and accessories, and minimal furnishings of no value. Her archive of photographs and negatives had been lost or looted. After the war, in early 1948, Katz married Ronald Lowis, of Shildon. He was a tobacconist and very involved in the local Methodist church. She became involved in church work and only occasionally took photographs. Death and legacy Lowis died on 20 January 1981 in Darlington, County Durham. From 22 October 2012 through 3 March 2013, the Jewish Museum Vienna hosted an exhibition, Vienna’s Shooting Girls: Jewish Women Photographers from Vienna, which featured the work of forty Jewish women photographers, including Katz. In the interwar period, two-thirds of all photography studios in Vienna, had been run by Jewish women and the collection paid homage to their impact on the city. Some of Katz's work is preserved in the Vienna Museum in a special collection dedicated to photographers who took pictures of the avant-garde dancers of the interwar era. References Citations
Michael R. Eisenson	[ "American money managers", "Boston Consulting Group people", "Harvard University staff", "Living people", "Private equity and venture capital investors", "Williams College alumni", "Yale Law School alumni", "Yale School of Management alumni", "American chief executives of financial services companies", "Year of birth missing (living people)" ]	912	9,634	Michael R. Eisenson is a managing director and co-chairman of Charlesbank Capital Partners, LLC, a private equity investment firm based in Boston and New York. Eisenson co-founded the firm in 1998 and served as its CEO until 2017. Charlesbank raised its most recent fund, Charlesbank Equity Fund IX, in 2017, with $2.75 billion of investor commitments. Early life Eisenson earned a BA in economics summa cum laude from Williams College, where he now serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees, and a JD/MBA (1981) from Yale University. Career Eisenson previously managed certain assets of Harvard Management Company, where he worked from 1986 until the founding of Charlesbank, ultimately rising to managing director. From 1986 to 1988, Eisenson worked with a branch of Harvard Management Company, Harvard Private Capital Group, Inc., which solely managed the investment portfolio of Harvard University. Prior to his tenure at Harvard Management Company, Eisenson was with the management consulting firm, Boston Consulting Group. While at Harvard Management Company, Eisenson was the Harvard representative on the Board of Harken Energy when Harken purchased Spectrum VII, the oil company venture founded by George W. Bush. Harvard ultimately made a small profit on the transaction. A private equity firm, Charlesbank focuses on leveraged buyouts involving middle-market companies, companies with enterprise values of between $150 million and $1.5 billion. The firm has more than $5 billion in total assets. Charlesbank invests on behalf of pension funds, foundations, and endowments. Eisenson has said that he knows he is not always investing in the most glamorous industries, but said, "What we’re looking for are businesses that are undervalued by other people. Our hope is to find the $20 bill that looks like $5 to other people." Eisenson has also said that he will not make money "off misery and poor people," by investing in things like collections agencies. The name of the firm, Charlesbank, refers both to the Charles River that flows through Boston as well as the firm's history and connection to Harvard University, situated on the Charles. When the company was Harvard Management Company, the group managed a portfolio only for Harvard. Today, the firm has offices in New York City as well as Boston. Personal life Eisenson serves on the Board of Directors of Penske Auto Group and StoneCastle Partners. In 2017, he received the Myra H. Kraft Award for Non-Profit Leadership from the National Association for Corporate Directors. In 2011, he was recognized by the Outstanding Directors Exchange for his significant boardroom contributions. Eisenson is a trustee of The Boston Foundation, chairman of the Board of Williams College, trustee of the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and Vice Chairman of the Board of Berklee College of Music. He is also a founding director of Horizons for Homeless Children and was the 2013 recipient of the James J. Pallotta Award, given by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay in recognition of his significant contributions to help at-risk children. Eisenson and his wife Barbara live in Boston and have four grown children. Eisenson is Jewish and has pledged support to the Ruderman Family Foundation, which focuses on investing in the Jewish community and educational opportunities in Greater Boston. Eisenson has contributed to the political campaigns of Barack Obama, Martha Coakley, John Kerry, and Mitt Romney, among others. He enjoys skiing, travel, tennis, and music.
Calendar effect	[ "Calendar effect", "Market trends", "Behavioral finance" ]	716	5,673	A calendar effect (or calendar anomaly) is the difference in behavior of a system that is related to the calendar such as the day of the week, time of the month, time of the year, time within the U.S. presidential cycle, or decade within the century. It is most often used in a financial context to describe a market anomaly; traders may use market timing to profit from moves in stock prices based on the calendar. Examples Stock market Sell in May January effect January barometer Mark Twain effect The Congressional Effect Santa Claus rally Super Bowl indicator United States presidential election cycle Weekend effect: Over the very long run, on average, weekend returns in US stock prices have tended to be negative. Midweek effect: In the US, stock returns from between the Monday close and the Wednesday close have tended to grow at a near-constant rate since the 1880s. Other Grand supercycle Kondratiev wave July effect - risk of medical errors and surgical complications when new students start residencies Lunar effect - correlation between the lunar cycle and behavior and physiological changes Causes Market prices are often subject to seasonal tendencies because the availability and demand for an item is not constant throughout the year. For example, natural gas prices often rise in the winter because that commodity is in demand as a heating fuel. In the summer, when the demand for heat is lower, prices typically fall. Transactions and prices for housing are higher in the summer than in the winter. A 2018 study in the Eurozone concluded that calendar effects are not abnormal, citing the increase in market values around the end of the month, when employees are paid. Arguments that calendar effects do not exist or are not significant According to the efficient-market hypothesis, the calendar anomalies should not exist because the existence of these anomalies should be already incorporated in the prices of securities. A study published in 2001 argued that there is no statistically significant evidence for calendar effects in the stock market, and that all such patterns are the result of data dredging. However, there are contradictory findings and there is an ongoing debate on behavioral economics versus rational choice theory. According to a study published in 2015, calendar affects are a result of financial trends and the business cycle, which affects investor psychology.
Dubai Internet City	[ "2000 establishments in the United Arab Emirates", "Buildings and structures in Dubai", "Economy of Dubai", "Geography of Dubai", "History of Dubai", "Government-owned companies of Dubai", "Science parks in the United Arab Emirates", "Free-trade zones of the United Arab Emirates", "Information technology in the United Arab Emirates", "Information technology places" ]	1,395	16,280	Dubai Internet City (DIC) () is a neighborhood and an information technology and business park created by the Government of Dubai as a free economic zone in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. History Dubai Internet City, a member of Dubai Holding subsidiary TECOM Investments, was founded in October 1999, and it opened its doors in October 2000. It was established by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It housed 100 companies at the time of launch. In August 2000, Siemens Business Services (SBS), Cisco, and Sun Microsystems received Dubai Internet City’s first major infrastructure contracts. As of 2019, DIC housed over 1,600 companies and has become the regional base of many of the world's news agencies as well as the main digital content generator for Arabic media. Data center infrastructure provider Khazna announced it was establishing two new data centers in Dubai Internet City in 2022. In the same year, Intel announced the opening of its first artificial intelligence research and development center at Dubai Internet City. Visa established its headquarters for the CEMEA region and technology conglomerate Meta Platforms also established its regional headquarters in the UAE at Dubai Internet City in 2022. In December 2022, Dubai Internet City broke ground on a new area named Innovation Hub Phase 2. In 2023, Dubai Internet City signed a strategic partnership with German Entrepreneurship GmbH to provide support to German start-up companies seeking to do business in Dubai. In the same year, technology company Yango expanded its offices into Dubai Internet City. The economic rules of DIC allow companies to be exempt from all taxes and customs duty for a period of 50 years guaranteed by law. The park’s status as a free economic zone also allows it to offer 100% foreign ownership, similar to other designated economic zones in the United Arab Emirates. These freedoms have led many global information technology firms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Dell, Intel, Huawei, Samsung, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle Corporation, Tata Consultancy, 3M, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, HP, Nokia, Cognizant, Accenture, Hisense and as well as UAE-based companies such as Tecom Group, Ducont, to move their regional base to the DIC. DIC is located adjacent to other industrial clusters such as Dubai Media City and Dubai Knowledge Park (formerly Dubai Knowledge Village). Dubai Internet City is a frequent participant in the GITEX GLOBAL trade show. Dubai Internet City is about 25 kilometres south of downtown Dubai city, on Sheikh Zayed Road between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is located adjacent to Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Beach Residence and the well-known Palm Jumeirah, areas which are rapidly becoming three of the most exclusive (and expensive) residential areas of Dubai. DIC is less than 1 km away from the sea coast and is near several five-star hotels. The nearest metro station the eponymous Dubai Internet City station on the Red Line of the Dubai Metro, located on Sheikh Zayed Road. See also Dubai Internet City (Dubai Metro) Dubai Media City Dubai Knowledge Park Dubai Science Park Dubai Holding SmartCity Internet censorship in the UAE
S. Truett Cathy	[ "1921 births", "2014 deaths", "American billionaires", "American business writers", "American investors", "United States Army personnel of World War II", "American motivational writers", "Philanthropists from Georgia (U.S. state)", "American restaurateurs", "Baptists from Georgia (U.S. state)", "Businesspeople from Georgia (U.S. state)", "Cathy family", "Chick-fil-A", "Fast-food chain founders", "Georgia (U.S. state) Republicans", "Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state)", "People from Eatonton, Georgia", "People from Hapeville, Georgia", "People from Jonesboro, Georgia", "Southern Baptists", "United States Army soldiers", "Writers from Georgia (U.S. state)" ]	1,825	19,586	Samuel Truett Cathy (March 14, 1921 September 8, 2014) was an American businessman, investor, author, and philanthropist who founded the fast food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A in 1946. Early life Cathy was born on March 14, 1921, in Eatonton, Georgia, the son of Lilla James (née Kimball) and Joseph Benjamin Cathy. He attended Boys High School in Atlanta and later served in the United States Army during World War II. Cathy began the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville in 1946 with a restaurant called the Dwarf Grill, named for its size. It was there that he, with his brother and business partner Ben, created the chicken sandwich that later became the signature menu item for Chick-fil-A. From 1964 to 1967, the sandwich was licensed to over fifty eateries, including Waffle House and the concession stands of the new Houston Astrodome. The Chick-Fil-A sandwich was withdrawn from sale at other restaurants when the first standalone location opened in 1967, in the food court of the Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta. In April 2008, he opened Upscale Pizza in Fayetteville, Georgia. In November 2013, he retired as both chairman and CEO of Chick-fil-A, leaving his son, Dan Cathy, to assume the roles. Personal life He married Jeannette McNeil, and they had three children: Trudy, "Bubba" (Don), and Dan. Ministry He taught Sunday school to teenagers at the First Baptist Church of Jonesboro, Georgia, for over 50 years. Beliefs He said that the Bible is his guidebook for life. Due to his strong religious beliefs, all of the company's locations, whether company-owned or franchised, are closed on Sundays to allow its employees to attend church and spend time with their families. This policy began when Cathy was working multiple shifts, six days a week. He then decided to close on Sundays. Books Cathy wrote five books: the autobiography Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People, a motivational book entitled It's Easier to Succeed Than to Fail, the parenting book It's Better to Build Boys Than Mend Men, an explanation of his business success in How Did You Do It, Truett?, and a final book on the significance of money in today's society titled Wealth, Is It Worth It?. He also contributed to the anthologies What My Parents Did Right and Conversations on Success, and co-wrote with Ken Blanchard Generosity Factor: Discover the Joy of Giving Your Time, Talent, and Treasure. McDonough-Fayetteville Road in Fayette, Henry, and Clayton counties, is named in his honor. Cathy said that the motivational book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill was one of the greatest foundations for inspiration growing up. Philanthropy Cathy was closely involved in a sponsorship deal on the college football bowl game founded as the Peach Bowl; from 1997 to 2005, and again since 2014, it is known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, and was simply named the Chick-fil-A Bowl from 2006 to 2013. On October 28, 2006, Cathy received the last Taurus off the assembly line of Ford's Atlanta plant, in recognition of a 60-year relationship between him and the plant. Cathy had a Leadership Scholarship program for Chick-fil-A restaurant employees, which has awarded more than $23 million in $1,000 scholarships in the past 35 years. In 1984, Cathy established the WinShape Foundation, named for its mission to shape winners. In addition, Cathy fostered children for more than 30 years. He received the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership in 2008. Death Cathy died at his home on September 8, 2014, the age of 93 of complications from diabetes. The family held a public funeral service on Wednesday, September 10, at First Baptist Church, Jonesboro, Georgia. His interment was at Greenwood Cemetery. His widow, Jeannette Cathy, died in 2015 at age 92. Honors and memberships Cathy received numerous honors, including membership in Omicron Delta Kappa (ΟΔΚ), the National Leadership Honor Society. He received ΟΔΚ's highest award, the Laurel Crowned Circle Award in 2009. He also received the Norman Vincent and Ruth Stafford Peale Humanitarian Award, the Horatio Alger Award, the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership, and the Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo Award. Cathy was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2003. He was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Pi Fraternities. In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked Cathy as the 380th richest man in America and the 799th richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. President George W. Bush bestowed the President's Call to Service Award on Cathy in 2008. In 2013, he was inducted as a Georgia Trustee. The honor is given by the Georgia Historical Society, in conjunction with the Governor of Georgia, to individuals whose accomplishments and community service reflect the ideals of the founding body of Trustees, which governed the Georgia colony from 1732 to 1752. Honorary doctorates In 1997, he received an honorary degree in Doctor of Humane Letters from Oglethorpe University. Cathy was inducted into the Indiana Wesleyan University Society of World Changers on April 3, 2011. In addition to being inducted into the Society, the university conferred upon Cathy an honorary doctorate of business. In May 2012, Cathy received an honorary doctorate along with presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the Liberty University's spring commencement ceremony. In his remarks, Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee at the time, said, "The Romney campaign comes to a sudden stop when we spot a Chick-fil-A. Your chicken sandwiches were our comfort food through the primary season, and heaven knows there were days that we needed a lot of comfort." Romney congratulated Cathy on his "well-deserved honor today".
Jerry Finkelstein	[ "1916 births", "2012 deaths", "20th-century American Jews", "American newspaper publishers (people)", "American political fundraisers", "American reporters and correspondents", "George Washington Educational Campus alumni", "New York (state) Democrats", "Businesspeople from Manhattan", "Journalists from New York City", "20th-century American businesspeople", "21st-century American Jews" ]	1,048	8,700	Jerry Finkelstein (January 26, 1916 – November 28, 2012) was an American publisher, businessman and political insider. Among his publications were the New York Law Journal and The Hill. He was the father of former New York City Council President Andrew Stein. Early life and education Finkelstein was born to a Jewish family, the son of Albert Finkelstein, a small business owner in Manhattan. He attended George Washington High School and New York University. He graduated in 1938 from the New York Law School. Career and political influence After graduating from law school in 1938, instead of taking the bar exam, Finkelstein worked as a reporter at the New York Daily Mirror. In 1939, along with Arthur Brisbane's son, Seward Brisbane; he founded a newspaper called The Civil Service Leader, with public employees as the target audience. He ran unsuccessfully for the New York State Senate in 1942, the only time he ran for office. In 1949, Finkelstein successfully managed William O'Dwyer's mayoral re-election campaign; the following year, O'Dwyer appointed him director of the New York City Department of City Planning. In that role he frequently clashed with Robert Moses, who was successful in forcing him out after O'Dwyer resigned. In 1955 he opened a public relations firm; two years later, he merged with another public relations firm owned by Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg. The resultant firm became a major force in financial public relations; after becoming the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation for insider trading, it was dissolved. Finkelstein became chairman of Struthers Wells in 1961. He purchased the New York Law Journal in 1963 for $1 million. John F. Kennedy appointed him Chairman of the Fine Arts Gift Committee of the National Cultural Center (later, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts). In 1972, he was named commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by New York governor Nelson Rockefeller. Finkelstein helped fundraising efforts by John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, and also helped President Lyndon B. Johnson. His backing was instrumental in the election of his son, Andrew, to the New York State Assembly in 1968 (at the age of 23). Though a lifelong Democrat, he was also a key supporter of Republican Nelson Rockefeller's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. Late in his career, Finkelstein became a weekly newspaper mogul, amassing a stable of 23 newspapers in the New York metropolitan area and Washington D.C. These were part of the public company, News Communications, Inc. and Finkelstein was the long-time chairman of the board (1988–2009). The newspaper titles included The West Side Spirit and Our Town in New York City, Dan's Papers in the Hamptons and The Hill, in Washington, D.C., Finkelstein's crown jewel that was his creation. Many successful journalists and media executives worked for Finkelstein at News Communications, including Jim Rutenberg, Pulitzer Prize winning Times reporter; Tom Allon, who built two successful private media companies after serving as Finkelstein's right-hand man at News Communications; Michael Rothfeld, who won a Pulitzer at the Wall Street Journal and many others. News Communications was sold off in pieces by Finkelstein's son, Jimmy, who took over as CEO in 2001, after a brief stint under corporate vulture Wilbur Ross. Jimmy eventually sold The Hill in 2022 for $130 million to a national television company. Personal life and death In 1942 Finkelstein married Shirley Marks, to whom he remained married until her death in 2003. He had two sons, Andrew Stein and James Finkelstein (married and divorced from Cathy Frank, daughter of Sidney Frank and granddaughter of Lewis Rosenstiel). Finkelstein died on November 28, 2012, at his home in Manhattan. He was 96.
George David	[ "1942 births", "American technology chief executives", "Directors of Citigroup", "Harvard University alumni", "Living people", "Businesspeople from Wisconsin", "United Technologies people", "University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumni", "Directors of BP", "American chairpersons of corporations", "Episcopal Academy alumni" ]	727	7,396	George Alfred Lawrence David (born April 7, 1942) is the former chairman and chief executive officer of United Technologies Corporation. David was elected UTC’s president in 1992 and chief executive officer in 1994. He joined UTC’s Otis Elevator subsidiary in 1975 and became its president in 1986. Life and career David was born in Pennsylvania. His mother's name was Margaret; his father, Charles Wendell, was the director of libraries at the University of Pennsylvania and one of America's first Rhodes scholars. David left home after he graduated from high school in 1962 and enrolled in Harvard University on a full scholarship. He received his B.A. from Harvard and M.B.A. from the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is a board member of Citigroup, a member of The Business Council and the Business Roundtable, and Vice Chairman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He has served on the boards of the Graduate Business School at the University of Virginia, the National Minority Supplier Development Council, the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council, the Transatlantic Business Dialogue and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. In 1975 David began working for Otis Elevator Co., which was taken over by United Technologies Corp that same year. In 1999, the Russian Federation awarded David with the Order of Friendship for his contributions to that nation’s economy, particularly to its aerospace industry. In 2001, he received the Air Force Association's John R. Alison Award for contributions to national defense by an industrial leader. In 2002, France named him to its Legion of Honor. In 2000, he was named as one of America's Most Powerful People by Forbes magazine; and CEO of the Year by Industry Week in 2003. He was awarded "CEO of the Year 2005" by Chief Executive Magazine. In 2007, his last full year as chief executive of United Technologies Corp., David reaped $65 million in total compensation. He married his high school sweetheart, adopted three children with her and divorced her thirty later. In 2009, David divorced his second wife Marie Douglas-David. She contested a $43 million postnuptial agreement and requested a settlement of approximately $100 million. Marie Douglas-David ended up with only $5 million. In July 2012, David married Wendy Touton. A member of the New York Yacht Club and the Royal Yacht Squadron, he is an avid yachtsman and racer actively campaigning his R/P 90 named Rambler (formerly Alfa Romeo I, ex-Shockwave) in regattas around the world. He then owned the Rambler 100. The yacht capsized during the 2011 Fastnet race. All crew, including David and Wendy Touton, were rescued. In 2012 George David's maxi Rambler shattered the Newport to Bermuda Race record, shaving 14 hours off the previous fastest time recorded in the 635 mile race.
Health policy	[ "Health policy", "Health economics", "Politics by issue", "Publicly funded health care", "Health care", "Health", "Public health", "Public health education", "Universal health care", "Health sciences", "Primary care", "Health education", "Health law", "Health care reform", "Health insurance" ]	4,537	36,178	Health policy can be defined as the "decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society". According to the World Health Organization, an explicit health policy can achieve several things: it defines a vision for the future; it outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups; and it builds consensus and informs people. Different approaches Health policy often refers to the health-related content of a policy. Understood in this sense, there are many categories of health policies, including global health policy, public health policy, mental health policy, health care services policy, insurance policy, personal healthcare policy, pharmaceutical policy, and policies related to public health such as vaccination policy, tobacco control policy or breastfeeding promotion policy. Health policy may also cover topics related to healthcare delivery, for example of financing and provision, access to care, quality of care, and health equity. Health policy also includes the governance and implementation of health-related policy, sometimes referred to as health governance, health systems governance or healthcare governance. Conceptual models can help show the flow from health-related policy development to health-related policy and program implementation and to health systems and health outcomes. Policy should be understood as more than a national law or health policy that supports a program or intervention. Operational policies are the rules, regulations, guidelines, and administrative norms that governments use to translate national laws and policies into programs and services. The policy process encompasses decisions made at a national or decentralized level (including funding decisions) that affect whether and how services are delivered. Thus, attention must be paid to policies at multiple levels of the health system and over time to ensure sustainable scale-up. A supportive policy environment will facilitate the scale-up of health interventions. There are many aspects of politics and evidence that can influence the decision of a government, private sector business or other group to adopt a specific policy. Evidence-based policy relies on the use of science and rigorous studies such as randomized controlled trials to identify programs and practices capable of improving policy relevant outcomes. Most political debates surround personal health care policies, especially those that seek to reform healthcare delivery, and can typically be categorized as either philosophical or economic. Philosophical debates center around questions about individual rights, ethics and government authority, while economic topics include how to maximize the efficiency of health care delivery and minimize costs. The modern concept of healthcare involves access to medical professionals from various fields as well as medical technology, such as medications and surgical equipment. It also involves access to the latest information and evidence from research, including medical research and health services research. In many countries it is left to the individual to gain access to healthcare goods and services by paying for them directly as out-of-pocket expenses, and to private sector players in the medical and pharmaceutical industries to develop research. Planning and production of health human resources is distributed among labour market participants. Other countries have an explicit policy to ensure and support access for all of its citizens, to fund health research, and to plan for adequate numbers, distribution and quality of health workers to meet healthcare goals. Many governments around the world have established universal health care, which takes the burden of healthcare expenses off of private businesses or individuals through pooling of financial risk. There are a variety of arguments for and against universal healthcare and related health policies. Healthcare is an important part of health systems and therefore it often accounts for one of the largest areas of spending for both governments and individuals all over the world. Personal healthcare policy options Philosophy: right to health Many countries and jurisdictions integrate a human rights philosophy in directing their healthcare policies. The World Health Organization reports that every country in the world is party to at least one human rights treaty that addresses health-related rights, including the right to health as well as other rights that relate to conditions necessary for good health. The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) asserts that medical care is a right of all people: UDHR Article 25: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, illness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control." In some jurisdictions and among different faith-based organizations, health policies are influenced by the perceived obligation shaped by religious beliefs to care for those in less favorable circumstances, including the sick. Other jurisdictions and non-governmental organizations draw on the principles of humanism in defining their health policies, asserting the same perceived obligation and enshrined right to health. In recent years, the worldwide human rights organization Amnesty International has focused on health as a human right, addressing inadequate access to HIV drugs and women's sexual and reproductive rights including wide disparities in maternal mortality within and across countries. Such increasing attention to health as a basic human right has been welcomed by the leading medical journal The Lancet. There remains considerable controversy regarding policies on who would be paying the costs of medical care for all people and under what circumstances. For example, government spending on healthcare is sometimes used as a global indicator of a government's commitment to the health of its people. On the other hand, one school of thought emerging from the United States rejects the notion of health care financing through taxpayer funding as incompatible with the (considered no less important) right of the physician's professional judgment, and the related concerns that government involvement in overseeing the health of its citizens could erode the right to privacy between doctors and patients. The argument furthers that universal health insurance denies the right of individual patients to dispose of their own income as per their own will. Another issue in the rights debate is governments' use of legislation to control competition among private medical insurance providers against national social insurance systems, such as the case in Canada's national health insurance program. Laissez-faire supporters argue that this erodes the cost-effectiveness of the health system, as even those who can afford to pay for private healthcare services drain resources from the public system. The issue here is whether investor-owned medical insurance companies or health maintenance organizations are in a better position to act in the best interests of their customers compared to government regulation and oversight. Another claim in the United States perceives government over-regulation of the healthcare and insurance industries as the effective end of charitable home visits from doctors among the poor and elderly. Economics: healthcare financing Many types of health policies exist focusing on the financing of healthcare services to spread the economic risks of ill health. These include publicly funded health care (through taxation or insurance, also known as single-payer systems), mandatory or voluntary private health insurance, and complete capitalization of personal health care services through private companies, and medical savings accounts, among others. The debate is ongoing on which type of health financing policy results in better or worse quality of healthcare services provided, and how to ensure allocated funds are used effectively, efficiently and equitably. There are many arguments on both sides of the issue of public versus private health financing policies: Claims that publicly funded healthcare improves the quality and efficiency of personal health care delivery: Government spending on health is essential for the accessibility and sustainability of healthcare services and programmes. For those people who would otherwise go without care due to lack of financial means, any quality care is an improvement. Since people perceive universal healthcare as free (if there is no insurance premium or co-payment), they are more likely to seek preventive care which may reduce the disease burden and overall healthcare costs in the long run. Single-payer systems reduce wastefulness by removing the middle man, i.e. private insurance companies, thus reducing the amount of bureaucracy. In particular, reducing the amount of paperwork that medical professionals have to deal with for insurance claims processing allows them to concentrate more on treating patients. Claims that privately funded healthcare leads to greater quality and efficiencies in personal health care: Perceptions that publicly funded healthcare is free can lead to overuse of medical services, and hence raise overall costs compared to private health financing. Privately funded medicine leads to greater quality and efficiencies through increased access to and reduced waiting times for specialized health care services and technologies. Limiting the allocation of public funds for personal healthcare does not curtail the ability of uninsured citizens to pay for their healthcare as out-of-pocket expenses. Public funds can be better rationalized to provide emergency care services regardless of insured status or ability to pay, such as with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act in the United States. Privately funded and operated healthcare reduces the requirement for governments to increase taxes to cover healthcare costs, which may be compounded by the inefficiencies among government agencies due to their greater bureaucracy. Other health policy areas Health policy options extend beyond the financing and delivery of personal health care, to domains such as medical research and health workforce planning, both domestically and internationally. Medical research policy Medical research can be both the basis for defining evidence-based health policy, and the subject of health policy itself, particularly in terms of its sources of funding. Those in favor of government policies for publicly funded medical research posit that removing profit as a motive will increase the rate of medical innovation. Those opposed argue that it will do the opposite, because removing the incentive of profit removes incentives to innovate and inhibits new technologies from being developed and utilized. The existence of sound medical research does not necessarily lead to evidence-based policymaking. For example, in South Africa, whose population sets the record for HIV infections, previous government policy limiting funding and access for AIDS treatments met with strong controversy given its basis on a refusal to accept scientific evidence on the means of transmission. A change of government eventually led to a change in policy, with new policies implemented for widespread access to HIV services. Another issue relates to intellectual property, as illustrated by the case of Brazil, where debates have arisen over government policy authorizing the domestic manufacture of antiretroviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS in violation of drug patents. Health workforce policy Some countries and jurisdictions have an explicit policy or strategy to plan for adequate numbers, distribution and quality of health workers to meet healthcare goals, such as to address physician and nursing shortages. Elsewhere, workforce planning is distributed among labour market participants as a laissez-faire approach to health policy. Evidence-based policies for workforce development are typically based on findings from health services research. Health in foreign policy Many governments and agencies include a health dimension in their foreign policy in order to achieve global health goals. Promoting health in lower income countries has been seen as instrumental to achieve other goals on the global agenda, including: Promoting global security – linked to fears of global pandemics, the intentional spread of pathogens, and a potential increase in humanitarian conflicts, natural disasters, and emergencies; Promoting economic development – including addressing the economic effect of poor health on development, of pandemic outbreaks on the global market place, and also the gain from the growing global market in health goods and services; Promoting social justice – reinforcing health as a social value and human right, including supporting the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. Global health policy Global health policy encompasses the global governance structures that create the policies underlying public health throughout the world. In addressing global health, global health policy "implies consideration of the health needs of the people of the whole planet above the concerns of particular nations." Distinguished from both international health policy (agreements among sovereign states) and comparative health policy (analysis of health policy across states), global health policy institutions consist of the actors and norms that frame the global health response. EU health policy The EU contributes to the improvement of public health through financing and laws addressing medications, patient rights in cross-border healthcare, illness prevention, and the promotion of good health. EU countries hold primary responsibility for organizing and delivering health services and medical care. Therefore, EU health policy works to supplement national policies, assure health protection in all EU measures and to strengthen the Health Union. The goals of EU public health policies and initiatives are to protect and improve the health of EU residents, promote the modernization and digitalization of health systems and infrastructure, increase the resilience of Europe's health systems, and improve the ability of EU member states to prevent and respond to pandemics in the future. In a senior-level working group on public health, representatives from the European Commission and national governments debate strategic health concerns. The EU's health policy and yearly work programmes are implemented with the assistance of member states, institutions, and other interest groups. European Commission's role The European Commission's Directorate for Health and Food Safety assists member states in their efforts to protect and improve the health of their people and to guarantee the accessibility, efficiency, and resilience of their healthcare structures. This is accomplished in a number of ways, such as by proposing legislation, providing financial support, coordinating and facilitating the exchange of best practices between EU countries and health experts and by health promotion activities. Legislation The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union grants the EU the authority to enact health legislation in accordance with Article 168 (protection of public health), Article 114 (single market), and Article 153 (social policy). The EU has adopted legislation in following areas: Patient's rights in cross-border healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and medical devices (pharmacovigilance, falsified medicines, clinical trials), Health security and infectious diseases, Digital health and care, Tobacco, organs, blood, tissues and cells. The Council of the EU can also send recommendations on public health to member states. Patients' rights in cross-border healthcare EU citizens are entitled, by law, to receive healthcare in any member state of the EU and to have their home nation compensate them for care received elsewhere. The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) guarantees that essential medical care is given under the same conditions and at the same cost as people insured in that country. Medicines and medical devices The EU regulates the authorisation of medicines at EU level by the European Medicines Agency or at the national level by the appropriate authorities in the EU member states. Cross-border health threats To guarantee a high degree of health protection in the European Union, monitoring, early warning, preparedness, and reaction measures to counter major cross-border threats to health are crucial. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) offers EU member states independent scientific advice, support, and knowledge on public health risks, including infectious diseases. Promoting health and tackling diseases Cancer - In addition to its direct effects on people's health and well-being, cancer also affects public finances, healthcare and social systems, productivity, and economic growth, all of which depend on having a healthy labor force. A cancer screening recommendation was endorsed by the Council in 2003, and it encouraged EU nations to put in place population-based, quality-assured screening programs. Cancer screening was limited to breast, cervical and colorectal cancer, so in 2022 member states decided to expand the focus to include prostate, lung and gastric cancer. The EU has also passed a number of measures to shield workers from hazardous substances and chemicals, such as lead and substances that cause cancer and mutagenesis. Tobacco - With over 700 000 deaths annually, tobacco use is the single biggest preventable health risk and the leading contributor to premature mortality in the European Union (Approximately 50% of smokers pass away too soon, on average, 14 years before non-smokers). The tobacco products directive establishes guidelines for the production, labeling, and retailing of tobacco and associated goods. High tariffs on tobacco products were implemented by another directive on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco, with the goal of reducing tobacco consumption, particularly among youth. The 2009 Council recommendation on smoke-free environments requires all EU member states to take precautions against tobacco smoke exposure for individuals at public places and work. Vaccination - Vaccination policy is a competence of member states. The EU helps its member states coordinate their policies and initiatives. In December 2018 the Council approved a recommendation to enhance EU cooperation on diseases that can be prevented by vaccination. This project sets out guidance on addressing vaccine hesitancy, increasing vaccination rates, encouraging procurement coordination for vaccines, and supporting research and innovation. In December 2022, EU ministers of health approved Council conclusions on vaccination as one of the best methods for preventing illness and improving public health. The conclusions focus on two areas of action: fighting vaccine reluctance and preparing for upcoming challenges through EU cooperation. Investing in health The EU4Health program provides funds to tackle cross-border health concerns, improve the availability and cost of medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, other crisis-relevant items, and strengthen the resilience of health systems. Other EU programmes further finance healthcare systems, health research, infrastructure and other broader health-related issues, in particular Horizon Europe health cluster - supports innovation and research to create a resilient EU ready to face new challenges, for high-quality digital services that are available to everyone, and accessible, high-quality healthcare. EU cohesion funds - invest in health in EU countries and regions Resilience and recovery facility See also Global health Harm reduction Health Advocate Health care Health care reform Health economics Health equity Health insurance Health Insurance Innovations Health law Health promotion Journal of Public Health Policy Medical law National health insurance Patient safety Pharmaceutical policy Public health law Socialized medicine Two-tier health care
KKR & Co.	[ "Kohlberg Kravis Roberts", "Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies", "1976 establishments in New York (state)", "2010 initial public offerings", "American companies established in 1976", "Borden (company)", "Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange", "Financial services companies based in New York City", "Financial services companies established in 1976", "Hedge fund firms in New York City", "Investment banks in the United States", "Investment companies based in New York City", "Mezzanine capital investment firms", "Private equity firms of the United States", "Publicly traded companies based in New York City" ]	12,985	121,400	KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global private equity and investment company. , the firm had completed 770 private-equity investments with approximately $790 billion of total enterprise value. Its assets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $553 billion and $446 billion, respectively. KKR was founded in 1976 by Jerome Kohlberg Jr., and cousins Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts, all of whom had previously worked together at Bear Stearns, where they completed some of the earliest leveraged buyout transactions. Notable transactions by KKR include the 1989 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco as well as the 2007 buyout of TXU Energy, both of which, upon completion, were the largest buyouts ever to date. KKR is headquartered at 30 Hudson Yards, Manhattan, New York, with offices in Beijing, Dubai, Dublin, Houston, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Menlo Park, Mumbai, Paris, Riyadh, San Francisco, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo. In a 2016 interview with Bloomberg, founder Henry Kravis described KKR in terms of three broad buckets: private markets, public markets, and capital markets. Founding and early history While running the corporate finance department for Bear Stearns in the 1960s and 1970s, Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., and later Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts, completed a series of what they described as "bootstrap" investments. They targeted family-owned businesses, many of which had been founded in the years following World War II, that were facing succession issues. Many of these companies lacked a viable exit for their founders because they were too small to be taken public and the founders were reluctant to sell out to competitors. In 1964, Lewis Cullman acquired and then sold Orkin in what some call the first significant leveraged buyout transaction. In the following years the three Bear Stearns bankers completed a series of buyouts including Stern Metals (1965), Incom (a division of Rockwood International, 1971), Cobblers Industries ($27 million, 1971), and Boren Clay (1973), as well as Thompson Wire, Eagle Motors and Barrows through their investment in Stern Metals. Despite several highly successful investments, Cobblers ended in bankruptcy. By 1976, tensions had built up between Bear Stearns and Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, which led to the formation of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Most notably, Bear Stearns executive Cy Lewis had rejected repeated proposals to form a dedicated investment fund within Bear Stearns. The name had been planned to be Kohlberg Roberts Kravis, but public relations advisors preferred the sound of KKR. The new KKR completed its first buyout, of manufacturer A.J. Industries, in 1976. KKR raised capital from a small group of investors including the Hillman Company and First Chicago Bank. By 1978, with the revision of the ERISA regulations, KKR was successful in raising its first institutional fund with over $30 million of investor commitments. In 1981, KKR expanded its investor base after the Oregon State Treasury's public pension fund invested in KKR's acquisition of retailer Fred Meyer, Inc. Oregon State remains an active investor in KKR funds. In 1979, KKR completed a risky, precedent-setting $380 million public-to-private leveraged buyout of Houdaille Industries, a well-known producer of machine tools, industrial pipes, chrome-plated car bumpers and torsional viscous dampers. It soon ended in a spectacular failure, breakup of the half-a-century-old company and loss of thousands of jobs, even though creditors earned a profit. The firm's acquisitions during the 1980s buyout boom include: Investment Year acquired Description of transaction Ref. Malone & Hyde 1984 KKR completed the first buyout of this public company by tender offer, by acquiring the food distributor and supermarket operator together with the company's chairman Joseph R. Hyde III. Wometco Enterprises 1984 KKR completed the first billion-dollar buyout transaction to acquire the Wometco Enterprises, with interests in television, movie theaters, and tourist attractions. KKR acquired the company for $842 million plus the assumption of $170 million of outstanding debt. Beatrice Foods 1985 KKR sponsored the $6.1 billion management buyout of Beatrice, which owned Samsonite and Tropicana Products among other consumer brands. Beatrice was the largest buyout completed. Safeway Inc. 1986 KKR completed a friendly $5.5 billion buyout of Safeway to help management avoid hostile overtures from Herbert and Robert Haft of Dart Drug. Safeway was taken public again in 1990. Jim Walter Corp. (later Walter Energy) 1987 KKR acquired the company for $3.3 billion in early 1988 but faced issues with the buyout almost immediately. Most notably, a subsidiary of Jim Walter Corp (Celotex) faced a large asbestos lawsuit and incurred liabilities that the courts ruled would need to be satisfied by the parent company. In 1989, the holding company that KKR used for the Jim Walter buyout filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Buyout of RJR Nabisco At age 61, Kohlberg resigned in 1987. He later founded his own private equity firm, Kohlberg & Co.. Henry Kravis succeeded him as senior partner. Under Kravis and Roberts, the firm was responsible for the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. RJR Nabisco was the largest buyout in history at that time, at $25 billion, and remained the largest buyout for the next 17 years. The deal was chronicled in Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and later made into a television movie starring James Garner. In 1988, F. Ross Johnson was the president and CEO of RJR Nabisco, a leading producer of food and tobacco products, formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. In October 1998, Johnson proposed a $17 billion ($75 per share) management buyout of the company with the financial backing of investment bank Shearson Lehman Hutton and its parent company, American Express. Several days later, Kravis, who had originally suggested the idea of the buyout to Johnson, presented a new bid for $20.3 billion ($90 per share) financed with an aggressive debt package. KKR had the support of equity co-investments from pension funds and other institutional investors, including Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and United Technologies corporate pension funds, as well as endowments from MIT, Harvard and the New York State Common Retirement Fund. However, KKR faced criticism from existing investors over the firm's use of a hostile takeover in the buyout of RJR. KKR proposed to provide a joint offer with Johnson and Shearson Lehman but was rebuffed and Johnson attempted to stonewall KKR's access to financial information from RJR. Rival private equity firm Forstmann Little & Co. was invited into the process by Shearson Lehman but attempted to provide a bid for RJR with a consortium of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Procter & Gamble, Ralston Purina and Castle & Cooke. Ultimately, the Forstmann consortium came apart and did not provide a final bid for RJR. In November 1988, RJR set guidelines for a final bid submission at the end of the month. The management and Shearson group submitted a final bid of $112, a figure they felt certain would enable them to outflank any response by Kravis and KKR. KKR's final bid of $109, while a lower dollar figure, was ultimately accepted by the board of directors of RJR Nabisco. KKR's offer was guaranteed, whereas the management offer lacked a "reset", meaning that the final share price might have been lower than their stated $112 per share. Additionally, many in RJR's board of directors were concerned about disclosures of Ross Johnson's unprecedented golden parachute deal. Time magazine featured Johnson on the cover of its December 5, 1988 issue along with the headline, "A Game of Greed: This man could pocket $100 million from the largest corporate takeover in history. Has the buyout craze gone too far?". KKR's offer was welcomed by the board, and, to some observers, it appeared that the elevation of the reset issue as a deal-breaker in KKR's favor was little more than an excuse to reject Johnson's higher bid of $112 per share. Johnson received $53 million from the buyout. KKR collected a $75 million fee in the RJR takeover. At $31.1 billion of а transaction value including assumed debt, RJR Nabisco was, at the time, by far the largest leveraged buyout in history. Early 1990s: The aftermath of RJR Nabisco The buyout of RJR Nabisco was completed in April 1989 and KKR spent the early 1990s repaying the debt load through asset sales and restructuring transactions. KKR did not complete a single investment in 1990, the first such year since 1982. KKR began to focus primarily on its existing portfolio companies acquired during the buyout boom of the late 1980s. Six of KKR's portfolio companies completed IPOs in 1991, including RJR Nabisco and Duracell. In January 1990, KKR completed the sale of RJR's Del Monte Foods to a group led by Merrill Lynch. KKR had originally identified a group of divisions that it could sell to reduce debt. KKR contributed $1.7 billion of new equity into RJR in July 1990 to complete a restructuring of the company's balance sheet. KKR's equity contribution as part of the original leveraged buyout of RJR had been only $1.5 billion. In December 1990, RJR announced an exchange offer to swap debt in RJR for a new public stock in the company, effectively an unusual means of an initial public offering and simultaneously reducing debt on the company. RJR issued additional stock to the public in March 1991 to reduce debt further, resulting in an upgrade of the credit rating of RJR's debt from junk to investment grade. KKR began to reduce its ownership in RJR in 1994, when its stock in RJR was used as part of the consideration for its leveraged buyout of Borden, a producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products. In 1995, KKR divested itself of its final stake in RJR Nabisco when Borden sold a $638 million block of stock. While KKR no longer had any ownership of RJR Nabisco by 1995, its original investment was not be fully realized until KKR exited its last investment in 2004. After sixteen years of efforts, including contributing new equity, an IPO, asset sales, and exchanging shares of RJR for the ownership of Borden, KKR finally sold the last remnants of its 1989 investment. In July 2004, KKR agreed to sell its stock in Borden Chemical to Apollo Management for $1.2 billion. Early 1990s: Investments In the early 1990s, the absence of an active high yield market prompted KKR to change its tactics, avoiding large leveraged buyouts in favor of industry consolidations through what was described as leveraged buildups or rollups. One of KKR's largest investments in the 1990s was the leveraged buildup of Primedia (now Rent Group) in partnership with former executives of Macmillan Publishing, which KKR had failed to acquire in 1988. KKR created K-III Communications (now Rent Group), a platform to buy media properties, initially completing the $310 million divisional buyout of the book club division of Macmillan along with the assets of Intertec Publishing Corporation in May 1989. During the early 1990s, K-III continued acquiring publishing assets, including a $650 million acquisition from News Corporation in 1991. K-III went public, however instead of cashing out, KKR continued to make new investments in the company in 1998, 2000 and 2001 to support acquisition activity. In 2005, Primedia redeemed KKR's preferred stock in the company but KKR was estimated to have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on its common stock holdings as the price of the company's stock collapsed. In 1991, KKR partnered with Fleet/Norstar Financial Group in the 1991 acquisition of the Bank of New England, from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In January 1996, KKR exchanged its investment for a 7.5% interest in Fleet Bank. In 1992, KKR completed the buyout of American Re Corporation from Aetna as well as a 47% interest in TW Corporation, later known as The Flagstar Companies and owner of Denny's. Among the other notable investments KKR completed in the early 1990s included World Color Press (1993–95), RELTEC Corporation (1995) and Bruno's (1995). 1996–1999 By the mid-1990s, the debt markets were improving and KKR had moved on from the RJR Nabisco buyout. In 1996, KKR was able to complete the bulk of fundraising for what was then a record $6 billion private equity fund, the KKR 1996 Fund. However, KKR was still burdened by the performance of the RJR investment and repeated obituaries in the media. KKR was required by its investors to reduce the fees it charged and to calculate its carried interest based on the total profit of the fund (i.e., offsetting losses from failed deals against the profits from successful deals). KKR acquired Spalding Holdings Corporation and Evenflo in August 1996, Newsquest in January 1996, KinderCare Learning Centers in October 1996, Amphenol Corporation in January 1997, Randalls Food Markets in June 1997, MedCath Corporation in March 1998, The Boyds Collection in April 1998, Willis Group Holdings in July 1998, and Wincor Nixdorf in October 1999. KKR's largest investment of the 1990s was one of its least successful. In January 1998, KKR and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst agreed to the $1.5 billion buyouts of Regal Entertainment Group. KKR and Hicks Muse had initially intended to combine Regal with Act III Cinemas, which KKR had acquired in 1997 for $706 million and United Artists Theaters, which Hicks Muse had agreed to acquire for $840 million in November 1997. Shortly after agreeing to the Regal takeover, the deal with United Artists fell apart and the company was not able to scale up. In 2000, Regal encountered significant financial issues and filed bankruptcy protection and was acquired by Philip Anschutz. 2000–2005 Losses on such investments as Regal Entertainment Group, Spalding, Flagstar and K-III Communications (now Rent Group) were offset by successes in Willis Group, Wise Foods, Inc., Wincor Nixdorf and MTU Aero Engines, among others. The end of dot-com bubble affected buyout deals. In November 1999, KKR acquired Shoppers Drug Mart. KKR was able to realize its investment in Shoppers Drug Mart through a 2002 IPO and subsequent public stock offerings. In November 2002, KKR acquired Bell Canada Yellow Pages. In May 2004, directories business was sold in an initial public offering as Yellow Pages Income Fund, a Canadian income trust. In 2004, in a club deal and one of the largest buyouts in years, KKR, Bain Capital and Vornado Realty Trust acquired Toys "R" Us for $6.6 billion after outbidding Cerberus Capital Management, which offered $5.5 billion. In 2005, KKR partnered with Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Blackstone Group, Providence Equity Partners, and TPG Capital to acquire SunGard for $11.3 billion. This represented the largest leveraged buyout completed since the takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988. SunGard was the largest buyout of a technology company until the buyout of Freescale Semiconductor by affiliates of The Blackstone Group. The SunGard transaction was notable given the number of firms involved in the transaction, the largest club deal completed to that point. The involvement of seven firms in the consortium was criticized by investors in private equity who considered cross-holdings among firms to be generally unattractive. Buyout boom (2006–2007) In 2006, KKR raised $17.6 billion for the KKR 2006 Fund, with which the firm began executing a series of some of the largest buyouts in history. KKR's $44 billion takeover of Texas-based power utility TXU Energy in 2007 was the largest leveraged buyout of private equity in the 21st century and the largest buyout completed to date. Among the most notable companies acquired by KKR in 2006 and 2007 were the following: Investment Year Company description Ref. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)2006KKR and Bain Capital, together with Merrill Lynch and the Frist family (which had founded the company) completed a $31.6 billion acquisition of HCA 17 years after it was taken private for the first time in a management buyout. The HCA buyout was the first of several to set new records for the largest buyout, eclipsing the 1989 buyout of RJR Nabisco. It was later surpassed by the buyouts of EQ Office, and TXU Energy. NXP Semiconductors2006In August 2006, in a club deal, KKR, Silver Lake Partners and AlpInvest Partners acquired a controlling 80.1% share of semiconductors unit of Philips for €6.4 billion, which was renamed NXP Semiconductors. TDC A/S2006TDC A/S was acquired by KKR, Apax Partners, Providence Equity Partners and Permira for €12.2 billion, which at the time made it the second largest European buyout in history. Dollar General2007KKR acquired Dollar General for $6.9 billion Alliance Boots2007KKR and Stefano Pessina, the company's deputy chairman and largest shareholder, acquired Alliance Boots for £12.4 billion including assumed debt, after outbidding Terra Firma Capital Partners and Wellcome Trust. The buyout came a year after the merger of Boots Group plc (Boots the Chemist), and Alliance Healthcare. Biomet2007Blackstone Group, KKR, TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs acquired the medical devices company for $11.6 billion. First Data2007KKR and TPG Capital acquired First Data for $29 billion. Michael Capellas, previously the CEO of MCI Communications and Compaq was named CEO. TXU Energy (Energy Future Holdings)2007An investor group led by KKR and TPG Capital and together with Goldman Sachs acquired TXU Energy for $44.37 billion. The investor group had to work closely with ERCOT regulators to gain the approval of the transaction but had significant experience with the regulators from their earlier buyout of Texas Genco. TXU was the largest buyout in history. The deal was notable for a drastic change in environmental policy for the energy giant, in terms of its carbon emissions from coal power plants and funding alternative energy. KKR acquired a 40% stake in Longview Power Plant in 2006; it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020. In October 2006, KKR acquired a 50% stake in Tarkett, a France-based distributor of flooring products, in a deal valued at about €1.4 billion ($1.8 billion). In November 2006, KKR formed a A$4 billion partnership with the Seven Network of Australia. In January 2007, KKR invested $700 million through a private investment in public equity in Sun Microsystems. In January 2008, KKR made a $1.25 billion private investment in public equity in Legg Mason through a convertible preferred stock offering. On April 26, 2007, Harman International Industries entered an agreement to be acquired by KKR and Goldman Sachs for $8 billion. However, in September 2007, the agreement was terminated after a drop in earnings at Harmon during the Great Recession. Initial public offering (2007) In 2007, KKR filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $1.25 billion by selling an ownership interest in its management company. The filing came less than two weeks after the initial public offering of rival private equity firm Blackstone Inc. KKR had previously listed its KPE vehicle in 2006, but for the first time, KKR offered investors an ownership interest in the private equity firm itself. The onset of the credit crunch and the weak IPO market dampened the prospects of obtaining a valuation attractive to KKR. The flotation was repeatedly postponed and called off by the end of August. In July 2008, KKR announced a reverse takeover of its listed affiliate KKR Private Equity Investors in exchange for a 21% interest in the firm to become a public company. In November 2008, the transaction was delayed until 2009. Shares of KPE had declined significantly in the second half of 2008 due to the 2008 financial crisis. In October 2009, KKR listed shares in KKR & Co. on the Euronext exchange. In March 2010, KKR filed to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Trading commenced on July 15, 2010. 2010–2019 In December 2011, Samson Investment Company was acquired by a group of private equity investors led by KKR for approximately $7.2 billion and Samson Resources Corporation was formed. With the severe downturn in oil and natural gas prices, in September 2015, Samson filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and during its bankruptcy process, sold several large assets. In 2012, KKR made its first retail real-estate investment in Yorktown Center in Illinois. In March 2013, KKR sold its 51% stake in BMG Rights Management to Bertelsmann. In January 2014, KKR acquired Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc for $2.4 billion from two private equity companies - Stone Point, and Hellman & Friedman. In June 2014, KKR acquired a one-third stake in Spanish energy business Acciona Energy, at a cost of €417 million ($567 million). The international renewable energy generation business operates renewable assets, largely wind farms, across 14 countries including the United States, Italy and South Africa. In August 2014, KKR invested $400 million for 18% of Fujian Sunner Development, China's largest chicken farmer, which breeds, processes and supplies frozen and fresh chickens to consumers and corporate clients, such as KFC and McDonald's, across China. In September 2014, the firm invested $90 million in lighting and electrics firm Savant Systems. Also in 2014, KKR acquired commercial landscaping company ValleyCrest from Michael Dell's investment firm MSD Capital, and combined it with landscape company Brickman, which it had owned since 2013, to form BrightView. In January 2015, KKR acquired British rail ticket website thetrainline.com, previously owned by Exponent. In December 2015, KKR acquired a majority stake in Selecta Group, a European vending services operator, from Allianz Capital Partners. In 2016, KKR purchased two Hispanic grocery chains, Northern California Mi Pueblo and Ontario, California–based Cardenas. In February 2016, KKR invested $75 million in commercial real estate lender A10 Capital. In September 2016, KKR acquired Epicor, an American software company. In October 2016, KKR invested $250 million in OVH to be used for further international expansion. This funding round valued OVH at over $1 billion, making it a unicorn. In December 2016, KKR sold Capsugel for $5.5 billion to the Lonza Group. In March 2017, KKR partnered with a fund linked to Dell to acquire GfK. In July 2017, KKR acquired WebMD for $2.8 billion and, the following month, it acquired PharMerica for $1.4 billion including debt, Pepper Group Limited for $518 million, Covenant Surgical Partners, and Envision Healthcare Corporation's ambulance business (American Medical Response) for $2.4 billion. In July 2017, KKR merged Northern California Mi Pueblo and Ontario-based Cardenas Market. In September 2017, Toys "R" Us, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, stating the move would give it flexibility to deal with $5 billion in long-term debt, borrow $2 billion so it would be able to pay suppliers for the upcoming holiday season and invest in improving current operations. During 2017, KKR purchased an 80% stake in Dixon Hospitality Group for , renaming it Australian Venue Co. (AVC). It was expanded and then sold for US$900 million in 2023. In July 2018, KKR purchased RBMedia, one of the largest independent publishers and distributors of audiobooks. Also in July 2018, KKR acquired Taipei-based LCY Chemical for NT$47.8 billion ($1.56 billion US). Also in July 2018, KKR sold Gallagher Shopping Park in the West Midlands to Hana Financial Group for £175 million. In February 2019, KKR acquired Brightsprings, and in a May 2022 letter from four United States Senators including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, Joseph Bae and Scott Nutall were asked to explain the substandard care since the acquisition. Also in February 2019, KKR acquired Tele München Gruppe. It also acquired German film distributor Universum Film GmbH. In April 2019, KKR acquired German film production company Wiedemann & Berg Film Production. In July 2019, KKR acquired Corel. In August 2019, KKR acquired Arnott's Biscuits, the Australian snack unit of Campbell Soup Company, for $2.2 billion. Later that month, KKR became the biggest shareholder of German media group Axel Springer SE, paying $3.2 billion for a 43.54% stake. In August 2019, KKR also acquired a majority stake in Heidelpay from AnaCap Financial Partners for more than €600 million. In December 2019, KKR, together with Alberta Investment Management Corporation, acquired a 65% stake in the controversial Coastal GasLink Pipeline project from TC Energy. 2020–2024 In June 2020, KKR acquired OverDrive, Inc., a major distributor of e-books to libraries, which was merged with RBMedia, another KKR subsidiary. In March 2020, KKR acquired Viridor from Pennon Group for £4.2 billion. In May 2020, KKR investeed $750 million in cosmetics producer Coty. Also in May 2020, KKR invested $1.5 billion in Jio Platforms. In June 2020, KKR led a $48 million funding round for Artlist, a provider of royalty-free music, sound effects and video. In June 2020, KKR acquired Roompot Group, a provider of holiday parks in Europe, from French private equity firm PAI Partners for approximately €1 billion. In August 2020, a group primary represented by private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice acquired Epicor for $4.7 billion. In September 2020, KKR invested of $755 million in the retail arm of Reliance Industries. In November 2020, KKR partnered with Rakuten to acquire 85% of Seiyu Group, the Japanese nationwide retail chain owned by Walmart. In January 2021, KKR acquired a majority stake in the catalogue of American musician Ryan Tedder, including his band OneRepublic and the songs that he composed for other artists since 2016. In November 2021, KKR sold Audiobooks.com to streaming company Storytel for $135 million. Also that month, KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners acquired CyrusOne for $15 billion. In February 2022, KKR acquired 8.5% of Nexon. In April 2022, KKR acquired Mitsubishi UBS Realty, a Japanese real estate asset manager. In May 2022, KKR led about $200 million investment round in Semperis, a cybersecurity company focused on identity protection. In June 2022, KKR sold Cardenas to funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management. In June 2022, KKR rose to the top of Private Equity International's PEI 300 ranking for the first time, replacing Blackstone Inc. as the largest private equity firm in the world. KKR slipped back to second place in 2023 and 2024, before regaining top spot in the 2025 list. In July 2022, the company acquired a 25% stake in Northumbrian Water Group, a UK water utility company, from CK Infrastructure Holdings for approximately £870 million. In August 2022, KKR acquired Barracuda Networks from Thoma Bravo. In October 2022, KKR acquired ISO tank services provider Boasso Global from Apax Partners. In April 2023, KKR acquired a 30% stake in FGS Global that valued the company at about $1.4 billion. In October 2023, KKR acquired Simon & Schuster, a Big Five publisher, from Paramount Global for $1.6 billion. Simon & Schuster employees received employee stock ownership in the company on completion of the acquisition. In August 2023, KKR sold its controlling stakes in Australian Venue Co. to PAG for about . In October 2023, KKR secured a minority stake in Catalio Capital Management, a firm specializing in the management of venture capital and medical investment funds. In November 2023, KKR acquired Potter Global Technologies from Gryphon Investors. In January 2023, KKR invested 700 billion won in 2023 after the first purchase of 400 billion won in private equity bonds by Taeyoung Group holding company TY Holdings. In February 2024, KKR acquired the End-User Computing (EUC) division of VMware, which had been acquired by Broadcom, in a deal worth $3.8 billion. The division, renamed Omnissa, includes the VDI product Omnissa Horizon and the device management suite Workspace ONE UEM (formerly AirWatch). In April 2024, KKR acquired Indian company Healthium MedTech in an $839 million deal. In June 2024, KKR retained second spot in Private Equity International's 2024 PEI 300 ranking, behind Blackstone Inc. In June 2024, KKR acquired Superstruct Entertainment from Providence Equity, owner of European music festivals including Wacken Open Air (Germany), Boardmasters (UK) and Zwarte Cross (The Netherlands) for approximately €1.3 billion. In July 2024, KKR acquired a majority stake in the US-based solar energy and energy storage developer Avantus. In November 2024, CVC Capital Partners, TF1, RedBird Capital Partners, All3Media, Mediawan and KKR considered bidding for ITV plc and then selling ITV Studios and ITVX. 2025–present In January 2025, KKR acquired Dawsongroup. In February 2025, Assura, a British healthcare property developer, rejected a $2 billion takeover bid from KKR and Universities Superannuation Scheme. Also in February 2025, the company submitted a £4 billion equity bid to acquire a majority stake in Thames Water. However, on 3 June 2025, KKR pulled out of the deal. In February 2025, KKR acquired Fuji Soft via a tender offer, after a bidding war with Bain Capital. The company also acquired 54% of Healthcare Global Enterprises for $400 million. In April 2025, KKR, along with Stonepeak, agreed to acquire Assura plc, a UK-listed real estate company, its for £1.6 billion. It also acquired Datagroup for around $500 million. Also in April 2025, KKR agreed to acquire OSTTRA, a joint venture of S&P Global and CME Group, for $3.1 billion. OSTTRA provides post-trade services across interest rate, foreign exchange, equity and credit markets. In July 2025, KKR acquired ProTen from Aware Super. Management Senior leadership Chairmen: Henry Kravis and George Roberts (since 1987) Chief Executives: Scott Nuttall and Joseph Bae (since 2021) Former leaders Jerome Kohlberg Jr. (1976–1987); co-chairmen Henry Kravis, George R. Roberts, and Jerome Kohlberg Jr. (1976–1987); co-CEOs Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts (1987–2021); co-CEOs Controversies Investments in fossil fuel A report by the Private Equity Climate Risks project showed that despite stating that it would be dedicated to pursue a climate action strategy, KKR extensively invested in fossil fuel companies that were both harming local communities and destroying the environment. Investments in Israel and the West Bank KKR owns 36% of Axel Springer SE. Axel Springer owns Yad2, which allows classified ads for developments in the West Bank. 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests In December 2019, KKR, together with Alberta Investment Management Corporation, acquired a 65% stake in the controversial Coastal GasLink Pipeline project from TC Energy. The pipeline route crosses the territory of the Wetʼsuwetʼen Nation, which opposes the project. Enforcement of an injunction to build through the Wet'suwet'en territory led to the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests. Boycott of Superstruct Entertainment festivals The company's €1.3 billion purchase of Superstruct Entertainment in June 2024 led to the boycott of Superstruct Entertainment festivals due to the company's investments in Israeli settlements, weapons companies, and the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Superstruct operates music festivals such as Sónar, Field Day, Viña Rock, Resurrection Fest, O Son do Camiño, Monegros Desert Festival, Arenal Sound Festival, Granada Sound, Festival Internacional de Benicàssim and also by event broadcasters like Boiler Room. More than 70 artists of Sónar festival signed an open letter stating "we oppose any affiliation between the cultural sector and entities complicit in war crimes". More than 200 performers signed an open letter urging Field Day festival event organizers to cut ties with KKR. Boiler Room also issued a statement following pressure by artists and attendees explaining that they had no say on the acquisition by Superstruct Entertainment and reaffirmed their adherence to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement until international law and human rights are respected [by Israel]. Notable associates Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. - After a leave of absence due to illness in 1985, Kohlberg returned to find increasing differences in strategy with his partners, Kravis and Roberts. In 1987, Kohlberg left KKR to found a new private equity firm, Kohlberg & Company, which resumed the investment style that Kohlberg had practiced at Bear Stearns and in KKR's earlier years, acquiring smaller, middle-market companies. Henry Kravis George R. Roberts Scott C. Nuttall (born 1972) formerly headed KKR's fastest-growing department, the Global Capital and Asset Management Group. He joined KKR in November 1996 after leaving the Blackstone Group. With the support of co-founder George Roberts, Nuttall spearheaded the campaign to transform KKR from a private equity firm into an investment firm after noting lost opportunities amounting to billions of dollars that the company had had to turn down. He also has served on the board of Fiserv (a financial services firm) since it acquired, for $22 billion, in 2019, the KKR-backed First Data Corp. Nuttall was named co-president and co-COO, with Joseph Bae, on July 17, 2017, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the firm, concentrating on KKR's corporate and real estate credit, capital markets, hedge fund and capital raising businesses together with the firm's corporate development, balance sheet, and strategic growth initiatives. In 2021, he was promoted to co-CEO. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science degree. Joseph Bae (born 1972) joined KKR from Goldman Sachs in 1996. Most recently, he was the managing partner of KKR Asia and the global head of KKR's Infrastructure and Energy Real Asset businesses. Mr. Bae has been the architect of KKR's Asian expansion since 2005. He has been named co-president and co-chief operating officer with Scott Nuttall on July 17, 2017, to be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the firm. Bae focuses on KKR's global private equity businesses as well as the Firm's real asset platforms across energy, infrastructure, and real estate private equity. In 2021, he was promoted to co-CEO. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College. Alex Navab (1965–2019) joined KKR from Goldman Sachs in 1993 and was the former head of Americas Private Equity. After spending 24 years at the firm, he stepped down as part of the Nuttall-Bae transition and would retire. In September 2017, he was elected to Columbia University's board of trustees. He was born in Isfahan, Iran, but followed his family and became a refugee in Greece following the Iranian Revolution. They immigrated to the United States two years later. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College, Columbia University, and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. In 2016, he was honored with Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He died in July 2019 at age 53. Saul A. Fox left KKR in 1997 to found Fox Paine & Company, a middle market private equity firm with over $1.5 billion of capital under management Clifton S. Robbins left KKR to join competitor General Atlantic Partners in 2000 and later founded Blue Harbour Group, Edward A. Gilhuly and Scott Stuart left KKR in 2004 to launch Sageview Capital. Prior to this, Gilhuly was the managing partner of KKR's London-based European operations. Stuart had managed KKR's energy and consumer products industry groups. Ted Ammon, started several new ventures including Big Flower Press, which printed newspaper circulars, and Chancery Lane Capital, a boutique private equity firm, before being murdered in his Long Island home October 2001. The lover of his estranged, now deceased wife, Generosa Ammon, was later convicted. Paul Hazen, served as chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo (1995–2001). Hazen later returned to KKR to serve as chairman of Accel-KKR, a joint venture with Accel Partners, and later as chairman of KKR's publicly listed affiliate, KFN. Clive Hollick, CEO of United News and Media (1996–2005) Ken Mehlman joined KKR in 2008 as global head of public affairs. David Petraeus, selected to serve as chairman of the newly formed KKR Global Institute (2013—present) Joseph Grundfest, professor at Stanford Law School and youngest commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister of Australia. Publications about KKR Gross, Daniel & David Sterling. "". Slate, August 5, 2007 . The Times (London), August 6, 2005
Pension regulation	[ "Pension regulation", "Business law", "Pensions", "Economics of regulation", "Actuarial science", "Legal research" ]	494	4,384	Pension regulation is a legal term encompassing, the set of laws, rules and authoritative standards governing the pension industry, and the procedures needed to enforce them. Pension regulation varies widely from one jurisdiction to another - notably due to the persistence of discrepancies in the degree of autonomy and breadth of authority and discretionary power that national and regional pension regulators have at their disposal to enforce efficiently existing laws and regulations, in relation with local judicial practices and varying jurisprudential trends. Pension regulation seeks to provide the various norms and standards needed to foster market efficiency, consistency, transparency and accountability across the pension industry; it is a key driver of pension funds' risk management. In Europe, after the 2008 financial crisis, some pension experts such as Anton van Nunen argued that excessive or misplaced regulatory activism can sometimes have negative unintended consequences, notably when it comes to the strict enforcement of asset liability matching in times high market volatility and the systematic use of bonds-based risk metrics across all asset classes. Kinds of pensions Voluntary or mandatory Pension is voluntary, when employers are not required to offer a pension, and in case they do it, they have the right to decide about the volume and choose a type of pension. Mandatory pension system obliges all citizens to make pension savings. Universal or Means tested In case of universal pension every citizen gets a pension starting with a certain age. Means-tested social pensions are those where eligibility is based on a test of the income of an individual. PAYG or funded PAYG (pay-as-you-go) is when current contributions paid for current pensions. Funded system means that each individual's contributions pay directly for their pension benefits. Defined benefit (DB) or defined contribution (DC) This characteristic defines a party bearing a risk. Defined benefit: a person is provided with specified payments after retirement. Costs and risks relates to the provider. Defined contribution: employees and employers are allowed to contribute and invest funds over time to save for retirement. In this case payments depend on the financial system performance.
Beto O'Rourke	[ "Beto O'Rourke", "1972 births", "Living people", "20th-century American businesspeople", "21st-century American businesspeople", "21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives", "American Internet company founders", "American gun control activists", "American people of Irish descent", "American rock bass guitarists", "Businesspeople from Texas", "Candidates in the 2018 United States Senate elections", "Candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election", "Catholic politicians from Texas", "Columbia College (New York) alumni", "Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas", "El Paso City Council members" ]	15,891	158,807	Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke ( , ; ; born September 26, 1972) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Rourke was the party's nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2018, a candidate for the presidential nomination in 2020, and the party's nominee for the 2022 Texas gubernatorial election. O'Rourke was born into a local political family in El Paso, Texas, and is a graduate of Woodberry Forest School and Columbia University. While studying at Columbia, he began a brief music career as bass guitarist in the post-hardcore band Foss. After his college graduation, he returned to El Paso and began a business career. In 2005, he was elected to the El Paso City Council, serving until 2011; he served as mayor pro tempore during his first year in office. O'Rourke was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 after defeating eight-term incumbent Democrat Silvestre Reyes in the primary. After being re-elected to the House in 2014 and 2016, O'Rourke declined to seek another term in 2018. Instead, he sought the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Ted Cruz, running a competitive campaign that drew national attention. Despite losing the election to Cruz by a margin of 2.6%, O'Rourke set a record for most votes ever cast for a Democrat in an election in Texas. On March 14, 2019, O'Rourke announced his candidacy in the 2020 United States presidential election. He suspended his campaign on November 1, 2019, due to a lack of traction and financial issues. He later endorsed Joe Biden on the same day as Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg. On March 1, 2022, O'Rourke won the Democratic nomination for the Texas gubernatorial election. He was defeated by Republican incumbent Greg Abbott in the election. Early life Childhood and young adult years Robert Francis O'Rourke was born on September 26, 1972, at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in El Paso, Texas, to Pat O'Rourke and Melissa Martha O'Rourke. He is a fourth-generation Irish American. In his infancy, his family gave him the nickname "Beto" initially to distinguish him from his namesake grandfather. Pat O'Rourke served in public office in El Paso as County Commissioner and County Judge; he was an associate of Texas Governor Mark White, served as the state chairman of Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns, switched parties in the early 1990s, and made several failed attempts to win election to public office as a Republican. Jesse Jackson conducted a press conference on December 11, 1984, in the den of O'Rourke's boyhood home in Kern Place. In eighth grade, O'Rourke was introduced to punk rock through the Clash's London Calling(1979), an album he later called "a revelation". By the time he was 14 or 15 years old, he started going to local punk shows. He soon discovered Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.–based independent label with a catalog of punk music, and began reading punk zines like Maximumrocknroll and Flipside. O'Rourke felt alienated from the City of El Paso as an adolescent in the 1980s. He told The Texas Observer that, in the El Paso of his youth, "There was nothing dangerous. There was no energy. There was no risk." El Paso's punk scene, though small, helped O'Rourke find a sense of community in the city. As a teenager, O'Rourke was a member of the computer hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow, named after a shut-down Lubbock slaughterhouse. The group "is notorious for releasing tools that allowed ordinary people to hack computers running Microsoft's Windows". At O'Rourke's insistence, the group included female members, making it one of the few groups of that era to do so. O'Rourke has admitted that he stole long-distance phone service during his teen years in order to use his dial-up modem. O'Rourke wrote numerous poems and other texts for Cult of the Dead Cow under the pseudonym "Psychedelic Warlord", a name taken from a 1974 rock song by the band Hawkwind. O'Rourke has expressed regret over some fictional short stories he wrote as a teenager for the cDc private online forum which included sexual and violent themes. Education O'Rourke began his education at Escuela Montessori Del Valle preschool and continued to Rivera and Mesita Elementary Schools. In 1988, after two years at El Paso High School, he enrolled in Woodberry Forest School, an all-male boarding school in Madison County, Virginia. O'Rourke attended Columbia University, where in his junior year he co-captained Columbia's heavyweight rowing crew. He graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature. He is fluently bilingual in English and Spanish. Career Music O'Rourke had a brief career in music during his college years. He joined his first band, called Swipe, after he left El Paso to attend Columbia University in New York. Swipe played shows at bars and clubs in New York and once opened for the Olympia, Washingtonbased punk band Fitz of Depression. After being introduced to Bad Brains as a teen, O'Rourke became a fan of punk music. O'Rourke and two friends from El Paso, Mike Stevens and Arlo Klahr, learned to play musical instruments; O'Rourke took up the bass. In 1991, while at Columbia University, the trio recruited drummer Cedric Bixler-Zavala (eventual vocalist for At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta), and together they formed the band Foss. During the summer, they toured the United States and Canada, garnering the support of Feist. The group released a self-titled demo and a 7-inch record, "The El Paso Pussycats", on Western Breed Records in 1993. O'Rourke also played drums in the band Swedes, who released an album called Summer in 1995. O'Rourke and ex-members of Foss later started two other bands, a rock group called Fragile Gang and a cover band called The Sheeps. The DIY ethos O'Rourke had first encountered in the punk scene informed some of his later political decisions, such as his Senate campaign's pledge not to accept financial contributions from PACs (political action committees). Business After graduation, O'Rourke worked as a live-in caretaker and art mover before working for an Internet service provider run by his uncle. He later took a position at H. W. Wilson Company as a proofreader, and wrote short stories and songs in his free time. O'Rourke returned to El Paso in 1998. At first, he was working with computers as an inventory tracker at his mother's upscale furniture store and living in an apartment building owned by his father. O'Rourke said he wanted to address "brain-drain", or the exodus of youth caused by lack of opportunity. In 2000, he co-founded Stanton Street Technology Group, an Internet services and software company. With O'Rourke himself unable to obtain a loan, his father took out a $20,000 loan on his behalf. O'Rourke's wife, Amy, operated the business until June 2017. For a few years, the company also published an online newspaper, also called Stanton Street; the paper was a mix of arts and entertainment reviews, restaurant reviews and opinion columns that O'Rourke modeled on alternative periodicals like The Village Voice and New York Press. The company made a co-marketing agreement with local TV station, KTSM-TV, allowing StantonStreet.Com and the station's Internet site to share content and TV ads. KTSM's then news director, Eric Pearson, was O'Rourke's brother-in-law. O'Rourke was involved with El Paso civic organizations and nonprofit groups, such as the Rotary Club, United Way, and Center Against Sexual and Family Violence. He was a member of the boards of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for Policy and Economic Development at UTEP. Politics During his childhood, O'Rourke accompanied his father Pat at campaign stops and other political events. While Pat was charismatic and outgoing, his son was more reserved. Pat would nudge Beto, suggesting he introduce himself to someone. O'Rourke recalled, "I was an awkward and shy kid, so it was the last thing I wanted to do, but now I can look back and bless my experience in it." "Interestingly, his father was involved politically in El Paso growing up, and Beto would go to events...but I never saw Beto engaged with that arena," his mother recalled. O'Rourke cites his work on his magazine, not boyhood exposure to politics, as the reason behind his initial political ideas and ambitions. O'Rourke was inspired by the successful 2001 mayoral run of Ray Caballero, whose platform promoted the idea that El Paso was great. When Caballero failed to get re-elected, O'Rourke considered running for office. El Paso City Council (2005–2012) In mid-2005, O'Rourke ran for the El Paso City Council on a platform of downtown development and border reform. O'Rourke defeated two-term incumbent City Councilman Anthony Cobos, 57–43%. Byrd and Ortega were also elected; along with O'Rourke, they came to be referred to as "The Progressives". O'Rourke is one of the youngest representatives ever to have served on the City Council. In 2007, he won re-election to a second term, defeating Trini Acevedo, 70–30%. On June 14, 2005, at his first city council meeting, O'Rourke was chosen as mayor pro tem by unanimous vote. The mayor pro tem represents the city at meetings and ceremonial occasions when the mayor is unavailable, presides over City Council in the mayor's absence, appoints council members to legislative review committees and generally works in concert with the mayor in a leadership capacity. On June 20, 2006, he relinquished the position, saying, "I said I would take it on condition that someone else would it in a year. ... I hope it becomes a new tradition that every year, a new mayor pro tem is elected." O'Rourke was a supporter of a redevelopment plan for a depressed area of El Paso's business district with a high vacancy rate, which was also supported by Mayor John Cook and fellow City Councilwoman Susie Byrd. The initiative faced opposition from a small group of small businesses and Chicano activists who expressed concern about gentrification and the potential use of eminent domain. O'Rourke responded with an on-foot campaign to residents of the neighborhood and was met with support as well as some cynicism. An activist initiated a recall campaign against O'Rourke (which O'Rourke won), and a few downtown property owners filed two ethics complaints against him; the complaints were dismissed as unfounded. Ultimately, owing to the start of the Great Recession in the United States, the redevelopment plans were only partially realized. In January 2009, O'Rourke sponsored a resolution calling for "comprehensive examination" of the War on Drugs and "the repeal of ineffective marijuana laws". The resolution, unanimously supported by his colleagues on the El Paso City Council, was vetoed by Mayor John Cook. O'Rourke told reporters the reason he spoke up about the War on Drugs was the thousands of people who had been killed in the nearby city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. He said, "I hope it has all had its intended effect of starting the national discussion of the wisdom of the War on Drugs...and probably more importantly, helping to bring about a better solution than the status quo, which has led to the terror and tragedy in Juarez." U.S. House of Representatives (2013–2019) Elections 2012 In 2012, O'Rourke filed for the Democratic primary against the eight-term Silvestre Reyes to represent Texas's 16th congressional district. The primary was seen as the real contest in the heavily Democratic, Latino-majority district. Byrd ran O'Rourke's field operation and Escobar was head of communication. O'Rourke won 50.5 percent of the vote, just a few hundred votes above the threshold required to avoid a runoff against Reyes. He was contrasted with Reyes in his support for LGBT rights and drug liberalization. His campaign was largely on foot, and he reportedly knocked on 16,000 doors. He defeated his Republican opponent, Barbara Carrasco, in the general election with 65 percent of the vote. Upon O'Rourke's election, the district was no longer represented in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a 26-member group established in 1976, because he lacks Hispanic heritage. As the district was 80 percent Hispanic, with 77.6 percent of Hispanics being of voting-age, some officials, including David Austin, the El Paso–based border representative for the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition, argued that he should be permitted to join. For his part, O'Rourke said he respected the caucus's bylaws. As a Congressman, he held at least one town hall meeting every month. In March 2013, O'Rourke and Republican Steve Pearce of New Mexico introduced the Border Enforcement Accountability, Oversight, and Community Engagement Act, legislation proposed to establish an ombudsman within the Department of Homeland Security that would investigate allegations of violence and civil-rights violations by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, create a commission that would overview the agency's policies and provide insight on how to spend its $18 billion annual budget, increase the training required for officers and agents, and establish protocols under which the CBP would be required to report deaths at the border or agents' use of force. He co-sponsored the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, which was enacted in 2014. Notably, Section 506 allowed the CBP to enter into public-private partnerships with local entities to help fund overtime pay to customs officers at ports of entry, which helped fund the personnel to lower wait times at the border. El Paso was one of five cities chosen to participate in the program. During his bid for re-election in the fall of 2014, O'Rourke donated at least $28,000 from his own campaign funds to fellow Democratic candidates for House seats. O'Rourke was re-elected in 2014 with 67 percent of the vote. In November 2014, O'Rourke opposed Obama's deferred action policy that used an executive action to bypass Congress in order to spare approximately 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, saying "the motive is noble, but the means are really hard to stomach." O'Rourke was one of six members of Congress who took a six-day trip to Israel that included meetings with Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators, political leaders and residents. O'Rourke's previous decisions to vote against U.S. funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system and not attend Israel's prime minister's address to Congress had been controversial; the bill was easily passed in the House, with a 395–8 vote. While saying he was not against funding the project, he was reluctant to support sending $225 million to Israel without any debate or discussion, and said that the US's policy of "unequivocal support at times has been damaging to Israel." In June 2016, O'Rourke endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, being one of the last Democratic congressmen to support her during the primary. As a sitting member of Congress, O'Rourke was a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention. In October 2015, O'Rourke announced his bid for a third term in 2016. He won the Democratic primary and defeated his Green and Libertarian opponents in the general election. When Nancy Pelosi faced a leadership challenge from Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, O'Rourke backed Ryan. O'Rourke said that he believed in term limits, and therefore that it was time for new leadership. He had given himself a term limit in the House, and promised not to serve any more than 12 years in the Senate if elected. In 2017, the congressman, along with Steve Pearce of New Mexico and Eric Swalwell of California, sponsored the American Families United Act, which promoted the idea that US citizens have the right to sponsor their spouses for legal immigration. O'Rourke gave up his congressional seat to run for Senate in 2018. Committee assignments Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Caucus memberships New Democrat Coalition Congressional Arts Caucus Unsuccessful campaigns 2018 U.S. Senate campaign As O'Rourke was considering entering the 2018 U.S. Senate race in Texas, political experts considered him a "longshot" candidate. Ben Terris of The Washington Post said he was suffering from a "bug" causing "mass delusions that the old rules of politics no longer apply." He asked, "Can a Democrat really win in this deeply red state—against Cruz, who will be running one of the best-financed campaigns in the country? And can he do so on a positive message about Mexicans in an era when calling them rapists helped make a man president?" No Democrat had been elected to statewide office in Texas since 1994. On March 31, 2017, O'Rourke formally announced his candidacy for the United States Senate seat held by incumbent Republican Ted Cruz. In March 2018, O'Rourke became the Democratic Party nominee, winning 61.8 percent of the primary vote. O'Rourke campaigned in all of Texas's 254 counties. He said he planned to run a positive campaign, not focused on Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. O'Rourke's campaign received significant national attention for its ability to draw large crowds and extensive use of social media. He ran his campaign without professional pollsters or consultants, and relied on volunteers with no experience running a political campaign. His campaign employed the use of mass text messages. According to the 2018 third-quarter report from the FEC, his campaign spent 7.3 million on digital advertising alone (in contrast with Cruz's $251,000). His first ad was filmed on an iPhone. O'Rourke often highlighted his days as a rock musician with Foss in interviews. By March 2018, Dan Solomon of Texas Monthly remarked that O'Rourke "seemingly can't escape a single profile without the words 'punk rock Democrat' appearing in the headline". Political observers and journalists felt that O'Rourke's punk past became an important element of his image and political outlook. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Mimi Swartz expressed her belief that O'Rourke's former membership in a punk band had likely boosted his appeal with millennials. O'Rourke posted to social media daily, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and livestreamed his activities traveling the state, such as skateboarding in a Whataburger parking lot, washing clothes at a laundromat, and "blockwalking" in his constituents' neighborhoods. He encouraged supporters to post selfies they had taken with him to social media. Some of his videos went viral, including his position on NFL players "taking a knee" and police brutality against unarmed black men. Supporters said O'Rourke's "promise of compassion", more than any specific policy position, drew their support. Funding O'Rourke pledged not to accept PAC contributions for his Senate campaign. He raised $2 million within the first three months, mostly from small donations. During the campaign, PolitiFact rated his claim of not taking PAC money as "true". He received his first major organizational endorsement from End Citizens United in June 2017, which found that he had raised triple the funds of Cruz without accepting corporate special interest money. In the second quarter of 2018, he raised $10.4 million to Cruz's $4.6 million, with each candidate having raised $23 million by September 1. O'Rourke raised more than $38 million in the third quarter, three times Cruz's totals for the same period. It is the most raised in a U.S. Senate race in history. According to his campaign, the donations came from 802,836 individual contributions, mostly from Texas. When asked if he would share the funds with Democrats in other races, he declined, saying that he wanted to honor "the commitment that those who've contributed to this campaign have made to me." O'Rourke raised $80 million for the campaign, which was the highest amount ever raised by a U.S. Senate candidate. The first of three scheduled debates between O'Rourke and Ted Cruz took place on September 21, 2018. The candidates disagreed on gun rights, immigration, marijuana, the "take a knee" controversy, and the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. At the end of the debate, the moderator asked the candidates to "say something nice about each other". O'Rourke praised Cruz's parenting. Cruz compared O'Rourke to Bernie Sanders, saying he "admired [his] willingness to stand up for socialist beliefs and high taxes." O'Rourke replied, "True to form." Analysts described Cruz as more experienced and aggressive, but said O'Rourke won over the crowd. Cruz declined to participate in the third, town hall-style debate for CNN held on October 18, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. O'Rourke agreed to attend the town hall meeting alone. During the meeting, O'Rourke said he did not see himself running for president because he has young children. He said he regretted calling Ted Cruz "Lyin' Ted", a nickname given to Cruz by Donald Trump. He confirmed that he would vote to impeach and indict Trump. He defended his Spanish nickname against accusations of cultural appropriation. O'Rourke's Senate bid was endorsed by the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Singer and activist Willie Nelson endorsed O'Rourke and held a rally for him on September 29 in Austin, Texas; Nelson said, "Beto embodies what is special about Texas, an energy and an integrity that is completely genuine." At the end of the rally, Nelson debuted his new election-inspired song "Vote 'Em Out". Other celebrity endorsements included Beyoncé, Khalid, Aaron Jones, Eva Longoria, LeBron James, Jim Carrey, Travis Scott, Ellen DeGeneres, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Kelly Rowland. Polls and news coverage On September 18, 2018, a Quinnipiac poll based on phone interviews put Cruz nine points ahead of O'Rourke among likely voters, but a September 19 Ipsos online poll done in conjunction with Reuters and the University of Virginia showed O'Rourke leading Cruz by two points. Going into the third debate on October 18, 2018, a CNN poll, conducted by SSRS, showed Cruz leading the campaign 52 percent to 45 percent among likely voters. The media made comparisons between O'Rourke's Senate campaign and Obama's 2008 campaign for president, drawing parallels between their charismatic speaking styles, optimistic tones, and the nationwide attention their campaigns generated. Peter Hamby of Vanity Fair compared the energy at O'Rourke's rallies to the energy at Obama's rallies in 2007. Results On November 6, 2018, Cruz defeated O'Rourke, 50.9%–48.3%. Despite his loss, O'Rourke was credited for the election of several down-ticket candidates of the Democratic Party, which some called the "Beto Effect". For example, Republicans lost control of the Texas Third and Fifth Courts of Appeals in the 2018 elections. Of 150 state House seats, 12 formerly Republican seats were taken by Democrats, as well as two of the state's 31 state Senate seats. O'Rourke received over four million votes, compared to Hillary Clinton, who received only 3.9 million votes in the 2016 presidential election in Texas, and David Alameel, the Democratic nominee in the 2014 Texas Senate race, who received only 1.6 million votes. O'Rourke set a record for most votes ever cast for a Democrat in Texas history. 2020 presidential campaign In late 2018, speculation began that O'Rourke might run in the United States presidential election in 2020. Prior to the midterm elections, The New Republic said O'Rourke's Senate campaign was the beginning of a bid for the presidency, despite calling it "journalistic hedging", or a justification for the media extensively covering a candidate who was expected to lose his race. Democratic strategist Maria Cardona said he has "name recognition, a widely successful fundraising operation, a young fresh face with a sprinkling of woke, a cool persona, a new perspective, he speaks Spanish and would be an exciting and upbeat candidate." The possibility of an O'Rourke candidacy made some Democratic party donors hesitant to commit to other candidates. On March 13, El Paso TV station KTSM-TV reported that O'Rourke had decided to run for president in 2020. O'Rourke confirmed speculation the following day by announcing that he was entering the presidential race. According to Politico, during his presidential race, O'Rourke presented his 2018 loss to Cruz as a prominent selling point. O'Rourke announced the end of his campaign for president on November 1, 2019. He endorsed Joe Biden at a rally in Dallas, Texas, on March 2, 2020, one day before Super Tuesday. 2022 Texas gubernatorial election O'Rourke announced his bid for Governor of Texas in the 2022 gubernatorial election on November 15, 2021. He challenged incumbent Republican Greg Abbott. During his announcement video, O'Rourke called the 2021 Texas power crisis a "symptom of a much larger problem". With no serious primary challenge, O'Rourke won the Democratic nomination for governor in March 2022. Given Texas's Republican lean, polls showed O'Rourke as the underdog in the race against Abbott. In the general election, O'Rourke was defeated by Abbott, earning 43.8% of the vote to the latter's 54.9%. The gubernatorial election marked O'Rourke's third consecutive failed run for elected office and raised questions regarding his political future. 2019–2021 activities In December 2019, O'Rourke founded the political action committee "Powered by People". The group is a hybrid PAC, which works like a super PAC and a traditional PAC. After his 2020 presidential campaign ended, O'Rourke campaigned for Texas House of Representatives candidates such as Eliz Markowitz and Lorraine Birabil. During the multiple crises that Texas faced as a result of the February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm, O'Rourke organized virtual phone banks to perform wellness calls and offer assistance to senior citizens. He claimed that the volunteers he had organized had made 784,000 phone calls in a single day on February 18, 2021. Political positions Political analysts classify O'Rourke as a progressive, liberal, neoliberal, or centrist. During his time in Congress, O'Rourke was a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a Third Way, pro-business caucus. The National Journal rates him 93% liberal and 7% conservative. Describing himself, O'Rourke has said that he does not know where he falls on the political spectrum. He has sponsored bipartisan bills as well as broken with his party on issues like trade. GovTrack placed O'Rourke near the ideological center of the Democratic Party; American for Democratic action gave him a liberal rating of 90 percent, while the American Conservative Union gave him an 8% conservative rating. According to FiveThirtyEight, which tracks congressional voting records, O'Rourke voted in line with Donald Trump 30.1 percent of the time during the 115th Congress. Bipartisanship Allegheny College bestowed the 2018 Prize for Civility in Public Life to O'Rourke together with Will Hurd, a Texas Republican. In March 2017, facing snowstorm-induced flight cancellations, O'Rourke and Hurd, both stuck in San Antonio, needed to get back to Washington for a House vote. They rented a car and embarked on a drive that they captured on Facebook Live. O'Rourke and Hurd have worked collaboratively on legislation since the road trip. Business O'Rourke supports stronger antitrust laws to break up monopolies which he believes "stifle competition and innovation." He promotes industry and business regulations meant to promote competition, help the economy to grow, and protect consumers. He believes, "We must connect those out of work with the high value jobs being created right here in Texas by investing in the training, certification and apprenticeship programs that make it possible." He has received high scores from labor unions with lifetime and yearly position scores of 90–100 percent from the AFL–CIO and a 95 percent lifetime score from AFSCME. Crime In an essay he wrote for Houston Chronicle, he repeated a common refrain of his campaign, that "Harris County Jail is the largest provider of mental health services in our state," and quoted the statistic that "the jail has more people receiving psychiatric treatment every day than the nine state mental hospitals in Texas combined." He proposed that politicians work to eliminate private, for-profit prisons, end the "war on drugs", stop using mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent drug offenses, end cash bail that disproportionately affects those unable to pay bail with longer jail sentences, and provide reentry programs to reduce recidivism for non-violent criminals. Drugs O'Rourke favors the legalization of cannabis. In 2011, O'Rourke co-authored a book, Dealing Death and Drugs: The Big Business of Dope in the U.S. and Mexico, which in part argues for an end to the prohibition of marijuana to reduce drug-related violence and undermine the finances of the Mexican drug cartels. He has called for the arrest records of individuals sentenced for possession of small amounts of cannabis to be expunged. During the 2018 Senate campaign, O'Rourke's opponent, Ted Cruz, claimed that O'Rourke sought to legalize heroin; in 2009 when O'Rourke was an El Paso city council member he called for "honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition on narcotics". Education O'Rourke favors increasing federal aid to public schools in low-income communities. He believes that teachers and local education officials should have more autonomy in setting classroom standards while reducing the current emphasis on "arbitrary, high-stakes tests". During his 2020 presidential election campaign, O'Rourke released a $500 billion education plan "committed to closing funding gaps [and] creating incentives for states and districts to guarantee fair funding for public schools and pay teachers professional wages." Additionally, during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign in Texas, O'Rourke supported increasing teacher's salaries and funding to public schools. He also opposed school vouchers, claiming that voucher systems lead to money flowing to private schools instead of public schools. Further, he advocated that public schools should receive funding based on student enrollment figures instead of attendance figures, arguing that the current attendance-based system deprives public schools of funding to educate the estimated 260,000 Texas public school students who do not attend school regularly. O'Rourke said he would focus less on cultural issues in education, like critical race theory and transgender children in sports- key issues for some conservative politicians- and focus more on educational outcomes such as "reading, graduation and college preparedness." Environment While attending Woodberry Forest School, O'Rourke along with a circle of friends founded an environmental group called the Terra Interest Society. Before he was elected to city council, he joined neighborhood and community efforts to stop the re-permitting of the local ASARCO copper smelter, and once he was on the city council, he made several efforts to ensure that the copper smelter did not re-open. O'Rourke supports efforts to combat global warming. He has advocated putting a price on carbon emissions and wants to substantially increase the use of renewable energy. He has been a vocal critic of the Trump Administration's elimination of greenhouse gas regulations and the shrinking of the budget for environmental projects. In 2012, O'Rourke stated that "in tackling climate change and the greatest environmental threat we have ever faced, we need to take unprecedented action in building a foundation for a clean energy economy". He added, "Educating our fellow Americans about this threat to our quality of life is important to our success, and I will do all I can to make this issue a top priority in Congress." O'Rourke has introduced legislation to establish a national monument at Castner Range, near El Paso, and successfully included a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act to protect the area, which includes a historic military training facility. O'Rourke holds a lifetime voting record of 95 percent and a 2017 score of 100 percent with the League of Conservation Voters' national environmental ranking. Foreign policy O'Rourke criticized Israel's actions during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict and voted against funding Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. O'Rourke criticized Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu following his comments about annexing the settlements in the occupied West Bank after the 2019 Israeli election, calling him a "racist". In April 2019, he called the U.S.–Israel relationship "one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet." O'Rourke criticized Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses and the intervention it leads in support of the government of Yemen against the Houthis. In 2016, O'Rourke voted against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allows relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for its government's alleged role in the attacks. In October 2018, after President Trump indicated the U.S. would not sanction Saudi Arabia over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, O'Rourke stated: "Saudi Arabia must be held accountable. We must stop rewarding their bad behavior, whether it's what they've just done in the murder of a journalist or their export of those who are spreading a hateful ideology or their indiscriminately bombing civilians in Yemen." O'Rourke supported the Iran nuclear deal regarding Iran's development of weapons of mass destruction. In August 2017, O'Rourke criticized Trump's hard-line stance towards North Korea, saying that "We must not allow this president to sleepwalk this country, or tweet this country, into war with North Korea." In March 2019, O'Rourke called for ending the U.S.–led Iraq War and War in Afghanistan. O'Rourke opposed the U.S. involvement in the Syrian Civil War and providing arms to the rebel fighters in Syria. He also criticized the NATO-led military intervention in Libya a "factor in the destabilization of the Middle East and the rise of ISIS." O'Rourke supported legislation to curtail NSA's broad and unwarranted surveillance of U.S. and foreign citizens. In July 2018, O'Rourke said that Trump's performance while attending the 2018 Russia–United States summit in Helsinki warranted impeachment. Addressing the Trump–Putin joint press conference of July 16, he said standing "on stage in another country with the leader of another country who wants to and has sought to undermine this country, and to side with him over the United States—if I were asked to vote on this I would vote to impeach the president." On March 23, 2019, O'Rourke accused President Trump of collusion with Russia to "undermine and influence" U.S. elections. In March 2019, O'Rourke said regarding the China–United States trade war that President Trump had a "legitimate" cause and "We want him to be successful in this, but as I was reminded by a fellow Iowan, when have we ever gone to war, including a trade war without allies?" In an interview with ABC, O'Rourke suggested that the United States address the migrant caravan by investing in stability in countries where the migrants originate, countries in the Northern Triangle of Central America. O'Rourke said that U.S. involvement in Central America "has not been a very positive one over the last 60 years. You can go back to the coup [in Guatemala] that overthrew Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, fully backed by the Eisenhower administration and the Dulles brothers, who had an interest in the United Fruit company, whose fight with the government really precipitated the crisis that led to the coup." In February 2024, O'Rouke expressed support of a campaign to vote "uncommitted" in the 2024 Michigan Democratic presidential primary, arguing it would put pressure on President Biden to bring an end to the Gaza war. Guns On the evening of June 22, 2016, O'Rourke participated in the sit-in in the House of Representatives that attempted to force a vote on gun control legislation. When the Republicans ordered C-SPAN to turn off its normal coverage of the chamber, O'Rourke and Representative Scott Peters transmitted images by cell phone to social media for C-SPAN to broadcast. On March 7, 2018, O'Rourke told Alisyn Camerota of CNN: "We have a great tradition and culture of gun ownership and gun safety for hunting, for sport, for self-defense... I think that can allow Texas to take the lead on a really tough issue, which the country is waiting for leadership and action on." He supports universal background checks for all firearm purchases. After the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting, he called for a complete ban on the sale and possession of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines as well as suggesting a mandatory buy-back program to remove such existing assault weapons and magazines. In September 2019, O'Rourke reaffirmed his commitment to mandatory assault weapon buybacks in a tweet. During a live televised interview on October 16, 2019, MSNBC cable news-show host Joe Scarborough asked O'Rourke how he, as president, would respond to non-compliance from those assault rifle owners who regard such a mandatory program as "an unjust law and unconstitutional." O'Rourke replied: "There have to be consequences, or else there is no respect for the law… In that case, I think there would be a visit by law enforcement to recover that firearm and to make sure that it is purchased." In a September 19, 2019, Democratic presidential debate, O'Rourke again called for a mandatory buyback of assault weapons saying "Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47." Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware lamented on CNN that O'Rourke's stance could haunt Democrats, because "that clip will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations that try to scare people by saying, 'Democrats are coming for your guns. On May 25, 2022, O'Rourke confronted Texas Governor Greg Abbott during a press conference about the Robb Elementary School shooting that had occurred the day before and told the governor, "You are doing nothing. You are offering up nothing. You said this was not predictable. This was totally predictable when you choose not to do anything." The confrontation received a mixed response from the crowd. Senator Ted Cruz told O'Rourke to "sit down" while Uvalde Mayor Don MacLaughlin shouted at him and accused him of being a "sick son of a bitch" and making the tragedy a "political issue". O'Rourke left the room accompanied by security guards and continued his remarks outside the building, criticizing Governor Abbott for not funding mental health services and for opposing gun regulations. The New York Times described the confrontation as a "political gamble" that received criticism from both Republicans and some Democrats. O'Rourke has since shifted his views on guns and disavowed his comments on a mandatory assault rifle buyback program stating that he is "not interested in taking anything from anyone" and committed to "defending the second amendment". Immigration O'Rourke favors comprehensive immigration reform. As early as 2012, he asserted that his experience living on the border gave him "a strong understanding of immigration's impact on our community", calling El Paso "an Ellis Island to Latin America for more than 150 years", and spoke against 'militarizing' the border. O'Rourke opposed Trump's decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which granted temporary stay to some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors. O'Rourke said it is a "top priority" to protect DREAMers. In October 2016, he gave a TEDx talk, titled The Border Makes America Great, about his views on immigration. He has criticized President Donald Trump's rhetoric on immigration, saying: "[Trump is] constantly stoking anxiety and fear about Mexicans, immigrants and the border with Mexico. Unfortunately this President takes another step into a dark world of fear, isolation and separation." In June 2018, O'Rourke led protests in Tornillo, Texas, against the Trump administration family separation policy which involved the separation of children of immigrant families. The city is located just miles from the Rio Grande, the river that creates the border of the United States and Mexico in the state of Texas. The Trump administration had created a "tent-city" in Tornillo, where separated children were being held without their parents. O'Rourke called this practice "Un-American" and the responsibility of all Americans. O'Rourke stated that leading the march "was a religious experience... I happen to have been raised Catholic, and what I take away from my religion is you do your best to love everyone, to be good to everyone." In April 2019, O'Rourke publicly compared rhetoric used by Trump to describe immigrants to language from Nazi Germany. Ted Cruz asserted in 2018 that O'Rourke wanted "open borders and wants to take our guns." PolitiFact found that Cruz's claims were "false", noting that O'Rourke had "not called for opening the borders or for government agents to take guns from law-abiding residents". Subsequently, in an interview in February 2019, O'Rourke indicated he would tear down the wall between El Paso and the southern US border, since he feels that the fencing has forced migrants to the most inhospitable areas of the southern border, "ensuring their suffering and death". Religious liberty In October 2019, during his presidential campaign, O'Rourke proposed to remove the tax-exempt status of religious organizations that oppose same-sex marriage. At CNN's Equality Town Hall, O'Rourke asserted that "'there can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us'". O'Rourke's press secretary later clarified that he "'was referring to religious institutions who take discriminatory action'". O'Rourke's comment "infuriated a swath of religious and conservative leaders". Then presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, voiced disagreement and criticism of O'Rourke's stance. Social issues O'Rourke voted against the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. As a gubernatorial candidate, O'Rourke claims he would attempt to repeal Texas laws restricting abortion bans if he was elected governor. O'Rourke told the Dallas Voice that "he called marriage equality a core civil rights issue" during his House primary campaign. While on the El Paso City Council, O'Rourke led a successful fight to overturn the domestic partnership ban. He was a co-sponsor of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2013 (H.R. 3135). Whilst previously having supported Medicare for All during the 2018 US Senate race, O'Rourke backtracked during the 2020 presidential primary, instead supporting a proposal he called "Medicare for America". This alternative would allow all citizens on an employment-based health insurance to keep that insurance if they wanted to, but it would move all uninsured, Medicaid-covered, and newborn citizens to Medicare immediately. He supports stabilization of the insurance markets to improve the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He also supports the expansion of Medicaid and is a co-sponsor of the Medicare-X Choice Act of 2017. O'Rourke has spoken out against racial inequality. He supports the football players who have taken part in the "Take a knee" protests. Speaking in a video that went viral, O'Rourke said he believes there is "nothing more American than to peacefully stand up, or take a knee, for your rights, anytime, anywhere or any place." He has also asserted that while he was given second chances after being arrested twice in his younger years, those chances are often "denied to too many of our fellow Texans, particularly those who don't look like me or have access to the same opportunities that I did." In September 2018, Cruz posted to Twitter a video of O'Rourke in a Dallas church, largely attended by African-Americans, speaking out against the killing of Bothem Shem Jean, an unarmed black man in his own home, by an off-duty police officer. In the video, the crowd gave the speech a standing ovation, and the video served to bolster O'Rourke's standing nationally, going viral and receiving wide praise. Veterans O'Rourke held monthly veterans town hall meetings throughout his term in Congress. After hearing about long wait times, especially regarding mental health, he carried out his own local survey of veterans, which showed wait times far exceeding what the VA was reporting. In an attempt to better meet veterans' needs, O'Rourke and others worked to establish a new program at the El Paso VA designed to care for military related health issues within the hospital while using community clinics or medical facilities in the area for more standard medical needs. O'Rourke co-sponsored the bipartisan bill H.R. 1604, the Veterans' Mental Health Care Access Act, with Republican Congressmen Tom MacArthur, which expanded options for veterans seeking mental health care to non-VA facilities. O'Rourke serves on both the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, and the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees military installations such as Fort Bliss, headquartered in El Paso. In September 2016, three bills that were attached as amendments to H.R. 5620 (or the VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016) were approved unanimously with bipartisan support in the House. The first, the Vet Connect Act of 2016 (H.R. 5162), would allow a veteran's entire medical record to be shared with a community provider, without explicit written consent, with a pilot of the program then being tried in El Paso. The Ask Veterans Act (H.R. 1319) would have a non-government contractor conduct an annual survey on behalf of the secretary of Veterans Affairs in order to determine veterans' experiences with hospital care and medical services at VA facilities, the results of which would be publicly accessible. O'Rourke developed this idea from feedback from veterans at town hall meetings. The Get Vets a Doc Now Act (H.R. 5501) would allow the VA to provide conditional job offers to resident doctors two years before the completion of their programs, in an effort to recruit doctors to fill the shortage of 43,000 clinicians. Personal life On July 3, 2001, O'Rourke's father, a longtime cycling enthusiast, died while riding his bicycle along the shoulder of Pete Domenici Highway, just outside the city limits of El Paso and across the New Mexico state line, when he was struck from behind by a car, throwing him and causing severe head injuries; he was pronounced dead at the scene. O'Rourke delivered the eulogy during the funeral service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in El Paso. On December 20, 2022, O'Rourke's sister, Erin, died at the age of 42; she suffered from intellectual disabilities and O'Rourke had been her legal guardian at one time. His mother died on December 17, 2023, from cancer. O'Rourke married Amy Hoover Sanders, the daughter of Louann and Bill Sanders, at her parents' ranch in Lamy, New Mexico, near Santa Fe, on September 24, 2005. Bill Sanders is a real estate developer who previously dated O'Rourke's mother and introduced her to O'Rourke's father. The couple and their three children live in El Paso's Sunset Heights in the Henry Trost-designed mission-style house where General Hugh Scott and Pancho Villa reportedly met in 1915. O'Rourke is a lifelong Catholic but has publicly expressed disagreement with Church doctrine, including its refusal to solemnize same-sex marriages. Legal issues On May 19, 1995, O'Rourke and his friends jumped over a fence at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) physical plant, and were arrested by the UTEP police. He was held in jail overnight and posted bail the following day. He was initially charged with attempted burglary, but prosecutors dropped the case against O'Rourke and his friends in February 1996 when UTEP declined to pursue the charges. O'Rourke was arrested for driving while intoxicated on September 27, 1998, at 3:00 a.m. on Interstate 10 in Anthony, Texas. O'Rourke had lost control of his car and hit another vehicle. The charges were dismissed in October 1999 after he completed a court-approved DWI program. In response to criticism from a political opponent in 2005, O'Rourke said, "I've been open about it since the very beginning. I have owned up to it, and I have taken responsibility for it." He apologized and said he was "grateful for the second chance". Electoral history Works O'Rourke, Beto (2023). We've Got to Try: How the Fight for Voting Rights Makes Everything Else Possible. Flatiron Books. . O'Rourke, Beto and Byrd, Susie (2011). Dealing Death and Drugs: The Big Business of Dope in the U.S. and Mexico. Cinco Puntos Press. . See also Electoral history of Beto O'Rourke Further reading Melissa del Bosque, "", Texas Observer, April 17, 2009. Matt Flegenheimer, "". The New York Times, February 6, 2019.
