He Fled Apartheid South Africa at 26—Then Built a $13 Billion Fortune 500 Company. Here Are His Rules
Stanley Bergman, a South African refugee, led Henry Schein from a $225 million regional dental supplier to a $13.2 billion Fortune 500 distributor over 36 years. He emphasized hiring for character, fostering diverse opinions, and aligning the business with social values. Under his tenure, the company grew through strategic joint‑ventures, acquisitions, and a focus on value‑based services for dental practitioners. Bergman stepped down as CEO in March 2024, remaining chairman while Fred Lowery assumed the role.
Exclusive: Megapot Raises $5 Million to Create a Crypto-Powered Global Lottery
Megapot, a crypto‑powered lottery platform founded by former Microsoft and Uniswap executive Patrick Lung, announced a $5 million Series A round led by Dragonfly with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Bankless Ventures and veteran betting founders. The startup enables users in over 150...
Wall Street Bonuses Hit an All-Time Record in 2025—But the Outlook for 2026 Is Already Darkening
Wall Street’s securities industry posted a record $49.2 billion bonus pool in 2025, a 9% rise over the prior year, while average bonuses climbed to $246,900. Pretax profits surged 30% to $65.1 billion, driven by strong trading, underwriting and asset‑management fees. Despite...
Vail Resorts CEO Says It’s Time to Think Beyond the $1,000 Ski Pass that Helped Build the Empire
Vail Resorts endured a harsh 2025‑26 season as Colorado snowfall fell 60% below normal, driving an 11.9% drop in visits and a 4.7% revenue decline despite its $1,000‑plus Epic Pass model. Returning CEO Rob Katz says the company must revamp...
‘I Didn’t Want Anybody Shooting Me’: Five Guys CEO Gave Away $1.5 Million Bonus to Employees over Botched BOGO Burger...
Five Guys founder and CEO Jerry Murrell distributed a $1.5 million bonus—$1,000 per store—to roughly 1,500 frontline employees after a botched 40th‑birthday BOGO promotion. The promotion, launched on Feb. 17, drove a 130% sales surge, causing severe supply shortages, long lines, and...
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon Says Remote Work Breeds ‘Rope-a-Dope Politics’ and Stunts Young Workers’ Growth
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned that remote work hampers learning and creates "rope‑a‑dope" politics, urging young employees to return to the office. He reiterated his stance at the Hill and Valley Forum, citing in‑person interaction as essential for skill development...
‘Wealth Doesn’t Erase Your Problems—It Magnifies Them’: One Serial Entrepreneur’s Brutally Honest Take on Making It
Emily Lyons, a Toronto‑based serial entrepreneur, turned an $80 startup into a multimillion‑dollar event‑staffing firm and luxury dating service. Despite hitting profitability and being named Entrepreneur of the Year, she admits wealth triggered deep‑seated anxiety from a childhood of financial...
Philadelphia Responds to Unpaid TSA Worker Plight with ‘World Record for the Longest Cheesesteak in History’
Philadelphia International Airport set a Guinness World Record on National Cheesesteak Day by arranging 1,291 cheesesteak sandwiches in a single line inside the departure hall. The effort, organized by MarketPlace PHL, more than doubled the previous record of 500 sandwiches....
The Youngest-Ever Female Fortune 500 CEO Is Reinventing the Largest Medicaid Insurer Amid Funding Cuts and Rising Costs
Sarah London has become the youngest-ever female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, taking the helm of Centene, the nation’s largest Medicaid insurer. She is steering the firm through steep federal Medicaid cuts and rising health‑care costs by trimming non‑core...
The Youngest-Ever Female CEO of a Fortune 500 Company Is Fighting Trump’s Cuts to Keep Medicaid Strong
Centene, the nation’s largest Medicaid insurer, posted a 20% revenue increase to $194.8 billion last year but recorded a $6.7 billion net loss after a massive write‑down tied to the Trump‑backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which trims federal Medicaid spending by...
Say Hello to 10 A.m. Starts. Mark Cuban Says AI Will Cut Your Workday by an Hour—And You’ll Still Get...
Mark Cuban predicts artificial‑intelligence tools will let employees finish work an hour earlier while keeping the same salary. He argues that forward‑thinking firms will formalize a one‑hour‑earlier start, effectively shortening the traditional 9‑to‑5 day. Cuban’s claim builds on his history...
