Wacoal America CEO Retires
Mitchell Kauffman, CEO of Wacoal America, retired after a 40‑year career, staying on the board as an adviser. James Wheatley, who has been president since 2019 and previously worked at J.C. Penney and VF Corp., was appointed the new president and CEO. The transition comes as Wacoal America expands its retail footprint with new stores in Ohio and South Carolina, launches a redesigned website, and leverages recent acquisitions including Glamorise Foundations and the 2019 $85 million purchase of Lively. The company aims to strengthen its fit authority and emotional relevance with women in a rapidly evolving intimate‑apparel market.
Nordic Banks Turn to CaaS to Fight Rising Fraud
Nordic banks are grappling with a surge in digital fraud as cashless payments dominate the region. Norwegian banks blocked roughly NOK 2.3 bn (about $250 m) and Danish banks prevented DKK 500 m (around $70 m) in attempted fraud in 2025. At the same time, compliance...
Africa Is Losing the Iran War
The Iran‑related war in the Middle East is triggering a cascade of economic shocks across Africa. Fuel prices have jumped about 50% and global fertilizer costs are up more than 40%, straining household budgets and agricultural yields. Simultaneously, African governments...
Reimagining Rail Growth
Rail traffic in the United States has been flat for over a decade, prompting Union Pacific to propose a merger with Norfolk Southern as a possible catalyst. Industry leaders argue that competition and service innovation, rather than consolidation, are the...
India to Continue Buying Russian Crude Oil
Indian refiners will keep buying Russian crude oil after the U.S. 30‑day sanctions exemption expires on April 11, driven by ongoing supply uncertainty from West Asia and damaged regional infrastructure. West Asian shipments, which once supplied about half of India’s crude,...
Pile of Famous Athletes Quietly Invested in Kalshi Months Ago
Kalshi closed a Series E round that raised $1 billion, pushing its valuation to $11 billion. A $4.7 million slice of the round came from a group of high‑profile athletes—including WNBA stars Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike and Diana Taurasi, NBA players Ajay Mitchell and Jaime Jaquez Jr., NHL...
Meet Edie’s 30 Under 30 Class of 2025: Ryan Robba, Lately St James’s Place
Ryan Robba, formerly reporting manager at wealth‑management firm St James’s Place, is launching his own sustainability‑services business in 2026. The venture will help companies tighten emissions data, meet the new UK Sustainability Reporting Standards and address chronic Scope 3 data gaps. A distinctive feature...
Hospital Expenses Grew Twice as Fast as Hospital Prices in 2025, Finds AHA
The American Hospital Association’s 2026 Costs of Caring report shows hospital expenses surged 7.5% in 2025, outpacing price growth by more than double. Workforce costs, which account for about 60% of total spending, rose 5.6%, while supplies and drugs jumped...
The Moment of Truth for the Athlete Endorser Is Here
The sportswear industry is at a crossroads as athlete endorsement models shift from flat‑fee deals to performance‑based, revenue‑share contracts. Brands now demand granular data on sales lifts and social engagement to justify spend, reflecting a broader move toward measurable marketing...
Global GDP Themes and Forecasts
An outbreak of war in the Middle East is generating an energy‑driven inflation shock that threatens to delay disinflation and keep interest rates higher worldwide. The United States, as a major oil producer, is relatively insulated, though the Federal Reserve...
Parkin Picks A Local Leader For Memphis’ ‘FOX 13’
Todd Parkin’s licensee continues to own Memphis’s FOX 13, a key station in the West Tennessee DMA. Recent reports indicate that several stations his group acquired are being transferred back from Rincon Broadcasting to Standard Media’s Community News Media LLC....
Global FinTech Funding Tops $2bn as RegTech Deals Run Rampant
Global FinTech funding surged to $2.17 billion across 23 deals in the past two weeks, driven largely by RegTech and AI‑security investments. RegTech accounted for over a third of transactions, while the largest single deal was German insurer Talanx’s €1 billion ($1.09 billion)...