Jack Ma	[ "Jack Ma", "1964 births", "Living people", "20th-century Chinese businesspeople", "20th-century Chinese educators", "21st-century Chinese businesspeople", "21st-century Chinese educators", "Academic staff of the University of Tokyo", "Alibaba Group people", "Asia Game Changer Award winners", "Billionaires from Zhejiang", "Businesspeople from Hangzhou", "Chinese Buddhists", "Chinese computer businesspeople", "Chinese expatriates in Japan", "Chinese financiers", "Chinese football chairmen and investors", "Chinese investors", "Chinese online retailer founders", "21st-century Chinese philanthropists", "Chinese schoolteachers", "Chinese Taoists", "Chinese technology chief executives", "Chinese technology company founders", "Educators from Hangzhou", "Hangzhou Normal University alumni", "Knights of the Legion of Honour", "Private equity and venture capital investors", "World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders", "20th-century Chinese philanthropists" ]	6,523	62,419	Ma Yun (; born 10 September 1964), more commonly referred as Jack Ma, is a Chinese businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, and co-founder of Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Capital. As of May 2025, Ma's net worth was estimated at 27.2 billion. After taking the gaokao three times, Ma earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Hangzhou Normal University in 1988 and was assigned as an English and international trade lecturer at Hangzhou Dianzi University. Interested in internet entrepreneurship since the 1980s, he founded his first business, Hangzhou Hope Translation Agency, in 1994. The following year, he created the agency’s website and then resigned from the university to establish Hangzhou Hope Computer Services Co., Ltd., one of China’s earliest internet startups, which operated an online yellow pages service for Chinese companies. In 1996, Ma’s company was acquired by China Telecommunications Corporation. Following an unsatisfactory collaboration, he left the company the next year and went on to develop websites for China’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. In 1999, he co-founded Alibaba Group, initially as a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce marketplace and later expanded into a multinational technology conglomerate. Ma has been regarded as a leading figure and global ambassador of Chinese business. His influence declined after Chinese regulators halted the anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of his digital payments company, Ant Group, in 2020, following his criticism of China’s financial regulators for prioritizing risk control over innovation. Early life and education Ma was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, on 10 September 1964, as Ma Yun. He became interested in learning the English language as a young boy and began practicing it with English-speaking visitors who frequented the Hangzhou International Hotel. At the age of 12, Ma bought a pocket radio and began listening to English radio stations frequently. For nine years, Ma rode on his bicycle every day to work as a tour guide of Hangzhou for foreigners in order to practice his English. He became pen pals with one of those foreigners, who nicknamed him "Jack" because he found it hard to pronounce his Chinese name. When Ma was 13 years old, he was forced to transfer to Hangzhou No. 8 Middle School as he kept getting in fights. In his primary school days, Ma struggled academically, and it took two years for him to gain acceptance at an ordinary Chinese high school, as he only got 31 points in mathematics on the Chinese high school entrance exam. In 1980, while he was riding his bike to practice English with tourists, he met Ken Morley, who was traveling with his family with the Australia-China Friendship Society. Ken's son, David, became pen pals with Ma and kept in touch after the family left China. Years later, the Morleys hosted Ma in Australia, changing the course of his life completely. Ma later said: "Those 29 days in Newcastle were crucial in my life. Without those 29 days, I would never have been able to think the way I do today." In 1982, at the age of 18, Ma failed the Chinese college entrance exam on his initial attempt, obtaining only 1 point in mathematics. Afterwards, he and his cousin applied to be waiters at a nearby hotel. His cousin was hired, but Ma was rejected on the grounds that he was "too skinny, too short, and in general, protruded a bad physical appearance that may have potentially ended up hurting the restaurant's image and possibly tarnishing its reputation." In 1983, Ma failed his college entrance exam for the second time. However, his math score improved, increasing from his previous attempt to 19 points. The following year, Ma remained relentlessly determined to pursue higher education despite strong opposition from his family, who wanted him to choose a different career path as an alternative option. Undeterred, he decided to take the entrance exam a third time in 1984. On his third attempt, Ma scored 89 points on the math section, marking a significant improvement from his previous two attempts. Nonetheless, the minimum benchmark entrance requirement would have rendered Ma ineligible to be accepted into university, since his score was five points below the standardized minimum threshold for him to qualify. However, Ma's academic fortunes would change since the enrollment target for prospective majors in Hangzhou Normal University's Department of English was not met, as some prospective students had the opportunity to be accepted and promoted into it, with Ma himself having ended up being promoted to the department's foreign language major. Having realized his aspirations to pursue higher education after enrolling at Hangzhou Normal University, Ma's academic performance began to improve substantially as he steadily achieved scholarly excellence over the course of his undergraduate studies. In recognition of his merits as evinced by his burgeoning academic achievements, Ma distinguished himself scholastically by consistently being ranked as among the top five students in Hangzhou Normal University's foreign language department due to the extensive English-language skills that he honed. He was also elected as the chairman of the student union and later became the chairman of the Hangzhou Federation of Students, with Ma having served in that capacity for two terms. In 1988, Ma earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Hangzhou Normal University. After graduation, he became a lecturer in English and international trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. Ma also claims to have applied to Harvard Business School ten times consecutively, only to have ended up being rejected every time in spite of his persistent efforts. Business career Early career According to Ma's autobiographical speech, after graduating from Hangzhou Normal University in 1988, Ma applied for 31 different odd entry-level jobs and was rejected for every single one. "I went for a job with the KFC; they said, 'you're no good, Ma told interviewer Charlie Rose. "I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted. I was the only guy [rejected] ...". During this period, China was nearing the end of its first decade following Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms. In 1994, Ma heard about the Internet and also started his first company, Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency (, ), an online Chinese translation agency. In early 1995, he travelled abroad to the United States on behalf of the Hangzhou municipal government with colleagues who had helped introduce him to the Internet. Although he found information related to beer from many countries, he was surprised to find none from China. He also tried to search for general information about China and again was surprised to find none. So he and his friend created an "ugly" website pertaining to information regarding Chinese beer. He launched the website at 9:40 am, and by 12:30 pm he had received emails from prospective Chinese investors wishing to know more about him and his website. This was when Ma realized that the Internet had something great to offer. In April 1995, Ma and his business partner He Yibing (a computer instructor), opened the first office for China Pages, and Ma started their second company. On 10 May 1995, the pair registered the domain chinapages.com in the United States. Within a span of three years, China Pages cleared approximately 5,000,000 RMB in profit which at the time was equivalent to US$642,998 (approximately $1.18 million today). Ma began building websites for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the United States. He said that "The day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house", and on a very slow dial-up connection, "we waited three and a half hours and got half a page", he recalled. "We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved the Internet existed". From 1998 to 1999, Ma headed an information technology company established by the China International Electronic Commerce Center, a department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. In 1999, he quit and returned to Hangzhou with his team to establish Alibaba, a Hangzhou-based business-to-business marketplace site in his apartment with a group of 18 friends. He started a new round of venture development with 500,000 yuan. In October 1999 and January 2000, Alibaba won a total of a $25 million foreign venture seed capital from the American investment bank, Goldman Sachs and the Japanese investment management conglomerate SoftBank. The program was expected to improve the domestic Chinese e-commerce market and perfect an e-commerce platform for online Chinese enterprises to establish a presence for themselves to compete, especially fostering the growth of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as addressing challenges surrounding China's entrance into the World Trade Organization in 2001. Eventually, Alibaba began to show signs of profitability three years later as Ma wanted to improve the global e-commerce system. Since 2003, Ma established Taobao Marketplace, Alipay, Ali Mama and Lynx. After the rapid rise of Taobao, American e-commerce giant eBay offered to purchase the company. However, Ma rejected their offer, instead garnering support from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang who offered a $1 billion investment in upfront capital for the potential purpose of expanding Alibaba's corporate operations. Chairman of Alibaba Group Since 1999, Ma served as the executive chairman of Alibaba Group, which has remained one of China's most prominent high-technology holding companies in the two decades since it inception presiding over nine major subsidiaries: Alibaba.com, Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, eTao, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Juhuasuan, 1688.com, AliExpress.com, and Alipay. At the annual general meeting of shareholders for Alibaba.com in May 2010, Ma announced Alibaba Group would begin in 2010 to earmark 0.3% of annual revenue to environmental protection, particularly on water- and air-quality improvement projects. Of the future of Alibaba, he has said, "our challenge is to help more people to make healthy money, 'sustainable money', money that is not only good for themselves but also good for the society. That's the transformation we are aiming to make." Despite achieving massive entrepreneurial and investment success in the Chinese high-technology industry and the fact that Alibaba is a high-technology company, Ma was never a technical expert on computer technology nor did he possess the extensive breadth of executive managerial skills and background experience or depth of technical know-how that would have nonetheless otherwise qualified him to competently run a technology company or operate as an independent technology entrepreneur on his own. Even though Ma's formal educational background and extensive training was in English rather than in a technical subject, his dearth of technical expertise did not deter him from being able to competitively distinguish himself from the quintessential Chinese technology mogul. As Ma with his distinct profile stands out among his entrepreneurial contemporaries throughout the Chinese high-technology industry, many of whom typically have a foundational background in computer engineering and science as part of their formal academic training and educational makeup. Instead, Ma parlayed his educational background to use in an entrepreneurial context by fashioning himself as a promoter, businessman, manager, administrator, and organizer who possessed the soft skills, emotional capacity, and personality with a knack for leading and employing specialists of expert ability from every conceivable technical domain. At a press conference in 2010, Ma made clear with regards to the lack of his technical expertise by revealing to the public that he had never written a line of computer code, nor had ever made one sale to a customer, and that he only acquired a personal computer to do business with for the first time at the age of 33. In 2011, it was announced that one of his companies had gained control of Alipay, formerly a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, so as to "comply with Chinese law governing payment companies in order to secure a license to continue operating Alipay. Numerous analysts reported that Ma sold Alipay to himself below market value without notifying the board of Alibaba Group or the other major owners Yahoo and Softbank, while Ma stated that Alibaba Group's board of directors were aware of the transaction. The ownership dispute was resolved by Alibaba Group, Yahoo! and Softbank in July 2011. In November 2012, Alibaba's online transaction volume exceeded one trillion yuan. Ma stepped down as the chief executive officer of Alibaba on 10 May 2013, but remained as the executive chairman of the corporation. In September 2014, it was reported that Alibaba was raising over $25 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. , Ma is the owner of Château de Sours in Bordeaux, Chateau Guerry in Côtes de Bourg and Château Perenne in Blaye, Côtes de Bordeaux. On 9 January 2017, Ma met with United States president-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower, to discuss the potential of 1 million job openings in the following five years through the expansion of the presence of Alibaba's business interests in the United States. On 8 September 2017, to celebrate Alibaba's 18th year of its establishment, Ma appeared on stage and gave a Michael Jackson-inspired performance. He also performed a partial rendition of Elton John's 1994 hit single Can You Feel The Love Tonight while being dressed up as a lead heavy metal singer at a 2009 Alibaba birthday event. In the same month, Ma also partnered with Hong Kong business tycoon, Sir Li Ka-shing in a joint venture to offer a digital wallet service in Hong Kong. Ma announced on 10 September 2018, that he would step down as executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding in the coming year. Ma denied reports that he was forced to step aside by the Chinese government and stated that he wants to focus on philanthropy through his foundation. Daniel Zhang would then lead Alibaba as the current executive chairman. Ma stepped down from the board of Alibaba on 1 October 2020. During tech crackdown News outlets noted a lack of public appearances from Ma between October 2020 and January 2021, coinciding with a regulatory crackdown on his businesses. The Financial Times reported that the disappearance may have been connected to a speech given at the annual People's Bank of China financial markets forum, in which Ma criticized China's regulators and banks. Ma described state banks as operating with a pawn shop mentality and criticized the Basel Accords as a "club for the elderly." On 3 November 2020, the Shanghai Stock Exchange halted Ant Group's IPO. According to Chinese bankers and officials, financial stability was the objective behind the intervention. Ant Group had sought to maintain a position as a technology company, although it was deriving approximately 90% of its revenue from financial services. This position brought it into conflict with the People's Bank of China (PBOC), which since 2018 had sought to regulate Ant Group as a financial holding company. After Ant Group filed for its IPO, PBOC had issued draft guidelines stating that it would regulate companies such as Ant Group as financial services companies, not tech companies. During the IPO, financial regulators became even more concerned about Ant Group due to its high valuation as a tech company, increasing fears of a bubble. Ma made a public appearance again on 20 January 2021, speaking via video link to a group of rural teachers at a charitable event, the annual Rural Teacher Initiative. In May 2021, Ma resigned from the presidency of Hupan University, which was founded by him in 2015. In 2022, Ma moved to Tokyo, Japan, largely retreating from the public life. From May 1, 2023 to October 31, 2024, Ma had been an invited professor at Tokyo College, a research institute at the University of Tokyo. His research focus was on sustainable agriculture and food production. In March 2023, photos and videos of Ma touring the Yungu school in Hangzhou, China appeared on social media confirming the public appearance of the billionaire for the first time in several months. The school is funded by Alibaba and is located near the company's headquarters. He was reportedly persuaded to return from abroad by premier Li Qiang. In the same month, Alibaba Group turned into a holding company and its subsidiaries would separate into six independent firms; The Wall Street Journal reported on 30 March that Ma engineered this in talks with company CEO Daniel Zhang while he was traveling overseas. Ant Group made major changes to its ownership structure and corporate governance in January 2023. That month, Ant Group announced a series of changes in shareholder voting rights, with Ma no longer the actual controller of Ant Group. Ma's voting rights were reduced from 50% to 6%. Following these changes, no single shareholder has a controlling stake in the company. The company's board also added another independent director. The Chinese government spoke positively of Ant Group's changes, including describing them as improvements in transparency and accountability. In early 2024, Ma replaced SoftBank as Alibaba's largest shareholder. On 17 February 2025, Ma attended a symposium with Chinese industry leaders, hosted by Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. While his image appeared on Xinwen Lianbo, his name was omitted by Xinhua News Agency and other state-run media, leading to mixed interpretations of his reappearance as a potential sign of rehabilitation following China's tech crackdown. Entertainment career In 2017, Ma made his acting debut with his first kung fu short film Gong Shou Dao, directed by Wen Zhang and produced by Jet Li. The film stars Ma, Li, Donnie Yen, Wu Jing, Tony Jaa, Jacky Heung, Asashōryū Akinori, Zou Shiming, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. It was filmed in collaboration with the Double 11 Shopping Carnival Singles' Day. In the same year, he also participated in a singing festival and performed dances during Alibaba's 18th-anniversary party. In November 2020, in the finale of Africa’s Business Heroes, Ma was replaced as a judge in the television show, with Alibaba executive Peng Lei taking his place, reportedly "Due to a schedule conflict". Awards and honors In 2004, Ma was honored as one of the "Top 10 Economic Personalities of the Year" by China Central Television (CCTV). In September 2005, the World Economic Forum selected Ma as a "Young Global Leader". Fortune also selected him as one of the "25 Most Powerful Businesspeople in Asia" in 2005. Businessweek also selected him as a "Businessperson of the Year" in 2007. In 2008, Barron's featured him as one of the 30 "World's Best CEOs" In May 2009, Time magazine listed Ma as one of the world's 100 most powerful people. In reporting Ma's accomplishments, Adi Ignatius, former Time senior editor and editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review, noted that "the Chinese Internet entrepreneur is soft-spoken and elf-like—and he speaks really good English" and remarked that "Taobao.com, Mr. Ma's consumer-auction website, conquered eBay in China." He was also included in this list in 2014. BusinessWeek chose him as one of China's Most Powerful People. Forbes China also selected him as one of the Top 10 Most Respected Entrepreneurs in China by in 2009. Ma received the 2009 CCTV Economic Person of the Year: Business Leaders of the Decade Award. In 2010, Ma was selected by Forbes Asia as one of Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy for his contribution to disaster relief and poverty. Ma was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in November 2013. Ma was a board member of Japan's SoftBank (2007–2020) and China's Huayi Brothers Media Corporation. He became a trustee of The Nature Conservancy's China program in 2009 and joined its global board of directors in April 2010. In 2013, he became chairman of the board for The Nature Conservancy's China Program; this was one day after he stepped down from Alibaba as company CEO. In 2014, he was ranked as the 30th-most-powerful person in the world in an annual ranking published by Forbes. In 2015, Asian Award honoured him with the Entrepreneur of the Year award. Ma was awarded an honorary doctorate in education from National Taiwan Normal University. In 2016, he was awarded the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour by French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development Laurent Fabius. In 2017, Fortune ranked Ma second on its World's 50 Greatest Leaders list. In 2017, a KPMG survey ranked Ma third in global tech innovation visionary survey. In October 2017, Ma was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in Technopreneurship from De La Salle University Manila, Philippines. In May 2018, Ma was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences by the University of Hong Kong in recognition of his contributions to technology, society and the world. In May 2018, Ma received an honorary doctorate from professors Yaakov Frenkel and Yaron Oz at the Tel Aviv University. In May 2019, Ma and other 16 influential global figures were appointed by Secretary-General of the United Nations as the new advocates for sustainable development goals. In July 2020, Ma received from King Abdullah II a first class medal for his contribution in fighting back against the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, Ma was to receive from the President of Pakistan a Hilal e Quaid e Azam medal for his contribution in fighting back against the COVID-19 pandemic. At the 2023 World Chinese Culture Festival (Tokyo), Kong Jian, Chairman of the World Confucius Association, Guo Shaocheng, Chairman of the World Chinese Alliance, and Mr. Fanghe Yuanjian, Chairman of the World Confucius Foundation, jointly announced that Ma won the [2023 Confucius Education Award] and congratulated the University of Tokyo on hiring Ma. Views Ma is an adherent of both Buddhism and Taoism. On 24 September 2014, in an interview with Taobao, Ma attributed the strength of American society to the country being rooted in its Judeo-Christian heritage and expressed his belief in the importance for China to implement a positive value system in order to overcome the aftermath and legacy of the bygone Cultural Revolution. In 2017, Ma advocated for the use of big data and AI to as a means to implement elements of a planned economy, stating that this technology would eliminate the information gaps that limited planned economic models historically. In November 2018, the People's Daily identified Ma as a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), something which surprised observers. Ma received international criticism after he publicly endorsed the Chinese work practice known as the 996 working hour system. When asked in 2019 to give his views on the future, Ma again stated that 996 was currently a "huge blessing" necessary to achieve success, but went on to state that artificial intelligence technology might lead to a better life of leisure in the future, where people would only have to work four-hour work days, three days a week. At the same time, Ma expressed skepticism that AI could ever completely replace people, referencing to his theory that success requires a "love quotient" and stating that machines can never match this success. Ma also predicted that population collapse would become a big problem in the future. Ma is the founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on improving education, the environment and public health. In 2008, Alibaba donated $808,000 to victims of the Sichuan earthquake. In 2009 Ma became a trustee of The Nature Conservancy's China program, and in 2010 he joined the global Board of Directors of the organization. In 2015, Alibaba launched a nonprofit organization, Alibaba Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs Foundation, which supports Hong Kong entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses. In the same year, the company funded the rebuilding of 1,000 houses damaged by the earthquake-hit in Nepal, and raised money for another 9,000. In 2015 he also founded the Hupan School, a business school. In September 2018, Ma started the Jack Ma Foundation and announced that he would retire from Alibaba to pursue educational work, philanthropy, and environmental causes. In 2019, Forbes named Ma in its list of "Asia's 2019 Heroes of Philanthropy" and awarded him the Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award for his work supporting underprivileged communities in China, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East. In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation launched various initiatives, some of which involved donating medical supplies to the United States as well as various countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Leo Melamed	[ "American financial businesspeople", "American business theorists", "1932 births", "Living people", "People from Białystok", "Businesspeople from Chicago", "Sugihara's Jews" ]	1,215	9,910	Leo Melamed (born March 20, 1932) is an American attorney, finance executive, and a pioneer of financial futures. He is the chairman emeritus of CME Group (formerly the Chicago Mercantile Exchange). Personal life Melamed was born Leibel Melamdovich in 1932 in Bialystok, Poland into a Jewish family, to two school teachers, Fayga (Barakin) Melamdovich and Isaac Melamdovich (a mathematics teacher). In 1939, following Germany's invasion of Poland and with the outbreak of World War II, his family fled to Lithuania to avoid capture by the Nazis. In 1940, the Japanese consul general to Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, issued his family a life-saving transit visa, and they made the long trek across Siberia to safe haven in Tsuruga, Japan. They crossed the Pacific to the United States in the spring of 1941, and the family settled in Chicago. Melamed married Betty Sattler on December 26, 1953. The couple has three children: Idelle Sharon, Jordan Norman and David Jeffrey. Melamed is an avid contract bridge competitor and often pairs with his wife, Betty. Melamed's personal life and his strained relationship with his son are the subjects of the 2012 documentary Futures Past, written and directed by his son, Jordan Melamed. Career Melamed received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois in 1952 and his law degree from John Marshall Law School in 1955. He became involved in futures trading by accident. While in law school, he was looking for a law clerk job and answered a want ad from a firm looking for a "runner", thinking the firm, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane, with that many names could be nothing but an established law firm that would be looking for a clerk to "run" to court. Instead, he worked as a runner in the produce futures markets of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange while in law school and learned about the business. He practiced law until 1965 and was elected to the CME board in 1967. Melamed became chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1969. In 1972, under his leadership, the CME created the International Monetary Market (IMM), the world's first financial futures exchange, and launched currency futures. In the years that followed, Melamed led the CME and IMM in the creation of a number of financial instruments, including futures on US Treasury bills in 1976, Eurodollars in 1981, and stock index futures in 1982. In 1987, Melamed spearheaded the creation and introduction of Globex, the world's first electronic trading system, and became its founding chairman. In 1991, he founded his own consulting firm, Melamed & Associates, of which he is chairman and chief executive officer. He used to be a member of the global markets advisory committee of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and has served as a special advisor on futures markets to governments worldwide. Melamed serves on the prestigious Chinese International Advisory Council of Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). Throughout the next three decades and into the 21st century, Melamed held many CME titles including: Special Counsel to the Board, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and Senior Policy Advisor, but remained the acknowledged leader of the CME. In 2002, he led the CME membership to become the first U.S. financial exchange to go public. In 2014, he was a board member of CME Group and chairman of its Strategic Steering Committee. Recognition and awards Twenty years after their inception, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Merton Miller, named financial futures "the most significant innovation of the past two decades". At the close of 1999, the former editor of the Chicago Tribune named Melamed "among the ten most important Chicagoans in business of the 20th Century". He was named a Lincoln Laureate in 2016 in the area of Business, Industry & Communications. Bibliography Melamed has lectured and written extensively on the markets. His published works include: The Tenth Planet (Bonus Books, 1984), (Science fiction) Merits of Flexible Exchange Rates: An Anthology, Editor (George Mason University Press, 1988) ASIN: B000M3U0VO Leo Melamed on The Markets: Twenty Years of Financial History as Seen by the Man Who Revolutionized the Markets (John Wiley & Sons, 1992), Escape to the Futures, (John Wiley & Sons, 1996), prize-winning memoirs which have been published in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian For Crying Out Loud, (John Wiley & Sons; 2009), memoirs continuation, translated into Chinese and Japanese Man of the Futures: The Story of Leo Melamed and the Birth of Modern Finance (Harriman House Ltd, 2021), Honors Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star (2017) Inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State’s highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2016 in the area of Business, Industry, & Communication. Sources "A Titan Returns to Shake Up CME's Executive Committee", The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 10, 1997
BNC Bank	[ "Banks based in North Carolina", "Banks established in 1991", "1991 establishments in North Carolina", "Banks disestablished in 2017", "2017 disestablishments in North Carolina", "Defunct banks of the United States", "2017 mergers and acquisitions", "High Point, North Carolina" ]	1,822	16,051	BNC Bank was a bank based in High Point, North Carolina, United States. In 2014 its parent company BNC Bancorp () had $4.05 billion in assets, 38 branches in North Carolina and 13 in South Carolina. Its latest acquisition gave BNC $6.8 billion in assets and 87 branches, 48 in North Carolina, 29 in South Carolina nine in Virginia, and one in Haiti. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee took over BNC Bancorp as of June 16, 2017 with BNC branches changing to Pinnacle on September 25, 2017. History The bank opened in Thomasville, North Carolina on December 3, 1991 (as Bank of North Carolina) in a temporary location in a trailer, moving to its permanent home in Fall 1992. On December 29, 2001, the Bank of North Carolina and Kernersville-based Independence Bank announced their merger. Bank of North Carolina had $211 million in assets and $171 million in deposits, and Independence Bank had assets of $59 million and deposits of $52 million. On August 1, 2003, BNC Bancorp began trading on NASDAQ. At the time it had added branches in Archdale, Lexington and Oak Ridge. After fifteen years of operation, BNC had expanded to 14 branches and $1 billion in assets, doubling its size in 30 months. It was the ninth community bank in the Piedmont Triad to reach that milestone. A 15,000-square foot administrative office was planned in High Point. Only one of the Harrisburg branches had opened. The move to High Point happened in 2007. In May 2011, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved a trademark for BNC Bank, after having used a BNC mark since 1995. On September 7, 2012, BNC announced plans to move from its 10,000-square-foot Eastchester Drive headquarters to 22,500 square feet in Premier Center. The company planned to keep a portion of its existing space and move some operations from Thomasville. During the first quarter of 2014 BNC opened branches in Raleigh, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina. This is in addition to buying 11 banks since 2010. As Bank of North Carolina, BNC used the name BNC Bank in South Carolina and Virginia, and the bank had planned to change to BNC Bank everywhere. However, BNCCORP of North Dakota, which operated as BNC National Bank, protested this change. BNCCORP had filed for BNC Bank trademarks and sent BNC a warning letter in late 2014. BNC protested the trademark request, and BNCCORP sued BNC in September 2015 in federal court, at which time BNC countersued. The BNCCORP suit was dismissed in December 2015 with prejudice. In June 2016, a federal judge denied a restraining order and injunction by BNCCORP. On November 1, 2016, Bank of North Carolina rebranded to BNC Bank across their entire footprint. This included a new logo with a flying cardinal which represented "momentum, vision and growth". On January 22, 2017, Nashville, Tennessee-based Pinnacle Financial Partners, parent company of Pinnacle Bank, announced it was acquiring BNC Bank. The deal completed June 16, 2017 gives Pinnacle operations in four states. At this time, the BNCCORP suit was dismissed without prejudice. BNC Bancorp changed its name to Pinnacle on September 25, 2017. Acquisitions In a $36 million deal announced February 6, 2006, BNC Bancorp purchased SterlingSouth Bank & Trust of Greensboro, started in 2000, with assets of $148 million, two Greensboro branches and plans for a third. BNC had also opened a branch in High Point and a loan office in Winston-Salem. The deal would give BNC Bancorp ten branches and about $743 million in assets. In addition, BNC planned one branch in Welcome and two branches in Harrisburg outside Charlotte. Other acquisitions included Regent Bank in Greenville, South Carolina, and KeySource Commercial Bank in Durham. BNC also bought two branches of The Bank of Hampton Roads in the Triangle. On April 9, 2010, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina-based Beach First National Bank was the first South Carolina bank to fail in over ten years. It was started in 1996 and had seven branches in the Grand Strand area and in Hilton Head, and $585.1 million in assets and $516 million in deposits. On April 12, 2010, in a deal arranged by the FDIC, Beach First branches reopened as Bank of North Carolina, giving the bank its first operations in South Carolina. Blue Ridge Savings Bank of Asheville, started in 1978, had 10 branches including one in South Carolina when it was closed October 14, 2011 by the state's commissioner of banks, with "essentially all" its $160.1 million in assets sold to BNC, which assumed $158.7 million in deposits. It was the fourth state-chartered bank to fail since 1991. In April 2012, BNC opened a Charlotte branch on Carmel Road. In a $35 million deal announced June 4, 2012, BNC Bancorp announced the purchase of First Trust Bank of Charlotte, adding three branches and $374 million in deposits for a total of $589 million in Charlotte-area deposits. On June 8, 2012, BNC took over the failed Carolina Federal Savings Bank of Charleston, South Carolina. On May 31, 2013, BNC announced a $10.4 million deal to buy Randolph Bank & Trust, an institution with $302 million in assets, three branches in Asheboro, and one branch each in Burlington, Mebane, and Randleman. On December 18, 2013 BNC announced two deals. The $24.2 million purchase of Community First Financial Group, Inc., parent company of Harrington Bank of Chapel Hill, started in 1999, would add 3 branches and $228.5 million in assets. The $23.7 million purchase of South Street Financial Corp, doing business as Home Savings Bank, would add four locations in Albemarle and Stanly County, and $274.1 million in assets. The Albemarle bank was over 100 years old and would likely consolidate some branches. The deals would give BNC over $3.4 billion in assets and 40 branches. The South street purchase was completed April 1, and the Community First purchase was completed June 2, 2014. On November 17, 2014 BNC announced its first acquisition in Virginia, Valley Financial Corporation of Roanoke, started in 1995. The $101.3 million deal, the bank's largest yet, would add nine branches in Roanoke and Salem, $857 million in assets (21 percent of BNC's assets before the deal), and $682 million in deposits. The deal was completed July 1, 2015. On December 1, 2014 BNC announced the completion of a $50.6 million stock deal to buy Harbor Bank Group Inc. of Charleston, South Carolina, started in 2006. BNC would add $325 million in assets, $267 million in deposits and four branches, three in Charleston and one in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, along with mortgage offices in Mount Pleasant, Greenville, South Carolina and Hilton Head Island. BNC would have the ninth-largest share of the Charleston market. On August 14, 2015, BNC said it was buying Southcoast Financial Corp. of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina in a $95.5 million deal which would add $506 million in assets, putting the bank over $6 billion when the deal was completed, and giving BNC the number 5 ranking in the Charleston area. On October 19, 2015, BNC completed its purchase of 7 CertusBank branches with $284 million in deposits, giving the bank 19 branches in South Carolina. On November 1, 2016, BNC completed its largest deal ever, the $141.3 million purchase of High Point Bank & Trust, started in 1905, with $795 million in assets. Three branches were to close and move their operations to nearby locations. See also
Carmike Cinemas	[ "AMC Theatres", "Companies based in Columbus, Georgia", "Defunct companies based in Georgia (U.S. state)", "Entertainment companies established in 1982", "Entertainment companies disestablished in 2016", "2016 mergers and acquisitions", "Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq", "Defunct movie theatre chains in the United States", "Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000", "1982 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)", "2016 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state)" ]	1,863	17,036	Carmike Cinemas, Inc. was an American motion picture exhibitor headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. As of March 2016, the company had 276 theaters with 2,954 screens in 41 states, and was the fourth largest movie theater chain in the United States. The company billed itself as "America's Hometown Theatre" and Carmike theaters were largely positioned in rural or suburban areas with populations under 200,000. The company's theaters operated under various names and generally had a name followed by the number of auditoriums at that location; for example, "Carmike 15". On March 4, 2016, AMC Theatres announced its intent to acquire Carmike Cinemas. The deal was closed on December 21, 2016; Carmike locations were converted to the AMC brand in 2017, with the Carmike logo and slogan being repurposed for the new AMC Classic banner (which was adopted by smaller AMC locations with fewer premium amenities). History Carmike was founded when Carl L. Patrick, Sr. acquired Martin Theatres from Fuqua Industries in 1982. The company's name was derived from a combination of the first names of Carl L. Patrick, Sr.'s two sons, Carl Jr. and Michael, hence "Carmike". In 1996, Carmike purchased Fox Theatres Corp. (which had 61 screens in their chain), and Maxi Saver Cinemas (which had 18 screens in their chain), both primarily in Pennsylvania. In 1997, Carmike partnered with Walmart to start the Hollywood Connection, starting with a location in Columbus, Georgia. Amenities include a modern multiplex or megaplex movie theater with 5–15 screens, indoor miniature golf, a roller skating rink, a laser tag arena, and a video game arcade. At the time, Carmike was wanting this field to be extremely profitable. While the Columbus, Georgia location is still open, other locations in West Valley City, Utah (a suburb of Salt Lake City), DeKalb, Illinois, Valparaiso, Indiana (a suburb of Chicago), and Goshen, Indiana have closed. Carmike filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 2000 after failing to make US$9 million in interest payments to bondholders—the company owed approximately US$650 million in debt. Since declaring bankruptcy, many theaters (mostly smaller single, twin and triple theatres) in inactive markets were closed down, and some were renovated or relocated in areas with desirable market potential—most of these newer theaters are 10 screens or larger. The number of theaters owned or operated by the company dropped from 448 to just over 300. During bankruptcy, the company was forced to sell or close several historic theaters, including the Villa Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah and the Indian Hills Theater in Omaha, Nebraska, the latter of which contained a wide Cinerama screen, believed to be the largest in the US at the time. The Indian Hills was eventually demolished in August 2001 by its new owners, Methodist Health System, and replaced with a parking lot for the system's nearby hospital and nursing college. Actress Patricia Neal called the destruction of the theater "a crime" in a letter of support, and letters were also written by Kirk Douglas, Janet Leigh, Robert Wise and film critic Leonard Maltin. Carmike exited bankruptcy in January 2002, having successfully restructured its debts and operations. A judge approved the Chapter 11 plan, filed in October 2001, which involved payment of US$263 million of Carmike's bank loans. In 2005, Carmike purchased 30 GKC Theaters (263 screens) from Beth Kerasotes (the heir of George Kerasotes) for $66 million. The George Kerasotes Corporation was the result of a split with other family members who jointly owned Kerasotes Theatres. In December 2008, Mark Cuban acquired a 9.4 percent stake in Carmike Cinemas and, following a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Cuban explained that his interest was for investment purposes. Carmike Cinemas' board of directors removed Michael Patrick as its chief executive on January 20, 2009. S. David Passman III was selected as the non-executive chairman of the board. The board established an Office of the Chairman as a body that oversaw the company's strategic direction and the transitional period until a new chief executive was employed—in addition to Passman, the Office of the Chairman consisted of chief operating officer Fred Van Noy and chief financial officer Richard Hare. On June 4, 2009, the company announced that S. David Passman III was appointed president and chief executive officer, while board member, Roland C. Smith, succeeded Passman as Carmike's chairman of the board. Van Noy and Hare remained in their respective positions. In 2011, Carmike Cinemas acquired MNM Theatres, adding three locations (40 screens) in the Atlanta area. In October 2012, Rave Cinemas, a division of Cinemark Theatres, signed an agreement to sell 16 theaters with 251 screens to Carmike Cinemas for $19 million in cash and $100.4 million of assumed lease obligations. Of the 16 theaters being acquired, six are in Alabama, four in Florida, two in Indiana, and one each in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. This was Carmike's first foray into IMAX. The sale also included 7 IMAX screens. Before the sale Rave owned or managed 62 theaters and 939 screens located in 21 states across the country. On July 18, 2013, Carmike Cinemas announced that they would buy three more theatres from Rave Cinemas located in Louisville, Kentucky; Voorhees, New Jersey; and Hickory Creek, Texas. With this change, the Voorhees and Louisville locations switched to Screenvision from National CineMedia, while Hickory Creek remains with Screenvision. The sale also included an eighth IMAX screen. The sale was closed on August 16, 2013. On November 4, 2013, Carmike Cinemas purchased Muvico Theaters for just under $31.8 million in an acquisition that included Muvico's nine locations in Florida, California and Illinois. Two Bogart's restaurants were also included in the sale and, after the sale closed at the end of 2013, the MuviXL screens was rebranded as "Carmike's BigD". Carmike's first-ever California location, the Thousand Oaks 14 theater, was obtained in the acquisition. On May 15, 2014, Carmike Cinemas announced their purchase of Digital Cinema Destinations Corp., operating as Digiplex Destinations, in an all-stock transaction. Included in the deal were Digiplex's 21 open locations containing 206 screens, as well as 5 theaters in development with an additional 53 screens. The acquisition introduced Carmike to 4 new states: Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Hampshire. On October 6, 2015, Carmike Cinemas announced it agreed to acquire the Sundance Group's cinema chain, Sundance Cinemas, for $36 million. On March 3, 2016, AMC Theatres announced its intent to acquire Carmike Cinemas in a $1.1 billion deal, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The deal was completed on December 21, 2016. With the deal, AMC overtook Regal Entertainment Group as the United States' largest movie theater chain. In February 2017, AMC announced it would discontinue the Carmike name and re-brand all of its locations under either the AMC, AMC Classic, or AMC Dine-in banner. Most of Carmike's former locations were converted to the AMC Classic banner, which denotes smaller locations with fewer premium amenities than the AMC and AMC Dine-In banners. Upon the change in banner, some locations also switched formats from second-run to first-run films, whilst maintaining lower ticket prices than competitors. The AMC Classic banner uses Carmike's trademarks, including the folded film logo and "America's Hometown Theatres" slogan.
Calvin S. Barlow	[ "1856 births", "1920 deaths", "19th-century American merchants", "Washington (state) pioneers", "Members of the Washington House of Representatives", "Businesspeople from Tacoma, Washington", "Politicians from Tacoma, Washington", "American businesspeople in real estate", "American mining businesspeople", "Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church", "People from Cowlitz County, Washington", "Pacific University alumni", "People from Washington Territory", "19th-century members of the Washington State Legislature" ]	2,541	23,007	Calvin Sam Barlow (May 13, 1856 – April 5, 1920) was a pioneer and politician of Tacoma, Washington. He was considered one of the most successful merchants of the city. In 1877, he came to Tacoma–a small village at the time–and opened its first butcher shop. Barlow successfully conducted the business for three years in partnership with his brother. Later, they founded the Tacoma Trading Company (later, C. S. Barlow & Sons) and started dealing in various building materials as well as manufacturing their own. In 1903, their company was one of the largest in the city, and one of the leading merchants. It was stated that the company supplied near three-fourths of the lime for all of the Tacoma buildings of that time. Over the years, Barlow became a highly esteemed Tacoma merchant. As a politician, Barlow was an active and member of the Republican party. He was a member of the City Council and was twice elected to the Washington State Legislature. He was first elected in 1897 during the mainly Populist victories. Barlow was one of the founders of the tax system, one of the charter members and trustees of the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Washington Supreme Court bench, and a member of the Washington State Board of Visitation for prisons. Barlow was considered one of the best-known Tacoma citizens. He was a member and founder of the first Tacoma military organization and a member of the Board of Trustees for Puget Sound University. He invested in real estate, mining, and other establishments, erected a building on Jefferson Avenue, and was a member and a leader of a number of organizations, including the Washington State Historical Society, the Pierce County Pioneers' Association, the Tacoma Commercial Club, and others. Early life and family Calvin Barlow was born in Cowlitz County, a few miles west of Kelso, Washington, on May 13, 1856. His parents were George Barlow and Mary Ann Barlow (Purdy). Barlow's ancestors were Englishmen who emigrated to America in the 1630s. Barlow's father worked on the Erie Canal as the captain of a commercial boat, and in 1830 became a Michigan pioneer. Later with his wife, he crossed the plains to Portland, Oregon. From there, they eventually moved to Cowlitz County in Washington State. Barlow spent his childhood in a family home in Cowlitz County, helping his father farm. He was one of nine children in the family. Among his siblings were Byron Barlow, a pioneer of Tacoma who took an active part in that city's development, and George W. Barlow a well-known steamboat captain on Puget Sound and the Columbia River. Education and first job Barlow studied in Forest Grove, Oregon, schools. He attended Pacific University, one of the first universities of Oregon, for one year. Later, he entered the Portland Business College. In order to pay for his education, Barlow spent five years working as a salmon fisherman on the Columbia River. He graduated in 1877 at the age of 21, and moved to Tacoma. Career Butcher business In 1877, Barlow became a pioneer of Tacoma, then a small village. There, in partnership with his brother Byron, Barlow started the city's first butcher shop. They worked in the business successfully for three years. Later, they decided to establish the Tacoma Trading Company. Tacoma Trading Company The Tacoma Trading Company was founded in 1882 and incorporated on August 21, 1883(one book gives 1893 as the year of the incorporation, possibly as a typo). Barlow worked as company's secretary and treasurer; later, he became president. In later years, three of Barlow brothers became partners, and the company name was changed to the C. S. Barlow & Sons. Three of Barlow's sons (George, Allan, and Russell) also joined the business. By 1903, the company had become one of the largest in the city, and its building was considered "the oldest and largest house of its kind." The company sold a vast array of building materials, including sewer pipes, coal, lime, plaster, cement, sand, gravel, and more. Prosser, founder of the Washington State Historical Society, stated that by 1903, the company supplied about "three-fourths of all the lime used in the buildings" that were built in Tacoma. The company was thought to be one of the leading firms of the city in the business. In 1904, Barlow loaned money for the development of a brickyard on Fox Island, from which he purchased bricks. Two years later, he bought the yard, paying $2,900 ($4,400 in 2020 dollars). The brickyard was originally founded in 1884, and over the years changed names, owners, and managers several times. The brickyard's land had a variety of quality clay deposits, and manufactured products used by towns and cities in Washington and Oregon. The brickyard was closed during the U.S. economic Depression of 1893, and re-opened in 1897. Barlow invested $30,000 ($46,000) in a brick dryer to be able to manufacture bricks all year long, instead of only during the summer months, when the bricks dried in the open air. But concrete was becoming more popular in the building business, and in 1910 or 1911, Barlow closed the brick business. Barlow remained president of the Tacoma Trading Company until his death in 1920. During his years in business, he was known as a "prominent Tacoma merchant" and "one of the most successful dealers in his field." Other activity and positions Barlow took part in the development of a number of Tacoma industries. In 1881, he co-founded the Tacoma's first military organization. He invested heavily in real estate and mining, as well as other enterprises. In 1888, Barlow built a cottage with a companion on Jefferson Avenue, called Queen Ann. From 1888 to 1903, Barlow was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Puget Sound University. Barlow served as a curator for the Washington State Historical Society and for the Ferry Museum. He was a member and president of the Pierce County Pioneers' Association. His civic activities made him one of "the best-known Tacoma citizens." Political activity Barlow actively supported and promoted the Republican party, and his opinion was taken into account by party councils. One of Barlow's first steps in the development of the city's law structure was to work on the first accurate tax system framework. He worked on it in 1883 with a colleague, Levi Shelton. In 1884, Barlow became a member of the Tacoma City Council, and in 1897, a charter member and trustee of the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the Washington State Board of Visitation for prisons. Barlow served two terms in the Washington State Legislature. He first became a member of the House of Representatives in 1897, one of the few successful Republican candidates elected during the pinnacle of the Populist party (a left-wing agrarian populist late-19th-century political party in the United States). In 1909, he became a member of the supreme bench of the Washington State. In 1915, Barlow was elected to the legislature for the second time. He was one of nine newly elected legislators who were born in Washington State. By this time, the state had existed for twenty five years, and the number of native members elected was "regarded as unusually strong." Barlow was one of the first members of the Knights of Pythias lodge of Tacoma, and was identified with the Maccabees, Odd Fellows and United Artisans. He was also a member of the Pierce County Pioneers' Association and a member of the Seattle Commercial Club. Barlow and his wife were members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a church trustee and a delegate to its General Conference at Cleveland. Personal life On April 28, 1881, Barlow married Hertilla M. Burr, a daughter of state pioneers who were the Barlows' neighbors in Cowlitz County. Barlow and Hertilla had eight children. George C., born in 1882, was later a secretary under his father's management in the Tacoma Trading Company. Harry L. was born on April 21, 1885, and died in August 1887; Byron T. was born February 1, 1888, and died April 1889; Allan was born on August 15, 1890; Russell C., born on November 10, 1893; Douglas L., born on December 23, 1895; Hertilla, born on June 7, 1898; and Mildred M., born on December 29, 1901. Calvin Barlow died on April 5, 1920, at his home in Tacoma, after suffering from an illness for two days. See also Cowlitz County, Washington Washington House of Representatives Washington State Historical Society Pacific University Literature cited
John James (Michigan politician)	[ "1981 births", "20th-century African-American politicians", "21st-century African-American politicians", "21st-century American businesspeople", "21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives", "African-American business executives", "African-American candidates for the United States Senate", "African-American Christians", "African-American members of the United States House of Representatives", "African-American military personnel", "African-American people in Michigan politics", "American chief executives", "Black conservatism in the United States", "Brother Rice High School (Michigan) alumni", "Businesspeople from Michigan", "Candidates in the 2018 United States Senate elections", "Candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections", "Christians from Michigan", "Living people", "Michigan Republicans", "Military personnel from Michigan", "People from Farmington Hills, Michigan", "Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan", "Ross School of Business alumni", "Smeal College of Business alumni", "United States Military Academy alumni", "University of Michigan alumni" ]	5,720	46,877	John Edward James (born June 8, 1981) is an American politician, businessman, and former military officer serving as the U.S. representative for Michigan's 10th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018 and 2020. In 2022, James declared his candidacy in Michigan's redrawn 10th congressional district, a seat he won and was re-elected to in 2024. On April 7, 2025, James announced his candidacy for governor of Michigan in the 2026 election. Early life and military career James was born in Southfield, Michigan, in 1981 and grew up Baptist in the Palmer Woods neighborhood of Detroit. He graduated from the Catholic Brother Rice High School in 1999. He graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 2004, and served eight years in the Army, participating in multiple tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom as an AH-64 Apache pilot. Two of his West Point classmates are fellow congressmen Wesley Hunt and Pat Ryan. He attended Ranger School and became Ranger-tabbed as a captain. James received a master's degree in supply chain management from Penn State University's Smeal College of Business and an MBA from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Business career In 2012, James joined James Group International, where his father, John A. James, was the CEO. James Group is a global supply chain management service company; James became its director of operations, and eventually became president of James Group International and CEO of its subsidiary, Renaissance Global Logistics. Renaissance Global, based in Detroit, was the recipient of a $1–2 million Paycheck Protection Program loan during the COVID-19 pandemic. James was named one of Detroit Business Journal's 30 in their 30s of 2012, and Michigan Chronicle's 40 under 40 of 2014. He served as a board member of the Michigan Council for Future Mobility, Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council and National Veteran Business Development Council. He serves on the Detroit Workforce Development Board. Political career 2018 U.S. Senate race In September 2017, James entered the Republican primary for the 2018 United States Senate election in Michigan in an attempt to unseat three-term incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow, as well as become Michigan's first African-American senator. Despite musician and Michigan native Kid Rock publicly toying with the idea of running for the seat for months, the primary came down to James and Grosse Pointe businessman and former Wayne County commissioner Sandy Pensler. James was endorsed via Twitter by President Donald Trump on July 27, 2018, eleven days before the primary. James won the nomination with 55% of the vote. On November 6, 2018, Stabenow defeated James, 52.3% to 45.8%. Potential United Nations ambassadorship In late November 2018, Bloomberg News reported that Trump was considering nominating James to become the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, to replace Ambassador Nikki Haley, who previously announced that she was planning to leave the Trump administration by the end of 2018. James reportedly met at the White House with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He was ultimately bypassed for the position. Trump announced he would appoint Heather Nauert, the spokesperson for the United States Department of State and a former television reporter, to succeed Haley, but Nauert was never nominated and announced in February 2019 that she was withdrawing from consideration. After Nauert's withdrawal, Trump again considered James for the ambassadorship, but eventually nominated United States ambassador to Canada Kelly Knight Craft for the post. 2020 U.S. Senate race Because the election margin in the 2018 Senate race was smaller than expected, James became a front-runner for the Republican nomination to take on Michigan's other incumbent Democratic senator, Gary Peters, in the 2020 election. As well as being recruited to take on Peters, it was reported in June 2019 that the National Republican Congressional Committee was recruiting James to challenge freshman Democratic U.S. representative Haley Stevens of Michigan's 11th congressional district. On June 6, 2019, James announced that he was seeking the Republican nomination in 2020 to take on Peters. Michigan was one of two states in which an incumbent Democratic senator was seeking reelection during 2020 in a state won by Trump in 2016, the other being Alabama. Although the Associated Press called the race for Peters on November 4, 2020, James refused to concede, which Peters termed "pathetic." James initially insisted that the election had not been administered fairly. He established a joint legal fund with the Republican National Committee to challenge the results. James claimed there was "ample evidence" for an investigation, but offered none. He raised $2 million after the election as he sought to challenge the election results, and he unsuccessfully attempted to block certification of the results of the election, which he lost to Peters by 1.7% of the vote, which was much closer than originally projected. James conceded on November 24 over social media, congratulating Peters. During his campaign, James pledged to give 5% of his campaign contributions to charity. The James fundraising committee reported about $46.12 million in total contributions for the 2020 election and has given more than $2.36 million to charities following through on his pledge. U.S House of Representatives Elections 2022 James won the Republican primary in the 2022 election in Michigan's 10th congressional district. He defeated Democrat Carl Marlinga in the November general election. James won a second term on November 5, 2024, in a rematch against Marlinga, winning 51.1% of the vote. Committee assignments As of the 118th Congress, James is a member of the following committees. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment (Vice Chair) Subcommittee on Aviation Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa (Chairman) Subcommittee for Western Hemisphere Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee on Energy and Commerce Political positions During his 2018 Senate campaign, James ran on a typical Republican platform, describing himself on his campaign website as "a pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-business conservative." He emphasized his desire to defund Planned Parenthood and compared Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, to "genocide." He opposes the death penalty, does not believe employers should be able to fire workers due to their sexual orientation, and opposes the legalization of recreational marijuana. James says he wants to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which he has called "a monstrosity." According to The Detroit Free Press, James was careful not to take a position on the Trump administration's lawsuit seeking to immediately strike down the entire ACA as unconstitutional. When pressed in a September 2020 interview, he said he was against the ACA lawsuit without a replacement plan in place, but did not criticize Republicans for pushing the lawsuit. James supported Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries. He later became a Trump supporter, and tweeted in 2018 that, if elected to the Senate, he would back Trump "2,000%." During his 2020 campaign, James accepted Trump's endorsement and campaigned alongside him. James has not been publicly critical of Trump or his actions. During a meeting with black faith leaders, James was asked whether he disagreed with Trump on anything. James said, "Everything from cutting Great Lakes funding to 'shithole countries' to speaking ill of the dead. I mean, where do you want to start?" In a leaked audio recording of a meeting with African American leaders in Michigan, James was asked why he hadn't publicly criticized Trump. He said he thought it was better to be silent in public in order to gain access to Trump. James said, "Donald Trump doesn't need less Black folks around him, he needs more," and that his goal was "achieving equity and equality for our people, not standing up on Twitter and condemning folks." During the campaign, Democrats sought to tie James to Trump, while James has said his candidacy was not a referendum on Trump. During his 2020 campaign, James declined to take specific positions on a number of policy questions, including how the Social Security Trust Fund would be protected from the impact of a payroll tax cut, whether the Senate should vote to confirm a new Supreme Court justice to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg before or after the 2020 presidential election, and whether he thinks military bases named for Confederate generals should be renamed. 2026 gubernatorial campaign On April 7, 2025, James announced his candidacy for governor of Michigan in the 2026 election. Personal life James married his wife, Elizabeth, in 2012. They have three sons. When James was still dating Elizabeth, he had an encounter with police at a mall in a suburb of Detroit in which the officers drew their guns on him; James believes that if Elizabeth had not been beside him, he might have been killed. He has also expressed his fear of being killed whenever police pull him over for a traffic stop. James is a nondenominational Christian. He lives in Shelby Township, Michigan. Electoral history See also List of African-American United States representatives List of African-American United States Senate candidates
KFC	[ "KFC", "1930 establishments in Kentucky", "1964 mergers and acquisitions", "1971 mergers and acquisitions", "1986 mergers and acquisitions", "American companies established in 1930", "American corporate subsidiaries", "Chicken chains of the United States", "Companies based in Louisville, Kentucky", "Companies that have filed for bankruptcy in Canada", "Fast-food chains of the United States", "Fast-food poultry restaurants", "Cuisine of Kentucky", "Laurel County, Kentucky", "Multinational companies headquartered in the United States", "Multinational food companies", "Restaurants established in 1930", "Restaurants in Louisville, Kentucky", "South Salt Lake, Utah", "Yum! Brands" ]	8,616	101,669	KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with over 30,000 locations globally in 150 countries . The chain is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company that also owns the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains. KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders (1890–1980), an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant-franchising concept, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. By branding himself as "Colonel Sanders", Harland became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising to this day. However, the company's rapid expansion overwhelmed the aging Sanders, and he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964. KFC was one of the first American fast-food chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Jamaica by the mid-1960s. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it experienced mixed fortunes domestically, as it went through a series of changes in corporate ownership with little or no experience in the restaurant business. In the early 1970s, KFC was sold to the spirits distributor Heublein, which was taken over by the R. J. Reynolds food and tobacco conglomerate; that company sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain continued to expand overseas, however, and in 1987 it became the first Western restaurant chain to open in China. It has since expanded rapidly in China, which is now the company's single largest market. PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as Tricon Global Restaurants, which later changed its name to Yum! Brands. KFC's original product is pressure-fried chicken pieces, seasoned with Sanders' signature recipe of "11 herbs and spices". The constituents of the recipe are a trade secret. Larger portions of fried chicken are served in a cardboard "bucket", which has become a feature of the chain since it was first introduced by franchisee Pete Harman in 1957. Since the early 1990s, KFC has expanded its menu to offer other chicken products such as chicken fillet sandwiches and wraps, as well as salads and side dishes such as french fries and coleslaw, desserts and soft drinks; the latter often supplied by PepsiCo. KFC is known for its slogans "It's Finger Lickin' Good!", "Nobody does chicken like KFC", "We do chicken right", and "So good". Sanders Court & Café Harland Sanders was born in 1890 and raised on a farm outside Henryville, Indiana (near Louisville, Kentucky). When Sanders was five years old, his father died, forcing his mother to work at a canning plant. This left Sanders, as the eldest son, to care for his two younger siblings. After he reached seven years of age, his mother taught him how to cook. After leaving the family home at the age of 13, Sanders passed through several professions with mixed success. In 1930, Sanders took over a Shell filling station on U.S. Route 25 just outside North Corbin, Kentucky, a small town on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. It was here that he first served to travelers the recipes that he had learned as a child: fried chicken and other dishes such as steaks and country ham. After four years of serving from his own dining room table, Sanders purchased the larger filling station on the other side of the road and expanded to six tables. By 1936, this had proven successful enough for Sanders to be given the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel by Governor Ruby Laffoon. In 1937 he expanded his restaurant to 142 seats and added a motel he purchased across the street, naming it Sanders Court & Café. Sanders was unhappy with the 35 minutes it took to prepare his chicken in an iron frying pan, but he refused to deep fry the chicken, which he believed lowered the quality of the product. If he pre-cooked the chicken in advance of orders, there was sometimes wastage at day's end. In 1939, the first commercial pressure cookers were released onto the market, mostly designed for steaming vegetables. Sanders bought one and modified it into a pressure fryer, which he then used to fry chicken. The new method reduced production time to be comparable with deep frying while, in the opinion of Sanders, retaining the quality of pan-fried chicken. "Original Recipe" and franchising In July 1940, Sanders finalized what came to be known as his "Original Recipe" of 11 herbs and spices. Although he never publicly revealed the recipe, he said the ingredients included salt and pepper and that the rest "stand on everybody's shelf". After being recommissioned as a Kentucky Colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby, Sanders began to dress the part, growing a goatee, wearing a black frock coat (later switched to a white suit) and a string tie and referring to himself as "the Colonel". His associates went along with the title change, "jokingly at first and then in earnest", according to biographer Josh Ozersky. In 1952, Sanders franchised his recipe to his friend Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah, the operator of one of the city's largest restaurants. The Sanders Court & Café generally served travelers, so when the route planned in 1955 for Interstate 75 bypassed his properties, Sanders sold them and traveled the US to franchise his recipe to restaurant owners. Independent restaurants would pay four (later five) cents on each chicken as a franchise fee in exchange for Sanders' recipe and the right to feature it on their menus and use his name and likeness for promotional purposes. Don Anderson, a sign painter hired by Harman, coined the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken". For Harman, the addition of KFC was a way of differentiating his restaurant from competitors; a product from Kentucky was exotic and evoked imagery of Southern hospitality. Harman trademarked the phrase "It's finger lickin' good", which eventually became the company slogan. He also introduced the "bucket meal" in 1957 (14 pieces of chicken, five bread rolls and a pint of gravy in a cardboard bucket). Serving their signature meal in a paper bucket was to become an iconic feature of the company. By 1963, there were 600 KFC restaurants, making the company the largest fast food operation in the United States. KFC popularized chicken in the fast food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the dominance of the hamburger. With significant growth in tow, the fledgling Kentucky Fried Chicken decided in 1964 that they would begin offering franchise opportunities beyond the Atlantic, and landed on the United Kingdom as its entry point into Europe. As such, the first British KFC eatery opened its doors at 92 Fishergate in Preston, Lancashire, on May 1, 1965, and still operates today. Pat Grace met with Sanders at his holiday home near Toronto and agreed to franchise the brand in Ireland. In 1970 Grace returned to Ireland after a number of years in Canada to open his first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Phibsboro shopping center in Dublin. Eventually he opened another six restaurants located in Dublin, Limerick and Cork. After disagreements over cost cutting with KFC management in the early 1980s, the Irish restaurants were renamed to Pat Grace's Famous Fried Chicken reportedly retaining the original recipe. These stores were closed in the late 1980s. Pat Grace went on to wholesale the chicken spice blend under the brand Grace's Perfect Blend. Sale and global expansion In 1964, Sanders sold KFC to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey for US$2 million (around US$17 million in 2020). The contract included a lifetime salary for Sanders and the agreement that he would be the company's quality controller and trademark. The chain had reached 3,000 outlets in 48 countries by 1970. In July 1971, Brown sold the company to the Connecticut-based Heublein, a packaged food and drinks corporation, for US$285 million (around US$1.8 billion in 2020). Sanders died in 1980, his promotional work making him a prominent figure in American cultural history. By the time of his death, there were an estimated 6,000 KFC outlets in 48 countries worldwide, with $2 billion worth of sales annually. In 1982, Heublein was acquired by R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco giant. In July 1986, Reynolds announced the sale of KFC to PepsiCo for $850 million (around US$2.0 billion in 2020). The actual sale took place in early October for $840 million. PepsiCo made the chain a part of its restaurants division alongside Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. KFC entered the Chinese market in November 1987, with an outlet in Beijing. In 1991, the KFC name was officially adopted, although it had already been widely known by that initialism. Kyle Craig, president of KFC U.S., admitted the change was an attempt to distance the chain from the unhealthy connotations of "fried". The early 1990s saw a number of successful major product launches, including spicy "Hot Wings" (launched in 1990), popcorn chicken (1992) and, internationally, the "Zinger", a spicy chicken fillet sandwich (1993). By 1994 KFC had 5,149 outlets in the US and 9,407 overall, with over 100,000 employees. In August 1997, PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as a public company valued at US$4.5 billion (around US$7.3 billion in 2020). The new company was named Tricon Global Restaurants and, at the time, had 30,000 outlets and annual sales of US$10 billion (around US$16 billion in 2020), making it second in the world only to McDonald's. Tricon was renamed Yum! Brands in May 2002. On March 31, 2011, Priszm, owner of KFC in Canada, went into bankruptcy protection in Ontario and British Columbia. By 2015, KFC was struggling, having lost business to other retailers and being surpassed by Chick-fil-A as the leading chicken retailer in the US three years previously. The company launched a new initiative with a plan to revamp its packaging, decor and uniforms and expand its menu. Additionally, beginning in May 2015, a new series of US advertisements was launched featuring Darrell Hammond as Colonel Sanders. In a planned rotation of actors, Norm Macdonald, Jim Gaffigan, George Hamilton and Rob Riggle portrayed Sanders in similar ads through the fall of 2016. In January 2018, country music icon Reba McEntire played the first female Colonel Sanders. Before leaving as CEO in 2021, Andrea Zahumensky told Ad Age the "brand assets that we're so lucky to have" were the bucket, the three stripes and the full name Kentucky Fried Chicken. All of these were being used more by the chain. Australia rebranded KFC back to its original name, "Kentucky Fried Chicken" in 2019. KFC is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, one of the largest restaurant companies in the world. KFC had sales of $23 billion in 2013. KFC is incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law, and has its headquarters at 1441 Gardiner Lane, Louisville, Kentucky, in a three-story colonial style building known colloquially as the "White House" due to its resemblance to the US president's home. The headquarters contain executive offices and the company's research and development facilities. Yum! Brands plans to move the KFC headquarters to Plano, Texas, in 2025. KFC's core product offering is pressure fried on-the-bone chicken pieces seasoned with Colonel Harland Sanders' "Original Recipe" of 11 herbs and spices. The product is typically available in either two- or three-piece individual servings or in a family size cardboard bucket typically holding between six and 16 chicken pieces. In territories that follow the system handed down by Colonel Sanders, such as Canada and the UK, each chicken is divided into nine different cuts (two drumsticks, two thighs, two wings, two breast pieces and one keel); however, the United States now uses an eight-piece cut. The chicken is hand-breaded at individual KFC outlets with wheat flour mixed with seasoning in a two- to four-minute process. It is then pressure fried for between seven and 10 minutes (the timing differs between countries) in oil at 185 degrees Celsius. Following this, the chicken is left to stand for 5 minutes in order for it to sufficiently cool before it is placed in the warming oven. It is KFC policy to discard chicken if it has not been sold within 90 minutes in order to ensure freshness. The frying oil varies regionally and versions used include sunflower, soybean, rapeseed and palm oil. A KFC executive stated that the taste of the chicken will vary between regions depending on the oil variety used and whether the chicken has been corn-fed or wheat-fed. As well as its core chicken on the bone offering, KFC's major products include chicken burgers (including the Zinger and the Tower); wraps ("Twisters" and "Boxmasters"); and a variety of finger foods, including crispy chicken strips and hot wings. Popcorn chicken, which consists of bite-sized pieces of fried chicken, is one of the most widely available KFC products. In some locations, such as in Australia, Belarus, Malaysia and South Africa, chicken nuggets are also sold. McCormick & Company is KFC's largest supplier of sauces, seasonings and marinades and is a long-term partner in new product development. Due to the company's previous relationship with PepsiCo, most territories supply PepsiCo products, but exceptional territories include Barbados, Greece, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Romania, South Africa, Turkey, Indonesia (since 2019), Singapore (since 2022) and Malaysia (since 2022) which stock drinks supplied by The Coca-Cola Company, and Aruba, which stocks RC Cola from the Cott Corporation. In Peru, the locally popular Inca Kola is sold. Launched in 2009, the Krusher/Krushem range of frozen beverages containing "real bits" such as Kit Kat, Oreo and strawberry shortcake is available in over 2,000 outlets. Egg custard tart is a popular dessert worldwide, but other items include ice cream sundaes and tres leches cake in Peru. In 2012, the "KFC AM" breakfast menu began to be rolled out internationally, including such items as pancakes, waffles and porridge, as well as fried chicken. On August 27, 2019, KFC tested meatless boneless wings and nuggets in Atlanta, Georgia. In February 2023, Kentucky Fried Chicken in Australia announced that several items would no longer be sold in their menu, including wings, popcorn chicken, Nashville hot sauce and strawberry lemonade. The 11 herbs and spices Sanders' Original Recipe of "11 herbs and spices" is one of the best known trade secrets in the catering industry. The recipe is not patented, because patent law requires public disclosure of an invention and provides protection only for a strictly limited term, whereas trade secrets can remain the intellectual property of their holders in perpetuity. A copy of the recipe, signed by Sanders, is held inside a safe inside a vault in KFC's Louisville headquarters, along with 11 vials containing the herbs and spices. To maintain the secrecy of the recipe, half of it is produced by Griffith Laboratories before it is given to McCormick, who add the second half. In 1999, a couple who bought the house formerly occupied by Colonel Sanders found scribbled notes purported to be the secret recipe. Initially, KFC wanted to file a lawsuit against the couple to stop an auction of the notes but, by early 2001, it dropped the lawsuit, claiming the scribbled notes are "nowhere close" to the original recipe. Joe Ledington of Kentucky, a nephew by marriage of Colonel Sanders, claimed to have found a copy of the original KFC fried chicken recipe on a handwritten piece of paper in an envelope in a scrapbook. In August 2016, Chicago Tribune staffers conducted a cooking test of this recipe and claimed after a few attempts that, with the addition of the MSG flavor-enhancer Ac'cent, they produced fried chicken which tasted "indistinguishable" from the chicken they purchased at KFC. Regionalized menus KFC adapts its menu internationally to suit regional tastes and there are over 300 KFC menu items worldwide. Some locations, such as the UK and the US, sell grilled chicken. In predominantly Islamic countries, the chicken served is halal. In Asia, there is a preference for spicy foods, such as the Zinger chicken burger. In many international markets, the seasoning used for the core chicken pieces product is available as a hot and spicy version as an alternative to the classic KFC recipe. The hot and spicy coating, as well as having a spicier flavour, also has a crispy consistency. In Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, a grilled chicken known as "Smoky Red" is available. KFC locations in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Vietnam offer a roasted option known as Flava Crava. KFC's menu in China includes, among other items incorporating Chinese food items, rice bowls, noodle dishes, and chicken prepared in the style of Peking duck. Some locations in the US sell fried chicken livers and gizzards. A small number of US outlets offer an all-you-can-eat buffet option with a limited menu. Value menu items are sold under the "Streetwise" name in locations such as Canada, Nigeria, South Africa and Mauritius. Side dishes often include French fries, coleslaw, barbecue baked beans, corn on the cob, mashed potato, bread rolls and American biscuits. Salads include the bean salad, the Caesar salad and the garden salad. In a number of territories, KFC sells onion rings. In most of Asia, several Sub-Saharan Africa and Pacific markets, rice based side dishes are often sold. In Greece and Bulgaria, potato wedges are sold instead of French fries. In a number of Eastern European locations and Portugal, beer is offered in addition to soft drinks. In 2023 KFC branches in UK and Ireland introduced new 'signature fries' (fries coated in herbs and spice) in an attempt to improve the taste of the fries. Equipment KFC initially used stove-top covered cooking pots to fry its chicken. In the 1960s, the officially recommended model was the L S Hartzog developed "KFC 20-Head Cooker", a large device that cost $16,000. The Hartzog model had no oil filtration system, meaning that filtering had to be done manually, and the pressure fryers occasionally exploded often harming employees. In 1969, inventor and engineer Winston L. Shelton developed the "Collectramatic" pressurized fryer to overcome the problems KFC faced in quickly frying chicken to meet growing customer demand. The Collectramatic used precision time and temperature controls and self-filtered the cooking oil – all while meeting Colonel Sanders' high standards. Fred Jeffries, then vice president of purchasing at KFC, claimed that the invention helped fuel the company's rapid expansion and success: There's no way it (KFC) could have grown as it did without the Collectramatic. Stores were doing about $200,000 a year in sales on average with the pots...but they could never have done the $900,000 a year it became without Win's fryer. He (Shelton) helped set the stage for that with true engineering thinking. Although a number of franchisees bought the Collectramatic, which had the support of Colonel Sanders from 1970 onwards, John Y. Brown Jr. had given tacit approval to franchisees to exclusively use the older L S Hartzog fryer, saying "Though those old pots were damn dangerous, at least we knew they worked! I was mostly afraid these new fryers would break down in the middle of business." Brown warned franchisees that they were in violation of their contract if they used the Collectramatic. Brown held his ground on the issue until he learned that his father, John Y. Brown Sr., who owned multiple KFC franchises, was successfully using the Collectramatic in every franchise he owned. The issue was eventually resolved after Heublein purchased KFC, acquired Hartzog and nullified the contract. The Collectramatic has been an approved pressure fryer for KFC from 1972 onwards. From 2013 onwards, KFC has been transitioning from using Collectramatic cookers to pressure fryers produced by Henny Penny, which supplies KFC with various equipment. The 'Velocity' series of pressure fryers includes increased load capacity, automatic oil filtration and increased oil longevity. Colonel Sanders was a key component of KFC advertising until his death in 1980. Despite his death, Sanders remains a key icon of the company as an "international symbol of hospitality". Early official slogans for the company included "North America's Hospitality Dish" (from 1956) and "We fix Sunday dinner seven nights a week". The "finger lickin' good" slogan was used from 1956 and went on to become one of the best-known slogans of the 20th century. The trademark expired in the US in 2006. The first KFC logo was introduced in 1952 and featured a "Kentucky Fried Chicken" typeface and a logo of the Colonel. In 1962, Dave Thomas took Colonel Sanders' bucket and turned it into a sign that revolved in a circular motion in front of almost every American KFC outlet. Advertising played a key role at KFC after it was sold by Sanders and the company began to advertise on US television with a budget of US$4 million in 1966. In order to fund nationwide advertising campaigns, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Advertising Co-Op was established, giving franchisees 10 votes and the company three when deciding on budgets and campaigns. In 1969, KFC hired its first national advertising agency, Leo Burnett. A notable Burnett campaign in 1972 was the "Get a bucket of chicken, have a barrel of fun" jingle, performed by Barry Manilow. By 1976, KFC was one of the largest advertisers in the US. Controversies and criticism Since the beginning of the 21st century, fast food has been criticized for its animal welfare record, its links to obesity and its environmental impact. Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation (2002) and Morgan Spurlock's film Super Size Me (2004) reflected these concerns. Since 2003, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has protested KFC's choice of poultry suppliers worldwide. The exception is KFC Canada, which signed an agreement pledging to only use "animal-friendly" suppliers. President of KFC's US division Gregg Dedrick said PETA mischaracterized KFC as a poultry producer rather than a purchaser of chickens. In 2008, Yum! stated: "[As] a major purchaser of food products, [Yum!] has the opportunity and responsibility to influence the way animals supplied to us are treated. We take that responsibility very seriously, and we are monitoring our suppliers on an ongoing basis." In 2006, Greenpeace accused KFC Europe of sourcing the soya bean for its chicken feed from Cargill, which had been accused of clearing large swathes of the Amazon rainforest in order to grow the crop. In 2010, according to The Guardian, "in the US where fried chicken remains closely associated with age-old racist stereotypes about black people in the once segregated south", KFC Australia aired the 30-second promotion on television named "KFC's cricket survival guide" which shows a white cricket fan surrounded by black fans from the opposing team. The television announcer asks, "Need a tip when you're stuck in an awkward situation?" The fan passes around his "bucket of KFC", even though the commercial was intended for an Australian audience, which found its way to social media in the United States, prompting sharp disapproval. KFC Australia made a statement to the fact the commercial was "misinterpreted by a segment of people in the US" and it was a "light-hearted reference to the West Indian cricket team" and "The ad was reproduced online in the US without KFC's permission, where we are told a culturally-based stereotype exists, leading to the incorrect assertion of racism...We unequivocally condemn discrimination of any type and have a proud history as one of the world's leading employers for diversity". In May 2012, Greenpeace accused KFC of sourcing paper pulp for its food packaging from Indonesian rainforest wood. Independent forensic tests showed that some packaging contained more than 50 percent mixed tropical hardwood fiber, sourced from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). APP said such fiber can be found in recycled paper, or: "It can also come from tree residues that are cleared, after a forest area has become degraded, logged-over or burned, as part of a sustainable development plan. APP has strict policies and practices in place to ensure that only residues from legal plantation development on degraded or logged-over forest areas and sustainable wood fiber enters the production supply chain." KFC said: "From a global perspective, 60 percent of the paper products that Yum! (our parent company) sources are from sustainable sources. Our suppliers are working towards making it 100 percent." In December 2012, the chain was criticized in China when it was discovered that a number of KFC suppliers had been using growth hormones and an excessive amount of antibiotics on its poultry in ways that violated Chinese law. In February 2013, Yum! CEO David Novak admitted that the scandal had been "longer lasting and more impactful than we ever imagined". The issue is of major concern to Yum!, which earns almost half of its profits from China, largely through the KFC brand. In March 2013, Yum! reported that sales had rebounded in February, but that lower sales in December and January would result in a decline in same-store sales of 20 percent in the first quarter. In 2017, KFC was fined £950,000 after two workers in the UK were scalded by boiling hot gravy. The company admitted to charges of failing in a duty of care to employees and was ordered by Teesside Crown Court in Middlesbrough to pay fines of £800,000 and £150,000. In February 2018, logistics mismanagement by DHL, which had been selected by KFC UK as their new delivery partner, caused a chicken shortage in the United Kingdom – KFC's largest market in Europe – forcing the company to temporarily close hundreds of restaurants around the country. KFC apologized by taking out adverts in British newspapers showing the company's initials rearranged to read "FCK", followed by an apology, which was well received. In November 2021, Finland's first KFC restaurant was opened at the Itis shopping center in Itäkeskus, Helsinki. A few days before the opening day, a tent had appeared in front of the restaurant, where a man who had kept his identity secret for a few days had stayed, and who on the opening day revealed himself to the public as a vegan activist defending animal rights. After trying to give his speech to those present, the security company carried him away. Even before the opening of the restaurant, in October, news of a controversy over the procurement of a broiler for food from Poland; the cause is mainly related to the risk of salmonella in broilers, which is a significant problem in Poland, whereas its prevalence in Finland is low. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, a number of companies have faced growing pressure to halt operations in Russia but have not yet done so. This includes KFC, which has over 1,000 outlets in Russia, more than any other Western fast food chain. In early 2022 a promotional video was shot with influencer Niko Omilana showing a chicken farm in the KFC supply chain. The video depicted birds with a good quality of life. Animal rights activists entered the same farm months later and found vastly different conditions, with instances of "severe overcrowding" and "lame and dead birds". Paul Roger, a vet and founder member of AWSELVA, said birds in the footage were exhibiting "behavioural signs of stress such as feather pecking and topical skin infection". KFC's actions were branded "misleading". On November 9, 2022, KFC Germany issued an announcement inviting its German audience to celebrate Kristallnacht with "Cheesy Chicken". An apology was issued shortly afterwards, blaming the original message as an "error in our system". In May 2024, the closure of the outlet in Malaysia was reported due to the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Attacks on two outlets in Baghdad, Iraq were also reported. In September 2024, KFC announced that it would not meet the Better Chicken Commitment, an animal welfare pledge made in 2019. The commitment includes several welfare standards, such as adopting slower-growing breeds by 2026, but as of 2024, only 1% of KFC's chickens were from such breeds. In June 2025, KFC temporarily closed all its 11 restaurants in Denmark and dismissed its franchise holder in the country after a TV show (broadcast on June 23) revealed that in multiple restaurants, employees were systematically falsifying ("extending") use-by dates on raw chicken, and possibly other problems. Before broadcast, the questions by the TV reporter caused the national food authority to launch simultaneous inspection raids on all 11 restaurants. None got an all OK, 7 got strict warnings 4 got punishments (fines/charges or forced instant closure), among the issues found by the authorities were mouldy residue in multiple restaurants, a common procedure of reusing the breading mix continuously instead of using fresh breading mix every 3 hours as stated in written procedures that were hastily changed during the raids (some inspections only saw the new procedure, which they found dubious), a common thawing procedure (with no written risk assessment documentation) for raw chicken which would allow chicken to be served up to 4 days after start of defrosting and made it difficult to confirm the actual age of the raw chicken, suspect messages between restaurant bosses and the national Franchise holder about deceiving inspectors from both the government and KFC Western Europe. Furthermore, various formal and legal issues were found in multiple restaurants, such as dirty waste buckets too close to fresh food, parts of operations done under the company ID of the parent company instead of the actual restaurant as registered with food safety authorities, and incomplete paperwork on deliveries. See also Cuisine of the Southern United States List of chicken restaurants List of fast food restaurant chains List of major employers in Louisville, Kentucky KFC in China KFC in Japan
Lessing J. Rosenwald	[ "1891 births", "1979 deaths", "American art collectors", "American book and manuscript collectors", "American businesspeople in retailing", "American people of German-Jewish descent", "American retail chief executives", "Chess patrons", "Jewish art collectors", "Jewish American anti-Zionists", "America First Committee members", "Jewish American sportspeople", "Jewish chess players", "Sears Holdings people", "American anti-war activists", "Businesspeople from Chicago", "People from Jenkintown, Pennsylvania", "People associated with the Philadelphia Museum of Art", "Rosenwald family", "Philanthropists from Illinois", "20th-century American chess players", "20th-century American businesspeople", "Reform anti-Zionists", "20th-century American Jews", "Members of the American Philosophical Society", "Jews from Illinois", "Jews from Pennsylvania" ]	984	8,924	Lessing Julius Rosenwald (February 10, 1891 – June 24, 1979) was an American businessman, a collector of rare books and art, a chess patron, and a philanthropist. Biography Born in Chicago, Lessing J. Rosenwald was the eldest son of Julius Rosenwald, a clothier who became part-owner and was president of Sears, Roebuck and Company from 1908 to 1923, and chairman from 1923 to 1932. Lessing left Cornell University and went to work for Sears in 1911 as a shipping clerk, and in 1920, was given the responsibility of opening a catalog supply center for the growing mail-order company in Philadelphia. He resided for many years in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. In 1913 he married Edith Goodkind and together they had five children: Julius "Dooley" Rosenwald II, Robert L. Rosenwald, Helen Rosenwald Snellenburg, Joan Rosenwald Scott, and Janet Rosenwald Becker. Succeeding his father, he was chairman of Sears from 1932 until 1939, when he dedicated himself full-time to collecting rare books and art, as well as managing the family charities, chiefly the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which made fellowship grants directly to hundreds of African-American artists, writers, researchers and intellectuals. In 1943, he pledged to donate his collections of rare books and art. After his death, 2,600 rare books, which trace the illustrated book through the last six centuries, and 5,000 reference books were given to the Library of Congress, which remains one of the most distinguished collections in the Rare Books and Special Collections division. Additionally, 27,000 prints and drawings were donated to the National Gallery of Art, both located in Washington, D.C. He was one of the founding donors of the National Gallery of Art when it opened in 1941. The "Giant Bible of Mainz" has been on permanent display in the great entrance hall of the Library of Congress since Rosenwald donated it in 1952, when it was 500 years old. Rosenwald held his collection at his private gallery, the Alverthorpe Gallery, within the Abington Art Center. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1947. Rosenwald was also a chess enthusiast, and donated money to support American chess. He sponsored the U.S. Chess Championship from 1957 to 1969. Political activities Rosenwald was the best known Jewish supporter of the America First Committee, which advocated American neutrality in World War II before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was led by his successor at Sears-Roebuck and lifelong friend Robert E. Wood. Just three months after its founding, he resigned from the committee's board in December 1940 over concerns about antisemitism. He became director of the Bureau of Industrial Conservation in the War Production Board during World War II. In 1943, Rosenwald accepted the invitation to become President of the American Council for Judaism, an association of anti-Zionist Reform Jews, a position he held until 1955; after that he remained chairman of the board. During this time, Rosenwald was also active in rescue efforts of European Jews, and urged the United States to admit large numbers of refugees, both Jew and Gentile. International renown Lessing J. Rosenwald's importance as a rare book collector and donor to the Library of Congress is featured in David Baldacci's novel, The Camel Club, London (Pan Books) 2006, p. 164 ff. In 1971 he was honored with the Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting, "Private Collecting for the Public Good," by the University of San Francisco Gleeson Library and the Gleeson Library Associates. Further reading The New York Times, June 26, 1979, p. C17, c. 1–2
Coins of the Australian dollar	[ "Decimal coins of Australia", "Coins of Australia", "Articles containing video clips", "Lists of coins" ]	1,676	14,806	The coins of the Australian dollar were introduced on 14 February 1966, although they did not at that time include the one-dollar or two-dollar coins. The dollar was equivalent in value to 10 shillings (half a pound) in the former currency. Regular coinage The Royal Australian Mint has announced that, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, it will produce one million $1 coins bearing King Charles' face in 2023 with the new effigy to fully replace a temporary memorial effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by May 2024. All previous coins have featured a depiction of the monarch on the obverse. Since decimalisation, four different effigies of Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia had been used for this purpose. The first effigy was designed by Arnold Machin, the second by Raphael Maklouf, the third by Ian Rank-Broadley and the fourth by artist Jody Clark. They have all been matched with designs by the Australian-born artist Stuart Devlin on the reverse. The set now comprises a 50c, 20c, 10c and 5c coin, all still referred to as "silver", although they consist of 75% copper and 25% nickel. For many years there were also 2c and 1c coins, traditionally called "copper" coins, although they are actually an alloy of copper and zinc. The "silver" 5c, 10c, and 20c coins can be counted by value using their weight, without the need to count the individual pieces, as they have the same weight per value, at 0.565g per cent, or 56.5g per dollar. This allows banks to count the value of a collection of any combination of those coins. The original 50c coin was circular and contained 80% silver and 20% copper, and the metal in the coin quickly became worth more than 50c. It had almost identical dimensional specifications to the British half crown coin. However, to avoid confusion with the 20c coin, and because of its excess value, it was only produced for one year and then withdrawn from circulation. No 50-cent coins were minted for 1967 or 1968. The coin was issued in a dodecagonal (12-sided) shape starting in 1969, although the 12-sided version had been minted in 1966–67 as a specimen piece, to test the design. The standard design on both versions of the coin are the same: the obverse carries the effigy of the sovereign, and the reverse shows the coat of arms of Australia, although the coin has been issued with both standard and commemorative designs. The dodecagonal version has a mass of 15.55 g and a diameter of 31.5 mm, and the round silver version had a mass of 13.28 g and diameter of 31.5 mm. 94.13 round 50c coins make up a fine kilogram of silver. "Gold" one-dollar and two-dollar coins were introduced in the 1980s. The one-dollar coin was introduced in 1984, to replace the banknote of the same value. The two-dollar coin, also replacing a banknote, was introduced in 1988. They have content of 2% nickel, 6% aluminium and 92% copper. The two-dollar coin is smaller in diameter than the one-dollar coin, but the two-dollar is slightly thicker. Due to the metal exceeding face value, the minting of one- and two-cent coins was discontinued in 1991, and they were withdrawn from circulation beginning in 1992. , both coins have only been minted as collectors' items, such as in 2006 as part of a "Mint Year" set. Australian coins have medallic orientation, as do most other Commonwealth coins, Japanese yen coins, and euro coins. That is in contrast to coin orientation, which is used in United States coinage. After the death of Elizabeth II and the change of its Sovereign, new Australian coins began to be minted with King Charles III on their obverse in December 2023. The $1 coin was the first to change over, with the remaining denominations to be periodically changed based on bank demand. Table + Australian coins Image Value Technical parameters Description Date of first minting Obverse Reverse Diameter Thickness Weight Composition Edge Obverse Reverse 1c 17.65 mm >1.4 mm 2.60 g 97% copper2.5% zinc0.5% tin Plain Queen Elizabeth II Feathertail glider 1966–1991 (no longer issued) 2c 21.59 mm <1.9 mm 5.20 g Frill-necked lizard 5c 19.41 mm 1.3 mm 2.83 g Cupronickel75% copper25% nickel Reeded QueenElizabeth II (1966-2024)KingCharles III (2024-Present) Echidna 1966 10c 23.60 mm 1.5 mm 5.65 g Superb lyrebird 20c 28.65 mm 2.0 mm 11.3 g Platypus 50c Dodecagon 31.65 mm (across flats) 2.0 mm 15.55 g Plain QueenElizabeth II (1969-2024)KingCharles III (2024-Present) Coat of arms 1969 $1 25.00 mm 2.8 mm 9.00 g 92% copper6% aluminium2% nickel Interruptedmilled QueenElizabeth II (1984-2023)KingCharles III (2023-Present) Five kangaroos 1984 $2 20.50 mm 3.0 mm 6.60 g QueenElizabeth II (1988-2024)KingCharles III (2024-Present) Aboriginal elder and Southern Cross 1988 Source: Royal Australian Mint. Commemorative coins Commemorative coins have been produced for various denominations in various years with imagery representing an event replacing the usual design on the reverse side of the coin. In some years, all the coins of that denomination are replaced with a different design for that year. In other cases, only a few million coins have the commemorative design, and coins with the standard reverse are also released. No commemorative issues of the 1c coin have been produced, and with the exception of the 2016 issue, there have been no commemorative issues of the 5c and 10c coins. A special 2c coin was released, showcasing one of Stuart Devlin's alternative designs. Many commemorative versions of the 50c coin have been placed in general circulation since 1970. The first coin commemorative issue was in 1986, the first 20c commemorative issue in 1995, and the first commemorative issue in 2012. Mintages reported for these coins vary from around 500,000 to around 50 million. In 1992 the Mint commenced production of commemorative issues which were not for circulation. Mintages reported for these coins vary from around 5,000 to around 125,000, with the notable exception of the four 25c coins of 2016 which have mintages of 1 million each. In 2016, to celebrate 50 years of decimal currency, a commemorative design for the obverse of the coins was released. To date this is the only issue where the commemorative design is on the obverse face rather than on the reverse face. Collectable coins The Royal Australian Mint regularly releases collectable coins, one of the most famous of which is the 1980–1994 gold two-hundred-dollar coin series. Australian collectable coins are all legal tender and can be used directly as currency or converted to "normal" coinage at a bank. Metals include aluminium bronze, silver, gold and bi-metal coins. Nugget coins are issued in troy ounces and fractions or kilograms and come in gold and platinum, some are denominated in dollars, and others by their weight value. See also List of people who have appeared on Australian currency Coins of the Canadian dollar Coins of the New Zealand dollar Swedish rounding References and further reading Australia
Franchise tax	[ "Corporate taxation in the United States", "State taxation in the United States", "Business taxes" ]	516	4,016	A franchise tax is a government levy (tax) charged by some US states to certain business organizations such as corporations and partnerships with a nexus in the state. A franchise tax is not based on income. Rather, the typical franchise tax calculation is based on the net worth of capital held by the entity. The franchise tax effectively charges corporations for the privilege of doing business in the state. Nexus Whether or not a business must pay a franchise tax to the state in which it does business can cause some confusion. Some states report using both the economic and physical presence tests, and in some states, there are no written, public interpretations of their test at all. Physical presence test The physical presence test is based on Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, ( 504 U.S. 298 (1992)), a United States Supreme Court ruling concerning use tax. Quill Corporation is an office supply retailer. Quill had no physical presence in North Dakota (neither a sales force, nor a retail outlet). Still, it had a licensed computer software program that some of its North Dakota customers used to check Quill's current inventories and place orders directly. North Dakota attempted to impose a use tax on Quill, which was struck down by the Supreme Court, because Quill had no physical presence in North Dakota. The Quill physical presence test is used by some states to determine whether or not a company must pay a franchise tax. Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Texas report using the physical presence test. Economic presence test Many states apply an "economic presence" test to determine whether a business will be subject to state sales or franchise tax. This test, which seems to contradict Quill, implied that States have the right to tax or "nexus" solely on the basis that a company has sales or otherwise derives an economic benefit from activities within their borders. Amount , about half the U.S. states do not impose a franchise tax. For states that have a franchise tax, the amount is often either a flat fee or based on the size of the business's total holdings. Relationship to corporate tax States with higher corporate income taxes usually have low or no franchise taxes and vice versa. Delaware The state of Delaware has a significant franchise tax. Other states have either nominal taxes or none at all. See also California Franchise Tax Board
Vadilal	[ "Food and drink companies of India", "Food and drink companies established in 1907", "Manufacturing companies based in Ahmedabad", "Fast-food chains of India", "Ice cream brands", "Indian companies established in 1907", "Indian brands", "Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India", "Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange" ]	630	5,552	Vadilal Industries is an Indian multinational company specializing in ice cream and frozen food products. The company was established in 1907 by Vadilal Gandhi in Ahmedabad. In 1907, Vadilal made its first ice cream "using the traditional kothi method", with a hand-cranked machine. In 1926, it introduced its dedicated ice cream parlours, and began offering home delivery. The brand introduced the cassata to Indian audiences in 1950. Vadilal expanded in 1985 and later introduced India's first automated ice cream candy line machinery. In 1989, the company went public and launched its IPO. This was followed by the opening of their first ice cream plant in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh in 1993. Two years later in 1995, they began exporting their sub-brands to over 26 countries. In 2012, the company introduced an extrusion machine and cone-making machine. In 2017, Vadilal unveiled a new logo accompanied by the tagline, "Dil Bole Waah Waah Waah". Products Vadilal produces ice cream cones, candies, bars, ice-lollies, cups, family packs, and economy packs, in a variety of flavours. All their products are vegetarian and free of eggs. In the 1990s, Vadilal diversified into the processed foods industry, including frozen vegetables, ready-to-eat snacks, curries, and breads for the domestic and export markets. The company received a certification in 2013 for meeting the global standards for food safety by the Bureau Veritas. In 2011, the brand released a new range of ice creams including Flingo cones and Badabite bars, as well as a premium line of ice cream tubs called the Gourmet Premium Ice Creams. They also introduced a Gourmet Natural Tub line in 2021, which focuses on traditional Indian dessert flavours like gulab jamun, falooda, and kesar rasmalai among others. In 2021, Vadilal introduced Vadilal Now For Ever cafe in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. the company has a network of over 125,000 dealers across India. See also List of ice cream brands
