NANCY J. SANDY APPOINTED CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF TACONIC BIOSCIENCES

RENSSELAER, N.Y., Feb 4 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taconic Biosciences’ Board of Directors has selected Nancy J. Sandy to succeed Dr. Robert J. Rosenthal as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Effective January 14, Ms. Sandy took the company’s top leadership position. Dr. Rosenthal, who held the position for four and a half years, continues his association with Taconic, leading external growth initiatives as Chief Innovation Officer and holds positions on the Taconic Scientific Advisory Board and Board of Directors. 

Ms. Sandy joined Taconic in January 2016, progressing through roles as Senior Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing, Chief Operating Officer, and President before being named CEO. She led corporate initiatives to streamline operations, align internal teams, strengthen Taconic’s culture, and drive growth in both revenue and profitability. Prior to joining Taconic, Ms. Sandy held marketing leadership roles at several life science and medical device companies, including Perkin Elmer, Magellan Biosciences, and Cardiac Science. She holds both Bachelor of Arts in journalism and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

“Nancy’s strong leadership, commitment to excellence, and proven record with Taconic position her well to take on the CEO role. Additionally, we are pleased to continue to benefit from Bob’s expertise in his new capacity. We are excited by this seamless transition and are proud of our talented leadership team, which will serve to strengthen the company now and in the future,” commented Kathrin Phelan Midgley, chairman of Taconic Biosciences Board of Directors. 

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/C O R R E C T I O N/ -- HOSHI CORPORATION/

/C O R R E C T I O N/ -- HOSHI CORPORATION/

Hainan and Cambodia to cooperate for better tourism sector outcomes

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- The cooperation between China’s Hainan province and Cambodia would have broad prospects and great potential for the two countries, notably in the tourism sector.

This was among the conclusions following the Briefing on Hainan International Tourism Island held in Phnom Penh in Cambodia recently.

A statement said that the briefing was sponsored by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports of Hainan Province, and it marked the first official promotional briefing of Hainan in Cambodia.

The briefing witnessed a gathering of 150 friends from the two countries and their in-depth exchanges on adding cross-border flights and strengthening bilateral tourism, cultural and trade cooperation.

According to Undersecretary of State of Cambodia's Ministry of Tourism (MOT) H.E. So Visothy, about 1.9 million Chinese tourists visited Cambodia in 2018 – a year-on-year increase of 72.6 per cent.

The MOT will visit Hainan from March to April 2019 to enhance the exchange.

Meanwhile, the Department’s chief planner Zhou Anwei said the central government has issued many favourable policies to make Hainan a national sports tourism demonstration zone and an international tourism consumption centre since the founding of Hainan Free Trade Zone.

In the future, Hainan will also open its market wider to international tourists and improve tourism policies to attract more Cambodian enterprises for cooperation and common development.

-- BERNAMA

Hoover Ferguson appoints Kevin Friar as president

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) – Hoover Ferguson, a global leader in tank and container solutions, announced that it has appointed Kevin Friar as president.

The company, in a statement, said Friar will report directly to its chairman and chief executive officer, Donald Young.

“We have achieved significant growth over the past ten years, and we have ambitious goals for the future. I am confident that Kevin’s experience, skills and leadership will be instrumental in achieving our expansion and growth goals moving forward,” said Young.

Friar will be responsible for strategy, sales and operational leadership of the global Hoover Ferguson team, and he will focus on expanding services and technology solutions, increasing operational efficiencies and growing market share.

Meanwhile, Friar said he is pleased to join the company and take up the new challenge.

“With a robust growth strategy in place, we are well positioned for the future, and I look forward to executing our vision, delivering for our customers and reaching our goals,” added Friar.

Friar brings a wealth of experience from a career in the energy industry spanning three decades, largely with Nalco Champion, an Ecolab company, where he served as executive vice president of oilfield chemicals.

Most recently, Friar held the role of professor and senior lecturer in industrial distribution at Texas A&M University, from where he previously graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology.

More details at www.hooverferguson.com

-- BERNAMA

Hootsuite celebrates 10 years of success

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- World’s leading social suite Hootsuite now helps more than 18 million customers and over 4,000 of the largest global enterprises to build their brands, businesses and customer relationships with social.

The Canada-based company closed out its tenth year as the leader in social media management, helping organisations of every size, industry and geography to achieve their business objectives.

Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, said in a statement that Hootsuite has become an indispensable platform for millions of people and many companies worldwide.

“With more than 1,000 employees in 12 offices globally, it is also yet another example of a Canadian tech start-up that has become an industry leader and a global success,” he added.

Hootsuite chief executive officer Ryan Holmes said the expansion of social’s value across the organisation, coupled with Hootsuite’s ongoing innovation, led them to achieve over 35 per cent year-over-year revenue growth among new enterprise customers.