Exclusive: Interloom, a Startup Capturing ‘Tacit Knowledge’ to Power AI Agents, Raises $16.5 Million in Venture Funding
Interloom, a Munich‑based startup, closed a $16.5 million Series A led by DN Capital to commercialise its "context graph" technology that extracts tacit operational knowledge from emails, tickets and call transcripts. The platform maps how experts resolve issues, turning undocumented expertise into...
The U.S. Has the World’s Most Advanced Military, but the Unforgiving Economics of Wars in Iran and Ukraine Show Quantity...
The United States’ campaign against Iran has showcased a stark contrast between cutting‑edge AI‑driven strike capabilities and the soaring costs of defending against swarms of cheap drones and missiles. In the first six days, U.S. operations exceeded $11 billion, while interceptors...
Ukraine Is Quietly Helping Five Middle East Nations Shoot Down Iranian Drones, Even as Trump Says He Doesn’t Need Kyiv’s...
Ukrainian officials are assisting five Middle Eastern nations—UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan—to counter Iranian Shahed drones by providing expert assessments and deploying cheap, battle‑tested interceptor units. These interceptors, honed in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, have become a leading...
The 19th Century Banking Problem that AI Hasn’t Solved Yet
Salesforce researchers argue that while technical protocols for AI‑to‑AI communication are emerging, the trust architecture that enabled 19th‑century bank clearing houses is still missing for autonomous agents. They highlight four pillars—registered identity, reputation infrastructure, boundary‑based governance, and structured accountability with...
Unicorns Are Flush with Cash and Stuck. A New Kind of Startup Crisis Is Taking Hold in 2026
Unicorns are facing "cap table gridlock," where layered ownership structures hinder growth and exits. The issue stems from three shifts: concentration of venture capital into a few mega‑rounds, larger funding rounds, and longer private‑company lifecycles. As AI and other sectors...
For CEOs, It’s Time for a Wartime Mindset
CEOs are urged to adopt a wartime mindset, using scenario planning to navigate heightened geopolitical uncertainty, especially the Iran‑Israel conflict and volatile oil markets. The practice, pioneered by Shell in the 1970s, proved valuable during the oil embargo and is...
Could Data From 100 Million Species Help Cure Disease? One Startup Is Betting on It
Basecamp Research announced the launch of its Trillion Gene Atlas, a project to collect and model genomic data from over 100 million species, expanding known genetic diversity a hundred‑fold. Backed by $85 million in venture funding, the initiative partners with Anthropic, Ultima...
Current Price of Oil as of March 19, 2026
On March 19, 2026, Brent crude rose to $113.71 per barrel, up $4.93 (4.5%) from the previous day and more than $42 above its level a year ago. The price has jumped over 60% in the past month, reflecting tightening...
The Best Way for CEOs to Keep Bonuses in a Downturn: Lower Expectations
CEOs are increasingly protecting their compensation by setting modest performance targets, a tactic highlighted by Apple’s 2025 bonus plan that guaranteed Tim Cook a $12 million payout. An analysis of 50 public firms by Compensation Advisory Partners shows boards lowered targets,...
A Gaming CEO Asked ChatGPT How to Avoid Paying a $250 Million Bonus. It Didn’t Work
Krafton CEO Changhan Kim used ChatGPT to devise a plan to remove Unknown Worlds Entertainment’s leadership and avoid a $250 million earn‑out bonus tied to Subnautica 2. The AI suggested a multi‑stage “Project X” takeover, which Kim pursued despite warnings from his legal...
Stocks Haven’t Hit Bottom yet, Says the Analyst Who Called a ‘Rolling Recession’ when Everyone Else Saw a Boom
Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. equity strategist Mike Wilson, who previously warned of a “rolling recession,” now says the market correction is already mature. He points to 50% of Russell 3000 stocks down at least 20% from 52‑week highs and over 40%...
Boards Protected CEO Bonuses as Tariffs Threatened Business. Now, as Iran Disrupts Trade, CEOs May Get More Protection
Corporate boards are increasingly setting conservative performance targets to shield CEO bonuses from macro‑level shocks such as tariffs and geopolitical risk. Apple’s 2025 bonus plan exemplified this approach, with the board fixing sales and profit goals at or below prior‑year...
S&P 500 Will Return Just 3% a Year for the Next Decade, Top Strategist Warns
Rob Arnott, founder of Research Affiliates, warns that the S&P 500 will average just 3.1% annual total return over the next ten years – roughly one‑fifth of the 15.5% pace seen since 2016. He attributes the slowdown to a projected 40%...