UK Export Finance	[ "British trade policy", "Financial services companies established in 1919", "Ministerial departments of the Government of the United Kingdom", "Foreign trade of the United Kingdom", "Export credit agencies", "1919 establishments in the United Kingdom", "Department for Business, Innovation and Skills", "Department for Business and Trade" ]	1,726	14,063	The Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), branded as UK Export Finance (UKEF), is the export credit agency and a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. In 1920, UKEF had a maximum total exposure of just £26 million. Today, its maximum commitment stands at £50 billion. ECGD derives its powers from the (c. 67) and undertakes its activities in accordance with specific consent from HM Treasury. ECGD was established in 1919 to promote UK exports, lost during the submarine blockade of World War I. ECGD's aim is to benefit the UK economy by helping exporters of UK goods and services to win business, and UK firms to invest overseas by providing guarantees, insurance and reinsurance against loss, taking into account HM Government's wider international policy agenda. ECGD is required by the HM Government to operate slightly better than break even, by charging premiums from exporters at levels that match the perceived risks and costs in each case. The largest part of ECGD's activities involves underwriting long-term loans to support the sale of capital goods, principally for the export of aircraft, bridges, machinery, and services; it helps UK companies take part in major overseas projects such as the construction of oil and gas pipelines and the upgrading of hospitals, airports, and power stations. Support can be given for contracts as low as £1,000, but some of the projects ECGD backs go well beyond the £1 billion mark. As part of its risk management process, ECGD has to make a judgement on the ability of a country to meet its debt obligations. The department uses a "productive expenditure" test, undertaken in consultation with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, that makes sure that the countries defined as heavily indebted poor countries and those exclusively dependent on International Development Association financing only get official export credits from the UK for projects that help social and economic development without creating a new unsustainable debt burden. ECGD continues to check that the proposed borrowing is sustainable. ECGD's short term credit business was sold to Dutch insurer NCM Group in 1991, later becoming part of Atradius in 2004. Criticisms of ECGD The ECGD has been the subject of criticism by UK-based NGOs; The Corner House has claimed that the ECGD has in effect provided public subsidy for bribery; Campaign Against Arms Trade has argued that the ECGD provides excessive levels of support for arms sales; Jubilee Debt Campaign has argued that the cancellation of debts owed to the ECGD should not be counted towards UK Official Development Assistance figures; World Wide Fund for Nature argues that excessive greenhouse gases are emitted from ECGD-supported projects and that this is inconsistent with wider UK environmental policy. In recent years, the ECGD has been heavily criticised for prioritising investment in fossil fuels over renewable energy. A CAFOD report showed that from 2010 to 2017, an estimated 97% of ECGD energy-related support went to fossil fuel development, principally oil and gas exploration and production in upper-middle-income countries. Just 3% went to renewables. The Guardian reported that in the 2018–2019 financial year alone, ECGD committed nearly £2 billion in support to fossil fuel projects across the world. A parliamentary inquiry called on ECGD to stop funding fossil fuel projects by the end of 2021, citing that the scale of fossil fuel support violated the UK's obligations under the Paris Agreement. Weapons exports While in the early years of the decade, the proportion of ECGD's business in support of weapons exports ranged from 30% to 50%, this has now declined to under 1% in 2009–10. ECGD seeks advice on arms sales from the United Kingdom Export Control Organisation (ECO), part of the Department for Business and Trade. All applications are assessed, on a case-by-case basis, against the consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing criteria. The ECO's advice is not always followed by the government, though. In February 2016, the head of the Export Control Organisation, Edward Bell, advised Business Secretary Sajid Javid that Britain should suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia. This advice was not followed by the business secretary and prime minister. ECGD's anti bribery-and-corruption procedures ECGD aims to: deter illegal payments, corrupt practices and money laundering by applicants for ECGD's support; and ensure, as far as is practicable, that all transactions that ECGD supports do not place ECGD in breach of any UK or European legislation or place the UK in contravention of any international agreements to which the UK is a party. It does this through the public information it provides and the declarations in its application forms; it has some powers to make inquiries but these are limited. CGD does not have a formal investigative capacity. Key aspects of ECGD's anti-bribery and corruption procedures are to: Require applicants to provide copies of their codes of conduct and to confirm that they have applied them in tendering for the award of the contract for which ECGD's support is sought; Obtain information with a view to ascertaining whether any improper payments involving agents have been made; Inspect, if necessary, exporters' documents relating to winning contracts and making payments to agents; Remind applicants of their obligations to comply with UK anti-corruption legislation; Remind applicants that ECGD will refer all allegations of bribery, corruption or money laundering to the appropriate authorities; Require applicants to declare that neither they nor any of their directors have admitted to, or been convicted of, engaging in any form of bribery or corruption; Require applicants to disclose whether they, or anyone acting on their behalf, is under charge in a UK court for bribery of a foreign public official; Require each applicant to make reasonable enquiries concerning any of its subsidiary companies, agents or consortium partners who, in each case, are involved in the contract for which ECGD's support is sought and to confirm that, on the basis of those reasonable enquiries, the applicant has no cause to believe that any of those parties, or any of their directors, has admitted to, or been convicted of, engaging in any corrupt activity; and Require each applicant to confirm that neither the applicant nor anyone acting on the applicant's behalf has engaged in corrupt activity in relation to the contract for which ECGD's support is sought. Equivalent organisations abroad China: Exim Bank of China France: Bpifrance Assurance Export, a subsidiary of Bpifrance. Before 2017 it was managed by Coface. Germany: Allianz Trade Italy: Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero India: Exim Bank of India USA: Export-Import Bank of the United States
Wife selling	[ "Divorce", "Family law", "Marriage law", "Legal codes", "Medieval law", "Family economics", "Insolvency", "Poverty activism", "Medieval women", "Misogyny", "Feminism and the family", "Slave trade", "Human commodity auctions" ]	17,073	140,246	Wife selling is the practice of a husband selling his wife and may include the sale of a female by a party outside a marriage. Wife selling has had numerous purposes throughout the practice's history; and the term "wife sale" is not defined in all sources relating to the topic. Sometimes, a wife was sold by a husband to a new husband as a means of divorce, in which case sometimes the wife was able to choose who would be her new husband, provided she chose within a certain time period, and especially if the wife was young and sexually attractive. In some societies, the wife could buy her own way out of a marriage or either spouse could have initiated this form of divorce. Reducing a husband's liability for family support and prenuptial debts was another reason for wife sale. Taxes were sometimes paid by selling a wife and children and paying the value as the required amount, especially when taxes were too high to permit basic survival. Famine leading to starvation was a reason for some sales. Gambling debts could be paid by selling a free or slave wife. A society might not allow a woman the rights reserved to men regarding spouse sale and a society might deny her any rights if her husband chose to sell her, even a right of refusal. A divorce that was by mutual consent but was without good faith by the wife at times caused the divorce to be void, allowing her to then be sold. A husband might sell his wife and then go to court seeking compensation for the new man's adultery with the wife. By one law, adultery was given as a justification for a husband selling his wife into concubinage. A free wife might be sold into slavery, such as if she had married a serf or her husband had been murdered. Sometimes, a slave-master sold an enslaved wife. Enslaved families were often broken up and wives, husbands, and children sold to separate buyers, often never to see each other again, and a threat to sell a wife was used to keep an enslaved husband under a master's discipline. In wartime, one side might, possibly falsely, accuse the other of wife sale as a method of spying. A wife could also be treated as revenue and seized by the local government because a man had died leaving no heirs. Wife sale was sometimes the description for the sale of a wife's services; it might be for a term of years followed by freedom. If a sale was temporary, in some cases wife sale was considered temporary only in that the sold-and-remarried wife would, upon her death, be reunited with her first husband. Constraints existed in law and practice and there were criticisms. Some societies specifically forbade wife sales, even imposing death upon husbands violating the law, but a legal proscription was sometimes avoided or evaded, such as by arranging an adoption with a payment and an outcome similar to that of a sale. A society might tax or fine a wife sale without banning it. The nearness of a foreign military sometimes constrained a master in a slave sale that otherwise would have divided a family. Among criticisms, some of the sales (not of services alone but entirely of wives) have been likened to sales of horses. Wives for sale were treated like capital assets or commodities. One law made wives into husbands' chattels. Other sales were described as brutal, patriarchal, and feudalistic. Wife sales were equated with slavery. One debate about the whole of Africa was whether Africans viewed the practice as no crime at all or as against what Africans thought valuable and dear. Some modern popular songs against wife sale are vehicles for urban antipoverty and feminist organizing for rights. A story in a popular collection written by a feminist was about a suggestion for wife sale and the wife's objection to discussing it followed by no wife sale occurring. Another story is about a feminist advocate for justice in which a husband is censored or censured for selling his wife in a gamble. Wife selling has been found in many societies over many centuries and occasionally into modern times, including the United States (including in Hawaii among the Japanese, among Indians in the Gallinomero, Yurok, Carolina, and Florida tribes and in the Pacific Northwest, and among natives on Kodiak Island in what is now Alaska), Colombia, England, Australia (among aborigines), Denmark (possibly), Hungary, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaya (among Chinese laborers), Thailand (at least permitted), Northern Asia (among the Samoyads), Asia Minor (among the Yourouk), Kafiristan, Indonesia (albeit not outright), Tanganyika, Congo, Bamum, Central Africa (among the Baluba), Zambia, South Africa (among Chinese laborers), Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria (possibly), Abyssinia, Egypt, Lombardy, ancient Rome (sometimes as a legal fiction and sometimes as actual), ancient Greece, and ancient Emar (of Syria). In Rwanda, it was the subject of a wartime accusation. Specific bans existed in Thailand, Indonesia, ancient Rome, and ancient Israel and partial bans existed in England and Japan. Wife sale was a topic of popular culture in India, the U.S., China, Scandinavia, Nepal, Guatemala, and the Dutch Indies. It has been found in Christianity and Judaism. History and practice The English custom of wife selling largely began in the late 17th century when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthy. In the ritualized form, after parading his wife with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, a husband would publicly auction her to the highest bidder. Although the custom had no basis in law and frequently resulted in prosecution, particularly from the mid-19th century onwards, the attitude of the authorities was equivocal. At least one early-19th-century magistrate is on record as stating that he did not believe he had the right to prevent wife sales, and there were cases of local Poor Law Commissioners forcing husbands to sell their wives, rather than having to maintain the family in workhouses. The English custom of wife selling spread to Wales, Scotland, Australia, and the United States before dying out in the early 20th century. United States In 1781, in South Carolina, a "Bill of Sale" of a "Wife and Property" for "Two Dollars and half Dozen Bowls of Grogg", the buyer "to have my said Wife for ever and a Day", is, according to Richard B. Morris, "unique of its kind". According to Morris, "although the administration of the law was in a somewhat unsettled state during this ["British"] military occupation [of Charleston], neither at common law nor under the marriage laws then in force in South Carolina would the sale of a wife have been valid". The document likely was a way, wrote Morris, for "dissolving the marriage bond" since the state forbade divorce "and the marriage laws of the Church of England were widely disregarded among the poorer whites and in the back country", but it could also have been intended to reduce the husband's liability for debts for support of the wife and her children and for her pre-wedding debts, while it was unlikely to have been for the sale of a Black slave or an indentured servant, though being for the sale of an Indian woman or a mestizo, while unlikely, was not impossible. Native Americans and other natives The Carolina tribe of Native Americans, according to William Christie MacLeod, as reported in 1925, engaged in debtor slavery, where slave is defined by the Carolinas as "that which is obsequiously to depend on the master for subsistence". According to MacLeod quoting J. Lawson, "if a man takes a widow ... laden with her husband's debts, she seems to have some of the attributes of a chattel, although also a wife. Her husband may .... '... take her for his money paid to her deceased husband's creditors, and sell her to another for his wife. "[Lawson had] seen several of these bargains driven in a day", and "[Lawson said] you may see men selling their wives as men do horses at a fair, a man being allowed not only to change as often as he pleases but likewise to have as many wives as he is able to maintain." According to George Elliott Howard, as published in 1904, "if dissatisfied with his wife, the young Gallinomero of [California] ... may 'strike a bargain with another man' and sell her 'for a few strings of shell-money. Also according to Howard, as published in 1904, "among the California Yurok 'divorce is very easily accomplished at the will of the husband, the only indispensable formality being that he must receive back from his father-in-law the money which he paid for his spouse.' In the late 17th–mid 18th centuries, among some Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest, according to Elsie Frances Dennis, two Indians of unspecified tribe or tribes had been killed and "the widow and two daughters of one were wailing, for they were to be sold as slaves." Not all tribes of the region and time sold wives; according to Dennis, "Ross said that he never knew a single instance in which a Chinook or one of the neighboring tribes ever sold his wife". In 1802–1803, among native people on Kodiak (Kad'iak) Island, in present-day Alaska and that was then part of Russia, according to Gavriil Ivanovich Davydov, "marital fidelity is not always considered a virtue by the islanders ["Koniagas"], and in many cases a husband will sell his wife for a small present." In Florida, apparently c. in the 16th century, according to an unnamed "eye-witness", among Florida Indians, "the ruler has power to give or rather to sell wives to those desirous of marriage." In Canada the buying and selling of wives was common practice among Chiefs and wealthier “commoners” in the West Coast tribes. People of African descent According to W. R. Riddell, "a ... man with some Negro blood .... had a ... daughter ... showing little trace of Negro origin. It was understood that she would marry no one but a white man, and that the father was willing to give her a handsome dowry on such a marriage. A person of pure Caucasian stock from the Southern States came to Toronto, wooed and won her. They were married and the husband took his bride to his home in the South. Not long afterwards the father was horrified to learn that the plausible scoundrel had sold his wife as a slave. He at once went South and after great exertion and much expense, he succeeded in bringing back to his house the unhappy woman, the victim of brutal treachery." Not all people of African descent in the New York City area in 1776–1783 were slaves. In some cases, records may not reveal their status. A "group of black men ... [were being "court martial[led]" for] killing a white slaveowner (who had just sold the wife of one of the accused in New York City)". In 1863, William W. Ryan, II, who had opposed slavery and secession and had enlisted into Union military service, was discharged from the military. According to his daughter, Margaret Ryan Kelley, he came home and "brought with him a negro named August", whom he paid. According to her, August said, "his white folks ... had sold his wife 'down the river.' It was a source of constant grief for him.... When he had $200, he intended to return to Virginia and find his people." Black slavery Cases were reported from different states. A slave born in North Carolina who moved 50 miles recalled that, while she was between 5 and 8 years old, here, he [unspecified who] sold my mother to New Orleans, leaving my father at home.' .... Her master moved to Alabama, and died ..., leaving behind unpaid bills and seven slaves, all of whom a sheriff sold, save for her father", according to Daniel Meaders. According to Isaac Johnson, in childhood a slave, his "mother was stolen ... from ... Madagascar", "given" to Johnson's grandfather, evaluated as a "servant", and "bequeathed" to Johnson's father in Kentucky and Johnson's father "used Jane in all respects as a wife and she, in her innocence, supposed she was such". In c. 1851, Johnson's father, who had decided to move and therefore to sell his "farm and stock", ordered the sale of Johnson's mother and her children. No bids were offered for the mother with a 2-year-old child, but when they were separated she was sold for $1,100. Thomas Hughes, according to Meaders and Hopper, was a slave "who had apparently taken a large sum of money" from his Louisiana master and left, after which he was tried and sentenced. During his imprisonment, the master visited him, brought Hughes' wife, and promised that if Thomas Hughes went south the master would manumit her' and would not 'attempt to make a slave of him. But, according to Meaders and Hopper, they reached Baltimore, ... [the master] had sold his wife, and intended to make a slave of him' ... [however,] Hughes left". An "old slave" from "near Memphis" told a soldier (Chauncey H. Cooke) that "his master sold his wife and children to a cotton planter in Alabama to pay his gambling debts, and when he told his master he couldn't stand it, he was tied to the whipping post stripped and given 40 lashes. The next night he ran to the swamps. The bloodhounds were put on his track and caught him .... This happened in sight of Nashville, the capital of Tennessee. I told this to some of the boys and they said it was all bosh, that the niggers were lying to me. But this story was just like the ones in Uncle Tom's Cabin and I believe them. And father knows of things very much like this that are true." According to Mark P. Leone, reviewing a modern-day historical exhibition in Virginia of Carter's Grove plantation, a "slave overseer was kept in place with threats to sell his wife". On the other hand, during the American Revolution, "blacks who remained with their owners found that with the British army so near, they had leverage with their masters they had never before enjoyed." An "advertisement announced the sale of a young Negro woman with four children. 'They are not sold for any fault,' claimed the seller, but because the woman had a husband in town and the mistress did not want to part them. While it is entirely possible that the owner acted out of humanitarian motivation, her liberality may have been influenced by her slave's enhanced chances for successful flight." Hawaii, among Japanese immigrants Japanese immigration to Hawaii was promoted during the late 19th century, but their number included a low proportion of women. The first generation of Japanese immigrants to the islands (issei) lived at a distance from their original communities. According to Eileen Tamura, this isolation, combined with failure of the expectation of earning enough to return, resulted in a temporary disintegration of social norms, and the disintegration led to wife-selling. The sheriff of the island of Hawaii, E. G. Hitchcock, wrote in 1892 that "I wish to call your attention to the fact, more or less prevalent on this island, of the Japanese selling their wives or mistresses to each other." In 1901 and 1904, the sheriff of Maui wrote that "In connection with Japanese the custom they have of in their women, buying and selling their wives is an evil that should be looked into," and proposed that laws explicitly prohibiting wife-selling be enacted. In a personal narrative related by Joan Hori, the question "Why would anyone want a second-hand wife?" was posed; the response was that the prospect of a wife already present in the islands was more certain than that of a picture bride. China The Chinese custom of wife selling or 'selling a divorce' () has a long history, spanning both the Imperial and Modern eras. Historic According to 14th-century scholar Wei Su quoted by Paul J. Smith, "early in the dynasty, ... the system for assessing taxes and labor services was based ... on household size. As a result ... the poor got even poorer. Poor folk sold their wives and children to meet their payments to the state". The earliest documented ban of the practice appears in Yuan Dynasty law dating to the 14th century. At that time, two types of wife selling were recognized, both considered illegal. The first type was when a husband sold his wife to a man with whom she had been committing adultery. The second type was when a husband sold his wife because she had betrayed him or because they were no longer able to get along. During the Ming Dynasty, it was gradually established that only wife selling motivated by adultery should be punished. By 1568, wife selling was explicitly authorized by the law in several circumstances. Authorized wife selling was preserved by Qing Dynasty lawmakers, as was the prohibition against selling a wife to her lover. Famines are related to wife sale. In 1834, about Kiang-si province, the missionary Mathieu-Ly said of "starvation .... [that] crops have been swept away by the inundation of the rivers.... [Some] people ... eat .... [expensive] earth .... The people first sold their wives, then sons and daughters, then their utensils and furniture; finally they demolished their houses in order to dispose of the timber." A 19th-century source characterized the practice as conventional among the lower classes in China: "The poorer people take their wives for an agreed term, and buy and sell them at pleasure." According to Howard, as published in 1904, "by Chinese law ... when the wife is guilty of adultery .... [if] the woman not be slain, ... the husband may ... sell her as a concubine, provided he has not pandered to the crime or does not sell her to the guilty man." Also according to Howard, as published in 1904, in China, "a marriage may be dissolved by mutual agreement" "but the agreement ... must be in good faith. Should the wife plan the divorce so as to form a punishable relation with another man, it is void, and the husband may ... sell her to another as in the case of unfaithfulness". In 1928–1930, in Shaanxi, there was a famine and, according to a local newspaper and Leonard T. K. Wu, peasants who "had already mortgaged and sold all their lands on which they formerly made a living" then sold their wives. Contemporary As the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, wife selling was prohibited and the government took measures to eradicate the practice. During the famines caused by the Great Leap Forward, wife selling occurred in many of the poorer areas. As of 1997, the custom was still occasionally reported in some rural areas of the country. Japan In Tokugawa Japan (1600–1868), according to J. Mark Ramseyer and Takeyoshi Kawashima, "men routinely sold their wives and children or rented them long-term .... [and this] was endemic to the brutality of Asiatic patriarchal feudalism". Ramseyer continued, "sales and adoptions were transfers in perpetuity", the difference being that sales were sometimes legally banned so that adoptions were likely used as an alternative to like effect, with payment in a like direction. Sales were essentially into slavery. Published sales and adoptions known to Ramseyer totalled 52 contracts in 1601–1860, of the 52 35 being of females and 17 being of males, transfers including children, depending on each contract. After 1740, sale "contracts ... largely disappeared", largely because of a growing demand for nonagricultural labor, making absconding or running away easier and more profitable. India In 16th–17th-century Mughal India, according to Irfan Habib, although imperial regulations limited state revenue demands to approximately that which would permit the peasantry to survive, the local collectors often lacked willingness to comply, "violated or evaded" the regulations, and overestimated peasants' ability to pay. Despite at least one order that ... the seizure and sale of the women and children of the combatants", "frequently ... peasants were compelled to sell their women, children and cattle in order to meet the revenue demand.... But the enslavement was not generally so voluntary as even this. 'Villages', we are told, 'which owing to some shortage of produce, are unable to pay the full amount of the revenue-farm, are made prize, so to speak, by their masters and governors, and wives and children sold on the pretext of a charge of rebellion'.... 'They (the peasants) are carried off, attached to heavy iron chains, to various markets and fairs (to be sold), with their poor, unhappy wives behind them carrying their small children in their arms, all crying and lamenting their evil plight. Also, in Bengal, in approximately the same time period, according to Habib, "if any peasant or stranger died without leaving a son [or "died without heirs"] ... his wife and daughters were seized [as a "source of revenue"] for the benefit, depending upon the locality, of the ... ["imperial treasury"], the ... [local "potentate"] or the 'dominant ... ["vassal chief", "landlord", or "chief"]'." This practice, called ankora, may have been abolished. As reported in 1897 by William Lee-Warner, "husbands sold their wives from motives of enmity as well as gain. The selling price of girls and women was at all times from four to ten times greater than that of males." In the Western Punjab, in or before 1911, according to A. J. O'Brien, among Muslims, a man "proceeded to sell his wife" to a member of another tribe and a dispute developed on other grounds and was resolved in which "the right of disposal by relatives was freely admitted". In 2009, there were reports of impoverished farmers in the Bundelkhand region of India selling their wives to settle debts; the frequency of such cases is unknown. In Africa generally, according to Parker Shipton in 1990, "husbands sometimes sell wives [during famines or food shortages], but not vice versa". On the other hand, responding to a charge by David Hume that Africans "think it no crime to sell one another", African philosopher Ottobah Cugoano wrote, "nothing could be more opposite to everything that they hold dear and valuable". In West Africa, under the Aro Confederacy, according to David Graeber, "a man who simply disliked his wife and was in need of brass rods could always come up with some reason to sell her, and the village elders—who received a share of the profits—would almost invariably concur." In northern Tanganyika, in the Masai district, in 1955, according to Robert F. Gray, the Sonjo transfer "wives—that is to say, wife rights". Among the Sonjo, wrote Gray, "a lively system of economic exchange .... also encompasses the sale and purchase of rights in women, who in their economic aspects are dealt with much like other commodities." According to Gray, "when a husband dies, his wife rights are inherited by his eldest surviving brother. In this respect wives are dealt with in a different manner from other forms of property .... A brother may take the widow as his wife .... A brother may also sell the wife rights in the widow to another man, but in order to understand this transaction we must consider a mystical aspect of Sonjo marriage. It is believed that when a married person dies he will ultimately be reunited with his spouse in the spirit world. This belief is expressed in a myth: In former times the dead sometimes returned to earth to help their relatives here, but the last spirit to so materialize on earth was insulted and vowed that thereafter the dead would remain forever in the spirit world; she explained before departing that the spirits of dead husband and wives waited in the spirit world for their spouses to die, and were then reunited with them there. This belief has a practical bearing on bride-price transactions. Thus when a husband dies, the brother who inherits the widow may sell his rights in her to another man for the fixed price of thirty goats. This relatively small sum of less than half the woman's normal bride-price is explained by the belief in spirit marriage, for the new husband only acquires full wife rights in the woman in this world; after she dies she will rejoin her original husband in the spirit world. A second husband loses possession of her ghost. [¶] This reduced bride-price for a widow cannot be explained as resulting from a deterioration in her value as a wife." In case of divorce, stated Gray, a "husband exchanges his wife rights with another man for a sum of goats. It is convenient to say that he 'sells' his wife, because the form of the transaction is basically the same as those in which he exchanges or sells other goods. Thus a young wife is treated economically as a commodity. Later in life she outgrows this status, partly because her sexual attractions wane, but of more importance is the fact that her children grow up and are betrothed .... This stabilizes her position in the community". Gray continued, a "young woman's value as a wife is not generally thought to be depreciated just because she was previously married, and a husband in selling a wife attempts to regain the same bride-price that he paid for her, which was originally based mainly on the social status of her parental family ... [with the price subject to] supply and demand .... [Some] restrictions limit the probability of finding a buyer in the same village .... After a buyer has been found, the wife is always given a grace period for finding a more desirable second husband before she is required to marry the man found by her husband. No physical coercion on the part of the husband is involved in the sale of a wife. The compulsive factor resides in the social structure, in which there is no regular position except as a wife for a young woman who was once married. However, a Sonjo husband has a special power, sanctioned by the community, over a wife whom he wishes to sell: if no acceptable buyer can be found within the tribe, he can sell her to the Masai, whose demands for Sonjo women and children seem to provide an unfailing market." Gray wrote, "if a woman .... behaves so as to make herself unsatisfactory as a wife she may induce her husband to sell her to another man of her choice, and thus has some means of protecting her own interest. This system of wife purchase is quite flexible in operation and seems to allow a woman as much freedom of choice—admittedly little—as is found in most other African societies." According to Gray, "children ... stay with their mother ... when she is sold and are adopted by her new husband." Gray wrote, "only young wives, childless or with young children, are normally considered saleable, and the price paid usually equals or is near the original bride-price, though that is never exceeded. In at least one case an older woman ["of about forty"] was sold by her husband for a considerably reduced price." Gray continued, "in these divorces ... payment is made ... only to her original husband [not to her father]. The village council, however, levies a tax of seven goats on these transactions .... This fee or tax is no doubt indicative of some underlying disapproval of the selling of wives. Most of these goats, like those collected in fines, are sacrificed .... When wives are exchanged rather than sold, the tax is only four goats ..., which accords with the general opinion that exchanging wives is preferable to selling them." In East Congo, among the Baguha, as reported in 1926 by Melville J. Herskovitz, if a bride-price is given at marriage and, for a reason, returnable but "is not returned, the man may sell his wife to recover the amount he gave for her, a custom distinctly not East African". In Bamum, a kingdom, in what is now Cameroon, in the 19th–20th centuries, according to Aboubakar Njiasse Njoya, "in rare cases, ... when a husband was no longer on good terms with his freeborn wife, for whom he had paid a very high brideprice, he simply sold her without informing his parents-in-law." According to Njiasse Njoya, a minority of slaves "were a product of ... disgruntled or dissatisfied husbands." Thus, a freeborn wife was sold into slavery when her husband was no longer on good terms with her. A slave is defined by Njiasse Njoya as "a human being who has been deprived of his freedom and is totally in the possession of his master or state, who uses him at will." A French administrator in 1919 "explained to ["the king"] the French decree ... which prohibited slavery.... [and] demanded [of the king] that husbands cease selling their wives when they no longer satisfy them". "The Baluba [from the south-east in Central Africa in the 1880s] ... do not understand that there is any wrong in selling their wives and children; as these are property they consider themselves entitled to dispose of them at their pleasure", according to Ludwig Wolf, whose expedition met the Baluba c. or after November, 1884, and in 1885. Wolf continued, "since the Baluba have come into contact with the Kioque and Bangala, trading tribes from the Lunda country and from Kuango, they are getting provided with guns and powder, for which they barter children, girls, and even their own wives." Wolf argued to a Baluba chief "how wrong it was to sell their own wives, ... [and the chief said], rather in confidence, that they only sold their troublesome wives out of the country, never the good ones." (The Baluba, said Wolf, distinguished "between domestic slaves and slaves for export .... [by which] latter are usually troublesome individuals whom they want to get rid of".) In Southern Zambia, among the Toka, in the early 20th century, according to Gisela Geisler, "often women were ... hired out or even 'sold' against payment of cash to interested men by their own husbands." Geisler continued, "migrant labourers and African public servants ... had a particular interest in 'temporary marriages ....' ... [which] granted them unlimited access to the domestic and sexual services ... [and they] must have been ... fairly common in Livingstone". Geisler continued, "while these practices offered single women some possibilities of survival in town, ... they also meant that women could take on the character of moveable capital assets in the hands of men." In the British colonial court established in 1906, "men who claimed to be 'legal' husbands accused 'temporary' husbands of adultery and demanded compensation, particularly if the bartered woman refused to return to her original husband. In one such case, a 'husband' demanded compensation from a 'temporary' husband because the latter had extended the agreed upon time with the former's wife without paying further monies.... Another man, who had sold his wife temporarily to a Lozi, demanded a court order for the return of his wife as well as outstanding payments.... Other husbands accused their wives in court of having misappropriated payments from their 'temporary' husbands." In a 1910 case, Geisler reported, a man objected that his daughter's husband "had sold her to another man", not because the father, who was a headman, was "concerned about the moral issue", but because "he had not been paid bridewealth from the new husband." Geisler also reported, in 1912 a rural Toka man's brother had died and the man had inherited his brother's wife and "he had passed the wife on to another man against payment ..., [which was] the exact sum his late brother had paid .... [and] new husband had sold the woman to yet another man" and a fresh payment was demanded. Geisler found another complication: After the court revised how it dealt with adultery, partly by forcing a divorce on the husband who was suing, and until "the enactment of the Native Court Ordinance of 1929", "husbands, who had previously tried to profit financially from in effect selling their wives to other men and then charging them for adultery compensation before the urban court, now had to fear that bringing such charges might well imply that they lost their wife, the main asset for further deals of the kind." Geisler wrote, "women .... never had access to the money and goods that passed among the hands of men for rights over them, and ... they were not concerned about morality, [so] women could [until the passage of the 1929 law] to a certain extent move between men on their own accord and in their own right." In South Africa, among Chinese laborers in 1904–1910, according to Gary Kynoch, gambling was "prolific" and unpaid debts often led to suicide and sales of wives and children. In what is now western Burkina Faso, in Souroudougou, in the 1890s, "household heads often resorted to selling their wives and children to passing merchants for cowries or millett, with no option for re-purchase.... became actual commodities that were bartered (not loaned) away." In addition, if a family ("a man, his wife and children") went to the countryside, "bandits who ["often"] hid .... would trap the family, and perhaps kill the man. The mother and her children would be sold as slaves." In Eastern Ethiopia, wives were sold, a practice apart from that of bride price in Africa. In southeast Nigeria before it was colonized, according to David Northrup, "goods brought by visiting traders proved irresistible to many. Yet there was little that could be given in exchange for such goods: ivory, salt, fancy textiles, metalware, and, of course, slaves.... For many people slaves were the only real possibility. The more venturesome or powerful might hope to ... sell an adulterous wife .... But ... [this] would not have been within the range of possibilities open to the average person." In southeast Nigeria, in a practice referred to as money marriage, a girl, usually, is married off to a man to settle debts owed by her parents. Latin America In Colombia under Spanish colonial rule, particularly in 1750–1826, according to David L. Chandler, Spanish law "allowed slaves to marry and establish a family even against the master's wishes ... and prohibited ... [the family's] separation through sale.... of the slave family was not very common." If a slave couple was broken up by the sale of one spouse out of an area, Chandler wrote, the other spouse, even after 10 years, could petition a court to allow the latter slave to find a buyer so the couple could reunite; such cases, in which the wife was sold first and the husband second, were litigated in 1802 and 1806. In 1808, reported Chandler, a master had sold a slave husband to another master; after a dispute between the slaves and the selling master, the master who sold the husband was subsequently ordered by a court to sell the slave's wife to the other master as well, so the slave family would be able to live together and not merely have visits; and the court order was complied with. Ancient Rome In ancient Rome, the 'power of life and killing' (vitae necisque potestas, more commonly 'power of life and death') was vested in the husband over his wife in some circumstances, the husband being the pater familias or 'head of the household'. According to Keith Bradley, Augustine wrote that "there was a man (a Christian at that) who had sold his wife into slavery because he preferred to have the cash". According to Edward Gibbon, in the earlier period of Eastern Roman society, a husband could sell his wife, because she was counted among his children and he could sell them. According to Bruce W. Frier and Thomas A. J. McGinn, "it was apparently illegal for a husband to sell his wife [if in manus], to give her in adoption, or to execute her even for serious misconduct without first consulting a consilium of relatives," thus possibly lawful after the consilium. However, according to Paul du Plessis, "the husband did not have the power of life and death over his wife; nor could he sell her into slavery...." According to Frier and McGinn, a wife had a socially respected position as mater familias, "although ... her position was weak in law". According to Jane F. Gardner, "over a wife in free marriage ... ["her husband"] had no potestas [power] at all." However, according to Mireille Corbier, "in the framework of free marriage, a practice that became frequent in the late republican period, the wife ... remained in her father's familia." Babylon In Babylon, around the 1700s BC, the law that applied was King Hammurabi's Code. According to Étan Levine, "Hammurabi law ... permitted a wife to be sold to pay her husband's debts", although an earlier view (possibly outdated or not agreed with by all scholars) was that the law may have been relatively limited, providing only that the wife sale was limited to the sale of her services, Theophile J. Meek arguing in 1948 that the law should be "translated somewhat as follows: .... § 117: 'If an obligation came due against a seignior and he accordingly sold (the services of) his wife ... they [e.g., "his wife"] shall work (in) the house of their purchaser or obligee for three years, with their freedom re-established in the fourth year and another view was that the law created an indenture, not a sale, being for a limited duration. Specifically, according to Ernst J. Cohn in 1938, "if a man contracted a debt and sold his wife, son or daughter or gave them to work it off, 'for three years they work in the house of their buyer or exploiter and in the fourth year he shall restore them to their former condition. International theology Christianity In Christianity, according to Frederik Pijper in 1909, "one way [to "become a slave"] was by selling oneself because of poverty. It might so happen that a married pair sank into such need that the husband was compelled to sell himself, and did so with his wife's consent. In this way he secured sustenance for himself, and with the purchase-money he was in a position to keep his wife from starving. Sometimes the conditions were reversed, and the wife sold herself with the same intentions and with her husband's consent. In such cases the marriage was usually dissolved; to be sure the Church opposed this, but could not prevent and therefore yielded to it.... A synod at Paris early in the seventh century ordained that freemen who had sold ... themselves should if they repaid the money at once be restored to their former status. To demand back a greater sum than what had been paid for them, was not allowed." Contrasting women by rank or class and noting which wives were sold and which were not, Pijper wrote of the medieval Church, a "woman of noble rank who had deserted her husband three times was to be put under penance, and was to be prohibited from marrying again; but if she was a woman from the people she must be sold without hope of regaining her freedom". The parable of the unforgiving servant, attributed to Jesus, according to David Graeber, told of a creditor ordering the sale of a man who is both his debtor and his servant along with the sale of the man's wife, children, and property. Other cultures Wife selling occurred in Europe in addition to that in Britain: In Hungary, in 1114, the Synod of Gran said, "When a wife of noble birth or aristocracy has left her husband for the third time, she receives mercy, but when she is from the common people, she is sold." As to France, "scattered records of wife sales in western France do exist", many of the locations being rural, notwithstanding the tendency of many French to criticize the English for the latter's custom. Germans "considered the wife as negotiable property ... [and] sold them to the conquering Romans". According to E. J. Schuster in 1910, "under the original Germanic law .... the husband was entitled to dismiss and even to sell his wife on the ground of her adultery .... [and] introduction of Christianity into Germany did not immediately put an end to this state of things." According to Paul G. Gleis in 1930, in early Teutonic society, regarding fathers, "selling a wife and child was a measure only of last resort." "A Lombard [according to Gleis] ... killed a man serf once who ventured to marry a free woman, and sold the serf's wife into slavery." In ancient Greece, according to N. G. L. Hammond, "the Thebans [of Thebes] proceeded to annihilate the Orchomenians and sell their wives and children into slavery"; this "and similar acts ... led Polybius to criticize 'the mob' ... as Thebes as 'having been schooled in violence and passion. In Denmark, c. 1030, according to Gleis, Canute made a law that "neither woman nor maid shall be forced to marry one that is disliked by her nor shall be sold for money unless the bridegroom gives something of his own free will", although "whether buying and selling was originally really involved is [in 1930] still disputed." In Kafiristan, which was east of Afghanistan, in the 19th century, a divorce was "easy" and was done by the husband selling a wife. If a husband died, when the wife or wives "revert[ed]" to the husband's family, surviving brothers either "sold or retained" the wives. In Malaya, Chinese laborers in the 1880s–1890s, according to Kynoch, "were said to have been prolific gamblers .... [and] 'many of those who failed to pay off their gambling debts ... either committed suicide or sold their wives and children to pay off their debts'". In Thailand, from the mid-13th century until 1932, according to Darunee Tantiwiramanond and Shashi Pandey, because "traditional Thai law ... decreed that women were mere chattels of men" and thus "women were considered part of a man's assets ... and hence were subjected to male overlordship", "a husband or a father could sell his wife or daughter without her consent.... The logic of the law, however, did not operate in reverse and did not apply in the case of the wife because she was not a legal entity and had no identity in her own right." In Northern Asia, according to an 1895 report by Arthur Montefiore, among Samoyads (or Samoyedi) (who are part of the Ural-Altaic Mongoloids), "[the husband] may commerce with his wife, for marriage is not considered a binding tie. It is not uncommon for a Samoyad to sell his wife to another for the consideration of a few teams of deer, and he sometimes barters her for a lady whose husband may be willing to accept the view that exchange is no robbery." In the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), Tuân Sắc in 1969 "argued, are those who sell their wives and children for money, even women who sell their husbands for a little spending money (it's all in the newspapers) and posited that such people are not, or are no longer, Vietnamese. In Indonesia, among the Nias, according to E. M. Loeb citing J. B. Neumann from 1886, a husband was allowed to "pawn ... [his wife] as a pledge for his debts", but not to sell her "outright". In ancient Emar, Syria, in the late 14th- to early 12th-centuries B.C.E., in the Late Bronze Age, "debtors sold their wives" "into slavery". In or near ancient Emar, according to Gary Beckman, a cuneiform tablet documented an instance of a husband selling his wife "into the service of" another man, for whom she was to be "the servant", "dead or living", with a provision that if she be redeemed the redeemer was to provide "one healthy woman ... in compensation". An Old Testament passage describes an event in Egypt as an instance of wife selling. According to Theodore Y. Blumoff, Genesis describes "some pretty deplorable characters who do dreadful things to each other ... [including a] candidate for future sanctification selling his wife—not once but twice—to save his own skin and make a buck". Ambiguous and related reports Ancient Rome In ancient Rome, in two situations, a "fictitious" sale was an actual procedure. In one, to get rid of a tutor (a person responsible for approving of a female's decisions that might, e.g., reduce her assets), as a way of getting a replacement tutor, "the woman [including a wife] undergoes a formal and entirely fictitious 'sale' (coemptio) in which she sells herself to [a] third party, who then remancipates her to another person, who 'manumits' her and thereafter becomes her "fiduciary guardian" (tutor fiduciarius); that is, he replaces her original tutor." The procedure was also used for the making of a will when a wife wanted some of her property upon her demise to go not to her birth family but to her husband (and perhaps to her children). "How frequently women made use of ... ["this ["contrived"] ceremony"] we have no way of telling, but we often hear of women's wills from [the years of] the late Republic on." "Hadrian (reign: A.D. 117–138) had enacted a decree of the Senate that abolished the need for the 'sale. "Classical law ... usually treat[ed]... the sale of free persons as void". One of three forms of manus marriage was coemptio, which, according to Gary Forsythe, seems to have existed in the mid-5th century BC and into the CE 2nd century. According to Gardner and Marcia L. Colish, coemptio was in essence a fictitious notional sale of the woman to the husband that could occur at any time during their marriage, thus, if after marriage, a fictitious notional sale of the wife to her own husband. According to du Plessis, "a ceremonial resale of the wife terminated marriage by coemptio (and probably by usus, too)", as a reversal of the marriage procedure. Theophanes claimed that in the 5th century Theodosius II, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, may have been managed or tricked into signing unread a contract "selling" his wife Aelia Eudocia into slavery or giving her to Pulcheria so Pulcheria could sell his wife; after the signing, Pulcheria "gave ... [Theodosius] a mighty scolding" and the sale or gift is not known to have occurred. In ancient Rome, according to Gail Hamilton, Cato gave his wife to Hortensius, who married her, after which, when Hortensius was dying, he left all his property to her and, when she was widowed, Cato remarried her; and Caesar Cato .... [for] having sold his wife for Hortensius's gold." Medieval Christians Regarding a married man's consortium with a slave who may have thereby borne sons, Pijper wrote of medieval Christians, "according to Vinniaus the married freeman who had consorted with a slave should be compelled to sell the woman; [but] if he had one or several sons by her he must set her free, and was not allowed to sell her." Women consorting with churchmen were to be sold by bishops; Pijper reported, "some churchmen, not living in honorable wedlock, consorted with strange women or their own slaves. Bishops were instructed to secure such women and sell them. This hard law was promulgated in Spain, at the beginning of the seventh century." A subdeacon's wife was to be enslaved by a prince, according to Pijper; "if a subdeacon refused to give up his wife, he was to be removed from his ecclesiastical office and benefice. If, however, after being warned by his bishop, he still failed to yield, his wife was to be made a slave by the prince." The buying the freedom of a slave being from another party's perspective the selling the slave into freedom, the medieval church permitted the selling into freedom of a slave who was a spouse; according to Pijper, "if ... two slaves were joined in wedlock by their common master, and one of them was thereafter freed, that one was permitted to marry again, if the freedom of the other could not be bought." Other cultures In Asia Minor, administered by Turks, among the Yourouks, as reported in 1891 by Theodore Bent, "on marriage the husband generally pays something to the father, and this has given rise to the idea that the nomads ["Yourouks"] are in the habit of selling their wives for the harems of Constantinople, whereas they are only carrying out their legitimate idea of the marriage contract." On the other hand, wives are often slaves; according to Bent, "poor though he is, a man will often have seven wives, or more properly speaking, seven slaves." In Palestine of the 1st century, according to Graeber, it was not "normal" "for a man ... to be able to sell his wife". On an Abyssinian couple met in northeast Africa, in 1899–1900, according to James J. Harrison, "we [the first white men ever seen in the country] ... encountered an Abyssinian gentleman, who, having nothing else to sell us, tried to sell his wife. After repeated attempts, he and the good lady, looking crestfallen at not even raising a bid, proceeded on their journey." In Australia, in 1880–1884, among aborigines in Queensland, according to Carl Lumholtz, "at Herbert River the blacks did not know, before the arrival of the whites, of any stimulants at all. The tobacco served me instead of money, and for it they would do anything, even to selling their wives." In Szabolcs, in the 11th century, a substitute for a wife could be sold, with the gain going to religious leadership. "According to the synod of Szabolcs (1092), if a priest instead of taking a wife had chosen a servant or a slave as a companion, she was to be sold and the proceeds were to be given to the bishop." Enemy claims These are claims by enemies in war (including civil war) and which may not have been true even to a small degree, but which were widely made. In Rwanda, up to 1994, according to Erin K Baines, Hutus accused Tutsis, identified as enemies, by saying, "Tutsi sold their wives ... to the Hutu authorities. Tutsis tried to marry their wives to Hutu elite in order to have spies in the inner circle." Bans of wife sale Most bans are implied in bans against sales of human beings that by definition include sales of wives, and such more general bans are too numerous to list here. Some bans, however, are explicitly against wife sale. Thailand In Thailand, "only in 1935, under pressure from the West, were ... men forbidden from selling their wives into prostitution". Indonesia In Indonesia, among the Nias, according to Loeb citing Neumann from 1886, "the only restriction which the husband had to observe is that he was not allowed to sell his wife outright", but was allowed to "pawn her as a pledge for his debts". South African Kaffirs Among the Kaffirs, as studied in the Cape Colony by the South African government in 1883, "the husband cannot sell his wife nor ill-treat her"; divorce exists but is rare. Ancient Rome In ancient Rome, according to Jörg Rüpke, "a husband selling his wife" was a "crime ... that [would have] fundamental social relationships," in which the wife as "the harmed one is in an inferior position". Thus, according to Rüpke, "by the sacer-esto-formula, a curse declaring someone outlawed[,].... the delinquent" may be killed by anyone. Specifically, according to Rüpke, "if somebody has sold his wife, he shall be sacrificed to the lower gods". The enactment of "the law that whoever sold his wife should be given over to the infernal gods" was, according to John Andrew Couch in 1894, credited to Romulus. According to Alan Watson in 1972, "anyone who sold his wife was to be dedicated [apparently 'sacrificed'] to the gods of the underworld." "The husband who sold his wife was to be sacrificed (if we may so translate Plutarch ...) to the infernal deities", according to Fowler in 1911. According to Rüpke, this judgment and punishment reflected and was legitimized by religion. However, after a while, the offense was no longer punished; according to Mary Emily Case, "this very primitive kind of justice [in which "one who violated these rules ["of the fas,—that is, of religious duty"] was pronounced accursed, and might be killed by any who met him"] soon fell into disuse, and offences which were merely nefas—such, for example, as selling a wife—ceased to be punished. Thus, fas early lost the force of law." Ancient Israel In ancient Israel, according to Levine, a man "could never sell a wife, even if she had originally been a war captive"; at least he could not sell her to an "outsider", although redemption was possible. However, ambivalently, N. P. Lemche argued that "either there are no rules for a Hebrew's selling his wife ..., or ... [this category is] incorporated in the law ... in the way that it was considered impossible that a man should be able to sell his wife and remain free himself". Partial bans Bans, whether against wife sales specifically or against all sales of human beings, that were only in effect part of the time or that were substantially violated and unenforced are too numerous to list. Examples include bans in England, often violated and generally unenforced for a time, and Japan, by law having no ban for a time. Popular culture United States An undated doggerel from Western Pennsylvania was reported by H. Carrington Bolton as "Pontius Pilate, King of the Jews",/"Sold his wife for a pair of shoes."/"When the shoes began to wear"/"Pontius Pilate began to swear." Bolton received it after publishing other rhymes used by children for "counting-out". Variants on the rhyme have also been reported, including from Salt Lake City c. 1920 and Los Angeles c. 1935, the variants naming "Holy Moses" instead of "Pontius Pilate", and some women reported their use "as rope-skipping and ball-bouncing rhymes". In the U.S., a folktale titled The Man Who Sold His Wife For Beef, narrated by two informants, and that possibly was true although " to be only a folktale, was told in 1952 by Mrs. Mary Richardson, living in Calvin Township, southwestern Michigan, which town was a destination for slaves travelling through the Underground Railroad and in which town most residents and local government officials were Black. As told to Richard M. Dorson, in Clarksdale, Cohoma County, northern Mississippi, c. 1890 or c. 1897–1898, a husband killed his wife and sold some parts to people to eat as beef, and the husband was caught and executed. The plot of the 1969 western-musical film "Paint Your Wagon" treats the subject satirically. The ride Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland originally contained a "Wife Auction". This was recently removed. India In 1933, Sane Guruji (born as Pandurang Sadashiv Sane), of Maharashtra, India, authored Shyamchi Ai, a collection of "stories", which, according to Guruji, were "true ... [but with] ... a possibility of a character, an incident or a remark being fictitious." One of the stories was Karja Mhanje Jiwantapanicha Narak (Indebtedness is Hell on Earth), in which, according to Shanta Gokhale, a man borrowed money from a moneylender, had not paid principal or interest, and was visited by the moneylender's representative who demanded full payment and "shamelessly suggested", "if you sold wife's bangles to build a house, you can sell your wife now to repay your debts", his wife, hearing this, came to where her husband and the moneylender's representative were talking and said, "aren't you ashamed to talk about selling wives? Have you no control over your tongue?", no wife sale occurred, and a partial monetary payment was made to the moneylender's representative. According to Gokhale, in 1935–1985 ("55 years") (), "every middle-class home in Maharashtra is said to have possessed a copy of Shyamti Ai and every member of every such household may be assumed to have read it.... [and it] was also made into a film which instantly received the same kind of adoring viewership." According to Sudha Varde or Sadanand Varde, Guruji was one of "only two men ["even in the Seva Dal"] who could be called feminists in the real sense", because "Guruji ... respected women in every way .... [and] had a real awareness of the lives, of women and the hardships they had to bear"; these statements were, according to Gokhale, published as part of "some indication of the widespread influence Shyamchi Ai has had in Maharashtra." In southeastern India, in the Tanjavur region, often described as the main part of Tamil society, according to Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Shahaji Bhonsle, who ruled Tanjavur 1684–1712, in the early 18th century wrote Satidânashûramu ('The Gifting of the Virtuous Wife'), a play in the Telugu language, for an annual festival at a temple. Subrahmanyam says that, in the play, a member of the Untouchable (Dalit) caste offers to "donate" his wife to a Brahmin and asks whether Harishchandra "didn't ... sell his wife for truth", although the Brahmin announces that he must refuse the gift and ultimately the wife's "virtue remains unsullied". In Indian literature, Mahabharata, a story of Gandhari, according to Jayanti Alam, includes the " (or censuring) of "Yudhishtira ... for 'selling' his wife in the gamble". According to Alam, "Rabindranath's Gandhari is ... a feminist" and "Gandhari's feminism reaches its sublime height and she emerges the apostle of justice". According to Jonathan Parry in 1980, "in the famous legend of Raja Harish Chandra, it was in order to provide a dakshina that, having been tricked into giving away all his material possessions in a dream, the righteous king was forced to sell his wife and son into slavery and himself become the servant of the cremation ghat Dom in Benares." Elsewhere In China, according to Smith, a "possibly well-known tale" about the Song dynastic era (A.D. 960–1279) told of a wife invited to a prefect's party for wives of subordinate officials, from which she "was kidnapped by a brothel-master", who later "sold her ... [to] her husband's new employer ... who ... the couple". In 1990, in Central Nepal, mainly in rural areas, one song, a "dukha", which is a "suffering/hardship" song that "provide[s] ... an interpretation of women's hardships", "underscore[d] ... the limited resources and rights of a wife caught in a bad marriage". Sung from a daughter's perspective, the song in part said, "[The wife says] You don't need to return home after drinking there in the evening."/"In Pokhara bazaar, [there is] an electricity line,"/"The household property is not mine."/"The housewife is an outsider,"/"All the household property is needed [for raksi]."/"If this wife is not enough, you can get another,"/"The head of the cock will be caught [i.e., with two wives he'll have problems]."/"Why do you hold your head [looking worried]? Go sell the buffalo and pigs."/"If you don't have enough money [for raksi], you will even sell your wife."/"After selling his wife, he'll become a jogT [here: a beggar without a wife]." A "woman ... became visibly agitated while listening to [this song]". This was part of a genre sung at the annual Tij Festival, by Hindu women in the mid to late 20th century, but mostly not between the festivals. According to Debra Skinner and co-authors, "this genre ... has been recognized by urban-based political and feminist groups as a promising medium for demanding equal rights for women and the poor." In Guatemala, according to Robert G. Mead, Jr., a "legend [that is] popular ... [is] the story of the poor man who becomes rich by selling his wife to the Devil." This legend, according to Mead, is also one basis of the 1963 novel Mulata de tal, by Miguel Angel Asturias, a winner in 1967 of the Nobel Prize in Literature. In the Dutch Indies, fiction by Tirto Adhi Soerjo, who was Javanese and writing in a language that "was a form of resistance to Dutch", according to Laurie J. Sears, included in 1909 Membeli Bini Orang: Sebuah Cerita Yang Sungguh Sudah Terjadi Di Periangan (Buying Another Man's Wife: A Story that Really Happened in the Priangan), in which "a religious Muslim ... tries to get rid of his wife, whom a dukun said was not good for him .... [noting that since his marriage after his prior widowhood] all his business efforts have turned into failures .... [and] he agrees to give or sell his wife to a greedy Eurasian (=Indo) moneylender who has fallen in love with her.... [She, as the first man's wife,] is a very promiscuous woman, easily impressed with money and fashionable clothing, and the Eurasian ends up feeling more than punished for his pursuit and purchase of another man's wife." In Scandinavia, in c. 1850s–1870s, where there were many critics of the Mormon religion, "ballad mongers hawked 'the latest new verse about the Copenhagen apprentice masons' who sold their wives to the Mormons for two thousand kroner and riotously drowned their sorrows in the taverns". In English author Thomas Hardy's 1886 novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, the mayor's selling of his wife when he'd been a young, drunken labourer is the key plot element. Criticism A wife being subject to sale was a consequence of her being a man's property, according to sociologist Alvin John Schmidt. The religious commandment in the Hebrew Bible against coveting one's neighbor's wife has as part of its basis that "the wife is definitely seen as property", wrote Schmidt. Christians and earlier Hebrews were, according to Schmidt, influenced by the belief that "woman [was] ... unequal to man", producing "sexist theology". Schmidt argued that teachers of Judeo-Christian tradition who teach on this commandment "without drawing attention to the property concept of woman" "might [be] ... unknowingly contributing to sexual inequality". Inequality and inferiority are, according to Schmidt, "negative". Wife selling was criticized by the Roman Catholic Pope Gregory VII in the 11th century, and the Catholic church over time objected to it, apparently because it objected to divorce, while the non-Catholic Christian church sometimes did not oppose it. According to Robert G. Ingersoll, writing in 1881, "to sell wives ... is slavery. This is what Jehovah 'authorized in Judea. Karl Marx argued that machinery adds so many women and children to the workforce that men are displaced and thus, according to Michael Burawoy, "all that the father can do is sell his wife and children." Then, according to Marx, "he has become a slave dealer." See also The Babylonian Marriage Market The Bartered Bride, 1866 comic opera by Smetana Bride buying Bride kidnapping Child-selling Commodification Coverture, where, on marriage, a woman's rights are subsumed by her husband's Exchange of women Human trafficking Husband-selling Organ trade Self-ownership Sexual slavery Widow inheritance
Passage (department store)	[ "Commercial buildings completed in 1848", "Department stores of Russia", "Buildings and structures in Saint Petersburg", "Nevsky Prospekt", "Shopping arcades", "Department stores of the Soviet Union", "Companies nationalised by the Soviet Union", "Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Saint Petersburg", "Privatized department stores", "Privatized companies of Russia" ]	886	6,455	The Passage (), from the French word passage, is an élite department store on Nevsky Avenue in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which was founded in 1848. The Passage premises have long had associations with the entertainment industry and houses the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre. 19th century The site where the Passage sprawls had been devoted to trade since the city's foundation in the early 18th century. It had been occupied by various shops and warehouses (Little Gostiny Dvor, Schukin Dvor, Apraksin Dvor) until 1846, when Count Essen-Stenbock-Fermor acquired the grounds to build an elite shopping mall for the highest echelons of the Russian nobility and bourgeoisie. The name came from a vast gallery between Nevsky Avenue and Italianskaya Street which provided the main passage through the mall. The gallery was covered over by an arching glass and steel roof, thus giving it a claim to being one of the world's first shopping malls, along with Passage du Caire in Paris (1798) Burlington Arcade in London, Galerie Vivienne in Paris (1823) and Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert in Brussels. The three-storey building of the Passage opened its doors to consumers on May 9, 1848. It was one of the first structures in Russia to employ gas for lighting. Another innovation was an underground floor, where an electric station would be installed in 1900. Although the store specialized in jewellery, expensive clothes and other luxury goods, crowds of common people flocked to see the most fashionable shop of the Russian Empire. A fee of 50 kopecks had to be introduced in order to limit admissions. Stenbock-Fermor conceived of the Passage as more than a mere shopping mall, but also as a cultural and social centre for the people of St Petersburg. The edifice contained coffee-houses, confectioneries, panorama installations, an anatomical museum, a wax museum, and even a small zoo, described by Dostoyevsky in his extravaganza "The Crocodile, or Passage through the Passage". The concert hall became renowned as a setting for literary readings attended by the likes of Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Taras Shevchenko. 20th century In 1897 the ownership of the Passage passed from Stenbock-Fermor's heirs to Princess Nadezhda Boryatinsky. A great fire in 1898 necessitated a major renovation, funded by the Crédit Lyonnais, a bank which leased a large portion of the store as its offices. In 1900, the building was revamped, with the addition of a further storey, and refaced in Radom sandstone. The new owner transformed the former concert hall into a theatre employing Vera Komissarzhevskaya as its artistic director. To draw even more consumers to the store, the Soleille, one of the largest cinemas in the Russian capital, was opened in the complex in 1908. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the following several years of disorder, the store was reopened as the Passage Supermarket in 1922. It continued in this capacity until 1933, when the municipal authorities declared the Passage a "model department store", the only one in Leningrad (as the former St Petersburg was then known) and one of only three such stores in the Soviet Union. The renovated "palace of Soviet trade" (as the media touted it) opened in 1934 and offered about 30,000 types of goods, all manufactured in the USSR. The Children's World section became especially popular with the inhabitants of Leningrad. The Passage remained a showcase of the Soviet industry until the onset of World War II. During the Siege of Leningrad, the shop was closed but the majority of employees chose to remain day and night. The building's glass roof was subjected to intensive bombing, but amazingly the interior sustained little damage. The Passage was restored and reopened for business in 1947. Since 1961, this historic department store has been specializing in goods for women. 21st century The Passage is now privately owned by employees and shareholders. Updates and renovations throughout the entire building were done to meet modern international standards. Expanded showrooms welcomed more customers. Passage established relations with new trade and business partners, such as Escada, and other international department stores. One of the first upscale food markets in Russia, with a wide variety of international produce, opened in the basement. New restaurant opened on the upper level with the panoramic view of the Nevsky Prospect. Jensen Group (real estate investment and development company based in Saint-Petersburg, Russia) acquired Nevsky Passage from VTB Bank in September 2011. (Analysts valued the amount of transaction at $80mln.) See also Arcade (architecture) Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II Petrovsky Passage Retail State Universal Store Пассаж. Санкт-Петербург. 1848-1998. Исторический очерк. Saint-Petersburg, 1998. История создания Пассажа -
James Henry Plummer	[ "1848 births", "1932 deaths", "British emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario", "Canadian bankers", "Bank of Montreal people", "Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce people", "Burials at St. James Cemetery, Toronto" ]	516	4,220	James Henry Plummer (19 February 1848 – 10 September 1932) was a Canadian financier, He acquired the Dominion Iron and Steel Company in 1903 and developed it as a major industry before and during the First World War. Biography Plummer was born in 1848 at Mary Tavy, England. He emigrated to British North America with his parents (William Plummer and Elizabeth Williams) in 1859 and was educated at Upper Canada College. In 1867 he began work as a clerk in the Toronto branch of the Bank of Montreal. He joined the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1868 as a clerk, rising to become manager of several branches by 1878 and assistant general manager by 1903. He was the namesake of the canal-sized package freighter J. H. Plummer, built in 1903 by Armstrong Whitworth & Company Ltd. at Newcastle-on-Tyne. This 257-foot, 1,643-ton steamer was owned originally by the Canadian Lake and ocean Navigation Company Ltd., a subsidiary of the McKenzie and Mann Group. In 1903 Plummer acquired control of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company Ltd. (DISCO) from James Ross of Montreal, who in turn had purchased it from the Henry Melville Whitney syndicate of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1901. Plummer was elected president of DISCO in 1904. He acquired control of the Dominion Coal Company Ltd.(DOMCO) from Ross in 1910 and made both companies subsidiaries of the Dominion Steel Corporation (DOSCO). In 1919 Plummer negotiated the sale of DOMCO and DISCO to a syndicate of British investors led by Roy M. Wolvin of Montreal. This led to the organization in 1921 of the British Empire Steel Company (BESCO), which was succeeded in 1930 by the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation. James H. Plummer lived in retirement in Toronto until his death there at the age of 84 on 10 September 1932. Plummer is buried at St. James Cemetery.
Economy of South Korea	[ "Economy of South Korea", "World Trade Organization member economies", "OECD member economies" ]	9,106	93,810	The economy of South Korea is a highly developed mixed economy. By nominal GDP, the economy was worth (US$1.87 trillion). It has the 4th largest economy in Asia and the 13th largest in the world as of 2025. South Korea is notable for its rapid economic development from an underdeveloped nation to a developed, high-income country in a few decades. This economic growth has been described as the Miracle on the Han River, which has allowed it to join the OECD and the G20. It is included in the group of Next Eleven countries as having the potential to play a dominant role in the global economy by the middle of the 21st century. Among OECD members, South Korea has a highly efficient and strong social security system; social expenditure stood at roughly 15.5% of GDP. South Korea spends around 4.93% of GDP on advanced research and development across various sectors of the economy. South Korea's education system and the establishment of a motivated and educated populace were largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and economic development. South Korea began to adapt an export-oriented economic strategy to fuel its economy. In 2022, South Korea was the ninth largest exporter and ninth largest importer in the world. The Bank of Korea and the Korea Development Institute periodically release major economic indicators and economic trends of the economy of South Korea. Renowned financial organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund, note the resilience of the South Korean economy against various economic crises. They cite the country's economic advantages as reasons for this resilience, including low state debt and high fiscal reserves that can quickly be mobilised to address any expected financial emergencies. Other financial organisations, like the World Bank, describe South Korea as one of the fastest-growing major economies of the next generation, along with BRICS and Indonesia. South Korea was one of the few developed countries that was able to avoid a recession during the Great Recession. Its economic growth rate reached 6.2% in 2010, a recovery from economic growth rates of 2.3% in 2008 and 0.2% in 2009 during the Great Recession. The South Korean economy again recovered with a record surplus of US$70.7 billion at the end of 2013, up 47 percent growth from 2012. This growth contrasted with the uncertainties of global economic turmoil, with the country's major economic output being technology products exports. Despite the South Korean economy's high growth and structural stability, South Korea is experiencing damage to its credit rating in the stock market due to North Korea in times of military crises. The recurring conflict affects the financial markets of its economy. The South Korean economy faces challenges due to a declining and ageing population, with a fertility rate among the lowest in the world. History Overview Following the Korean War, South Korea remained a country with less developed markets for a little more than a decade. The growth of the industrial sector was the principal stimulus to South Korea's economic development. In 1986, manufacturing industries accounted for approximately 30 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 25 percent of the work force. Due to strong domestic encouragement and some foreign aid, Seoul's industrialists introduced modern technologies into outmoded or newly built facilities, increased the production of commodities—especially those for sale in foreign markets—and plowed the proceeds back into further industrial expansion. As a result, industry altered South Korea's landscape, drawing millions of labourers to urban manufacturing centres. A downturn in the South Korean economy in 1989 spurred by a decrease in exports and foreign orders caused concern in the industrial sector. Ministry of Trade and Industry analysts stated that decreased export performance resulted from structural problems, including an overly strong won, increased wages and labour costs, frequent strikes, and higher interest rates. The result was an increase in inventories and cutbacks in production at a number of electronics, automobile, and textile manufacturers, as well as at the smaller firms that supplied the parts. Factory automation systems were introduced to reduce dependence on labour, to boost productivity with a smaller work force, and to improve competitiveness. Colonial period Japan colonized Korea, officially annexing it on 22 August 1910 as the Province of Choson. Japan encouraged an inflow of Japanese capital to Korea's less developed economy. A large majority of major firms in Korea became Japanese owned and operated as a result, with key positions reserved for Japanese. Koreans were permitted to work in menial roles under harsh labor conditions. Most of Korea's coal, iron, and crop production was shipped to Japan. Rapid growth from 1960s to 1980s Following the coup that brought General Park Chung Hee to power in 1961, which at first caused political instability and an economic crisis, a protectionist economic policy began, pushing a bourgeoisie that developed in the shadow of the State to reactivate the internal market. To promote development, a policy of export-oriented industrialisation was applied, closing the entry into the country of all kinds of foreign products, except raw materials. Agrarian reforms were carried out and Park nationalised the financial system to swell the powerful state arm, whose intervention in the economy was through five-year plans. The spearhead was the chaebols, diversified family conglomerates such as Hyundai, Samsung, and LG Corporation, which received state incentives such as tax breaks, legality for their exploitation system and cheap or free financing: the state bank facilitated the planning of concentrated loans by item according to each five-year plan, and by economic group selected to lead it. South Korea received donations from the United States due to the Cold War, and foreign economic and military support continued for some years. Chaebols started to dominate the domestic economy and, eventually, began to become internationally competitive. Under these chaebols, workers began to see their wages and working conditions improve, which increased domestic consumption. By the 1980s, the country rose from low income to middle income. South Korea's real GDP expanded by an average of more than 8 percent per year, from US$2.7 billion in 1962 to US$230 billion in 1989, breaking the trillion dollar mark in the early 2000s. Nominal GDP per capita grew from $103.88 in 1962 to $5,438.24 in 1989, reaching the $20,000 milestone in 2006. The manufacturing sector grew from 14.3 percent of the GNP in 1962 to 30.3 percent in 1987. Commodity trade volume rose from US$480 million in 1962 to a projected US$127.9 billion in 1990. The ratio of domestic savings to GNP grew from 3.3 percent in 1962 to 35.8 percent in 1989. In the early 1960s, South Korea's rate of growth exceeded North Korea's rate of growth in most industrial areas. The most significant factor in rapid industrialisation was the adoption of an outward-looking strategy in the early 1960s. This strategy was particularly well-suited to that time because of South Korea's low savings rate and small domestic market. The strategy promoted economic growth through labour-intensive manufactured exports, in which South Korea could develop a competitive advantage. Government initiatives played an important role in this process. Through the model of export-led industrialisation, the South Korean government incentivised corporations to develop new technology and upgrade productive efficiency to compete the global market. By adhering to state regulations and demands, firms were awarded subsidisation and investment support to develop their export markets in the evolving international arena. In addition, the inflow of foreign capital was encouraged to supplement the shortage of domestic savings. These efforts enabled South Korea to achieve growth in exports and subsequent increases in income. Beginning in 1973, South Korea's government used its National Investment Fund and the Korea Development Bank to invest large amounts of money into what Park Chung Hee's government viewed as the six strategic industries: steel, non-ferrous metals, shipbuilding, industrial machinery, electronics, and petrochemicals. This developmental approach was frequently criticized at the time from outside Korea, including by the World Bank. The strategy was successful and ultimately also helped develop companies like Samsung and POSCO and reduced input costs for production in downstream industries as well. By emphasising the industrial sector, Seoul's export-oriented development strategy left the rural sector barely touched. The steel and shipbuilding industries in particular played key roles in developing South Korea's economy during this time. Except for mining, most industries were located in the urban areas of the northwest and southeast. Heavy industries were located in the south of the country. Factories in Seoul contributed over 25 percent of all manufacturing value-added in 1978; taken together with factories in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, factories in the Seoul area produced 46 percent of all manufacturing that year. Factories in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province employed 48 percent of the nation's 2.1 million factory workers. Increased income disparity between the industrial and agricultural sectors became a problem by the 1970s despite government efforts to raise farm income and improve rural areas In the early 1980s, in order to control inflation, a conservative monetary policy and tight fiscal measures were adopted. Growth of the money supply was reduced from the 30 percent level of the 1970s to 15 percent. During this time, Seoul froze its budget for a short while. Government intervention in the economy was greatly reduced and policies on imports and foreign investment were liberalised to promote competition. To reduce the imbalance between rural and urban sectors, Seoul expanded investments in public projects, such as roads and communications facilities, while further promoting farm mechanisation. The measures implemented early in the decade, coupled with significant improvements in the world economy, helped South Korea regain its lost momentum. South Korea achieved an average of 9.2 percent real growth between 1982 and 1987 and 12.5 percent between 1986 and 1988. The double-digit inflation of the 1970s was brought under control. Wholesale price inflation averaged 2.1 percent per year from 1980 through 1988; consumer prices increased by an average of 4.7 percent annually. Seoul achieved its first significant surplus in its balance of payments in 1986 and recorded a US$7.7 billion and a US$11.4 billion surplus in 1987 and 1988 respectively. This development permitted South Korea to begin reducing its level of foreign debt. The trade surplus for 1989, however, was only US$4.6 billion, and a small negative balance was projected for 1990. 1990s and the Asian Financial Crisis For the first half of the 1990s, the South Korean economy continued a stable and strong growth in both private consumption and GDP. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, after several other Asian currencies were attacked by speculators, the Korean won started to depreciate in October 1997. The problem was exacerbated due to non-performing loans at many of Korea's merchant banks. By December 1997, the IMF had approved a US$21 billion loan, that would be part of a US$58.4 billion bailout plan. By January 1998, the government had shut down a third of Korea's merchant banks. Throughout 1998, Korea's economy would continue to shrink quarterly at an average rate of −6.65%. and South Korean chaebol Daewoo was dismantled by the government in 1999 due to debt problems. General Motors managed to purchase the motors division. Indian conglomerate Tata Group purchased the trucks and heavy vehicles division of Daewoo. Actions by the South Korean government and debt swaps by international lenders have contained the country's financial problems. Much of South Korea's recovery from the 1997 Asian financial crisis can be attributed to labour adjustments (i.e. a dynamic and productive labour market with flexible wage rates) and alternative funding sources. By the first quarter of 1999, GDP growth had risen to 5.4%, and strong growth thereafter combined with deflationary pressure on the currency led to a yearly growth of 10.5%. In December 1999, President Kim Dae-jung declared the currency crisis over. 2000s South Korea's economy has moved away from a centrally planned, government-directed investment model toward a more market-oriented one. These economic reforms, pushed by President Kim Dae-jung, helped South Korea maintain one of Asia's few expanding economies, with growth rates of 10.8% in 1999 and 9.2% in 2000. Growth fell back to 3.3% in 2001 because of the slowing global economy, decreased exports, and perceptions that corporate and financial reforms had stalled. After the bounce back from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the economy continued strong growth in 2000 with a GDP growth of 9.08%. However, the South Korean economy was affected by the September 11 attacks. The slowing global economy, falling exports, and the perception that corporate and financial reforms had stalled caused growth to decrease to 3.8% in 2001 Thanks to industrialisation GDP per hour worked (labour output) more than tripled from US$2.80 in 1963 to US$10.00 in 1989. More recently the economy stabilised and maintained a growth rate of between 4–5% from 2003 onwards. Led by industry and construction, growth in 2002 was 5.8%, despite anemic global growth. The restructuring of chaebols, bank privatisation, and the creation of a more liberalised economy—with a mechanism for bankrupt firms to exit the market—remain an unfinished reform task. Growth slowed in 2003, but production expanded 5% in 2006, due to popular demand for key export products such as HDTVs and mobile phones. Like most industrialised economies, South Korea experienced setbacks during the Great Recession. Growth fell by 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the previous quarter, the first negative quarterly growth in 10 years, with year on year quarterly growth continuing to be negative into 2009. Many sectors of the economy at the time reported declines, with manufacturing dropping 25.6% as of January 2009, and consumer goods sales dropping 3.1%. Exports in autos and semiconductors, two pillars of the economy, shrank 55.9% and 46.9% respectively, while exports overall fell by a record 33.8% in January, and 18.3% in February 2009 year on year. As in the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Korean currency also experienced massive fluctuations, declining by 34% against the US dollar. Annual growth in the economy slowed to 2.3% in 2008, and was expected to drop to as low as −4.5% by Goldman Sachs, but South Korea was able to limit the downturn to a standstill at 0.2% in 2009. Despite the Great Recession, the South Korean economy, helped by timely stimulus measures and strong domestic consumption of products that compensated for decreased exports, was able to avoid a recession unlike most industrialised economies, posting positive economic growth for two consecutive years of the crisis. In 2010, South Korea made an economic rebound with a growth rate of 6.1%, signaling a return of the economy to pre-crisis levels. South Korea's exports recorded $424 billion in the first eleven months of the year 2010, already higher than its export in the whole year of 2008. The South Korean economy of the 21st century, as a Next Eleven economy, is expected to grow from 3.9% to 4.2% annually between 2011 and 2030, similar to growth rates of developing countries such as Brazil or Russia. The South Korean government signed the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) on 5 December 2013, with the Australian government seeking to benefit its industries—including automotive, services, and resources and energy—and position itself alongside competitors, such as the U.S. and ASEAN. South Korea is Australia's third largest export market and fourth largest trading partner with a 2012 trade value of A$32 billion. The agreement contains an Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause that permits legal action from South Korean corporations against the Australian government if their trade rights are infringed upon. The government cut the work week from six days to five in phases, from 2004 to 2011, depending on the size of the firm. The number of public holidays was expanded to 16 by 2013. South Korean economy decreased in the first quarter of 2019, which happened to be its worst drop since the Great Recession. GDP declined a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent from the previous quarter. South Korea's prices rose more than 6 percent in July compared with last year, the fastest jump in nearly a quarter century. In July 2022, South Korea's Consumer price index rose 6.3 percent, the highest rate since November 1998. High-tech industries in the 1990s and 2000s In 1990, South Korean manufacturers planned a shift in future production plans toward high-technology industries. In June 1989, panels of government officials, scholars, and business leaders held planning sessions on the production of such goods as new materials, mechatronics—including industrial robotics—bioengineering, microelectronics, fine chemistry, and aerospace. This shift in emphasis, however, did not mean an immediate decline in heavy industries such as automobile and ship production, which had dominated the economy in the 1980s. South Korea relies upon exports to fuel the growth of its economy, with finished products such as electronics, textiles, ships, automobiles, and steel being some of its most important exports. Although the import market has liberalised in recent years, the agricultural market has remained protectionist due to disparities in the price of domestic agricultural products such as rice with the international market. As of 2005, the price of rice in South Korea was four times that of the average price of rice on the international market, and it was believed that opening the agricultural market would affect South Korean agricultural sector negatively. In late 2004, however, an agreement was reached with the WTO in which South Korean rice imports will gradually increase from 4% to 8% of consumption by 2014. In addition, up to 30% of imported rice will be made available directly to consumers by 2010, where previously imported rice was only used for processed foods. Following 2014, the South Korean rice market will be fully opened. South Korea today is known as the Launchpad of a mature mobile market, where developers thrive in a market where few technology constraints exist. There is a growing trend of inventions of new types of media or apps, using the 4G and 5G internet infrastructure in South Korea. South Korea today has the infrastructure to meet a density of population and culture that has the capability to create strong local particularities. The economy after the COVID-19 pandemic South Korea faced a turning point in its economy in 2023. With the constant growth of mainland China's manufacturing industry and the impact of COVID-19, South Korea's manufacturing sector is experiencing a consistent decline. According to SP Global, South Korea's export of manufactured goods to mainland China, one of the biggest trading partners of South Korea, had decreased by 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022 and by 31% in January 2023. On the other hand, their primary electronic manufacturing industry is facing a downturn. While information and communication technology maintained 34% of South Korea's total 2022 exports, at the end of the year, it decreased to 24%. The government had to incur a massive fiscal spending in 2020, leading a rise in the fiscal deficit as projected in their budget. Moreover, their forecasted debt-to-GDP ratio jumped to 41.2% of GDP in 2020 from 37.1% of GDP in 2019. In 2021, the government unveiled a $29 billion extra budget to aid small businesses and boost employment. In 2024, the government forecast a debt-to-GDP ratio was 47.4% of GDP. With downturns in many manufacturing industries, South Korea has been facing a recession. Many economists state the reason for industries' slowdown as deteriorating global conditions. The inflation rate in South Korea is regularly rising, and the problems in the domestic economy, such as household debt, population problems, and productivity problems, are the key fiscal and monetary factors that hold South Korea's economic growth. Due to the sudden evolution of COVID-19, private consumption decreased, and a bottleneck in the supply sector occurred. With this situation, the Bank of Korea indicated that the consumer inflation rate rose about three percent after COVID-19 evolved. Assuming that South Korea's interest rate was low compared to other countries, raising house prices and household debt became one of the problems in South Korea's economy. To stabilise the inflated economy, the government has passed the "Korean New Deal Program" to invest 144 billion dollars. This expansionary fiscal policy promoted private consumption and increased the number of jobs. This expansionary fiscal stimulus is designed to recover the economic and social impact of COVID-19 from the existing climate and environmental dangers. The New Deal policy is divided explicitly into healthcare and green industries. South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance asserted the New Growth Strategy 4.0 in August 2023. The New Growth Strategy suggests projects for South Korea's long-term industry growth. The South Korean government advocates these policies as a New Growth 4.0 project, which aims to generate tangible outcomes in the future by setting the focus of policy and investments towards emerging industries. To achieve these goals, the strategy outlines the following key guidelines: Foster AI semiconductor industries and build up a collaborative ecosystem between businesses. Dominate the global market of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) industry. Secure Clean Hydrogen Production Technology via Water Electrolysis. Advance Autonomous Driving Technologies. Promote the Battery Re-manufacturing and Reuse Markets. Expand the Private Sector-led My Data Based Services. Streamline the Ordering Process of Research Equipment or Facilities to Alleviate Administrative Burdens. Besides this, South Korea is one of the countries with excellent healthcare systems, biomedical technology, and AI technology. While South Korea's value in the medical industry is projected at around 6.7 billion dollars, the medical technology market is projected to reach 11.5 billion dollars. The annual projected growth rate of the medical industry is over 6%, which indicates a bright future for the industry. Many economists suggest that by adopting AI technology, South Korea will be a bio-medical industry-leading country. An article about the future data-driven healthcare industry in South Korea suggests that AI technology helps the medical industry provide customised medical services for patients and can utilise the benefits and costs. In April 2025, the incorporation of Korean government bonds into the "World Government Bond Index" was postponed from November this year to April next year. After being listed as a prospective candidate for incorporation in September 2022, it was successfully included in the regular market classification report in the second half of October 2024. Economic inequality Data The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2021 (with IMF staff estimates in 2022–2027). Inflation below 5% is in green. YearGDP (in Bil. US$PPP)GDP per capita (in US$ PPP)GDP (in Bil. US$nominal)GDP per capita (in US$ nominal)GDP growth (real)Inflation rate (in Percent)Unemployment (in Percent)Government debt (in % of GDP)198082.72,169.465.41,714.6-1.6%28.7%5.2%n/a198197.12,507.372.91,883.57.2%21.4%4.5%n/a1982111.72,839.978.31,992.38.3%7.2%4.1%n/a1983131.63,296.987.82,198.913.4%3.4%4.1%n/a1984150.73,730.097.52,413.310.6%2.3%3.9%n/a1985167.74,109.0101.32,482.47.8%2.5%4.0%n/a1986190.44,620.3116.82,834.911.3%2.8%3.8%n/a1987220.05,284.7147.93,554.612.7%3.0%3.1%n/a1988255.06,067.2199.64,748.712.0%7.1%2.5%n/a1989283.86,684.6246.95,817.17.1%5.7%2.6%n/a1990323.57,545.1283.46,610.09.9%8.6%2.5%3.2%1991370.48,555.9330.77,637.210.8%9.3%2.5%12.3%1992402.49,197.2355.58,126.56.2%6.2%2.5%12.0%1993440.29,961.0392.78,886.46.9%4.8%2.9%11.2%1994491.311,005.5463.410,381.29.3%6.3%2.5%10.0%1995549.812,193.2566.612,565.09.6%4.5%2.1%8.8%1996604.113,269.2610.213,402.97.9%4.9%2.1%8.1%1997652.414,197.2570.612,416.86.2%4.4%2.6%10.0%1998625.913,522.6382.98,271.4-5.1%7.5%7.0%14.3%1999707.515,177.3497.310,666.911.5%0.8%6.6%16.3%2000789.116,786.6576.512,263.59.1%2.3%4.4%16.7%2001846.017,860.1547.711,563.04.9%4.1%4.0%17.2%2002925.619,427.1627.013,159.77.7%2.8%3.3%17.0%2003973.620,328.4702.714,672.43.1%3.5%3.6%19.8%20041,051.721,872.1792.516,482.85.2%3.6%3.7%22.4%20051,131.423,480.1934.719,398.54.3%2.8%3.8%25.9%20061,227.725,345.41,052.621,731.05.3%2.2%3.5%28.1%20071,334.027,401.21,172.524,083.35.8%2.5%3.3%27.4%20081,400.528,550.51,049.221,387.73.0%4.7%3.2%26.9%20091,420.728,812.5943.719,139.70.8%2.8%3.6%30.0%20101,535.630,988.31,143.623,077.26.8%2.9%3.7%29.5%20111,625.332,546.81,253.425,100.23.7%4.0%3.4%33.1%20121,684.633,557.11,278.025,459.22.4%2.2%3.2%35.0%20131,726.934,244.31,370.627,179.53.2%1.3%3.1%37.7%20141,792.635,324.51,484.529,252.93.2%1.3%3.5%39.7%20151,933.837,907.51,466.028,737.42.8%0.7%3.6%40.8%20162,026.539,567.01,499.429,274.22.9%1.0%3.7%41.2%20172,105.941,001.11,623.131,600.73.2%1.9%3.7%40.1%20182,218.943,014.21,725.433,447.22.9%1.5%3.8%40.0%20192,309.344,610.71,651.431,902.42.2%0.4%3.8%42.1%20202,320.544,766.31,644.731,728.3-0.7%0.5%3.9%48.7%20212,517.148,653.11,811.035,003.84.1%2.5%3.7%51.3%20222,765.853,574.21,734.233,591.62.6%5.5%3.0%54.1%20233,12356,7091,70933,1472.0%3.8%3.4%54.4%20243,065.459,526.81,879.036,488.92.7%2.3%3.3%55.2% During the 1970s and 1980s, South Korea became a leading producer of ships, including oil supertankers, and oil-drilling platforms. The country's major shipbuilder was Hyundai, which built a 1-million-ton capacity drydock at Ulsan in the mid-1970s. Daewoo joined the shipbuilding industry in 1980 and finished a 1.2-million-ton facility at Okpo on Geoje Island, south of Busan, in mid-1981. The industry declined in the mid-1980s because of the oil glut and because of a worldwide recession. There was a sharp decrease in new orders in the late 1980s; new orders for 1988 totaled 3 million gross tons valued at US$1.9 billion, decreases from the previous year of 17.8 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively. These declines were caused by labour unrest, Seoul's unwillingness to provide financial assistance, and Tokyo's new low-interest export financing in support of Japanese shipbuilders. However, the South Korean shipping industry was expected to expand in the early 1990s because older ships in world fleets needed replacing. South Korea eventually became the world's dominant shipbuilder with a 50.6% share of the global shipbuilding market as of 2008. Notable Korean shipbuilders are Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, and the now bankrupt STX Offshore & Shipbuilding. Electronics is one of South Korea's main industries. During the 1980s through the 2000s, South Korean companies such as Samsung, LG, and SK led South Korea's growth. In 2017, 17.1% of South Korea's exports were semiconductors produced by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Samsung and LG are also major producers in electronic devices such as televisions, smartphones, display, and computers. The automobile industry was one of South Korea's major growth and export industries in the 1980s. By the late 1980s, the capacity of the South Korean motor industry had increased more than fivefold since 1984; it exceeded 1 million units in 1988. Total investment in cars and car-component manufacturing was over US$3 billion in 1989. Total production (including buses and trucks) for 1988 totaled 1.1 million units, a 10.6 percent increase over 1987, and grew to an estimated 1.3 million vehicles (predominantly passenger cars) in 1989. Almost 263,000 passenger cars were produced in 1985—a figure that grew to approximately 846,000 units in 1989. In 1988 automobile exports totaled 576,134 units, of which 480,119 units (83.3 percent) were sent to the United States. Throughout most of the late 1980s, much of the growth of South Korea's automobile industry was the result of a surge in exports; 1989 exports, however, declined 28.5 percent from 1988. This decline reflected sluggish car sales to the United States, especially at the less expensive end of the market, and labour strife at home. South Korea today has developed into one of the world's largest automobile producers. The Hyundai Motor Group is South Korea's largest automaker in terms of revenue, production units and worldwide presence. Mining Most of the mineral deposits on the Korean Peninsula are located in North Korea, with the South only possessing an abundance of tungsten and graphite. Coal, iron ore, and molybdenum are found in South Korea, but not in large quantities and mining operations are on a small scale. Much of South Korea's minerals and ore are imported from other countries. Most South Korean coal is anthracite that is only used for heating homes and boilers. In 2019, South Korea was the 3rd largest world producer of bismuth, the 4th largest world producer of rhenium, and the 10th largest world producer of sulfur. Construction has been an important South Korean export industry since the early 1960s, and remains a critical source of foreign currency and invisible export earnings. By 1981, overseas construction projects, most of them in the Middle East, accounted for 60 percent of the work undertaken by South Korean construction companies. Contracts that year were valued at US$13.7 billion. In 1988, however, overseas construction contracts totaled only US$2.6 billion (orders from the Middle East were US$1.2 billion), a 1 percent increase over the previous year, while new orders for domestic construction projects totaled US$13.8 billion, an 8.8 percent increase over 1987. South Korean construction companies therefore concentrated on the rapidly growing domestic market in the late 1980s. By 1989, there were signs of a revival of the overseas construction market: the Dong Ah Construction Company signed a US$5.3 billion contract with Libya to build the second phase (and other subsequent phases) of Libya's Great Man-Made River Project, with a projected cost of US$27 billion when all 5 phases were completed. South Korean construction companies signed over US$7 billion of overseas contracts in 1989. South Korea's largest construction companies include Samsung C&T Corporation, which built some of the highest buildings and most noteworthy skyscrapers such as three consecutively the world's tallest buildings: the Petronas Towers, Taipei 101, and the Burj Khalifa. During the 1960s, South Korea was dependent on the United States to supply its armed forces, but after the elaboration of President Richard M. Nixon's policy of Vietnamisation in the early 1970s, South Korea began to manufacture its own weapons. Since the 1980s, South Korea has begun exporting military equipment and technology to boost its international trade. Some of its key military export projects include the T-155 Firtina self-propelled artillery for Turkey; the K11 air-burst rifle for the United Arab Emirates; the Bangabandhu class guided-missile frigate for Bangladesh; fleet tankers such as Sirius class for the navies of Australia, New Zealand, and Venezuela; Makassar class amphibious assault ships for Indonesia; and the KT-1 trainer aircraft for Turkey, Indonesia, and Peru. South Korea also exports various core components of other countries' advanced military hardware. Those hardware include modern aircraft such as F-15K fighters and AH-64 attack helicopters which will be used by Singapore, whose airframes will be built by Korea Aerospace Industries in a joint-production deal with Boeing. In other major outsourcing and joint-production deals, South Korea has jointly produced the S-300 air defence system of Russia via Samsung Group, and will facilitate the sales of Mistral class amphibious assault ships to Russia that will be produced by STX Corporation. The deal was cancelled in 2014 due to Russia's actions in Ukraine and the ships were sold to Egypt instead. South Korea's defence exports were $1.03 billion in 2008 and $1.17 billion in 2009. In 2012, 11.1 million foreign tourists visited South Korea, making it one of the most visited countries in the world, up from 8.5 million in 2010. Many tourists from all around Asia visit South Korea which has been due to the rise of the Korean Wave (Hallyu). Seoul is the principal tourist destination for visitors; popular tourist destinations outside of Seoul include the major coastal city of Busan, the Seorak-san national park, the historic city of Gyeongju, and subtropical Jeju Island. Trade statistics +2021 top South Korean exportsProductPercentageExports valueIntegrated circuits17.7%$116 (in billion)Cars6.85%$44.7 (in billion)Refined petroleum5.57%$36.4 (in billion)Motor vehicle parts2.95%$19.3 (in billion)Office machine parts2.76%$18 (in billion)Passenger and cargo ships2.71%$17.71 (in billion)Telephones2.46%$16.1 (in billion)Machinery1.78%$11.6 (in billion)Blank audio media1.66%$10.8 (in billion)Others55.6%$362.39 (in billion) +2021 top South Korean importsProductPercentageImports valueCrude petroleum10.5%$60.6 (in billion)Integrated circuits8.21%$41.4 (in billion)Petroleum gas4.25%$24.5 (in billion)Refined petroleum4.2%$24.3 (in billion)Photo lab equipment2.88%$16.6 (in billion)Coal briquettes2.27%$13.1 (in billion)Cars2.09%$12 (in billion)Machinery1.37%$7.9 (in billion)Computers1.32%$7.6 (in billion)Others62.91%$370 (in billion) +2018 Top 10 export partnersCountry/RegionExport (M$)Percentage162,12526.8%72,72012.0%48,6228.0%45,9967.6%30,5295.1%20,8723.4%20,7843.2%15,6062.6%12,0372.0%11,7822.0%11,4581.9%Others173,20128.6%Total604,860100.0%+2018 Top 10 import partnersCountry/RegionImport (M$)Percentage106,48919.9%58,86811.0%54,60410.2%26,3364.9%20,8543.9%20,7193.9%19,6433.7%17,5043.4%16,7383.1%16,2943.0%12,7622.0%Others177,15333.1%Total535,202100.0% +2018 Top 10 positive balance (surplus) countries for South KoreaCountry/RegionBalance (M$)55,63643,99928,97913,8529,7228,4686,3684,7914,0453,808Others−110,011Total69,657+2018 Top 10 negative balance (deficit) countries for South KoreaCountryBalance (M$)−24,075−22,384−15,768−11,541−11,481−11,108−10,183−7,658−4,699−2,667Others191,221Total69,657 Mergers and acquisitions Since 1991, there has been a steady upwards trend in South Korean M&A until 2018 with only a short break around 2004. Since 1991, around 18,300 deals in, into or out of South Korea have been announced, which sum up to a total value of over 941 bil. USD. 2016 has been the year with the largest deal value (1,818 in bil. USD) and the most deals (82,3). Target industries are distributed very evenly with no industry taking a larger share than 10%. The top three target industries are electronics (9.7%), semiconductors (9.1%) and metals and mining (7.7%). However, over 51% of the acquiring companies originate from the financial and brokerage sector. See also Korean Wave List of banks in South Korea List of companies of South Korea List of largest companies of South Korea List of South Korean regions by GDP Agriculture in South Korea Poverty in South Korea Retailing in South Korea Trade unions in South Korea Unemployment in South Korea Work–life balance in South Korea Youth unemployment in South Korea Small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea Further reading Koh, Jae Myong (2018) Green Infrastructure Financing: Institutional Investors, PPPs and Bankable Projects, London: Palgrave Macmillan. . Essays on such topics as American-educated technocrats in the 1960s and their role in South Korea's economic growth, and entrepreneurial family companies in South Korea, as well as China and Japan.