“Today, more than 90 per cent of our revenue comes from outside Canada. Throughout 2018, Hootsuite focused on delivering value to customers via product innovation, new and deeper strategic partnerships and best-in-breed tech integrations and industry-leading thought leadership,” added Holmes.

In 2018, Hootsuite enhanced its content management offering with the launch of Campaign Manager, planning tools that ensure content related to campaigns is tracked accurately and efficiently.

And as an Instagram Alpha partner, Hootsuite was the first to deliver the number one customer-requested feature -- direct Instagram scheduling and publishing for multiple teams across multiple accounts.

Read more about Hootsuite at www.hootsuite.com

-- BERNAMA

FIVE COLORS TECHNOLOGIES, A PIONEER COMPANY IN THE ONLINE GAMING SOFTWARE INDUSTRY, LISTS FIVE COLORS COIN (FCC), A NEW CRYPTOCURRENCY THAT WILL BECOME E-SPORTS MONEY, ON COINBENE AND CARRIES OUT IEO ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 31!

This spring, Five Colors Technologies will hold a prize-money game tournament for the whole world!

TOKYO, Jan 31 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Five Colors Technologies Limited (Headquarters: Hong Kong, CEO: Eugene.K) has announced that "Five Colors Coin (FCC)", a new cryptocurrency to become e-sports money, will be listed on CoinBene and IEO will be carried out on Thursday, January 31.

And this spring, the game tournament with prize money will be held for the whole world.

Five Colors Group (https://casual-esports.net/) began developing online games in 2012 and will develop e-sports platform for casual games where all smartphone users can easily participate. The developed games are the world’s first skill games for the smartphones that are certified by GLI which is the certification body of software for online gaming; therefore, the games are fair and safe for users.

The biggest feature of our software is that we have official certification for online gaming that is rigorously tested by the government agency. If the games don’t have this certification, there is a problem that we cannot detect even if there is cheating etc. in the program. However, the game developed by us has high safety and fairness which cleared the test by the international certification body.

The e-sports money that can be used on this casual e-sports platform is the new cryptocurrency, "Five Colors Coin (FCC)". It is an easy-to-understand utility token that allows you to play games with FCC, win prizes with FCC, and exchange it with other cryptocurrencies at exchanges.

Also, since the FCC is issued on the extension of the existing business and it is listed without the ICO, there is no investor who sells at the same time as the sales, so it can be expected that the demand for buying will be overwhelmingly high at the same time as promotion.

Today, January 31 (Thursday), FCC will be listed and IEO will be carried out on CoinBene, which is ranked fifth in global transaction volume. To do IEO at the world's leading CoinBene became possible because the business contents, achievements and market prospects of the Five Colors Group are anticipated and gained the trust of the exchange. In IEO, it is difficult to deceive investors with fraud and due diligence is done properly, therefore you can use it with confidence.

And this time, as the e-sports become popular all over the world, in order to spread the opportunity to participate in the game tournament widely not only to the professional gamers but also to the general public, Five Colors Group released a casual game "with prize" e-sports platform (beta version) for smartphone users all over the world on January 30 at the Japan Block Chain Conference and held a game with prize money.

We distributed coin prize to 1st place 1000,000 yen, 2nd place 500,000 yen, 3rd place 300,000 yen (converted at CoinBene listed price 200 yen) to the top prizewinners.

Games with prize money will be held irregularly in the future. If you complete user registration (https://casual-esports.net/auth/reg/regist.do) now, you can play a trial version with 500 play points free of charge.

We are planning an official launch this spring, and also working on a larger game tournament with prize money for the whole world. Please stay tuned for further information.

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VistaJet records increase in new members and flights

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (Bernama) -- Global business aviation company VistaJet recorded an increase of new members globally and number of flights up prominently in 2018 as it enters its 15th year in the industry.

VistaJet made significant progress in 2018 where new contracts of its flagship Program membership grew by 31 per cent and the number of flights increased by 25 per cent.

Its aircraft utilisation also grew by 20 per cent across its fleet of over 70 aircraft – equating to enough hours to fly each aircraft around the world 20 times on average – due to increase in demand for longer flights and comfort, a statement said.

Europe proved a significant market for corporates and individuals flying privately, accounting for 48 per cent of total VistaJet flights in 2018, while New Program Members grew significantly by 105 per cent in the region, with the majority of growth coming from clients based in the UK.

North America remained a key growth driver for VistaJet and accounted for the largest increase in flights in 2018, with a rise of 46 per cent.

VistaJet continued to lead the market in terms of innovation and service with the introduction of new experiences for its members, partnerships with art and sports partners, as well as launches of extensive traveller’s programmes for children in private aviation.

More details at https://www.vistajet.com.

-- BERNAMA