Building End-to-End Payroll Integrations in Workday Using PECI and PICOF
Workday’s Cloud Connect for Third‑Party Payroll offers two outbound formats—PICOF and PECI—to move employee data to external payroll providers. PICOF, the legacy format, delivers a snapshot of final data per employee but can miss intermediate changes and lacks automated correction...
Oikos Celebrates Athletes' Strength, Perseverance
Danone’s Oikos yogurt brand has unveiled its first All‑Strength Team, led by top high‑school basketball recruit Saniyah Hall, to showcase athletes’ perseverance across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. The campaign, produced with Over The Edge, highlights training, recovery and high‑protein...
VML, WPP Media Help Recruit U.S. Navy Healthcare
The U.S. Navy has partnered with advertising firms VML and WPP Media to launch an integrated recruitment campaign for early‑career physicians, nurses and dentists. The effort focuses on Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Diego, using digital out‑of‑home, connected TV, paid social,...
Sitrick Buys Back His Firm
Mike Sitrick has agreed to repurchase his strategic communications firm, Sitrick & Company, from Dallas‑based RGP for $43.4 million. The transaction, first announced on April 10, 2026, is slated to close within 45 days, restoring full operational control to Sitrick. RGP is using...
Hiring Was Supposed to Be Easier in 2025—90 Percent of Companies Say It Wasn’t
The fifth annual Hiring Insights Report from GoodTime reveals that 90 percent of companies failed to meet their 2025 hiring goals, with only about 10 percent coming close to staffing targets. Recruiters faced unprecedented strain as AI‑generated fake applications surged, becoming the...
Repay Faces Kubra Purchase Opposition
Repay Holdings announced a $372 million cash‑plus‑debt acquisition of Kubra Data Transfer, aiming to merge complementary payment platforms. The combined entity would have generated roughly $548 million in revenue and $178 million of adjusted EBITDA last year. Veradace Partners, an 8.4 % shareholder, publicly...
European ETF Flows Fall – Should You Invest?
European-listed ETFs saw a sharp slowdown in March, with net inflows dropping to €9.4 billion (about $10.2 billion) after two months of roughly €46 billion each. Equity‑focused ETFs fell from €40 billion in February to €8.8 billion, while bond ETFs turned negative with a €2.4 billion...
US$25M for Aerospace & Defence Composite Manufacturer Hybron
Hybron Technologies closed an oversubscribed $25 million seed round led by Marque Ventures, with participation from a slate of venture firms and angel investors. The company says its carbon‑fiber process can produce composites up to 100 times faster and at a fraction...
Amazon Laid Off 30,000 Workers While CEO Andy Jassy Got a 30% Pay Bump
Amazon announced it has eliminated roughly 30,400 positions since the start of 2025, representing about 10% of its white‑collar workforce. At the same time, CEO Andy Jassy’s total compensation for 2025 rose about 30% to $2.1 million, driven by higher travel...
3 Ways HR Leaders Can Redesign Roles for Gen Z and Millennials
A new Cangrade report, based on 71,747 personality assessments, outlines three ways HR leaders can redesign jobs for Gen Z and millennial employees. The study recommends structuring work around meaningful interpersonal interaction, shifting burnout‑prevention to systemic factors, and defining roles by...
Adyen Tool Speeds Business Payments
Netherlands‑based fintech Adyen unveiled Intelligent Money Movement, a unified platform that combines payment collection, payout processing, and liquidity management for large enterprises. The tool addresses the typical treasury setup of five to six banks, over 40 accounts and roughly a...
JPMorgan Invests $600,000 to Scale Atlanta’s Clean Tech Workforce and Startups
JPMorgan Chase is providing a $600,000 grant to the Georgia Cleantech Innovation Hub (GACIH) to expand clean‑technology innovation and workforce development in Atlanta. The funding will be administered through Georgia Tech’s Partnership for Innovation Network and will support programs at...
WPP Hires Chief Transformation Officer to Drive Cindy Rose's Elevate28
WPP announced the appointment of a new chief transformation officer, recruiting a veteran from The Estée Lauder Companies. The executive will design, implement and embed the operational framework for Elevate28, the agency group’s three‑year growth plan. The move is part...