Hermann de Stern	[ "1815 births", "1887 deaths", "19th-century English businesspeople", "19th-century British Jews", "19th-century German Jews", "Portuguese barons", "Burials at Balls Pond Road Cemetery", "Businesspeople from Frankfurt", "English bankers", "German bankers", "German emigrants to the United Kingdom", "Stern family (banking)" ]	558	5,157	Hermann de Stern, Baron de Stern (1815–1887) was a German-born British banker and senior partner of the firm of Stern Brothers. Early life and career Stern was born in 1815 in Frankfurt am Main, Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, to the prominent Stern banking family. He moved to London in 1844 to join his brother David. Together, they co-founded Stern Brothers, a financial institution based in London. According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, "Baron de Stern was principally connected with Portuguese finance, but he was prominently concerned also in floating the Danubian 7-per-cent loan of 1864, the Spanish mortgage loan, and the Italian tobacco-monopoly loan." Stern served on the board of directors of the Imperial Bank, the Bank of Rumania, the London and San Francisco Bank, and the East London Waterworks Company. He also served on the board of directors of the London Banking Association. In 1869, Stern received the Portuguese noble title of barão (baron) from King Luís I of Portugal. Personal life Stern married Julia Goldsmid, daughter of Aaron Asher Goldsmid, brother of Sir Isaac Goldsmid. Their son was Herbert Stern, 1st Baron Michelham. From 1883 to 1887, Stern was the owner of Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, but he never lived there. He was associated with the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Jews' Free School. Stern died in London on 20 October 1887 and was buried at Balls Pond Road Cemetery. One of the wealthiest British men of his time, he left an estate of £3,544,978 (equivalent to £ billion in ).
Jon Winkelried	[ "1959 births", "Living people", "American expatriates in the United Kingdom", "American financial traders", "American investment bankers", "American people of Jewish descent", "Businesspeople from Colorado", "Businesspeople from Millburn, New Jersey", "Goldman Sachs people", "People from Meeker, Colorado", "University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni" ]	758	6,669	Jon Winkelried (born c. 1959) is an American financial executive. He is currently the CEO of TPG. Previously, he served as the co-president of Goldman Sachs from 2006 to February 2009. He is known for suddenly retiring at the peak of his career at age 49 from Goldman Sachs. Early life and education Winkelried grew up in Millburn, New Jersey, the son of a Jewish father, Irwin, who managed local parking garages, and a mother who was a schoolteacher. He attended the University of Chicago where he earned both an undergraduate degree and an MBA and played baseball. While in school he joined Phi Gamma Delta with his good friend Byron Trott who was also on the baseball team. Career Winkelried worked as an intern in the equities trading department at Goldman Sachs in the summer prior to graduating in 1982. He later accepted a permanent job at Goldman in the investment banking department in the Utilities Group. In 1984, he moved to the trading floor and soon was heading up the bond syndication business. In 1990, he became a partner. From there, he moved to London to turn around the European side of Goldman's fixed-income, currency, and commodities division (known as FICC). He was made co-head of FICC with Lloyd Blankfein. FICC was returned to solid profitability. In June 2006, Goldman's CEO Henry Paulson, Winkelried's mentor, accepted a position as the Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush. Blankfein was appointed the new CEO and Winkelried was made co-chief operating officer and co-president with Gary Cohn. Their responsibilities were divided with Cohn running the trading and asset management side of the business (including FICC) and Winkelried responsible for investment and merchant banking. Eventually Cohn's business lines were outperforming his own and Winkelried, sensing that his position was tenuous (especially as Cohn was very close to Blankfein) decided that he would leave the firm. His last act would be to secure a $5B convertible preferred investment from Warren Buffett in Goldman during the financial crisis to secure the company's solvency. Blankfein was not happy with his decision to leave. Winkelried was named co-CEO of TPG in October 2015 and then named CEO of TPG in May 2021. In 2023, Winkelried's total compensation from TPG was $198.7 million, up 487% from the previous year and representing a CEO-to-median worker pay ratio of 683-to-1 for the company, as well as making Winkelried the highest paid CEO in the US that year. Personal life Winkelried has been married to Abby Lipsey, a preschool teacher, since 1986. They have three children: Matt, Jen, and J. Winkelried is the owner of two ranches in Meeker, Colorado: the Marvine and the Pot Hole. Winkelried is an expert "cutter," a sport in which horseback riders separate a calf from the herd (historically done for vaccination, castration, or sorting purposes). He serves on the board of trust of Vanderbilt University and the Board of Overseers of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Rectification process	[ "1980s in Cuba", "1990s in Cuba", "Economy of Cuba", "1980s in economic history", "1990s in economic history" ]	982	8,380	The rectification process was a series of economic reforms in Cuba, officially titled the Rectification of Errors and Negative Tendencies. The process began in 1986, and lasted until 1992. The reforms were aimed at eliminating private businesses, trade markets, that had been introduced into the Cuban law and Cuban culture, during the 1970s. The new reforms aimed to nationalize more of the economy and eliminate material incentives for extra labor, instead relying on moral enthusiasm alone. Castro often justified this return to moral incentives by mentioning the moral incentives championed by Che Guevara, and often alluded to Guevarism when promoting reforms. After the conclusion of the rectification process, the Cuban economic went into decline, and after the end of Soviet aid due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Cuban economy devolved into a crisis known as the Special Period. Background Early economic planning Since the 1959 revolution, Cuba had engaged in various methods of economic reform and planning. Immediately after the revolution, there was an attempt to nationalize large businesses, from 1966 to 1970 there was an internal debate as to whether to implement a soviet style of economic planning (with material incentives for workers), or a Guevarist style of economic planning (with only moral incentives for workers). After 1971, there was a moderate effort to reintroduce some market mechanics back into the economy. In 1982, Fidel Castro criticized the legal farmers' markets in Cuba. He condemned the speculation in the market, and the enrichment of merchants. He intended to highly tax the merchants, but his approval did not gain support in the Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. Reforms in the Soviet Union After the advent of Perestroika and Glasnost in the Soviet Union, certain sectors of the Communist Party of Cuba began contemplating similar reforms in Cuba. The rectification process was enacted by Castro in defiance of these reformist tendencies in the party, that admired reformism in the Soviet Union. History Fidel Castro began the Rectification Process in 1986. In February 1986, at the Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, Castro announced "Now, we are going to build socialism", and criticized material incentives for laborers. Over the next months continued to criticize the Cuban bureaucracy and laziness. Economic reforms also included restructurings of party management. In 1986, the System of Direction for Economic Planning was made to obey the command of the Politboro of the Communist Party of Cuba. On October 8, 1987, at the anniversary of Che Guevara's death, Castro gave a speech inferring Guevara would be horrified at the bureaucracy in Cuba, and the lack of patriotic enthusiasm of common workers. Throughout the rectification process, private businesses became more heavily regulated, farmers markets were banned, material incentives were ended, and the minimum wage was increased. Along with political consolidation, investigations into drug trafficking among political officials began. The most famous investigation was into General Arnaldo Ochoa who after denying his guilt, was executed by firing squad. Since private construction was banned, micro-brigades were introduced. Micro-brigades were small self-managed construction units, were mobilized during the rectification process, and heralded by Fidel Castro a step away from economic bureaucracy, which was highly condemned. In a 1986 comment to the Granma newspaper, Fidel Castro stated: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, soviet aid ended, and a severe economic crisis termed "the Special Period" began in 1991. Despite the condemnation of markets during the rectification process, foreign businesses were soon encouraged to help build a tourist industry in Cuba. Eventually, foreigners and Cuban nationals would be legally bound to different economic policies, that even prevented Cubans from entering certain hotels.
Paige Rense	[ "American magazine editors", "1929 births", "2021 deaths", "Businesspeople from Des Moines, Iowa", "American adoptees", "Bon Appétit people", "20th-century American women writers", "21st-century American women writers", "20th-century American businesswomen", "20th-century American businesspeople", "21st-century American businesswomen", "21st-century American businesspeople", "Writers from Des Moines, Iowa", "American women editors", "American women magazine editors", "Architectural Digest editors" ]	1,210	11,037	Paige Rense, also known as Paige Rense Noland (May 4, 1929 – January 1, 2021) was an American writer and editor who served as editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest magazine from 1975 until 2010. She founded the Arthur Rense Prize poetry award. Rense also transformed the cooking magazine Bon Appétit into its modern format, was editor-in-chief of GEO, and wrote a mystery novel, Manor House (Doubleday, 1997). Early life Born on May 4, 1929 and adopted as an infant by Lloyd R. Pashong (1895–1988), a Des Moines, Iowa, public-school custodian, and his wife, the former Margaret May Smith (1890–1983), she was originally known as Patty Lou Pashong and took the name Paige as a teenager. By 1940, the family was living at 1014 Douglas Avenue in Des Moines, the residence of her maternal grandmother, Martha Smith; her father then was working as a spinner in a wool mill. In the early 1940s she and her parents moved from Iowa, to Los Angeles, California. After running away from home at age 15 to escape her abusive father, she worked as an usherette in movie theaters. Career A high-school dropout, Rense began her career in journalism in the mid-1950s, as a member of the editorial staff of the skin-diving magazine Water World, where her future husband Arthur F. Rense was the managing editor. After leaving Water World she wrote a how-to beauty book and a novel, in addition to articles for Cosmopolitan, and worked in publicity and advertising. In October 1970 Rense became associate editor of Architectural Digest. Six months later she was named head of the magazine after the murder of its editor-in-chief, Bradley Little, and was appointed editor-in-chief in 1975. She held that position until 2010, having transformed the magazine, which was founded in 1920 as a trade journal, into "a bible for the design world and increasing its circulation to more than 850,000 from 50,000 during her tenure". As editor-in-chief, she focused the magazine on the work of architects, interior designers, and celebrity home highlights. She sought to hire well-known writers and award-winning photographers, eventually creating an international network and reach. When Conde Nast acquired the publication in 1993, a part of the deal was for Rense to remain editor-in-chief. At the time of her retirement, she was reported to be working on a book about the career of her late husband Kenneth Noland, the color field artist. Rense wrote Architectural Digest: Autobiography of a Magazine 1920–2010, in October 2018, which tells the story of Architectural Digest during her tenure as editor. Awards Rense was the recipient of: The Museum of Arts & Design Achievement Award (2006) The American Academy of Achievement Award (2000) The Pratt Institute Founder Awards (1997) The Interior Design Hall of Fame Award (1985) Personal life Rense was married four times over. Her first marriage was to Richard F. Gardner, a Los Angeles advertising executive. They married on August 25, 1950 and later divorced. She met David Thomas in the early 1950s while they were both working for the US Armed Forces Radio Service in Tokyo, Japan. They divorced in Baker, Florida, in 1956. By her third marriage to Arthur F. Rense (1916–1990), a sports journalist for the Los Angeles Daily News and the director of public relations for Howard Hughes's Summa Corporation, she had three stepsons. The couple were married twice, from February 22, 1958, until their divorce in March 1974 and from December 22, 1987, until Arthur Rense's death in 1990. In 1998, Rense established the triennial Arthur Rense Prize in poetry in honor of her late husband, an amateur poet; it is given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1994, she married color field painter Kenneth Noland (1924–2010), and she had four stepchildren. Rense died on January 1, 2021, of heart disease. Further reading
Dave Bing	[ "1943 births", "Living people", "20th-century African-American sportsmen", "20th-century American sportsmen", "21st-century African-American politicians", "21st-century African-American businesspeople", "21st-century mayors of places in Michigan", "African-American mayors in Michigan", "All-American college men's basketball players", "American athlete-politicians", "American men's basketball players", "American steel industry businesspeople", "Basketball players from Washington, D.C.", "Boston Celtics players", "Businesspeople from Washington, D.C.", "Detroit Pistons announcers", "Detroit Pistons draft picks", "Detroit Pistons players", "Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs alumni", "Mayors of Detroit", "Michigan Democrats", "Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees", "NBA All-Stars", "NBA broadcasters", "NBA players with retired numbers", "National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees", "Point guards", "Syracuse Orange men's basketball players", "Washington Bullets players" ]	6,367	55,101	David Bing (born November 24, 1943) is an American former professional basketball player, businessman and politician who served as the 74th mayor of Detroit, Michigan from 2009 to 2014. He is a member of the Democratic Party. After starring at Syracuse University, Bing played 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a point guard for the Detroit Pistons (1966–1975), Washington Bullets (1975–1977) and Boston Celtics (1977–78). During his career, he averaged over 20 points and six assists per game and made seven NBA All-Star Game appearances, winning the game's Most Valuable Player award in 1976. The Pistons celebrated his career accomplishments with the retirement of his #21 jersey. In addition, he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team and the NBA 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. Bing founded Bing Steel, a processing company that earned him the National Minority Small Business Person of the Year award in 1984. Soon the business grew into the multimillion-dollar Detroit-based conglomerate, the Bing Group, one of the largest steel companies in Michigan. Bing entered Detroit politics as a Democrat in 2008, announcing his intention to run for mayor in the city's non-partisan primary to finish the term of Kwame Kilpatrick, who had resigned amid a corruption scandal. After winning the primary, Bing then defeated Interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and was sworn in as mayor in May 2009. Later that year, Bing was re-elected to a full term. However, he lost most of his power to Detroit's emergency manager Kevyn Orr, had numerous health problems and suffered approval ratings as low as 14%. Bing thus did not seek re-election in 2013 and was succeeded by politician and businessman Mike Duggan. Early life Bing was born November 24, 1943, in Washington, D.C., to mother Juanita, a housekeeper, and father Hasker, a bricklayer and deacon for the local Baptist church. He was the second child of four living in a two-bedroom, one-story house in the northeast part of town. In his childhood, Bing received the nickname "Duke" from his father, because, according to Bing, he always "wanted to be top dog." He suffered a traumatic eye injury at age five, when, while playing with an improvised hobby horse he constructed with two sticks nailed together; Bing tripped and accidentally poked his left eye with a rusty nail. The family could not afford emergency surgery, leaving the eye to heal on its own and diminishing his vision thereafter. Bing's father also suffered a severe head injury during the boy's childhood. While working a construction site, a brick fell four stories onto his head, causing a brain clot. The episode led young Bing to promise himself that he would never work in such a profession. In athletics, Bing played basketball, but older children often told him he was too small for the game. However, he played well, triumphing over such older and bigger children as future Motown musician Marvin Gaye, who, after not performing well on the court, chose to sing on the sidelines. Bing and Gaye forged a friendship, which continued later in life. Despite his basketball play, Bing, a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson, focused primarily on baseball, the neighborhood's preferred game. Despite his fuzzy vision, he excelled in baseball at Spingarn High School, where he enrolled in 1958. Nevertheless, the school's head basketball coach William Roundtree encouraged him to revisit basketball. Roundtree became a fatherly figure to Bing, who decided to join the team. He developed into a double-digits per game scorer, noted for his jump shot and knack for driving to the basket. He continued also to compete in baseball into his senior year, but was forced to choose between it and basketball when a scheduling conflict between two tournaments arose. Though he felt he was better at baseball, Bing opted for basketball, believing it gave him a greater chance at a full-ride college scholarship, well aware of the path taken by Los Angeles Lakers forward Elgin Baylor, a Spingarn alum. At the tournament, Bing led his team to victory and earned MVP honors. All in all, in high school, Bing was a three-year letter winner, all–Inter High, all-Metro, and all-East member. In 1962, he was featured in Parade magazine and made the All-American Team. College career Bing attended Syracuse University, where he was once roommates with Jim Boeheim. He wore a No. 22 jersey in college, as he had in high school, as a homage to Elgin Baylor, who he had watched play on a playground court in Washington, D.C. as a boy in 1957. He led the Orangemen in scoring as a sophomore (22.2) in 1964, as a junior (23.2) in 1965, and as a senior (28.4) in 1966. During his senior year, Bing was fifth in the nation in scoring and was Syracuse's first consensus All-American in 39 years. He was also named to The Sporting News All-America First Team and was named Syracuse Athlete of the Year. In his three-year varsity career at Syracuse, Bing averaged 24.8 points and 10.3 rebounds, with 1883 total points and 786 total rebounds in 76 games. While attending Syracuse, he became acquainted with Joe Biden, who was as student in the law school. Biden would later serve as a U.S. senator, vice president, and president of the United States. Professional career Bing's playing style was somewhat unusual for the time. As a lean, athletic and explosive point guard, he functioned as the playmaker distributing the ball, but also did more shooting and scoring than most others who had this position. At one time a joke about him and his backcourt partner, Jimmy Walker, was that it was a shame they could only play the game with one ball at a time. Detroit Pistons (1966–1975) Bing was selected 2nd overall in the 1966 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons, and wore the jersey number 21 because player-coach Dave DeBusschere already wore No. 22. Bing scored 1,601 points (20.0 points per game), and won the 1967 NBA Rookie of the Year Award while also being named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. The next year, he led the NBA in scoring with 2,142 points (27.1 points per game) in 1968. On November 23, 1968, Bing recorded a triple-double of 39 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists in a 127–128 loss to the Baltimore Bullets. Bing sat out 2½ months of the 1971–72 season due to a detached retina incurred from a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers, playing in only 45 games that season. While with the Pistons, he played in six NBA All-Star Games (1968, 1969, 1971, 1973–1975), and was named to the All-NBA First Team in 1968 and 1971. Washington Bullets (1975–1977) After leaving the Detroit Pistons, Bing went on to spend his next two seasons with the Washington Bullets, for whom he was named an NBA All-Star once more in 1976, this time winning the game's MVP Award. Boston Celtics (1977–1978) He played his final season with the Boston Celtics, averaging 13.6 points. He then retired at the conclusion of the 1977–1978 season. Overall, in his NBA career, Bing averaged 20.3 points, 6.0 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 901 games over 12 NBA seasons, scoring 18,327 points with 5,397 assists. National Basketball Retired Players Association In 1992, Bing co-founded the National Basketball Retired Players Association. , he continues to serve on its board of directors. Business career At age 22 with an NBA contract worth $15,000, Bing was rebuffed by the National Bank of Detroit on getting a mortgage to finance a home. This led Bing to work at the bank during the offseason, holding jobs in the teller, customer relations, and mortgage departments. Immediately after retiring, he worked at a warehouse of the steel processing company Paragon Steel and was paid $35,000. He left after two years, after stints in the company's shipping and sales operations. Bing Steel In 1980, Bing opened Bing Steel with four employees in a rented warehouse from $250,000 in loans and $80,000 of his own money. Losing all his money in six months, the company shied away from manufacturing to focus on being a middleman. With General Motors as their first major client, the company turned a profit in its second year on revenues of $4.2 million. By 1984, Bing was awarded by President Ronald Reagan the National Minority Small Business Person of the Year. By 1985, Bing Steel had expanded to two plants with 63 employees posting revenues of $40 million. Company assets were sold off in 2009. The Bing Group Bing Steel transformed itself to the Bing Group, a conglomerate with headquarters located in Detroit's North End. The company, among other things, supplies metal stampings to the automobile industry. At the 1990 NBA All-Star Game, Bing received the Schick Achievement Award for his work after his NBA career. Early political involvement and activism Bing was an early political supporter of Kwame Kilpatrick. However, Bing was among the first Michigan business community leaders to urge the resignation of Kilpatrick from his office as mayor of Detroit when scandals emerged surrounding Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick resigned as mayor in September 2008. Bing led Detroit's effort to receive the rights to host the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In November 2002, Detroit lost to Boston. Detroit's weak spot was considered to be its smaller number of hotel rooms. In January 2009, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Bing received the National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award. The award honors King's legacy as a leader of the civil rights movement, by acknowledging athletes who have made significant contributions to civil and human rights and who helped establish a foundation for future leaders in athletic careers. The honor was to be presented during the half-time show of the game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Detroit Pistons in Memphis, Tennessee. Bing volunteered in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program. 2009 elections On October 16, 2008, Bing announced that he would be a candidate for mayor of Detroit in the 2009 Detroit mayoral special election to finish the term of Kwame Kilpatrick, who had resigned as part of a plea bargain agreement after being charged with the crime of perjury. Bing finished first in a 15 candidate non-partisan primary on February 24, 2009. On May 5, 2009, Bing was elected with 52.3% of the vote, defeating interim mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr., who received 47.7%. Bing had only moved to a residence within city limits shortly before his campaign for mayor, having previously resided in suburban Franklin, Michigan. Bing was reelected to a full term on November 3, 2009. The inauguration for his full term was held at the Fox Theatre. Leadership style In comparison to his predecessor Kwame Kilaptrick, Bing opted for a more low-key presence as mayor and opted to forgo enjoying many of the benefits to which the mayor was entitled. Bing additionally forwent accepting salary as mayor during at least his first year as mayor. Bing did not shy away from making decisions that were unpopular. Fiscal and economic matters When Bing took office, the city was suffering significant economic trouble and its government was suffering major fiscal trouble. The city was suffering a $30 million budget deficit. The city also had overall accumulated $332 million in deficit, more than $15 million in long-term liabilities. The city government's fiscal troubles persisted under Bing, with Detroit suffering increased budget deficits during much of his tenure. However, by the time he left office, the city's deficit had decreased by $7 million from where it stood when he assumed office. Due to the importance of the automotive industry to Detroit, Bing was involved in discussions related to the 2009 auto bailout. These discussions also included Vice President Joe Biden, who Bing had first known when they were students at Syracuse University. In 2011, Bing proposed that the city's next budget include a $4 million decrease in funding for City Council staff, and fund new hires for the city's fire department. In mid-2011, Bing vetoed the budget passed by the City Council, claiming its cuts were excessive and could be to the detriment of the services of the city's police and fire departments. The City Council's budget made $50 million more in cuts than Bing's initial proposed budget had made. Bing's budget proposal was for $3.1 billion in spending. The City Council overrode this veto in an 8–1 vote. The city's 2012 budget made a 20% decrease to the city's fire department. This has been seen as having a detrimental effect on the city's ability to handle fires, including arson. In mid-2012, the fire department announced 164 layoffs. In 2013, Bing proposed a $1 billion budget, a $300 million decrease from the previous year's budget. By the time he was reelected to a full term, Bing had dismissed more than 400 city employees and had ended 16 out of 51 contracts that the city had with trade unions. Bing faced protests by unions during his mayoralty. By the end of his mayoralty, Bing had eliminated 1,000 positions in the city government, a 9% decrease to the municipal workforce. Additionally, many city employees faced decreased salaries, decreased benefits, and even furloughs. Bing also outsourced many roles of the city government. The city's public health department was replaced by the Institution for Population Health public-private partnership. The workforce-development department was replaced by Detroit Employment Solutions, a nonprofit organization. Management of payroll and benefits for city employees was also outsourced. The city enjoyed new private development over the course of Bing's tenure. This included both the opening of new small businesses, an investment of $198 million by Chrysler in its Mack Avenue Engine Plant (which created 250 new jobs), and significant development in the city's downtown by businessman Dan Gilbert. Blight management Bing proposed the idea of demolishing neighborhoods and decreasing city services. Bing spoke of his intention to depopulate neighborhoods, including through forcible means such as eminent domain. This was controversial among city residents. Bing sought to incentivize residents to relocate from largely depopulated neighborhoods so that those neighborhoods could be demolished and the public services could be consolidated to more densely populated areas of the city. Past mayors had made pledges to demolish abandoned homes but taken little action to do so. Under Bing, the city took action to demolish abandoned homes, reporting in early 2013 to have demolished 6,700 since Bing took office. However, the city still had tens of thousands more abandoned homes. Bing's program of demolishing abandoned homes was controversial with some city residents. Aiming to repopulate certain neighborhoods, in early 2011 Bing began a program to give $150,000 in grants to assist in renovations of foreclosed homes in select neighborhoods. Hoping to encourage members of the city's police force to reside within city limits, Bing only required police officers to place a mere $1,000 in order to acquire abandoned residences and be eligible for renovation grants. Bing launched the Detroit Works Project (later renamed Detroit Future City), an effort to create a 50-year outline for the city's future. The project was intended to create a community-planned vision for how the city would manage its problems. The city government underestimated how many citizens would attend community meetings. Controversy arose during the process, when Bing publicized his intention to depopulate certain neighborhoods by forcibly relocating residents to denser neighborhoods. The public anger at this threatened the project. Bing sought to fix the city's broken street lights, which were considered a serious problem. In 2012, Bing persuaded the state legislature and governor to create the Public Lighting Authority of Detroit and dedicate utility and income tax revenue for the $185 million in bonds for this purpose. Bing appointed a lighting authority board, which then signed a contract with DTE Energy to repair the city's streetlights. However, the contract did not take place until early 2013, by which time Bing had left office. Bing's successor Mike Duggan built upon Bing's efforts to repair the city's streetlights to significant success. It has been noted that, due to Bing being out of office when the work was carried out, he has not received much public credit for it. Policing and crime During Bing's tenure, there was trouble within the Detroit Police Department. This included instability in leadership, with the city cycling through four different police chiefs during Bing's less-than-5-years in office. While he gave no explicit reason for the firing, it was speculated that Bing dismissed the first police chief of his mayoralty, Warren Evans, both due to the police raid that resulted in the killing of Aiyana Jones and due to Bing's dissatisfaction with Warren's pursuit of media exposure through participation in reality television shows such as The First 48. Even as crime in large cities was declining overall in the United States, Detroit saw its homicide rate rise to a 20-year high in 2012. Other projects Early into his mayoralty, Bing began pursuing a renovation of Cobo Center, the city's main convention center. Renovation occurred while Bing was mayor, taking place under the management of a new cooperative governing authority for the convention center. Bing established the city's Active and Safe Campaign public-private partnership to raise funds for public safety initiatives, as well as raise funds for recreational programs and enhancements to the city's recreation facilities. Bing made an unpopular proposal to decrease city bus service on Sundays. This never came into fruition. Emergency management and municipal bankruptcy On March 1, 2013, Governor Rick Snyder announced that he would appoint an emergency manager for the city of Detroit due to the city's fiscal troubles, making Detroit the United States largest city's to be placed under emergency management. Bing had, in the years prior, warned that this was a possibility, and expressed his desire for the city to avert such a situation. The placement of the city under emergency management deprived Bing of much of his mayoral authority. Bing declared that while he opposed emergency management, he was willing to work collaboratively with the emergency manager that would be appointed. Kevyn Orr was soon after appointed to the emergency manager role. Many in the city criticized Bing for not being more resistant to emergency management. In July 2013, before Bing left office, Detroit became the largest city in United States history to declare municipal bankruptcy. This was the decision of emergency manager Kevin Orr. Many criticized Bing for not doing more to fight this move by Orr. Decision to forgo seeking reelection in 2013 In addition to losing authority to the emergency manager, Bing suffered numerous health problems, and had seen approval ratings as low as 14%. Bing announced on May 14, 2013, he would not run for reelection to another term in the election to be held later that year. Later activities In 2014, Bing launched the Bing Youth Initiative, a nonprofit with a mission focused on providing academic support as well as behavior and social wellness services to underprivileged young African American men in Detroit. In August 2023, Bing endorsed Elissa Slotkin's candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in Michigan. Personal life Bing is the godfather of Jalen Rose. In 2020, Bing published his autobiography titled 'Attacking the Rim'. Honors J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award (1977) Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted in 1990) Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996) College Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted in 2006) NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021) Syracuse Orange Ring of Honor (added in 2024) NBA career statistics Regular season YearTeamGPMPGFG%FT%RPGAPGSTLBLKPPG1966–67Detroit8034.5.436.7384.54.120.01967–68Detroit7940.6.441.7074.76.427.11968–69Detroit7739.5.425.7135.07.123.41969–70Detroit7033.3.444.7834.36.022.91970–71Detroit8237.4.467.7974.45.027.01971–72Detroit4543.0.414.7854.17.022.61972–73Detroit8241.0.448.8143.67.822.41973–74Detroit8138.6.436.8133.56.91.30.218.81974–75Detroit7940.8.434.8093.67.71.50.319.01975–76Washington8235.9.447.7872.96.01.40.316.21976–77Washington6423.7.454.7732.24.31.00.110.61977–78Boston8028.2.449.8242.73.81.00.213.6Career90136.4.441.7753.86.01.30.220.3All-Star717.9.3721.0002.32.30.00.05.9 Playoffs YearTeamGPMPGFG%FT%RPGAPGSTLBLKPPG1968Detroit642.3.410.7334.04.828.21974Detroit744.6.420.7333.76.00.40.118.91975Detroit344.7.426.6153.79.71.70.016.01976Washington729.9.447.8002.64.01.00.313.71977Washington86.9.4381.0000.80.60.00.14.0Career3131.1.423.7482.74.30.60.215.4 Electoral history Further reading
Operation Red Spider	[ "Financial crimes", "Corruption in India", "Tax evasion in India", "Wealth in India", "2013 in India", "Financial regulation in India", "Money laundering", "Organized crime activity", "Informal economy", "Corporate governance in India", "ICICI Bank", "Banking in India", "Corporate crime", "Law enforcement operations against organised crime in India", "Investigative journalism" ]	574	6,975	Operation Red Spider was an anti-money laundering sting operation of an online magazine, Cobrapost. Cobrapost released video footage, recorded largely by hidden cameras, showing high-ranking officials and some employees of the top three Indian banks suggesting to an undercover reporter methods to launder money. The officials offered safe deposit lockers to stash away the black money, accounts that did not adhere to Reserve Bank of India guidelines, and 'benami' (false) accounts to facilitate the conversion of the black money and keep the depositor's identity a secret. The editor of Cobrapost, Aniruddha Bahal, placed the video footage into the public domain on 14 March 2013. According to Rajiv Takru, Secretary of Financial Services, Government of India, all Indian government agencies and regulators worked together to probe charges. On 14 March 2013 Reserve Bank of India conducted an inquiry into possible violation of its KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) guidelines by ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank. Following the enquiry, penalty of Rs 5 crore on Axis Bank, Rs 4.5 crore on HDFC Bank and Rs 1 crore on ICICI Bank was imposed by RBI. On 15 March 2013 ICICI Bank suspended 18 employees. On 16 March 2013 HDFC Bank appointed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to carry out an independent forensic inquiry of bank employees who are encouraging customers to evade income tax. See also White-collar crime Accounting scandals Corporate crime Organi-cultural Deviance Red Spider
FriulAdria	[ "Banks established in 1911", "Italian companies established in 1911", "Banks of Italy", "Companies based in Pordenone", "Crédit Agricole subsidiaries", "Former Intesa Sanpaolo subsidiaries", "Banca Intesa acquisitions", "Former cooperative banks of Italy" ]	1,033	9,899	Crédit Agricole FriulAdria S.p.A. formerly known as Banca Popolare FriulAdria S.p.A., or known as FriulAdria in short (abb. of Friuli and Adriatic Sea), is an Italian bank, which is part of Crédit Agricole Italia, the Italian arm of French banking group Crédit Agricole. Since 2016, one website was used for the whole Italian banking group. History FriulAdria was found as Banca Cooperativa Popolare di Pordenone in 1911, as an urban co-operative bank. In the 1990s, the bank merged with Banca Cooperativa Operaia di Pordenone, Banca Popolare di Tarcento and Banca Popolare di Latisana, the latter were located in the nearby Province of Udine. A report by Mediobanca, shown BP Pordenone was ranked 134th by total deposits (excluding inter-bank deposits) in 1988, among all type of commercial banks, while BP Latisana was ranked 313th and BP Tarcento, 374th. Their counterpart in Udine, Banca Popolare Udinese, was ranked 171st, which was acquired by Banca Popolare di Vicenza in 1998. Also by the data of Mediobanca, FriulAdria was ranked 98th, its rival Cassa di Risparmio di Udine e Pordenone 95th, and BP Udinese 141st in 1994. That year also saw C.R. Udine e Pordenone formed a new banking group Casse Venete Banca, as well as the formation of Unicredito by other savings banks in nearby Veneto region. According to the Bank of Italy, in the eve of the acquisition on 31 March 1998, FriulAdria had 54 branches in Friuli Venezia Giulia and 33 branches in Veneto, with a market share of 29.4% in the Province of Pordenone before the merger, or pro-forma 35.3% after the merger (adding the market share of Intesa), which was ahead Credito Italiano (21%) and aforementioned C.R. Udine e Pordenone (12%). Banca Intesa era The bank was part of Banca Intesa Group, which held 100% share capital in 1998. Banca Intesa issued new shares of Banca Intesa to the owners of FriulAdria, and purchased the shares of FriulAdria from them. In 1999, the former shareholder fully subscribed the warrants of FriulAdria's shares, made Banca Intesa's ownership ratio reduced to 66.47%. In the next year Banca Intesa increased the ownership ratio to 76.05%, by transferring 60 branches of Banco Ambrosiano Veneto located in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, to FriulAdria, thus the bank became one of the most important bank in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, according to the bank itself. Crédit Agricole era However, after the merger of Intesa with Sanpaolo IMI in 2007, one the major shareholder of the new entity, Crédit Agricole, parted away from Intesa Sanpaolo by decreasing its share holding, as well as increased the participation in Italy directly by acquiring Cariparma and FriulAdria from Intesa Sanpaolo, as well as an additional 202 former Banca Intesa branches. After a complex transaction, FriulAdria major shareholder was Cariparma, for 78.68% shares, which in turn Crédit Agricole S.A. indirectly controlling 59.01% interests on FriulAdria. FriulAdria received 29 branches out of aforementioned 202. The disinvestment was also a prevention of a monopoly market share, as stated by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), due to the extensive network of Cassa di Risparmio del Friuli Venezia Giulia (ex-C.R. Udine and C.R. Gorizia), a former Sanpaolo IMI subsidiary and now Intesa Sanpaolo. In 2011, Crédit Agricole further withdrew from Intesa Sanpaolo Group, as well as acquiring 96 branches from it. FriulAdria received 15 out of 96. As of 2013, FriulAdria had 199 branches. In April 2015, the General Management was hired by Dr. Roberto Ghisellini from Carispezia. Since 2018, the new general manager is Carlo Piana. See also Cassa di Risparmio del Friuli Venezia Giulia, a Friuli Venezia Giulia based subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo Banca Popolare di Cividale, a Friuli Venezia Giulia based cooperative bank Banca Mediocredito del Friuli Venezia Giulia, a Friuli Venezia Giulia based commercial bank Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste, a defunct subsidiary of UniCredit which based in Friuli – Venezia Giulia Banca Popolare Udinese, a defunct subsidiary of Banca Popolare di Vicenza which based in Friuli – Venezia Giulia Banca dell'Adriatico, a defunct subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo, based in Marche region Banca Adriatica, a defunct subsidiary of UBI Banca, based in Marche region
Efthymios Christodoulou	[ "1932 births", "Politicians from Larissa", "Living people", "20th-century Greek economists", "New Democracy (Greece) MEPs", "Hamilton College (New York) alumni", "Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni", "Goldman Sachs people", "Governors of the Bank of Greece", "MEPs for Greece 1984–1989", "MEPs for Greece 1989–1994", "MEPs for Greece 1999–2004", "Athens College alumni" ]	435	4,206	Efthymios N. Christodoulou (; born 1932) is a Greek economist and banker. Biography Christodoulou was born in 1932 in Larissa. He holds a degree from Athens College, a B.A. in Economics from Hamilton College, and a M.A in Economics from Columbia University. Christodoulou has served as Director General of the National Investment Bank for Industrial Development (ETEBA), Executive Chairman of the Board of Olympic Airways, Governor of the National Bank of Greece (1979-1981), President of the Greek Union of Banks, and Governor of the Bank of Greece (1992-1993). He has also been Governor for Greece at the World Bank and the IMF. A member of the centre-right New Democracy, Christodoulou has been elected a member of the European Parliament (General Rapporteur for the E.E.C. budget, head of the Greek delegation for New Democracy party, 1984-1990 and 1994-1999). He has also served as the alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of National Economy. From 2004 to 2009 he was Executive Chairman of Hellenic Petroleum S.A. From 2010 to 2013, Christodoulou has been a board member of European Financial Group EFG (Luxembourg) SA, the operating holding company of EFG Group and served as Chairman of the Board of Eurobank. Christodoulou is an International Advisor of Goldman Sachs. Efthymios Christodoulou is married and has three children.
Silicon Graphics	[ "Silicon Graphics", "1981 establishments in California", "2009 disestablishments in California", "American companies established in 1981", "Companies based in Mountain View, California", "Companies based in Silicon Valley", "Companies based in Sunnyvale, California", "Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange", "Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2006", "Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009", "Computer companies established in 1981", "Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area", "Defunct computer companies based in California", "Defunct computer companies of the United States", "Defunct computer hardware companies", "Defunct computer systems companies", "Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States", "Defunct software companies of the United States", "Design companies established in 1981", "Electronics companies established in 1981", "Graphics hardware companies", "Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area", "Technology companies disestablished in 2009", "Technology companies established in 1981" ]	8,129	74,198	Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and software. Founded in Mountain View, California, in November 1981 by James H. Clark, the computer scientist and entrepreneur perhaps best known for founding Netscape (with Marc Andreessen). Its initial market was 3D graphics computer workstations, but its products, strategies and market positions developed significantly over time. Early systems were based on the Geometry Engine that Clark and Marc Hannah had developed at Stanford University, and were derived from Clark's broader background in computer graphics. The Geometry Engine was the first very-large-scale integration (VLSI) implementation of a geometry pipeline, specialized hardware that accelerated the "inner-loop" geometric computations needed to display three-dimensional images. For much of its history, the company focused on 3D imaging and was a major supplier of both hardware and software in this market. Silicon Graphics reincorporated as a Delaware corporation in January 1990. Through the mid to late-1990s, the rapidly improving performance of commodity Wintel machines began to erode SGI's stronghold in the 3D market. The porting of Maya to other platforms was a major event in this process. SGI made several attempts to address this, including a disastrous move from their existing MIPS platforms to the Intel Itanium, as well as introducing their own Linux-based Intel IA-32 based workstations and servers that failed in the market. In the mid-2000s the company repositioned itself as a supercomputer vendor, a move that also failed. On April 1, 2009, SGI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced that it would sell substantially all of its assets to Rackable Systems, a deal finalized on May 11, 2009, with Rackable assuming the name Silicon Graphics International. The remnants of Silicon Graphics, Inc. became Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc. Early years James H. Clark left his position as an electrical engineering associate professor at Stanford University to found SGI in 1982 along with a group of seven graduate students and research staff from Stanford University: Kurt Akeley, David J. Brown, Tom Davis, Rocky Rhodes, Marc Hannah, Herb Kuta, and Mark Grossman; along with Abbey Silverstone and a few others. Growth Ed McCracken was CEO of Silicon Graphics from 1984 to 1997. During those years, SGI grew from annual revenues of $5.4 million to $3.7 billion. Decline The addition of 3D graphic capabilities to PCs, and the ability of clusters of Linux- and BSD-based PCs to take on many of the tasks of larger SGI servers, ate into SGI's core markets. The porting of Maya to Linux, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows further eroded the low end of SGI's product line. In response to challenges faced in the marketplace and a falling share price, Ed McCracken was fired and SGI brought in Richard Belluzzo to replace him. Under Belluzzo's leadership a number of initiatives were taken which are considered to have accelerated the corporate decline. One such initiative was trying to sell workstations running Windows NT called Visual Workstations in addition to workstations running IRIX, the company's version of UNIX. This put the company in even more direct competition with the likes of Dell, making it more difficult to justify a price premium. The product line was unsuccessful and abandoned a few years later. SGI's premature announcement of its migration from MIPS to Itanium and its abortive ventures into IA-32 architecture systems (the Visual Workstation line, the ex-Intergraph Zx10 range and the SGI 1000-series Linux servers) damaged SGI's credibility in the market. In 1999, in an attempt to clarify their current market position as more than a graphics company, Silicon Graphics Inc. changed its corporate identity to "SGI", although its legal name was unchanged. At the same time, SGI announced a new logo consisting of only the letters "sgi" in a proprietary font called "SGI", created by branding and design consulting firm Landor Associates, in collaboration with designer Joe Stitzlein. SGI continued to use the "Silicon Graphics" name for its workstation product line, and later re-adopted the cube logo for some workstation models. In November 2005, SGI announced that it had been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because its common stock had fallen below the minimum share price for listing on the exchange. SGI's market capitalization dwindled from a peak of over seven billion dollars in 1995 to just $120 million at the time of delisting. In February 2006, SGI noted that it could run out of cash by the end of the year. In mid-2005, SGI hired Alix Partners to advise it on returning to profitability and received a new line of credit. SGI announced it was postponing its scheduled annual December stockholders meeting until March 2006. It proposed a reverse stock split to deal with the de-listing from the New York Stock Exchange. In January 2006, SGI hired Dennis McKenna as its new CEO and chairman of the board of directors. Mr. McKenna succeeded Robert Bishop, who remained vice chairman of the board of directors. On May 8, 2006, SGI announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for itself and U.S. subsidiaries as part of a plan to reduce debt by $250 million. Two days later, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved its first day motions and its use of a $70 million financing facility provided by a group of its bondholders. Foreign subsidiaries were unaffected. On September 6, 2006, SGI announced the end of development for the MIPS/IRIX line and the IRIX operating system. Production would end on December 29 and the last orders would be fulfilled by March 2007. Support for these products would end after December 2013. SGI emerged from bankruptcy protection on October 17, 2006. Its stock symbol on Pink Sheets at that point, SGID, was canceled, and new stock was issued on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol SGIC. This new stock was distributed to the company's creditors, and the SGID common stockholders were left with worthless shares. At the end of that year, the company moved its headquarters from Mountain View to Sunnyvale. Its earlier North Shoreline headquarters is now occupied by the Computer History Museum; the newer Amphitheatre Parkway headquarters was sold to Google (which had already subleased and moved into the facility in 2003). Both of these locations were award-winning designs by Studios Architecture. In April 2008, SGI re-entered the visualization market with the SGI Virtu range of visualization servers and workstations, which were re-badged systems from BOXX Technologies based on Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron processors and Nvidia Quadro graphics chipsets, running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or Windows Compute Cluster Server. Final bankruptcy and acquisition by Rackable Systems In December 2008, SGI received a delisting notification from NASDAQ, as its market value had been below the minimum $35 million requirement for 10 consecutive trading days, and also did not meet NASDAQ's alternative requirements of a minimum stockholders' equity of $2.5 million or annual net income from continuing operations of $500,000 or more. On April 1, 2009, SGI filed for Chapter 11 again, and announced that it would sell substantially all of its assets to Rackable Systems for $25 million. The sale, ultimately for $42.5 million, was finalized on May 11, 2009; at the same time, Rackable announced their adoption of "Silicon Graphics International" as their global name and brand. The Bankruptcy Court scheduled continuing proceedings and hearings for June 3 and 24, 2009, and July 22, 2009. After the Rackable acquisition, Vizworld magazine published Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquired Silicon Graphics International in November 2016, which allowed HPE to place the SGI Pleiades, a TOP500 supercomputer at NASA Ames Research Center, in its portfolio. Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc. era During Silicon Graphics Inc.'s second bankruptcy phase, it was renamed to Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc.(GPHI) in June 2009. In 2010, GPHI announced it had won a significant favorable ruling in its litigation with ATI Technologies and AMD in June 2010, following the patent lawsuit originally filed during the Silicon Graphics, Inc. era. Following the 2008 appeal by ATI over the validity of ('327) and Silicon Graphics Inc's voluntary dismissal of the ('376) patent from the lawsuit, the Federal Circuit upheld the jury verdict on the validity of GPHI's U.S. Patent No. 6,650,327, and furthermore found that AMD had lost its right to challenge patent validity in future proceedings. On January 31, 2011, the District Court entered an order that permits AMD to pursue its invalidity affirmative defense at trial and does not permit SGI to accuse AMD's Radeon R700 series of graphics products of infringement in this case. On April 18, 2011, GPHI and AMD had entered into a confidential Settlement and License Agreement that resolved this litigation matter for an immaterial amount and that provides immunity under all GPHI patents for alleged infringement by AMD products, including components, software and designs. On April 26, 2011, the Court entered an order granting the parties' agreed motion for dismissal and final judgment. In November 2011, GPHI filed another patent infringement lawsuit against Apple Inc. in Delaware involving more patents than their original patent infringement case against Apple last November, for alleged violation of U.S. patents 6,650,327 ('327), ('145) and ('881). In 2012, GPHI filed lawsuit against Apple, Sony, HTC Corp, LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Research in Motion Ltd. for allegedly violating patent relating to a computer graphics process that turns text and images into pixels to be displayed on screens. Affected devices include Apple iPhone, HTC EVO4G, LG Thrill, Research in Motion Torch, Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S II, and Sony Xperia Play smartphones. - 1998 Display system having floating point rasterization and floating point .. - 2002 System, method, and computer program product for near-real time load .. - 1998 Large area wide aspect ratio flat panel monitor having high resolution for .. - 1995 Data processing system for processing one and two parcel instructions Motorola 680x0-based systems SGI's first generation products, starting with the IRIS (Integrated Raster Imaging System) 1000 series of high-performance graphics terminals, were based on the Motorola 68000 family of microprocessors. The later IRIS 2000 and 3000 models developed into full UNIX workstations. IRIS 1000 series The first entries in the 1000 series (models 1000 and 1200, introduced in 1984) were graphics terminals, peripherals to be connected to a general-purpose computer such as a Digital Equipment Corporation VAX, to provide graphical raster display abilities. They used 8 MHz Motorola 68000 CPUs with of RAM and had no disk drives. They booted over the network (via an Excelan EXOS/101 Ethernet card) from their controlling computer. They used the "PM1" CPU board, which was a variant of the board that was used in Stanford University's SUN workstation and later in the Sun-1 workstation from Sun Microsystems. The graphics system was composed of the GF1 frame buffer, the UC3 "Update Controller", DC3 "Display Controller", and the BP2 bitplane. The 1000-series machines were designed around the Multibus standard. Later 1000-series machines, the 1400 and 1500, ran at 10 MHz and had 1.5 MB of RAM. The 1400 had a 72 MB ST-506 disk drive, while the 1500 had a 474 MB SMD-based disk drive with a Xylogics 450 disk controller. They may have used the PM2 CPU and PM2M1 RAM board from the 2000 series. The usual monitor for the 1000 series ran at 30 Hz interlaced. Six beta-test units of the 1400 workstation were produced, and the first production unit (SGI's first commercial computer) was shipped to Carnegie-Mellon University's Electronic Imaging Laboratory in 1984. IRIS 2000 and 3000 series SGI rapidly developed its machines into workstations with its second product line — the IRIS 2000 series, first released in August 1985. SGI began using the UNIX System V operating system. There were five models in two product ranges, the 2000/2200/2300/2400/2500 range which used 68010 CPUs (the PM2 CPU module), and the later "Turbo" systems, the 2300T, 2400T and 2500T, which had 68020s (the IP2 CPU module). All used the Excelan EXOS/201 Ethernet card, the same graphics hardware (GF2 Frame Buffer, UC4 Update Controller, DC4 Display Controller, BP3 Bitplane). Their main differences were the CPU, RAM, and Weitek Floating Point Accelerator boards, disk controllers and disk drives (both ST-506 and SMD were available). These could be upgraded, for example from a 2400 to a 2400T. The 2500 and 2500T had a larger chassis, a standard 6' 19" EIA rack with space at the bottom for two SMD disk drives weighing approximately each. The non-Turbo models used the Multibus for the CPU to communicate with the floating point accelerator, while the Turbos added a ribbon cable dedicated for this. 60 Hz monitors were used for the 2000 series. The height of the machines using Motorola CPUs was reached with the IRIS 3000 series (models 3010/3020/3030 and 3110/3115/3120/3130, the 30s both being full-size rack machines). They used the same graphics subsystem and Ethernet as the 2000s, but could also use up to 12 "geometry engines", the first widespread use of hardware graphics accelerators. The standard monitor was a 19" 60 Hz non-interlaced unit with a tilt/swivel base; 19" 30 Hz interlaced and a 15" 60 Hz non-interlaced (with tilt/swivel base) were also available. The IRIS 3130 and its smaller siblings were impressive for the time, being complete UNIX workstations. The 3130 was powerful enough to support a complete 3D animation and rendering package without mainframe support. With large capacity hard drives by standards of the day (two 300 MB drives), streaming tape and Ethernet, it could be the centerpiece of an animation operation. The line was formally discontinued in November 1989, with about 3,500 systems shipped of all 2000 and 3000 models combined. RISC era With the introduction of the IRIS 4D series, SGI switched to MIPS microprocessors. These machines were more powerful and came with powerful on-board floating-point capability. As 3D graphics became more popular in television and film during this time, these systems were responsible for establishing much of SGI's reputation. SGI produced a broad range of MIPS-based workstations and servers during the 1990s, running SGI's version of UNIX System V, now called IRIX. These included the massive Onyx visualization systems, the size of refrigerators and capable of supporting up to 64 processors while managing up to three streams of high resolution, fully realized 3D graphics. In October 1991, MIPS announced the first commercially available 64-bit microprocessor, the R4000. SGI used the R4000 in its Crimson workstation. IRIX 6.2 was the first fully 64-bit IRIX release, including 64-bit pointers. To secure the supply of future generations of MIPS microprocessors (the 64-bit R4000), SGI acquired the company in 1992 for $333 million and renamed it as MIPS Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of SGI. In 1993, Silicon Graphics (SGI) signed a deal with Nintendo to develop the Reality Coprocessor (RCP) GPU used in the Nintendo 64 (N64) video game console. The deal was signed in early 1993, and it was later made public in August of that year. The console itself was later released in 1996. The RCP was developed by SGI's Nintendo Operations department, led by engineer Dr. Wei Yen. In 1997, twenty SGI employees, led by Yen, left SGI and founded ArtX (later acquired by ATI Technologies in 2000). In 1998, SGI relinquished some ownership of MIPS Technologies, Inc in a Re-IPO, and fully divested itself in 2000. In the late 1990s, when much of the industry expected the Itanium to replace both CISC and RISC architectures in non-embedded computers, SGI announced their intent to phase out MIPS in their systems. Development of new MIPS microprocessors stopped, and the existing R12000 design was extended multiple times until 2003 to provide existing customers more time to migrate to Itanium. In August 2006, SGI announced the end of production for MIPS/IRIX systems, and by the end of the year MIPS/IRIX products were no longer generally available from SGI. IRIS GL and OpenGL Until the second generation Onyx Reality Engine machines, SGI offered access to its high performance 3D graphics subsystems through a proprietary API known as IRIS Graphics Library (IRIS GL). As more features were added over the years, IRIS GL became harder to maintain and more cumbersome to use. In 1992, SGI decided to clean up and reform IRIS GL and made the bold move of allowing the resulting OpenGL API to be cheaply licensed by SGI's competitors, and set up an industry-wide consortium to maintain the OpenGL standard (the OpenGL Architecture Review Board). This meant that for the first time, fast, efficient, cross-platform graphics programs could be written. For over 20 years – until the introduction of the Vulkan API – OpenGL remained the only real-time 3D graphics standard to be portable across a variety of operating systems. ACE Consortium SGI was part of the Advanced Computing Environment initiative, formed in the early 1990s with 20 other companies, including Compaq, Digital Equipment Corporation, MIPS Computer Systems, Groupe Bull, Siemens, NEC, NeTpower, Microsoft and Santa Cruz Operation. Its intent was to introduce workstations based on the MIPS architecture and able to run Windows NT and SCO UNIX. The group produced the Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) specification, but began to unravel little more than a year after its formation. Entertainment industry For eight consecutive years (1995–2002), all films nominated for an Academy Award for Distinguished Achievement in Visual Effects were created on Silicon Graphics computer systems. The technology was also used in commercials for a host of companies. An SGI Crimson system with the fsn three-dimensional file system navigator appeared in the 1993 movie Jurassic Park. In the movie Twister, protagonists can be seen using an SGI laptop computer; however, the unit shown was not an actual working computer, but rather a fake laptop shell built around an SGI Corona LCD flat screen display. The 1995 film Congo also features an SGI laptop computer being used by Dr. Ross (Laura Linney) to communicate via satellite to TraviCom HQ. The purple, lowercased "sgi" logo can be seen at the beginning of the opening credits of the HBO series Silicon Valley, before being taken down and replaced by the Google logo as the intro graphics progress. Google leased the former SGI buildings in 2003 for their headquarters in Mountain View, CA until they purchased the buildings outright in 2006. Once inexpensive PCs began to have graphics performance close to the more expensive specialized graphical workstations which were SGI's core business, SGI shifted its focus to high performance servers for digital video and the Web. Many SGI graphics engineers left to work at other computer graphics companies such as ATI and Nvidia, contributing to the PC 3D graphics revolution. Free software SGI was a promoter of free software, supporting several projects such as Linux and Samba, and opening some of its own previously proprietary code such as the XFS filesystem and the Open64 compiler. SGI was also important in its contribution to the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) with many useful extensions in the MIT-like licensed SGI STL implementation. The extension keeps being carried by the direct descendant STLport and GNU's libstdc++. Acquisition of Alias, Wavefront, Cray and Intergraph In 1995, SGI purchased Alias Research, Kroyer Films, and Wavefront Technologies in a deal totaling approximately $500 million and merged the companies into Alias\|Wavefront. In June 2004 SGI sold the business, later renamed to Alias/Wavefront, to the private equity investment firm Accel-KKR for $57.5 million. In October 2005, Autodesk announced that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Alias for $182 million in cash. In February 1996, SGI purchased the well-known supercomputer manufacturer Cray Research for $740 million, and began to use marketing names such as "CrayLink" for (SGI-developed) technology integrated into the SGI server line. Three months later, it sold the Cray Business Systems Division, responsible for the CS6400 SPARC/Solaris server, to Sun Microsystems for an undisclosed amount (acknowledged later by a Sun executive to be "significantly less than $100 million"). Many of the Cray T3E engineers designed and developed the SGI Altix and NUMAlink technology. SGI sold the Cray brand and product lines to Tera Computer Company on March 31, 2000, for $35 million plus one million shares. SGI also distributed its remaining interest in MIPS Technologies through a spin-off effective June 20, 2000. In September 2000, SGI acquired the Zx10 series of Windows workstations and servers from Intergraph Computer Systems (for a rumored $100 million), and rebadged them as SGI systems. The product line was discontinued in June 2001. SGI Visual Workstations Another attempt by SGI in the late 1990s to introduce its own family of Intel-based workstations running Windows NT or Red Hat Linux (see also SGI Visual Workstation) proved to be a financial disaster, and shook customer confidence in SGI's commitment to its own MIPS-based line. Switch to Itanium In 1998, SGI announced that future generations of its machines would be based not on their own MIPS processors, but the upcoming "super-chip" from Intel, code-named "Merced" and later called Itanium. Funding for its own high-end processors was reduced, and it was planned that the R10000 would be the last MIPS mainstream processor. MIPS Technologies would focus entirely on the embedded market, where it was having some success, and SGI would no longer have to fund development of a CPU that, since the failure of ARC, found use only in their own machines. This plan quickly went awry. As early as 1999, it was clear the Itanium was going to be delivered very late and would have nowhere near the performance originally expected. As the production delays increased, MIPS' existing R10000-based machines grew increasingly uncompetitive. It was eventually forced to introduce faster MIPS processors, the R12000, R14000 and R16000, which were used in a series of models from 1999 through 2006. SGI's first Itanium-based system was the short-lived SGI 750 workstation, launched in 2001. SGI's MIPS-based systems were not to be superseded until the launch of the Itanium 2-based Altix servers and Prism workstations some time later. Unlike the MIPS systems, which ran IRIX, the Itanium systems used SuSE Linux Enterprise Server with SGI enhancements as their operating system. SGI used Transitive Corporation's QuickTransit software to allow their old MIPS/IRIX applications to run (in emulation) on the new Itanium/Linux platform. In the server market, the Itanium 2-based Altix eventually replaced the MIPS-based Origin product line. In the workstation market, the switch to Itanium was not completed before SGI exited the market. The Altix was the most powerful computer in the world in 2006, assuming that a "computer" is defined as a collection of hardware running under a single instance of an operating system. The Altix had 512 Itanium processors running under a single instance of Linux. A cluster of 20 machines was then the eighth-fastest supercomputer. All faster supercomputers were clusters, but none have as many FLOPS per machine. However, more recent supercomputers are very large clusters of machines that are individually less capable. SGI acknowledged this and in 2007 moved away from the "massive NUMA" model to clusters. Switch to Xeon Although SGI continued to market Itanium-based machines, its more recent machines were based on the Intel Xeon processor. The first Altix XE systems were relatively low-end machines, but by December 2006 the XE systems were more capable than the Itanium machines by some measures (e.g., power consumption in FLOPS/W, density in FLOPS/m3, cost/FLOPS). The XE1200 and XE1300 servers used a cluster architecture. This was a departure from the pure NUMA architectures of the earlier Itanium and MIPS servers. In June 2007, SGI announced the Altix ICE 8200, a blade-based Xeon system with up to 512 Xeon cores per rack. An Altix ICE 8200 installed at New Mexico Computing Applications Center (with 14336 processors) ranked at number 3 on the TOP500 list of November 2007. User base and core market Conventional wisdom holds that SGI's core market has traditionally been Hollywood visual effects studios. In fact, SGI's largest revenue has always been generated by government and defense applications, energy, and scientific and technical computing. In one case Silicon Graphics' largest single sale ever was to the United States Postal Service. SGI's servers powered an artificial intelligence program to mechanically read, tag and sort the mail (hand-written and block) at a number of USPS's key mail centers. The rise of cheap yet powerful commodity workstations running Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, and the availability of diverse professional software for them, effectively pushed SGI out of the visual effects industry in all but the most niche markets. High-end server market SGI continued to enhance its line of servers (including some supercomputers) based on the SN architecture. SN, for Scalable Node, is a technology developed by SGI in the mid-1990s that uses cache-coherent non-uniform memory access (cc-NUMA). In an SN system, processors, memory, and a bus- and memory-controller are coupled together into an entity called a node, usually on a single circuit board. Nodes are connected by a high-speed interconnect called NUMAlink (originally marketed as CrayLink). There is no internal bus, and instead access between processors, memory, and I/O devices is done through a switched fabric of links and routers. Thanks to the cache coherence of the distributed shared memory, SN systems scale along several axes at once: as CPU count increases, so does memory capacity, I/O capacity, and system bisection bandwidth. This allows the combined memory of all the nodes to be accessed under a single OS image using standard shared-memory synchronization methods. This makes an SN system far easier to program and able to achieve higher sustained-to-peak performance than non-cache-coherent systems like conventional clusters or massively parallel computers which require applications code to be written (or re-written) to do explicit message-passing communication between their nodes. The first SN system, known as SN-0, was released in 1996 under the product name Origin 2000. Based on the MIPS R10000 processor, it scaled from 2 to 128 processors and a smaller version, the Origin 200 (SN-00), scaled from 1 to 4. Later enhancements enabled systems of as large as 512 processors. The second generation system, originally called SN-1 but later SN-MIPS, was released in July 2000, as the Origin 3000. It scaled from 4 to 512 processors, and 1,024-processor configurations were delivered by special order to some customers. A smaller, less scalable implementation followed, called Origin 300. In November 2002, SGI announced a repackaging of its SN system, under the name Origin 3900. It quadrupled the processor area density of the SN-MIPS system, from 32 up to 128 processors per rack while moving to a "fat tree" interconnect topology. In January 2003, SGI announced a variant of the SN platform called the Altix 3000 (internally called SN-IA). It used Intel Itanium 2 processors and ran the Linux operating system kernel. At the time it was released, it was the world's most scalable Linux-based computer, supporting up to 64 processors in a single system node. Nodes could be connected using the same NUMAlink technology to form what SGI predictably termed "superclusters". In February 2004, SGI announced general support for 128 processor nodes to be followed by 256 and 512 processor versions that year. In April 2004, SGI announced the sale of its Alias software business for approximately $57 million. In October 2004, SGI built the supercomputer Columbia, which broke the world record for computer speed, for the NASA Ames Research Center. It was a cluster of 20 Altix supercomputers each with 512 Intel Itanium 2 processors running Linux, and achieved sustained speed of 42.7 trillion floating-point operations per second (teraflops), easily topping Japan's famed Earth Simulator's record of 35.86 teraflops. (A week later, IBM's upgraded Blue Gene/L clocked in at 70.7 teraflops.) In July 2006, SGI announced an SGI Altix 4700 system with 1,024 processors and 4 TB of memory running a single Linux system image. Hardware products Some 68k- and MIPS-based models were also rebadged by other vendors, including CDC, Tandem Computers, Prime Computer and Siemens-Nixdorf. SGI Onyx and SGI Indy series systems were used for video game development for the Nintendo 64. Motorola 68k-based systems IRIS 1000 series graphics terminals (diskless 1000/1200, 1400/1500 with disks) IRIS 2000 series workstations (2000/2200/2300/2400/2500 non-Turbo and 2300T/2400T/2500T "Turbo" models) IRIS 3000 series workstations (3010/3020/3030 and 3110/3115/3120/3130) MIPS-based systems Workstations Professional IRIS series (IRIS 4D/50/60/70/80/85) Personal IRIS series (IRIS 4D/20/25/30/35) IRIS Power Series (IRIS 4D/1x0/2x0/3x0/4x0) IRIS Crimson (deskside workstation/server) IRIS Indigo series (Indigo, Indigo R4000) Indigo² series (Indigo², Power Indigo², Indigo² R10000) Indy workstation O2/O2+ workstation Octane workstation Octane2 workstation Fuel entry-level workstation Tezro high-end workstation Servers Challenge S (desktop server) Challenge M/Power Challenge M (desktop server) Challenge DM (deskside server) Challenge L/Power Challenge/Challenge 10000 (deskside server) Challenge XL/Power Challenge XL (rack server) Origin 200 entry-level server Origin 2000 high-end server Origin 300 entry-level server Origin 350 mid-range server Origin 3000 high-end server Visualization Onyx (deskside and rackmount systems) Power Onyx (deskside and rackmount systems) Onyx 10000 (deskside and rackmount systems) Onyx2 (deskside and rackmount systems) Onyx 350 (rackmount systems) Onyx 3000 (rackmount systems) Onyx4 (rackmount systems) SkyWriter (rackmount systems) Intel IA-32-based systems Workstations SGI 320 Visual Workstation (Windows NT) SGI 540 Visual Workstation (Windows NT) SGI 230 Workstation (Linux/Windows NT) SGI 330 Workstation (Linux/Windows NT) SGI 550 Workstation (Linux/Windows NT) SGI Zx10 Visual Workstation (Windows) SGI Zx10 VE Visual Workstation (Windows) Servers SGI Zx10 Server (Windows) SGI 1100 server (Linux/Windows) SGI 1200 server (Linux/Windows) SGI 1400 server (Linux/Windows) SGI 1450 server (Linux/Windows) SGI Internet Server (Linux) SGI Internet Server for E-commerce (Linux) SGI Internet Server for Messaging (Linux) Itanium-based systems SGI 750 workstation Altix 330 entry-level server Altix 350 mid-range server Altix 3000 high-end server Altix 450 mid-range server Altix 4000 high-end server, capable of up to 2048 CPUs Prism (deskside and rackmount systems) Intel/AMD x86-64 systems Altix XE210 server Altix XE240 server Altix XE310 server Altix XE1200 cluster Altix XE1300 cluster Altix ICE 8200 Altix ICE 8400 Virtu VN200 visualization node Virtu VS100 workstation Virtu VS200 workstation Virtu VS300 workstation Virtu VS350 workstation FPGA-based accelerators RASC Application Acceleration Storage systems InfiniteStorage 10000 InfiniteStorage 6700 InfiniteStorage 4600 InfiniteStorage 4500 InfiniteStorage 4000 InfiniteStorage 350 InfiniteStorage 220 InfiniteStorage 120 SGI Infinite Data Cluster Storage solutions InfiniteStorage NEXIS 500 InfiniteStorage NEXIS 2000 InfiniteStorage NEXIS 7000 InfiniteStorage NEXIS 7000-HA InfiniteStorage NEXIS 9000 InfiniteStorage Server 3500 Displays 1600SW, a multi-award-winning wide screen video monitor Accelerator cards IrisVision, one of the first 3D graphics accelerators for high-end PCs Other Espressigo, Espresso maker in collaboration with Gaggia See also SCO and SGI Silicon Graphics Image
Susie Tompkins Buell	[ "American company founders", "American women company founders", "American chief executives of fashion industry companies", "American fashion designers", "American women fashion designers", "American political fundraisers", "American women business executives", "American business executives", "Philanthropists from California", "1943 births", "Living people", "California Democrats", "California people in fashion", "Businesspeople from San Francisco", "People from Bolinas, California", "American women chief executives", "21st-century American women" ]	1,023	10,649	Susie Tompkins Buell (née Russell; born 1943) is an American entrepreneur, businesswoman and a donor to progressive causes. Tompkins Buell co-founded the Esprit clothing and The North Face brand with her first husband, Doug Tompkins whom she met when she picked him up while he was hitchhiking. She is also noted for her close friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton and her status as a Democratic Party mega-donor. Early life Susie Tompkins Buell was born Susan Russell in San Francisco in 1943, to parents Clarabelle and Floyd Russell. Her father was a "betting commissioner" and worked in real estate. In childhood, her family had a second home in Bolinas, which had a profound impact on her love of the natural world. She attended primary school at the Convent School of the Sacred Heart, Ojai Valley School, and Miss Burke’s School. For high school, she attended Lowell High School in the class of 1960 but she did not graduate. Plain Jane In 1968, Tompkins Buell and Jane Tise co-founded the Plain Jane clothing label. Initially Buell and Tise sold dresses to small clothing shops from the back of their Volkswagen van. Tompkins Buell's then-husband Doug Tompkins, whom she had married in 1964 after the pair met while hitchhiking, joined the company to work on the business side and he put up funds to cover the cost of garment factory production. Plain Jane was making $2 million a year by 1970. Tompkins had recommended changing the name Plain Jane to Esprit de Corp. Esprit de Corp By 1986, the global clothing brand had reached $800 million in sales. The Tompkins divorced in 1989. In 1990, Tompkins Buell led a leveraged buyout that gained her control of the company, and netted her an estimated $150 million. Esprit emerged from the buyout so deeply in debt that in less than two years it went into technical default on its outstanding loans. In 1997, CEO Jay Margolis banned Tompkins Buell and all members of her family from entering Esprit's headquarters. Also in 1997, Tompkins Buell filed a lawsuit against Esprit, seeking about $4 million in reimbursements from the company for tax payments she made after selling much of her stake in the company to investors. Democratic Party and activism Tompkins Buell is often described as Hillary Clinton's soul mate. She led Clinton's fundraising efforts for 2008 in the San Francisco Bay area. In 2006, The Washington Post published a story about the Democracy Alliance, calling it an "exclusive donor club" for progressive donors and identifying Tompkins Buell and her husband Mark Buell as members. Tompkins Buell held a fundraiser for David Brock's Media Matters at her San Francisco home. A foundation that bears her name gave money to Media Matters through the Tides Foundation. Buell along with George Soros and other Democracy Alliance members John R. Hunting; Paul Rudd (co-founder of Adaptive Analytics); Pat Stryker; Nicholas Hanauer; ex-Clinton administration official Rob Stein; Drummond Pike; real estate developer Robert Bowditch; Pioneer Hybrid International-heir and congressional candidate Scott Wallace; Gail Furman; real estate developer Albert Dwoskin; and Taco Bell-heir Rob McKay, funded the Secretary of State Project, an American non-profit, 527 political action committee focused on electing reform-minded progressive Secretaries of State in battleground states, who typically oversee the election process. The Alliance was critical in getting California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie re-elected. In February 2012, Tompkins Buell stopped supporting President Barack Obama, citing disappointment with his leadership on environmental issues including climate change. In 2016, Tompkins Buell donated $500,000 to lawyer Lisa Bloom's firm in order to assist women who came forward with sexual harassment and assault allegations against Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
Sjafruddin Prawiranegara	[ "1911 births", "1989 deaths", "Agriculture ministers of Indonesia", "Deputy prime ministers of Indonesia", "Ministers of finance of Indonesia", "Governors of Bank Indonesia", "Indonesian anti-communists", "Indonesian Muslims", "Indonesian prisoners and detainees", "Masyumi Party politicians", "Minangkabau people", "National Heroes of Indonesia", "People from Serang Regency", "People of the Indonesian National Revolution", "Politicians from Banten", "Presidents of Indonesia", "Prisoners and detainees of Indonesia", "Rechtshogeschool te Batavia alumni", "Sundanese people", "Trade ministers of Indonesia" ]	9,221	76,631	Sjafruddin Prawiranegara (EYD: Syafruddin Prawiranegara; 28 February 1911 – 15 February 1989) was an Indonesian statesman and economist. He served in various roles during his career, including as head of government in the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia (acting president of Indonesia), as Minister of Finance in several cabinets, and as the first Governor of Bank Indonesia. Sjafruddin later became the prime minister of the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia, a shadow government set up in opposition to the country's central government. Originating from Banten with Minangkabau ancestry, Sjafruddin became active in politics after his education in law. By 1940, he was working at a tax office, and joined the nationalist movements during the Japanese occupation period (1942–1945). Due to his closeness to the revolutionary leader Sutan Sjahrir, he was appointed finance minister in the Republican government during the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–1949). In this capacity, he lobbied for and distributed the , a predecessor currency to the Indonesian rupiah. Despite his socialist views, he joined the Islamic Masyumi party. In December 1948, a Dutch offensive captured the Indonesian revolutionary leaders including President Sukarno, resulting in Sjafruddin activating contingency plans and forming the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia on 22 December. For seven months in West Sumatra, he became the head of government of Indonesia, allowing the government to continue functioning and ensuring continued resistance. Following the Roem–Van Roijen Agreement – which he had opposed – Sjafruddin returned his governing mandate to Sukarno in July 1949. With Indonesia now independent, he was first appointed deputy prime minister, then reappointed as finance minister until 1951. One of the party's leaders and its most prominent economic policymaker, he maintained a conservative approach to government budgets and established a foreign exchange certificate system. In order to reduce the money supply and curb inflation, he formulated the "Sjafruddin Cut" policy which involves physically cutting Dutch-issued banknotes in half. He then became the first governor of Bank Indonesia, where his general accommodative approach to foreign capital and opposition to nationalization caused tensions with the Sukarno government and economists such as Sumitro Djojohadikusumo. A pragmatic policymaker, he espoused religious socialism and based his views on a liberal Islamic interpretation and was a staunch opponent of communism. His opposition to Sukarno's Guided Democracy along with Dutch–Indonesian tensions caused a significant split between Sjafruddin and the Sukarno government. Escaping to Sumatra, he made contacts with dissident army officers and began openly criticizing the government. While initially reluctant to spark a civil war, in February 1958 he became leader of the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia in West Sumatra. The rebellion was soon defeated, and after three years of guerrilla warfare Sjafruddin surrendered to the government in 1961. Imprisoned until 1966, once released he became a vocal critic of the New Order government for its corruption and imposition of the principle of Pancasila to religious and social organizations until his death in 1989. Despite opposition from the armed forces, he was declared a National Hero of Indonesia in 2011. Early life and career Sjafruddin was born in Anyer Kidul to an aristocratic santri family, in what is present day Serang Regency, Banten, on 28 February 1911. He was the son of a Bantenese father and a Bantenese-Minangkabau mother. His father, R. Arsyad Prawiraatmadja, was a district chief from a family of officials in Banten and was a member of the Sarekat Islam and Budi Utomo organizations. His maternal great-grandfather was a descendant of royalty in the Pagaruyung Kingdom, who had been exiled to Banten after the end of the Padri War. Sjafruddin began his education at a Europeesche Lagere School in Serang, before continuing to a Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs in Madiun. In 1931, he graduated from an Algemene Middelbare School in Bandung. He wished to continue his studies in Leiden in the Netherlands, but his family could not afford it, so he instead studied at law at the Rechts Hogeschool, in Batavia (now Jakarta), earning a Meester in de Rechten (Mr.) degree in September 1939. During his studies in Batavia, Sjafruddin founded the Unitas Studiosorum Indonesiensis, a student organization which was sponsored by the Dutch authorities and tended to avoid engaging in politics, unlike the more radical Perhimpoenan Peladjar-Peladjar Indonesia (Indonesian Students' Association). After graduating, he became an editor for the newspaper Soeara Timur ("Eastern Voice"), and from 1940 until 1941 he was the chairman of the Perserikatan Perkumpulan Radio Ketimuran ("Eastern Radio Association"). Sjafruddin, who had developed strong nationalist sentiments, rejected the moderate demands presented by the 1936 Soetardjo Petition (made by Soetardjo Kartohadikusumo, the sponsor of Soeara Timur), and in 1940 refused to join the Stadswacht, the Dutch colonial militia. He also founded a war relief effort organization, where he served as secretary until the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies began in 1942. Despite his education in law and his general interest in literature, he took a job at the colonial finance department as a tax inspector's adjutant in Kediri, after a one-year job training. He retained this job during the Japanese occupation of 1942–1945, during which he was initially promoted to head of the Kediri tax office, and then relocated to Bandung. During the occupation, Sjafruddin became convinced that immediate Indonesian independence was necessary, and became active in the underground independence movement. He often visited Sutan Sjahrir, a key leader in the resistance against Japanese occupation, and according to Sjafruddin, he was often wrongly regarded as a member of Sjahrir's movement. Along with Mohammad Natsir, he discreetly organized a number of educational courses directed against the Japanese occupation. National revolution Early national revolution Indonesian independence was proclaimed on 17 August 1945, with Sukarno being elected as President. On 24 August Sjafruddin became a member of the Indonesian National Committee of the Priangan region, before joining the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP) and becoming one of the members of its Working Committee. In 1946 he joined Masjumi, an Islamic party, despite previously having no experience within Islamic organizations; he later said that his religious affiliation led him to prefer Masyumi to Sjahrir's Socialist Party of Indonesia, despite his personal connection to Sjahrir. His closeness to Sjahrir led to his appointment as deputy minister of finance in Sjahrir's second cabinet from 12 March to 2 October 1946 and Minister of Finance for his third cabinet from 2 October to 27 June 1947, before his replacement by Alexander Andries Maramis. He returned to a cabinet position as Minister of Prosperity under Mohammad Hatta's non-party cabinet starting from 29 January 1948. Sjahrir had offered Sjafruddin a post as Minister of Finance in Sjahrir's first cabinet, but Sjafruddin rejected the offer, citing his perceived inexperience. In a later interview, Sjafruddin remarked that once he became Junior Minister and saw how his preceding Minister of Finance Soerachman Tjokroadisurjo worked, he thought he "[could do the Finance Minister's duties] better than that". Early in the revolution, he emphasized the need for revolutionaries to maintain a pragmatic stance. In a newspaper article, he criticized the Pemuda (youth) groups for pressuring the government with excessive demands, supported Sjahrir's realpolitik approach and praised Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin as "realists" in contrast to the groups. The article came as a response to revolutionary armed forces commander Sudirman's speech which espoused militancy and downplayed the lack of equipment of the Indonesian military. In the same writing, Sjafruddin denounced a number of leaders who called for pemuda to fight Allied forces with bamboo spears as "criminal". Sjafruddin also persuaded Hatta of the need to issue the Oeang Republik Indonesia (ORI), the predecessor to the modern Indonesian rupiah, both to finance the Indonesian government during the revolution and to generate a degree of legitimacy to the international community. When Hatta hesitated, Sjafruddin remarked to him that "if [Hatta] was caught by the Dutch he would be hanged not as a forger but as a rebel". In late 1946, he was the first Indonesian finance minister to distribute the ORI, although the signatures were that of Alexander Andries Maramis, who had organized its printing the previous year. In 1947, he participated in the Economic Council for Asia and the Far East at Manila, where he learned of the international impression that the Indonesian revolutionaries were communists. Once he returned, he published a booklet Politik dan Revolusi Kita (Our Politics and Revolution) in mid-1948 which attempted to clarify the unusual coalition between Masyumi and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). He also called for political parties to define a policy to ensure that each party's members would follow a specific party line. Emergency government By 1948, the Renville Agreement had established a ceasefire between the Dutch forces and the Republic. However, as the Dutch had previously conducted an offensive against the Republicans despite the Linggadjati Agreement, Indonesian leaders began forming a contingency plan. Following the advice of lieutenant colonel Daan Jahja, who considered the Republican power base in Central Java to be too small and densely populated for an emergency center of power, Hatta (at that time both minister of defence and vice president) began relocating a number of military and civilian officers to Bukittinggi beginning in May 1948. Then, in November, he brought Sjafruddin to Bukittinggi, and they began preparing the groundwork for an emergency government. Hatta then had to return to Yogyakarta to participate in United Nations-sponsored negotiations with the Dutch, leaving Sjafruddin to form an emergency government should Yogyakarta and other Republican leaders fall into Dutch hands. By mid-December, there were plans to evacuate Hatta back to Bukittinggi in order to allow him to lead the emergency government. However, before Hatta could leave Java, the second Dutch offensive was launched on 19 December. The Indonesian government in Yogyakarta fell the same day, with both Sukarno and Hatta being captured and exiled to Bangka. After being informed of Yogyakarta's fall by Colonel , Sjafruddin was initially unable to believe that the Indonesian government would collapse so quickly and that both President Sukarno and Hatta had been captured. He was also initially uncertain of the authenticity of the news, and of his legal authority to form a government. With the fall of Yogyakarta, Sjafruddin convened a meeting with local Republican officials such as Teuku Muhammad Hasan and Mohammad Nasroen, but their meeting was cut short by Dutch aircraft flying low over the city. In order to evade the Dutch attacking Bukittinggi, he retreated further inland, towards the town of Halaban, where he was joined by a number of Republican officials and military leaders. There he eventually announced the formation of the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PDRI) on 22 December, with himself as head. The PDRI further announced the formation of a commissariat in Java, which was to be headed by Republican leaders who had evaded capture such as Soekiman Wirjosandjojo and Ignatius Joseph Kasimo Hendrowahyono. As the leader of the emergency government, Sjafruddin was given a mandate to form a government in-exile by Sukarno, but opted to use the title "Head" instead of "President", as the mandate had not reached him by 22 December. In addition to Head of Government, the emergency cabinet also had Sjafruddin as the minister of defense, foreign affairs, and information. Still on 22 December, Dutch forces captured Bukittinggi and Payakumbuh, threatening the PDRI at Halaban and convincing them to withdraw further. Shortly after the pronouncement, Sjafruddin's group left Halaban, with the military leadership heading north towards Aceh. Sjafruddin and the civilian leadership had initially planned to move to Pekanbaru, but Dutch air attacks, difficult roads, and Dutch capture of a number of towns along the route compelled the group to briefly split up at Sungai Dareh, then regroup at the village of Bidar Alam, near Jambi. Sjafruddin arrived there on 9 January 1949, and the split groups caught up in the following weeks. While in Bidar Alam, he used a generator-powered radio transmitter of the Indonesian Air Force to maintain contact with both the international world (for example, congratulating Jawaharlal Nehru for his inauguration as Indian Prime Minister) and the scattered members of PDRI. In order to ensure continued supplies of food and military supplies for the guerrilla units still operating in Sumatra, Sjafruddin established a supply section, which controlled the Republican trade of agricultural products and opium to the Malay Peninsula. On one occasion on 14 January 1949, Sjafruddin and a large number of PDRI's civilian and military leaders attended a meeting at the village of Situjuh Batur. Sjafruddin left after the meeting, but a number of leaders (such as ) stayed the night there and were killed in a Dutch ambush at dawn the next day. As the Republican forces led by Sudirman conducting guerrilla warfare in Java and Sumatra recognized Sjafruddin's PDRI as the legitimate Republican government, the PDRI gave the Indonesian fighters a unified authority during this critical time. The PDRI also stifled Dutch plans to present a lack of an Indonesian government as a fait accompli to the UN, with Sjafruddin giving instructions to the Indonesian delegation at the UN. This coordination, alongside Republican military successes, gave negotiators under Mohammad Roem a strong bargaining position. The Dutch, frustrated with continued Indonesian resistance, eventually approached Sukarno and Hatta in order to negotiate, bypassing Sjafruddin's emergency government. This angered him, as he believed that Sukarno and Hatta had no legal authority at that time and that the PDRI should represent the legitimate government. Many leaders, including Sudirman, were also displeased as neither Sukarno nor Hatta consulted the PDRI leaders while negotiating the Roem–Van Roijen Agreement, and pressed Sjafruddin to reject it. Sjafruddin thought that the exiled Republican leaders in Bangka underestimated the strength of the PDRI. Sjafruddin was convinced to agree to the outcome of the agreement after some negotiations with Natsir, Johannes Leimena and Abdul Halim in Sjafruddin's hideout at the village of Padang Japang – Hatta had gone to meet Sjafruddin, but he went to Aceh as the captured Republican leaders initially thought that the PDRI was based there. Eventually, coming along with Natsir's delegation, Sjafruddin left his hideout, and returned to Java. In a speech before his departure, Sjafruddin indicated his misgivings with the agreement, but acknowledged the need of presenting a united Republican front. He returned his mandate to Sukarno in Yogyakarta on 13 July 1949. Political career Deputy Prime Minister Following Sjafruddin's return to Yogyakarta, he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister for Sumatra in the Second Hatta Cabinet, and was stationed at Kutaraja. He was given extensive powers in this position, since the Republican government had poor communications with Sumatra and only held tenuous control. During the PDRI period in 1949, Sjafruddin had been approached by Acehnese leaders, who requested that the region be split off into its own province. By May 1949, he had officially appointed Daud Beureu'eh as military governor of Aceh. In a visit to Aceh in August 1949, he faced significant pressure in order to form a province, to a point where a government statement later described that "the autonomous province of Aceh was created through force majeure". In December 1949, he released a decree which separated Aceh from North Sumatra to form its own province, but this decree was revoked by the central government under Mohammad Natsir's premiership. This caused significant anger amongst Acehnese leaders such as Daud Beureu'eh, and only successive visits by Sjafruddin, Assaat, Hatta, and finally Natsir himself calmed the situation. Additionally, Sjafruddin assured officials who had worked for the Dutch that the Republican government would not permit reprisals. Minister of Finance Within the Republic of the United States of Indonesia Cabinet led by Hatta, Sjafruddin returned to his previous office as Minister of Finance, a post which he would later retain in the succeeding Natsir Cabinet. While drafting a provisional constitution for the federal state, Sjafruddin argued unsuccessfully for the inclusion of a clause whereby Hatta would become Prime Minister in the event of a political deadlock. The proposal was accepted by Masyumi and several others, but could not pass and was eventually dropped in exchange for an implicit promise by Sukarno to do so instead of a formal clause. In the Masyumi-heavy cabinets between December 1949 and the end of the Wilopo Cabinet in June 1953, Sjafruddin's economic views and outlook enjoyed significant influence in the government, with Sjafruddin being Masyumi's primary economic policymaker. One of Sjarifuddin's programs was a foreign exchange certificate system, which required certificates obtainable from exporting goods in order to engage in imports. Additionally, as a result of the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference, the Indonesian government was saddled with heavy debts and obligations, and the economy was plagued with heavy inflation due to a shortage of goods and an oversupply of currency. By 1950, there were three currencies circulating one issued by the Republican government, one issued by the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA), and the other issued by the Bank of Java before the Japanese occupation. In order to reduce the money supply, Sjafruddin announced on 10 March 1950 that all NICA and Bank of Java notes with a face value above 5 guilders were to be physically cut in half a policy known as the "Sjafruddin Cut" (Gunting Sjafruddin). The left halves of the notes remained legal tender until 9 April, with a nominal value of half its face value, and were to be exchanged with new notes, while the right halves were exchanged with 30-year government bonds yielding 3 percent. The same "cut" also applied to bank accounts, with half of all bank account values (excepting an amount of 200 guilders for accounts with less than 1,000 guilders) being transferred into a government loan account. According to Sjafruddin in a later interview, beyond reining in inflation, this also served to create uniform legal tender for the whole country and remove unwanted Dutch currency from circulation. The Bank of Java claimed that the policy reduced the money supply by 41 percent, and that the prices of food and textiles still rose in 1950 after the execution of the Sjafruddin Cut. Both the foreign exchange certificate system and the Sjafruddin Cut invited significant criticism from the political opposition. This was especially the case with the cut, which was constantly attacked by PKI. It also caused controversy due to the dating of the order, which happened at the end of the month, when most salaried workers still held cash. Government income increased during Sjafruddin's early tenure, but expenses also rose, and he failed to close the government deficit. Indonesian government finances later improved during the Natsir era due to a boom caused by the Korean War, resulting in a budget surplus. In this period, the "Economic Urgency Plan" was devised by minister of trade and industry Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, against Sjafruddin's opposition, to develop import substitution industries and restrict some industries to native Indonesian entrepreneurs. Despite the improving financial situation, Sjafruddin maintained strict budgetary controls by retaining an unpopular colonial-era tax, refusing to raise salaries of civil servants, and rejecting calls to provide funding to political parties. His unpopularity was compounded by the retention of a number of Dutch officials who held significant powers within the finance ministry. After Sjafruddin's tenure ended, he was replaced by fellow Masyumi member Jusuf Wibisono in the Sukiman Cabinet. He was a critic of the cabinet's economic policies, writing in a June 1951 pamphlet that economic decline from the government's policies was "only temporarily hidden by the pseudo-welfare of high export prices". During 1951, the Indonesian government had been negotiating war reparations with the Japanese government as part of the Treaty of San Francisco. The government of Sukiman had intended to sign the multilateral agreement in order to improve relations with the United States and the democratic camp of the Cold War on top of receiving reparations and economic benefits. While Wibisono supported the position, Sjafruddin and Natsir opposed it: Sjafruddin argued that a bilateral agreement would suffice as Indonesia had never been formally at war with Japan and could receive economic benefits and reparations without signing the treaty. Despite the opposition, after heated discussions, Sukiman's position prevailed. In 1952, Masyumi split between modernist and traditional politicians, the party remaining under modernist politicians such as Sjafruddin and Natsir, while more traditional Islamist members broke off and merged into Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). Bank Indonesia governor On 30 April 1951, the Indonesian government nationalized the Bank of Java, and converted it from a joint-stock company into a public body. Sjafruddin opposed this on the grounds that the bank's Indonesian personnel were too inexperienced to manage it. Despite this, on 15 July he was appointed as the inaugural governor of the central bank, later renamed Bank Indonesia (BI), to replace the previous resigning governor A. Houwink. Sjafruddin was initially reluctant to take up the post, having planned to retire from public life and enter the private sector to earn enough for his children's education. As he did not want to earn money through abuse of office, he accepted the post under the condition that his salary and that of other Indonesian employees in the bank would be the same as that of the Dutch staff. Sjafruddin's economic and monetary policy views, such as his opposition to the nationalization of the bank, were similar to the views of the outgoing Dutch administrators, and according to Sjafruddin, Houwink approved of his appointment. In BI's first annual report, Sjafruddin argued for the bank to continue commercial banking activities, citing a shortage of access to banking systems and the lack of a capital market in Indonesia at that time. In designing BI's statutes, Sjafruddin included a clause which would manage the bank's reserves of gold and foreign currency at 20 percent of currency issued. This was criticized by contemporary economists, most prominently Sumitro who had been appointed the new Finance Minister. While in office, Sjafruddin criticized the Indonesian government's lack of clarity on the distinction between "domestic" and "foreign" capital. Sjafruddin was of the opinion that the distinction between the two lay in whether profits were remitted abroad or not in other words, that Chinese Indonesian entrepreneurs would be "domestic". This was in contrast to positive discrimination policies for indigenous Indonesians favored by Sumitro. During the Ali Sastroamidjojo premiership between 1953 and 1955, Sjafruddin was also a prominent critic of the government's economic and monetary policies. In 1956, approaching the end of Sjafruddin's first term as governor, the Indonesian National Party (PNI) proposed to replace him with PNI member, BI deputy governor and former PDRI minister Lukman Hakim, with whom Sjafruddin had a close relationship. Sjafruddin maintained his post after NU opted to back his second term, aided by favours given to NU-related businesses by fellow Masyumi member and sitting finance minister Wibisono. PRRI rebellion By late 1957, the Indonesian economic and political situation had deteriorated, and Dutch firms were often blamed for the malaise. Public opinion was firmly against Sjafruddin's policy of accommodating foreign capital. Anti-Dutch sentiments rose significantly following Dutch success in blocking the West New Guinea dispute from being discussed at the United Nations General Assembly on 29 November, and immediately afterwards Sukarno ordered labor unions and army units to take over Dutch businesses. Sjafruddin and other Masyumi leaders were investigated for possible links with an assassination attempt on Sukarno on 30 November in Cikini as some of the assailants were members of Masyumi's youth wing. Despite this, Sjafruddin remained openly critical of the takeovers and the lack of a clear plan on how they would be executed, believing that Indonesians needed further training in order to acquire the skills needed to run the nationalized companies. Throughout December 1957, Masyumi leaders Sjafruddin, Natsir, and Burhanuddin Harahap were subjected to accusations by the media of being complicit in the assassination attempt, and they were harassed by phone calls and by paramilitary groups affiliated with PNI and PKI. They all opted to depart Jakarta for their own and their families' safety, and by January 1958 Sjafruddin was in Padang. While on the way there, he and other Masyumi leaders (and Sumitro, who had left Jakarta after being accused of corruption) attended a meeting with a number of dissident officers such as Maludin Simbolon. Following debates (the military commanders allegedly wanted to declare Sumatra's independence, which the civilian leaders opposed), the group released a statement which called the Djuanda Cabinet unconstitutional, and called for a cabinet led by Hatta and the Sultan of Yogyakarta Hamengkubuwono IX to be formed. Sjafruddin also went to Palembang and held discussions with the potential dissident Colonel Barlian, who was the regional commander of the armed forces in South Sumatra. Barlian refused to commit his forces to support a potential rebellion. Sjafruddin also wrote an open letter to Sukarno, which voiced his opposition to the "fascist" Guided Democracy and called for a return to the 1945 Constitution. While Natsir and Harahap claimed to have specific reasons to be in Sumatra, Sjafruddin openly admitted to having fled Jakarta, writing another open letter to Sukarno on 23 January, saying that "he was not ready to die stupidly". On 1 February, Sjafruddin was removed from his office as Bank Indonesia governor by Presidential Order, and he was replaced by Lukman Hakim. The rebellion On 15 February 1958, the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PRRI) was declared in Padang by Lt. Col Ahmad Husein, with Sjafruddin being named as both its prime minister and finance minister. According to Sjafruddin in his later autobiography, he refused Husein's request that he sign the declaration which proclaimed PRRI, in order to emphasize that PRRI's formation was not his initiative. Sjafruddin had previously attempted to convince the military officers to exercise restraint and avoid a civil war, but he eventually agreed to take part in PRRI. The Indonesian government under prime minister Djuanda Kartawidjaja issued an order to arrest Sjafruddin and the other civilian leaders the following day, and within a week aerial attacks were launched against cities in West Sumatra. By April, government forces had landed in Padang and secured it with little to no resistance. Once he learned of PRRI's military collapse, Sjafruddin vowed in anger to "stay here in the jungle" and adding that "it won't be the first time". By 5 May, PRRI's capital at Bukittinggi had been captured by the Indonesian government. Within four months, the government had completely defeated PRRI militarily. PRRI's leaders had failed to gain significant popular support for the movement, and while it initially received some backing from the United States, military aid was soon withdrawn. By the middle of 1958, the group had been forced into a low-intensity guerrilla warfare based in the jungles of Sumatra. Despite continued defeats, Sjafruddin still refused to attempt a compromise with the Jakarta government. On the first anniversary of PRRI, he gave a speech attacking Sukarno for working with communists, and urging a federal state. In a last-ditch political attempt, the Masyumi leadership and the dissident military leaders announced the "United Republic of Indonesia" at Bonjol on 8 February 1960. In the proclamation, Sjafruddin was named president of the Republic, but little else beyond the state's constitution was announced. The declaration did not amount to much, and the Indonesian government continued to pressure PRRI, capturing rebel-held towns in Sumatra's highlands. By July, the rebel stronghold at Koto Tinggi where Sjafruddin and the other Masyumi/PRRI leaders resided had been captured, forcing them to flee and disabling their capacity to lead the rebellion. Army Chief of Staff Abdul Haris Nasution, in order to further split the government of PRRI, announced an amnesty program for rebelling troops in late 1960. In April and May 1961, they began surrendering to the government, although PRRI still controlled much of the rural regions of West Sumatra. Sjafruddin and Natsir appointed Maludin Simbolon to represent PRRI in negotiating with the central government, but the military leaders opted to surrender separately. Between June and 17 August, nearly all of PRRI's troops and military commanders surrendered, leaving the civilian leaders few options. Sjafruddin himself had been negotiating with Nasution since July, and alongside Assaat and Burhanuddin Harahap he submitted to military authorities near Padangsidempuan on 25 August. He did so after advising his own remaining followers to "cease hostilities" in a radio broadcast on 17 August. Sjafruddin also surrendered PRRI's assets in form of of gold bullion. This left only Natsir and Colonel Dahlan Djambek as PRRI's remaining leadership, and after Djambek's death on 13 September, Natsir too surrendered on 25 September, ending PRRI's rebellion. Sjafruddin was initially not imprisoned, due to a 1961 declaration of amnesty for PRRI members by Sukarno, and for a time he stayed around Medan. However, in March 1962, he was brought to Jakarta, and then held as a prisoner in Kedu for two years before being transferred to a military prison in Jakarta in 1964. After the fall of Sukarno and the advent of Suharto's New Order, Masyumi leaders were released from prison between 1965 and 1967. Sjafruddin himself was released on 26 July 1966. Shortly before Sjafruddin's release, other Masyumi leaders released earlier had attempted to rehabilitate the party, but the Indonesian Army had forbidden the rehabilitation of both Masyumi and the Socialist Party of Indonesia. Disillusioned, Sjafruddin left active politics and tended to express himself more through religious organizations such as the Indonesian Pesantren Foundation and the Mubaligh Corps. He also maintained an interest in economics, founding the Indonesian Association of Muslim Businessmen in July 1967, and he generally supported the economic policies of the technocrats under Suharto such as Widjojo Nitisastro and Mohammad Sadli. He then used Friday sermons in mosques to preach against corruption under Suharto. He opposed the government monopoly on hajj pilgrimages, considering it inefficient and prone to fraud and corruption. In 1970, he founded a hajj association, which facilitated pilgrims who wanted to build up savings to go to Mecca outside the official government route. While successful for a time, financial mismanagement resulted in around 300 pilgrims being abandoned in Mecca in 1976 and requiring an intervention from the government. He also opposed the government-backed Parmusi and the newly formed Islamic parties, comparing them unfavorably with PKI. Due to his vocal criticism of the Suharto government, he was detained for a short period in April 1978. In 1980, he became a member of the "Petition of Fifty" opposition group, alongside former PRRI colleagues Natsir and Harahap and retired generals such as Nasution, Ali Sadikin, and Hoegeng Iman Santoso. The petition questioned the conduct of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, its collaboration with Golkar, Suharto's accumulation of wealth, and his use of Pancasila, Indonesia's foundational philosophical theory, as a political weapon. Between 1974 and 1982, Pancasila had been pushed as the sole guiding principle for all groups in Indonesia, including religious ones. Sjafruddin was not opposed to Pancasila in itself, and accepted it as a founding principle for the state and constitution, but could not accept its extension as the basis of all social and political organizations. On 7 July 1983 he wrote a widely circulated open letter to Suharto protesting the provision in the draft law that endorsed the concept. In the letter, he made an argument based around Sukarno's 1945 speech at the creation of Pancasila, which had emphasized a nation based on gotong-royong (mutual assistance). Sjafruddin viewed this statement as an argument allowing the participants of the state to maintain their own unique identities – and that Pancasila's universal enforcement would eliminate the diversity. Following the 1984 Tanjung Priok riots and massacre, he was one of the authors and signatories of a "white paper" which attributed the riots to government policy, especially the increased use of Pancasila as a political tool. Due to these activities, Suharto banned Sjafruddin from leaving the country except for medical treatment. Still, he continued to criticize the government for example, he was investigated in June 1985 due to a sermon he gave at a mosque in Tanjung Priok. Political views Indonesian economist Thee Kian Wie described Sjafruddin as a pragmatic policymaker along with several contemporaries such as Sumitro and Hatta, although compared to such contemporaries Sjafruddin's policies and views were considered more accommodating. In a 1948 pamphlet, he espoused "Religious Socialism", which promoted a liberal free market economy and reserved nationalization for a later-stage, more developed economy. While not opposing nationalization altogether, Sjafruddin argued for a more gradual process of nationalization, arguing that foreign capital was advantageous for the country's economy and that rejecting it would be counterproductive. His reluctance on nationalization was associated with his Islamic views upholding the sanctity of individual property. This resulted in a number of disagreements and public debates between him and the more nationalistic Sumitro, mostly in the Dutch-language newspaper Nieuwsgier during 1952. Unlike Sumitro, who endorsed state intervention to develop an industrial base, Sjafruddin doubted that state-owned enterprises would be efficient or productive. In the public debates, the two also had disagreements on development policy, with Sumitro attacking Sjafruddin's policies of prioritizing agrarian development and accumulation of fiscal reserves. Sjafruddin's reasoning was that the fiscal surpluses of the early 1950s were temporary, and therefore the fiscal reserves should be spent on expanding national productive capacity instead of a general monetary injection into the economy, and regarding agrarian development, Sjafruddin viewed the needed investment to improve national food security as much lower than that of industrialization. On the other hand, Sjafruddin attacked Sumitro's Benteng program, which he claimed forced industrialization before the Indonesian people could acquire the needed management and technological skills needed. Both Sjaruddin and Sumitro did agree on the necessity of maintaining foreign capital and attracting investments, unlike many in Indonesia at the time. While agreeing with communists on the necessity of social justice and praising them for successful attempts in Europe to improve working conditions, Sjafruddin was fundamentally opposed to Marxism due to its atheism. In his writings, Sjafruddin insisted that no Muslim or Christian could be a true communist. He believed that many Muslims had joined together with the communists due to a misunderstanding of communism, and also considered Marxism to be contrary to the Constitution of Indonesia. Still, following liberal modernist Islam, he also argued that modern Muslims should be allowed to diverge from Muhammad on worldly issues, and hence Sjafruddin disagreed with the interpretation of bank interest as riba. His theological interpretations were generally based on the Quran over the actions of Muhammad which he considered to be bound to a certain place and time. He also often disagreed with various fatwā – such as when he supported Suharto's family planning program. Sjafruddin also strongly argued against a Pakistan-like Islamic state, considering it as imposing Islam on other Indonesians. Personal life Sjafruddin married Tengku Halimah, daughter of the district chief of Buahbatu and a descendant of a King of Pagaruyung, whom he had met in Bandung, on 31 January 1941. The couple had eight children. During the PDRI months, his family remained in Yogyakarta under protection of Hamengkubuwono IX, while during the PRRI period they followed Sjafruddin to West Sumatra. His 1950s biography described Sjafruddin as "unskilled in sweet-talk", but noted he was "funny and has a lot of humor". He had a limited grasp of Arabic, which he learned in the 1950s. During Sjafruddin's imprisonment after his PRRI involvement, his family was homeless for a time due to the seizure of their house. For some time, they stayed at the homes of family and friendly Masyumi politicians, and one of his children could only enroll at a Catholic school thanks to I. J. Kasimo's intervention. Eventually, once Deputy Prime Ministers Leimena and Soebandrio became aware of his family's situation, their home was returned and Leimena provided the family with basic needs. When Sukarno also learned of the family's problems, he gave the family two cars. Death and legacy Sjafruddin died in Jakarta of a heart attack on 15 February 1989. Suffering from bronchitis, at around 6 pm that day he had collapsed in his home and was rushed to Pondok Indah Hospital. He was buried in a simple grave at Tanah Kusir Cemetery in South Jakarta. In the years preceding his death, he had grown frailer, and in a December 1988 letter to George McTurnan Kahin after Hamengkubuwono IX's death he wrote "I was more than ever aware that the time is nearing that the Angel of Death will fetch me and join me with all other friends and comrades in arms who have preceded us." In Sjafruddin's obituary, Kahin wrote that Sjafruddin was "never tainted by corruption" and had a "reputation for honesty, forthrightness, and solid integrity". Journalist Rosihan Anwar called him an idealist, who despite his Muslim background had a strong socialist ideal close to that of Sjahrir. Anwar also quoted Sjafruddin as saying, shortly prior to his death, that Indonesia was being colonized by itself. In Anwar's commentary, he remarked that Sjafruddin had been largely ignored by the Indonesian people and government after his fall from power, despite Sjafruddin's efforts in the national struggle. Sjafruddin was made a National Hero of Indonesia on 8 November 2011 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, after the proposal to make him one was rejected twice due to Sjafruddin's PRRI involvement, and historians had to provide evidence to government officials that it was not a rebellion against the country. Indonesian Army officials were particularly against Sjafruddin's appointment as a National Hero, but as Natsir had also received the title in 2008, politicians from Islamic political parties – including several governors and high officials – organized seminars and book launchings supporting Sjafruddin's bid throughout 2011. This included a biographical novel around Prawiranegara's life by , Presiden Prawiranegara. These actions led to Yudhoyono's approval of the honor. One of the two buildings that comprise Bank Indonesia's headquarters is named after Sjafruddin. A number of modern political figures, such as MPR speaker Zulkifli Hasan, deputy speaker Lukman Hakim Saifuddin and Constitutional Court Chief Justice Jimly Asshiddiqie, have argued for the formal recognition of Sjafruddin as Indonesia's second president. References Citations
Al-Arafah Islami Bank	[ "Islamic banks of Bangladesh", "Bangladeshi companies established in 1995", "Banks established in 1995", "Banks of Bangladesh" ]	966	9,863	Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. () is a Shariah Based Islamic bank in Bangladesh. History Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. is a shariah compliant bank in Bangladesh founded on 27 September 1995. A shariah council of the bank is responsible for ensuring the bank activities meet shariah requirements. The headquarters are located in Motijheel, Dhaka. Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. has initiated a project entitled “Krishi O Grameen Khudra Biniog Prokolpa (Microfinance). With this project, Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC is working for reduction of poverty, development in agricultural sectors, creation of job opportunities etc. Md Abdus Samad Sheikh was appointed managing director of the bank in 2005. Md Abdus Samad Sheikh was re-appointed managing director of the bank in 2008. In September 2010, Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. issued shares to raise funds to meet the requirements of Basel II. A security officer of Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. was killed in May 2015 during a bank robbery attempt in Chittagong. The Bank signed an agreement with Islamic Development Bank, based in Saudi Arabia, for investment. In May 2016, Abdus Samad, vice-chairman of S. Alam Group, was elected chairman of Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. Mohammed Abdus Salam was elected vice chairman of Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. In May 2017, Md Enayet Ullah was elected chairman of Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. and Salim Rahman, managing director of KDS Group, was elected vice-chairman. In June 2018, the Anti Corruption Commission sued Badiur Rahman, a director of Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC and chairman of the bank from 2008 to 2016, for laundering 16.8 million BDT to Singapore to a company he established there called Ariel Maritime (Pvt) Limited. In August 2021, Salim Rahman, managing director of KDS Group, was elected chairman of Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. Abu Naser Mohammad Yeahea, chairman of Purbachal Steel Mills and Purbachal Gas Filling Station, was elected vice-chairman of the bank. In March 2022, the Bank invested five billion BDT in Unique Hotel and Resorts Limited. Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission approved Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited request to raise five billion BDT through the issuance of bonds in August 2022. S. Alam Group sued Feni District based Golden Life Insurance agent who had posting against the group on social media and posters under the Digital Security Act. The agent had accused the group of embezzling money from banks under its control, such as Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC, Bangladesh Commerce Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC, NRB Global Bank, Social Islami Bank, and Union Bank. The Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC. burrowed 750 million BDT from Sonali Bank at a 9 percent interest rate in January 2023 following a cash shortage at the bank. The Bank donated 40 million BDT to Ashrayan-2 Project of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government, Bangladesh Bank dissolved the board of directors of Al-Arafah Islami Bank. It appointed a new chairman, Khwaja Shahriar, and independent directors for the bank.
Steven Seagal	[ "Steven Seagal", "1952 births", "Living people", "20th-century American guitarists", "20th-century American male actors", "20th-century American male musicians", "21st-century American male actors", "21st-century American male musicians", "21st-century Russian male actors", "21st-century Serbian male actors", "Activists from California", "American actor-politicians", "American aikidoka", "American Buddhists", "American blues singers", "American country singers", "American deputy sheriffs", "American drink industry businesspeople", "American emigrants to Russia", "American environmentalists", "American expatriates in Japan", "American kendoka", "American male film actors", "American male guitarists", "American male judoka", "American male karateka", "American male singers", "American people of Irish descent", "American people of Jewish descent", "American stunt performers", "Businesspeople from California", "Businesspeople from Louisiana", "Businesspeople from Michigan", "Converts to Buddhism", "Country musicians from Louisiana", "Country musicians from Michigan", "Country musicians from Tennessee", "Guitarists from Michigan", "Male actors from Fullerton, California", "Male actors from Lansing, Michigan", "Naturalized citizens of Russia", "Naturalized citizens of Serbia", "Nyingma tulkus", "Participants in American reality television series", "People from Eltingville, Staten Island", "People from Germantown, Tennessee", "People from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana", "People from Mandeville Canyon, Los Angeles", "Tibetan Buddhists from the United States", "Pro-Russian people of the war in Donbas", "American lamas" ]	11,549	110,344	Steven Frederic Seagal ( ; born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan where he became the first American to teach in an aikido dojo. He later moved to Los Angeles where he continued teaching aikido. In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law, which is regarded as the first American film to feature aikido in fight sequences. He has appeared in over 50 films. By 1991, he had starred in three commercially successful films, and would go on to achieve greater fame in Under Siege (1992), where he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback, a role he reprised in the sequel Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995). In 1994, he starred in his directorial debut film On Deadly Ground. During the latter half of the 1990s, Seagal starred in three more feature films and the direct-to-video film The Patriot. Subsequently, his career shifted to mostly direct-to-video productions. He has since appeared in films and reality shows, most notably as the main villain in Robert Rodriguez's Machete (2010), and Steven Seagal: Lawman, which depicted Seagal performing duties as a reserve deputy sheriff. Seagal is a guitarist and has released two studio albums, Songs from the Crystal Cave and Mojo Priest, and performed on the scores of several of his films. He has worked with Stevie Wonder and Tony Rebel, who both performed on his debut album. He has been involved in a line of "therapeutic oil" products and energy drinks. Seagal is an environmentalist, animal rights activist, and supporter of 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso. In 2004, he was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame. Seagal has been the subject of controversy during his career. Since 1991, multiple women have accused Seagal of sexual harassment or assault. A supporter of Vladimir Putin, he backed the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He was granted both Russian and Serbian citizenship in 2016. In 2018, he was appointed Russia's special envoy to the U.S. Early life Seagal was born on April 10, 1952, in Lansing, Michigan, the son of Patricia Anne Fisher, a medical technician, and Samuel Seagal, a mathematics teacher. His mother was of Irish descent, while his father was Jewish. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. During an interview for the Russian talk show Let Them Talk, Seagal stated that he has paternal ancestors from the Siberian city of Vladivostok, as well as Belarus and Saint Petersburg. He claims that genetic testing determined that he has Yakut and Buryat ancestry as well. When he was 5, Seagal moved with his parents to Fullerton, California. His mother later told People magazine that prior to the move Seagal was frail and suffered from asthma: "He was a puny kid back then. But he really thrived after the move [from Michigan]." Seagal attended Buena Park High School in Buena Park, California, and Fullerton College between 1970 and 1971. Seagal has been described as a “pathological liar” due to his propensity of making greatly exaggerated or outright fabricated statements about his personal life and achievements. For instance, Seagal has claimed that he was a student of the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba; despite the fact that Ueshiba died in 1969 when Seagal was 17 and five years before Seagal moved to Japan at age 22 — when he moved there to allegedly avoid the draft for the Vietnam War by marrying a Japanese national. Martial arts and Japan According to Seagal's first wife, Miyako Fujitani: "I met Steven in California in the fall of 1974. He followed me back to Japan in October. We got married in December 1974." Fujitani was a second-degree black belt and daughter of an Osaka aikido master who had come to Los Angeles to teach aikido. After they married, they had a son, Kentaro, and a daughter, Ayako. Seagal taught at the school owned by Miyako's family and earned his aikido black belt in 1978. Interviewed in 1993, Fujitani stated that: "The only reason Steven was awarded the black belt was because the judge, who was famous for his laziness, fell asleep during Steven's presentation. The judge just gave him the black belt." Seagal has claimed that he helped train CIA agents in Japan: "They saw my abilities, both with martial arts and with the language. You could say that I became an advisor to several CIA agents in the field, and through my friends in the CIA, I met many powerful people and did special works and favors." Fujitani has refuted these allegations and has also dismissed Seagal's claims that he had combatted yakuza. There is no evidence that Seagal has ever worked with the Central Intelligence Agency. In the early-1980s, Seagal had aspirations to return to America and become a movie star. Fujitani then "scrimped and saved for years, even denying herself and her children necessities, to help pay his way home." According to Fujitani, "he then availed himself of her savings and hied off." Seagal returned to Taos, New Mexico, with his student (and later film stuntman) Craig Dunn, where they opened a dojo, although Seagal spent much of his time pursuing other ventures. After another period in Japan, Seagal returned to the United States in 1983 with senior student Haruo Matsuoka. They opened an aikido dojo, initially in North Hollywood, but later moved it to the city of West Hollywood. Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which the latter ran until the two parted ways in 1997. In the early 1980s, Seagal had his first experiences in the film industry by working as a fight coordinator on The Challenge (1982), which was shot in Japan, and Never Say Never Again (1983). Later in his career, Seagal helped train Brazilian mixed martial artist Lyoto Machida, who credited Seagal for helping him perfect the front kick that he used to knock out Randy Couture at UFC 129 in May 2011. Career 1987–1993: Hollywood action star In 1987, Seagal began work on his first film as an actor, Above the Law (titled Nico in Europe), with director Andrew Davis. Seagal was asked to make the film by agent Michael Ovitz, who reportedly became convinced that Seagal had movie star potential after taking aikido classes with him. Ovitz financed Seagal's successful screen test, which led Seagal to be offered a contract by Warner Bros. Ovitz' role in starting Seagal's acting career led to a long-standing, unfounded rumor that the agent had made a bet that he could turn anyone into a movie star and decided to bank on his martial arts teacher to win his wager. Above the Law was a success, grossing $18,869,631 in the U.S. and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated "It contains 50 percent more plot than it needs, but that allows it room to grow in areas not ordinarily covered in action thrillers." Following its success, Seagal's subsequent movies were Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice; all were box office hits and made Seagal an action hero. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Seagal is effective for both his novelty value and his ability to be both literally and figuratively disarming." Seagal achieved mainstream success in 1992 with the release of Under Siege, which reunited him with director Andrew Davis for what critics described as "Die Hard on a battleship". Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 79% based on reviews from 28 critics. The site's consensus states: "A well-directed action thriller that makes the most of its confined setting, Under Siege marks a high point for early '90s action—and its star's spotty filmography." Reviewers praised Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey's performances as the film's villains, and it is often considered Seagal's best film to date. On April 20, 1991, Seagal hosted Season 16, Episode 18 of Saturday Night Live. The series' long-time executive producer Lorne Michaels and cast-members David Spade and Tim Meadows called Seagal the show's "worst host ever". Spade and Meadows cited Seagal's humorlessness, his ill-treatment of the cast and writers, and his refusal to do a "Hans and Franz" sketch because the skit's title characters had previously said that they could "beat up Steven Seagal". Seagal has never been invited back to the show. Meadows commented, "He didn't realize that you can't tell somebody they're stupid on Wednesday and expect them to continue writing for you on Saturday." SNL cast member Julia Sweeney later recalled that Seagal "had this idea that he's a therapist and he wanted Victoria Jackson to be his patient who's just been raped. And the therapist says, 'You're going to have to come to me twice a week for like three years," because, he said, 'That's how therapists freaking are. They're just trying to get your money.' And then he says that the psychiatrist tries to have sex with her." The cast and crew's difficulties with Seagal were later echoed on-air by Michaels during guest host Nicolas Cage's monologue in the September 26, 1992, Season 18 premiere. When Cage worried that he would do so poorly that the audience would regard him as "the biggest jerk who's ever been on the show", Michaels replied: "No, no. That would be Steven Seagal." 1994-2002: Career fluctuations Seagal directed and starred in On Deadly Ground (1994), featuring Michael Caine, R. Lee Ermey, and Billy Bob Thornton in minor supporting roles. The film emphasized environmental and spiritual themes, signaling a break with his previous persona as a genre-ready inner-city cop. On Deadly Ground was poorly received by critics, especially denouncing Seagal's long environmental speech in the film. Regardless, Seagal considers it one of the most important and relevant moments in his career. Seagal followed this with a sequel to one of his most successful films, Under Siege, titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995). According to co-star Morris Chestnut, Seagal rewrote many of the scenes he was in. "The only time they really stuck to the script or had ad libs was the stuff when he really wasn't there. It was a lot of stuff, because at that time I think he was flying a helicopter, he was doing something... He would come to set, "Okay, you're gonna say this. I'm gonna say this and this is gonna happen and then you do that." That's how we did a lot of that movie." In 1996, Seagal had a role in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision, portraying a special ops soldier who appears in only the film's first 45 minutes. Former Warner Bros Vice President Bill Daly later stated Seagal agreed to the role in exchange for the studio forgiving him losing his director's salary due to going over-budget with On Deadly Ground. The same year, he filmed a police drama, The Glimmer Man (1996). In another environmentally conscious and commercially unsuccessful film, Fire Down Below (1997), he played an EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance agent fighting industrialists dumping toxic waste in the Kentucky hills. In 1998, Seagal made The Patriot, another environmental thriller which was his first direct-to-video release in the United States (though it was released theatrically in most of the world). Seagal produced this film with his own money, and the film was shot on-location on and near his farm in Montana. After producing Prince of Central Park, Seagal returned to cinema screens with the release of Exit Wounds in March 2001. The film had fewer martial arts scenes than Seagal's previous films, but it was a commercial success, taking almost $80 million worldwide. It was considered at the time to be a "comeback" for Seagal. However, Seagal was unable to capitalize on this success and his next two projects were both critical and commercial failures. The movie Ticker, co-starring Tom Sizemore and Dennis Hopper, was filmed in San Francisco before Exit Wounds, and went straight to DVD. Half Past Dead, starring hip hop star Ja Rule, made less than $20 million worldwide. It was ranked in a Rotten Tomatoes editorial on the 100 worst movies of all time. Seagal was also nominated for Worst Actor at the 2002 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards and the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards. 2003–present: Direct-to-video films and television Other than his role as a villain in Robert Rodriguez's Machete (2010), almost all the films Seagal has made since the latter half of 2001 have been released direct-to-video (DTV) in North America, with some theatrical releases to other countries around the world. Seagal is credited as a producer and sometimes a writer on many of these DTV movies, which include Black Dawn, Belly of the Beast, Out of Reach, Submerged, Kill Switch, Urban Justice, Pistol Whipped, Against the Dark, Driven to Kill, A Dangerous Man, Born to Raise Hell, and The Keeper. Beyond the Law (2019) is one of Seagal's few movies to have had a theatrical release in North America since Machete. In 2009, A&E Network premiered the reality television series Steven Seagal: Lawman, focusing on Seagal as a deputy in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. In the 2010s, Seagal's direct-to-video films increasingly started to become ensemble pieces, with Seagal playing minor or supporting roles, despite the fact that he often received top billing. Maximum Conviction, Force of Execution, Gutshot Straight, Code of Honor, Sniper Special Ops, The Asian Connection, The Perfect Weapon, Cartels, and China Salesman all exemplify this trend. This has led some commentators to criticize Seagal for his low-effort participation in movies which heavily promote his involvement. In 2011, Seagal produced and starred in an American television action series entitled True Justice. The series first aired on Nitro, a TV station in Spain, on May 12, 2011. It premiered in the UK on 5 USA, with the first episode broadcast July 20, 2011. The series was renewed for a second season airing on ReelzChannel. In the UK, True Justice was repackaged as a series of DVD movies, with each disc editing together two episodes. Influence and artistry At the height of his career, Seagal was one of the biggest action movie stars in the world, and one of the most successful martial arts actors of the 1980s and 1990s, alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme. Credited with popularising aikido in film, Seagal is considered an important figure in the development and popularization of East Asian martial arts in the West. Many of Seagal's films share unique elements which have become characteristic of his body of work. His characters often have an elite past affiliation with the CIA, Special Forces, or Black Ops (for example, Casey Ryback in Under Siege, a former Navy SEAL, Jack Cole in The Glimmer Man, an ex-CIA police detective, or Jonathan Cold in The Foreigner and Black Dawn, an ex-CIA Black Ops freelancer). His characters differ from those of other action movie icons by virtue of their near-invulnerability; they rarely face any significant physical threat, easily overpowering any opposition and seldom facing bodily harm or even temporary defeat. Two notable exceptions are Executive Decision (1996), in which Seagal's character is introduced as a false protagonist only to be killed halfway through and Machete (2010), which features Seagal in a rare villainous role. Seagal's films also frequently reflect aspects of his personal life. His music appears in several of his films (for example, Into the Sun and Ticker, where he appears as part of a bar band), as does his fluency in other languages (he speaks Japanese in Into the Sun) and religion (Buddhism features prominently in The Glimmer Man and Belly of the Beast). His past as an aikido teacher is also incorporated into several films, for example Above the Law (which opens with a montage of real-life photos from Seagal's own past) or Shadow Man, where he is seen giving an aikido demonstration. Several of his films also feature prominent political messages, most notably the environmentalism evident in On Deadly Ground. While Seagal's acting in Above the Law gained praise from the likes of Roger Ebert, Seagal has repeatedly faced criticism from both critics and fans who accuse him of playing the same character in many of his movies, as well as displaying a lack of emotional range. In fact, his typecasting has been informally referred to as "Seagalism" and has become the subject of much parody. In 2008, author and critic Vern published Seagalogy, a work which examines Seagal's filmography using the framework of auteur theory. Vern describes themes of government corruption (particularly involving the CIA), environmentalism, and adoption of foreign cultures as being examples of recurrent motifs in Seagal's films, among a variety of others. The first edition breaks Seagal's career into four chronological "eras", marked by specific differences in style and content. The 2012 updated edition adds a fifth era. These chronological "eras" describe different phases of Seagal's career, and include the "Golden Era" (1988–1991), the period of Seagal's first successes, the "Silver Era" (1992–1997), during which Seagal saw the peak of his fame and made high-profile blockbusters, a "Transitional Period" (1998–2002) during which he made lower-profile or ensemble films, a lengthy "direct-to-video" period (his most prolific to date, 2003–2008) and, in the 2012 updated addition, a "Chief Seagal" period (2009–present) during which Seagal moved into television and began reflecting elements of his Steven Seagal: Lawman persona in his films. Other ventures Music Seagal plays the guitar and among his extensive collection are guitars previously owned by "the Kings"; Albert, BB, and Freddie, as well as Bo Diddley, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Jimi Hendrix. In 2004, he released his first album, Songs from the Crystal Cave, which has a mix of pop, world, country, and blues music. It features duets with Tony Rebel, Lt. Stichie, Lady Saw, and Stevie Wonder. The soundtrack to Seagal's 2005 film Into the Sun features several songs from the album. One of his album tracks, "Girl It's Alright", was also released as a single in several countries alongside an accompanying music video. Seagal's second album, titled Mojo Priest, was released in April 2006 and spawned a concert tour. Thom Jurek of AllMusic panned the album, rating it 1.5 stars out of 5 and stating that Seagal's guitar playing "rarely rises above bar band pedigree" and that "all of this music takes itself so seriously that it borders on delusional excess." Law enforcement work Seagal has been a Reserve Deputy Chief in the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff's Office. In the late 1980s, after teaching the deputies martial arts, unarmed combat, and marksmanship, then-sheriff Harry Lee (1932–2007) asked Seagal to join the force. Seagal's rank in Louisiana was ceremonial. Steven Seagal: Lawman, a series which follows his work in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, premiered on A&E on December 2, 2009. Seagal stated that "I've decided to work with A&E on this series now because I believe it's important to show the nation all the positive work being accomplished here in Louisiana—to see the passion and commitment that comes from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in this post-Katrina environment." The series premiere drew 3.6 million viewers, ranking as best season opener for any original A&E series ever. On April 14, 2010, the series was suspended by Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand due to a sexual trafficking lawsuit filed against Seagal. The suit was later dropped. A&E resumed the show for the second season, which began on October 6, 2010. Production on Season 3 started in February 2011, with a change of location from Louisiana to Maricopa County, Arizona. Two episodes were scheduled to be aired, beginning on January 4, 2012. Shortly before the episodes were to be aired, Season 3 was suspended, with no explanations given. Season 3 premiered on January 2, 2014, but the show was not renewed for a fourth season. In October 2011, Seagal was sworn in as the Sheriff department's deputy sheriff of Hudspeth County, Texas, a law department responsible for patrolling a 98-mile stretch of the Texas-Mexico border. Business ventures In 1997, Seagal was to be featured in an action video game for the Nintendo 64 and the original PlayStation called Deadly Honor, but it was cancelled for undisclosed reasons in its beta phase of development. In 2005, Seagal Enterprises began to market an energy drink known as "Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt", but it has since been discontinued. Seagal has also marketed an aftershave called "Scent of Action", and a range of knives and weapons. In 2013, Seagal joined newly formed Russian firearms manufacturer ORSIS, representing the company in both a promotional capacity as well as lobbying for the easement of US import restrictions on Russian sporting firearms. Personal life Seagal has an extensive sword collection, and at one time had a custom gun made for him once a month. Seagal owns a home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Los Angeles, and a home in Louisiana. He formerly lived on Staten Island in New York. Seagal is a Buddhist and in February 1997, Lama Penor Rinpoche from Palyul monastery announced that Seagal was a tulku, and specifically the reincarnation of Chungdrag Dorje, a 17th-century terton (treasure revealer) of the Nyingma, the oldest sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Seagal holds citizenships in three countries: the United States, Serbia, and Russia. Born in the United States, he possesses jus soli U.S. citizenship. He was granted Serbian citizenship on January 11, 2016, following several visits to the country, and has been asked to teach aikido to the Serbian Special Forces. Seagal was granted Russian citizenship on November 3, 2016; according to government spokesman Dmitry Peskov, "He was asking quite insistently and over a lengthy period to be granted citizenship." Various media outlets have cited Seagal and President Vladimir Putin as friends and Seagal stated that he "would like to consider [Putin] as a brother". Putin bestowed the Russian award of Order of Friendship medal upon Seagal in 2023; Peskov has said of Putin: "he's definitely seen some of his movies." While in Japan, Seagal married his first wife, Miyako Fujitani, the daughter of an aikido instructor. With Fujitani, he had a son, actor and model Kentaro Seagal, and a daughter, writer and actress Ayako Fujitani. Seagal left Miyako to move back to the United States. During this time, he met actress and model Kelly LeBrock, with whom he began an affair that led to Fujitani granting him a divorce. Seagal was briefly married to actress Adrienne La Russa in 1984, but that marriage was annulled the same year over concerns that his divorce had not yet been finalized. LeBrock gave birth to Seagal's daughter Annaliza in early 1987. Seagal and LeBrock married in September 1987 and their son Dominic was born in June 1990. Their daughter Arissa was born in 1993. The following year, LeBrock filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences". Seagal is married to Mongolian Erdenetuya Batsukh (), better known as "Elle". They have one son together, Kunzang. From an early age, Elle trained as a dancer at the Children's Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. After her graduation from high school and the Children's Palace, she pursued a career as a professional dancer. She won a number of dancing contests and was considered the top female dancer in Mongolia, excelling at ballroom dancing in particular. Elle first met Seagal in 2001, when she worked as his interpreter during his visit to Mongolia. Seagal has seven children from four relationships, two grandchildren by his eldest son, Kentaro and two granddaughters by his daughter Ayako Fujitani. In addition to his biological offspring, Seagal is the guardian of Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo, the only child of the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet. When she studied in the United States, Seagal was her minder and bodyguard. Political views and activism Seagal lent his voice as a narrator for an activist film project, Medicine Lake Video. The project seeks to protect sacred tribal ground near Seagal's ranch in Siskiyou County. He also wrote an open letter to the leadership of Thailand in 2003, urging them to enact a law to prevent the torture of baby elephants. In 1999, Seagal was awarded a PETA Humanitarian Award. In a March 2014 interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Seagal described Vladimir Putin as "one of the great living world leaders". He expressed support for the annexation of Crimea by Russia. In July 2014, following calls for a boycott, Seagal was dropped from the lineup of the August Blues Festival in Haapsalu, Estonia. Estonian musician Tõnis Mägi, minister of Foreign Affairs, Urmas Paet, and Parliament's Foreign Affairs chairman Marko Mihkelson had all condemned inviting Seagal into the country, with Paet saying, "Steven Seagal has tried to actively participate in politics during the past few months and has done it in a way which is unacceptable to the majority of the world that respects democracy and the rule of law." In August 2014, Seagal appeared at a Night Wolves-organized show in Sevastopol, Crimea, supporting the Crimean annexation and depicting Ukraine as a country controlled by fascists. On November 3, Seagal was granted Russian citizenship by Putin. His views on Ukraine and Russian citizenship caused Ukraine to ban him from entering the country because he "committed socially dangerous actions". Seagal visited the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2015 and met with the country's long-time president, Ilham Aliyev. Seagal has expressed support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and dispute with neighboring Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Seagal spoke out against the protests during the United States national anthem by professional athletes, stating, "I believe in free speech, I believe that everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but I don't agree that they should hold the United States of America or the world hostage by taking a venue where people are tuning in to watch a football game and imposing their political views." He also expressed skepticism of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Not long after this, former two time World boxing heavyweight champion George Foreman publicly challenged Seagal to an official ten-round MMA match in Las Vegas, which Seagal promptly declined. In 2017, Seagal collaborated with a former chair of the Arizona Republican Party, Tom Morrissey, in writing a self-published conspiracy thriller novel, The Way of the Shadow Wolves: The Deep State And The Hijacking Of America, which featured a Tohono Shadow Wolf tracker working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to foil a plot by Mexican drug cartels and the "deep state" to smuggle in Islamist terrorists to the United States through the U.S.–Mexico border. In October 2017, Seagal met with Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte while scouting locations in Manila for a possible film. During the visit, Seagal flashed Duterte's signature fist. In 2021, Seagal gave a katana to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry special envoy while visiting Canaima National Park. Maduro referred to Seagal as "my brother." On May 30, 2021, the pro-Kremlin systemic opposition party A Just Russia — Patriots — For Truth announced that Seagal had received an official membership card to the party. In March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Seagal visited Moscow where he organized his birthday party, attended by many people connected to Vladimir Putin, including some affected by international sanctions. This has been criticized as a dissenting action that came amidst the growing international boycott of Russia. In August 2022, he visited Olenivka in Donetsk Oblast, the site of the Olenivka prison massacre, with Donetsk People's Republic leader Denis Pushilin, who claimed that Seagal was filming a documentary about the war in Donbas. Seagal also met with Leonid Slutsky. On February 27, 2023, he received the Russian Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin for his "major contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation". Allegations and lawsuits In May 1991 (during the filming of Out for Justice), Warner Bros. employees Raenne Malone, Nicole Selinger, and Christine Keeve accused Seagal of sexual harassment. In return for remaining silent, Malone and another woman received around $50,000 each in an out-of-court settlement. Around the same time, at least four actresses said that Seagal had made sexual advances, typically during late-night "casting sessions". In another incident, Jenny McCarthy said that Seagal asked her to undress during an audition for Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. In 1995, Seagal was charged with employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and breach of contract. Cheryl Shuman filed a case against Seagal, accusing him of threatening and beating her during the filming of On Deadly Ground. In August 1995, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki dismissed the case, calling the claims "repetitive and unintelligible". On April 12, 2010, 23-year-old Kayden Nguyen filed a lawsuit against Seagal in a Los Angeles County Superior Court, requesting more than one million dollars in damages. In her suit, Nguyen alleged Seagal engaged in sexual harassment, the illegal trafficking of females for sex, failure to prevent sexual harassment, and wrongful termination. Seagal denied the allegations, but his reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman was suspended while his attorneys resolved the case. On July 14, 2010, three months after Nguyen filed her suit, she withdrew her claim without explanation. On August 30, 2011, Jesus Sanchez Llovera filed a lawsuit against Seagal over his part in a Maricopa county police raid with heavy weapons (notably including an army surplus tank) of Llovera's residence for suspicion of cockfighting. The incident was taped for Seagal's A&E reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman. Llovera was seeking $100,000 for damages caused during the raid and a letter of apology from Seagal to Llovera's children for the death of their family pet. Llovera claimed that his 11-month-old puppy was shot and killed during the raid. Llovera failed to file court-ordered paperwork after his attorney withdrew from the case and the lawsuit was dismissed in January 2013. In 2017, actress Portia de Rossi accused Seagal of sexually harassing her during a movie audition. De Rossi alleged that during an audition in Seagal's office, he told her "how important it was to have chemistry off-screen" before unzipping his pants. On an April 18 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Katherine Heigl alleged on the final day of shooting for Under Siege 2 that Seagal told her that he had girlfriends the same age as the 16-year-old Heigl. Kimmel responded by displaying a photo from the film's promotional tour showing Seagal's hand on Heigl's chest while they posed for a photo. On November 9, 2017, Dutch model Faviola Dadis posted a statement on her Instagram account stating that she also had been sexually assaulted by Seagal years earlier. On January 15, 2018, actress Rachel Grant publicly accused Seagal of sexually assaulting her in 2002, during pre-production on his direct-to-video film, Out for a Kill (2003), stating that she lost her job on the film after the incident. In February 2018, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office acknowledged that it was reviewing a potential sex-abuse case involving Seagal. In March 2018, Regina Simons publicly claimed that in 1993, when she was 18, Seagal raped her at his home when she arrived for what she thought was a wrap party for the movie On Deadly Ground. In September 2018, Los Angeles prosecutors refused to charge the actor based on Regina Simons accusations, due to California's statute of limitations. Two months later, the case involving the actress Rachel Grant was dismissed for the same reasons. Victim of attempted extortion Seagal became embroiled in a legal case involving film producer Julius R. Nasso after Nasso attempted to extort Seagal. Nasso produced seven of Seagal's films beginning with Marked for Death in 1990. The two "became best friends", according to Seagal, and formed Seagal/Nasso Productions together. Their relationship became strained, however, and their partnership ended in 2000. Believing that Seagal owed him $3 million in compensation for backing out of a four-film deal, Nasso enlisted members of the Gambino crime family to threaten Seagal in an attempt to recoup money Nasso allegedly lost. Gambino family captain Anthony Ciccone first visited Seagal in Toronto during the filming of Exit Wounds in October 2000. In January 2001, Primo Cassarino and other gangsters picked up Seagal by car to bring him to a meeting with Ciccone at a Brooklyn restaurant. At the meeting, Ciccone reportedly told Seagal that he had a choice of making four promised movies with Nasso or paying Nasso a penalty of $150,000 per movie, and that if Seagal refused, Ciccone would kill him. Seagal, who later claimed that he brought a handgun to the meeting, was able to stall Ciccone and escape the meeting unharmed. In the spring of 2001, Seagal sought out another mobster, Genovese crime family captain Angelo Prisco, to act as a "peacemaker". He visited Prisco in prison at Rahway, New Jersey and paid Prisco's lawyer $10,000. On March 17, 2003, Cassarino, Ciccone and others were convicted of labor racketeering, extortion, and 63 other counts under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Seagal testified for the prosecution about the mobsters' extortion attempt. Nasso pleaded guilty to the charge of extortion conspiracy in August 2003. In February 2004, he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, fined $75,000 and ordered to take mental health counselling on release from jail. In January 2008, Nasso agreed to drop a $60 million lawsuit against Seagal for an alleged breach of contract when the two settled out of court. Conflicts with stuntmen Seagal has been accused by former stunt performers who have worked with him, including Kane Hodder, Stephen Quadros, and Gene LeBell, of intentionally hitting stuntmen during scenes. Additionally, while serving as stunt coordinator for Out for Justice, LeBell allegedly got into an on-set altercation with Seagal over his mistreatment of some of the film's stunt performers. After the actor claimed that, due to his aikido training, he was "immune" to being choked unconscious, LeBell supposedly offered Seagal the opportunity to prove it. With Seagal's permission, LeBell then successfully choked him unconscious, with Seagal losing bowel control. Although LeBell has not directly confirmed the rumor, he implied that it was true in a 2012 interview. Seagal's bodyguard and stuntman Steven Lambert stated that a confrontation did happen, during which Seagal elbowed LeBell before he could lock the hold, after which LeBell flipped Seagal. Seagal has directly denied that a confrontation took place, calling LeBell a "sick, pathological scumbag liar". Robart Wall included LeBell in his "Dirty Dozen", a list of martial artists willing to answer to a public challenge made by Seagal. LeBell however declined to participate, as the feud with Seagal was hurting him professionally. He did however criticize Seagal for his treatment of stuntmen, and left open the possibility of a professional fight if Seagal wanted. Allegations of mistreatment towards stuntmen have continued throughout Seagal's later career, with both stuntman Peter Harris Kent (Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunt double) and Mike Leeder publicly criticizing his on-set antics. Actor John Leguizamo also claimed that during rehearsals on Executive Decision, in retaliation for laughing at him, Seagal caught him off guard and knocked him into a brick wall. Michael Jai White, who acted with him in a number of movies, stated that he routinely hit stunt men, and that he was known for it. He said they just accepted it. However, he stated that Seagal never hit him. Filmography Films Year Film Functioned as Notes Director Producer Writer Actor Role 1988 Above the Law Nico Toscani 1990 Hard to Kill Mason Storm Marked for Death John Hatcher 1991 Out for Justice Det. Gino Felino 1992 Under Siege Casey Ryback 1994 On Deadly Ground Forrest Taft Only feature film directorial credit. 1995 Under Siege 2: Dark Territory Casey Ryback Sequel to Under Siege.1996 Executive Decision Lt. Colonel Austin Travis Supporting role The Glimmer Man Lt. Jack Cole 1997 Fire Down Below Jack Taggart1998 My Giant Himself Cameo The Patriot Dr. Wesley McClaren Direct-to-video Not Even the Trees Direct-to-video 2000 Prince of Central Park Direct-to-video2001 The Path Beyond Thought Himself/narrator Documentary Exit Wounds Orin Boyd Ticker Frank Glass Limited release 2002 Half Past Dead Sasha Petrosevitch 2003 The Foreigner Jonathan Cold Direct-to-video Out for a Kill Prof. Robert Burns Direct-to-video Belly of the Beast Jake Hopper Direct-to-video2004 Out of Reach William Lansing Direct-to-video Clementine Jack Miller Limited release2005 Into the Sun Travis Hunter Direct-to-videoAlso received "story by" credit. Submerged Chris Cody Direct-to-video Today You Die Harlan Banks Direct-to-video Dragon Squad Limited release Black Dawn Jonathan Cold Direct-to-videoSequel to The Foreigner.2006 Mercenary for Justice John Seeger Direct-to-video Shadow Man Jack Foster Direct-to-video Attack Force Cmdr. Marshall Lawson Direct-to-video2007 Flight of Fury John Sands Direct-to-video Urban Justice Simon Ballister Direct-to-video2008 Pistol Whipped Matt Conlin Direct-to-video The Onion Movie Cock Puncher Direct-to-videoSupporting role Kill Switch Jacob King Direct-to-video2009 Against the Dark Tao Direct-to-video Driven to Kill Ruslan Drachev Direct-to-video The Keeper Roland Sallinger Direct-to-video A Dangerous Man Shane Daniels Direct-to-video2010 Machete Rogelio Torrez Seagal's first wide release since 2002. Sheep Impact Paul Weland Short film Born to Raise Hell Robert "Bobby" Samuels Direct-to-video 2012 Maximum Conviction Cross Direct-to-video 2013 Force of Execution John Alexander Direct-to-video2014 A Good Man John Alexander Direct-to-videoPrequel to Force of Execution. Gutshot Straight Paulie Trunks Direct-to-videoSupporting role 2015 Absolution John Alexander Direct-to-videoSequel to A Good Man.2016 Code of Honor Robert Sikes Direct-to-video Sniper Special Ops Jake Direct-to-video The Asian Connection Gan Sirankiri Direct-to-video End of a Gun Decker Direct-to-video Contract to Kill John Harmon Direct-to-video The Perfect Weapon The Director Direct-to-video2017 Cartels John Harrison Direct-to-video China Salesman Lauder 2018 Attrition Axe Direct-to-video2019 General Commander Jake Alexander Direct-to-video Beyond the Law Augustino ‘Finn’ Adair Direct-to-video Television Year Film Functioned as Notes Writer Executive producer Actor Role1991Saturday Night Live HostSeagal hosted the episode "Steven Seagal/Michael Bolton".2009–2014Steven Seagal: Lawman Himself Also creator2011–2012True Justice Elijah Kane Also creator2017Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father Himself Impromptu segment in Season 1, Episode 3 Stunts Year Film Functioned as Notes Martial arts instructor Choreographer Stunt coordinator 1982 The Challenge Credited as "Steve Seagal". 1983 Never Say Never Again UncreditedSeagal accidentally broke Sean Connery's wrist during production. 1985 A View to a Kill 1988 Above the Law 1990 Hard to Kill 1990 Marked for Death 2013 Force of Execution Awards and nominations Year Nominated work Award Category Results1995On Deadly GroundGolden Raspberry AwardsWorst ActorWorst Picture (shared with Julius R. Nasso and A. Kitman Ho)Worst Director1997Executive DecisionWorst Supporting Actor1998Fire Down BelowWorst ActorWorst Picture (shared with Julius R. Nasso)Worst Screen Couple (shared with "his guitar")Worst Original Song (shared with Mark Collie for the song "Fire Down Below")2003Half Past DeadWorst Actor Discography Songs from the Crystal Cave (2004) Mojo Priest (2006)
Hang Seng Bank Headquarters Building	[ "Skyscraper office buildings in Hong Kong", "Hang Seng Bank", "Central, Hong Kong", "Office buildings completed in 1991", "Bank buildings in Hong Kong", "Bank headquarters in China", "1991 establishments in Hong Kong" ]	941	7,243	The Hang Seng Bank New Headquarters Building is a skyscraper at No. 83 Des Voeux Road Central, Central, Hong Kong. It houses the headquarters of the Hang Seng Bank. History The former Central Fire Station previously stood on the site. After the station was demolished, the land was sold on 29 May 1987 to Hang Seng Bank for $840 million. At $37,197 per square foot, the site was Hong Kong's most expensive when it was sold. The new bank headquarters was designed by Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd. It cost $1.84 billion and opened in 1991. The large retail bank at the bottom of the tower had counters extending more than 190 metres, with positions for more than 150 tellers. The main feature of this banking hall is a stainless steel etched mural based on A City of Cathay, a famous Chinese scroll depicting townspeople going about their daily lives. The building replaced 77 Des Voeux Road Central as the headquarters of Hang Seng Bank, which in turn replaced an earlier headquarters at 163-165 Queen's Road Central. Description Structurally, the building is supported by two concrete service cores at the eastern and western edges of the site, which can be clearly seen in the tower's external expression. Post-tensioned floor beams span more than 30 metres between the cores, producing completely column-free floor plates. This design also means that the east and west faces of the tower are windowless, while the north and south faces have large windows. When the building was completed, occupants enjoyed unobstructed views of Victoria Harbour, the cross-harbour vehicular ferry pier and its marshalling area being located on the foreshore before it. Under the Airport Core Programme, land was reclaimed from the harbour directly in front of the building, and the view has largely been obstructed by the International Finance Centre (IFC). A dual-footbridge runs through the building, linking it to IFC (to the north) and the Central Market to the south. This places the tower at a prominent position within the Central Elevated Walkway system. Transport The Hong Kong Tramways runs directly in front of the building on Des Voeux Road, along with numerous bus routes. Hong Kong station is located on the opposite side of Connaught Road beneath the IFC, while Central station is a 230-metre walk away. The Central Ferry Piers are about 400 metres away via the footbridge network.
Yoav Chelouche	[ "Israeli businesspeople", "Israeli venture capitalists", "20th-century Israeli Jews", "Israeli business executives", "Israeli chief executives", "INSEAD alumni", "Tel Aviv University alumni", "Israeli investors", "1953 births", "Living people", "21st-century Israeli Jews" ]	966	9,781	Yoav Z. Chelouche () is an Israeli businessman, a managing partner of Tel Aviv-based venture capital firm Aviv Venture Capital. From 1995 to 2001, Chelouche was CEO and president of Scitex Corporation. He is on the board of directors of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), Tower Semiconductor (Towerjazz) and Check Point Software Technologies, and was co-chairman of Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI). Biography Yoav Z. Chelouche was born in Paris to Rachel and , a diplomat and one of Israel's first ambassadors to Europe. His grandfather, Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche, was the founder of Neve Tzedek, the first Jewish settlement outside Jaffa. His great grandfather, Aharon Chelouche, was one of the early founders of Tel Aviv and the builder of Gymnasia Herzliya, the first Hebrew high school in Palestine. After graduating from Gymnasia Rehavia in Jerusalem, Chelouche served in the Intelligence Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. In 1974, he earned a BA in Economics and Statistics from Tel Aviv University, followed by an MBA from INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France. Chelouche is married to Bosmat, an attorney who was legal counsel for Bezeq and Tadiran. They live in Ramat Hasharon. Business career Chelouche began working for Scitex Corporation, a world leader in digital imaging and printing systems, in 1979, as VP of Marketing and Business Development. In 1995, he replaced Avi Rosenfeld as CEO, Working in this position until 2001. During his tenure, the company had 4,000 employees and annual sales of over $700 million. Chelouche devoted himself to establishing ties with the Asian market and helped to increase his company's market share worldwide. In 2000, Scitex sold its digital pre-press operations to Creo of Canada in a share deal worth $500 million. After leaving Scitex, Chelouche became president of Fantine Capital, a company that helped Israeli companies break into the European markets. In 2012-2015, he was co-chairman of Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI). He is on the board of directors of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), Tower Semiconductor (Towerjazz) and Check Point Software Technologies. Chelouche has been managing partner of Venture Capital firm Aviv Venture Capital (formerly Fantine Europe Funds) since its inception in 2001, leading it with his cofounder Amir Guttman. Their first portfolio company, Actona Technologies, was sold to Cisco Systems for $100 million. Aviv's portfolio companies include MGVA, ScaleMP and Optimal Test. Another portfolio company, Briefcam, sold its surveillance technology to Canon Inc. in May 2018 for $90 million. Aviv has also invested in Orcam, a Jerusalem start-up developed by the founders of Mobileye, that allows visually impaired people to understand text and identify objects through audio feedback, using computer vision and a miniature camera attached to any eyeglasses. In 2018, it was estimated that the company is worth more than $1 Billion Dollars. Public activism Chelouche is chairman of Ta'asiyeda, an educational initiative of the Manufacturers Association of Israel that exposes young people to the world of industry and technology. Awards and recognition Chelouche won the Henry Ford Prize for first in class at INSEAD. In January 2010 he was named by INSEAD as "one of 50 alumni who changed the world." See also Economy of Israel Start-up Nation
South African rand	[ "Currencies introduced in 1961", "1961 establishments in South Africa", "Currencies of South Africa", "Currencies of Botswana", "Currencies of Namibia", "Currencies of Eswatini", "Currencies of Zimbabwe", "Currency symbols", "Currencies of Africa", "Circulating currencies" ]	5,792	53,132	The South African rand, or simply the rand, (sign: R; code: ZAR) is the official currency of South Africa. It is subdivided into 100 cents (sign: "c"), and a comma separates the rand and cents. The South African rand is legal tender in the Common Monetary Area member states of Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini, with these three countries also having national currencies: (the dollar, the loti and the lilangeni respectively) pegged with the rand at parity and still widely accepted as substitutes. The rand was also legal tender in Botswana until 1976 when the pula replaced the rand at par. The rand is legal tender in Zimbabwe as part of its multiple currency system, which also includes other currencies such as the euro, the pound sterling, the US dollar, and the Zimbabwean ZiG. The rand takes its name from the Witwatersrand ("white waters' ridge" in English, being the Afrikaans and Dutch word for 'ridge'), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. In English, Afrikaans and Dutch, the singular and plural forms of the unit ("rand") are the same: one rand, ten rand, and two million rand. The rand was introduced in the Union of South Africa in 1961, three months before the country declared itself a republic. A Decimal Coinage Commission had been set up in 1956 to consider a move away from the denominations of pounds, shillings, and pence; it submitted its recommendations on 8 August 1958. It replaced the South African pound as legal tender, at the rate of 2 rand to 1 pound, or 10 shillings to the rand. The government introduced a mascot, Decimal Dan, "the rand-cent man" (known in Afrikaans as Daan Desimaal). This was accompanied by a radio jingle to inform the public about the new currency. Although pronounced in the Afrikaans style as in the jingles when introduced, the contemporary pronunciation in South African English is . Brief exchange rate history One rand was worth US$1.40 (R0.72 per dollar) from the time of its inception in 1961 until late 1971, and the U.S. dollar became stronger than the South African currency for the first time on 15 March 1982. Its value thereafter fluctuated as various exchange rate dispensations were implemented by the South African authorities. By the early 1980s, high inflation and mounting political pressure combined with sanctions placed against the country due to international opposition to the apartheid system had started to erode its value. The currency broke above parity with the dollar for the first time in March 1982. It continued to trade between R1 and R1.30 to the dollar until June 1984, when the currency's depreciation gained momentum. By February 1985, it was trading at over R2 per dollar, and in July of that year, all foreign exchange trading was suspended for three days to try to stop the depreciation. By the time that State President P. W. Botha made his Rubicon speech on 15 August 1985, it had weakened to R2.40 per dollar. The currency recovered somewhat between 1986 and 1988, trading near the R2 level most of the time and breaking beneath it sporadically. The recovery was short-lived; by the end of 1989, the rand was trading at more than R2.50 per dollar. As it became clear in the early 1990s that the country was destined for Black majority rule and one reform after the other was announced, uncertainty about the country's future hastened the depreciation until the level of R3 to the dollar was breached in November 1992. A host of local and international events influenced the currency after that, most notably the 1994 general election, which had it weaken to over R3.60 to the dollar, the election of Tito Mboweni as the governor of the South African Reserve Bank, and the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki in 1999, which had it quickly slide to over R6 to the dollar. The controversial land reform programme that was initiated in Zimbabwe, followed by the September 11, 2001 attacks, propelled it to its weakest historical level of R13.84 to the dollar in December 2001. This sudden depreciation in 2001 led to a formal investigation and a dramatic recovery. By the end of 2002, the currency was trading under R9 to the dollar again, and by the end of 2004, it was trading under R5.70. The currency softened somewhat in 2005, trading around R6.35 to the dollar at the end of the year. At the start of 2006, however, the currency resumed its rally and, as of 19 January 2006, was trading under R6 to the dollar again. However, the rand weakened significantly during the second and third quarters of 2006 (i.e., April through September). In sterling terms, it fell from around 9.5% to just over 7%, losing some 25% of its international trade-weighted value in six months. In late 2007, the rand rallied modestly to just over 8%, only to experience a precipitous slide during the first quarter of 2008. This downward slide could be attributed to a range of factors: South Africa's worsening current account deficit, which widened to a 36‑year high of 7.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007; inflation at a five-year high of just under 9%; escalating global risk aversion as investors' concerns over the spreading impact of the sub-prime crisis grew; and a general flight to "safe havens", away from the perceived risks of emerging markets. The rand depreciation was exacerbated by the Eskom electricity crisis, which arose from the utility's inability to meet the country's rapidly growing energy demands. A stalled mining industry in late 2012 led to new lows in early 2013. In late January 2014, the rand slid to R11.25 to the dollar, with analysts attributing the shift to "word from the US Federal Reserve that it would trim back stimulus spending, which led to a massive sell-off in emerging economies." In 2014, South Africa experienced its worst year against the US dollar since 2009, and in March 2015, the rand traded at its worst since 2002. At the time, Trading Economics released data that the rand "averaged R4.97 to the dollar between 1972–2015, reaching an all time high of R12.45 in December 2001 and a record low of R0.67 in June of 1973." By the end of 2014, the rand had weakened to R15.05 per dollar, partly due to South Africa's consistent trade account deficit with the rest of the world. From 9–13 December 2015, over four days, the rand dropped over 10% due to what some suspected was President Jacob Zuma's surprise announcement that he would be replacing the Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene with the little-known David van Rooyen. The rapid drop in value stemmed when Zuma backtracked and announced that the better-known previous Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, would instead be appointed to the post. Zuma's surprise sacking of Nene damaged international confidence in the rand, and the exchange rate was volatile throughout much of January 2016 and reached an all-time low of R17.9169 to the US dollar on 9 January 2016 before rebounding to R16.57 later the same day. The January drop in value was also partly caused by Japanese retail investors cutting their losses in the currency to look for higher-yield investments elsewhere and due to concerns over the impact of the economic slowdown in China, South Africa's largest export market. By mid-January, economists were speculating that the rand could expect to see further volatility for the rest of 2016. By 29 April, it reached its highest performance over the previous five months, exchanging at a rate of R14.16 to the United States dollar. Following the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union, the rand dropped in value over 8% against the US$ on 24 June 2016, the currency's largest single-day decline since the 2008 economic crash. This was partly due to a general global financial retreat from currencies seen as risky to the US dollar and partly due to concerns over how British withdrawal from the EU would impact the South African economy and trade relations. In April 2017, a Reuters poll estimated that the rand would remain relatively stable for the rest of the year, as two polls found that analysts had already factored in a possible downgrade to "junk" status. At the time, Moody's rated South Africa two notches above junk status. When President Jacob Zuma narrowly won a motion of no confidence in South Africa in August 2017, the rand continued to slide, dropping 1.7% that day. In September 2017, Goldman Sachs said that the debt and corruption of Eskom Holdings was the biggest risk to South Africa's economy and the exchange rate of the rand. At the time, it had no permanent CEO, and Colin Coleman of Goldman Sachs in Africa said the company was "having discussions on solutions" on finding credible management. In October 2017, the rand firmed against the US dollar as it recovered from a six-month low. Reuters noted, "South Africa is highly susceptible to global investor sentiment as the country relies on foreign money to cover its large budget and current account deficits." On 13 November 2017, the rand fell by over 1% when the budget chief, Michael Sachs, stood down from his position in Zuma's administration. In October 2022, the rand sank to its lowest point in two years, reaching R18.46 to the US dollar on 25 October 2022. The rand has never suffered from much inflation compared to other African currenices, with the same value to other currencies such as the Euro, US dollar and Renminbi since 2016. The rand began appreciating in value in 2024 compared to the USD, and remained stable. Coins were introduced in 1961 in denominations of , 1, , 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents. In 1965, 2-cent coins replaced the cent coins. The cent coin was last struck for circulation in 1973. The 1 rand coin for circulation was introduced in 1967, followed by 2 rand coins in 1989 and 5 rand coins in 1994. Production of the 1 and 2-cent coins was discontinued in 2002, followed by 5-cent coins in 2012, primarily due to inflation having devalued them, but they remain legal tender. Shops normally round the total purchase price of goods to the nearest 10 cents. To curb counterfeiting, a new 5-rand coin was released in August 2004. Security features introduced on the coin include a bimetal design (similar to the €1 and €2 coins, the Thai ฿10 coin, the pre-2018 Philippine ₱10 coin, the British £2 coin, and the Canadian $2 coin), a specially serrated security groove along the rim and microlettering. On 3 May 2023, the South African Reserve Bank announced that a new series of coins would be released. These will have the same denominations as the previous series. The 10c will feature an image of the Cape Honey Bee, the 20c the Bitter Aloe, the 50c the Knysna Turaco, the R1 the Springbok, the R2 the King Protea, and the R5 the Southern Right Whale. The first series of rand banknotes was introduced in 1961 in denominations of 1, 2, 10, and 20 rand, with similar designs and colours to the preceding pound notes to ease the transition. They bore the image of what was believed at the time to be Jan van Riebeeck, the first VOC administrator of Cape Town. It was later discovered that the original portrait was not, in fact, Van Riebeeck at all, but a portrait of Bartholomew Vermuyden had been mistaken for Van Riebeeck. In 1966, a second series with designs that moved away from the previous pound notes was released. Notes with 1, 5, and 10 rand denominations were produced with predominantly one colour per note. A smaller 1 rand note with the same design was introduced in 1973, and a 2 rand note was introduced in 1974. The 20 rand denomination from the first series was dropped. The practice of having an English and an Afrikaans version of each note was continued in this series. The 1978 series began with denominations of 2, 5, 10, and 20 rand, with a 50 rand introduced in 1984. This series had only one language variant for each denomination of note. Afrikaans was the first language on the 2, 10, and 50 rand, while English was the first on the 5 and 20 rand. A coin replaced the 1 rand note. In the 1990s, the notes were redesigned with images of the Big Five wildlife species. 10, 20, and 50 rand notes were introduced in 1992 & 1993, retaining the colour scheme of the previous issue. Coins were introduced for the 2 and 5 rand, replacing the notes of the previous series, mainly because of the severe wear and tear experienced with low-denomination notes in circulation. In 1994, 100 and 200 rand notes were introduced. The 2005 series has the same principal design but with additional security features, such as colour-shifting ink on the 50 rand and higher and the EURion constellation. The obverses of all denominations were printed in English, while two other official languages were printed on the reverse, thus using all 11 official languages of South Africa. In 2010, the South African Reserve Bank and commercial banks withdrew all 1994 series 200-rand banknotes due to relatively high-quality counterfeit notes in circulation. In 2011, the South African Reserve Bank issued defective 100 rand banknotes which lacked fluorescent printing visible under UV light. In June, the printing of this denomination was moved from the South African Bank Note Company to Crane Currency's Swedish division (Tumba Bruk), which reportedly produced 80 million 100 rand notes. The South African Reserve Bank shredded 3.6 million 100-rand banknotes printed by Crane Currency because they had the same serial numbers as a batch printed by the South African Bank Note Company. In addition, the notes printed in Sweden were not the correct colour and were 1mm short. On 11 February 2012, President Jacob Zuma announced that the country would be issuing a new set of banknotes bearing Nelson Mandela's image. They were entered into circulation on 6 November 2012. These contained the same denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 rand. In 2013, the 2012 series was updated with the addition of the EURion constellation to all five denominations. They were entered into circulation on 6 November 2013. On 18 July 2018, a special commemorative series of banknotes was released in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's birth. This series includes notes of all denominations, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 rand. These notes will circulate alongside the existing notes. The notes depict the standard face of Nelson Mandela on the obverse. Still, instead of the Big Five animals on the reverse, they show a younger Mandela with different iconic scenes relating to his legacy. These scenes comprise the rolling hills of the Eastern Cape, featuring Mandela's humble birthplace of Mvezo (10 rand); the home of Mandela in Soweto, where he defined his political life alongside other struggle icons (20 rand); the site where Mandela was captured near Howick, following 17 months in hiding, where a monument to him has been erected (50 rand); the place of Mandela's 27-year imprisonment at Robben Island, showing a pile of quarried limestone (100 rand); the statue of Mandela at the Union Buildings in remembrance of when he was inaugurated there in 1994 (200 rand). On 3 May 2023, the South African Reserve Bank announced that a new series of banknotes would retain the image of Nelson Mandela on the obverse while showing the Big 5 in a family depiction on the reverse. This series contains the same denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 rand. First series Banknotes of the South African rand (1961 First Issue) Image Value Obverse Reverse Colour Language Size (mm) 1 rand Jan van Riebeeck Lion from coat of arms Brown Afrikaans/English, English/Afrikaans 136×78 2 rand Blue 149×84 10 rand Jan van Riebeeck's sailing ship Green 170×96 20 rand Gold mine Purple 176×103 Second series Banknotes of the South African rand (1966 Second Issue) Image Value Obverse Reverse Colour Language Size (mm) 1 rand Jan van Riebeeck and protea Farming and agriculture Brown Afrikaans/English, English/Afrikaans 128×64 120×57 2 rand Jan van Riebeeck, Cape Dutch architecture and vines Gariep Dam, pylon and maize cob Blue 127×63 5 rand Jan van Riebeeck, Voortrekker Monument and Great Trek Mining Purple 134×70 10 rand Jan van Riebeeck, Union Buildings and springbok Jan van Riebeeck's three ships Green 140×76 Third series Banknotes of the South African rand (1978 Third Issue) Image Value Obverse Reverse Colour Language Size (mm) 2 rand Jan van Riebeeck and pylon Sasol coal to oil refinery Blue Afrikaans and English 120×57 5 rand Jan van Riebeeck and diamonds Mining and Johannesburg city centre Purple 127×63 10 rand Jan van Riebeeck and protea Agriculture Green 133×70 20 rand Jan van Riebeeck, Cape Dutch architecture and vines Jan van Riebeeck's three ships and Coat of Arms of South Africa Brown 140×77 50 rand Jan van Riebeeck and lion Fauna and flora Red 147×83 Fourth series Banknotes of the South African rand (1992 Fourth Issue "Big Five") Image Value Obverse Reverse Colour Language Size (mm) 10 rand Rhinoceros Agriculture Green Afrikaans and English 128×70 20 rand Elephants Mining Brown English and Afrikaans 134×70 50 rand Lions Manufacturing Red Afrikaans and English 140×70 100 rand Cape buffaloes Tourism Blue English and Afrikaans 146×70 200 rand Leopards Transport and communication Orange Afrikaans and English 152×70 Fifth series Banknotes of the South African rand (2005 Fifth Issue "English & Other Official Languages") Image Value Obverse Reverse Colour Language Size (mm) 10 rand Rhinoceros Agriculture Green English, Afrikaans, Swati 128×70 20 rand Elephants Mining Brown English, Southern Ndebele, Tswana 134×70 50 rand Lions Manufacturing Red English, Venda, Xhosa 140×70 100 rand Cape buffaloes Tourism Blue English, Northern Sotho, Tsonga 146×70 200 rand Leopards Transport and communication Orange English, Sotho, Zulu 152×70 Sixth series Banknotes of the South African rand (2012 Sixth Issue "Nelson Mandela") Image Value Obverse Reverse Colour Language Size (mm) 10 rand Nelson Mandela Rhinoceros Green English, Afrikaans, Swati 128×70 20 rand Elephant Brown English, Southern Ndebele, Tswana 134×70 50 rand Lion Red English, Venda, Xhosa 140×70 100 rand Cape buffalo Blue English, Northern Sotho, Tsonga 146×70 200 rand Leopard Orange English, Sotho, Zulu 152×70 Seventh series Banknotes of the South African rand (2018 Seventh Issue "Nelson Mandela Centenary") Image Value Obverse Reverse Colour Language Size (mm) 10 rand Nelson Mandela Young Mandela and his birthplace of Mvezo Green English, Afrikaans, Swati 128×70 20 rand Young Mandela and his home in Soweto Brown English, Southern Ndebele, Tswana 134×70 50 rand Young Mandela and the site of his capture near Howick Red English, Venda, Xhosa 140×70 100 rand Young Mandela and his place of imprisonment at Robben Island Blue English, Northern Sotho, Tsonga 146×70 200 rand Young Mandela and his statue at the Union Buildings Orange English, Sotho, Zulu 152×70 Eighth series Banknotes of the South African rand (2023 Eighth Issue "Big 5 Families") Image Value Obverse Reverse Colour Language Size (mm) 10 rand Nelson Mandela Rhinoceros Green English, Afrikaans, Swati 128×70 20 rand Elephant Brown English, Tswana, Ndebele 134×70 50 rand Lion Purple English, Xhosa, Venda 140×70 100 rand Cape buffalo Blue English, Sepedi, Tsonga 146×70 200 rand Leopard Orange English, Zulu, Sotho 152×70 Exchange rate See also Financial rand Witwatersrand Krugerrand Coins of the South African rand South African pound Economy of South Africa Further reading
Molecular Partners	[ "Pharmaceutical companies", "Pharmaceutical companies of Switzerland", "Biotechnology companies of Switzerland", "Biotechnology companies established in 2004", "Pharmaceutical companies established in 2004", "Swiss companies established in 2004", "Companies listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange", "Companies listed on the Nasdaq", "2021 initial public offerings", "companies based in the canton of Zürich" ]	970	8,789	Molecular Partners AG is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Zürich, Switzerland. The company is developing a new class of potent, specific and versatile small-protein therapies called DARPins, with potential clinical applications in a range of disease areas including oncology, immuno-oncology, ophthalmology, and infectious diseases. Molecular Partners currently has two DARPin molecules in clinical development, and a broad pipeline of molecules in preclinical development. History Researchers at the University of Zürich, Switzerland formed Molecular Partners AG in 2004 while studying monoclonal antibodies. These scientists discovered and developed the DARPin technology and launched the company using this platform. Molecular Partners became a publicly traded company in November 2014, when it was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ticker MOLN). Since July 2021, the company is also listed on the Nasdaq in the US under the ticker symbol MOLN. DARPins DARPins are genetically engineered antibody mimetic proteins typically exhibiting highly specific and high-affinity target protein binding. They are derived from natural ankyrin repeat proteins. Repeat proteins are among the most common classes of binding proteins in nature, responsible for diverse functions such as cell signaling and receptor binding. DARPins constitute a new class of potent, specific and versatile small-protein therapies, and are used as investigational tools in various therapeutic and diagnostic applications. The simplest format of a DARPin is the mono-DARPin, consisting of one DARPin domain with specificity for one target. The molecular mass of a mono-DARPin is about 15 to 20 kDa (kilodaltons), depending on the exact design. Several mono-DARPins can be linked (genetically or chemically) to multi-DARPins, which then combine multiple activities in one therapy. This approach enables the design of medicines that can inhibit multiple disease-specific targets and may improve outcomes for patients living with cancer, ophthalmic diseases and other disorders. Currently, Molecular Partners has two DARPin molecules in clinical development and a broad pipeline of molecules in preclinical development. Areas of Focus Molecular Partners is currently focusing its DARPin platform on the fields of oncology, immuno-oncology, ophthalmology, and infectious diseases. Partnerships/Business Development Molecular Partners has negotiated three agreements with Allergan to develop therapies for ophthalmology (including abicipar), one in 2011 and two in 2012. In 2011, the company licensed its lead asset back then, abicipar, to Allergan. In 2012, Molecular Partners and Allergan expanded their relationship by signing two separate new agreements to discover, develop, and commercialize proprietary therapeutic DARPin products for the treatment of serious ophthalmic diseases. Since the company's inception in 2004, Molecular Partners licensed additional DARPin candidates to other leading international pharmaceutical companies, such as Amgen, Roche or Janssen. In October 2020, as part of a joint venture to develop therapeutic drugs to combat COVID-19, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis bought 6% of all shares outstanding in Molecular Partners at 23CHF a share.
Kelso & Company	[ "Private equity firms of the United States", "Companies based in New York City", "American companies established in 1971", "Financial services companies established in 1971", "Former investment banks of the United States", "Companies listed on the Nasdaq", "1971 establishments in New York City" ]	461	4,244	Kelso & Company is an American private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital transactions. Kelso invests in a variety of sectors, including communication, manufacturing and restaurants. Kelso is based in New York City. Kelso also provides mezzanine capital through a joint venture with asset management firm BlackRock. Their joint venture, BlackRock Kelso Capital Corp. (), is organized as a type of publicly traded private equity company known as a Business Development Company. History Founded in 1971 as Kelso Bangert & Company, the firm acted as both an advisor and merchant bank, both making investments and advising on mergers and acquisitions. Kelso was founded by Louis O. Kelso, a lawyer and economist who is given credit for developing the concept for employee stock ownership plans, in 1956. Kelso, alongside a sister company Louis O. Kelso Inc., focused initially on M&A activity involving Employee Stock Ownership Plans. Kelso raised its first private equity fund and has had a dedicated private equity investment platform since 1980. Louis O. Kelso, who died in 1991, transitioned management of the firm to Joseph Schuchert to focus on writing and lecturing. In June 2016, Kelso closed its latest fund at $2.6 billion. Investments Kelso & Company has invested in energy, materials, retailing, industrial and consumer products, telecommunication services, financial services, and healthcare sectors. The company typically invests in North America with a focus on the United States. It targets investing between $50 million and $600 million in firms that have a value of between $250 million and $2.5 billion.