PDUFA and BsUFA Quarterly Hiring Updates
The FDA published its quarterly hiring updates for fiscal years 2023‑2027 under PDUFA VII and BsUFA III. FY2023 staffing was almost complete—CBER filled 99% of its 132 positions and CDER 90% of 77—while FY24 reached only 71% of 79 targeted FTEs. FY25...
Reclaim Your Brand Voice and Rise Above the AI Slop with Chris Silvestri
The site’s privacy preference center outlines five cookie categories—targeting, performance, strictly necessary, functional, and social media—each serving distinct purposes. Targeting cookies build interest profiles for personalized ads, while performance cookies collect anonymous traffic data to improve site speed and navigation....
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How Club Pilates Is Turning Scale Into a Sustainable Super-Brand – Placer.ai Blog
Club Pilates, now part of Xponential Fitness, has surged 200% in monthly visits since 2019 by opening over 1,400 studios. Recent same‑store data shows performance leveling, prompting the chain to shift from pure expansion to optimizing its existing footprint. Xponential’s...
PIMCO Prime’s Sobel: ‘No Lender Can Pretend Nothing Is Going on in Its Loan Book’
Debora Sobel, newly appointed head of European debt at PIMCO Prime, warned that lenders can no longer ignore deteriorating conditions in their loan portfolios. She highlighted the need for active management of existing exposures as market volatility spikes and competition...
Deloitte Enters Rugby League as NRL Super League Investment Talks Near
Deloitte has been appointed by Rugby League Commercial (RL Commercial) as a strategic advisor as talks intensify over a potential investment by Australia’s NRL into the UK’s Super League. The firm recently advised on the sale of eight Hundred franchises...
CPI Inflation Rate Up Nearly +1%, As Expected
The U.S. Consumer Price Index for March 2026 rose 0.9% month‑over‑month, pushing the year‑over‑year inflation rate to 3.3%, the highest level in nearly two years and exactly on forecast. Core CPI eased slightly to 2.6% YoY, coming in 10 basis...
How HR Can Win, Manager to Manager
HR leaders must move beyond planning and give managers the structures, skills, and motivation needed to execute. I/O psychologist Kamaria Scott argues that managers are the primary conduit for employee experience and often operate without the support they themselves require....
Corn Prices Poised to Fall on Iran-US Ceasefire Pact
Corn prices have slipped to a four‑week low as the US‑Iran cease‑fire removes the immediate threat of nitrogen‑fertilizer disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts at BMI, a Fitch Solutions unit, lifted their 2026 average CBOT corn forecast to 458.2 cents...
‘Pretty Little Liars’ Star Sasha Pieterse Launches Mother Bare Productions With Sherrilyn Kenyon Supernatural Book Series ‘Infernal Affairs’ As First...
Sasha Pieterse, best known for "Pretty Little Liars," has launched a new production company, Mother Bare Productions, with the first project being a feature‑film adaptation of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s upcoming urban‑fantasy series "Infernal Affairs." Pieterse will co‑produce and star as Detective Sorcha O’Malley opposite the series’ supernatural lead, Lucifer’s...
Inflation Up 3.3% in March Amid Highest Inflationary Period Since 2022
U.S. consumer prices jumped 3.3% year‑over‑year in March, the steepest rise since June 2022, as the six‑week war with Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and pushed crude toward $100 a barrel. Gasoline surged 21.2% and all fuel categories rose...
Global PE Dealmaking Shows Resilience Despite Renewed Tariff Uncertainty, War in Iran
Global private‑equity dealmaking proved surprisingly resilient in 2023, according to new PitchBook data. The total value of PE‑backed mergers and acquisitions held steady at roughly $1.2 trillion, while the number of transactions rose about 4% year‑over‑year to 6,800 deals. Even as...
TVS Srichakra Assumes US Sponsorship Rights to Boost Global Brand Visibility
TVS Srichakra Ltd, the Madurai‑based tyre maker, has taken over the U.S. sponsorship rights for Bristol Motor Speedway by assigning its wholly‑owned subsidiary Super Grip Corp. The company will pay $1.03 million in tranches for the remaining years of the agreement, which...