Dartford Crossing	[ "Bridge–tunnels in Europe", "Bridges completed in 1991", "Buildings and structures in Essex", "Buildings and structures in Thurrock", "Dartford", "Electronic toll collection", "M25 motorway", "Road congestion charge schemes in the United Kingdom", "Road tunnels in England", "Toll bridges in England", "Toll tunnels in the United Kingdom", "Transport in Essex", "Transport in Kent", "Transport in the Borough of Dartford", "Transport in Thurrock", "Tunnels completed in 1963", "Tunnels completed in 1980", "Tunnels in Essex", "Tunnels underneath the River Thames", "1963 establishments in England" ]	8,011	75,288	The Dartford–Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurrock in Essex in the north. It consists of two bored tunnels and the cable-stayed Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. The only fixed road crossing of the Thames east of Greater London, it is the busiest estuarial crossing in the United Kingdom, with an average daily use of over 130,000 vehicles. It opened in stages: the west tunnel in 1963, the east tunnel in 1980 and the bridge in 1991. The crossing, although not officially designated a motorway, is considered part of the M25 motorway's route, using the tunnels northbound and bridge southbound. Described as one of the most important road crossings in Britain, it suffers from heavy traffic and congestion. The crossing's development started in the late 1930s, but was interrupted due to the Second World War and resumed in the 1950s. The original tunnel catered for a single lane of traffic in each direction, but rising traffic levels required the second tunnel to be built. The M25 connected to the tunnels at both ends when completed in 1986, and the increased traffic put pressure on the tunnels' capacity. A private finance initiative scheme was started in 1988 to build the bridge. The combined crossing now handles four lanes of traffic in each direction. The crossing has always been tolled, and though the cost of construction has since been paid back, the toll was retained, and rebranded as a congestion pricing scheme from 1 April 2003. Since 2008 it has been free from 10 pm to 6 am. An automatic number plate recognition charging scheme named the "Dart Charge" began in November 2014. As a result, the booths on the Kent side were removed and the charge is now only payable online, by post, or in participating retail outlets. A residents' scheme is available, offering discounts for people living near the crossing. The crossings are operated by Connect Plus (M25) Ltd on behalf of National Highways as part of a 30-year Design-Build-Finance-Operate agreement that began in 2009. The crossing spans the River Thames between Dartford, Kent, to the south and Thurrock, Essex, to the north. It is about east of the centre of London, outside the Greater London boundary. The two tunnels are long, while the cable-stayed bridge is high with a main span of . A speed limit is in place in both directions. North of the river, the rail line High Speed 1 (between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet International Stations) passes under the approach roads at a near right angle. The design capacity is 135,000 vehicles per day, but in practice the crossing carries around 160,000. It has been described by the Highways Agency as "a vital transport link for the national and South East economies", by the former Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, as "a crucial part of the country's strategic road network", and by the local Thurrock Council as "one of Europe's most heavily used crossings and complex traffic management systems". It is signed as a major destination on London's orbital route, the M25, though the crossing and its approach road are an all-purpose road (the A282); this allows some (though not all) non-motorway traffic—such as mopeds, learner drivers and agricultural vehicles—to use it. The speed limit for the crossing is set at 50 mph. Though not the name of the crossing infrastructure, the actual road across the Thames is named Canterbury Way. Southbound traffic crosses the four-lane bridge, while northbound traffic uses both of the two-lane road tunnels. The bridge can be closed due to high winds or maintenance. On these occasions, traffic uses the tunnels in both directions. The crossing and its approaches, like most UK urban motorways, are equipped with lane control and variable-message signs to manage traffic. Alternative routes The next nearest vehicle crossings to the west of Dartford are the Woolwich Ferry and the Blackwall Tunnel, both well within East London. When the bridge is closed in high winds and for maintenance, no convenient diversion exists through London for the higher-limit southbound vehicles. Those over are diverted around the far side of the M25. A number of new crossings have been proposed as relief for the Dartford Crossing. The proposed Thames Gateway Bridge to the west was provisionally supported in 2004, but was cancelled in November 2008 when Boris Johnson became Mayor of London. Johnson subsequently proposed the Gallions Reach Ferry, a ferry crossing in the same location, as an alternative. The Lower Thames Crossing is a proposed tunnel to the east between Shorne, Kent and South Ockendon, Essex. Thurrock Council suggest that this crossing will be essential for managing congestion. A public consultation on the scheme ended in March 2016, with the route announced in April 2017. , contracts have been awarded and the target date for completion is 2032. A free-flow electronic charging system called Dart Charge began in November 2014 based on automatic number plate recognition. The charge can be paid online or phone, in advance or by midnight the day after crossing, but can no longer be paid in cash at the site since the old toll booths have been removed. However, cash payments are accepted at some Payzone retail outlets. Reminder signs and variable message signs on approaches to the crossing say "Dart charge – find us online. Pay by midnight tomorrow." Vehicles have to pay the charge if they use the crossing between 6 am and 10 pm seven days per week, and this is indicated on signs. Daily charges for the crossing since October 2018 are: + Day charges Vehicle class Pay-as-you-go Pre-paid accounts Motorcycles Free Free Cars, motorhomes, small minibuses £2.50 £2.00 2-axle buses, coaches, vans, goods £3.00 £2.63 Multi-axle goods, coaches £6.00 £5.19 Various categories of vehicles are exempt from the charge, including emergency services vehicles, military vehicles and those exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty on the grounds of disability. The charges vary according to the type of vehicle. Motorcycles are free but there are standard charges for cars, two-axle goods vehicles and larger vehicles with more than two axles. Drivers who fail to pay the charge are issued with a penalty charge notice. There are no signs warning of penalty charges. Since 2008, a local residents' scheme gives 50 crossings to car drivers resident in the Dartford and Thurrock council areas for an annual registration fee of £10, with additional crossings at 20p each. On 1 March 2014, this scheme was extended to include privately owned two-axle goods vehicles. A further option was introduced giving unlimited crossings for £20 annually. Around 44,000 drivers take advantage of this scheme each year. Although the website for paying the charge is operated by the UK Government, the contract for the free-flow charging system is held by French public roads operator Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France (SANEF) on behalf of the Government. In 2025, campaign group Transport Action Network claimed the toll could be tripled to £8.10 for cars and £14 for lorries if private finance is used to build the Lower Thames Crossing. Western tunnel The idea of a tunnel crossing was first proposed by the Ministry of Transport in 1924. Initial reports at the start of the year suggested a crossing between Tilbury and Gravesend, replacing a ferry service, but this had been rejected by July in favour of a route further upstream, near Dartford. By 1929, the total cost of building the tunnel had been estimated at £3 million (equivalent to £ million in ). The tunnel was planned to be part of a general orbital route around London and was provisionally known as part of the "South Orbital Road". The (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. clxxxii) authorised the construction of the tunnel, and set tolls to be charged for its use. It was amended by the (1 Edw. 8. & 1 Geo. 6. c. cxxvii) to adjust the design and increase the permitted tolls. The first engineering work to take place was a compressed air driven pilot tunnel, which was drilled between 1936 and 1938. Work on the tunnel was delayed due to World War II, and resumed in 1959, using a Greathead Shield, similar to the work on the Blackwall Tunnel some 60 years earlier. The delay in work due to the war allowed the tunnel's design to be improved, which included a better ventilation system. After negotiations with the Ministry of Transport, Kent and Essex county councils obtained government approval to increase the previously set tolls in 1960, before opening. The two-lane bore, 28 feet \| 8.6m diameter tunnel opened to traffic on 18 November 1963; the total project cost was £13 million (equivalent to £ million in ) and it initially served approximately 12,000 vehicles per day. The toll was originally two shillings and sixpence, equivalent to 12.5p post-decimalisation, and approximately equivalent in purchasing power to £ in . The (c. xxxvii) gave a joint committee of Kent and Essex county councils (the Dartford Tunnel Joint Committee) the authority to increase the tolls, and in December 1977, the toll was raised from 25p to 35p for cars, 40p to 55p for two-axle goods vehicles, and 60p to 85p for HGVs. By 1984, the toll for cars had risen to 60p. Eastern tunnel The first tunnel was expected to carry two million vehicles a year but by 1970 was carrying over eight million. That year, Michael Heseltine, then a junior transport minister, announced that a second tunnel would be built in conjunction with the North Orbital Road, later to become the M25. Construction was approved in April 1971, with an initial expected opening date in 1976. Work was delayed due to a lack of funds, which was resolved by EEC funding granted in 1974. The second tunnel opened in May 1980, allowing each tunnel to handle one direction of traffic, by which time the joint capacity of the two tunnels had increased to 65,000 vehicles per day. Connection of the crossing to the M25 was completed on the southerly Kent side in 1977 (Junction 2) and to the northerly Essex side in September 1982 (Junction 31). Following the completion of the M25 in 1986, the daily demand had grown to 79,000 vehicles. Queen Elizabeth II Bridge During the early 1980s, it was anticipated that traffic through the tunnel would rise on the completion of the M25 in 1986. At the time, the expectation was that other routes in London would be improved instead, diverting 15% of traffic away from the tunnel. In 1985, the Transport Minister, Lynda Chalker, announced that the number of toll booths would be increased to 12 each way, but concern grew that two tunnels would not be able to cope with the full demands of a completed M25. Between September 1985 and December 1986, proposals for improvements to the Dartford Crossing underwent several changes, and in 1986, a Trafalgar House consortium won a bid to build a new bridge at Dartford crossing, valued at £86 million (£ million in ). At the time there were several other privately financed projects planned or under construction in the UK, including the Second Severn Crossing. From 1981 until the establishment of the private finance initiative (PFI) regime in the late 1980s, private investment projects were governed by the Ryrie Rules which dictated that "any privately-financed solution must be shown to be more cost-effective than a publicly-financed alternative, and that privately-financed expenditure by nationalised industries could not be additional to public expenditure provision" [annual budget], "which would be reduced by the amount of private finance borrowed." On 31 July 1988, a private finance initiative concession was enabled under the Dartford-Thurrock Crossing Act 1988 (c. 20), which transferred control of the crossing from Kent and Essex county councils to Dartford River Crossing Limited, a private company managed by Rodney Jones. The company would also bear the debt of the bridge, then under construction, "financed 100% by debt, with no equity contribution". The private company was at risk of not recuperating their costs, but ultimately the Dartford scheme demonstrated that the Ryrie Rules were no longer a barrier to the private financing of public infrastructure projects. The concession was scheduled for 20 years from the transfer date, with a stipulation that it could end when debts had been paid off, which was agreed to have been achieved on 31 March 2002. According to the International Handbook on Public-Private Partnership, the chief financing for the project came from a "20-year subordinated loan stock, 16-year loan stock and £85 million (£ million in ) as a term loan from banks". The construction contract was let to a joint venture of Kværner, Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company and the Cementation Company. Construction of the bridge started immediately after the creation of the PFI in 1988. It was designed by German civil engineer , with the UK's Halcrow Group acting as category 3 check engineer, employer's agent and engineering adviser. The two main caissons supporting the bridge piers were constructed in the Netherlands. Each caisson was designed to withstand a bridge strike of a ship weighing up to 65,000 tonnes and travelling up to The bridge deck is about high, and it took a team of around 56 to assemble its structure. During construction of the approach road, a World War II bomb was found in its path, which required closure of the entire crossing. The bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 30 October 1991. The total cost of construction was £120 million (£ in ), including £30 million (£ million in ) for the approach roads. The proposed name had been simply the Dartford Bridge, but Thurrock residents objected and suggested the Tilbury Bridge, leading to a compromise. At the time of opening, it had the longest cable-stayed span of any bridge in Europe. It is the only bridge across the Thames downstream of Central London to be opened since Tower Bridge in 1894. Charging scheme In 2000, the European Union issued a directive that value-added tax should be charged on all road tolls, including the Dartford Crossing. The Government opposed the directive and said it would bear the additional cost. It was anticipated that the tolls would be removed on 1 April 2003 under the original PFI scheme contract. However, the Highways Agency decided that the tolls would become a "charge", under legislation introduced by the Transport Act 2000 to introduce charging schemes on any trunk road bridge or tunnel at least in length. Under the 2000 Transport Act, the A282 Trunk Road (Dartford-Thurrock Crossing charging scheme) Order 2002 allowed the continuation of the crossing fee, which officially became a charge and not a toll on 1 April 2003. Management of the crossing was contracted to Le Crossing Company Limited on behalf of the Highways Agency. In September 2009 the Highways Agency made a new contract with Connect Plus (M25) Limited. As well as maintaining the crossing, the contract required the company to widen around 40 miles of the M25 and to refurbish a tunnel on the A1(M) at Hatfield. In October 2009, the Government announced its intention to sell the crossing as part of a public sector deficit reduction strategy. The announcement was unpopular with local residents, who encouraged drivers to sound their horns in protest when using the crossing. After the change of government following the 2010 general election, the new prime minister David Cameron announced that the crossing might still be sold, despite local opposition, particularly from Gareth Johnson, Member of Parliament (MP) for Dartford. Subsequently, the chancellor George Osborne announced that charges would be increased instead to cover the budget deficit. Pre-pay accounts for the crossing were introduced around this time; drivers held an electronic device called a DART-Tag in the vehicle that automatically deducted the charge at payment booths. This was abolished when the Dart Charge was introduced in 2014. Under the 2008 Charging Order introduced on 15 November 2008, charges between 10 pm and 6 am were discontinued, but standard daytime rates increased, starting at £1.50 for cars. On 7 October 2012 the charges increased to £2 for cars, £2.50 for 2 axle goods vehicles and £5 for multi-axle goods vehicles. By 2012, local businesses were complaining that the crossing's charge booths were impeding local growth. The government announced that a new electronic charging system would be introduced in 2014. Drivers would be able to pay by phone, text, online or in shops. The charge was proposed to increase to £2.50 for cars, £3 for two-axle goods vehicles and £6 for multi-axle vehicles. Drivers not exempt and not paying the charge within 28 days are charged £105. Preparation work on the free-flow scheme started in April 2014. Concerns were raised about reliability, with a Highways Agency report predicting that it could lose up to £6m of unpaid charges per year. In September, the Highways Agency announced that the new scheme would start to operate at the end of November, though related works to remove barriers would continue until April 2015. Subsequently, the date for removal of the booths was confirmed as 30 November. The Dart Charge scheme was considered a success by the project management, who claimed it has reduced peak-time round trips over the crossing by 15 minutes. The Automobile Association said the scheme had faults, while a 2015 BBC report showed 1.8 million fines had been issued for failure to pay in the year since the charge was set up. In 2023, a system upgrade prevented many users from paying the Dart Charge, and National Highways temporarily extended its payment deadline to accommodate the problem. Traffic a total of 1,537,084,159 journeys had been made. The highest recorded daily usage was 181,990 on 23 July 2004; since then traffic levels have decreased. The total income for the financial year ended 31 March 2012 was £72,147,091, while the corresponding figure for the following financial year was £80,331,662. A 2016 report by Highways England suggested the crossing is used around 50 million times a year. Bus There is currently one bus service that uses the crossing, the X80 operated by Ensignbus which runs between Lakeside Shopping Centre and Bluewater. Cycling Bicycles are not permitted on the crossing, but cyclists can be carried across the crossing by the transport authority. Section 27 of the Dartford-Thurrock Crossing Act 1988 requires that this service be provided free of charge. Cyclists report to the crossing control offices on either side, using a free telephone service. The transfer takes around 15 to 30 minutes. In October 1963, the Dartford Tunnel Joint Committee ordered five double-decker buses based on the Ford Thames Trader chassis for special duties, taking cyclists through the Dartford Tunnel. These had a lower deck purpose-built for carrying bicycles, with upper deck seats for cyclists. Access was via a stairwell to the upper deck starting several feet above the level of the road, accessible from special platforms built at either end of the tunnel; there was also a ladder built into the side of the bodywork for access elsewhere. The design was criticised for failing to protect any passenger from falling off the vehicle, and running costs were estimated at £2,550 per month, with only £45 revenue. The joint committee contracted London Transport to operate the buses on their behalf. The service was reduced to one bus in April 1964 and then cancelled in 1965, to be replaced by the current transfer service using a vehicle with a rear cycle rack. One of these buses has been preserved. Hazardous loads The transport of hazardous goods through the crossing is governed by the European ADR Agreement. The Dartford Crossing is class C, which restricts transporting goods such as nitrates and flammable liquids. The introduction of the ADR scheme initially caused confusion, and for a short time, transporting aerosols through the tunnel was banned. Certain hazardous goods vehicles, together with some oversize and abnormal loads (if permitted), may require escorting by National Highways traffic officers. The crossing authority must hold exercises in conjunction with the emergency services. In 2006 Exercise Orpheus was held, involving the closure of both road tunnels for five hours. Safety patrol The tunnel is patrolled by National Highways traffic officers. Officers may stop and direct traffic on the crossing and its approach roads, and must be in uniform to exercise their powers. The crossing's speed limit is enforced by speed cameras; between October 2012 and June 2014, 24,229 drivers were caught speeding, with some travelling as fast as . A spokesman for Highways England said the cameras were "helping us improve safety and make journeys more reliable". The bridge also has a reduced speed limit of when crosswind is above or headwind above , and is closed entirely if Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, predicts crosswind above or headwind above . Congestion The crossing is the busiest in the United Kingdom, with an average daily use of around 160,000 vehicles. The crossing has high levels of congestion, especially at peak times - with high levels of air pollution impacting neighbouring Thurrock and Dartford. Because the design capacity has been exceeded, the crossing is subject to major traffic congestion and disruption, particularly when parts are closed because of accidents or bad weather. Though the government was adamant that the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge should be designed to avoid closure due to high winds, the bridge has nevertheless had to close on occasions. On 12 February 2014, during the winter storms, it was closed owing to winds, and again on the evening of 13–14 February 2014. At busy times there was significant delay at the payment booths when these existed. Because there are numerous junctions on either side of the crossing, a high proportion of local traffic mixes with long-distance traffic, for example travelling from the North and Midlands onward to Continental Europe. In 2004, a BBC survey reported that the crossing was "the most stressful section of the M25" while in 2009, the crossing was listed in a Royal Automobile Club report as the fourth most congested road in Britain. Though Highways England have reported greatly improved journey times since automatic charging was introduced, former local MP Gareth Johnson claims otherwise and has insisted that the Lower Thames Crossing, along with improved signing around Dartford, are better options to reduce congestion. In 2015, he said the crossing was Britain's worst stretch of motorway. Since the 2000s, planning work has been underway regarding another crossing of the Thames to ease congestion at the Dartford Crossing. Options considered included an additional crossing at Dartford for long distance M25 traffic, as well as new crossings located in the Swanscombe or Tilbury area. In 2017, a route connecting the M25 at North Ockendon to the A2 at Thong was selected. The new road will be in length, and have a twin-bore tunnel crossing under the River Thames east of Gravesend and Tilbury. The crossing is estimated to cost between £6.4 billion and £8.2 billion, taking about six years to build once permission is granted. See also Thames Gateway Crossings of the River Thames Tunnels underneath the River Thames References Footnotes
Mark Getty	[ "21st-century Irish businesspeople", "Irish businesspeople", "Irish people of American descent", "Getty family", "People educated at Taunton School", "1960 births", "Living people", "Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire", "Naturalised citizens of Ireland" ]	525	5,028	Mark Harris Getty (born 9 July 1960) is an Irish-French businessman who is the co-founder and chairman of Getty Images. Life and career A member of the prominent Getty family, he is the younger son of John Paul Getty Jr. and his first wife, Gail Harris. Getty was born in Rome, Italy. He attended Taunton School in England and later studied philosophy and politics at St Catherine's College, Oxford. Getty began his career at securities firm Kidder, Peabody & Co. in New York City and then joined Hambros Bank in London. In 1993, he drove his family's founding investment in andBeyond, the world's leading ecotourism business, and still acts as chairman of the business. In 1994, he co-founded the photographic agency Getty Images with Jonathan Klein. Getty Images is the world's leading supplier of imagery for the media, corporate, and advertising sectors. In 2003, he inherited Wormsley Park from his father. In 2008, Getty became chairman of the trustees of the National Gallery in London, a post he held until 2016. In 2017, Getty became chairman of the British School at Rome. Honors In May 2024, Getty was awarded an honorary degree for his contributions to art and philanthropy by The American University of Rome.
Sandy Grant Gordon	[ "1933 births", "2020 deaths", "Businesspeople from Glasgow", "People educated at Rugby School", "Whisky distillers", "William Grant & Sons people", "20th-century Scottish businesspeople", "21st-century Scottish businesspeople", "Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge" ]	1,057	11,937	Alexander Grant "Sandy" Gordon, (6 May 193121 December 2020) was a Scottish distiller who was credited with creating a global market for single malt Scotch whisky. As a managing director of the William Grant and Sons Glenfiddich distillery between 1968 and 1996, he is credited with global market success of the Glenfiddich brand. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988. Early life Gordon was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 6 May 1931. His mother was a doctor, and his father was the chairman of William Grant and Sons, a Scottish distilling company. Gordon was the great-grandson of the founder of the company. He was initially educated in Dufftown and then attended Rugby School, Warwickshire, England. He graduated with a degree in mathematics and law from Queens' College, Cambridge. He wanted to pursue a career in law or in aircraft design, but his father's diagnosis with colorectal cancer and later death prompted him to return and join the family distilling company. Career Gordon started out in his family's distilling company after his graduate studies in 1954 and was initially allocated managing sales for the Africa market. Reflecting on his work he later admitted that this experience showed him that his talents were not in sales. He would later return again to focus on the European market. He was credited with creation of single malt as a category of whiskies in 1963 and his efforts in creating a global market for Glenfiddich outside of Scotland, where it was not sold earlier. Prior to his efforts, virtually all of Scotland's exports were blended whisky. He was noted for his ability to forecast trends, particularly in the 1980s when strict laws against drinking coupled with high taxes caused a global slump in sales, and later there was a revival spurred by media depictions of scotch. This was important because of the time intensive ageing element of whisky production. The family also owned the Balvenie distillery which also produced its own single malt whisky. As of 2019, Glenfiddich was the largest selling single malt scotch whisky by volume, while both Glenfiddich and Balvenie were amongst the top 10 single malt whiskies in the global market by sales. He was also a pioneer of whisky tourism, with his setting up of the first visitor centre for Glennfiddich Distillery in Dufftown in Scotland. The Scottish newspaper, The Herald, notes that as of 2020, almost half of all Scottish distilleries have tourist centres. He served as the Managing Director and Chairman of the Glenfiddich distillery from 1968 until 1996 and held ownership within the family at a time when many distilleries were coming under foreign control. He was also a supporter of the Scottish arts and culture. In the early 1990s, he had made contributions as the chairman of the trust, toward the building of the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. He was awarded the College of Piping Award for his services to piping. He was a trustee on the Scottish Government's Board of the National Museums of Scotland and had set up a fellowship in Scottish history at the University of St Andrews. He was also the vice-chairman of the Scottish Seabird Centre, a conservation centre and had committed himself to supporting charities working with protecting endangered birds after his retirement. He had also made periodic bird-watching trips to Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, India, and Peru, after his retirement in 1996. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1988. Personal life Gordon met his wife Linda Stobart when he was studying in Cambridge. It is noted that he later showed her a book with the costs that he had incurred while courting her. The couple had four children. Peter Gordon, one of their sons, would go on to become a Director and later a Chairman at the family distillery. His wife died in October 2019. Gordon died at his home on 21 December 2020. He was aged 89. Gordon was active outdoors, and had climbed the 282 Munros, mountains with a height greater than , in Scotland. As of 2019, the Grant Gordon family was the richest in Scotland for six years in a row.
List of bank stress tests	[ "Stress tests (financial)", "Market risk", "Banking-related lists" ]	915	10,240	This list covers formal bank stress testing programs, as implemented by major regulators worldwide. It does not cover bank proprietary, internal testing programs. A bank stress test is an analysis of a bank's ability to endure a hypothetical adverse economic scenario. Stress tests became widely used after the 2008 financial crisis. Example For example, in the U.S. in 2012, an adverse scenario used in stress testing was all of the following: Unemployment at 13 percent 50 percent drop in equity prices 21 percent decline in housing prices. Asia Monetary Authority of Singapore Annual Industry-Wide Stress Testing exercise (usually around Q1) International Monetary Fund 2011 and 2012 stress testing of Japan banks, Financial System Stability Assessment Update (FSAP) China Banking Regulatory Commission 2011 CARPLES risk indicators framework Australian Prudential Regulation Authority 2014 industry stress test Reserve Bank of New Zealand 2014 major bank stress test Europe Financial Services Authority (UK) 2008 Stress and scenario testing CP08/24 2009 Stress and Scenario Testing Feedback on CP08/24 Bank of England Annual industry stress test European Banking Authority (euro area) 2009 European Union bank stress test 2010 European Union bank stress test 2011 European Union bank stress test 2014 European Union bank stress test The stress test was part of the Comprehensive Assessment by the European Central Bank. 2016 European Union bank stress test (scenario release: Wednesday 24 February 2016) 2018 European Union bank stress test (scenario release: Likely end February 2018 " final methodology will be published as the exercise is launched, at the beginning of 2018,") Americas Federal Reserve System 2009 Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP) Note: there was no 2010 stress test in the USA Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) 2011 2012 2013 A private conference call was held with banks to notify them of a new, two part information release by the Fed March 7, 2013 – Banks will be privately notified of the Fed's tentative decision on capital distribution plans. Banks receiving a "no" will then have a 48 hours to privately resubmit to the Fed a reduced a distribution plan. March 14, 2013 – the Fed will publicly disclose final decisions on requests for capital distributions The week of private negotiations between the bank and the Fed will allow banks to adjust their request downward to what the Fed will allow. This was specifically designed to allow banks to avoid "embarrassing capital-plan rejections" Shareholder lawsuits are expected if banks fail to disclose capital distribution plans and Fed rejections (even if labeled "informal") as the majority of shareholders and prospective shareholders regard bank dividend and share buyback plans, and limits, to be extremely material information. Banks may not follow Fed advice and release capital distribution plans in advance of March 14. 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Dodd-Frank Act Stress Tests 2013-2018 Central Bank of Brazil (Portuguese: Banco Central do Brasil) See also Bank regulation Basel III Stress test (financial) Systemically important financial institution List of systemically important banks Further reading at Investopedia. stress tests
Aftermath of the repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act	[ "Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation", "Legal history of the United States", "United States federal banking legislation", "Repealed United States legislation", "Financial regulation in the United States", "Separation of investment and retail banking" ]	4,904	47,753	The Glass–Steagall legislation was enacted by the United States Congress in 1933 as part of the 1933 Banking Act, amended as part of the 1935 Banking Act, and most of it was repealed in 1999 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA). Its protections and restrictions had also been chipped away during most of its existence by lenient regulatory interpretations and use of loopholes. After Glass–Steagall's 1999 repeal, there was a great deal of discussion in the banking and securities industries, and among policymakers and economists, about the practical positive and negative changes to the business and consumer environment. Later, as financial crises and other issues played out in the United States and even worldwide, arguments have broken out about whether Glass–Steagall, as originally intended, would have prevented these issues. Commentator response to Section 20 and 32 repeal President Bill Clinton's signing statement for the GLBA summarized the established argument for repealing Glass–Steagall Section's 20 and 32 in stating that this change, and the GLBA's amendments to the Bank Holding Company Act, would "enhance the stability of our financial services system" by permitting financial firms to "diversify their product offerings and thus their sources of revenue" and make financial firms "better equipped to compete in global financial markets." With Salomon Smith Barney already operating as a Section 20 affiliate of Citibank under existing law, commentators did not find much significance in the GLBA's repeal of Sections 20 and 32. Many commentators noted those sections "were dead" before the GLBA. The GLBA's amendment to the Bank Holding Company Act to permit banks to affiliate with insurance underwriting companies was a new power. Under a 1982 amendment to the Bank Holding Company Act, bank affiliates had been prohibited from underwriting most forms of insurance. Because the GLBA permitted banks to affiliate with insurance underwriters, Citigroup was able to retain ownership of the Travelers insurance underwriting business. Overall, however, commentators viewed the GLBA "as ratifying and extending changes that had already been made, rather than as revolutionary." At least one commentator found the entire GLBA "unnecessary" for banks and suggested the OCC had the authority to grant national banks all the insurance underwriting powers permitted to affiliates through the GLBA. As John Boyd had earlier, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank president Gary Stern and Arthur Wilmarth warned that the GLBA's permission for broader combinations of banking, securities, and insurance activities could increase the "too big to fail" problem. Financial industry developments after repeal of Sections 20 and 32 Citigroup gives up insurance underwriting The GLBA permitted Citigroup to retain the Travelers property, casualty, and life insurance underwriting businesses beyond the five-year "divestiture" period the Federal Reserve Board could have permitted under the pre-GLBA form of the BHCA. Before that five-year period elapsed, however, Citigroup spun off the Travelers property and casualty insurance business to Citigroup's shareholders. In 2005 Citigroup sold to Metropolitan Life the Travelers life insurance business. Commentators noted that Citigroup was left with selling insurance underwritten by third parties, a business it could have conducted without the GLBA. Banking, insurance, and securities industries remain structurally unchanged In November 2003 the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department issued to Congress a report (Joint Report) on the activities of the "financial holding companies" (FHCs) authorized by the GLBA and the effect of mergers or acquisitions by FHCs on market concentration in the financial services industry. According to the Joint Report, 12% of all bank holding companies had qualified as financial holding companies to exercise the new powers provided by the GLBA, and those companies held 78% of all bank holding company assets. 40 of the 45 bank holding companies with Section 20 affiliates before 2000 had qualified as financial holding companies, and their securities related assets had nearly doubled. The great majority of this increase was at non-U.S. based banks. Such foreign banking companies had acquired several medium-sized securities firms (such as UBS acquiring Paine Webber and Credit Suisse acquiring Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette). Despite these increases in securities activities by bank holding companies that qualified as financial holding companies, the Joint Report found that concentration levels among securities underwriting and dealing firms had not changed significantly since 1999. Ranked by capital levels, none of the four largest securities dealing and underwriting firms was affiliated with a financial holding company. Although the market share of financial holding companies among the 25 largest securities firms had increased by 5.7 percentage points from that held in 1999 before the GLBA became effective, all of the increase came from foreign banks increasing their U.S. securities operations. The combined market share of the five largest U.S. based financial holding companies declined by 1 percentage point from 1999 to 2003, with the largest, Citigroup, experiencing a 2.4 percentage point reduction from 1999 to 2003. Of the 45 bank holding companies that had operated Section 20 affiliates before the GLBA, 40 had qualified as financial holding companies, 2 conducted securities underwriting and dealing through direct bank subsidiaries (i.e., "financial subsidiaries"), and 3 continued to operate Section 20 affiliates subject to pre-GLBA rules. In a speech delivered shortly before the Joint Report was released, Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson stated that the Federal Reserve had "not been able to uncover any evidence that the overall market structure of the [banking, insurance, and securities] segments of the financial services industry has substantially changed" since the GLBA. Early in 2004, the Financial Times reported that "financial supermarkets" were failing around the world, as both diversification and larger size failed to increase profitability. The Congressional Research Service noted that after the GLBA became law the financial services markets in the United States "had not really integrated" as mergers and consolidations occurred "largely within sectors" without the expected "wholesale integration in financial services." At a July 13, 2004, Senate Banking Committee hearing on the effects of the GLBA five years after passage, the Legislative Director of the Consumer Federation cited Roger Ferguson's 2003 speech and stated the "extravagant promises" of universal banking had "proven to be mostly hype." He noted that advocates of repealing Sections 20 and 32 had said "[b]anks, securities firms, and insurance companies would merge into financial services supermarkets" and, after five years, some mergers had occurred "but mostly within the banking industry, not across sectors." Within the banking industry, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan testified to Congress in 2004 that commercial bank consolidation had "slowed sharply in the past five years." At the five-year anniversary of the GLBA in November 2004, the American Banker quoted then retiring Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke Jr. and former FDIC Chairman William Seidman as stating the GLBA had been less significant than expected in not bringing about the combinations of banking, insurance, and investment banking. Hawke described the GLBA provisions permitting such combinations as "pretty much a dead letter." Although the article noted other commentators expected this would change in 2005, a May 24, 2005, American Banker article proclaimed 2005 the "year of divestiture" as "many observers" described Citigroup's sale of the Travelers life and annuity insurance business as "a nail in the coffin of financial services convergence." In 2005 the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank's staff issued a study finding that after five years the GLBA's effects "have been modest" and the new law "simply made it easier for organizations to continue to engage in the activities they had already undertaken." Competition between commercial banking and investment banking firms Commentators pointed to the Enron, WorldCom, and other corporate scandals of the early 2000s as exposing the dangers of uniting commercial and investment banking. More broadly, Arthur Wilmarth questioned whether those scandals and the "stock market bubble" of the late-1990s were linked to the growing role of commercial banks in the securities markets during the 1990s. As Wilmarth's article indicated, the identified bank or bank affiliate activities linked to the Enron and World Com corporate scandals began in 1996 (or earlier) and most occurred before March 11, 2000, when bank holding companies could first use the new securities powers the GLBA provided to "financial holding companies". In the 1990s investment banks complained that commercial banking firms with Section 20 affiliates had coerced customers into hiring the Section 20 affiliate to underwrite securities in order to receive loans from the affiliated bank, which would have violated the "anti-tying" provisions of the Bank Holding Company Act. In 1997, the GAO issued a report reviewing those claims. After the GLBA became law, investment banks continued to claim such illegal "tying" was being practiced. In 2003, the GAO issued another report reviewing those claims. Partly because of the "tying" issue many commentators expected investment banking firms would need to convert into bank holding companies (and qualify as financial holding companies) to compete with commercial bank affiliated securities firms. No major investment bank, however, became a bank holding company until the 2008 financial crisis. Then, all five major "free standing" investment banks (i.e., those not part of a bank holding company) either entered bankruptcy proceedings (Lehman Brothers), were acquired by bank holding companies (Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch by Bank of America), or became bank holding companies by converting their industrial loan companies ("nonbank banks") into a national (Morgan Stanley) or state chartered Federal Reserve member bank (Goldman Sachs). At the July 13, 2004, Senate Banking Committee hearing on the GLBA's effects, the Securities Industry Association representative explained securities firms had not taken advantage of the GLBA's "financial holding company" powers because that would have required them to end affiliations with commercial firms by 2009. GLBA critics had complained that the law had prevented insurance and securities firms from truly entering the banking business by making a "faulty" distinction between commercial and financial activities. The Consumer Federation of America and other commentators suggested securities firms had avoided becoming "financial holding companies" because they wanted to avoid Federal Reserve supervision as bank holding companies. The SEC (through its Chairman Arthur Levitt) had supported efforts to permit securities firms to engage in non-FDIC insured banking activities without the Federal Reserve's "intrusive banking-style oversight" of the "overall holding company". After the GLBA became law, securities firms continued (and expanded) their deposit and lending activities through the "unitary thrifts" and "nonbank banks" (particularly industrial loan companies) they had used before the GLBA to avoid regulation as bank holding companies. Alan Greenspan later noted securities firms only took on the "embrace" of Federal Reserve Board supervision as bank holding companies (and financial holding companies) during the 2008 financial crisis. Melanie Fein has described how the consolidation of the banking and securities industries occurred in the 1990s, particularly after the Federal Reserve Board's actions in 1996 and 1997 increasing Section 20 "bank-ineligible" revenue limits and removing "firewalls". Fein stated that "[a]lthough the Gramm-Leach-Blily Act was expected to trigger a cascade of new consolidation proposals, no major mergers of banks and securities firms occurred in the years immediately following" and that the "consolidation trend resumed abruptly in 2008 as a result of the financial crisis" leading to all the large investment banks being acquired by, or converting into, bank holding companies. Fein noted the lack of consolidation activity after 1999 and before September 2008 was "perhaps because much of the consolidation had occurred prior to the Act." Commentators cite only three major financial firms from outside the banking industry (the discount broker Charles Schwab, the insurance company MetLife, and the mutual fund company Franklin Resources) for qualifying as financial holding companies after the GLBA became effective and before the 2008 financial crisis. In 2011 the European Central Bank published a working paper that concluded commercial bank Section 20 affiliate underwriting of corporate bonds in the 1990s had been of lower quality than the underwriting of non-commercial bank affiliated securities firms. The authors suggest the most likely explanation was that commercial bank affiliates "had to be initially more aggressive than investment bank houses in order to gain market share, and in pursuing this objective they might have loosened their credit standards excessively." The working paper only examined corporate bonds underwritten from 1991 through 1999, a period before the GLBA permitted financial holding companies. Glass–Steagall "repeal" and the 2008 financial crisis Robert Kuttner, Joseph Stiglitz, Elizabeth Warren, Robert Weissman, Richard D. Wolff and others have tied Glass–Steagall repeal to the 2008 financial crisis. Kuttner acknowledged "de facto inroads" before Glass–Steagall "repeal" but argued the GLBA's "repeal" had permitted "super-banks" to "re-enact the same kinds of structural conflicts of interest that were endemic in the 1920s," which he characterized as "lending to speculators, packaging and securitizing credits and then selling them off, wholesale or retail, and extracting fees at every step along the way." Stiglitz argued "the most important consequence of Glass–Steagall repeal" was in changing the culture of commercial banking so that the "bigger risk" culture of investment banking "came out on top." He also argued the GLBA "created ever larger banks that were too big to be allowed to fail," which "provided incentives for excessive risk taking." Warren explained Glass–Steagall had kept banks from doing "crazy things". She credited FDIC insurance, the Glass–Steagall separation of investment banking, and SEC regulations as providing "50 years without a crisis" and argued that crises returned in the 1980s with the "pulling away of the threads" of regulation. Weissman agrees with Stiglitz that the "most important effect" of Glass–Steagall "repeal" was to "change the culture of commercial banking to emulate Wall Street's high-risk speculative betting approach." Lawrence J. White and Jerry Markham rejected these claims and argued that products linked to the 2008 financial crisis were not regulated by Glass–Steagall or were available from commercial banks or their affiliates before the GLBA repealed Glass–Steagall sections 20 and 32. Alan Blinder wrote in 2009 that he had "yet to hear a good answer" to the question "what bad practices would have been prevented if Glass–Steagall was still on the books?" Blinder argued that "disgraceful" mortgage underwriting standards "did not rely on any new GLB powers", that "free-standing investment banks" not the "banking-securities conglomerates" permitted by the GLBA were the major producers of "dodgy MBS", and that he could not "see how this crisis would have been any milder if GLB had never passed." Similarly, Melanie Fein wrote that the 2008 financial crisis "was not a result of the GLBA" and that the "GLBA did not authorize any securities activities that were the cause of the financial crisis." Fein noted "[s]ecuritization was not an activity authorized by the GLBA but instead had been held by the courts in 1990 to be part of the business of banking rather than an activity proscribed by the Glass–Steagall Act." As described above, in 1978 the OCC approved a national bank securitizing residential mortgages. Carl Felsenfeld and David L. Glass wrote that "[t]he public—which for this purpose includes most of the members of Congress" does not understand that the investment banks and other "shadow banking" firms that experienced "runs" precipitating the 2008 financial crisis (i.e., AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch) never became "financial holding companies" under the GLBA and, therefore, never exercised any new powers available through Glass–Steagall "repeal". They joined Jonathan R. Macey and Peter J. Wallison in noting many GLBA critics do not understand that Glass–Steagall's restrictions on banks (i.e., Sections 16 and 21) remained in effect and that the GLBA only repealed the affiliation provisions in Sections 20 and 32. The American Bankers Association, former President Bill Clinton, and others have argued that the GLBA permission for affiliations between securities and commercial banking firms "helped to mitigate" or "softened" the 2008 financial crisis by permitting bank holding companies to acquire troubled securities firms or such troubled firms to convert into bank holding companies. Martin Mayer argued there were "three reasonable arguments" for tying Glass–Steagall repeal to the 2008 financial crisis: (1) it invited banks to enter risks they did not understand; (2) it created "network integration" that increased contagion; and (3) it joined the incompatible businesses of commercial and investment banking. Mayer, however, then described banking developments in the 1970s and 1980s that had already established these conditions before the GLBA repealed Sections 20 and 32. Mayer's 1974 book The Bankers detailed the "revolution in banking" that followed Citibank establishing a liquid secondary market in "negotiable certificates of deposit" in 1961. This new "liability management" permitted banks to fund their activities through the "capital markets", like nonbank lenders in the "shadow banking market", rather than through the traditional regulated bank deposit market envisioned by the 1933 Banking Act. In 1973 Sherman J. Maisel wrote of his time on the Federal Reserve Board and described how "[t]he banking system today is far different from what it was even in 1960" as "formerly little used instruments" were used in the "money markets" and "turned out to be extremely volatile." In describing the "transformation of the U.S. financial services industry" from 1975 to 2000 (i.e., from after the "revolution in banking" described by Mayer in 1974 to the effective date of the GLBA), Arthur Wilmarth described how during the 1990s, despite remaining bank holding companies, J.P. Morgan & Co. and Bankers Trust "built financial profiles similar to securities firms with a heavy emphasis on trading and investments." In 1993, Helen Garten described the transformation of the same companies into "wholesale banks" similar to European "universal banks". Jan Kregel agrees that "multifunction" banks are a source for financial crises, but he argues the "basic principles" of Glass–Steagall "were eviscerated even before" the GLBA. Kregel describes Glass–Steagall as creating a "monopoly that was doomed to fail" because after World War II nonbanks were permitted to use "capital market activities" to duplicate more cheaply the deposit and commercial loan products for which Glass–Steagall had sought to provide a bank monopoly. While accepting that under Glass–Steagall financial firms could still have "made, sold, and securitized risky mortgages, all the while fueling a massive housing bubble and building a highly leveraged, Ponzi-like pyramid of derivatives on top," the New Rules Project concludes that commentators who deny the GLBA played a role in the 2008 financial crisis "fail to recognize the significance of 1999 as the pivotal policy-making moment leading up to the crash." The Project argues 1999 was Congress's opportunity to reject 25 years of "deregulation" and "confront the changing financial system by reaffirming the importance of effective structural safeguards, such as the Glass–Steagall Act's firewall and market share caps to limit the size of banks; bringing shadow banks into the regulatory framework; and developing new rules to control the dangers inherent in derivatives and other engineered financial products." Raj Date and Michael Konczal similarly argued that the GLBA did not create the 2008 financial crisis but that the implicit "logical premises" of the GLBA, which included a belief that "non-depository 'shadow banks' should continue to compete in the banking business," "enabled the financial crisis" and "may well have hastened it." See also the References list (citations) in the main article, Glass–Steagall_Act. . . Further reading Gould, Anthony M., and Milène R. Lokrou. "Paved with good intentions: Misdirected idealism in the lead-up to 2008’s GFC." Economic and Labour Relations Review 29.4 (2018): 394–409. Swanepoel, Ezelda, J. Esterhuysen, and R. Lotriet. "Dodd-Frank and risk-taking: reputation impact in banks." Banks & bank systems 12#1 (2017): 36–43. Wilmarth, Arthur E. "The Dark Side of Universal Banking: Financial Conglomerates and the Origins of the Subprime Financial Crisis." Connecticut Law Review 42.4 (2009). .
Ryszard Czerniawski	[ "1952 births", "2019 deaths", "20th-century Polish economists", "University of Warsaw alumni", "SGH Warsaw School of Economics alumni", "Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta", "Academic staff of SWPS University", "Polish jurists", "21st-century Polish economists" ]	497	4,554	Ryszard Waldemar Czerniawski (20 August 1952 – 31 August 2019) was a Polish lawyer and economist. In 2000, he was awarded Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Career __NOTOC__ He studied law at the University of Warsaw and international trade at SGH Warsaw School of Economics. He worked as a journalist from 1976 to 1990, first at the Polish Press Agency and then at the weekly Prawo i Życie (Law and Life). In 2008, he received a doctorate in law from Lazarski University and in 2015 habilitation from University of Białystok. Between 1990 and 1991 he was head of the Legal Department within the Capital Markets Development Division at the Ministry of Privatisation; and from 1991 until 1994 a Director of the Legal Department at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, eventually becoming Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 1994, where he worked until June 2006. From 1994 until 2006, Czerniawski was a member of the Supervisory Board of the National Depository for Securities, and between 1998 and 2001 served as the board's Chairman. In the period 2001–2003, he was a member of the Supervisory Board of Centrum Giełdowe S.A. and the company's subsidiary Infogiełda SA. From 2012 to 2015 he was also vice-ombudsman. He died on 31 August 2019. Publications He was the author of numerous publications on securities trading, including: The first edition of Commentary on the Privatisation Act (1990), Commentary on Commercial Companies' Code provisions relating to Joint Stock Companies (2001) Commentary on the Bonds Act (2003). Co-author of a commentary on the Securities Public Trading Act (1996, 2001, 2002) Co-author of a guide for supervisory board members Between law and finance (2007). Giełdy (Stock Markets) (1992) Poradnik akcjonariusza (Shareholders' Handbook) (1991) Statuty Giełdy Warszawskiej (Statutes of the Warsaw Stock Exchange) (1995) The English edition of Statutes of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (1999) Zarząd spółki akcyjnej (The Management Board of a Joint Stock Company) (2007). See also Bartosz Pastuszka Józef Wojciechowski
William Chaloner	[ "17th-century English businesspeople", "1650 births", "1699 deaths", "17th-century English criminals", "Executed people from Warwickshire", "People executed for forgery", "English counterfeiters", "Coin designers", "People executed under the Stuarts for treason against England", "People executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging", "People executed at Tyburn", "Confidence tricksters", "17th-century executions by England", "Isaac Newton" ]	4,168	30,361	William Chaloner (1650 – 22 March 1699) was a serial counterfeit coiner and confidence trickster, who was imprisoned in Newgate Prison several times and eventually proven guilty of high treason by Sir Isaac Newton, Warden of the Royal Mint. He was hanged on the gallows at Tyburn on 22 March 1699. Chaloner grew up in a poor family in Warwickshire, but through a career in counterfeiting and con artistry attained great wealth, including a house in Knightsbridge. He started by forging "Birmingham Groats", then moved on to Guineas, French Pistoles, crowns and half-crowns, Banknotes and lottery tickets. At various times he also made and sold dildos and worked as a quack doctor, soothsayer, and sham anti-Jacobite "agent provocateur" to collect government rewards. In Guzman Redivivus, a posthumous biography published anonymously in 1699, it was stated that "scorning the 'petty Rogueries of Tricking single Men', he aimed rather at 'imposing upon a whole Kingdom'. Early life and scams Chaloner was born in Warwickshire in 1650, the son of a weaver. His parents had great difficulty controlling him, so he was apprenticed to a nail maker in Birmingham, a town notorious for coining. At this time groats (worth four pennies) were in short supply, so the forged "Birmingham groat" constituted a significant proportion of the national coinage. Chaloner, a quick learner, became skilled in their production. He soon demonstrated his ambition and, sometime in the 1680s, walked to London. The Craftsmens' Guild system prevented him finding gainful work, so he established himself by manufacturing and hawking "tin watches" containing dildos (Tin Watches, with D-does &c in 'em.) to cater for the sexually adventurous age. Thomas Levenson stated in Newton and the Counterfeiter that as early as 1660, two years after Oliver Cromwell’s death, "there were reports of imported Italian dildos being sold on St James's Street".) Next he became a quack doctor and soothsayer. According to the anonymous, posthumous 1699 biography Guzman Redivivus: According to the Oxford National Dictionary of Biography "He may have been the 'William Chaloner' who on 31 March 1684 married Katharine Atkinson at St Katharine's by the Tower, and he had several children. This relatively respectable period of Chaloner's life ended when he was suspected of robbery and forced to flee his lodgings." His "trick" for recovering stolen property was "to steal it in the first place". As a result, he made his first appearance in the public record in 1690, as a suspect in a burglary case. But the "tongue-pudding" and the knack for playing two sides against each other were established as hallmarks of his increasingly large-scale criminal enterprises. By early 1690 he was working as a japanner where he probably learned and practised the gilding process. Coining scams English currency was in disarray in the late 17th century. Hand-struck silver coins from prior to 1662 had been clipped around the edges and thus their value (weight) reduced so that they were no longer a viable tender, especially abroad. The machine-struck silver coins produced by the Royal Mint in the Tower of London after 1662 were protected from clipping by an engraved, decorated and milled edge, but were instead forged, both by casting from counterfeit moulds and by die stamping from counterfeit dies. By 1696 forged coins constituted about 10% of the nation's currency. The currency had a third problem: its value as silver bullion in Paris and Amsterdam was greater than the face value in London. Vast quantities of coins were melted and shipped abroad — an arbitrage market. New Acts of Parliament were passed in order to create the Bank of England and protect national military security. This situation prompted William Lowndes of the Treasury to ask Isaac Newton for help. Chaloner was part of one of the many coining gangs that existed. He was taught the subtle techniques of moulding "milled edges" and counterfeiting coins by Patrick Coffey, a goldsmith. Thomas Taylor, a master engraver and printer, made the dies. In 1691, Chaloner produced French Pistoles worth about 17 shillings each, using an alloy of silver. Then he produced English guineas that were gilded by Patrick Coffey and Chaloner's own brother-in-law Joseph Gravener. The chain was completed by Thomas Holloway and his wife who passed the coins to petty crooks for circulation. Chaloner was renowned in the coining community for the quality of his work and his prolific success. He purchased a large house in the semi-rural suburb of Knightsbridge, rode in a carriage, bought plate and dressed like a gentleman. Isaac Newton noted that Chaloner was: Chaloner now abandoned his family and had affairs with female coiners, among them Joan Porter (fl. 1692–1699). It was in the guise of a knowledgeable but respectable citizen that he became able to "offer his services" to Parliament and the Royal Mint. In mid-1692 William Blackford was condemned for passing out counterfeit guineas and denounced Chaloner, so he absconded until after Blackford was hanged. His next scheme was for forgeries of the mint's "machine-struck" coins. He recruited Thomas Holloway and bought a house in Egham, Surrey, where the noise of coining and hot moulding machines would not be suspicious. It was also outside the legal boundary of London. Among the group was John Peers, a molten metal and moulding specialist. On 18 May 1697 he appeared before magistrates on an unrelated charge, and denounced Chaloner's Egham operation as part of his plea. Newton heard about this by accident three months later, so arrested Peers for questioning and then recruited him as an agent. Peers rejoined Holloway in Egham and produced 18 forged shillings, enabling Newton to arrest Holloway for coining. An inventive coiner, Chaloner taught Thomas Holloway a new method of coining, using small, easily concealed stamps. By the 1690s Chaloner had become: Royal Mint scams In December 1692 (or 1694) Chaloner increased his ambition and targeted the Royal Mint. He issued pamphlets describing a "solution"' to currency problems such as restrict/licence access to tools needed for coining; the coinage should be struck with an impression far deeper than coiners' tools or presses would allow; use a deep groove along the edge; extend the treason law; and adjust the silver value. This attracted the interest of Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, Earl of Monmouth ex-Lord of the Treasury, ex-king's confidant, who had fallen out of favour with William III of England in the 1690s. Mordant wanted an opportunity to attack what he saw as a weak Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax. In 1695 Mordant arranged for Chaloner to address His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council about corrupt practices. This caused the Royal Mint to instigate its own investigations, which thwarted Chaloner's ambition to become its overseer. In January 1696 Chaloner was in Newgate prison on suspicion of felony. Following his testimony to the Privy Council in 1695 and the Royal Mint's investigations, they had taken evidence from many petty criminals that incriminated him. On 13 January 1696 he petitioned Charles Montagu, Chancellor of the Exchequer, with details of a conspiracy at the Royal Mint. He was released from Newgate and on 3 February (or by May) testified to an investigative committee of Lord Justices in Whitehall about the crimes of the "moneyers" within the Mint. He claimed that they coined false guineas, struck debased blanks sent in from outside, and sent out stamps for coining (he boasted privately to have benefited from both), and regularly produced underweight coin. He named other coiners, Thomas Carter, John Abbot, and Patrick Coffee, including his own alias, "Chandler". Chaloner testified that: He claimed that the die stamps of the crypto-Jacobite chief engraver, John Roettiers the elder, were loaned out of the Tower, at a time during Newton's "complete recoining" of the nation's currency, an exercise that took until 1699, when £7 million of coins had been minted. He also claimed that many mint employees were corrupt and all were too specialised to spot security flaws in other people's areas. What the mint needed was an officer who understood smithing and coining work, but Parliament made him no offer. On 26 March a committee of council reported that Chaloner was himself involved in coining and should remain a prisoner. At Parliament, by chance, he was recognised by Newton, leading to his arrest relating to the Egham coining operation and he was sent to Newgate. In order to bring a prosecution, Thomas Holloway was needed as a witness. From inside Newgate, Chaloner used a publican called Michael Gilligan to pay Holloway £20 to disappear to Scotland until the case collapsed. He was released seven weeks later. Anti-Jacobite scams In 1693 he was tempted by Government rewards to act as an "agent provocateur", providing information about Jacobite activities, plots and printing presses. He paid four Jacobites to print a fresh edition of James II's declaration of May 1693. When Chaloner entertained them on 1 June, they were arrested while in possession of copies of the declaration and their press seized. His reward was £1,000. In August 1693, accompanied by Aubrey Price, he unsuccessfully approached the government about a sham Jacobite plot to attack Dover Castle, offering to infiltrate the network as couriers so that they could read all the mail. In 1697 Chaloner advised Aubrey Price that: They approached the Government, via Sir Henry Colt, with a fabricated list of Jacobites in various countries. In June they were authorised to investigate further, despite erroneously including Williamites in the list. In August they accused Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, Secretary of State of helping Sir John Fenwick's escape in 1696 by providing a false pass. Shrewsbury forestalled this blackmail attempt by declaring it to the 'Lord Justices'. Chaloner claimed an extensive anti-Jacobite role, including the capture of another press and the seizure of thirty-six different titles. He claimed to have discovered that a merchant, John Comyns, was remitting money to France. Chaloner spent five weeks in gaol spying on Jacobite prisoners, and allegedly spent £400 on bribes. However the prosecutions often failed. Next, Chaloner proposed that Thomas Coppinger, or Matthew Coppinger, an unscrupulous thief-taker specializing in coining offences, should write a treasonable satire, and he would find a Jacobite printer whom they would jointly denounce to the authorities. In May 1694 Coppinger denounced Chaloner for coining and Lord Mayor Sir Thomas Stampe sent him to Newgate. Chaloner then turned the tables and testified against Coppinger, who was executed on 27 February 1695, or 22 February 1695. Bank of England scams Chaloner's next target was the Bank of England which started trading in 1694 by taking deposits from the wealthy to lend to the government. It introduced new £100 'bank notes' in May 1695, printed on partially marbled paper to prevent counterfeiting. After Chaloner learned of these notes, he ordered similar stock delivered to his Knightsbridge home, with which he printed £100 counterfeits, an act which, surprisingly, would not become a felony until 1697. The bank then discovered a forged note on 14 August 1695, and ceased their circulation within two months of their introduction. They traced the paper to a printer who unwittingly marbled the paper for Chaloner. Chaloner immediately turned "King's evidence", surrendered his unused stock, named other conspirators to give him credibility, and exposed a major fraud against the bank, one presumably in which he was himself involved. He testified that blank bills on the "City orphans' fund" were cut from the cheque book in the "Chamber of London" by Aubrey Price, and the bank paid out amounts up to £1,000. For his 'efforts' Chaloner received formal thanks from the Bank of England, received a reward of £200 from the bank, and kept all of his profits from the counterfeiting. An inventive counterfeiter, Chaloner had taught Aubrey Price how to counterfeit the new exchequer bills by altering the denominations after removing the old ink using a liquid that Chaloner had invented. Price was named by Chaloner, tried at the Old Bailey, and condemned to death for 'counterfeiting an excheque'. He was hanged at Tyburn on 22 June 1698. In 1699 Chaloner allegedly told a prisoner in Newgate that: Lottery ticket scam In 1698, Chaloner engraved a copperplate of tickets for the lottery on the "malt duty". Though this was not a felony, he covered his tracks and hid the plate between printing sessions. In August, another coiner, David Davis, betrayed the affair to James Vernon, under-secretary to Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, Secretary of State, whom he had attempted to blackmail in 1697, and a warrant/(bounty) was issued for Chaloner on 6 October. In late October he was again arrested and imprisoned in Newgate, while Newton continued to gather evidence for his final trial. Chaloner immediately accused Thomas Carter, a longtime colleague, of engraving the plate and offered to surrender it in exchange for immunity. Trial and death By January 1699 Newton was devoted to a complete investigation of Chaloner that would be water-tight. He used a comprehensive network of spies and informants, taking many statements from all his old contacts. The trial was held at the Old Bailey on 3 March. The Judge was Sir Salathiel Lovell, who had a reputation as a "hanging judge". Chaloner had to conduct his own defence without prior knowledge of Newton's case, evidence or witnesses, and no "presumption of innocence". He faced two indictments for treason—coining French pistoles in 1692, and coining crowns and half-crowns in 1698. Newton fielded eight witnesses that spanned Chaloner's career. Catherine Coffey, wife of goldsmith Patrick Coffey, declared that she had seen him coin French Pistoles. Elizabeth Holloway declared how Chaloner had bribed her husband, the coiner Thomas Holloway, to flee to Scotland and avoid giving evidence at the 1697 trial. Thomas Taylor, the engraver in the major coining conspiracy. Catherine Carter, wife of Thomas Carter who had twice previously been named and blamed by Chaloner, testified to Chaloner's skill as a forger and his role in the lottery scam. While in Newgate waiting for the trial, Chaloner had pretended to go mad. Newton noted that at first, ... Chaloner hath feigned himself mad. In court he resorted to insulting all parties and claiming they were committing perjury to save their own necks, and that anyway, the charges related to acts in the City and Surrey, outside the jurisdiction of the Middlesex sessions. The jury needed only a few minutes to reach a verdict, and he was sentenced the next day. Over the following fortnight he wrote a series of letters to both Newton and Justice Railton, the Supervising Magistrate, that were in turn aggressive, blame shifting, begging, accusatory and rambling. None received a reply. Chaloner's final letter to Newton concluded: Chaloner was hanged on the gallows at Tyburn on 22 March 1699, twitching and writhing for several minutes of the 'hangman's dance', whilst "stinking, wet, cold and mercilessly sober". Then, he was publicly disemboweled. See also Catherine Murphy (counterfeiter) (died 1789) the last woman to be executed by burning. Sources Sources listed by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; Paul Hopkins and Stuart Handley. Guzman redivivus: a short view of the life of Will. Chaloner, the notorious coyner, who was executed at Tyburn on Wednesday the 22d of March 1698/9 (1699) The correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H. W. Turnbull and others, 7 vols. (1959–77), vol. 4 Mint depositions, TNA: PRO, MINT 15/17 Newton papers, TNA: PRO, MINT 19/1–3 CSP dom. Letters illustrative of the reign of William III from 1696 to 1708 addressed to the duke of Shrewsbury by James Vernon, ed. G. P. R. James, 3 vols. (1841) Shrewsbury papers, Northants. RO, Buccleuch papers, vols. 46–7, 63 · JHC, 12–13 (1697–1702) Chaloner's petitions to William III, 1695, BL, Add. MS 72568, fols. 47–54 E. Southwell's privy council minutes, BL, Add. MS 35107 · papers of the first earl of Portland, Nottingham UL, PwA William Arthur Shaw, ed., Calendar of treasury books, [33 vols. in 64], PRO (1904–69), vols. 10–14 Bank of England Archives, London, F2/160, G4/2, G4/4 Middlesex sessions rolls, gaol delivery, LMA, MJ/SR/1821–1925 (1693–9) Sessions rolls and minute books, 1694–9, CLRO, City of London, SF402–39; SM 65–7 F. E. Manuel, A portrait of Isaac Newton (1968) R. S. Westfall, Never at rest: a biography of Isaac Newton (1980) N. Luttrell, A brief historical relation of state affairs from September 1678 to April 1714, 6 vols. (1857) W. Chaloner, To the honourable, the knights, citizens and burgesses in parliament assembled: proposals humby offered, for passing, an act to prevent clipping and counterfeiting of money (1695) W. Chaloner, The defects in the present constitution of the mint, humbly offered to the consideration of the present House of Commons [1697] W. Chaloner, To the honourable the knights, citizens and burgesses in parliament assembled. Reasons humbly offered against passing an act for raising ten hundred thousand pounds, to make good the deficiency of the clipt-money [1694] H. Haynes, ‘Brief memoires relating to the silver and gold coins of England’, 1700, BL, Lansdowne MS. 801 Report on the manuscripts of the marquis of Downshire, 6 vols. in 7, HMC, 75 (1924–95), vol. 1 Sir W. Trumbull's diary, BL, Add. MS 72571 J. M. Beattie, Policing and punishment in London, 1660–1750 (2001) [H. Fitzgerald's examination], 1699, BL, Add. MS 21136, fols. 71–2 C. E. Challis, ed., A new history of the royal mint (1992) J. Craig, Newton at the mint (1946) Middlesex sessions papers, Feb. 1695, LMA, MJ/SP/1695/02/028–035, 02/006 J. Redington, ed., Calendar of Treasury papers, 1–2, PRO (1868–71) T. Wales, ‘Thief-takers and their clients in later Stuart London’, Londinopolis: essays in the social and cultural history of early modern London, ed. P. Griffiths and N. G. R. Jenner (2000), 67–84 Further reading Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson. Publisher: Faber and Faber (20 August 2009), , (Note — free online access via British 'Library card' number.) "Curious Colors of Currency: Security Marbling on Financial Instruments During the Long Eighteenth Century" by Jake Benson in American Journal of Numismatics pp. 277–325. Further listening BBC Radio 4 - The King's Coiner: The True Story of Isaac Newton, Detective. A radio drama by Philip Palmer. BBC Radio Afternoon Theatre. Producer: Toby Swift.
75 Wall Street	[ "1987 establishments in New York City", "2010 establishments in New York City", "2022 establishments in New York City", "Barclays", "Financial District, Manhattan", "Hotels established in 2010", "Hotels established in 2022", "Hotels in Manhattan", "Office buildings completed in 1987", "Wall Street" ]	2,479	25,945	75 Wall Street is a 43-story mixed-use building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It contains Hyatt Centric Wall Street New York, a hotel with 253 rooms managed by Blue Sky Hospitality. Designed by Welton Becket & Associates and developed by London & Leeds as an office building, 75 Wall Street was announced in 1984 as the North American headquarters of British bank Barclays. After the building opened in 1987, several firms leased space in the building. JPMorgan Chase acquired 75 Wall Street from Barclays in 2005, and the Hakimian Organization and Peykar Brothers Realty purchased the building later that year. The upper floors were converted to 346 residential condominiums in 2009, while the lower floors opened as the Andaz Wall Street hotel in January 2010. Navika Capital acquired the hotel in 2022 and rebranded it as Hyatt Centric Wall Street New York. Use as office building In April 1984, British bank Barclays announced it would construct a 36-story headquarters at the southwest corner of Wall Street and Water Street. The building, developed by British firm London & Leeds, was the first to be erected directly on Wall Street in fifteen years. Welton Becket Associates was hired as architect for the building, which was variously cited as containing a floor area of or . Barclays would occupy as part of its headquarters and sublet the remainder of the space, consolidating employees from several other locations in Manhattan. As designed, each of the first 28 office floors was planned with of floor area, while the top floors were set back and were slightly smaller. Manufacturers Hanover Corporation financed the development, which was projected to cost $200 million. There was high demand for office space in the Financial District at the time, and 75 Wall Street was one of eight new office buildings in the area with available space. 75 Wall Street's development involved a three-month-long archeological study of the site, though construction proceeded as scheduled. Items excavated from the site included a crock with the marking "C. Crolius"; the crock was linked to Clarkson Crolius, a leader of the Tammany Hall political machine. London & Leeds donated over 250,000 historical artifacts to the South Street Seaport Museum, many of which came from the 75 Wall Street excavation. Barclays had opened its headquarters by early 1987. At the time, Barclays was planning to expand its operations within the United States. The Christian Science Monitor wrote that the lobby was filled with scaffolding, and "a vacant elevator shaft and artless walls further attest that Barclays Bank's new granite-and-brass North American headquarters is not nearly complete." London & Leeds was still fitting out the building in mid-1988. The building's completion coincided with a decline in New York City's office market. Additionally, Barclays decided to involve itself in wholesale business and capital markets rather than expand its American operations, as had been the bank's intention when 75 Wall Street was completed. By 1989, Barclays was looking to relocate 1,000 employees from 75 Wall Street to MetroTech Center in Brooklyn. News service Knight Ridder occupied up to in the building before moving to the World Financial Center in 1996. Dresdner Bank leased of space in 1994 and opened a fixed-income trading floor at 75 Wall Street the next year. J.P. Morgan & Co. also leased space there during the late 1990s. Barclays itself only occupied at 75 Wall Street by 1997. A bomb detonated outside the building in 2000, breaking some windows, though nobody was hurt. Following the nearby collapse of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in 2001, Dresdner Bank's successor Dresdner Kleinwort moved out of 75 Wall Street, and Barclay also contemplated moving its offices. Despite vacating the building, Dresdner continued to lease 12 stories, and the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company held a lease on three stories. JPMorgan Chase purchased the building from Barclays in 2005 and subsequently bought out these two leases. Hotel and condominium use Conversion and 2010s operation The Hakimian Organization and Peykar Brothers Realty purchased 75 Wall Street from JPMorgan Chase for $185 million in December 2005. By then, many office buildings in the Financial District were being turned into residential condominiums, and several hotels were also being built in the neighborhood. Rex Hakimian said that while the average office rent in the area was per month, condominium apartments often sold for more than . Hakimian said 75 Wall Street's small floor plates and tall ceilings made the building seem "as if it was built to be converted". The building was rezoned for residential and commercial use. Over three years, the Hakimian Organization converted 75 Wall Street into a mixed-use structure with condominiums on its upper floors and a hotel below. SLCE Architects designed the conversion, and Hyatt agreed to operate the hotel as one of the first hotels in its Andaz chain. The project was to contain about 250 hotel rooms and 350 apartments. A tenant amenity area was placed on the rooftop, with a lounge, hot tub, small beach, solarium, and hammocks. Condo residents could also pay a la carte for service from the hotel's housekeeping staff. Interior designer David Rockwell, one of the architects involved in the project, included a private screening room in the condo section of the building. Rockwell designed four model apartments for prospective buyers, which the Hakimian Group presented at a party in September 2007. Rockwell also designed the hotel, with rooms averaging . The condominium portion of the building opened in 2009 with 346 residential units. Hakimian allowed residents to sublease their condos for periods of as little as three months, which made the building appealing to buyers from around the world. The hotel portion opened as Andaz Wall Street in January 2010, and a restaurant named Wall & Water also opened within the ground floor. Condo sales at 75 Wall Street lagged during and after the Great Recession, and only 137 of the units were in contract or had been sold by July 2010. As a result, Bayerische Landesbank, which had given the developers a $263 million loan for the building's renovation, extended the term of the loan by two years. Hakimian refinanced existing debt on the hotel with Annaly Capital Management in 2017. The hotel renovated its rooms in 2019. COVID-19 pandemic The hotel suspended operations in 2020 amid citywide shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, Hakimian listed the hotel portion for sale for $125 million, but failed to make a sale; a new owner could convert the hotel back to office space, which before the pandemic had seen more steady demand than hotel rooms in New York City. According to court papers, only $20,000 remained in the hotel's operating account by April 2020. Hakimian entered into a forbearance agreement with Annaly in June 2020, extending the due date of its loan to December. According to court documents, Hakimian failed to pay off the loan or make interest payments. In January 2022, Hakimian sold the hotel portion of the building to Navika Capital for $84.7 million after Annaly attempted to foreclose on the building after nonpayment of a $55 million loan. Hakimian retains ownership of the condo section of the building. The hotel rebranded and reopened as Hyatt Centric Wall Street New York on January 26. Vishal Kotahwala, Executive Partner of Navika, said that "Centric is a better brand for the current market."
Georgios Kountouriotis	[ "1780s births", "1858 deaths", "19th-century heads of state of Greece", "19th-century prime ministers of Greece", "19th-century Greek businesspeople", "Arvanites", "Prime ministers of Greece", "People from Hydra (island)", "Greek people of the Greek War of Independence", "Ministers of naval affairs of Greece", "Greek businesspeople in shipping", "Businesspeople from the Ottoman Empire", "Greek merchants" ]	1,167	9,358	Georgios Kountouriotis (; 1782 – 13 March 1858) was a Greek ship-owner and politician who served as prime minister from March to October 1848. Life He was born in 1782 on the Saronic island of Hydra to an Arvanite family. The family, apparently the richest in independent Greece, stemmed from the younger son of an Albanian peasant. He settled the island as a boatman after the Venetians left the Peloponnese (1715) but before the island received its permanent colony. The Koundouriotis family used extensively their native Albanian dialect of Hydra. The dialect has been documented in two letters of Georgios' private correspondence with Ioannis Orlandos, written in the Greek alphabet, in accordance with the practice of the writers of Arvanitika during the Greek War of Independence. Georgios spoke Greek only with difficulty. He was the brother of Lazaros Kountouriotis, another shipowner of the Greek War of Independence. When the War of Independence broke out, Georgios, along with the rest of the Kountouriotis family, supported the effort with generous donations as well as with their ships. He was often at odds with other Hydriot sea captains but ultimately was the wealthiest. Georgios Kountouriotis became a member of the executive committee of the Greek Revolution and served as its president from 1823 to 1826 during the crucial time of the siege of Missolonghi. After independence, he became a member of the cabinet of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first governor of Greece. He was a semi-independent adherent of the French Party mostly due to his antipathy to the Russian Party and his fellow Hydriots of the English Party. During the period of French Party ascendancy in the reign of King Otto, he served as prime minister. Death He died in 1858. Descendants He was the grandfather of Pavlos Kountouriotis who fought in the First Balkan War and later served as the first (1924-1926) President of the Second Hellenic Republic.
Economic democracy	[ "Economic democracy", "Democracy", "Economic systems", "Market socialism", "Worker cooperatives", "Fair trade" ]	12,305	94,344	Economic democracy (sometimes called a democratic economy) is a socioeconomic philosophy that proposes to shift ownership and decision-making power from corporate shareholders and corporate managers (such as a board of directors) to a larger group of public stakeholders that includes workers, consumers, suppliers, communities and the broader public. No single definition or approach encompasses economic democracy, but most proponents claim that modern property relations externalize costs, subordinate the general well-being to private profit and deny the polity a democratic voice in economic policy decisions. In addition to these moral concerns, economic democracy makes practical claims, such as that it can compensate for capitalism's inherent effective demand gap. Proponents of economic democracy generally argue that modern capitalism periodically results in economic crises, characterized by deficiency of effective demand; as society is unable to earn enough income to purchase its own production output. Corporate monopoly of common resources typically creates artificial scarcity, resulting in socio-economic imbalances that restrict workers from access to economic opportunity and diminish consumer purchasing power. Economic democracy has been proposed as a component of larger socioeconomic ideologies, as a stand-alone theory and as a variety of reform agendas. For example, as a means to securing full economic rights, it opens a path to full political rights, defined as including the former. Both market and non-market theories of economic democracy have been proposed. As a reform agenda, supporting theories and real-world examples can include decentralization, democratic cooperatives, public banking, fair trade and the regionalization of food production and currency. Deficiency of effective demand According to many analysts, deficiency of effective demand is the most fundamental economic problem. That is, modern society does not earn enough income to purchase its output. For example, economic geographer David Harvey claims, "Workers spending their wages is one source of effective demand, but the total wage bill is always less than the total capital in circulation (otherwise there would be no profit), so the purchase of wage goods that sustain daily life (even with a suburban lifestyle) is never sufficient for the profitable sale of the total output". In the Georgist view of any economic system, "wealth" includes all material things produced by labor for the satisfaction of human desires and having exchange value. Land, labor and capital are generally considered the essential factors in producing wealth. Land includes all natural opportunities and forces. Labor includes all human exertion. Capital includes the portion of wealth devoted to producing more wealth. While the income of any individual might include proceeds from any combination of these three sources—land, labor and capital are generally considered mutually exclusive factors in economic models of the production and distribution of wealth. According to Henry George: "People seek to satisfy their desires with the least exertion". Human beings interact with nature to produce goods and services that other human beings need or desire. The laws and customs that govern the relationships among these entities constitute the economic structure of a given society. Alternately, David Schweickart asserts in his book, After Capitalism: "The structure of a capitalist society consists of three basic components: "The bulk of the means of production are privately owned, either directly by individuals or by corporations that are themselves owned by private individuals. "Products are exchanged in a market -- that is to say, goods and services are bought and sold at prices determined for the most part by competition and not by some governmental pricing authority. Individual enterprises compete with one another in providing goods and services to consumers, each enterprise trying to make a profit. This competition is the primary determinant of prices. "Most of the people who work for pay in this society work for other people, who own the means of production. Most working people are 'wage labourers'". Supply and demand are generally accepted as market functions for establishing prices. Organisations typically endeavor to 1) minimize the cost of production; 2) increase sales; in order to 3) maximize profits. But, according to David Schweickart, if "those who produce the goods and services of society are paid less than their productive contribution", then as consumers they cannot buy all the goods produced, and investor confidence tends to decline, triggering declines in production and employment. Such economic instability stems from a central contradiction: Wages are both a cost of production and an essential source of effective demand (needs or desires backed with purchasing power), resulting in deficiency of effective demand along with a growing interest in economic democracy. In chapter 3 of his book, "Community Organizing: Theory and Practice", Douglas P. Biklen discusses a variety of perspectives on "The Making of Social Problems". One of those views suggests that "writers and organizers who define social problems in terms of social and economic democracy see problems not as the experiences of poor people, but as the relationship of poverty to wealth and exploitation". Biklen states that according to this viewpoint: Savings, investment and unemployment In his 1879 book Progress and Poverty, Henry George argued that a majority of wealth created in a "free market" economy was appropriated by land owners and monopolists through economic rents, and that concentration of such unearned wealth was the root cause of poverty. "Behind the abstraction known as 'the market' lurks a set of institutions designed to maximize the wealth and power of the most privileged group of people in the world—the creditor-rentier class of the first world and their junior partners in the third". Schweickart claimed that private savings are not only unnecessary for economic growth, they are often harmful to the overall economy. In an advanced industrial society, business credit is necessary for a healthy economy. A business that wants to expand production needs to command the labor of others, and money is the default mechanism for exercising this authority. It is often cheaper for a business to borrow capital from a bank than to stockpile cash. If private savings are loaned out to entrepreneurs who use them to buy raw materials and hire workers, then aggregate demand is not reduced. However, when private savings are not reinvested, the whole economy suffers recession, unemployment, and disappearance of savings which characterize deficiency of effective demand. In this view, unemployment is not an aberration, indicating any sort of systemic malfunction. Rather, unemployment is a necessary structural feature of capitalism, intended to discipline the workforce. If unemployment is too low, workers make wage demands that either cut into profits to an extent that jeopardizes future investment, or are passed on to consumers, thus generating inflationary instability. Schweickart suggested, "Capitalism cannot be a full-employment economy, except in the very short term. For unemployment is the "invisible hand"—carrying a stick—that keeps the workforce in line." In this view, Adam Smith's "invisible hand" does not seem reliable to guide economic forces on a large scale. Assuming business credit could come from public sources rather than from private savers, Schweickart and other analysts consider interest payments to private savers both undeserved and unnecessary for economic growth. Moreover, the personal decision to save rather than consume decreases aggregate demand, increases the likelihood of unemployment, and exacerbates the tendency toward economic stagnation. Since wealthy people tend to save more than poor people, the propensity of an economy to slump because of excess saving becomes ever more acute as a society becomes more affluent. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett suggested that health and social problems are significantly worse in more unequal wealthy nations. They argue that there are "pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, (and) encouraging excessive consumption" Monopoly power versus purchasing power Regarding a social and economic democracy perspective on social problems, Douglas P. Biklen states: The discipline of economics is largely a study of scarcity management; "the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses". Absent scarcity and alternative uses of available resources, many analysts claim there is no economic problem". While he considers these functions a public wrong, Kellogg also asserted the responsibility of the public to find and implement a remedy. Generally considered monopoly power, some view this "public wrong" as the most influential factor in artificial scarcity. For example, Henry George further suggested: For example, many analysts consider invention a "more or less costless store of knowledge, captured by monopoly capital and protected in order to make it secret and a 'rare and scarce commodity', for sale at monopoly prices. So far as invention is concerned, a price is put on them not because they are scarce but in order to make them scarce to those who want to use them." Patent monopolies raise share prices above tangible labor value. The difference between labor-value and monopoly-value raises goods prices, and is collected as "profit" by intermediaries who have contributed nothing to earn it. Analysts generally agree that such conditions typically result in a deficiency of effective demand. Labor does not earn enough to buy what enterprises produce. According to Jack Rasmus, author of The Trillion Dollar Income Shift, in June 2006, investment bank Goldman Sachs reported: "The most important contribution to the higher profit margins over the past five years has been a decline in Labor's share of national income." Enclosure of the commons Artificially restricted access of labor to common resources is generally considered monopoly or enclosure of the commons. Due to the economic imbalance inherently imposed, such monopoly structures tend to be centrally dictated by law, and must be maintained by military force, trade agreements, or both. In 1911, American journalist Ambrose Bierce defined "land" as: In The Servile State (1912), Hilaire Belloc referred to the Enclosures Movement when he said, "England was already captured by a wealthy oligarchy before the series of great industrial discoveries began". If you sought the accumulated wealth preliminary to launching new industry, "you had to turn to the class which had already monopolized the bulk of the means of production in England. The rich men alone could furnish you with those supplies". According to Peter Barnes, author of Capitalism 3.0, when Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776, the dominant form of business was partnership, in which regional groups of co-workers ran co-owned businesses. From this perspective, many considered the corporate model—stock sold to strangers—inherently prone to fraud. While numerous scandals historically support this dim view of corporate policy, small partnerships could not possibly compete with the aggregate capital generated by corporate economies of scale. The greatest advantage of corporations over any other business model is their ability to raise capital from strangers. The corporate model benefits from laws that limit stockholders' liability to the amounts they have invested. In A Preface To Economic Democracy, Robert A. Dahl suggests that agrarian economy and society in the early United States "underwent a revolutionary transformation into a new system of commercial and industrial capitalism that automatically generated vast inequalities of wealth, income, status, and power." Dahl claims that such inequalities result from the "liberty to accumulate unlimited economic resources and to organize economic activity into hierarchically governed enterprises." The rise of corporations and ending labor shortage According to author Greg MacLeod, the concept of the corporation originated in Roman times. However, "the modern business corporation evolved radically from its ancient roots into a form with little relation to the purpose as understood by historians of law." John Davis, a legal historian, noted that the precursor of the business corporation was the first monastery, established in the sixth century, the purpose of which was to serve society. Most business corporations before 1900 developed in Great Britain, where they were established by royal charter, with the expectation of contributions to society. Incorporation was a privilege granted in return for service to the crown or the nation. MacLeod goes on to say: By the mid-nineteenth century, corporations could live forever, engage in any legal activity, and merge with or acquire other corporations. In 1886, the U.S. Supreme Court legally recognized corporations as “persons”, entitled under the Fourteenth Amendment to the same protections as living citizens. Unlike average citizens, large corporations had large flows of money at their disposal. With this money they can hire lobbyists, donate copiously to politicians, and sway public opinion. But, despite Supreme Court rulings, the modern corporation is not a real person. Rather, the publicly traded stock corporation is what Barnes terms an "automaton", explicitly designed to maximize return to its owners. A corporation never sleeps or slows down. It externalizes as many costs as possible, and never reaches an upper limit of profitability, because no such limit has yet been established. As a result, corporations keep getting larger. In 1955, sales of the Fortune 500 accounted for one-third of U.S. gross domestic product. By 2004 they commanded two-thirds. In other words, these few hundred corporations replaced smaller firms organized as partnerships or proprietorships. Corporations have established a homogeneous global playing field around which they can freely move raw materials, labor, capital, finished products, tax-paying obligations, and profits. Thus, corporate franchise has become a perpetual grant of sovereignty, including immortality, self-government, and limited liability. By the end of the twentieth century, corporate power—both economic and political—stretched worldwide. International agreements not only lowered tariffs but extended corporate property rights and reduced the ability of sovereign nations to regulate corporations. David Schweickart submits that such "hypermobility of capital" generates economic and political insecurity. "If the search for lower wages comes to dominate the movement of capital, the result will be not only a lowering of worldwide wage disparities (the good to which some economists point) but also a lowering of total global income (a straight-out utilitarian bad)." Jack Rasmus, author of The War At Home and The Trillion Dollar Income Shift, argues that the increasing concentration of corporate power is a cause of the large-scale debt, unemployment, and poverty characteristic of economic recession and depression. According to Rasmus, income inequality in contemporary America increased as the relative share of income for corporations and the wealthiest one percent of households rose while income shares declined for 80-percent of the United States workforce. After rising steadily for three decades after World War II, the standard of living for most American workers has sharply declined between the mid-1970s to the present. Rasmus likens the widening income gap in contemporary American society to the decade leading up to the Great Depression, estimating "well over $1 trillion in income is transferred annually from the roughly 90 million working class families in America to corporations and the wealthiest non-working-class households. While a hundred new billionaires were created since 2001, real weekly earnings for 100 million workers are less in 2007 than in 1980 when Ronald Reagan took office". According to economist Richard D. Wolff, the 1970s brought an end to the labor shortage which had facilitated more than a century of rising average real wages in the United States. Wolff says Americans responded to the resulting deficiency of effective demand by working more hours and excessive borrowing; the latter leading to the 2008 financial crisis. Imperialism According to David Harvey, "the export of capital and the cultivation of new markets around the world" is a solution "as old as capitalism itself" for the deficiency of effective demand. Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." "These geographic shifts", according to David Harvey, "are the heart of uneven geographic development". Vladimir Lenin viewed imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. He asserted that the merging of banks and industrial cartels gave rise to finance capital, which was then exported (rather than goods) in pursuit of greater profits than the home market could offer. Political and financial power became divided among international monopolist firms and European states, colonizing large parts of the world in support of their businesses. According to analyst Michael Parenti, imperialism is "the process whereby the dominant politico-economic interests of one nation expropriate for their own enrichment the land, labor, raw materials, and markets of another people." Parenti says imperialism is older than capitalism. Given its expansionist nature, capitalism has little inclination to stay home. While he conceded imperialism is not typically recognized as a legitimate allegation about the United States, Parenti argued: In his book, The Political Struggle for the 21st century, J.W. Smith examines the economic basis for the history of imperial civilization. On a global scale, he says developed nations tended to impede or prohibit the economic and technological advancement of weaker developing countries through the military force, martial law, and inequitable practices of trade that typically characterize colonialism. Rhetorically termed as "survival of the fittest", or "might makes right", such economic crises stem from the imbalances imposed by corporate imperialism. Just as cities in the Middle Ages monopolized the means of production by conquering and controlling the sources of raw materials and countryside markets, Smith claims that contemporary centers of capital now control our present world through private monopoly of public resources sometimes known as "the commons". Through inequalities of trade, developing countries are overcharged for import of manufactured goods and underpaid for raw material exports, as wealth is siphoned from the periphery of empire and hoarded at the imperial-centers-of-capital: Smith goes on to say that, like other financial empires in history, the contemporary model forms alliances necessary to develop and control wealth, keeping peripheral nations impoverished providers of cheap resources for the imperial capital centers. Belloc estimated that, during the British Enclosures, "perhaps half of the whole population was proletarian", while roughly the other "half" owned and controlled the means of production. Under modern Capitalism, J.W. Smith claimed that fewer than 500 individuals possess more wealth than half of the earth's population. The wealth of 1/2 of 1-percent of the United States population roughly equals that of the lower 90-percent. Alternative models Advocating for an "alternative economic system free of capitalism's structural flaws", economist Richard D. Wolff says reform agendas are fundamentally inadequate, given that capitalist corporations, the dominant institutions of the existing system, retain the incentives and the resources to undo any sort of reform policy. For example, Wolff goes on to say: According to David Schweickart, a serious critique of any problem cannot be content to merely note the negative features of the existing model. Instead, we must specify precisely the structural features of an alternative: "But if we want to do more than simply denounce the evils of capitalism, we must confront the claim that 'there is no alternative'—by proposing one." Schweickart argued that both full employment and guaranteed basic income are impossible under the restrictions of the U.S. economic system for two primary reasons: a) unemployment is an essential feature of capitalism, not an indication of systemic failure; and b) while capitalism thrives under polyarchy, it is not compatible with genuine democracy. Assuming these "democratic deficits" significantly impact the management of both the workplace and new investment, many proponents of economic democracy tend to favor the creation and implementation of a new economic model over reform of the existing one. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. claimed "Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the Kingdom of Brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of Communism nor the antithesis of Capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both". Regarding the gap between productivity and purchasing power, Dr. King maintained: According to historian and political economist, Gar Alperovitz: "King’s final judgment stands as instructive evidence of his understanding of the nature of systemic challenge — and also as a reminder that given the failures of both traditional socialism and corporate capitalism, it is time to get serious about clarifying not only the question of strategy, but what, in fact, the meaning of changing the system in a truly democratic direction might one day entail." Trade unionist and social activist Allan Engler argued further that economic democracy was the working-class alternative to capitalism. In his book, "Economic Democracy", Engler stated: Assuming that "democracy is not just a political value, but one with profound economic implications, the problem is not to choose between plan and market, but to integrate these institutions into a democratic framework". Like capitalism, economic democracy can be defined in terms of three basic features: Worker self-management: each productive enterprise is controlled democratically by its workers. Social control of investment: funds for new investment are returned to the economy through a network of public investment banks. The market: enterprises interact with one another and with consumers in an environment largely free of governmental price controls. Raw materials, instruments of production and consumer goods are all bought and sold at prices largely determined by the forces of supply and demand. In real-world practice, Schweickart concedes economic democracy will be more complicated and less "pure" than his model. However, to grasp the nature of the system and to understand its essential dynamic, it is important to have a clear picture of the basic structure. Capitalism is characterized by private ownership of productive resources, the market, and wage labor. The Soviet economic model subordinated private ownership of productive resources to public ownership by collectivizing farms and factories. It further subordinated the market to central planning—but retained the institution of wage labor. Most proposed models for economic democracy generally begin with democratizing the workplace and the ownership of capital. Other proposals advocate replacing the market with some form of planning, as well (for example, Parecon). Worker self-management In worker self-management, each productive enterprise is controlled by those who work there. Workers are responsible for the operation of the facility, including organization, discipline, production techniques, and the nature, price, and distribution of products. Decisions concerning distribution are made democratically. Problems of authority delegation are solved by democratic representation. Management is chosen by the worker, not appointed by the State, not elected by the community at large and not selected by a board of directors elected by stockholders. Ultimate authority rests with the enterprise's workers, following the one-person, one-vote principle. According to veteran World Bank economic adviser David P. Ellerman it's the employment contract that needs to be abolished, not private property. In other words, "a firm can be socialized and yet remain 'private' in the sense of not being government-owned." In his book, "The Democratic Firm", Ellerman stated: Alternately, in Schweickart's model, workers control the workplace, but they do not "own" the means of production. Productive resources are regarded as the collective property of the society. Workers run the enterprise, use its capital assets as they see fit, and distribute the profits among themselves. Here, societal "ownership" of the enterprise manifests itself in two ways: 1) All firms pay tax on their capital assets, which goes into society's investment fund. In effect, workers rent capital assets from society. 2) Firms are required to preserve the value of the capital stock entrusted to them. This means that a depreciation fund must be maintained to repair or replace existing capital stock. This money may be spent on capital replacements or improvements, but not to supplement workers' incomes. Italy's Legacoop and Spain's Mondragon multi-sectoral worker-cooperatives have both been able to reach significant scale and demonstrate long-term sustainability. According to a study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the greatest lesson to be learned from these European experiences is the importance of developing an economically integrated network of cooperatives rather than a single cooperative. The report goes on to say: Social control of investment While there is no single approach or 'blueprint' for social control of investment, many strategies have been proposed. For example, Gar Alperovitz claims many real-world strategies have already emerged to democratize and decentralize the ownership of wealth and capital. In addition to worker cooperatives, Alperovitz highlights ESOPs, credit unions and other cooperative forms, social enterprises, municipally owned utilities and public banks as starting points for what he has termed a "Pluralist Commonwealth". Alternately, David Schweickart proposes a flat-rate tax on capital assets to replace all other business taxes. This "capital assets tax" is collected and invested by the central government. Funds are dispersed throughout society, first to regions and communities on a per capita basis, then to public banks in accordance with past performance, then to those firms with profitable project proposals. Profitable projects that promise increased employment are favored over those that do not. At each level, national, regional and local, legislatures decide what portion of their funds is to be used for public capital expenditures, then send the remainder to the next lower level. Associated with most banks are entrepreneurial divisions, which promote firm expansion and new firm creation. For large (regional or national) enterprises, local investment banks are complemented by regional and national investment banks. These too would be public institutions that receive their funds from the national investment fund. Banks are public, not private, institutions that make grants, not loans, to business enterprises. According to Schweickart, these grants do not represent "free money", since an investment grant counts as an addition to the capital assets of the enterprise, upon which the capital-asset tax must be paid. Thus the capital assets tax functions as an interest rate. A bank grant is essentially a loan requiring interest payments but no repayment of principal. While an economy of worker-self-managed enterprises might tend toward lower unemployment than under capitalism - because banks are mandated to consistently prioritize investment projects that would increase employment - Schweickart notes that it does not guarantee full employment. Social control of investment serves to increase employment. If the market provides insufficient employment, the public sector becomes the employer of last resort. The original formulation of the U.S. Humphrey-Hawkins Act of 1978 assumed that only in this way could full employment be assured in a market economy. Economic Democracy adopts this approach. Social control of investment then blocks the cyclical unemployment typical of capitalism. The market Hungarian historian Karl Polanyi suggested that market economies should subordinate themselves to larger societal needs. He states that human-beings, the source of labor, do not reproduce for the sole purpose of providing the market with workers. In The Great Transformation, Polanyi says that while modern states and market economies tend to grow under capitalism, both are mutually interdependent for functional development. In order for market economies to be truly prosperous, he claims social constructs must play an essential role. Polanyi claimed that land, labor, and money are all commodified under capitalism, though the inherent purpose of these items was never intended "for sale"—what he labels "fictitious commodities." He says natural resources are "God-given", money is a bookkeeping entry validated by law, and labor is a human prerogative, not a personal obligation to market economies. Schweickart's economic democracy is a form of market economy, at least insofar as the allocation of consumer and capital goods is concerned. Firms buy raw materials and machinery from other firms and sell their products to other enterprises or consumers. "Prices are largely unregulated except by supply and demand, although in some cases price controls or price supports might be in order – as they are deemed in order in most real-world forms of capitalism." Without a price mechanism sensitive to supply and demand, it is extremely difficult for a producer or planner to know what and how much to produce, and which production and marketing methods are the most efficient. Otherwise, it is difficult to motivate producers to be both efficient and innovative. Market competition resolves these problems, to a significant if incomplete degree, in a non-authoritarian, non-bureaucratic fashion. Enterprises still strive to make a profit. However, "profit" in a worker-run firm is calculated differently than under capitalism. For a capitalist firm, labor is counted as a cost. For a worker-run enterprise it is not. Labor is not another "factor of production" on par with land and capital. Labor is the residual claimant. Workers get all that remains, once other costs, including depreciation set asides and the capital assets tax, have been paid. Because of the way workplaces and the investment mechanism are structured, Schweickart's model aims to facilitate fair trade, not free trade, between nations. Under Economic Democracy, there would be virtually no cross-border capital flows. Enterprises themselves would not relocate abroad, since they are democratically controlled by their own workers. Finance capital stays mostly at home, since funds for investment are publicly generated and are mandated by law to be reinvested domestically. "Capital doesn't flow into the country, either, since there are no stocks nor corporate bonds nor businesses to buy. The capital assets of the country are collectively owned – and hence not for sale." According to Michael Howard, "in preserving commodity exchange, a market socialism has greater continuity with the society it displaces than does nonmarket socialism, and thus it is more likely to emerge from capitalism as a result of tendencies generated within it." But Howard also suggested, "one argument against the market in socialist society has been that it blocks progress toward full communism or even leads back to capitalism". From this perspective, nonmarket models of economic democracy have also been proposed. Economic democracy as part of an inclusive democracy Economic democracy is described as an integral component of an inclusive democracy in Takis Fotopoulos' Towards An Inclusive Democracy as a stateless, moneyless and marketless economy that precludes private accumulation of wealth and the institutionalization of privileges for some sections of society, without relying on a mythical post-scarcity state of abundance, or sacrificing freedom of choice. The proposed system aims to meet the basic needs of all citizens (macroeconomic decisions), and secure freedom of choice (microeconomic decisions). Therefore, the system consists of two basic elements: (1) democratic planning, which involves a feedback process between workplace assemblies, demotic assemblies and a confederal assembly, and (2) an artificial market using personal vouchers, which ensures freedom of choice but avoids the adverse effects of real markets. Although David Pepper called this system "a form of money based on the labour theory of value", it is not a money model since vouchers cannot be used as a general medium of exchange and store of wealth. Another distinguishing feature of inclusive democracy is its distinction between basic and non-basic needs. Remuneration is determined separately according to the cost of basic needs, and according to degree of effort for non-basic needs. Inclusive democracy is based on the principle that meeting basic needs is a fundamental human right which is guaranteed to all who are in a physical condition to offer a minimal amount of work. By contrast, participatory economics guarantees that basic needs are satisfied only for public goods or are covered by compassion and by a guaranteed basic income for the unemployed and those who cannot work. Many advocates of participatory economics and Participism have contested this. As part of inclusive democracy, economic democracy is the authority of demos (community) in the economic sphere—which requires equal distribution of economic power. Therefore, all macroeconomic decisions (overall level of production, consumption and investment, amounts of work and leisure implied, technologies to be used and so on) are made collectively and without representation. However, microeconomic decisions are made by the individual production or consumption unit through a proposed system of vouchers. As with the case of direct democracy, economic democracy is only feasible if the participants can easily cooperate. Reform agendas While reform agendas tend to critique the existing system and recommend corrective measures, they do not necessarily suggest alternative models to replace the fundamental structures of capitalism; private ownership of productive resources, the market and wage labor. Social credit Rather than an economic shortfall, many analysts consider the gap between production and purchasing power a social dividend. In this view, credit is a public utility rather than debt to financial centers. Once reinvested in human productive potential, the surplus of societal output could actually increase Gross Domestic Product rather than throttling it, resulting in a more efficient economy, overall. Social Credit is an economic reform movement that originates from theories developed by Scottish engineer Major C. H. Douglas. His aim to make societal improvement the goal of economic systems is reflected in the term "Social Credit", and published in his book, entitled Economic Democracy. In this view, the term "economic democracy" does not mean worker control of industry. A national dividend and a compensated price mechanism are the two most essential components of the Social Credit program. While these measures have never been implemented in their purest form, they have provided a foundation for Social Credit political parties in many countries and for reform agendas that retain the title, "economic democracy". National dividend In his book, Capitalism 3.0, Peter Barnes likens a "National Dividend" to the game of Monopoly, where all players start with a fair distribution of financial opportunity to succeed, and try to privatize as much as they can as they move around "the commons". Distinguishing the board game from real-world business, Barnes claims that "the top 5 percent of the population owns more property than the remaining 95 percent", providing the smaller minority with an unfair advantage of approximately "$5-trillion" annually, at the beginning of the game. Contrasting "redistribution" of income (or property) with "predistribution", Barnes argues for "propertizing" (without corporately privatizing) "the commons" to spread ownership universally, without taking wealth from some and giving it to others. His suggested mechanism to this end is the establishment of a "Commons Sector", ensuring payment from the Corporate Sector for "the commons" they utilize, and equitably distributing the proceeds for the benefit of contemporary and future generations of society. One real-world example of such reform is in the U.S. State of Alaska, where each citizen receives an annual share of the part of the state's oil revenues via the "Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend". Barnes suggests this model could extend to other states and nations because "we jointly own many valuable assets". As corporate pollution of common assets increased, the permits for such pollution would become more scarce, driving prices for those permits up. "Less pollution would equal more revenue", and over time, "trillions of dollars could flow into an American Permanent Fund". However, none of these proposals aspire to the mandates recommended by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Barnes deemed any such reform unlikely. Thomas Paine originally recommended a National Dividend to compensate for the brutality of British Enclosures, but his idea was never adopted. Monopoly power versus public utility Rather than superficially compensating for legalized inequities, Smith recommends abolishing or redefining property rights laws with particular respect for "the commons". According to Smith exclusive title to natural resources and technologies should be converted to inclusive conditional titles—the condition being that society should collect rental values on all natural resources. Smith suggests the basic principles of monopolization under feudalism were never abandoned, and residues of exclusive feudal property rights restrict the potential efficiency of capitalism in Western cultures. He estimated that roughly 60 percent of American capital is little more than capitalized values of unearned wealth. He proposed that elimination of these monopoly values would double economic efficiency, maintain quality of life, and reduce working hours by half. Wasteful monetary flows could be stopped only by eliminating all methods of monopolization typical in Western economies. Smith divided "primary (feudal) monopoly" into four general categories: banking; land; technology and communications. He listed three general categories of "secondary (modern) monopoly"; insurance, law, health care. Smith further claimed that converting these exclusive entitlements to inclusive human rights would minimize battles for market share, thereby eliminating most offices and staff needed to maintain monopoly structures, and stop the wars generated to protect them. Dissolving roughly half the economic activity of a monopoly system would reduce the costs of common resources by roughly half, and significantly minimize the most influential factors of poverty. In Smith's view, most taxes should be eliminated, and productive enterprise should be privately owned and managed. Inventors should be paid well and all technology placed in the public domain. Crucial services currently monopolized through licensing should be legislated as human rights. Smith envisioned a balanced economy under a socially owned banking commons within an inclusive society with full and equal rights for all. Federated regions collect resource rents on land and technology to a social fund to operate governments and care for social needs. Socially owned banks provide finance capital by creating debt-free money for social infrastructure and industry. Rental values return to society through expenditure on public infrastructures. Local labor is trained and employed to build and maintain water systems, sewers, roads, communication systems, railroads, ports, airports, post offices, and education systems. Purchasing power circulates regionally, as labor spends wages in consumption and governments spend resource rent and banking profits to maintain essential services. According to Smith, all monetary systems, including money markets, should function within fractional-reserve banking. Financial capital should be the total savings of all citizens, balanced by primary-created money to fill any shortfall, or its destruction through increased reserve requirements to eliminate any surplus. Adjustments of required reserves should facilitate the balance between building with socially created money or savings. Any shortage of savings within a socially owned banking system should be alleviated by simply printing it. A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. By various names, cooperatives play an essential role in all forms of Economic Democracy. Classified as either consumer cooperatives or worker cooperatives, the cooperative business model is fundamental to the interests of economic democracy. According to the International Cooperative Alliance's Statement on the Cooperative Identity, "cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are also organized in a democratic manner." Worker cooperatives According to the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives: "Worker cooperatives are business entities that are owned and controlled by their members, the people who work in them. The two central characteristics of worker cooperatives are: 1) workers invest in and own the business and (2) decision-making is democratic, generally adhering to the principle of one worker-one vote." Worker cooperatives occupy multiple sectors and industries in the United States, mostly in the Northeast, the West Coast and the Upper Midwest, totaling 300 democratic workplaces in the United States, employing over 3,500 people and generating over $400 million in annual revenues. While a few are larger enterprises, most are small. Growing steadily between 1990 and 2010, technology and home health care experienced most of the recent increase. Worker cooperatives generally employ an industrial model called workplace democracy, which rejects the "master-servant relationship" implicit in the traditional employment contract. According to Wilkinson and Pickett, neither ownership or participation alone are sufficient to establish democracy in the workplace. "[M]any share-ownership schemes amount to little more than incentive schemes, intended to make employees more compliant with management and sometimes to provide a nest-egg for retirement... To make a reliable difference to company performance, share-ownership has to be combined with more participative management methods." Dahl further argued that self-governing enterprises should not be confused with other systems they might resemble: In worker cooperatives, net income is called surplus instead of profit and is distributed among the members based on hours worked, seniority, or other criteria. In a worker cooperative, workers own their jobs, and therefore have a direct stake in the local environment and the power to conduct business in ways that benefit the community rather than destroying it. Some worker cooperatives maintain what is known as a “multiple bottom line”, evaluating success not merely in terms of net income, but also by factors like their sustainability as a business, their contribution to the community, and the happiness and longevity of their workers. Worker-control can take many forms depending on the size and type of the business. Approaches to decision-making include: an elected board of directors, elected managers, management job roles, no management at all, consensus, majority vote, or combinations of the above. Participation in decision-making becomes the responsibility and privilege of each member. In one variation, workers usually invest money when they begin working. Each member owns one share, which provides its owner with one vote in company decision-making. While membership is not a requirement of employment, only employees can become members. According to Kenneth W. Stikkers, the Mondragon cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain have achieved a previously unknown level of economic democracy. Established in 1956, Mondragon has since become an economic model that transcends the capitalist-socialist dichotomy and thereby helps us to imagine creative solutions to current economic problems. Economist Richard D. Wolff argues that Mondragon is an example of "a stunningly successful alternative to the capitalist organization of production." The idea of economic democracy through worker ownership on a national scale has been argued by economist Tom Winters, who states that "building a cooperative economy is one small step on the journey to reclaiming the wealth we all collectively create." Consumer cooperatives A consumers' cooperative is owned by its customers for their mutual benefit. Oriented towards service rather than profit, consumers often provide capital to launch or purchase the enterprise. In practice, consumer cooperatives price goods and services at competitive market rates. The co-op returns profits to the consumer/owner according to a formula instead of paying a separate investor group. In his book, From Mondragon To America, Greg MacLeod argues that "in consumer cooperatives where the customer-members own the capital and the employees are subject to capital, the normal dynamic is the adversarial relationship of labor to capital. Sometimes the result is strikes of labor against management." In some cooperatives, however, consumer/owners are workers as well. For example, Mondragon has developed a large "hybrid" cooperative which sells groceries and furniture in Spain. Consumer cooperatives vary in organization and operations, but typically follow the Rochdale Principles. Consumer cooperatives may also form Co-operative Federations. These may take the form of co-operative wholesale societies, through which they collectively purchase goods at wholesale prices and, in some cases, cooperatively own factories. Alternatively, they may be members of Co-operative unions. Consumer cooperatives are very different from "discount clubs," which charge annual fees in exchange for a discount on purchases. The club is not owned or governed by the members and profits go to investors, not to members. Food cooperatives Most food co-ops are consumer cooperatives that specialize in grocery products. Members patronize the store and vote in elections. The members elect a board of directors to make high-level decisions and recruit managers. Food cooperatives were originally established to provide fresh, organic produce as a viable alternative to packaged imports. The ideas of local and slow food production can help local farmers prosper, in addition to providing consumers with fresher products. But the growing ubiquity of organic food products in corporate stores testifies to broadening consumer awareness, and to the dynamics of global marketing. For example, associated with national and international cooperative communities, Portland Oregon cooperatives manage to survive market competition with corporate franchise. As Lee Lancaster, financial manager for Food Front, states, "cooperatives are potentially one democratic economic model that could help guide business decisions toward meeting human needs while honoring the needs of society and nature". He admits, however, it is difficult to maintain collaboration among cooperatives while also avoiding integration that typically results in centralized authority. Regional trading currencies According to Smith, "Currency is only the representation of wealth produced by combining land (resources), labor, and industrial capital". He claimed that no country was free when another country has such leverage over its entire economy. But by combining their resources, Smith claimed that developing nations have all three of these foundations of wealth: Smith further explained that developed countries need resources from the developing world as much as developing countries need finance capital and technology from the developed world. Aside from the superior military power of the imperial centers, the undeveloped world actually has superior bargaining leverage. With independent trading currencies, developing countries could barter their resources to the developed world for the latest industrial technologies. Barter avoids "hard money monopolization" and the unequal trade between weak and strong nations that result. Smith suggested that barter was how Germany resolved many financial difficulties "put in place to strangle her", and that "World Wars I and II settled that trade dispute". He claimed that their intentions of exclusive entitlement were clearly exposed when the imperial centers resorted to military force to prevent such barter and maintain monopoly control of others' resources. Democratizing workplaces and distributing productive assets The Workplace as a political entity to be democratized Workplace democracy has been cited as a possible solution to the problems that arise from excluding employees from decision-making such as low-employee morale, employee alienation, and low employee engagement. Political theorist Isabelle Ferreras argues that there exists “a great contradiction between the democratic nature of our times and the reality of the work experience.” She argues that the modern corporation's two basic inputs, capital and labor, are treated in radically different ways. Capital owners of a firm wield power within a system of shareholder democracy that allocates voice democratically according to how much capital investment they place in the firm. Labor, on the other hand, rarely benefits from a system to voice their concerns within the firm. She argues that firms are more than just economic organizations especially given the power that they wield over people's livelihoods, environment, and rights. Rather, Ferreras holds that firms are best understood as political entities. And as political entities “it is crucial that firms be made compatible with the democratic commitments of our nations.” Germany and to a lesser extent the broader European Union have experimented with a way of workplace democracy known as Co-determination, a system that allows workers to elect representatives that sit on the board of directors of a company. Common criticisms of workplace democracy include that democratic workplaces are less efficient than hierarchical workplace, that managers are best equipped to make company decisions since they are better educated and aware of the broader business context. Creating a widespread distribution of productive assets One of the biggest criticisms against capitalism is that it concentrates economic and, as a result, political power in a few hands. Theorists of economic democracy have argued that one solution to this unequal concentration of power is to create mechanisms that distribute ownership of productive assets across the entire population. In Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, John Rawls argued that only two systems could embody the main features of his principles of justice: liberal socialism or a property-owning democracy. Within a property-owning democracy, Rawls envisioned widespread use of worker-owned cooperatives, partial-employee ownership of firms, systems to redistribute one's assets after death to prevent the accumulation of wealth, as well as a strong system of asset-based redistribution that encourages workers to own productive assets. Operating under the idea that making ownership more widespread leads to more equitable outcomes various proposals of asset-based welfare and asset-redistribution have been conceived. Individualistic and liberal asset-based welfare strategies such as the United Kingdom's Child Trust Fund or the United States Individual Development Account aimed to help people save money so that it could be invested on education, home-ownership, or entrepreneurship. More experimental and left-leaning proposals include worker owned cooperatives, ESOPS, or Roemer's coupon socialism which is a system where ownership shares of firms are equally distributed among the population with individuals being permitted to trade (but not sell) them, and where upon their death these shares return to the state to be distributed to individuals in the next generation. Critiques Ludwig von Mises argued that ownership and control over the means of production belongs to private firms and can only be sustained by means of consumer choice, exercised daily in the marketplace. "The capitalistic social order", he claimed, therefore "is an economic democracy in the strictest sense of the word". Critics of Mises claim that consumers only vote on the value of the product when they make a purchase—they are not participating in the management of firms, or voting on how the profits are to be used. See also References Articles E McGaughey, 'Economic democracy: a brief history, and the laws that make it' (2023) E McGaughey, 'Economic Democracy in the 21st Century: The Vote in Labour, Capital and Public Services' (2020) E McGaughey, 'Will Robots Automate Your Job Away? Full Employment, Basic Income, and Economic Democracy' (2018) Books De Magalhães, L. M., & Ferrero, L. (2010). (No. 10/614). Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
Naneen Neubohn	[ "Women corporate executives", "Smith College alumni", "Johns Hopkins University alumni", "Columbia Business School alumni", "University of Geneva alumni", "Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni", "Businesspeople from New York City", "Living people", "Year of birth missing (living people)", "Morristown-Beard School alumni" ]	716	6,156	Naneen Miller (Hunter) Neubohn is a former financial executive at Morgan Stanley. Neubohn served as managing director of Morgan Stanley's office in London, England and then co-directed the company's office in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1997, Euromoney, a financial magazine, named her to their list of the top 50 women in finance. Early life and education Neubohn was born in New York City. After graduating from the Beard School (now Morristown-Beard School) in Orange, New Jersey, she earned her bachelor's degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Neubohn graduated magna cum laude and received induction into Phi Beta Kappa. During her junior year at Smith College, she studied overseas at the University of Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Following her undergraduate studies, Neubohn completed a master's degree in the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1964. During her first year of graduate studies, she attended the SAIS Bologna Center in Bologna, Italy, the Johns Hopkins European campus. Neubohn later served on the university's board of trustees, and she chaired the advisory council for the Bologna Center. She also served as a career mentor to SAIS students and alumni and hosted alumni events for the university in New York City and London. In 1999, Neubohn helped endow the Steve Miller Chair in German Studies at the Bologna Center. That year, Johns Hopkins awarded Neubohn their Heritage Award. The award recognizes alumni and friends of the university who "contributed outstanding service over an extended period to the progress of the University or the activities of the Alumni Association". In 1974, Neubohn earned her master of business administration degree at Columbia Business School at Columbia University after graduating first in her class. She then joined Morgan Stanley. Neubohn later helped fund the Meyer Feldberg Distinguished Fellowship at the university. Financial industry career After joining Morgan Stanley, Neuhohn worked in the company's corporate finance department, its group overseeing capital service markets, and its department of mergers and acquisitions. In 1990, she moved to London to direct Morgan Stanley's group overseeing European corporate restructuring. Neuhohn directed the debt capital markets group before assuming leadership of the London office. In the fall of 2001, President George W. Bush announced an intention to nominate Neubohn to serve as U.S. executive director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Bush instead named Mark Sullivan to the post several months later. Neubohn married Axel Neubohn in 1964. Axel Neubohn formerly served as a vice president and business manager for Citibank's London office. She has two daughters, one son, and six grandchildren.