Transformation: A Unified Stucki Offers Customers Stronger End-to-End Experience
A. Stucki Company has consolidated its diverse brands into a single Stucki identity, aiming to deliver a seamless end‑to‑end rail component experience. The strategy includes the recent acquisition of Wheelworx, one of North America’s largest wheel reconditioning shops, expanding capacity...
Telemundo Releases New World Cup 2026 Spots As Countdown Hits 60 Days
Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish‑language home of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S., released two new marketing spots as the tournament’s 60‑day countdown begins. The ads, part of the “Y Tú, ¿Con Quién Lo Vas a Ver?” campaign, feature...
Interra Buys 4.5M SF Greenway Plaza Office Campus In Receivership Sale
Interra Capital Group has purchased the 4.5 million‑square‑foot Greenway Plaza office campus in Houston, assuming the $465 million loan that placed the property in receivership. The deal, announced on April 10, 2026, brings the distressed asset under new ownership and appoints CBRE to...
Vail Resorts Closes Crans-Montana for Season, Local-Led Petition Fails
Vail Resorts, which acquired Switzerland’s Crans‑Montana in 2024, closed the ski area on April 6, 2026, prompting a petition that gathered over 1,000 signatures. The early shutdown cuts the crucial Easter holiday period, a peak time for tourism and local employment....
FMI Releases Statement on March CPI Food Price Numbers
The Food Industry Association (FMI) highlighted the March Consumer Price Index, showing a 0.2% month‑over‑month dip in food‑at‑home prices while overall grocery inflation remains 1.9% higher than a year ago. Core staples such as beef, poultry, fish, eggs, cereal, bakery...
Pacha New York Offers Coupons to Disgruntled Brooklyn Mirage Ticketholders
Pacha New York, the rebranded former Brooklyn Mirage, announced it will issue 100% ticket‑value coupons to patrons who never received refunds for canceled events before the venue’s bankruptcy. The coupons can be used for shows, food, drinks, and merchandise when...
Biotech VCs Ramp up Checks on New Bets After Years of Focusing on Existing Portfolios
Biotech venture capitalists are shifting back to high‑risk, high‑reward investing, with 65% of Q1 2026 capital directed at new startups. Total venture funding in the sector rose to roughly $2.1 billion, up from $1.5 billion a quarter earlier, and average deal size climbed...
Does Cold Calling Work? Decoded With Data and a Proven Framework
Cold calling remains viable in 2026, with industry data showing an average 2.3% conversion rate that top 25% of reps push to 10‑13% by refining inputs. Key metrics from Cognism and Gong reveal a 5.4% connect rate for average reps...
G2 Esports Selects Skin.Club as CS2 Skin Partner
G2 Esports announced a partnership with Skin.Club, making the platform its official Counter‑Strike 2 skin partner. The deal places the Skin.Club logo on G2’s CS2 jerseys and adds joint content and live‑experience initiatives. Skin.Club already works with other CS2 entities such...
Partial Permit for Heide Plant as Lyten/Northvolt Repays Millions
Lyten, a U.S. battery maker, has obtained a key partial permit to begin construction of a battery‑cell factory in Heide, Germany, reviving a project once led by insolvent Swedish firm Northvolt. The plant will be scaled down to about 1,000...
Air India at Critical Stage of Transformation: Tata Sons Chairman
Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran told Air India staff that the carrier has entered a critical phase of its four‑year turnaround. The airline has added roughly 17,000 employees, merged four subsidiaries into two, modernized core systems and is expanding and refurbishing...
Celonis and Oracle Collaborate to Power Enterprise AI and Accelerate IT Modernization
Celonis announced an expanded partnership with Oracle to run its Process Intelligence platform on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and deepen integration with Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications. The joint solution lets enterprises analyze and optimize end‑to‑end processes across finance, supply chain...
Finance Titans Bet Mideast Resilience Will Outweigh War Fallout
Wall Street’s biggest banks and private‑equity firms are deepening their Gulf foothold despite Iran’s missile attacks and a two‑week cease‑fire. Blackstone announced a $250 million private‑equity commitment, while Citi’s CEO Jane Fraser reiterated confidence in the region. Goldman Sachs is pursuing...