Money Monster	[ "2016 films", "2016 thriller films", "2010s business films", "American chase films", "2010s English-language films", "2010s American films", "American business films", "American thriller films", "American crime thriller films", "American psychological thriller films", "Films about conspiracy theories", "Films about film directors and producers", "Films about hostage takings", "Films about television", "Fictional television shows", "Films directed by Jodie Foster", "Films with screenplays by Jim Kouf", "Films produced by George Clooney", "Films produced by Grant Heslov", "Films scored by Dominic Lewis", "Films shot in New York City", "Films set in New York City", "Films set in Manhattan", "Stock trading films", "Wall Street films", "Smokehouse Pictures films", "Columbia Pictures films", "TriStar Pictures films", "English-language crime thriller films", "Films set in television stations", "Works about algorithmic trading" ]	2,992	27,742	Money Monster is a 2016 American crime thriller film directed by Jodie Foster, from a screenplay by Jamie Linden, Alan Di Fiore, and Jim Kouf. It stars George Clooney as financial television host Lee Gates and Julia Roberts as his producer Patty Fenn, as they are put in an extreme situation when an irate investor takes them and their crew as hostage. The cast also features Jack O'Connell, Dominic West, Caitríona Balfe, and Giancarlo Esposito. Money Monster had its world premiere at the 69th Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 2016, and was theatrically released in the United States the next day by Sony Pictures Releasing. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, grossing over $93 million against a budget of $27.4 million. Flamboyant television financial expert Lee Gates is in the midst of the latest edition of his show, Money Monster. Less than 24 hours earlier, IBIS Clear Capital's stock inexplicably cratered, apparently due to a glitch in a trading algorithm, costing investors $800 million. Lee planned to have IBIS CEO Walt Camby appear for an interview, but Camby unexpectedly departed for a business trip to Geneva, Switzerland. Midway through the show, a deliveryman wanders onto the set, pulls a gun and takes Lee hostage, forcing him to put on a vest laden with explosives. The man reveals that his name is Kyle Budwell, who invested $60,000—his entire life savings—in IBIS after Lee endorsed the company on camera. He was wiped out along with the other investors. Unless he gets some answers, Kyle will blow up Lee before killing himself. Once police are notified, they discover that the receiver to the bomb's vest is located over Lee's kidney. The only way to destroy the receiver—and with it, Kyle's leverage—is to shoot Lee and hope he survives. With the help of longtime director Patty Fenn, Lee tries to calm Kyle and locate Camby, though Kyle is dissatisfied when both Lee and IBIS chief communications officer Diane Lester offer to compensate him for his financial loss. He is angered by Diane's insistence that the algorithm is to blame. Diane is not satisfied with her own explanation, either, and defies colleagues by contacting a programmer who created the algorithm, Won Joon. Reached in Seoul, Joon insists that an algorithm could not take such a large, lopsided position without someone meddling with it. Lee appeals to his TV viewers for help, seeking to recoup the lost investment, but is dejected by their response. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) find Kyle's pregnant girlfriend Molly and allow her to talk to Kyle through a video feed. When she learns that he lost everything, she viciously berates him before the police cut the feed. Lee, siding with Kyle, agrees to help his captor discover what went wrong. Once Camby arrives, Diane flips through his passport, discovering that instead of going to Geneva he went to Johannesburg, South Africa. With this clue, along with messages from Camby's phone, Patty and the Money Monster team contact a group of Icelandic hackers to seek the truth. After a police sniper misses a shot at Lee, he and Kyle resolve to corner Camby at Federal Hall National Memorial, where, according to Diane, Camby is headed. They head out with network cameramen, Lenny, plus the police, and a mob of fans and jeerers alike. Having earned his trust, Kyle admits to Lee that the vest does not actually contain explosives, simply clay. Kyle accidentally shoots and wounds producer Ron Sprecher when Ron throws Lee a new earpiece. Kyle and Lee finally confront Camby with video evidence obtained by the hackers. Camby had bribed a South African miners' union, planning to have IBIS make an $800 million investment in a platinum mine while the union was on strike. The strike lowered the mine's owner's stock, allowing Camby to buy it at a low price. Had his plan succeeded, IBIS would have generated a multibillion-dollar profit when mine work resumed and the stock rose again. The gambit backfired when the union stayed on the picket line. Camby attempted to bribe union leader Moshe Mambo to stop the strike, but he refused, causing IBIS' stock to sink under the weight of its position in the failing company. Despite the evidence, Camby refuses to admit his swindle until Kyle takes the explosive vest off Lee and puts it on him. He finally admits to his wrongdoing on live camera. Satisfied with the outcome, Kyle throws the detonator away. Then Kyle, much to Lee's dismay, gets fatally shot by the police. Lee punches Camby, as his greed and corruption cost Kyle his life. In the aftermath, the SEC announces that IBIS will be placed under investigation, while Camby is charged with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Lee and Patty reconcile, wondering how they follow their last broadcast. Production Development The project Money Monster was first announced by Deadline on February 7, 2012, when Daniel Dubiecki launched his own film production company, The Allegiance Theater. It would be the company's first produced film. IM Global financed while Dubiecki produced, along with Stuart Ford. Alan Di Fiore and Jim Kouf wrote the script of the film. On October 11, 2012, Jodie Foster was set to direct the film. Lara Alameddine also produced the film. The story was altered from its original script inspired by the stock market glitch and crash of Cynk Technologies. On July 25, 2014, TriStar Pictures won the rights to finance and release the film, whose latest draft was written by Jamie Linden. Clooney and Grant Heslov also produced for their Smoke House Pictures. Casting On May 8, 2014, it was announced that George Clooney was director Foster's choice to star in the film as a TV personality, Lee Gates, but the deal was not yet confirmed. Clooney's involvement was confirmed in July 2014. Jack O'Connell and Julia Roberts were added to the cast November 14, 2014 to star along with Clooney in the film. Caitriona Balfe joined the cast of the film on January 29, 2015, to play the head of PR of the company whose stock bottomed. Dominic West signed-on on February 25, 2015 to play the CEO of the company. Christopher Denham also joined the cast on March 4, 2015, playing Ron, a producer on the show. Filming In October 2012, filming was scheduled to begin early 2013. In July 2014, it was announced that production would begin after Clooney completed the Coen brothers' Hail, Caesar!, and principal photography on the film began in New York City on February 27, 2015. On April 8, filming began on Wall Street in the Financial District, Manhattan, where it would last for 15 days. A scene was also shot in front of Federal Hall National Memorial. Some re-shooting for the film took place in mid-January 2016 in New York City on William Street and Broad Street. Release In August 2015, Sony Pictures Entertainment set the film for an April 8, 2016 release. The film was later pushed back to May 13, 2016. The Money Monster Premiered in Cannes on May 12, 2016, where the cast attended the photocall and screening in the evening. Box office Money Monster grossed $41 million in the United States and Canada, and $52.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $93.3 million, against a net production budget of $27 million. In North America, the film was released alongside The Darkness and the wide expansion of Green Room, and was projected to gross $10–12 million from 3,104 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $600,000 from its early Thursday night previews and $5 million on its first day. It went on to gross $14.8 million in its opening weekend, beating expectations and finishing 3rd at the box office behind Captain America: Civil War ($72.6 million) and The Jungle Book ($17.1 million). It fell 53% to $7 million in its second weekend, finishing 6th. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 59% based on 284 reviews, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Money Monsters strong cast and solidly written story ride a timely wave of socioeconomic anger that's powerful enough to overcome an occasionally muddled approach to its worthy themes." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave an 81% overall positive score, with 56% saying they would definitely recommend it. Clooney's performance was praised by critics. A.O. Scott of The New York Times said that the "quality of the acting both enhances the credibility of the narrative and exposes some of its weak points." Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com, in a mixed review, praised Clooney's "enormous charisma", but criticized the film for not "being quite as thrilling or thought-provoking as [its] premise sounds." Chris Hewitt of Empire however gave a more positive review. Several reviewers praised the atmosphere of suspense. Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald praised the film, particularly Foster's directing and her ability to "keep things moving". Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote that Foster "keeps the action vigorous and the suspense high", but said that the film was "swallowed up by the very hectoring and impersonal sensationalism that it derides." Some reviewers criticized the script. Wendy Ide of The Observer gave the film a negative review, writing that the film lacks the "authentic anger" of The Big Short and the "sniper-like accuracy" of Network, criticizing Clooney's "complete lack of sincerity". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said that what the script lacks in "emotional subtext" can be found in the cast's "richly detailed" performances. In a mixed review, Robbie Collin of The Telegraph called the film a "raucous hostage thriller that eschews explanation for wish-fulfillment", concluding by saying that "in the heat of the moment, Money Monsters bluster and nerve keeps you hooked." Josh Lasser of IGN was critical of the film's mix of comedy and drama, calling the transitions "too fast, ripping the audience out of the unfolding drama." Despite comparisons of Clooney's character to Jim Cramer and his TV show Mad Money, Clooney and Foster denied this.
The Security Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Ltd.	[ "Banks established in 1988", "Government-owned companies of Bangladesh", "Banknote printing companies", "Ministry of Finance (Bangladesh)" ]	2,555	23,329	The Security Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Ltd. (SPCBL; ) is the main printer of banknotes and government postal stamps in Bangladesh. History and description Established in 1988, it started operating as a project of the Bangladesh Bank. Since April 1992, it has been running as an autonomous organization constituted under the existing law of the country. It is the regular member of International Government Printers Association. Its clients for high-quality four-color postage stamps include Nepal. Products Coins, banknotes and related others 1 Taka, 2 Taka, 2 Taka Doel, 5 Taka 5 Taka Old, 5 Taka In, 10 Taka Old, 10 Taka In 10 Taka Old, 10 Taka Odel 1, 20 Taka, 20 Taka Old 50 Taka, 50 Taka Old, 50 Taka Old 1, 70 Taka, 100 Taka N 100 Taka O, 100 Taka Old, 100 Taka 500 Taka N, 500 Taka O, 500 Taka O, 500 Taka O 1 1000 Taka B N N, 1000 Taka O, Prize Bonds, 25 Taka, 40 Taka, 60 Taka, Others Postage and Revenue Stamps Postal Envelopes Postcards Non-Judicial Stamps Court Fee Stamps Cheque Books and Schedules and Other Security Items of Private Banks Share Certificates Treasury Bonds Academic Certificates Bidi Bands Rolls (Tax Labels) Bands (Tax Labels) for Stamps and Cigarette Boxes Bands (Tax Labels) for Toilet Soap Packets Tax Labels for Vehicle Route Permits, Vehicle Fitness and Vehicle Taxes The organization's 25th anniversary in 2013 was commemorated by the Bangladesh Bank issuing a ৳25 note showing its headquarters on the reverse. Latest series Following the fall of Awami League in the July Revolution in 2024, the Bangladesh Bank announced plans to redesign Taka banknotes by 2025. The central bank's Currency and Design Advisory Committee, made up of nine members was selected to submit theme proposals to the Ministry of Finance. Sheikh Mujib's portrait was removed and graffiti of the July Revolution was added in this series. Security Features: The new notes include advanced security features such as colour-changing thread, microprinting, see-through pattern and optically variable ink. The taka note alone has 10 security features. Eleventh Series Image Value Main Color Description First Issue Obverse Reverse Obverse Reverse৳2Light GreenMartyred Intellectuals Memorial, MirpurMartyred Intellectuals Memorial, Rayer Bazar2 June 2025 ৳5PinkStar MosqueGraffiti of the July Revolution2 June 2025৳10PinkBaitul Mukarram National MosqueGraffiti of the July Revolution2 June 2025৳20CyanKantajew TempleSomapura Mahavihara1 June 2025 ৳50Deep BrownAhsan ManzilThe Struggle by Zainul Abedin1 June 2025 ৳100Sky BlueSixty Dome MosqueThe Sundarbans2 June 2025৳200Golden YellowAparajeyo BanglaGraffiti of the July Revolution2 June 2025৳500Olive GreenCentral Shaheed MinarBangladesh Supreme Court1 June 2025৳1000VioletNational Martyrs' MemorialJatiya Sangsad Bhaban1 June 2025 Process, cost and security of printing money The banknote papers are made of cotton, which are imported from foreign countries, including Uzbekistan, PT Pura of Indonesia and other European countries, printing machines are also imported from Europe, and the inks including optically variable ink are imported from Germany and SICPA of Switzerland. The first batch of machines (purchased from Germany KBA-Notasys Swiss) were delivered in 2001 and in the second phase, in 2010 and 2014, two money printing machines called 'Intaglio Printing Machine' were purchased from the German company KBA-Notasys Swiss. The machine purchased in 2010 cost about 124 crore taka and the machine purchased in 2014 cost 142 crore taka, 4 machines were purchased at a cost of 1150-1200 crore taka. The average annual cost of printing banknotes of various denominations issued by Bangladesh Bank by the institution is around 4 billion taka to 5 billion taka. The leading designers are appointed for designing the money, the most prominent of whom was Muslim Mia. A 2022 report said that the Bangladesh government spends about 8 taka to print a 1,000 taka note. The cost of printing a 500 taka note is about 6 taka, and the average cost of printing each of the 5, 10, 20, and 50 taka notes is about 3 taka. In March 2025, Bangladesh Bank said that it costs five taka to print a 1,000 taka note and four taka 70 paisa to print a 500 taka note. In addition, the 200 taka note costs three taka 20 paisa, the 100 taka note costs four taka, and all 10, 20, and 50 taka notes cost one and a half taka. And the cost of printing five taka and two taka notes is one taka 40 paisa. After printing the money, each bundle is counted both by hand and by machine. Corruption allegations There are various allegations against the officials of the organisation, including becoming millionaires through corruption. In a report submitted by the Department of Posts on 2 December 2024, in response to a court order in a non-judicial stamp forgery case filed against Simin Rahman of Transcom Group in December 2024, the Assistant Controller of Stamps, Shuvro Sutradhar, confirmed that the stamps in question were issued by Security Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Limited in May 2023. On May 18, 2025, Elias Hossain's YouTube investigative report program called Fifteen Minutes showed that when Elias sent his own reporter to the organization to question about the fraud, the matter was ignored. A news report claims that none of the 714 officers and employees working at the company have the minimum educational training in currency engineering technology or security printing technology. In 2024, the DB suspected and monitored the institution for fraudulent certification of the Technical Education Board. Managing director In addition, in 2016, there were multiple allegations of corruption in the appointment of its Managing Director, where it was claimed that an official named Ziauddin Ahmed was lobbied to be reappointed as Managing Director after his term expired, on the recommendation of the then Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, against whom there were many allegations of corruption related to the appointment and purchase of equipment and parts, one of which was to create his own ring to take control of the company and let them manage everything, to raise fake bills by showing the import of parts worth about one crore taka in the name of repairing MICR machines, to purchase two rotary numbering machines worth 10 lakh taka each for 6 million taka, to purchase a cutting finishing machine worth 25/30 lakh taka for 2 million taka in collusion with the business firm Graphic Associates, to purchase a comb perforating machine worth 50/60 lakh taka for 3 million taka by showing fake documents of board members, to conceal the information of the company's 3 crore taka FDR deposited in Oriental Bank in 2003 with illegal benefits, to hide the information of 10 million taka Re-starting the intaglio printing of high-value notes, causing economic losses and taking commissions from businessmen, removing 3 officers with high degrees in chemistry from the research and quality control department to pass the humanities department to determine the quality of low-quality paper and ink, paying bribes to the auditor general's office to settle various irregularities in audit objections, cutting down trees of the corporation, looting fish from the lake by giving them to himself and his relatives, embezzling money by showing the attendance of workers who work on a daily basis, disrupting proper supervision of the organization and collapsing the organization's production due to being busy with various irregularities, hiring more than a hundred people in a year and purchasing and repairing new machines at a cost of crores of taka, requesting the finance minister to be reappointed as some more time is needed to cover up these irregularities, etc. In addition, before the end of the term of the Managing Director, the name of a criticized official named Bishnupada Saha from Bangladesh Bank was proposed for the position. In 2018, the Central Bank Governor Fazle Kabir and a contracting company were accused of lobbying to keep the company's managing director, Sheikh Azizul Haque, in his position even after his retirement period ended, with the aim of committing tender-related corruption. After August 5, 2024, allegations were made against former Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder and several senior officials of the institution, Ashraful Alam and Forkan Hossain, for corruptly printing notes worth 60,000 crore taka during the Awami League era. Other features There is a money meuseum inside the organization's official building. There are a total of nine mature trees of the endangered species Parul (Stereospermum chelonoides) in Bangladesh, five of which are located in the eastern part it's residential area. See also Bangladesh Government Press Bangladesh Bank Banking in Bangladesh Department of Printing and Publications List of banknote printers Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Pakistan Security Printing Corporation SAMA Money Museum Islamic banking and finance Islamic economics Money in Islam Riba
Lawrence F. Katz	[ "1959 births", "20th-century American economists", "21st-century American economists", "Chief Economists of the United States Department of Labor", "Economics journal editors", "Education economists", "Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences", "Fellows of the Econometric Society", "American labor economists", "Living people", "University of California, Berkeley alumni", "Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni", "Harvard University faculty" ]	770	9,113	Lawrence Francis Katz is the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Education and career Katz graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1981. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985. He served as the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor from 1993 to 1994 under Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's then Secretary of Labor. Katz is married to a Harvard colleague, 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics winner Claudia Goldin, and has also worked with her. They wrote the book The Race Between Education and Technology in 2008, which argued that the United States became the world's richest nation thanks to its schools. It was praised as "a monumental achievement that supplies a unified framework for interpreting how the demand and supply of human capital have shaped the distribution of earnings in the U.S. labor market over the twentieth century", and Alan Krueger of Princeton University said that it "represent[ed] the best of what economics has to offer". Katz has been editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics since 1991. He also serves as the Principal Investigator for the long-term evaluation of the , a randomized housing mobility experiment. This project evaluated questions like "To what extent does where you live determine how you live?" He is the co-Scientific Director of J-PAL North America, past President of the Society of Labor Economists, and has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society of Labor Economists. Katz serves on the Panel of Economic Advisers of the Congressional Budget Office as well as on the Boards of the Russell Sage Foundation and MDRC.
W. Michael Blumenthal	[ "1926 births", "Living people", "20th-century American economists", "20th-century United States government officials", "20th-century American writers", "21st-century American economists", "21st-century American writers", "American chief executives of manufacturing companies", "Bendix Corporation people", "Burroughs Corporation people", "Carter administration cabinet members", "German expatriates in China", "Haas School of Business alumni", "Jewish members of the Cabinet of the United States", "Jewish Chinese history", "Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States", "Jews and Judaism in Shanghai", "Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany", "Naturalized citizens of the United States", "People from Oranienburg", "Businesspeople from Princeton, New Jersey", "Princeton University faculty", "Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni", "Recipients of the Order of Merit of Berlin", "United States secretaries of the treasury" ]	3,435	25,961	Werner Michael Blumenthal (born January 3, 1926) is a German-American business leader, economist and political adviser who served as United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979. At age thirteen, Blumenthal barely escaped Nazi Germany with his Jewish family in 1939. He was forced to spend World War II living in the ghetto of Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China, until 1947. He then made his way to San Francisco and began doing odd jobs to work his way through school. He enrolled in college, eventually graduating from University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University with degrees in international economics. During his career, he became active in both business and public service. Before being appointed to a cabinet position with newly elected President Jimmy Carter, Blumenthal had become a successful business leader and had already held administrative positions under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. As a member of the Carter administration, he helped guide economic policy and took part in re-establishing ties with China. After he resigned, he became chairman and CEO of Burroughs Corporation and Unisys, followed by seventeen years as director of the restored Jewish Museum in Berlin. He is the author of The Invisible Wall (1998, Counterpoint Press) and From Exile to Washington: A Memoir of Leadership in the Twentieth Century (2013, The Overlook Press). Blumenthal is the oldest living former U.S. Cabinet member. Early life and education Blumenthal was born in Oranienburg, Weimar Republic (present-day Germany), the son of Rose Valerie (née Markt) and Ewald Blumenthal. His family was of modest means as owners of a dress shop. His forebears had lived in Oranienburg since the 16th century. As a result of the Nazi party's Nuremberg Laws, which took effect in 1935, his family began to fear for their lives and realized they had to escape from Germany. Blumenthal recalled Kristallnacht, a series of coordinated attacks against Jews and their property which began throughout Germany on November 9, 1938, when he was 12 years old: Nazi Gestapo men forced their way into his home early one morning in 1938 and arrested his father for no stated reason. His father was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp, one of the largest forced labor camps in Germany, where an estimated 56,000 people, mostly Jews, were eventually killed. His mother hastily sold all their household possessions and managed to win her husband's release. They had no choice but to sell their long-established dress store to their managing saleswoman for "practically nothing," says his older sister Stefanie. She recalls, "My mother wept—not so much out of the loss, but out of a sense of the unfairness of it, that someone we'd trained could turn on us, could get something we had worked so hard for, for nothing." With their little remaining money, his mother bought tickets for them to go to Shanghai, China, an open port city which didn't require a visa. They fled Germany on a passenger-carrying freighter shortly before war broke out in 1939. They took only minimal possessions; they were not allowed to take any money. He remembers the voyage: "From Naples via Port Said, Suez, Aden, Bombay, Colombo, Singapore, and Hong Kong; each one of those ports of call was part of the British Empire, and none would admit Jewish refugees." Upon arriving, they expected to remain only briefly, assuming they could then travel on to a safer country. However, with the outbreak of World War II, Japan had occupied Shanghai, and the Blumenthals were confined to the Shanghai Ghetto along with 20,000 other Jewish refugees for the next eight years. Blumenthal witnessed severe poverty and starvation throughout the ghetto, sometimes seeing corpses lying in the streets. "It was a cesspool," he said. He was able to find a cleaning job at a chemical factory and earned $1 a week, which was used to feed his family: His schooling was haphazard, and the stress of survival caused his parents to divorce. Nevertheless, he was able to learn English during a brief period attending a British school, and learned to speak some Chinese, French and Portuguese during other periods there. When the war in the Pacific ended in the summer of 1945, American troops entered Shanghai. He found a job as a warehouse helper with the U.S. Air Force, which benefited from his linguistic skills. By 1947 he and his sister, after much effort and being refused visas to Canada, received visas to the U.S. They made their way to San Francisco, where they knew no one, and with only $200 between them. With limited education, and now a stateless refugee, he did his best to make something of himself: Education Blumenthal found his first full-time job earning $40 per week as a billing clerk for the National Biscuit Company. He later enrolled at San Francisco City College and supported himself doing part-time work, including truck driver, night elevator operator, busboy and movie theater ticket-taker. He also worked as an armored guard and at a wax factory, where he filled "little paper cups with wax" from midnight until 8 a.m. Blumenthal was admitted to the University of California, Berkeley where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1951 with a B.S. degree in international economics. It was also where he met and married Margaret Eileen Polley in 1951. In 1952 Blumenthal became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Blumenthal was offered a scholarship to attend the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, in New Jersey. From there, he earned a Master of Arts and Master of Public Affairs in 1953, followed by a Ph.D. in economics in 1956. Blumenthal's doctoral dissertation was titled "Labor-management relations in the German steel industry, 1947-54." For income, his wife worked as a secretary and he taught economics at Princeton from 1954 to 1957. He also worked as a labor arbitrator for the state of New Jersey from 1955 to 1957. Blumenthal left Princeton University to join Crown Cork, a manufacturer of bottle caps, in 1957, where he remained until 1961 and rose to become its vice president and director. In 1961, having by then been a registered Democrat, he moved to Washington, D.C., following John F. Kennedy's inauguration, where he was offered a position by diplomat, George Ball, to serve as Kennedy's deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. He accepted the position and served in the State Department from 1961 until 1967 as an adviser on trade to Kennedy and, after Kennedy's assassination, as an adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson made him U.S. Ambassador and chief U. S. negotiator at the Kennedy Round General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade talks in Geneva, considered to be one of the world's most significant multilateral trade negotiation. Canada's Minister of Trade and Commerce described Blumenthal as a tough negotiator, which Blumenthal feels is ironic: "If they'd let me into the country in 1945, I might have been working on their side." In 1967, Blumenthal left government to join Bendix International, a manufacturing and engineering company specializing in auto parts, electronics and aerospace. After five years he was appointed as its chairman and CEO, and remained with the company for ten more years. When he first took over to head Bendix, the company was regarded by Wall Street as a faltering company. After five years as its chairman, the company nearly doubled its sales to just under $3 billion, and by 1976 Duns Review rated Bendix as "one of the five best-managed companies in the U.S." While Blumenthal headed Bendix, newly elected President Carter nominated him to become his U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, a position in which he served from January 23, 1977, to August 4, 1979. Cyrus Vance had originally wanted him to be his deputy when he became Carter's Secretary of State, but Carter decided he would be better placed as Secretary of the Treasury. His nomination was unanimously confirmed. That June, he traveled to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Paris headquarters for its annual conference, with its main agenda concerned with how Western powers would manage the sluggish recovery after the deep recession of 1974–75. Blumenthal first met Carter in 1975 at a meeting of the Trilateral Commission in Japan. Carter subsequently invited him to his home knowing his talents as a successful business manager and negotiator, and knew Blumenthal would offer him sound economic advice. Blumenthal recalls at the time, "The list of top Democratic businessmen isn't very long." In accepting the position, his income went from $473,000 per year to $66,000. He was also amused at the irony of reading a German newspaper headline, "A Berliner is to Become Carter's New Minister of Finance." As Secretary of the Treasury, however, he was never made a member of Carter's "inner circle," and his responsibilities were never clearly defined, writes historian Burton Ira Kaufman. Although he was made chair of Carter's Economic Policy Group (EPG), and was Carter's chief economic policy official, he was still unable to chart economic policy or be recognized as the administration's chief economic spokesman. He instead had to share the role with those closer to the president, which caused confusion among outsiders and weakened Blumenthal's effectiveness. Blumenthal took an active role in fighting inflation, which had increased from 7 percent at the beginning of 1978 to 11 percent by the fall. By the summer of 1979 inflation had reached 14 percent, with unemployment in some cities running close to 25 percent. Much of the increase had to do with OPEC raising oil prices. During this period, the U.S. dollar was also a target of one of the largest currency speculations in history by countries including Germany and Japan, whose currencies were rapidly appreciating against the dollar. In February 1979, Blumenthal represented the U.S. in its first visit to China by an American Cabinet officer following America's official recognition of their Communist government, which China had proclaimed in 1949. Until that time, most American China scholars had never been to China, and the event was so newsworthy that twenty journalists traveled with Blumenthal and his staff. His experience living in Shanghai is considered to have been an important factor in Chinese leaders inviting him, instead of a State Department official. His trip was a great success, notes biographer Bernard Katz. Blumenthal also went back the following month for the opening of the U.S. Embassy. He explains: He used part of his speech, much of which he gave speaking in Chinese, to convey to Chinese leaders America's serious concern with China's invasion of Vietnam a week earlier. Henry Kissinger described the multipronged invasion which may have included up to 400,000 Chinese soldiers. Blumenthal asked them to withdraw their troops "as quickly as possible," since it carried the "risk of wider wars." The Chinese were particularly impressed by Blumenthal's speech, adds Katz. And although the effect of his speech is not known, the Chinese army did withdraw a few weeks after his visit. In July 1979, Carter outlined his measures for dealing with the nation's economic and energy crisis, and at the same time asked five members of his cabinet, including Blumenthal, to resign. Twenty-three other senior staff members were also let go. After resigning he joined Burroughs Corporation in 1980 as vice chairman, then chairman of the board a year later. After merging the company with Sperry Corporation, it became Unisys Corporation in 1986, with Blumenthal its chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). He remained with Unisys until 1990 when he stepped down after several years of losses to become a limited partner at Lazard Freres & Company, an investment bank located in New York. Having more free time, he taught economics courses at Princeton. In April 2016, he was one of eight former Treasury secretaries who called on the United Kingdom to remain a member of the European Union ahead of the June 2016 Referendum. Jewish Museum of Berlin In 1997, Blumenthal became the founding director of the Jewish Museum Berlin in Germany's then-new capital of the Federal Republic. His work began in December of that year, when he accepted an invitation from the city of Berlin to become president and chief executive of the Berlin Jewish Museum. The first Jewish Museum in Berlin was founded in 1933, but was closed in 1938 by the Nazi regime. The re-imagined museum includes displays documenting 2,000 years of the often-tragic chapters in German-Jewish history, including The Holocaust, and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. Blumenthal remained the museum's director from 1997 until 2014, with the completion and opening of the Museum in 2001 being credited to his direction. The project has attracted considerable attention within and outside of Germany. In 1999 and 2006, Blumenthal was awarded Germany's Senior Medals of Merit for his services to the Federal Republic of Germany, in recognition of his work in Berlin. Personal life He married Margaret Eileen Polley, a teacher, while in college; they had three daughters: Ann, Jill, and Jane. Currently he resides in Princeton, New Jersey, with his second wife Barbara (née Bennett), with whom he has one son, Michael. In 2008, he was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and pledged to back then-Senator Barack Obama. Blumenthal is featured in the 2020 documentary Harbor from the Holocaust. Awards and honors Recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. In 1980, Blumenthal received the Horatio Alger Award from the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. In 1999, he received the Leo Baeck Medal for his humanitarian work promoting tolerance and social justice, as well as the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2002, he received the Goethe Medal, Culture Prize of Berlin and Berlin's Medal of Merit. In 2013 he received the Lucius D. Clay Medal and Roland Berger Prize for Human Dignity. In 2014 he received the Nachama Prize for Tolerance and Civil Courage and, in 2015, received the Jewish Museum Berlin's Prize for Tolerance and Understanding.. He was elected an honorary citizen of Berlin in 2015, as well as of Oranienburg, the city of his birth. Blumenthal holds numerous honorary degrees from major U.S. universities. He was the recipient of Princeton University's Madison Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1979. See also List of foreign-born United States Cabinet members List of Jewish United States Cabinet members
Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)	[ "British economic policy", "Defunct departments of the Government of the United Kingdom", "Economy of the United Kingdom", "Government agencies disestablished in 2007", "Industry in the United Kingdom", "Innovation in the United Kingdom", "Ministries established in 1970", "1970 establishments in the United Kingdom", "Trade in the United Kingdom" ]	1,243	10,549	The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was a United Kingdom government department formed on 19 October 1970. It was replaced with the creation of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills on 28 June 2007. History The department was formed on 19 October 1970 through the merger of the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Technology, creating a new cabinet post of Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Additionally, the department also took over the Department of Employment's former responsibilities for monopolies and mergers. However, in January 1974, the department's responsibilities for energy production were transferred to a newly created Department of Energy. On 5 March that year, following a Labour Party victory in the February 1974 general election, the department was split into the Department of Trade, the Department of Industry and the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection. Reformation In 1983 the departments of Trade and Industry were reunited. The Department of Energy was re-merged back into the DTI in 1992, but various media-related functions transferred to the Department of National Heritage. Until it was succeeded in June 2007 the DTI continued to set the energy policy of the United Kingdom. After the 2005 general election the DTI was renamed to the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry, but the name reverted to Department of Trade and Industry less than a week later, after widespread derision, including some from the Confederation of British Industry. Later splits and mergers In 2007, part of DTI merged into the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), while most of it was renamed as the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR); part of that would become the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in 2008. The responsibilities which had gone to DIUS largely returned in 2009 with a re-merger to create the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), though in 2016 the Department for International Trade (DIT) was split off. Energy returned in 2017 with the creation of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS); BEIS lasted until 2023 when this department was again split and mixed with other responsibilities, into the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Structure The DTI had a wide range of responsibilities. There were ultimately nine main areas covered by the DTI: Company Law Trade Business Growth Innovation Employment Law Regional Economic Development Energy Science Consumer Law. Emergent technology From 1999 to 2005 it led the national E-Commerce Awards with InterForum, a not for profit membership organisation that helped British businesses to trade electronically. This aimed to encourage Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to develop their business through the use of E-Commerce technologies. Corporate policing It also had responsibility for investigating misconduct by company directors, in which role Private Eye repeatedly lampooned it as "the Department of Timidity and Inaction". Small firms' Merit Award for Research and Technology The Small firms' Merit Award for Research and Technology (SMART) was a discretionary business grant scheme run by the UK Department of Trade and Industry for a number of years in the 1980s and 1990s. The award was made to companies winning an annual competition (organised regionally) based on a judgement of the technical and market viability of research or technology development proposals; in essence the award represented seed-corn funding for innovative developments that had some market potential. The scheme was generally considered to be very successful. In 2002 the scheme was changed from a competition to an award to any applicant who met minimum criteria. This led to several regions exhausting their budget. In 2005 the scheme was shut down and replaced with the Grant for Research and Development which was again a regional competition. See also Avanti (project) Energy in the United Kingdom Restricted Enforcement Unit United Kingdom budget Business Link – set up by the DTI in 1993 UK Trade & Investment – set up in 1999 Special Representative for International Trade and Investment
Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes	[ "1759 births", "1845 deaths", "18th-century French diplomats", "French orientalists", "French sinologists", "French merchants", "Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres", "Members of the French Academy of Sciences", "French expatriates in China", "18th-century French businesspeople", "19th-century French businesspeople" ]	931	7,575	Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes (; 1759–1845) was a French merchant-trader, ambassador and scholar, born in Paris. He was the son of French academician and sinologue, Joseph de Guignes. He learned Chinese from his father, and then traveled to China where he stayed for the next 17 years and returned to France in 1801. At court of the Qianlong Emperor In 1794-95, de Guignes served as interpreter for Isaac Titsingh, the Dutch ambassador to the court of the Qianlong Emperor of China. Titsingh travelled to Peking (Beijing) for celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the Emperor's reign. The Titsingh delegation also included the Dutch-American Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest, whose description of this embassy to the Chinese court were soon published in the U.S. and Europe. In the year following the emperor's rebuff to the 1793 mission headed by LordGeorge Macartney, Titsingh and his colleagues were much feted by the Chinese because of what was construed as seemly compliance with conventional court etiquette. In 1808, de Guignes published his account of the Titsingh mission, which provided an alternate perspective and a useful counterpoint to other reports which were then circulating. Neither the Europeans nor the Chinese could have known that the Titsingh embassy would turn out to have been the last occasion in which any European appeared before the Chinese Court within the context of traditional Chinese imperial foreign relations. Sinologist In 1808, Napoleon ordered de Guignes to prepare a Chinese-French-Latin dictionary. The work was completed five years later. Shortly after the publication, it was discovered that the dictionary was nothing more than a copy of an older work composed by the Franciscan friar, Basilio Brollo of Gemona (1648–1704). While de Guignes had altered the original by arranging the characters according to the order of the 214 radicals (as contrasted with Basilio's tone-based order), the dictionary received strong criticism in 1814 from the first person to be appointed to be a professor of Chinese at a European institution of higher learning, Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (1788–1832). Despite the controversy, de Guignes was elected a member of the Institut de France in the Académie des Sciences (Géographie et Navigation) and of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Guignes was also the author of a work of travels (Voyages a Pékin, Manille, et l'île de France, 1808). Works de Guignes, C.-L.-J. (1813). Dictionnaire Chinois, Français et Latin, le Vocabulaire Chinois Latin. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale. . , , , v.4 (atlas) References van Braam Houckgeest, A.E. (1797). Voyage de l'ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales hollandaises vers l'empereur de la Chine, dans les années 1794 et 1795. Philadelphia: M.L.E. Moreau de Saint-Méry. ___________. (1798). London : R. Phillips. [digitized by University of Hong Kong Libraries, , ] Duyvendak, J.J.L. (1937). "The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court (1794-1795)." T'oung Pao 33:1-137. O'Neil, Patricia O. (1995). Missed Opportunities: Late 18th Century Chinese Relations with England and the Netherlands. [Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington] Rockhill, William Woodville. The American Historical Review, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Apr., 1897), pp. 427–442. Rockhill, William Woodville. The American Historical Review, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Jul., 1897), pp. 627–643.
Christo Wiese	[ "1941 births", "Afrikaner people", "Alumni of Paarl Boys' High School", "Living people", "South African billionaires", "Stellenbosch University alumni", "Wilgenhof", "21st-century South African businesspeople", "20th-century South African businesspeople", "People from Upington" ]	2,211	22,381	Christoffel Hendrik Wiese (born 10 September 1941) is a South African billionaire businessman who was the longtime chairman of Shoprite and Pepkor. He was also the chairman and largest shareholder of Steinhoff International until its collapse in December 2017. Trained as a lawyer, Wiese entered discount consumer retail in 1981 when he acquired a controlling interest in Pep Stores from a family member. Though he is no longer the majority shareholder in Shoprite or Pep, he retains significant interests in both companies, as well as in mining and real estate. Early life and education Wiese was born on 10 September 1941 in Upington, South Africa, where his father owned a sheep and cattle farm and a car dealership. He matriculated at Paarl Boys' High School and initially enrolled at the University of Cape Town but dropped out without completing his programme. After a hiatus in Upington, where he started a radiator repair business, he resumed his studies at Stellenbosch University and graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. On the Stellenbosch campus he lived at Wilgenhof. Business career While Wiese was at Stellenbosch, his parents co-founded Pep Stores in Upington in 1965. After his graduation, Wiese spent several years working as an executive director for the family business during a period of rapid expansion. In 1974, however, he moved to Cape Town, where he married and worked at the Cape Bar with a practice in criminal and commercial law. He remained involved in business, buying a diamond mine in Richtersveld in 1976, and he ran unsuccessfully for election to Parliament in 1977, standing as a candidate for the opposition Progressive Federal Party in the Simonstown constituency. In 1981, he sold the Richtersveld mine and bought his cousin out of Pep Stores, which had acquired Shoprite for R1 million in 1979 and which by then had 450 locations nationwide; Wiese acquired a controlling 44-per-cent stake in Pep Stores and became its chairman. Pep (renamed Pepkor Limited in 1982) was tremendously successful in the discount retail market over the next two decades, buoyed in part by the de facto protectionism produced by international sanctions against the apartheid government. Wiese later described the company as "the Wal-Mart of Africa," saying, "The business has basically been built on one slogan: Low prices you can trust." In 1986, Pepkor acquired the clothing chain Ackermans and spun out Pepkor's food interests, listing Shoprite Holdings Limited separately on the JSE alongside the clothing interests of PEP Limited; Wiese maintained control of both public companies. In 1991 Pepkor acquired Smart Group Holdings, Cashbuild, Checkers, and Stuttafords. Pepkor also purchased the loss-making OK Bazaars from South African Breweries for one rand in 1997. British investments Weise's private equity company, Brait, holds several investments in British companies, beginning with a 2012 investment in Iceland Foods. In April 2015, Brait bought 80 per cent of Virgin Active from Richard Branson's Virgin Group, and it bought 90 per cent of New Look later the same year. Wiese told press that he had looked abroad because antitrust policy restricted his further expansion in the South African retail market. Steinhoff scandal In March 2012, Wiese became a shareholder and director of German-listed Steinhoff International as part of the sale of his five-star vineyard hotel, the Lanzerac Manor and Winery, which he had owned since 1991. The deal, reported in the media as a sale to a foreign consortium, was spearheaded by Steinhoff executive Markus Jooste, who was Wiese's personal friend. Two years later, in November 2014, Steinhoff acquired 92.34 per cent of Pepkor, buying Wiese's 52.47 per cent stake and Brait's 37.06 per cent stake. In exchange Weise acquired 19.7 per cent of Steinhoff, and in 2016 he became chairman of Steinhoff after buying further shares to finance its acquisition of Mattress Firm. By the end of the 2016 financial year, he was the largest single shareholder of both Steinhoff (23 per cent) and Shoprite (16.9 per cent), and he publicly supported proposals to merge the companies' interests. Wiese was Steinhoff chairman in December 2017 when Steinhoff admitted to massive accounting fraud, resulting in Jooste's resignation as chief executive. Wiese initially took over as acting chief executive, but a week later he announced that he would step down from the board entirely. His net worth reportedly fell by over $3 billion in subsequent weeks as Steinhoff's share price plummeted. Four large international lenders – Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America – also reported large losses on written-down margin loans to Wiese, though the loans were ringfenced around his Steinhoff shares. Summoned to the South African Parliament to answer questions about the scandal, Wiese testified that revelations of the fraud had been like "a bolt from the blue." Jooste later claimed that Wiese had in fact had earlier notice of the fraud. In April 2018, Weise's company, Titan, sued to cancel R59 billion in Steinhoff share purchases, which he alleged were the result of fraud; the case settled in early 2022, with Wiese receiving R3 billion in cash and a per cent stake in Pepkor valued at over R4 billion. Absent from the Forbes Billionaire List since 2018, Wiese regained dollar-billionaire status in 2023. Shoprite leadership In the aftermath of the Steinhoff collapse, Wiese reduced his holdings in Shoprite by about a third; by October 2019, he held 10.7 per cent of the company, a smaller share than the Government Employees Pension Fund, though he retained control of the board through deferred shares with special voting rights. The company remained highly profitable. In November 2019, Wiese used his special voting rights to gain reappointment as Shoprite chairman, notwithstanding the opposition of shareholders who controlled over 60 per cent of ordinary shares, but he stepped down as chairman in November 2020, replaced by Wendy Lucas-Bull. He remained chairman of Invicta Holdings and TradeHold, and in 2024 he told press that he was focusing on his mining interests in Trans Hex Group Limited. Financial controversies In April 2009, the United Kingdom Border Agency confiscated some £675 000 (about R7.2 million) from Wiese at London City Airport, where Wiese was carrying £120 000 in his hand luggage and £554 920 in his checked baggage on a flight to Luxembourg. The City of Westminster Magistrates' Court approved a forfeiture order under the Proceeds of Crime Act, finding that the cash was associated with criminal conduct. Wiese said that he had earned the money in diamond deals in the 1980s and 1990s and had stored it in a safety deposit box at the Ritz Hotel in order to avoid South African exchange controls. Represented by Clare Montgomery, Wiese won an appeal in the London High Court in 2012 and reclaimed the money. Meanwhile, the City Airport controversy reportedly spurred an investigation by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), resulting in 2012 in a finding that one of Wiese's companies, Titan, owed up to R2 billion in taxes in South Africa. The dispute went to the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2024. Personal life Wiese's wife, Caro, is an art collector and the daughter of prominent politician Japie Basson. They have three children. Resident in Clifton, Cape Town, they also own the Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West, purchased in 1998, and a private wildlife reserve in the Kalahari desert. See also List of South Africans by net worth
Moldova Stock Exchange	[ "Companies established in 1994", "Companies of Moldova", "Economy of Moldova", "Stock exchanges in Europe" ]	339	3,057	The Moldova Stock Exchange (Romanian: Bursa de Valori a Moldovei) is the only stock exchange in Moldova. Founded in 1994, the exchange now has 17 financial service providers that act as members and participants. Over 30 companies are listed on the regulated market, while more than 500 companies are listed on the low-cap marketplace operated by the exchange. History The Moldova Stock Exchange was founded in 1994. The exchange is subject to the supervision and regulation of the National Commission for Financial Markets (CNPF) of the Republic of Moldova. Together with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, it established the Chișinău Stock Exchange in the country's capital as a second trading center in 2024. Index The EVM Composite Index tracks the performance of listed equities. Membership The exchange is a member of: Euro-Asian Federation of Exchanges (observing member) Listed companies The following companies were listed on the Moldova Stock Exchange in early 2025: Arria Trade Corporation FinComBank Floarea Soarelui Moldasig Comertbank Energbank EuroCreditBank Moldindconbank Victoriabank Moldova Agroindbank Acord Grup OTP Bank Moldcargo
Contingent convertible bond	[ "Fixed income analysis", "Debt", "Commercial bonds", "Credit risk", "Swaps (finance)" ]	1,405	13,195	A contingent convertible bond (CoCo), also known as an enhanced capital note (ECN), is a fixed-income instrument that is convertible into equity if a pre-specified trigger event occurs. The concept of CoCo has been particularly discussed in the context of crisis management in the banking industry. It has been also emerging as an alternative way for keeping solvency in the insurance industry. Concept The concept of "No Fault Default" was proposed by Professor Robert Merton in 1990 as a guarantee that gives holders "contractual right to seize the firm's assets (or its equity interest) whenever the value of assets is below the value of its guaranteed debt." The specific idea of "Contingent Convertible Bonds" as an avoidance mechanism for financial distress was proposed by an Olin Fellow at the Harvard Law School, and published in the Harvard Law Review in 1991. These concepts may have served as inspiration to the instrument used during the 2008 financial crisis. The trigger and the loss absorption A contingent convertible bond is defined by two elements: a trigger activation and a loss-absorption mechanism. The trigger activation is the pre-specified event that causes the loss-absorption process. It can be either based on a mechanical rule or on supervisors' discretion. The loss-absorption mechanism consists either of conversion into a pre-specified amount of equity or of writing-down the nominal value of the coco bond. The trigger, which can be bank specific, systemic, or dual, has to be defined in a way ensuring automatic and inviolable conversion. A possibility of a dynamic sequence exists—conversion occurs at different pre-specified thresholds of the trigger event. Since the trigger can be subject to accounting or market manipulation, a commonly used measure has been the market's measure of bank's solvency. The design of the trigger and the conversion rate are critical in the instrument's effectiveness. Forms Contingent convertible bonds can take a variety of different forms such as a standby loan, a catastrophe bond, a surplus note, or a call option enhanced reverse convertible. Pricing Pricing contingent convertible bonds is challenging, especially because of several regulatory aspects that have to be taken into account. The relevant regulatory framework for CoCos is set out in the fourth European Capital Requirement Directive (CRD IV), the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) regulatory accords. In empirical terms, the following variables have been shown to have an influence on the spreads of contingent convertibles (sign of the effect in parentheses): the bank's Tier 1 capital ratio (+), the issuing bank is a globally systemically important financial institution, i.e., a systemically important bank (G-SIB) (-), the issuer is headquartered in a Southern European country (+), having an equity-conversion vs. a permanent write down as loss-absorption mechanism (-), having a low-trigger vs. a high-trigger (-), the bank's credit default swap (CDS) spread (+), the bank's past stock returns (+), and the bank's stock-return volatility (+). Further, with respect to regulatory variables, also the distance‐to‐maximum distributable amount (MDA)‐threshold has been shown to have a negative, economically relevant, and statistically significant influence on CoCo spreads. Advantages and criticism In the context of crisis management, contingent convertible bonds have been particularly acknowledged for their potential to prevent systematic collapse of important financial institutions. If the conversion occurs promptly, a bankruptcy can be entirely prevented due to quick injection of capital which would be impossible to be obtained otherwise, either because of the market or the so-called recapitalization gridlock. In addition, due to its debt nature, a contingent convertible bond constitutes a tax shield before conversion. Hence, as compared to common equity, the cost of capital and, consequently, the cost of maintaining a risk absorbing facility are lower. In case the trigger event occurs, conversion of debt into equity drives down company's leverage. Also, contingent debt is said to have the potential to control the principal-agent problem in a two way manner—engaging both the shareholders and the managers. The greater market discipline and more stringent corporate governance are exercised as a result of shareholders’ direct risk of stock dilution in case conversion was triggered. An argument has been made that making managers’ bonuses in a form of contingent convertible debt instruments could reduce their behavior of excessive risk taking caused by their striving to provide investors with the desired return on equity. A critical benefit of contingent convertible debt that distinguishes it from other forms of risk absorbing debt is the effect of "going concern conversion". When the trigger is well chosen, automatic conversion reduces leverages precisely when the bank faces high incentives for risk shifting. Accordingly, this feature ensures a preventive effect on endogenous risk creation, unlike any other form of bank debt. On the other hand, contingent capital in a form of convertible bonds remains a largely untested instrument causing fears as to its effects especially during periods of high market volatility and uncertainty. The appropriate specification of the trigger and the conversion rate is critical to the instrument's effectiveness. Some argue that conversion could produce negative signaling effects leading to potential financial contagion and price manipulation. Lastly, the instrument's marketability remains doubtful. Credit Suisse AT1s When the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS was announced on 19 March 2023, Swiss regulator FINMA stated that CHF16 billion ($17 billion) of Credit Suisse additional tier one (AT1) bonds would be written down to zero. Only AT1 bonds issued by the two Swiss banks allow for such in their terms; most such securities have more protections. The Single Resolution Board, the European Banking Authority, and the ECB Banking Supervision to release a joint statement confirming that, under the EU resolution framework, AT1 instruments cannot be written down before the full use of CET instruments to absorb losses. An expert from Swiss Lindemannlaw firm representing individuals and legal entities who suffered damages from writing down of the Credit Suisse AT1 bonds, indicated they have a 5-year term (until 2028) to initiate arbitration proceedings due to the provisions of the Swiss expropriation law. See also Convertible bond Risk management Capital structure Contingent claim valuation References Cited
Lakireddy Bali Reddy	[ "1937 births", "2021 deaths", "American people of Indian descent", "American people convicted of fraud", "American people of Telugu descent", "20th-century slave traders", "20th-century American merchants", "Businesspeople from Berkeley, California", "History of Berkeley, California", "History of slavery in California", "Human trafficking in the United States", "Indian emigrants to the United States", "University of California, Berkeley alumni", "American landlords", "20th-century American businesspeople", "21st-century American businesspeople", "People convicted of sex trafficking" ]	3,201	24,815	Lakireddy Bali Reddy (1937 – November 8, 2021) was an Indian and American landlord, convicted felon, and chairman of the Lakireddy Balireddy College of Engineering in Andhra Pradesh. Reddy exploited the Indian caste system to bring young Indian women and girls to Berkeley, California. From 1986 to 1999, he and his family members and associates forced them into servitude and sexual slavery. Reddy came to the United States in 1960 to study engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. By 1975, Reddy had opened a successful Indian cuisine restaurant in downtown Berkeley. He used its profits to purchase over 1,000 run-down apartments, making him, by the year 2000, the largest and wealthiest landlord in the city (other than the University of California), with a worth estimated at . In 2000, Reddy was indicted by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California who charged him with sex trafficking, visa fraud, and tax code violations following a lengthy investigation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, and the Berkeley Police Department. On June 21, 2001, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California announced that Reddy pled guilty to one count of conspiring to commit immigration fraud, two counts of transportation of minors for illegal sexual activity, and one count of subscribing to a false tax return for which he was fined (~$ in ) and sentenced to serve a prison term of 97 months in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Reddy's case ultimately served as the building block for California's anti-trafficking movement. Early life and education Reddy was born in 1937 in the village of Velvadam in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. India At age 17, he married a 14-year-old girl. Married three times, Reddy had three sons, Raj, Vijay and Prasad Lakireddy. Raj died in a motorcycle crash while attending Chennai Medical college in 1985. Reddy completed his BSc and BTech from Osmania University in Hyderabad. In 1960, he went to the University of California, Berkeley on a scholarship, graduating with a MEng in chemical engineering. Business and trafficking In 1975, Reddy opened the Pasand Madras Indian Cuisine restaurant in downtown Berkeley. Over the years, he used its profits to acquire more than 1,000 run-down apartment buildings. By 2000, he had used its profits to become the second largest property owner in the city, second only to the University of California. By 2000, he owned real estate assets valued at and had income of per month from his 1,000 rental properties. Reddy also owned a construction company with his brother Hanimireddy Lakireddy (a Yale University-trained cardiologist) that was located near his restaurant in Berkeley. He opened a second Pasand Indian Cuisine Restaurant in Santa Clara and owned nightclubs in Berkeley and San Francisco. Reddy used his money to improve his home community of Velvadam, where he built two elementary schools and a high school, created sources of clean drinking water, and paid for a new wing at the local hospital. Because of Reddy's many capital expenditures, Velvadam became known as a "mini-U.S.A." Some villagers adored him for his power and spending. The majority of the villagers in Velvadam were of the Dalit ("untouchable") caste. Beginning in 1986, Reddy used his status to convince them that he could better their lives by bringing them to America. Reddy brought as many as 99 people, mostly women and girls, to the United States. In many cases, he used fraudulent visas, sham marriages, and fake identities. Anita Chabria, a California-based journalist, wrote, "Reddy ruled over his victims like a feudal lord, imposing his law rather than U.S. law by keeping his targets isolated and afraid — of him, and of their tenuous position as illegal immigrants — and by importing the rules of the caste system, an apartheid that India has fought to eradicate but that still governs the daily lives of many Hindus". Initial investigation On November 24, 1999, Marcia Poole, a longtime Berkeley resident, while driving on a side street in Berkeley, became suspicious when she saw four Indian men moving what she first thought was a rolled-up rug out of a Reddy-owned apartment building and putting it into a Reddy Realty van. Upon looking more closely at the rug being carried, she noticed a leg sticking out of it. Poole noticed, in the crowd of bystanders, a distraught young Indian girl, later identified as 18-year-old Laxmi Patati. When the men tried to drag that girl into the van too, who was "resisting with all her might," Poole stopped them and was able to get a passing driver to call the police. Police found the body of 13-year-old Sitha Vemireddy (later identified as one of Reddy's concubines) in the apartment building's stairwell. Her sister, Lalitha, was alive but disoriented in the van. Police investigators, who did not know what had happened when they arrived on the scene, asked Reddy to interpret for them, which Lt. Cynthia Harris, chief of detectives and public information officer for the Berkeley Police Department, later admitted was a mistake. Reddy told the police that Patati was the roommate of sisters Sitha and Lalitha and had discovered them both unconscious when she returned to their shared apartment. Police accepted Reddy's story, and the coroner ruled the death of Sitha to be accidental carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a blocked heating vent, and the investigation was closed. Less than a month later, in December 1999, the Berkeley Police received an anonymous letter saying that Reddy had lied to them which caused a new investigation to be opened into Sitha's death, but, by that time, her body had been cremated on Reddy's orders. The Berkeley Police then joined with the INS in a larger investigation of Reddy that was joined by the FBI and the DOJ. Investigation and arrest Following the November 24, 1999 death of 13-year-old Sitha Vemireddy and the December 1999 anonymous letter they had received about her death, the Berkeley Police Department opened a new investigation into Reddy teaming with the INS and re-interviewing her roommates Lalitha and Patati, and the man who Reddy said was their father, Venkateswara Vemireddy. Using their own interpreters for this new investigation, the Berkeley Police and INS caused Reddy associates Venkateswara Vemireddy and his sister, Padma, to confess that he was not Sitha's father. Vemireddy told these authorities that Reddy had obtained fraudulent visas for him and these minor girls and had loaned him US$6,500.00. Vemireddy then falsely stated that both Sitha and Lalitha were his daughters. Lalitha and Patati had been detained in an INS facility but were released with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union and private lawyers. They told investigators that Reddy had raped and beat them and forced them to work for almost no pay. Patati also told authorities that her father had sold her to Reddy when she was 12, that Patati was not her real name, and that she had also worked as a servant on Reddy's estate in Velvadam and been abused by him there as well. Patati also said that she was at the San Francisco airport when Padma Vemireddy arrived with Sitha and Lalitha posing as her daughters. Reddy and Patati (who had previously been smuggled into Berkeley) picked up the girls and took them to the Berkeley apartment where Patati lived. Patati told investigators that she had witnessed Reddy raping both Sitha and Lalitha. Reddy continued to rape them and force them to perform labor for little or no pay. In January 2000, police arrested Reddy. The original nine-count U.S. federal indictment charged Reddy with conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, transportation of minors for illegal sexual activity, and false statements on a tax return. Widespread outrage in California erupted immediately upon Reddy's arrest, but when Western media outlets went to the village of Velvadam, they found some villagers praising him with banners. Plea bargain and conviction The original charges carried a potential sentence of up to 38 years in prison. Authorities faced complications during the investigation. Many of Reddy's victims refused to testify against him due to fear. However, there was a plea agreement in which Reddy would be sentenced to 97 months (8 years, 1 month) in prison and ordered to pay $2 million in restitution, an agreement that also prohibits appeals. He was convicted of "one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, two counts of transporting a minor in foreign commerce for illegal sexual activity, and one count of subscribing to a false tax return". In Reddy's new plea agreement, he admitted that, between 1986 and January 2000, he illegally brought Indian nationals into the United States using fraudulent visas and admitted that he made arrangements to have Venkateswara Vemireddy enter the United States on a fraudulent visa and to bring his sister posing as his wife. Reddy also admitted bringing two minor girls into the United States as their daughters, stating that he intended to have sexual intercourse with both victims, who were younger than 16 years old. Another victim girl was reported to be 13 years of age in 1991 when she was brought into the United States with false documents. Reddy said he intended to have sexual intercourse with her too. Prosecutors later found that one of their interpreters, Uma Rao, had asked the victims to exaggerate the crimes. After discovering this, they disclosed this information to the defense. Legal sources speculated that the actions of the interpreter might result in a new trial. Post-prison life Reddy was released from prison in 2008. He moved into a mansion that had been custom-built for him while he was imprisoned. Upon his release from prison, Reddy was registered as a California sex offender under the state's Megan's Law. In 2019, The Daily Californian observed that "As of 2013, [Lakireddy Baly Reddy] still owned Everest Properties, and as of 2017 members of his family owned Raj Properties. Everest alone advertises more than 100 properties available in Berkeley and surrounding areas on its website, which means Reddy collects millions of dollars of rent every year." Reddy died on November 8, 2021, at the age of 84. Reporting Lakireddy Bali Reddy was the subject of the book Slaves of Berkeley: The Shocking Story of Human Trafficking in the United States by Tim Huddleston. According to Huddleston: Reddy's crimes have also been cited in the books Hidden Slaves: Forced Labor in the United States, Body Evidence: Intimate Violence against South Asian Women in America, Shout Out: Women of Color Respond to Violence, New Slavery: A Reference Handbook, Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade—and How We Can Fight It, and Multicultural Jurisprudence: Comparative Perspectives on the Cultural Defense. His case reportedly inspired changes to California's human trafficking laws in 2005 and was part of Congressional testimony on the proposed Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2007, as well as the report of the California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery Task Force. See also Human trafficking in California
ITA Software	[ "1996 establishments in Massachusetts", "Software companies based in Massachusetts", "Travel and holiday companies of the United States", "Airline tickets", "Business software companies", "Travel technology", "Common Lisp (programming language) software", "Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts", "Google acquisitions", "American companies established in 1996", "Hospitality companies established in 1996", "Software companies established in 1996", "2011 mergers and acquisitions", "Software companies of the United States" ]	756	7,088	ITA Software is a travel industry software division of Google, formerly an independent company, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Jeremy Wertheimer, a computer scientist from the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Cooper Union, with his partner Richard Aiken in 1996. On July 1, 2010, ITA agreed to be acquired by Google. On April 8, 2011, the US Department of Justice approved the buyout. As part of the agreement, Google was required to license ITA software to other websites for five years. History ITA's first product was an airfare search and pricing system called QPX. This system has been and is used by travel companies such as Bing Travel, CheapTickets, Kayak.com, and Orbitz, and by airlines such as Alitalia, American, ANA, Cape Air, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways, and Virgin Atlantic. ITA also hosts its own airfare search website based on QPX, called "Matrix", although it is not possible to buy tickets from it. ITA was known for using programming puzzles to attract and evaluate potential employees since 2001. Some of these puzzles have appeared in ads on Boston's MBTA subway system. ITA is also one of the highest-profile companies to base their software on Common Lisp. In January 2006, ITA received $100 million in venture capital money from a syndicate of five investment firms led by Battery Ventures, marking the largest investment in a software firm in New England in five years. In September 2006, ITA announced a several-million-dollar deal with Air Canada to develop a new computer reservations system to power its reservations, inventory control, seat availability, check-in, and airport operations. In August 2009, Air Canada announced that the project had been suspended. In July 2010, Google announced the acquisition of ITA for $700 million in cash, subject to DOJ review and approval. On April 8, 2011, the US Dept. of Justice and Google reached an agreement in terms to allow the purchase and dismiss a potential antitrust lawsuit. On March 1, 2012, Google and Cape Air announced that Cape Air had migrated to ITA Software's passenger service system (PSS). One year later, Google announced that it was discontinuing the PSS. In 2013, Google started offering a simplified API to QPX called QPX Express; it was discontinued on April 10, 2018. See also Google Flights List of global distribution systems (computer reservation systems)
Noel Croucher	[ "1891 births", "1980 deaths", "20th-century English businesspeople", "English financial businesspeople", "Hong Kong stockbrokers", "Hong Kong business executives", "Hong Kong industrialists", "People from British Hong Kong", "British expatriates in British Hong Kong" ]	680	5,637	Noel Croucher (24 December 1891 – 6 March 1980) was a British businessman and philanthropist who served as chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and was on the board of directors for Green Island Cement and The Hong Kong and China Gas Company. He established an academic charity, the Croucher Foundation, the year before his death. Biography Croucher was born on 24 December 1891 in Eastleigh, Hampshire. In 1905 he moved to British Hong Kong with his mother, stepfather, and siblings. At the age of fifteen he began working as a clerk in the Hong Kong Post Office. He caught the attention of Sir Catchick Paul Chater, who helped him start out in business. In 1911 he joined the trading firm Tomes & Company. After four years in trading he moved to a brokerage firm called Benjamin & Potts. Croucher joined the Hong Kong Volunteer Defense Corps and was made an officer at the beginning of World War I. He was sent to the British-leased territory of Weihaiwei in China as a recruiter for the Chinese Labour Corps, to help on the Western Front. He was later stationed in France where he met his future wife, Simonne. They married in London in 1924. In 1925 they had a son, Richard Roderic Coucher, who was born in Hong Kong. Coucher and his wife later separated, and she moved back to London during World War II. In the 1935 he established Croucher & Company and obtained a seat on the board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He served on the board of directors of Green Island Cement and The Hong Kong and China Gas Company. He was appointed Vice Commodore of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in 1937. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, Croucher was interned in a prison camp. While imprisoned, his wealth stayed intact and, upon his release, he was considered one of "the richest white men East of Suez". He played an important role in the restoration of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He was appointed as chairman of the stock exchange in 1947. He was a patron of the Sandy Bay Children's Hospital. In 1979 Croucher created the Croucher Foundation, an academic charity funding educational programs for natural science, technology, and medicine in Hong Kong. Alexander Todd, Baron Todd was appointed as the founding President of the foundation. When Croucher died in 1980, he left a large endowment to the foundation.
Harshad Mehta	[ "1954 births", "2001 deaths", "20th-century Indian Jains", "20th-century Indian businesspeople", "20th-century Indian criminals", "Businesspeople from Mumbai", "Businesspeople from Gujarat", "People from Rajkot district", "Gujarati people", "Indian fraudsters", "Indian stock traders", "Indian people convicted of money laundering", "Indian Jains", "Stockbrokers", "Indian investors", "Scandals in India", "Financial scandals", "People convicted of fraud", "People from Gujarat", "People convicted of making false statements", "Prisoners and detainees of Maharashtra" ]	2,385	20,019	Harshad Shantilal Mehta (29 July 1954 – 31 December 2001) was an Indian stockbroker, businessman, and convicted fraudster. Mehta's involvement in the 1992 Indian securities scam (about ) led him to gain infamy for market manipulation. Of the 27 criminal charges brought against Mehta, he was only convicted of four, before his death (by sudden heart attack) at age 47 in 2001. It was alleged that Mehta engaged in a massive stock manipulation scheme financed by worthless bank receipts, which his firm brokered for "ready forward" transactions between banks. Mehta was convicted by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court of India for his part in a financial scandal valued at which took place on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The scandal exposed the loopholes in the Indian banking system and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) transaction system, and consequently the SEBI introduced new rules to cover those loopholes. He was on trial for 9 years, until he died at the end of 2001 from a heart attack. Early life Harshad Shantilal Mehta was born on 29 July 1954, at Paneli Moti, Rajkot district, in a Gujarati Jain family. His early childhood was spent in Borivali, where his father was a small-time textile businessman. Education He did his early study in Janta Public School, Camp 2 Bhilai. A cricket enthusiast, Mehta did not show any special promise in school and came to Mumbai after his schooling for studies and to find work. Mehta completed his B.Com in 1976 from Lala Lajpatrai College, Bombay and worked a number of odd jobs for the next eight years. Work and life In his early life, Mehta did jobs often related to sales, including selling hosiery, cement, and sorting diamonds. Mehta started his career as a salesperson in the Mumbai office of New India Assurance Company Limited (NIACL). During this time he became interested in the stock market and after a few days, resigned and joined a brokerage firm. In the early 1980s, he moved to a lower-level clerical job at the brokerage firm Harjivandas Nemidas Securities where he worked a jobber for the broker Prasann Pranjivandas Broker who he considered his "Guru". Over a period of ten years, beginning 1980, he served in positions of increasing responsibility at a series of brokerage firms. By 1990, he had risen to a position of prominence in the Indian securities industry, with the media (including popular magazines such as Business Today) touting him as "Amitabh Bachchan of the Stock market". Mehta founded Grow More Research and Asset Management, with the financial assistance of associates, when the BSE auctioned a broker's card and actively started to trade in 1986. By early 1990, a number of eminent people began to invest in his firm and utilize his services. It was at this time that he began trading heavily in the shares of Associated Cement Company (ACC). The price of shares in the cement company eventually rose from 200 to nearly 9,000 due to a massive spate of buying from a set of brokers including Mehta. Mehta justified this excessive trading in ACC shares by stating that the stock had been undervalued, and that the market had simply corrected when it revalued the company at a price equivalent to the cost of building a similar enterprise; the so-called "replacement cost theory" that he had put forward. During this period, especially in 1990–1991, the media portrayed a heightened deified image of Mehta, calling him "The Big Bull". He was covered in a cover page article of a number of publications including the popular economic magazine Business Today, in an article titled "Raging Bull". His flashy lifestyle of a sea-facing 15,000 square feet penthouse in the tony area of Worli, complete with a mini golf course and swimming pool, and his fleet of cars including a Toyota Corolla, Lexus LS400, and Toyota Sera were flashed in publications. These further exemplified his image at a time when these were rarities even for the rich people of India. In criminal indictments later brought by the authorities, it was alleged that Mehta and his associates then undertook a much broader scheme which resulted in manipulating the rise in the Bombay Stock Exchange. The scheme was financed by supposedly collateralised bank receipts, which were in fact uncollateralised. The bank receipts were used in short-term bank-to-bank lending, known as "ready forward" transactions, which Mehta's firm brokered. By the second half of 1991 Mehta had earned the nickname of the "Big Bull", because he was said to have started the bull run in the stock market. Some of the people who worked in his firm included Ketan Parekh, who later would be involved in his own replicate scam. Background of the 1992 security fraud Bank funds scam Up to the early 90's banks in India were not allowed to invest in the equity markets. However, they were expected to post profits and to retain a certain ratio (threshold) of their assets in government fixed interest bonds. Mehta cleverly squeezed capital out of the banking system to address this requirement of banks and pumped this money into the share market. He also promised the banks higher rates of interest, while asking them to transfer the money into his personal account, under the guise of buying securities for them from other banks. At that time, a bank had to go through a broker to buy securities and forward bonds from other banks. Mehta used this money temporarily in his account to buy shares, thus hiking up demand of certain shares (of good established companies like ACC, Sterlite Industries and Videocon) dramatically, selling them off, passing on a part of the proceeds to the bank and kept the rest for himself. This resulted in stocks like ACC, which was trading in 1991 for ₹200/share, skyrocketing to nearly ₹9,000 in just 3 months. Bank receipt fraud Another instrument used in a big way was the bank receipt. In a ready forward deal, securities were not moved back and forth in actuality. Instead, the borrower, i.e. the seller of securities, gave the buyer of the securities a BR. The BR serves as a receipt from the selling bank, and also promises that the buyer will receive the securities they have paid for at the end of the terms. Having figured this out, Mehta needed banks, which could issue fake BRs, or BRs not backed by any government securities. Once these fake BRs were issued, they were passed on to other banks and the banks in turn gave money to Mehta, plainly assuming that they were lending against government securities when this was not really the case. He took the price of ACC from ₹200 to ₹9,000 (an increase of 4,400%). Since he had to book profits in the end, the day he sold was the day when the markets crashed. Outbreak of 1992 securities fraud On 23 April 1992, journalist Sucheta Dalal exposed illegal methods in a column in The Times of India. Mehta was dipping illegally into the banking system to finance his buying. A typical ready forward deal involved two banks brought together by a broker in lieu of a commission. The broker handles neither the cash nor the securities, though that was not the case in the lead-up to the fraud. In this settlement process, deliveries of securities and payments were made through the broker. That is, the seller handed over the securities to the broker, who passed them to the buyer, while the buyer gave the cheque to the broker, who then made the payment to the seller. In this settlement process, the buyer and the seller might not even know with whom they had traded, either being known only to the broker. This the brokers could manage primarily because by now they had become market makers and had started trading on their account. To keep up a semblance of legality, they pretended to be undertaking the transactions on behalf of a bank. Mehta used forged BRs to gain unsecured loans, and used several small banks to issue BRs on demand. Once these fake BRs were issued, they were passed on to other banks and the banks in turn gave money to Mehta, mistakenly believing that they were lending against government securities. This money was used to drive up the prices of stocks in the stock market. When time came to return the money, the shares were sold for a profit and the BR was retired. The money due to the bank was returned. This went on as long as the stock prices rose, and no one knew about Mehta's operations. Once the fraud was exposed, though, many banks were left holding worthless BRs – the banking system had been swindled out of a whopping . They knew that they would be accused if people discovered his involvement in issuing cheques to Mehta. Subsequently, it transpired that Citibank, brokers like Pallav Sheth and Ajay Kayan, industrialists like Aditya Birla, Hemendra Kothari, a number of politicians, and the RBI Governor S.Venkitaramanan all had allowed or facilitated Mehta's market manipulation. In popular culture Books Mehta's life and his 1992 scam are covered in great detail by Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu in their book The Scam: from Harshad Mehta To Ketan Parekh. Films and television Scam 1992, streaming on SonyLIV and produced by Applause Entertainment is based on his life, which was inspired from Sucheta Dalal's book The Scam. Actor Pratik Gandhi played Mehta. It is one of the highest rated television shows in the world on IMDb. The character Natwar Shah in movie Aankhein (1993), placed under scanner for a multi-crore scandal, was inspired by Harshad Mehta. The Mehta scandal was portrayed in the Hindi movie, Gafla. It was premiered in Times BFI 50th London Film Festival on 18 October 2006. Harshad Mehta was mentioned in the 2018 TV show Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai based on 1990s' Ahmedabad. The Mehta scandal was portrayed in the Hindi Webseries, The Bull Of Dalal Street. It was premiered in Ullu App on 21 February 2020. A Bollywood film The Big Bull (2021), starring Abhishek Bachchan, loosely based on his life and financial crimes. A Telugu film Lucky Baskhar (2024), starring Dulquer Salmaan, makes several references to Mehta and the 1992 scam. See also Ramalinga Raju Hasan Ali Khan List of scandals in India
Ralph Perlman	[ "1917 births", "2013 deaths", "Politicians from New York City", "Politicians from Baton Rouge, Louisiana", "Cornell University alumni", "Columbia Business School alumni", "Businesspeople from Louisiana", "Jewish American military personnel", "United States Army officers", "United States Army personnel of World War II", "20th-century American businesspeople", "21st-century American Jews" ]	602	5,325	Ralph R. Perlman (May 16, 1917 – May 24, 2013) was the state budget director in his adopted U.S. state of Louisiana, having served under four governors of both parties from 1967 until 1988. Thereafter, Perlman continued to hold other public service positions. Perlman was born in New York City, the only son of a Jewish couple of European descent, Harry and Bessie Perlman. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a master's in business from Columbia University in New York City. During World War II, Perlman served with distinction in the European Theater as an artillery officer with the United States Army 63rd Infantry Division. While stationed at Camp Van Dorn in Mississippi, he met and subsequently married the former Carol Herzberg, who was also Jewish. The Perlmans established residence in Baton Rouge, where he was first engaged in business. Carol Perlman died of cancer in 1981; in 1984, Perlman remarried. In 1964, Governor John McKeithen appointed Perlman as the executive assistant to the commissioner of administration, W. W. McDougall. In 1966, he briefly joined the staff of then-State Representative J. Bennett Johnston Jr., a Shreveport lawyer, who subsequently became a state senator in 1968 and a U.S. senator in 1972. In 1967, Governor McKeithen named Perlman as state budget director. In that capacity he developed the Office of State Group Benefits, which handles the medical claims of state employees and retirees. He also oversaw the state's $5 million investment in the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition held in New Orleans. In 1988, Perlman became the special assistant for finance under Governors Buddy Roemer, Edwin Edwards, and Murphy J. Foster Jr. In 1997, Foster appointed Perlman secretary of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, a position that he held for five years. In 2002, then University of Louisiana System President Sally Clausen hired him as a special assistant. According to Clausen, whom Perlman considered his "goddaughter", Perlman "treated every budget as though it was coming out of his own pocket. ... If I was running the state, I'd want Ralph Perlman watching my dollars. ... In the first year [as executive assistant], he saved me a million dollars from minor stuff. He was a magician in common sense." Son Gerald Lee "Jerry" Perlman (born c. 1947) of Shreveport, Louisiana, described his father as "very detail-oriented, and he always had all the facts at his fingertips. He had a very retentive memory." Perlman died in a Baton Rouge hospice at the age of ninety-six after a brief illness. In 2011, Perlman was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.
Daymeon Fishback	[ "1978 births", "Living people", "American expatriate basketball people in France", "American expatriate basketball people in Italy", "American expatriate basketball people in Serbia and Montenegro", "American financial businesspeople", "American men's basketball players", "Auburn Tigers men's basketball players", "Basketball players from Kentucky", "ESPN people", "KK Crvena zvezda players", "Merrill (company) people", "Morgan Stanley employees", "Shooting guards", "Small forwards", "Sportspeople from Bowling Green, Kentucky" ]	670	6,440	Daymeon Fishback (born February 28, 1978) is an American financial advisor and former professional basketball player. High school career Fishback was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky and played at Greenwood High School in Bowling Green. He played at Greenwood for the late Larry Cheatham and Hall of Fame Coach Curtis Turley. Fishback recorded 2,214 points, 916 rebounds, 470 assists, 168 blocked shots and 163 steals at Greenwood. In 1996, he was named the Kentucky Mr. Basketball. College career Fishback played college basketball for the Auburn Tigers between 1996 and 2000. In 1999, Fishback helped Auburn win the SEC regular season title. Over 127 games in four seasons, he averaged 7.2 points, 3 rebounds, and an assist per game. Professional career In 2000, Fishback signed with a YUBA League team Crvena zvezda for the 2000–01 season. Fishback was selected with the 76th overall pick in the 2001 NBDL draft by the Columbus Riverdragons, and with the 89th overall pick in the 2002 NBDL draft by the Roanoke Dazzle. Later, he played in France and Italy. Post-playing career Fishback worked over a decade in Atlanta in the financial services industry, first at Merrill Lynch (2005–2013) and later at Morgan Stanley. Fishback has also worked as a color analyst for Fox Sports South and the Auburn Network. In 2014, Fishback joined ESPN as an SEC Network game and studio analyst.
Irving Allen Mathews	[ "1917 births", "1994 deaths", "American businesspeople in retailing", "American retail chief executives", "Businesspeople from San Antonio", "University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni", "American art collectors", "Knights of the Legion of Honour", "20th-century American Jews", "20th-century American businesspeople", "Jews from Ohio", "Jews from Texas", "Businesspeople from Ohio" ]	478	3,370	Irving Allen Mathews (8 Apr 1917 Toledo, Ohio – 7 February 1994, San Antonio) was an American specialty retail executive, who devoted 41 years to Frost Bros., formerly of San Antonio, Texas. He also served as Board Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Career at Frost Bros. Mathews began a 41-year career with Frost Bros. as a fashion buyer, ascending to president of its specialty clothing store at North Star Mall in 1963. Frost Bros. was sold in 1970 to Manhattan Industries Inc. In 1971, Mathews became director of the company and served as CEO of the retail division until the chain was sold in 1986. Stewardship in banking Mathews served as a director of Frost National Bank of San Antonio from 1981 up until his death in 1994. Stewardship in U.S. monetary policy In 1971, the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors appointed Mathews director of the San Antonio branch. He served as chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1972 to 1973, and as a class C director of the Dallas branch from 1974 to 1980. San Antonio Spurs Mathews was a founding stockholder in the San Antonio Spurs National Basketball Association franchise and one of only two of the original stockholders still holding a financial interest at his death. Education A native of Toledo, Ohio, he attended the University of Michigan, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics in 1938. U.S. Armed Forces Mathews served as a captain in the U.S. Army during World War II. Family Irving's father, Samuel Henry Mathews (1893–1951), had owned an apparel retail store in Toledo, Ohio. On September 1, 1945 — while a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Sam Houston — Irving married Jeanne Lang, daughter of Sylvan Lang, co-owner of Frost Bros. Affiliations Mathews was a past director of the San Antonio Symphony, United Fund, the Jewish Social Service Federation of San Antonio and the National Board of the American Jewish Committee. References General references Who's Who in America, 42nd edition, 1982-1983, Marquis Who's Who, Wilmette, IL (1982) Inline citations
Slipped Disc Records	[ "Music retailers of the United States", "Online retailers of the United States", "Defunct retail companies of the United States", "Defunct companies based in New York (state)", "Companies based in Nassau County, New York", "Valley Stream, New York", "Retail companies established in 1982", "Retail companies disestablished in 2008", "1982 establishments in New York (state)", "2008 disestablishments in New York (state)", "Mass media companies established in 1982", "Mass media companies disestablished in 2008" ]	719	6,800	Slipped Disc Records (which closed in 2008) was an American record store located in Valley Stream, New York, on Rockaway Avenue – owned/operated by Mr. Mike Schutzman – and was one of Long Island's longest running record stores. Specializing in heavy metal, punk, and hardcore CDs, records, DVDs, shirts, posters, pins, books, and other accessories, the store had also featured in-store autograph signing sessions with some of rock's biggest acts over the years. The store was featured in the documentary Get Thrashed, and an official website was launched for online shopping. Sip This (a coffee house) is now located where Slipped Disc Records used to be. History Slipped Disc Records opened in 1982, and according to an article in Metal Edge magazine, Schutzman reflected upon the store's early days, "There weren't many stores then that were specializing in metal, hardcore, and punk. We hit it at the right time, even though people told us it wasn't a good time." The store flourished by selling a wide variety of domestic and hard-to-find import albums and accessories as well as a large catalogue of used CD's and albums. Sadly, Slipped Disc closed its doors on April 19, 2008, after being open for over 25 years. Schutzman is still known to sell vinyl at record shows that cater to collectors and enthusiasts. Dream Theater drummer and veteran Slipped Disc shopper Mike Portnoy had some nice words and memories to say about the store in a posting at the Blabbermouth site the same day it closed. As of 2015, Schutzman organizes and oversees an ongoing record show in various locations in the northeast of the U.S., called Vinyl Revolution Record Show. Other information Some bands/artists that have done autograph signings at Slipped Disc include Mick Taylor (9 June 1990), Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Motörhead, Twisted Sister, Rob Halford, Ronnie James Dio, Zakk Wylde, Sepultura, and Merciless Death among others. Vintage pictures from autograph signing sessions can be viewed online at the official Slipped Disc site. On February 17, 2007, a 20-second commercial for Slipped Disc was aired four times on Headbangers Ball. A theater used to be located across the street from Slipped Disc, the Rio Theater, which featured performances in the early-mid 1980s by Slayer, Metallica, and Alcatrazz (with Yngwie Malmsteen), among others. It has since been demolished. Schutzman was interviewed for (and featured throughout) the 2015 book, Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990s, by author Greg Prato.
Bob Atwood	[ "1907 births", "1997 deaths", "Alaska Republicans", "American newspaper publishers (people)", "American Presbyterians", "Businesspeople from Alaska", "Businesspeople from Chicago", "Clark University alumni", "Editors of Alaska newspapers", "Mass media people from Worcester, Massachusetts", "University of Alaska Anchorage people", "20th-century American businesspeople", "People from the Territory of Alaska" ]	854	6,951	Robert Bruce Atwood (March 31, 1907 – January 10, 1997) was an American journalist who served as the long-time editor and publisher of the Anchorage Times. He was also an early advocate of Alaska statehood. Biography Robert Bruce Atwood, known as Bob Atwood or Robert Atwood, was born on March 31, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Clark University with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in journalism, and in 1932, married social worker Evangeline Atwood (née Rasmuson), the older sister of Anchorage Mayor Elmer E. Rasmuson. They had two daughters, Marilyn and Elaine. Anchorage Times and Alaska statehood Atwood moved to Anchorage, Alaska, in 1935. With the help of his father-in-law, he purchased the struggling Anchorage Daily Times. Under his guidance, it became Alaska's largest daily newspaper. In 1949, the Alaska Territorial Legislature formed the Alaska Statehood Committee, appointing Atwood as chairman. His pro-statehood lobbying efforts included visits to Washington, D.C., and a steady stream of articles in his newspaper, such as a 1955 editorial where he argued that whereas commonwealth status was "wonderful" for Puerto Rico, "it wouldn't give Alaskans self-government, control of resources, tax exemptions or any of a number of benefits claimed by its supporters here." In 1954, Atwood partnered with his brother-in-law Elmer E. Rasmuson to invest in the lease of potential oil fields on the Kenai Peninsula. The investment generated a fortune after Richfield Oil Corporation discovered oil in 1957 near the Swanson River. On June 30, 1958, the United States Senate passed the Alaska Statehood Act, and President Eisenhower signed it on July 7. Atwood's Anchorage Daily Times celebrated with a headline in six-inch type: “WE’RE IN.”, which became a defining finish to the fight for Alaskan statehood. On January 3, 1959, Atwood was present (along with Senators Bob Bartlett and Ernest Gruening, Representative Ralph Julian Rivers and Territorial Governors Waino Hendrickson and Mike Stepovich) in the Cabinet Room when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the proclamation that made Alaska the 49th state admitted into the United States. Philanthropy In 1962, Atwood endowed the Atwood Foundation to promote education and the arts. In 1979, he established the Atwood Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage. The Alaska Center for the Performing Arts was constructed in 1989, with the largest performance space designated as the Evangeline Atwood Concert Hall. Later life Beginning in 1959 and continuing until the 1980s, Atwood unsuccessfully campaigned for the capital of Alaska to be moved from Juneau to Anchorage, due to Anchorage's growing influence as the population center of the state, with the Anchorage Metropolitan Area holding half of the state's population. In 1990, Robert Atwood stepped down as editor and sold the Anchorage Times to oil tycoon Bill Allen. Death Atwood died in Anchorage, Alaska, on January 10, 1997, ten years after the death of his wife. Legacy At the time of his death, Robert Atwood was collaborating with journalist John Strohmeyer on a biography. After Atwood's death, Strohmeyer completed the work under the title Alaska Titan. But before it could be published, Atwood's daughter, Elaine, sued to prevent it from being distributed. In 1999, Strohmeyer and Elaine Atwood entered into an agreement giving Elaine Atwood two years to produce her own biography, to be entitled Bob Atwood's Alaska. Bob Atwood's Alaska did not appear until after Elaine Atwood's death in 2003. In 1998, the Robert B. Atwood Building at 550 W. Seventh Avenue in Anchorage was named by the Alaska State Legislature. The Atwood name also appears in the Atwood Center at Alaska Pacific University. Bibliography Atwood, Robert B. Bob Atwood's Alaska: The Memoirs of a Legendary Newspaper Man 2003 ()
Mesoamerican Society for Ecological Economics	[ "Economy of Central America", "Ecological economics", "Natural resources organizations", "Ecology", "Economics and climate change" ]	1,388	12,120	The Mesoamerican Society for Ecological Economics (SMEE) is a regional chapter of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE). After its foundation in 2008 at Guatemala City, the organization has already celebrated its first International Conference in 2010 at Mexico City and will carry out the second International Conference, EcoEco Alternatives, between March 4 and 8 2014 at the main campus of the University of Costa Rica. This branch of the ISEE has a unique emphasis within ecological economics. Topics like social justice and the human value in environmental conservation prevail in this region. As a consequence of the strong influence from Joan Martinez Alier's "environmentalism of the poor or social environmentalism", major attention is given to ecological-distributive conflicts. Alier insists that in the South a struggle exists against these conflicts generated by economic growth, mainly by the North. These endeavors "attempt to preserve the access of the communities to natural resources and services." On top of the negative effects on the environment by economic distribution, the cultural influence is also widely debated. For instance, the anthropologist Arturo Escobar suggests that culturally-driven preferences are one of the main factors degrading the environment. For example, society naturally gives privilege to the capitalist model that distributes natural resources with the purposes of production and profit, instead of endorsing the agroforestal ecosystem model, which is less harmful to the environment. As part of this alternate perception in Mesoamerica, Ecological economics doesn't consider that the economic valuation of natural resources nor environmental norms are effective solutions to these social-environmental conflicts. On the other hand, an alternative based on community-based conservation and the management of sustainability is more advocated upon. By adding the latter cultural perspective, the three pillars of sustainable development (the social, environmental, and economic) end up being addressed by these proponents. After the second biennial meeting of the International Society for Ecological Economics in 1994 at San José, Costa Rica, several professionals in the region became interested in creating a branch of this organization in their own countries to respond to the increasing development and worsening of social-environmental conflicts by the conventional-economics-based policies. However, it wasn't until 2008 that the efforts of the Latin American Social Sciences Institute in Guatemala, the at the National University of Costa Rica, and the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico resulted in the Ecological Economics Forum, May 26 and 27 2008 at Guatemala City, with the participation of zealous youth, students, and 50 professionals of Mesoamerica. Highly-recognized experts spoke, such as Alejandro Nadal, Coordinator of the working group on the Environment, Macroeconomics, Trade and Investments of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); David Barkin and Roberto Constantino from the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico; Eduardo García Frapolli from the Center for Ecosystem Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico; Bernardo Aguilar of Prescott College, AZ, U.S. and Executive Director of the in Costa Rica; Miguel Martínez of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Guatemala), and World Bank and programs. This meeting undertook the writing of the organization's Constitution and the election of the first Board of Directors. Under the lead of the first President, M. Sc. Iliana Monterroso of Guatemala, the consolidation of the legal inscription and statutes took place. According to the Forum's participants, the main objectives of the SMEE are to create an open field for discussion of the methodological and theoretical development of Ecological economics, to promote interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary scientific research, and to support academic initiatives related to this thematic in the region. In 2010, the First International (and Biennial) Conference of the SMEE was celebrated at the Ecological Park of Xochimilco, Mexico City, from November 22 to the 26th. Very influential speakers such as Fander Falconí; David Barkin; Mario Pérez, and Carlos Muñóz Piña lectured about and discussed the Ecological economics platform for the advancement of social justice, environmental justice, and the principles of sustainability. Since then, the new board of directors has had to deal with a shortage of memberships and the 2008 financial crisis; but despite these challenges, it has achieved important progress in creating its and completing several ecological economics studies and projects with the . Furthermore, the organization foresees the inauguration of a professional Master's program on ecological economics and political ecology at the and the proceeding of the 2014 EcoEco Alternatives Biennial Conference. Boards of Directors The Board of Directors rotates every two years and is usually elected around the biennial conference. The next election will take place in March, 2014. First Board of Directors (2008-2011): President: Iliana Monterroso Vicepresident: Marco Otoya Secretary: Mario Rodriguez Treasurer: David Barkin At large: Eduardo Garcia At large: Giselle Sanchez Student Representative: Marilú Peña Second Board of Directors (2011-2014): President: Bernardo Aguilar Vicepresident: David Barkin Secretary: Pastora Rivera Treasurer: Iliana Monterroso At large: Mario Fuente Counselor: Darío Escobar Counselor: David MontesdeOca Student Representative: Grettel Navas Current Board of Directors (2014-2016): President: Bernardo Aguilar Vicepresident: David Barkin Secretary: David MontesdeOca Treasurer: Ranulfo Paiva Sobrinho At large: Mario Fuente At large: Jesús Cisneros Counselor: Grettel Navas Counselor: Mireya Sosa Student Representative: Ana Lilia Esquivel EcoEco Alternatives 2014 Conference The Second International Conference of the Mesoamerican Society for Ecological Economics will take place at the Rodrigro Facio campus of the University of Costa Rica from March 4 to the 8th, 2014, with the support of the and the . Its purpose is to further the debate on Ecological economics and to sensitize more people about the importance of the ecological crisis and the solutions proposed by this school of thought. The Conference's thematic will be "Advancing Towards Alternatives for People and Ecosystems in Latin America". It will include multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary debates about the resolution of social-environmental conflicts, the alternatives within the ecological economics model for handling production and services, and the social conflicts related to the distribution of wealth and gender.
Jerry Speyer	[ "1940 births", "Living people", "American art collectors", "American chief executives", "American people of German-Jewish descent", "American businesspeople in real estate", "Jewish art collectors", "Columbia Business School alumni", "Columbia College (New York) alumni", "Horace Mann School alumni", "Rockefeller Center", "American billionaires", "Tishman family", "Jews from Wisconsin", "New York Yankees owners" ]	1,326	11,894	Jerry I. Speyer (born June 23, 1940) is an American real estate developer. He is one of two founding partners of the New York real estate company Tishman Speyer, which controls Rockefeller Center. Speyer was featured in the Forbes 400 list in 2021. Early life and education Speyer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Germaine M. and Ernst A. Speyer. According to a 1998 profile in The New York Times, "[Speyer's] mother is Swiss, and his father comes from one of the old Jewish families of Frankfurt" (however, there is only a very distant connection to the Speyer banking family, if any); his father, a shoe manufacturer, fled Germany in 1939, established a business in Milwaukee, before moving to New York when Jerry was three months old. Speyer grew up in a cultured German-Jewish household on Riverside Drive. He graduated from the private Horace Mann School. At Columbia University, he majored in German literature and joined Zeta Beta Tau, a Jewish fraternity. He was a friend of Art Garfunkel and Sanford Greenberg, his roommates, and Michael Mukasey. "Speyer was one of those people who were solid, and even solemn, at an age when others are still flailing and unsure of themselves." Speyer graduated from Columbia College in 1962 and received an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1964. Career Speyer began his career in 1964 as Assistant to the Vice President of Madison Square Garden. Speyer was President & CEO of Tishman Speyer since he formed the company together with his father-in-law Robert Tishman in 1978. Speyer was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, chairman of the Museum of Modern Art, and vice chair on the Board of Trustees of the Rand Corporation. Speyer is chair of the Executive Committee and chairman emeritus of Columbia University, chair emeritus of the Real Estate Board of New York, and past president of the Board of Trustees of the Dalton School. Speyer is on the board of Carnegie Hall, alongside Sanford Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup, with whom he has a close business relationship (see External Links below). His other board affiliations include Siemens AG and the Real Estate Roundtable, and have included Yankee Global Enterprises and the Urban Land Institute. He is a member of the Economic Club of New York and the Council on Foreign Relations. Speyer is also chair emeritus of the Partnership for New York City, founded by David Rockefeller. Speyer has sat on the Board of Trustees of NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital since 2000, and has served as President of the Board since 2019, including during the COVID-19 crisis. Personal life In 1964, Speyer married Lynn Tishman, whose great-grandfather Julius Tishman founded Tishman Realty and Construction, of which Tishman Speyer is a spinoff. In 1987, they divorced (Lynn later married Harold R. Handler, who is retired as a senior partner in the New York law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett). They had three children: Valerie Hope Speyer Peltier (born 1967) works at Tishman Speyer as part of the Acquisitions and Development group. In 1993, she married Jeffrey Richard Peltier of Tipp City, Ohio. The wedding was officiated by Rabbi Peter Rubinstein at the Rainbow Room in New York. Rob Speyer (born 1969) previously worked as a reporter at The New York Daily News but is now a chief executive and president of Tishman Speyer. In 2008, he married Anne-Cecilie Engell (who is Danish) in a nondenominational ceremony in Copenhagen. Holly Ann Speyer Lipton (born 1973) works as a television producer. In 1999, she married Jonathan Lipton. The wedding was officiated by Rabbi Peter Rubinstein at the Pierre in New York. In 1991, Speyer married Katherine G. Farley, whom he had hired in 1984 to oversee international development. They have a daughter, Laura Speyer (born 1992). Farley graduated from Brown University in 1971, and with a Masters of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1976. She served as manager of new business development for East Asia and the Pacific for Turner International Industries before joining Tishman Speyer in 1984. She is a senior managing director at Tishman Speyer, responsible for the company's real estate activities in Latin America and for the company's expansion into other emerging markets, chairs the company's Compensation Committee, and is a member of the Management, Investment, and Executive Committees. She is chair of Lincoln Center's redevelopment and is on the executive committee of the International Rescue Committee, a refugee relief and resettlement organization, and is chair emeritus of Women in Need, which helps homeless women and children in New York City. She is a vice president of the Brearley School, and a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. Farley has served on the boards of Lincoln Center Theater and the New York Philharmonic. Recognition Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, 1997 American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2014 Crain's New York Hall of Fame, 2020
Pizza Inn	[ "Companies that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy", "Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1989", "Pizza chains of the United States", "Restaurant chains in the United States", "Regional restaurant chains in the United States", "Companies based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex", "Denton County, Texas", "Restaurants established in 1958", "Companies listed on the Nasdaq", "Pizza franchises", "1958 establishments in Texas" ]	909	8,872	Pizza Inn is a Dallas-based restaurant chain and international food franchise, specializing in American-style pan pizza, pasta, and side dishes, owned by Rave Restaurant Group. The company is based in the Dallas suburb of The Colony, Texas. At its peak, Pizza Inn had over 500 locations in 20 states. As of June 28, 2020, Pizza Inn had 252 stores within the United States, located primarily in towns within the Southern United States, and 38 stores internationally. History In 1958, two Texas brothers, F.J. (Joe) and R. L. Spillman, opened the first Pizza Inn in Dallas. In the mid-1980s, the restaurant chain had a commercial deal with the Von Erich family, with Kerry Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich, and Mike Von Erich appearing in a series of televised commercials. In June 2011, Pizza Inn launched the fast casual restaurant Pie Five Pizza, which specializes in customizable pizzas that are made within five minutes, in Fort Worth, Texas. They had five locations within the Fort Worth area by the end of the year. As of January 2015, they had 31 locations. In October 2011, Pizza Inn opened their first of five planned Chinese locations in Hangzhou, China. Former PepsiCo and Yum! Brands executive Randy Gier joined the company in 2012. He was CEO until 2016. On January 9, 2015, the parent company Pizza Inn Holdings (ticker symbol: "PZZI") was rebranded as a portfolio company named Rave Restaurant Group (ticker symbol: "RAVE") as Pie Five Pizza locations began to increase. In May 2018, Rave Restaurant Group opened its first PIE by Pizza Inn Express pizza kiosks with Delaware North at the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport. On February 5, 2021, Pizza Inn reported improving sales amid hectic environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the period ending December 27, domestic same-store sales decreased from $18.95 million to $15.46 million, or 18.4 percent for the company, which is the chain's best performing quarter since the pandemic began. Pizza Inn also saw comparative sales drop 39 percent in the quarter ending June 28 and 22 percent in the quarter ending September 27. On January 5, 2021, Pizza Inn released a 630-word statement regarding the company's concerns about the legitimacy of the 2020 US presidential election. "Like most Americans, we are alarmed by the uncertainties and resulting lack of faith in our election system," CEO Brandon Solano said in the statement. While the release stated it was not advocating to overturn the election, Pizza Inn and its leadership expressed that "hastily certifying the results in Congress" was not "appropriate". The statement went on to advocate for specific changes to federal voting laws, including voter ID, the elimination of electronic voting machines, and the elimination of mail-in ballots. Following the events of January 6th, Pizza Inn apparently took down the press release from the PR Newswire website, though it was still accessible on the company's Facebook page. Gallery See also List of pizza chains of the United States
List of Turkish football transfers 2008–09	[ "Football transfers summer 2008", "2008–09 in Turkish football", "Lists of Turkish football transfers", "Football transfers winter 2008–09" ]	4,711	38,846	This is a list of Turkish football transfers for the 2008–09 season. Only moves from and/or to the Süper Lig are listed. Summer transfer window May According to Transfer Dosyasi at Date Name Nat Moving from Moving to Fee May, 2007 A. Buğra Erdoğan Çanakkale Dardanelspor Trabzonspor Undisclosed May, 2008 Bruce Djite Adelaide United Gençlerbirliği €500,000 May, 2007 Egemen Korkmaz Bursaspor Trabzonspor FreeMay, 2007 Emre Belözoglu Newcastle United Fenerbahçe €4,500,000May, 2007 Emrah Kol Trabzonspor Çaykur Rizespor UndisclosedMay, 2007 Emre Aşık Ankaraspor Galatasaray Loan ReturnMay, 2008 Gustavo Colman Germinal Beerschot Trabzonspor €1,000,000May, 2008 Harun Erbek SV Ried Kayserispor UndisclosedMay, 2008 İlhan Eker Hacettepespor Gençlerbirliği UndisclosedMay, 2008 İsmail Özeren Çanakkale Dardanelspor Trabzonspor UndisclosedMay, 2008 Karim Saidi Sivasspor Feyenoord End of LoanMay, 2008 Mohamed Cissé Bursaspor Alania Vladikavkaz FreeMay, 2007 Murat Şenyayla Denizli Belediyespor Denizlispor FreeMay, 2008 Mustafa Pektemek Sakaryaspor Gençlerbirliği UndisclosedMay, 2008 Giray Kaçar Hacettepespor Trabzonspor €1,700,000May, 2008 Ricardinho Beşiktaş Al Rayyan FreeMay, 2008 Selçuk İnan Vestel Manisaspor Trabzonspor €2,250,000May, 2008 Tevfik Köse Ankaraspor Kayserispor Loan May, 2008 Tuna Üzümcü Gençlerbirliği Beşiktaş UndisclosedMay, 2008 Ufukhan Bayraktar Trabzonspor Manisaspor Part ExchangeMay, 2008 Ümit Aydın Bursaspor Karabükspor Free June According to Transfer Dosyasi Date Name Nat Moving from Moving to Fee June, 2008 Abdulaziz Solmaz Pazarspor Trabzonspor June, 2008 Abdullah Çetin Diyarbakırspor Antalyaspor FreeJune, 2008 Adamu Mohammed Gençlerbirliği Hacettepespor LoanJune, 2008 Adriano De Melo Bezerra Vasco da Gama Bursaspor June, 2008 Ahmet Sağlam Eyüpspor Eskişehirspor June, 2008 Ahmet Şahin Trabzonspor Adanaspor FreeJune, 2008 Alper Kalemci Marmaris Belediyespor Hacettepespor LoanJune, 2008 Amir Azmy Famagusta Hacettepespor June, 2008 Anderson Çaykur Rizespor Eskişehirspor June, 2008 Armağan Kuş Samsunspor Kayserispor €25,000June, 2008 Ayman Abdelaziz Trabzonspor El Zamalek FreeJune, 2008 Barbaros Barut Kasımpaşa S.K. Ankaragücü June, 2008 Bilica U Cluj Sivasspor June, 2008 Barbosa Tabata Santos Gaziantepspor June, 2008 Baykal Yılmaz Beylerbeyispor Hacettepespor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Bayram Çetin Altınordu Kayserispor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Burak Özsaraç Konyaspor Ankaragücü FreeJune, 2008 Burak Yılmaz Manisaspor Fenerbahçe S.K. June, 2008 Bülent Bölükbaşı Gaziantepspor Kocaelispor June, 2008 Caner Altın Samsunspor Konyaspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Cenk İşler Antalyaspor Manisaspor June, 2008 Ceyhun Eriş Konyaspor FC Seoul June, 2008 Ceyhun Gülselam SpVgg Unterhaching Trabzonspor June, 2008 Cihan Haspolatlı Bursaspor Konyaspor June, 2008 Çağdaş Atan Trabzonspor Energie Cottbus FreeJune, 2008 Çağrı Yarkın Galatasaray Çaykur Rizespor Part ExchangeJune, 2008 Dimitar Ivankov Kayserispor Bursaspor FreeJune, 2008 Đorđe Tutorić Red Star Belgrade Kocaelispor June, 2008 Douglas Daniel Braga Rio Claro Denizlispor June, 2008 Dušan Anđelković Red Star Belgrade Kocaelispor June, 2008 Edim Demir İskenderun Demir Çelikspor Ankaragücü June, 2008 Ekrem Dağ Gaziantepspor Beşiktaş €700,000June, 2008 Emrah Eren Çaykur Rizespor Gaziantepspor June, 2008 Emrah Kol Trabzonspor Çaykur Rizespor June, 2008 Emrah Kiraz Bursaspor Giresunspor June, 2008 Emre Balak Samsunspor Gençlerbirliği June, 2008 Emre Toraman Eskişehirspor Free Free June, 2008 Eren Görür Pazarspor Trabzonspor June, 2008 Eren Güngör Altay Kayserispor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Erman Özgür Konyaspor Gaziantepspor FreeJune, 2008 Fatih Altundağ Hamburger SV II Trabzonspor June, 2008 Fatih Egedik Denizlispor Konyaspor June, 2008 Fatih Şen Gaziantepspor G.Antep B. Bel.spor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Federico Higuaín Beşiktaş Independiente FreeJune, 2008 Ferdi Elmas Çaykur Rizespor Galatasaray Part ExchangeJune, 2008 François Zoko Mons Gençlerbirliği OFTAŞ June, 2008 Gökhan Güleç Beşiktaş Bursaspor June, 2008 Gökhan Ünal Kayserispor Trabzonspor €5,000,000June, 2008 Gökhan Yetgin Karsspor Hacettepespor June, 2008 Güven Güneri Fenerbahçe S.K. Manisaspor Part ExchangeJune, 2008 Hakan Bayraktar Diyarbakırspor Gaziantepspor June, 2008 Hakan Şükür Galatasaray Free FreeJune, 2008 Halil Zeybek Erzurumspor Bursaspor June, 2008 Hamílton Ankaraspor Boca Júnior do Sergipe FreeJune, 2008 Hasan Köse Araklıspor Hacettepespor June, 2008 Hrvoje Čale Dinamo Zagreb Trabzonspor €2,200,000June, 2008 İbrahim Dağaşan Bursaspor Sivasspor June, 2008 İbrahim Kaş Beşiktaş Getafe Madrid FreeJune, 2008 İbrahim Öztürk Altay Bursaspor June, 2008 Ismael Bouzid Galatasaray Troyes AC FreeJune, 2008 İsmail Güldüren Bursaspor Konyaspor FreeJune, 2008 Irineu Couto Cruzeiro Denizlispor June, 2008 Julio Cesar Belasistsa Kocaelispor June, 2008 Julius Aghahowa Wigan Athletic Kayserispor June, 2008 Kamel Ghilas Guimarães Kocaelispor June, 2008 Kayhan Arduç Zeytinburnuspor Denizlispor June, 2008 Kemal Aslan Fenerbahçe S.K. Gaziantepspor FreeJune, 2008 Koray Avcı Vestel Manisaspor Gençlerbirliği FreeJune, 2008 Leandro Sao Caetano Bursaspor June, 2008 Luka Vučko NK Rijeka Eskişehirspor June, 2008 Marcelinho Rodrigues Sao Caetano Bursaspor June, 2008 Marquinhos Çaykur Rizespor İst. B. Belediyespor June, 2008 Mehmet Çoğum Gaziantepspor Konyaspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Mehmet Uslu Sakaryaspor Hacettepespor June, 2008 Mehmet Yozgatlı Beşiktaş Gaziantepspor June, 2008 Mehmet Yılmaz Ankaraspor Ankaragücü June, 2008 Metin Hartamacı Ankaraspor Ankaragücü June, 2008 Mohamed Dahmane Mons Eskişehirspor June, 2008 Moïn Chaabani Esperance Ankaragücü May, 2008 Murat Önür Diyarbakırspor Eskişehirspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Murat Şahin Beşiktaş Gaziantepspor FreeJune, 2008 Musa Büyük Trabzonspor Kocaelispor June, 2008 Musa Sinan Yılmazer Sarıyer Denizlispor June, 2008 Muslu Nalbantoglu NEC Nijmegen Kayserispor June, 2008 Mustafa Cevahir Fenerbahçe Gaziantepspor June, 2008 Mustafa Keçeli Trabzonspor Bursaspor June, 2008 Mustafa Yumlu Arsinspor Trabzonspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Necdet Kaba A. Sebatspor Trabzonspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Oğuz Sabankay Galatasaray Eskişehirspor LoanJune, 2008 Okan Öztürk Gençlerbirliği Çaykur Rizespor June, 2008 Okan Buruk Galatasaray İstanbul B. Bel.spor June, 2008 Ozan İpek İstanbulspor Ankaragücü June, 2008 Ömer Aysan Barış Bursaspor Ankaraspor FreeJune, 2008 Omer Riza Trabzonspor Free FreeJune, 2008 Ömer Çatkıç Gaziantepspor Antalyaspor FreeJune, 2008 Salomon Olembe Wigan Athletic Kayserispor June, 2008 Rigobert Song Galatasaray Trabzonspor FreeJune, 2008 Safet Nadarević NK Zagreb Eskişehirspor June, 2008 Sayed Moawad Trabzonspor Al Ahly June, 2008 Sami Büyüktopaç NEC Nijmegen Trabzonspor June, 2008 Sarper Kıskaç Ankaragücü Standard Liège June, 2008 Selçuk Yıldırım Arsinspor Trabzonspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Serdar Kulbilge Fenerbahçe Kocaelispor June, 2008 Serhat Gülpınar Denizlispor İst. B. Belediyespor June, 2008 Sertan Eser İst. B. Belediyespor Kasımpaşa S.K. June, 2008 Sinan Kaloğlu Bursaspor VfL Bochum June, 2008 Souleymanou Hamidou Denizlispor Kayserispor June, 2008 Taylan Eliaçık Kahramanmaraşspor Sivasspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Tayfun Türkmen Ankaraspor Eskişehirspor June, 2008 Tomáš Sivok Udinese Beşiktaş €4,700,000June, 2008 Tomas Zapotocny Udinese Beşiktaş June, 2008 Vanja Iveša NK Slaven Belupo Eskişehirspor June, 2008 Volkan Arslan Gaziantepspor Antalyaspor June, 2008 Volkan Kolaçoğlu İstanbul B. Bel.spor Çaykur Rizespor June, 2008 Uğur Akdemir Galatasaray Çaykur Rizespor Part ExchangeJune, 2008 Uğur Kapısız Beykoz 1908 Gençlerbirliği June, 2008 Umut Koçin Arminia Bielefeld Kayserispor June, 2008 Yakup Bugun Altınordu Trabzonspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Yaser Yıldız Kartalspor Galatasaray UndisclosedJune, 2008 Yasir Elmacı Sivasspor Gençlerbirliği UndisclosedJune, 2008 Yusuf Soysal Kayseri Erciyesspor Ankaragücü June, 2008 Yusuf Şimşek Denizlispor Bursaspor June, 2008 Zafer Aydoğdu A. Sebatspor Trabzonspor UndisclosedJune, 2008 Zafer Demir Denizlispor Konyaspor Undisclosed July According to Transfer Dosyasi Date Name Nat Moving from Moving to Fee July, 2008 Adem Büyük Beşiktaş Manisaspor Part ExchangeJuly, 2008 Ahmet Kuru FC St. Pauli Antalyaspor July, 2008 Akın Sinan Dağdelen Antalyaspor Orduspor July, 2008 Ali Çamdalı Kayserispor Kayseri Erciyesspor July, 2008 Baki Mercimek Beşiktaş Ankaraspor FreeJuly, 2008 Behram Zülaloğlu Kocaelispor İst. B. Bel.spor July, 2008 Betinho Marília Atlético Clube Ankaragücü July, 2008 Bilal Aziz VfL Osnabrück Kayserispor July, 2008 Bilal Çubukçu Hertha BSC Berlin Gençlerbirliği July, 2008 Bulut Basmaz Denizlispor Manisaspor July, 2008 Celalettin İmal Ankaragücü Yimpaş Yozgatspor July, 2008 Dani Güiza RCD Mallorca Fenerbahçe SK €14,000,000July, 2008 Darryl Roberts Sparta Rotterdam Denizlispor July, 2008 Demircan Dikmen Hertha BSC Berlin Antalyaspor July, 2008 Engin Çiçem İst. B. Belediyespor 1. FC Köln July, 2008 Erdal Güneş Gaziantepspor Altay S.K. July, 2008 Erdal Kılıçaslan Gaziantepspor Konyaspor Part Exchange July, 2008 Eren Özen Hacettepespor Malatyaspor June, 2008 Erhan Albayrak Ankaraspor Konyaspor FreeJuly, 2008 Erkan Sekman Konyaspor Gaziantepspor Part ExchangeJuly, 2008 Eser Yağmur Bursaspor Karşıyaka S.K. FreeJuly, 2008 Eyüp Kadri Ataoglu Trabzonspor Sivasspor July, 2008 Fahri Tatan Beşiktaş Konyaspor 1,700,000 TLJuly, 2008 Faruk Bayar Kasımpaşa S.K. Sivasspor July, 2008 Fatih Şen Kocaelispor Orduspor July, 2008 Fernando Meira VfB Stuttgart Galatasaray €3,800,000July, 2008 Gökhan Bozkaya Sivasspor Malatyaspor July, 2008 Gökhan Çalışal Eskişehirspor Boluspor July, 2008 Hakan Çimen Kocaelispor Orduspor July, 2008 Harry Kewell Liverpool Galatasaray FreeJuly, 2008 Haydar Koç Kocaelispor Orduspor July, 2008 Herve Tum RC Strasbourg Sivasspor July, 2008 Ibrahim Said Çaykur Rizespor Ismaily $200,000July, 2008 Ilhan Şahin İst. B. Belediyespor Boluspor July, 2008 Isaac Promise Gençlerbirliği Trabzonspor FreeJuly, 2008 Jefferson Trabzonspor Konyaspor July, 2008 Kemal Okyay Kayserispor Kayseri Erciyesspor July, 2008 Kenan Özer Beşiktaş Kayseri Erciyesspor July, 2008 Kirita Ankaragücü Bursaspor FreeJuly, 2008 Korhan Öztürk Elazığspor Antalyaspor July, 2008 Marcelo Carrusca Galatasaray Cruz Azul LoanJuly, 2008 Marquinhos Çaykur Rizespor İst. B. Belediyespor July, 2008 Matías Escobar Gimnasia Kayserispor July, 2008 Mehmet Aurélio Fenerbahçe SK Real Betis FreeJuly, 2008 Mehmet Çakır Gençlerbirliği Ankaraspor July, 2008 Mehmet Yılmaz Ankaraspor Ankaragücü July, 2008 Metin Aslan Antalyaspor Orduspor July, 2008 Murat Ocak Trabzonspor Manisaspor July, 2008 Murat Yılmaz Orhangazispor Sivasspor July, 2008 Mustafa Aşan Beşiktaş Manisaspor Part ExchangeJuly, 2008 Nenad Jestrovic Red Star Belgrade Kocaelispor July, 2008 Olcan Adın Fenerbahçe SK Gaziantepspor July, 2008 Orhan Ak Galatasaray Antalyaspor July, 2008 Özgür Bayer Gaziantepspor Kocaelispor July, 2008 Özgür Öçal Kasımpaşa S.K. Eskişehirspor July, 2008 Patrice Njekou Union Douala Kocaelispor July, 2008 Serhat Akyüz Çaykur Rizespor Konyaspor July, 2008 Stjepan Poljak Slaven Belupo Eskişehirspor July, 2008 Şener Aşkaroğlu Manisaspor Konyaspor July, 2008 Tayfur Emre Yılmaz Malatyaspor Sivasspor July, 2008 Tony Sylva Lille Trabzonspor UndisclosedJuly, 2008 Theo Lewis Watanga FC Ankaraspor July, 2008 Uğur İnceman Manisaspor Beşiktaş Part Exc.+ €1,000,000July, 2008 Ümit Tütünci Hacettepespor Gençlerbirliği UndisclosedJuly, 2008 Volkan Koçaloğlu İst. B. Belediyespor Çaykur Rizespor July, 2008 Xheyahir Sukaj Vllaznia Gençlerbirliği July, 2008 Yalçın Ayhan İstanbulspor Antalyapor July, 2008 Yusuf Emre Kasal Würzburger FV Eskişehirspor July, 2008 Zafer Cansız Ofspor Trabzonspor Undisclosed August According to Transfer Dosyasi Date Name Nat Moving from Moving to Fee August, 2008 Admir Teli Vllaznia Hacettepespor August, 2008 Ahmet Devret Konyaspor G.Antep B. Bel.spor August, 2008 Ali Bayraktar Hacettepespor Denizlispor August, 2008 Aytaç Ak Sivasspor Diyarbakırspor August, 2008 Aytekin Viduşlu Antalyaspor Orduspor August, 2008 Berkay Onarıcı Eskişehirspor Göztepe LoanAugust, 2008 Burak Tok 1. FC Nürnberg Antalyaspor August, 2008 Bülent Ertuğrul Denizlispor Eskişehirspor August, 2008 Bülent Kocabey Hacettepespor Eskişehirspor August, 2008 Engin Aktürk Ankaragücü Çaykur Rizespor August, 2008 Eray Birniçan Konyaspor Samsunspor August, 2008 Ercan Yaman Sakaryaspor Denizlispor August, 2008 Gilman Lika Vllaznia Hacettepespor August, 2008 Gökhan Çakır Konyaspor Adana Demirspor August, 2008 Hasan Uğur Antalyaspor Sakaryaspor August, 2008 İlhan Ummak Sivasspor Çaykur Rizespor August, 2008 Krunoslav Lovrek NK Zagreb Eskişehirspor August, 2008 Leonardo Andrés Iglesias Kayserispor Ankaragücü August, 2008 Mahmut Hanefi Erdoğdu Sivasspor Diyarbakırspor August, 2008 Mahmut Karıklar Antalyaspor Karabükspor August, 2008 Mehmet Yılmaz Bursaspor Adanaspor August, 2008 Mertol Karatay Konyaspor Kasımpaşa S.K. August, 2008 Milan Baroš Olympique Lyonnais Galatasaray S.K. August, 2008 Mustafa Akçay SV Stuttgarter Kickers Antalyaspor August, 2008 Mustafa Özkan Ankaragücü Antalyaspor August, 2008 Necati Ateş Galatasaray Real Sociedad FreeAugust, 2008 Ömer Kaplan Sivasspor Diyarbakırspor August, 2008 Recep Yıldız SV Stuttgarter Kickers Antalyaspor August, 2008 Renny Vega Bursaspor Denizlispor August, 2008 Sedat Ağçay Konyaspor Antalyaspor August, 2008 Serdar Sınık Antalyaspor Orduspor August, 2008 Serge Djiehoua Kaizer Chiefs Antalyaspor August, 2008 Serhat Akın RSC Anderlecht Kocaelispor August, 2008 Sezer Sezgin Beşiktaş J.K. Boluspor LoanAugust, 2008 Souleymane Youla Lille OSC Eskişehirspor August, 2008 Tolga Seyhan Shaktar Donetsk Kocaelispor August, 2008 Volkan Altın SV Sandhausen Antalyaspor August, 2008 Ufuk Ateş Antalyaspor Orduspor August, 2008 Ümit Aydın Bursaspor Karabükspor August, 2008 James Troisi Newcastle United Gençlerbirliği Free Winter transfer window January According to Transfer Dosyasi Date Name Nat Moving from Moving to Fee January, 2009 Abdulaziz Solmaz Trabzonspor Ankaragücü January, 2009 Tümer Metin Fenerbahçe Larissa FreeJanuary, 2009 Abdülkadir Kayalı Ankaragücü Fenerbahçe €1,000,000January, 2009 Ali Tandoğan Beşiktaş Bursaspor January, 2009 Alanzinho Stabæk Trabzonspor €3,900,000January, 2009 Ante Kulušić HNK Šibenik Hacettepe SK January, 2009 Antonio de Nigris Ankaraspor Ankaragücü LoanJanuary, 2009 Arda Yavuz Rot-Weiss Essen Hacettepe SK January, 2009 Batuhan Karadeniz Beşiktaş Eskişehirspor LoanJanuary, 2009 Bojan Isailović FK Čukarički Stankom Gençlerbirliği January, 2009 Bülent Bölükbaşı Kocaelispor Konyaspor January, 2009 Caner Ağca Malatyaspor Ankaraspor January, 2009 Cem Can Ankaragücü Gençlerbirliği January, 2009 Dani América RN Bursaspor January, 2009 Diallo Sivasspor Hacettepe SK LoanJanuary, 2009 El Saka Gençlerbirliği Eskişehirspor January, 2009 Emre Özkan Beşiktaş Eskişehirspor LoanJanuary, 2009 Eren Aydın Ankaraspor Gençlerbirliği January, 2009 Erkan Zengin Hammarby Beşiktaş LoanJanuary, 2009 Fabian Ernst Schalke 04 Beşiktaş J.K. January, 2009 Fatih Ceylan Kayserispor Antalyaspor January, 2009 Fatih Özer Konyaspor Göztepe LoanJanuary, 2009 Faty Papy Inter Star Trabzonspor January, 2009 Gökhan Emreciksin Ankaragücü Fenerbahçe €1,000,000January, 2009 Hasan Üçüncü Free Ankaragücü January, 2009 Hurşit Meriç ADO Den Haag Gençlerbirliği January, 2009 İlhan Özbay Kayseri Erciyesspor Gaziantepspor January, 2009 Jacques Momha Vitória S.C. Gençlerbirliği January, 2009 Julio Cesar Dinamo București Gaziantepspor January, 2009 Matias Escobar Kayserispor Rosario Central January, 2009 Mehmet Akif Tatlı Eskişehirspor Göztepe January, 2009 Ronald Gutiérrez Bursaspor Bolívar January, 2009 Mehmet Polat Gaziantepspor Gençlerbirliği January, 2009 Mile Jedinak Central Coast Mariners Gençlerbirliği January, 2009 Özgür Bayer Kocaelispor Ankaragücü January, 2009 Patiyo Tambwe SC Lokeren Hacettepe SK January, 2009 Ramazan Kahya Malatyaspor Ankaraspor January, 2009 Roguy Méyé Zalaegerszegi TE Ankaraspor €1,000,000January, 2009 Selçuk Şahin Kartalspor Hacettepe SK January, 2009 Branimir Poljac Moss FK Konyaspor January, 2009 Tayfur Emre Yılmaz Sivasspor Göztepe LoanJanuary, 2009 Tita Ankaraspor Antalyaspor LoanJanuary, 2009 Wescley Pina Gonçalves Criciuma EC Denizlispor January, 2009 Yannick Kamanan Maccabi Tel Aviv Sivasspor €100,000January, 2009 Yusuf Şimşek Bursaspor Beşiktaş €600,000January, 2009 Tonia Tisdell Ankaraspor
Ismael Martins	[ "1940 births", "Permanent representatives of Angola to the United Nations", "Living people", "Finance ministers of Angola", "Governors of the Bank of Angola", "University of Mannheim alumni", "Lycoming College faculty", "Alumni of the University of Oxford", "Trade ministers of Angola", "Angolan diplomats", "MPLA politicians", "Angolan expatriates in the United Kingdom", "Angolan expatriates in the United States", "Angolan expatriates in Germany", "Angolan expatriates in Switzerland", "Angolan expatriates in Ivory Coast" ]	839	7,122	Ismael Abraão Gaspar Martins (born 12 January 1940) is an Angolan diplomat and political figure who has been Angola's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 2001. Previously he was Minister of Finance from 1977 to 1982, Minister of External Trade from 1982 to 1987, and Executive Director of the African Development Bank from 1989 to 1995. Background Born at Luanda, Martins holds a Bachelor's degree in economics from Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, United States. He completed his post-graduate studies in economics at the University of Mannheim, Germany in 1969. Martins then attended Oxford University in the UK, receiving a diploma in economic development. He is married and has four children. Early career From 1971 to 1972, Martins worked as a research officer on agricultural development policies in Africa for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva. He then served with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 1972 to 1975 as an economic affairs officer, overseeing studies and policies on the issue of economic integration in Africa, and on trade negotiations between the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the European Union. In 1975, he was appointed external and economic affairs adviser to the President of Angola, Agostinho Neto. From 1976 to 1977, Gaspar Martins was Governor of the Central Bank of Angola, before serving as Minister of Finance until 1982. He was appointed as Angola's Minister of External Trade in 1982, and worked in this position until 1987. From 1989 to 1995, Ismael Gaspar Martins was the Executive Director of the African Development Bank, based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. From 1996 to 2000, Martins served on the Southern African Development Community Task Force at the World Economic Forum Summit. In 1996, he was a founding member and Co-President of the Angola-South Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He also held the position of Managing Director of Gaspar Martins and Associates (a business consultancy firm). Diplomatic career In April 2001, President José Eduardo dos Santos appointed Martins as roving Ambassador, and in May 2001 as the new Ambassador to the United Nations. In a ceremony in Luanda, Ambassador Martins said he would work to help the UN play a "decisive role" in Angola as the country searches for peace, stability and development. At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Gaspar Martins represented the 28 Least Developed Countries (LDC Group), which negotiated as a bloc.
J. White Did It	[ "1984 births", "21st-century African-American businesspeople", "African-American record producers", "American hip-hop record producers", "Businesspeople from Kansas", "Businesspeople from Texas", "Grammy Award winners", "Grammy Award winners for rap music", "Living people", "Musicians from Dallas", "Musicians from Kansas City, Kansas", "Southern hip-hop musicians", "20th-century African-American musicians" ]	2,873	22,339	Anthony Jermaine White (born December 17, 1984), known professionally as J. White Did It, is an American record producer, songwriter, and DJ from Blytheville, Arkansas. White has produced three Billboard Hot 100-number one singles: "Bodak Yellow" (2017) and "I Like It" (2018) both for Cardi B, as well as "Savage Remix" (2020) for Megan Thee Stallion. The latter won a Grammy Award, along with his 2018 production, "A Lot" by 21 Savage. Early life White was born on December 17, 1984, in Blytheville, Arkansas. He grew up in the cities of Kansas City and Leavenworth in Kansas. His father was a church singer and played guitar, his mother was also a church singer, his grandmother and uncle played drums. "At 15, I knew I couldn't play football. I was like, 'Oh, I'm not that good. I'm not that tall. I'm fast, but I'm not that fast. Really skinny,'" he said. He started making beats at the age of 16. At age 17, his uncle brought him his first keyboard, "Honestly, I thought when I got that keyboard that I was gonna be rich the next year. It's fixing to be a breeze. Literally, it wasn't." He graduated from Leavenworth High School. Career In 2005, White moved to New York City where he started learning how to produce records. There, he met Klenord "Shaft" Raphael, a producer who later went on to become his mentor and manager, who taught him how to sample songs. That summer, he moved back home to Kansas City, and, for the next ten years, worked as a janitor, a DJ, and a producer around the cities of Kansas, Dallas, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. During this period of time, he produced beats for several artists including Stevie Stone, Krizz Kaliko, Eric Bellinger, and Lyrica Anderson, but his music career wasn't taking off. He told The Kansas City Star that he wasn't getting credit on a lot of records he produced at the time. In 2016, his manager Shaft invited him to his house in New York to ask him for beats. There, he met with Bronx rapper Cardi B, one of Shaft's other clients. "I began to work with her and I believed in what she believed in. We just all became one big happy family, and marched on to the promised land," he said. Their first collaboration was for 2016 promotional single "What a Girl Likes", followed by a number of songs from Cardi B's second mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 2 (2017), including the Offset-assisted single "Lick". In 2017, White produced Cardi B's major-label debut single "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)". The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks, becoming the first song produced by him to achieve this spot. It also won Single of the Year at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards and Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Song at the 2018 American Music Awards. In September of that year, he signed a deal with rights management and publishing company Kobalt Music Group. In 2018, he produced "I Like It", another single by Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin. The song also topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming his second number one. Billboard staff, Los Angeles Times, and Apple Music's editorial selection ranked it as the best song of the year. It was nominated for Record of the Year at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. White executive produced Iggy Azalea's second studio album In My Defense (2019), including its lead single "Sally Walker". The song peaked at number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100. He also produced the tracks "Started" and "Freak of the Weak". J White is managed by Lucas Keller, Nic Warner and Chad Wes at Milk & Honey, and published by Sony Music Publishing for the world. Grammy Awards Year Work Category Result 2018 "Bodak Yellow" (Cardi B) Best Rap Song 2019 "I Like It" (Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin) Record of the Year 2020 "A Lot" (21 Savage feat. J. Cole) Best Rap Song 2021 "Savage (Remix)" (Megan Thee Stallion feat. Beyoncé) Record of the Year Best Rap Song Personal life White's mother was murdered on January 28, 2015, due to domestic violence, leading to what he recalls as "one of the lowest years of [his] life." He told The Kansas City Star that in 2016, "I was in a bad place. Everything felt like it was falling down on me. [...] My relationship with the mother of my kids was bad, I was broke. [...] The industry wasn't giving me any chances. I was just wanting to give up on everything: producing, life, all of that." He had attempted suicide twice that year. Artistry White claimed that he lets his beats and melodies come to him naturally: "I just let the spirit guide me, I just go with the flow, man. So if I feel like playing piano first or lighting some candles or doing jumping jacks, I do that. There can be no set rule for me making music". He believes hip hop records should come naturally and quickly: "I don't really believe in spending a lot of time [on hip hop records]," he told DJ Booth, adding, "If the energy is there and it hits you, it will hit you automatically. It doesn't take long to create great energy." He admitted that he created the beat for Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" in 15 minutes only. Similar to Mike Will Made It, White makes it known with his full moniker "J. White Did It" that he's responsible for the beat. "I was like 'Oh, OK. My name is, like, everybody's name.' So I put the 'Did It' on to just be... If I didn't do it, I don't know who did." His producer tagline, "J. White, I need a beat, I can go off on (Ooh)," drops at the beginning of his songs. Production discography Charted songs +TitleYearPeak chart positionsAlbum US USR&B/HH AUS CAN IRE NZ UK "Bodak Yellow"201711336512424Invasion of Privacy "Money Bag"20185832—84——— "I Like It"111421078 "Money"1376530353635 "A Lot"20191256121252629I Am > I Was "Sally Walker"6230—5670—82In My Defense "Started"120———73—76 "Savage"20201149323Suga "What It Is (Block Boy)"2024298—31951369 Production credits Adapted from White's official SoundCloud page and Genius.com. Artist(s) Year Album Song(s) Gena 2011 Non-album song 00. "My Dip in the Club" Ron Artest Go Loco 00. "Go Loco" Six D 2012 Non-album song 00. "2 Seconds" T'Melle Non-album song 00. "Go to War" B-Hamp Non-album song 00. "Go to Work" Assata Jones 2013 Non-album song 00. "Dance on Me (Dirty)" T'Melle The Interview 09. "Baby" Stevie Stone 2 Birds 1 Stone 03. "Get Out My Face" 11. "Boomerang" 13. "She Go" 14. "Let It Beat" Krizz Kaliko Son of Sam 06. "Girls Like That" 12. "Night Time" Lyrica Anderson 2014 King Me 2 06. Feenin Eric Bellinger Choose Up Season 02. "Valet" Troy Nōka Gotta Rep the Town 03. "Let It All Workout" 05. "Slow It Down" Bobby V 2015 Non-album song 00. "Bad Habit" Stevie Stone Malta Bend 11. "Get Fucked Up" 13. "Wait on It" Plies Ain't No Mixtape Bih 12. "Fuck Me" Fat Pimp Non-album song 00. "Uh Oh" Tre Ward TooManyNights 05. "Anymore" Lyrica Anderson Hello 01. "Hello" Eric Bellinger Cuffing Season, Pt. 2 02. "Valet" Krizz Kaliko 2016 GO 17. "You See It (Buss It)" Cardi B Underestimated: The Album 06. "What a Girl Likes" Cardi B 2017 Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 2 01. "Bronx Season" 02. "Lick" 05. "Leave That Bitch Alone" Troy Nōka Gotta Rep the Town 2 02. "Be Dat" 04. "Flow Crime" 08. "Do It Like Me" 14. "Bars for Dee" LeToya Luckett Back 2 Life 04. "Used To" Notty Taylor Non-album song 00. "Died Last Year" HoodCelebrityy Trap vs. Reggae 05. "Sit Down" Cardi B 2018 Invasion of Privacy 04. "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" 07. "I Like It" 09. "Money Bag" Tinashe Joyride 05. "Ooh La La" Stefflon Don Secure 10. "Crunch Time" Messiah El Artista Non-album song 00. "Never Let You Go" Cardi B Non-album song 00. "Money" 21 Savage I Am > I Was 01. "A Lot" Gucci Mane 2019 Delusions of Grandeur 01. "Bussdown" 05. "Love Thru the Computer" 11. "Upgrade" Iggy Azalea In My Defense 01. "Thanks I Get" 02. "Clapback" 03. "Sally Walker" 04. "Hoemita" 05. "Started" 06. "Spend It" 07. "Fuck It Up" 10. "Freak of the Week" 11. "Just Wanna" 12. "Pussy Pop" Gucci Mane Woptober II 02. "Big Booty" 06. "Move Me" Iggy Azalea Wicked Lips 01. "Lola" 02. "Not Important" 04. "Personal Problem" Gucci Mane East Atlanta Santa 3 01. "Jingle Bales Intro" 02. "Mr. Wop" 03. "M's On Ice" 04. "Drummer" 07. "Dirty Dancer" 08. "Snow" 15. "12 Days of Christmas" Megan Thee Stallion 2020 Suga 02. "Savage" Flo Milli Ho, Why Is You Here? "Like That B***h" "Weak" Latto Queen of da Souf 02. "Muwop" Iggy Azalea 2021 The End of an Era 06. "Iam the Stripclub" Drake and 21 Savage 2022 Her Loss 01. "Rich Flex" Doechii 2024 Non-album song 00. "What It Is (Block Boy)"
Gary Yohe	[ "Energy economists", "Environmental economists", "American sustainability advocates", "American economists", "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors", "Wesleyan University faculty", "Yale University alumni", "Living people", "Year of birth missing (living people)", "Ecology journal editors" ]	515	5,253	Gary Wynn Yohe is the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. He holds a PhD from Yale University. Biography Yohe specializes in Microeconomic theory, Natural Resources, and Environmental Economics. He is a researcher on the economics of climate change and integrated assessment modelling. Among other works, he is an editor of the book "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change" and co-author (with Edwin Mansfield) of "Microeconomics\| Microeconomics: Theory and Applications". He is a senior member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that was awarded a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. He has been involved with the IPCC since the mid-1990s, has served, among other capacities, as a Lead Author for four different chapters in the IPCC Third Assessment Report, and as Convening Lead Author for the last chapter of the contribution of Working Group II to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. Yohe also worked with the Core Writing Team to prepare the overall Synthesis Report for the entire Assessment. Yohe is also a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change and the standing Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a standing member of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change. He was a vice-chair of the Third National Climate Assessment. He is one of the four co-signers of an open letter, dated March 12, 2010, regarding possible errors in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and regularly advises the US government.
Wüstenrot & Württembergische	[ "Financial services companies established in 1999", "Insurance companies of Germany", "Banks of Germany", "1999 establishments in Germany", "Companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange" ]	836	8,197	Wüstenrot & Württembergische (W&W) is a German financial services company that offers a range of products and services, including insurance, banking, and investment products. It based in Stuttgart founded in 1999. The Wüstenrot side of the business offers banking services. Württembergische offers insurance. W&W took over Karlsruher Versicherungsgruppe in 2005, thereby becoming one of Germany's top 15 insurance groups. History Württembergische Versicherung was founded in 1828. The beginnings of the Gemeinschaft der Freunde Wüstenrot (GdF), today Wüstenrot Bausparkasse AG, date back to 1921. Their headquarters are in Ludwigsburg. It is the oldest building society in Germany. It was named after the small Swabian village of Wüstenrot, where the building society was founded. In 1999, Wüstenrot merged with Württembergische. The merger to form Wüstenrot & Württembergische created one of the ten leading financial service providers in Germany. Other companies emerged from the merger, including W&W Informatik, which was founded in 2002. Wüstenrot Lebensversicherung was integrated into Württembergische Lebensversicherung in 2000. In 2001, Wüstenrot Bausparkasse merged with Leonberger Bausparkasse to form the third largest private building society in Germany. In 2002, Allgemeine Rentenanstalt Lebensversicherung (ARA), in which unit-linked business was bundled, merged with Württembergische Lebensversicherung. In 2003, the securities management of the insurance companies was transferred to W&W Asset Management; the external reinsurance business of Wüstenrot & Württembergische was discontinued and Wüstenrot hypotečni banka was founded in Prague. In 2005, Wüstenrot Bank and Wüstenrot Hypothekenbank merged to form Wüstenrot Bank AG Pfandbriefbank with headquarters in Ludwigsburg. It is one of the first universal banks with a Pfandbrief licence under new laws. In the same year, Wüstenrot & Württembergische acquired the Karlsruher Insurance Group. Following accounting irregularities and loss of market share (annual financial statements 2004 and 2005) a modernization course was launched in 2006 under the new chairman of the Board of Management, Alexander Erdland. Since 2008, the W&W Group has presented itself with a newly developed, uniform image for both traditional brands. In mid-July 2009, Wüstenrot & Württembergische decided to increase its share capital by around EUR 30 million with new subscription rights for 5,749,538 new shares. The company's share capital thus increased to 481,067,777.39 Euro, divided into 91,992,622 no-par value registered shares. The share has been traded on the stock exchange since September 9, 1999. On September 13, 2009, the company's share capital was increased by around 30 million Euro. On 13 April 2010 it was announced that the financial group W&W would acquire Allianz Dresdner Bauspar via its subsidiary Wüstenrot Bausparkasse. In September 2010 it was merged into Wüstenrot Bausparkasse. The company has been listed on the SDAX since 21 March 2016. It was announced on 3 April 2018 that the subsidiary Wüstenrot Bank would be sold to Bremer Kreditbank. The company moved to a new office campus in Kornwestheim in 2023.
Elis Fischer	[ "People from Askersund Municipality", "Burials at Norra begravningsplatsen", "Independent politicians in Sweden", "Swedish bankers", "Swedish people of Finnish descent", "1834 births", "1889 deaths", "19th-century Swedish politicians", "19th-century Swedish lawyers", "Swedish fraudsters", "Members of the Första kammaren", "Swedish politicians convicted of crimes", "Politicians convicted of fraud", "Uppsala University alumni", "19th-century Swedish landowners", "Swedish prisoners and detainees", "Knights of the Order of Vasa", "Knights of the Order of the Polar Star", "Deaths from pneumonia in Sweden", "Directors of Skandia" ]	808	7,847	Gustaf Elis Fischer (13 January 1834 – 19 August 1889) was a Swedish business executive and lawyer, served as the chief executive of Skandia from 1870 to 1886, and was a Member of Parliament. He is remembered for the Fischer trial, during which he faced accusations of fraud and received a prison sentence. Early life Gustaf Elis Fischer was born on 13 January 1834 in Askersund, Sweden. His father, Per Gustaf Fischer, was a postmaster, and his mother was Eva Sophia Fischer (née Brattström). Fischer had two younger full brothers, Emil Nicanor (1839–1912) and Alfred Theodor (1836–1839). His maternal grandfather was Magnus Brattström, an ironmaster. After his father's death in 1845, Fischer moved to Örebro with his mother and brother. He completed his education at an elementary school in Askersund and graduated from Karolinska elementarläroverket in Örebro in 1854. Following his graduation, Fischer enrolled at Uppsala University and successfully passed the court exams in 1859. Business career Fischer had already started working at Skandia in 1862, and assumed the role of chief executive manager at Skandia, succeeding Wilhelm Dufwa in June 1870. However, in 1886, he was replaced by Gustaf Lagerbring amid allegations of fraud. These accusations stemmed from Fischer's difficulty in maintaining a clear separation between his personal and his workplace finances. He was known for being a loyal follower of Wallenberg and acted as a trustee for André Oscar Wallenberg. Fischer also played a role in establishing the Skandia building at Mynttorget. Political career In March 1886, Fischer was appointed as a member of Första kammaren for a period of nine years, following his election by the City of Stockholm's municipal council on 22 March that year. He served in this role until December 1886 when he faced accusations of fraud. In response to these allegations, he resigned from his political positions, including relinquishing his mandate, on 17 December 1886. Other efforts Fischer held membership in the Insurance Organization, the Fire Insurance Tariff Organization, and also was a member of the Widow conservation. In 1864, Fischer married Hildur Fredrika Abenius (1843–1926), whose father was Carl Fredrik Abenius. They had children and lived at Edsby Castle, north of Stockholm. Fischer had it built as a castle-like building. On 19 August 1889 Fischer died at Långholmen Prison in Stockholm. Knight of the Order of the Polar Star. Knight of the Order of Vasa.
Giles Clarke	[ "1953 births", "Living people", "People from Somerset", "People educated at Rugby School", "Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford", "Damascus University alumni", "British retail company founders", "Businesspeople from Bristol", "Somerset County Cricket Club", "English cricket administrators", "Members of the Society of Merchant Venturers", "20th-century English businesspeople", "21st-century English businesspeople", "Commanders of the Order of the British Empire" ]	1,416	14,640	Charles Giles Clarke (born 29 May 1953), is a British businessman then cricket administrator, who was chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board. Early life and education Born at Bristol, son of Charles Clarke and Stella née Herbert (Vice-Lieutenant of Bristol 2004–07), Clarke attended Rugby School, before going to Oriel College, Oxford. At Oxford, Clarke studied Persian with Arabic, reputedly paying his way through gambling, before graduating as BA (proceeding MA). He then pursued further studies for a year at Damascus University Arabic language school. Business career Clarke began his career as an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston. In 1981 he bought from receivership the assets of what was to become Majestic Wine, where, as chairman, he built it into a UK national chain. From August 1987 to May 1988, Clarke was chairman of Majestic Wine Corporation Inc, a United States company which owned a chain of 104 stores trading as Liquor Barn in California and Arizona. Following the disposal of its US-based businesses, he sold the UK plc business of Majestic Wine for £15 million in 1989. In 1990, Clarke founded Pet City, where, as CEO, he built it into a chain of 94 stores. After floating the business in 1995, he sold it for £150 million in 1996 to US-based PetsMart. In 1998, Clarke founded Safestore, building it into the UK's third largest self storage company before selling it to Bridgepoint Capital for £44million in August 2003. In 1999, Clarke became CEO of Stepstone, an online career portal. Clarke is chairman and controlling shareholder, via his company Westleigh Investments, of: ATL Telecom – Cardiff-based data transmission design equipment company, which manufactures in China Fosters Event Catering – a West Country-based caterer CCI International – the UK's largest clay pigeon equipment manufacturer West Country Business Systems – develops software systems for managing independent schools; And previously: Non-executive chairman of Pure Wafer plc – presently the only European-based silicon chip test wafer reclaim company Chairman of Amerisur Resources PLC (formerly known as Chaco Resources). Public service Clarke has been appointed to the following public bodies: National Council member of the Learning and Skills Council (2002–07), the largest quango in the UK with a budget of £10 billion, responsible for all UK adult learning, and a member of the Adult Learning Committee, a statutory body set up by the UK Parliament. Deputy Chairman of the EU Task Force on Skills and Mobility, presenting its report to the Barcelona Summit in 2002. Deputy Chairman of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre until 2007. Patron of Changing Faces, the UK national charity supporting and representing people with disfigurement Master of the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol for 2010/11; the Society continues its considerable charitable works whilst being recently accused by some of preserving a favourable memory of Edward Colston. Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire 1998–2002, then Somerset since 2004. Cricket A keen club cricketer, Clarke was chairman of Somerset County Cricket Club, becoming instrumental in developing the club both on and off the field by consulting ex-cricketers including Sir Ian (now Lord) Botham. Consequently he was appointed a non-executive director of the England and Wales Cricket Board, and as Chairman of ECB Marketing led the negotiations for the ECB's financially advantageous four-year TV and radio broadcasting rights deal signed with BSkyB, Five and the BBC in December 2004. On 25 September 2007 Clarke was elected Chairman of the ECB, re-elected in 2009, and again in March 2012 for a further three years. In April 2015 Clarke was nominated as the inaugural President of the ECB, with the primary role of representing the ECB on the International Cricket Council's executive board. Clarke was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for "services to cricket". As chief executive of the ECB, Clarke attracted some controversy surrounding the Stanford Super Series, which was bankrolled by the now-convicted American financier Sir Allen Stanford, who offered a US$20million winner-takes-all match against the Stanford Superstars, a team comprising players from the West Indies. Although England had a warm-up game against the West Indies as part of the Super Series, members of the England team, captained by Kevin Pietersen, felt that they were underprepared prior to the match: England lost by 10 wickets. Although featured in archive interviews and footage as part of a three-part Sky Documentary series entitled The Man Who Bought Cricket, Clarke declined to participate personally. Clarke is a member of Marylebone Cricket Club. Private life In 1983, Clarke married Judy Gould; the couple have a son Jack – after whom the brasserie in Bristol is named. Protective of his family private life, when his name appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List in the mid-1990s, Clarke took steps to shield his financial interests from public view.
Jaume Giró	[ "1964 births", "Aragonès Government", "Businesspeople from Catalonia", "ESADE alumni", "Journalists from Catalonia", "Living people", "Economy ministers of Catalonia", "Finance ministers of Catalonia", "People from Badalona", "Spanish chief executives", "University of Navarra alumni" ]	1,190	12,196	Jaume Giró i Ribas (born 1964) is a Catalan journalist, corporate executive and the current Minister of Economy and Finance of Catalonia. Early life Giró was born in 1964 in Badalona, Catalonia, Spain. He has a degree in information sciences from the University of Navarra (1982-87) and a diploma in business administration and management from ESADE (1992-93). During his time at the universities he worked for the Diario de Navarra and La Vanguardia newspapers. Career Giró joined Europa Press in 1987, initially as an editor and later as head of the economics section in Barcelona. He became head of communications at Catalana de Gas in 1990 and in June 1991, following the merger of Catalana de Gas and Gas Madrid, he was appointed director of external relations at Gas Natural. He was promoted to corporate director of external relations at Gas Natural Group in 1994. In November 2004 he was appointed director-general of communication and the presidency of Repsol. He was also president of Petrocat (May 2007 to June 2010) and director of Petronor (April 2007 to April 2009). Between March 2009 and June 2014 he was executive director of communication, brand, sponsorships and institutional relations, and later deputy director-general of communication, at CaixaBank. He became director-general of La Caixa Foundation in June 2014 but left in 2019 due to disagreements with its president Isidre Fainé, including moving the bank's headquarters outside of Catalonia, which Giró opposed, following the 2017 Catalan independence referendum (1-O). He currently runs a consultancy firm providing various services including lobbying. On 26 May 2021 he was sworn in as Minister of Economy and Finance in the new government of President Pere Aragonès. In addition to his corporate work, Giró has taught business communication at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and ESADE's Madrid campus, and for the joint University of Barcelona-Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism master of journalism BCNY program. He was awarded the Premio Catalunya de Comunicación by the Catalan Association for Communication and Public Relations (Asociación Catalana de Comunicación y Relaciones Públicas) in 2005. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the ESERP Business School for his two decade work in the energy and communication sectors. Giró was president of the Corporate Excellence (Center for Reputation Leadership) think tank, member of the board of directors of the Societat Econòmica Barcelonesa d’Amics del País (SEBAP) and vice-president of the Asociación de Directivos de Comunicación (DIRCOM). Between 2004 and 2009 he was a member of the executive committee of the Comité Ejecutivo del Club Español de la Energía (Enerclub). Between 2017 and 2019 he was president of the patronage council of the Liceu opera house. He is the editor of The New Barcelona Post and a close associate of FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta. Personal life Giró is married and has three daughters.
Medialink	[ "Medialink", "1994 establishments in Hong Kong", "Anime companies", "Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange", "Companies of Hong Kong", "Entertainment companies of Hong Kong", "Hong Kong brands", "Kowloon", "Mass media companies established in 1994", "Mass media companies of Hong Kong", "Tsim Sha Tsui", "2019 initial public offerings" ]	944	9,560	Medialink Group Limited is a content distributor and licensor based in Kowloon, Hong Kong specializing in the distribution of Japanese anime and brand licensing. Its offices are located at Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. Registered from Hong Kong Companies Registry, Medialink was founded as Medialink International Limited by Lovinia Chiu in March 1994. In 2018, co-founders Lovinia and Noletta Chiu integrated Medialink Entertainment and Medialink Animation International into the Medialink Group, which was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019. Anime distribution Medialink Entertainment handles the content acquisition and distribution of Japanese anime in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The company does not directly release its own properties, but instead selects some anime titles for release on home video through its distribution partners such as Asia Video Publishing in Hong Kong, CaiChang International Multimedia in Taiwan, Dream Express (DEX) and previously Rose Media and Entertainment in Thailand. In addition, the company also sub-licenses select titles to streaming services and TV stations. In 2018, the company launched a new brand called Ani-One to simulcast new anime titles and distribute older series on their partnered platforms. Its notable clients include Netflix, Animax Asia, iQIYI, Bilibili, Dimsum, and local streaming services in select served regions. It also offers anime contents on its own YouTube channel since October 2019. On 10 April 2021, Medialink announced that they had reached a distribution partnership with Mediacorp, with Medialink titles being made available to stream on meWATCH. On 1 July 2021, Medialink launched a membership program called Ani-One ULTRA to simulcast select titles and old anime series under its Ani-One YouTube channel. In 2019, Medialink began co-producing and co-funding anime projects. Other businesses Brand licensing Medialink Animation International manages the brand licensing business. It is involved in the licensing of various brands, including Garfield, Popeye, Betty Boop, The Little Prince, and My Hero Academia. Ani-Mall In 2020, Medialink started venturing into the e-commerce business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Launched in August 2020, Ani-Mall is an online store selling anime-themed clothes, toys and other merchandise from Medialink's licensed brands. Ani-Kids On 19 September 2020, Medialink launched a new educational entertainment VOD platform on MyTV SUPER for children in preschools. Ani-Mi On 18 October 2023, Medialink announced the partnership with Bilibili to handled the distribution & licensing for their donghua series in Southeast Asian markets, resulting the launch of Ani-Mi VOD platform. Movie production and distribution Medialink was also evolved in movie production, such as One Second Champion and Drifting with mm2 Entertainment. They also responsible for releasing Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle anime film in the Asian markets as well.
Lunar Series (British coin)	[ "Coins of the United Kingdom", "British gold coins", "Silver coins", "Currencies introduced in 2014", "Bullion coins", "Chinese New Year" ]	2,451	20,787	The Lunar or Shēngxiào (生肖) coin series is a collection of British coins issued by the Royal Mint, featuring the Chinese zodiac in celebration of Chinese New Year. First issued in 2014, the series has been minted in varying denominations of silver and gold, as both bullion and proof. Year of the Horse 2014 Reverse The reverse design consists of a galloping Horse set against the background of the pre-historic Uffington White Horse, located in Oxfordshire. Lettering on the coin reads "YEAR OF THE HORSE · 2014" plus details of the mass and metal content of the coin. The Chinese character for Horse (馬) is displayed near the coin's centre. Mule version In March 2014, it was reported that a number of 1oz bullion coins had mistakenly been struck with the incorrect die. Around 38,000 of the Lunar Horse coins were struck with an obverse intended for the Britannia series, while 17,000 Britannia coins were stuck with the obverse for the Lunar series. Year of the Sheep 2015 The reverse design consists of two Yorkshire Swaledale sheep facing each other and the background consists of a forest of trees. As designer Wuon-Gean Ho explains: "the ancient Chinese character for the word sheep looks a little bit like a tree", so the forest consists of a series of this character (羊). This character is further displayed near the coin's center. Across the top lettering, it reads "YEAR OF THE SHEEP · 2015" plus details of the mass and metal content of the coin. Year of the Monkey 2016 The reverse design features a leaping rhesus monkey jumping forward from a tree with another monkey also jumping in the background. Lettering on the coin reads "YEAR OF THE MONKEY· 2016" plus details of the mass and metal content of the coin. The Chinese character for Monkey (猴) is displayed in the lower right of the coin. Year of the Rooster 2017 The reverse design features a crowing rooster amongst ten sea thrift flowers, the number ten symbolising of perfection in Chinese culture. Lettering on the coin reads "YEAR OF THE ROOSTER · 2017" plus details of the mass and metal content of the coin. The Chinese character for Rooster (雞) is displayed near the coin's centre. Unlike the previous coins in the series, the 2017 coin breaks the otherwise uniform smooth obverse design, opting for an obverse similar to that of the Britannia coin series. Year of the Dog 2018 Wuon-Gean explains on the Royal Mint's site that "the reverse design is a picture of a very happy, bounding dog that is jumping for joy! This dog is a mix between a West-Highland white Terrier and a Jack Russell – it’s really wirey and really energetic; he also looks like he’s smiling because his mouth is slightly open and it seems like he’s leaping across the waves. In reality, the background is a hidden story; I like to put hidden motifs in my coins, so the background is actually created from a nose pattern of another dog. The nose print is unique to every dog, so the nose print is a portrait of another animal that this dog is potentially playing with – it’s a story of a dog in a landscape, but the landscape is not what you expect it to be. The signature is in the foreground of the landscape and it’s looks like a little shell on a beach – it’s just a motif that says “Wuon-Gean” in very old characters, at the front of the coin." The reverse design features the Chinese character (狗) displayed near the coin's center. Year of the Pig 2019 The reverse design on this Royal Mint Shēngxiào Collection coin celebrates the Year of the Pig. The design by Harry Brockway represents these traits and the cultural traditions behind the lunar calendar, and shows a female pig (or sow) suckling five piglets. Brockway includes an English Cottage in the background. Each coin features the traditional Chinese symbol for ‘pig’ appears below the sow's head (豬). Year of the Rat 2020 The rat is the seventh design in The Shēngxiào Collection and this coin was designed by illustrator P.J. Lynch. The design obviously features a rat itself, which had to be appealing and interesting. Lynch claims he shows a rat as it twists, responding to a noise or something happening nearby. The rat is momentarily vulnerable, but also curious and unafraid. Lynch adds: "As well as the twisting body, I was able to have fun with the rat’s long curvy tail, which weaves its way around the composition through the flowers. I chose peonies because of their popularity in China and association with good luck. The arch of text frames the upper hemisphere of the design, and then the only other element is the Chinese character for ‘rat’. I have placed this so that the trailing stroke echoes the shape of the rat’s face and jaw. I wanted them to look like continental plates on a globe that might belong together." The Chinese character for rat (鼠) is displayed near the coin's centre. Year of the Ox 2021 Harry Brockway on the Royal Mint site is quoted as saying: "It was important to give an Eastern feel to the design, yet with a ‘British twist'. The design was inspired by eighteenth-century British paintings of prize cattle and he places the Ox in an English landscape." Harry's design contains a variety of elements, including blossom trees and ploughs. He claims he explores the concept of a minimalist setting with a strong focus on the creature itself; the design has an emphasis on ‘less is more’. By stripping back the distractions and placing the ox centre stage, Harry believes his final design managed to portray the ox in its purest form. The Chinese character for Ox (牛) is displayed near the coin's centre. Year of the Tiger 2022 The 2022 coin features the Tiger. David Lawrence's reverse design depicts a tiger facing front and the Chinese character for "tiger" (虎). Year of the Rabbit 2023 The 2023 coin features the Rabbit. It was the last of the series to depict Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022. The reverse design by Louie Maryon shows a rabbit and falling oak leaves, as well as the Chinese character for "rabbit" (兔). Year of the Dragon 2024 The 2024 coin features the Dragon. It is the first of the series to depict King Charles III, who acceded to the throne in September 2022. The reverse design by William Webb shows a Chinese dragon flying over a forest, as well as the Traditional Chinese character for "dragon" (龍). Year of the Snake 2025 The 2025 coin features the Snake and complete the 12-sign cycle of the Chinese zodiac. Designed by Chris Costello, it shows a coiled adder on grass and the Chinese character 蛇 (shé) for "snake". The obverse features King Charles III. Face values Face Value ozt1 ozt5 ozt1 kgSilver£2£10£500Gold£10£100£500£1,000 Mintage figures SilverNotesYearObverseObverse DesignerReverseReverse DesignerBullionProof1oz1 oz1 oz PNC5oz1 Kilo2014 Queen Elizabeth IIIan Rank-Broadley HorseWuon-Gean Ho300,000 8,8882,0141,488 2015 Sheep188,888 9,8882,0151,088 2016Jody Clark Monkey138,888 8,0542,016588 882017 Rooster 3,888388 682018 Dog 5,008 1082019 PigHarry Brockway3,888288382020RatP.J. Lynch3,8981982021OxHarry Brockway3,9982022TigerDavid Lawrence2282023RabbitLouie Maryon2,888502024King Charles IIIMartin JenningsDragonWilliam Webb3,898288522025SnakeChris Costello GoldNotesYearObverseObverse DesignerReverseReverse DesignerBullionBUProof1oz Gold1/10 oz1/4 oz1oz1 oz Gold-plated5 oz1 Kilo2014 Queen Elizabeth IIIan Rank-Broadley HorseWuon-Gean Ho30,000 2,888888 2015 Sheep8,8884,888 38 2016Jody Clark Monkey 1,888 82017 Rooster 2,0886882018 Dog 1,0088882019 PigHarry Brockway8,8881,0885838 2020RatP.J. Lynch39889830102021OxHarry Brockway2022TigerDavid Lawrence888102023RabbitLouie Maryon38812882024King Charles IIIMartin JenningsDragonWilliam Webb2025SnakeChris Costello See also List of British banknotes and coins Coins of the pound sterling Royal Mint The Queen's Beasts (coin) Gold as an investment Silver as an investment Notes Coin mass and metal content are only displayed of bullion coins This feature only appears on proof coins
Michael Bishop, Baron Glendonbrook	[ "1942 births", "Living people", "People educated at Mill Hill School", "Businesspeople awarded knighthoods", "Businesspeople in aviation", "English LGBTQ businesspeople", "People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan", "Commanders of the Order of the British Empire", "Members of the Order of Australia", "Knights Bachelor", "British Midland International", "Conservative Party (UK) life peers", "Gay businessmen", "English gay politicians", "LGBTQ life peers", "Chairmen of Channel 4", "Life peers created by Elizabeth II" ]	1,318	13,412	Michael David Bishop, Baron Glendonbrook (born 10 February 1942) is a British-Australian businessman and life peer who rose to prominence as owner of the airline BMI. He sold his stake in the airline to Lufthansa on 1 July 2009 and () had an estimated personal fortune of £280 million. He was one of the UK's first openly gay senior executives. Early life Michael Bishop was born in Bowdon, Cheshire. The son of a factory boss, he was given a pleasure flight at the age of six. In 1949 his parents took him on an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin in search of chocolate, a rarity during post-war rationing. Educated at the independent Mill Hill School in north London, he enjoyed flying and as a result took a series of school holiday jobs with an aerial photographer. British Midland In 1963, Bishop joined the ground handling operation of Manchester-based Mercury Airlines, a schedule and charter airline, which was taken over by British Midland Airways (later re-branded as BMI) in October 1964. Bishop joined British Midland, and rose to become General Manager of the airline in 1969 and managing director in 1972. In 1978, the London-based Minster Assets investment group, which owned British Midland, decided to sell its stake. With the help of an entrepreneurial Californian dentist, Bishop raised £2.5 million to lead a management buyout, and was subsequently appointed chairman. He later said: "I had to borrow the money from an American citizen. Most venture capitalists want a return of 40% to make up for all their other failures, and they want an exit strategy." From 1969 he was the key driving force behind the steady growth of the airline, which held 11% of the landing and take-off slots at London Heathrow Airport, second only to British Airways, and had a route network spanning Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. Bishop formerly held a controlling 50% + 1 share stake of BMI, with German airline Lufthansa holding 30% minus 1 share, and SAS Airlines a further 20%. In October 2008, under a deal agreed in 1999 as part of the package for BMI to join the Star Alliance, Bishop agreed to sell his 50% stake to Lufthansa for an undisclosed sum, though reports suggested it was about £318m. BDLH (Lufthansa's holding vehicle) acquired Bishop's share on 1 July 2009, assuming full control of the company. Honours and appointments Between 1991 and 1993, Bishop was deputy chairman of Channel 4 television, becoming chairman from 1993 to 1997. He was also a board member at Sir Nigel Rudd's Williams plc., and deputy chairman at Airtours. In 1986, he was appointed CBE, and in 1991 he was knighted. The University of Leicester awarded him an honorary Doctor of Law (LL.D) degree on 12 July 2007. In an annual survey by The Independent of the UK's most influential gay men and women, Bishop was ranked as number 5 in 2005 and number 6 in 2006. In February 2011, Bishop was created a life peer as Baron Glendonbrook, of Bowdon in the County of Cheshire, and was introduced in the House of Lords the next month, where he sits as a Conservative. Bishop was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2023 Australia Day Honours for "significant service to the not-for-profit sector through philanthropic support". Personal life Bishop is openly gay and, since 2008, has spoken out publicly about gay rights and success in the workplace. He is often referred to as "dapper" by the press, to note his keen sense of elegance. He has been a member of the Conservative Party since the age of 17. He is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company due to his personal financial sponsorship. Bishop lives in London and at Bruern Abbey, West Oxfordshire. Since purchasing the 18th-century country house on the Bruern site in 2013, he has completely refurbished it, installing a "large and impressive cantilever stone staircase and twenty-five kilometres of data cabling" and an underground car park. Bishop is a member of the Lord Lyon Society. References British Independent Airlines since 1946, Merseyside Aviation Society, Liverpool, 1976,
Valerie Pratt	[ "1929 births", "Living people", "Officers of the Order of Australia", "University of Sydney alumni", "21st-century Australian businesswomen", "21st-century Australian businesspeople", "Australian women business executives", "Australian women's rights activists" ]	1,127	10,854	Valerie Pratt (born 1929) is an Australian company director and advocate for women's pay and employment equity and seniors' rights. In 1986, she was the founding director of the Affirmative Action Agency and, since 2011 has served on the board of National Seniors Australia Limited. Education Pratt studied at the University of Sydney and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and diploma of social studies, having won a scholarship from the Canteens Trust Fund. Career Pratt's working life began when she was 35 years old, married and raising four children and has continued into her nineties. Pratt was employed by CSR Limited in 1976 to assist its general manager "to initiate some cultural change". While there, she introduced English language classes to help the migrant workers better understand their instructions and the OH&S requirements. She was personnel manager in CSR's Oil and Gas division. Pratt was appointed inaugural director of the Affirmative Action Agency, which was established under the Commonwealth Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986. She served as director from 1986 to 1994. At the end of the first reporting period in 1988, Pratt found that all 67 tertiary institutions and 230 of the 233 organisations employing more than 1,000 staff had submitted their reports in compliance with the legislation. In 1989, companies with more than 500 staff were to report their affirmative action progress, while a year later the cap was lowered to more than 100 staff. Failure to comply resulted in organisations being named in Parliament. In 1992, Paul Keating announced that Federal Government contracts would only be let to organisations complying with the affirmative action legislation. At the same time not-for-profit bodies were brought into its scope, pleasing Pratt as so many volunteer organisations are staffed by women. In 1993 she lobbied for greater funding to be given to tertiary institutions who were performing well in implementing their affirmative action plans, while businesses who failed to comply were prohibited from receiving government grants. She retired from the Affirmative Action Agency the day before her 65th birthday in 1994. She was appointed to the interim board to oversee Defence Force housing in 1986 and, following its inception, to the board of Defence Housing Authority. The Australian Defence Force (ADF) commissioned Pratt to review their personnel and family support services in 1994 and her report led to the establishment of the Defence Community Organisation, unifying the work of four support organisations. In 2000 she led a review of the ADF's pay arrangements which reported 20 recommendations. She chaired the Australian Bravery Decorations Council in 2004–2006. In 2009 she was a visiting professor and later an adjunct professor at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. Pratt has served on the board of National Seniors Australia Limited since her appointment in October 2011. She was a member of the New South Wales Ministerial Advisory Committee on Ageing, stepping down in 2019. Awards and recognition In the 1990 Queen's Birthday Honours, Pratt was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her work towards women's equal employment opportunities. She was promoted to Officer of the Order of Australia in 2011 for "distinguished service to higher education and to the community, particularly as a leader in the area of equal employment opportunity and to industrial relations policy, through significant contributions to boards and advisory committees, and as a mentor and role model". She was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2000 in recognition of her contribution to higher education. She was elected an honorary fellow of Macquarie University in 1993 and received a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from that university in 2000.
Gaby Spartz	[ "1987 births", "Living people", "Ecuadorian YouTubers", "Ecuadorian businesspeople", "21st-century businesspeople", "21st-century businesswomen", "American Twitch (service) streamers", "People from Quito", "Ecuadorian expatriates in the United States", "University of Notre Dame alumni" ]	818	8,938	Gaby Spartz (née Montero) (born September 1, 1987) is an Ecuadorian Twitch streamer and YouTube gamer. She is also the founder of the market research company Dose. In 2009, Spartz launched Spartz Media (now Dose), a company that crowdsourced content from its users, across dozens of websites. GivesMeHope, one of the web properties, asked readers to share their answer to the question “What gives you hope?” in short anonymous stories. The website was created as a response to FMyLife, and went on to become a published book. In 2015, the company changed its name to Dose, launched Dose.com and raised $25 million in venture financing. Spartz started streaming on Twitch in 2015, while working at Dose. She became a Twitch partner in April 2015, and that summer, she left Dose to focus on full-time streaming and doing commentary at high-level Magic: The Gathering events. As a contractor for Wizards of the Coast, she writes articles for their website, DailyMTG.com. She's been involved in tournament reporting, the worldwide release of Magic: The Gathering Arena and special game modes in Arena, such as “Gaby’s Greedy Draft”. Recognition Spartz was named to INC's 30 under 30 class of 2013. Built in Chicago listed her as a female founder who has raised over $1M. Spartz was named one of the "Best Female Streamers To Watch" by Tech Junkie, and a Twitch Ambassador for Twitchcon 2019. Personal life Spartz was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador. She is the younger of two sisters. She went to school at the University of Notre Dame. She now lives in Denver, Colorado. Spartz married Emerson Spartz, her college boyfriend, in 2011. They divorced in 2017. On October 11, 2021, Spartz and her boyfriend, now husband Luis Scott-Vargas's first child was born, a boy named Santi. She and Scott-Vargas are expecting twins in November of 2024.
ACE Rent a Car	[ "Companies based in Indianapolis", "Privately held companies of the United States", "Car rental companies of the United States", "American companies established in 1966", "Retail companies established in 1966", "Transport companies established in 1966", "1966 establishments in Indiana" ]	720	6,642	ACE Rent A Car Reservations, Inc. is a privately held car rental company founded in 1966 and based in Indianapolis, Indiana. History Robert Sorensen and Ken Osterand, native Chicagoans and lifelong friends, first ventured into business together by opening two car washes in Indianapolis (5800 W. Washington St. & 3433 W. 16th St.) under the name, Speedway Auto Laundry, in 1957. In 1966, in order to meet the demand for car rental from the surrounding neighborhoods, the two men added 10 Volkswagens to their business, operating under the Airways Rent A Car brand until 1969. Later that year, with an interest in expanding their operations to the Indianapolis International Airport, Sorensen, Osterand and nine other Airways Rent A Car operators, broke away from the Airways system and co-founded the now defunct American International (AI) Rent a Car franchise system. Osterand retired in 1978, leaving Sorensen the sole owner, and by 1986, his operations had grown to several locations throughout Indiana and the Chicago area. It was in that year, after several years of experimentation and dissatisfaction with the system, that Sorensen finally broke off from AI and launched the ACE Rent A Car brand. In doing so, ACE, under Sorensen's leadership, became an early adopter of the emerging Global Distribution Systems (GDS), such as Sabre, PARS, and Apollo. This level of brand exposure helped lay the foundation for the launch of ACE's licensee network that same year. Following Sorensen's death in 1995, his nephew Richard Radzis and long-time employee, Charlie Mullen, took over as primary owners. Over the next 19 years, Radzis and Mullen expanded the footprint of their 3,000 vehicle business into Arizona, Minnesota and Texas, before selling their rental operations to Avis Budget Group in 2014, while still retaining ownership of the ACE Rent A Car brand, licensee system and proprietary software. As of 2025, the ACE Rent A Car brand had more than 170 licensed locations in over 55 countries, and is the largest system of independent rental car operators in the world. Awards In 2011, ACE was ranked highest in customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power & Associates annual industry consumer survey. In 2012, ACE was named one of fifty J.D. Power Customer Service Champions across twenty service industries. In 2024 and 2025, ACE was named to Newsweek's annual America's Best Customer Service list.
Fix Price	[ "Discount stores", "Retail companies of Russia", "Russian companies established in 2007", "Retail companies established in 2007" ]	1,063	11,676	Fix Price is a Russia-based chain of discount variety stores. At the end of 2022, the chain of stores consisted of 5,663 stores in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Armenia. As of October 2023, the company has 6,141 stores. History The company was founded in 2007 by Sergei Lomakin and Artem Khachatryan, founders and executives of the former Kopeyka supermarket chain. The trading strategy, brand and design of the Fix Price chain of stores were developed by the British consulting company Campbell Rigg. The first Fix Price store was opened in December 2007. During 2008, the first 60 Fix Price stores were opened. In 2014, the chain consisted of 1,543 stores. As of September 2015, the network already included 1,930 stores. In 2016, the Fix Price network included 2,097 stores, of which about 400 were franchised. In 2016, the first chain stores were opened in Georgia and Kazakhstan. As of February 2018, the network consisted of 2,510 stores in Russia, as well as several franchise stores in Latvia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia. In March 2019, the 3,000th store was opened in Moscow, at the end of 2019 the Fix Price network included 3,306 stores. In Russia in 2019, according to Oliver Wyman, the company’s share in the segment of goods at fixed low prices (variety value retail) was 93%. In 2020, the network increased by 655 stores, the total number of company personnel amounted to 32 thousand people. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc acquired a stake in the company in 2020. By the end of 2020, Fix Price had revenue of 190 billion rubles ($2.6 billion) in a year. In March 2021, Fix Price held an IPO on the London and Moscow stock exchanges. Investors were offered 21% of the authorized capital of the company (178.4 million global depositary receipts at a price of $9.75 each). The company raised about $1.7 billion. The share of each of the co-founders decreased from 41.66% to 35.43%. Selling shareholders still have a put option for another 26.8 million GDRs. Now Fix Price's capitalization is estimated at $8.3 billion. This is the largest listing of a Russian company in ten years. In July 2021, the chain crossed the mark of 4,600 open stores. In September 2021, Samonico Holdings of Marathon group of Alexander Vinokurov disinvested from the capital of Fix Price to sell its 2,98% of shares (25,36 million GDR) with a 10% discount by share of the total of 850 million shares. In February 2022, Fix Price Group announced plans to change the company's jurisdiction. Previously, the company was registered in the British Virgin Islands. On June 15, 2022, Fix Price Group received permanent registration in Cyprus. In September 2022, the chain included 5,462 stores, including 4,855 owned and 607 franchised. As of December 31, 2022, Fix Price had 5,663 stores. In 2023, the company opened its first two stores in Mongolia. As of June 2023, Fix Price had 6,000 stores. In October 2023, Fix Price Group received listing on the Astana International Exchange (AIX). As of October 2023, the company has 6,141 stores. On November 9, 2023, Fix Price shareholders voted to change jurisdiction from Cyprus to Kazakhstan.
Bram Goldsmith	[ "1923 births", "2016 deaths", "Businesspeople from Chicago", "Businesspeople from Los Angeles", "Philanthropists from Los Angeles", "Businesspeople from Beverly Hills, California", "People from Newport Beach, California", "University of Illinois alumni", "United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II", "American chief executives", "Jewish American bankers", "American bankers", "Philanthropists from Illinois", "American businesspeople in real estate", "20th-century American businesspeople", "20th-century American philanthropists", "21st-century American Jews" ]	1,038	9,908	Bram Goldsmith (February 22, 1923 – February 28, 2016) was an American real estate developer, banker and philanthropist. He served as the chief executive officer of City National Bank from 1975 to 1995, and as its chairman from 1975 to 2013. He became known as the "banker to the stars". He was a major philanthropist in Beverly Hills, California. Early life Bram Goldsmith was born in 1923 in Chicago, Illinois, where he grew up. His father was Max Goldsmith and his mother, Bertha. Goldsmith graduated from the University of Illinois, where he studied finance and business administration. After graduation, he served in the United States Army Air Corps for three and a half years, spending eighteen months in Burma. Career Goldsmith served as president and chief executive officer of the Buckeye Realty and Management Corporation and the Buckeye Construction Company for twenty-five years. It was the largest privately owned real estate development company in California at the time. It built over thirty office towers in Beverly Hills, California. The loans for their construction were secured through the City National Bank. Goldsmith was elected to the board of directors of City National Bank in 1964, when Alfred S. Hart was chairman and Benjamin N. Maltz (1901–1993), president. He served as its chief executive officer for twenty years, from 1975 to 1995, and as its chairman from 1975 to 2013. During his tenure, the bank's assets went from $600 million to $3.3 billion. He served as its chairman emeritus and Board until his death. He was sometimes referred to as the "banker to the stars," as the bank's clients under his included celebrities such as; Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Cher. In 1984, he was the highest paid banker in the United States with US$3.1 million, more than the salaries of the CEOs of Bank of America, Citibank and Chase Manhattan combined. Goldsmith served on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 1981 to 1987. He also served on the board of directors of Wynn Resorts. Philanthropy Goldsmith chaired the Los Angeles United Jewish Fund Campaign of 1965. He served as president of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles in 1969 and 1970. He also served as national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal from 1970 to 1974. Additionally, he served as Los Angeles Chairman and national Board member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Goldsmith served as president of the Hillcrest Country Club from 1972 to 1975. He also served on the board of trustees of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from 1979 to 1999. From 1977 until his death in 2016, he served on the board of trustees of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was also chairman of the board of Region IV of the United Way and a member of its Central Board. Additionally, he served as the Founding Chairman of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, until February 2013. Therein the 500-seat Goldsmith Theater is named in his honor. Personal life Goldsmith was married to Elaine Maltz, a sculptor and the daughter of Benjamin N. Maltz, the President of City National Bank. They resided above Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California and had a secondary residence in Newport Beach, California. Their youngest son, Russell Goldsmith, serves as chairman and chief executive officer of City National Bank. Their other son Bruce Goldsmith is a published novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Death and legacy Goldsmith died on February 28, 2016, at the age of 93. The city of Beverly Hills named Bram Goldsmith Way in his honor on November 7, 2018.
Gopichand Hinduja	[ "1940 births", "British billionaires", "British businesspeople of Indian descent", "Hinduja family", "Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom", "Living people", "British people of Sindhi descent", "21st-century British businesspeople", "English people of Indian descent", "21st-century Indian businesspeople", "Sindhi Hindus" ]	1,053	11,304	Gopichand Parmanand Hinduja (born 29 January 1940) is an Indian-British billionaire businessman controlling the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group. For many years he was co-chairman with his brother Srichand "S. P." Hinduja who died in May 2023. He and his brother were frequently named among the wealthiest people in the UK and Asia, and in the Sunday Times Rich List 2024 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK he was placed first with an estimated family fortune of £37 billion. Business career The Hinduja brothers began their careers in their father's textile and trading businesses in Bombay, India, and Tehran, Iran. Successful early businesses included the sale of food commodities (onions and potatoes) and iron ore from India to Iran. With the acquisition of Ashok Leyland (from British Leyland) and Gulf Oil (from Chevron) in the 1980s and the establishment of banks in Switzerland and India in the 1990s, Hinduja Group became one of India's best known businesses alongside such names as Tata, Birla, and Ambani. In 2012, the Group acquired the US firm Houghton International, the world's largest metal fluids manufacturer, for $1.045 billion, forming a consortium with the help of Ghouse Mohammed Asif, (Director of Private Equity of JP Morgan) and Hank Paulson, former United States Secretary of the Treasury and formerly of Goldman Sachs. Wealth As of May 2024 he is estimated to be the UK's richest person. Since the 1990s, he has been consistently ranked among the UK and Asia's wealthiest people. In 2013, a rich list compiled by Asian Media & Marketing Group, estimated Hinduja's wealth at GBP 19 billion ($24.7 billion). In May 2017, Hinduja topped the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated wealth of GBP 16.2 billion ($21 billion). The Forbes List in March 2018 ranked him and his brother as the world's 55th richest billionaire family with an estimated wealth of $19.5 billion. In May 2019 The Hinduja brothers, Gopichand and Srichand, were once again named by The Times UK as the UK's wealthiest people, according to the annual Sunday Times Rich List survey. Hinduja remained in the top spot in 2022, with his estimated wealth growing to an estimated £35Bn in 2023 and £37.2Bn in 2024. Early life Gopichand Parmanand Hinduja was born on 29 January 1940, the son of Parmanand Hinduja, and educated at Jai Hind College, Bombay. Personal life He is married to Sunita Hinduja, and they have two sons and one daughter, Sanjay Hinduja, Dheeraj Hinduja and Rita Hinduja. The Hinduja family is of Sindhi heritage. Gopichand and his three brothers are teetotal and vegetarian. In 2015, their son Sanjay Hinduja married his long-time girlfriend, the designer Anu Mahtani, in Udaipur, India. The wedding cost £15 million and entertainment included the pop singers Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Scherzinger and actor Arjun Kapoor. Citizenship Gopichand obtained British citizenship in 1997. In 2001, Hinduja was involved in the UK's cash-for-passports scandal, where he donated money for the Millennium Dome while applying for British citizenship, leading to the resignation of Peter Mandelson. Gopichand

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