From Foundations to Fluency: Why Upskilling Is the Key to Europe’s AI Future
Google announced AI Works for Europe, a coordinated effort to upskill the European workforce as AI is set to augment 61% of jobs and add €1.2 trillion to the region’s GDP over the next decade. Research shows 25% of entry‑level positions...
China’s Power ‘Supergrid’ Gives Xi Buffer Against Energy Shocks
China is accelerating its power‑supergrid build‑out, spurred by Middle East oil shocks, to transport wind and solar from remote western provinces to its industrial heartland. State‑owned grid operators have become the nation’s top bond issuers, selling 92.5 bn yuan of domestic...
The Closed Strait of Hormuz Is Testing Asia’s Energy Security. The Answer Lies Across the Pacific—In Canada
Iran’s IRGC announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, prompting 150 oil and LNG tankers to remain idle and forcing Qatar Energy and others into force majeure. The shutdown stranded roughly 20 million barrels of crude per day and sent...
This 18-Year-Old College Student Accidentally Emailed Thousands of Classmates—It Turned His Pet-Sitting Business Into a Valuable Side Hustle
18‑year‑old Hector Gutierrez mistakenly sent a professor’s recommendation letter to a university listserv, reaching thousands of students. The mishap turned him into a campus celebrity, boosting his pet‑sitting venture, Hec’s Pet Sitting, into a recognized LLC with ten part‑time staff...
Ulta Beauty CEO Says when You Get Passed up for Career Opportunities ‘You Can Either Choose to Be Bitter or...
Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman told Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Conference that career setbacks should inspire growth, not bitterness. Since taking the helm in January 2025, she has overseen a 50% year‑over‑year stock rise and a high‑profile partnership with Beyoncé’s...
Sheryl Sandberg Says Silicon Valley’s Hypermasculine Rhetoric Is ‘Terrible’—Contributing to ‘One of the Worst’ Corporate Climates She’s Ever Seen
Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg told CNBC that Silicon Valley’s hyper‑masculine rhetoric has created "one of the worst" corporate climates she has ever seen. She linked the cultural shift to Mark Zuckerberg’s public calls for more "masculine energy" and to...
Banning Institutional Investors From Buying Homes Will Backfire for Many Americans, Experts Say
President Trump and Senate Democrats backed a bipartisan bill to bar institutional investors owning 350 or more single‑family homes from purchasing additional properties. The measure aims to curb corporate ownership and improve housing affordability amid a 4.7 million‑unit shortage. Experts warn...
Not One Best Picture Oscar Nominee Was Made in Hollywood This Year—A Sign of an Industry in Crisis
The 2026 Oscars marked a historic shift: none of the ten Best Picture nominees were primarily shot on Hollywood soundstages. Productions now span New York, Louisiana, the U.K., Canada, Europe, and South America, reflecting a migration toward lower‑cost locations. Los Angeles...
Burned-Out Workers Sick of Toxic Bosses Are Using Medical Leave as a Sneaky Extended Vacation to Job Hunt—And It’s Not...
Burned‑out employees are turning to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) as a legal way to take up to 12 weeks off, often using the time to recover and search for new jobs. Viral TikTok videos show workers posting...
U.S. Debt Is Like a Hallmark Movie Boyfriend Who Eventually Gets Dumped for a Small Town Firefighter, Budget Watchdog Warns
U.S. publicly held debt has ballooned to roughly the size of the nation’s GDP and is set to surpass the post‑World War II record as baby‑boomers retire and entitlement spending climbs. Yale Budget Lab’s Martha Gimbel warned that investors currently accept...
‘What a Waste of Money’: Shark Tank Star Kevin O’Leary Urges Couples to Ditch the Extravagant Wedding and Do This...
Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary warned that spending $30,000‑plus on a wedding is a financial misstep, urging couples to opt for a modest civil ceremony and a small celebration. He suggested redirecting the saved funds toward a down‑payment on a...
‘Proceed with Caution’: Elon Musk Offers Warning After Amazon Reportedly Held Mandatory Meeting to Address ‘High Blast Radius’ AI-Related Incident
Amazon convened a mandatory "deep‑dive" meeting after a series of outages, one linked to AI‑assisted coding tools, prompting senior leaders to review operational safeguards. Elon Musk publicly cautioned the tech sector to "proceed with caution" when scaling generative AI in...
This Startup Is Helping Tech Giants and Real Estate Developers Find Land for Data Centers—And Using Its Own GPU Cluster...
Acres, a 70‑person startup founded by Carter Malloy, has installed its own high‑end GPU cluster to power geospatial AI models. The cluster enables the company to process satellite imagery, LiDAR and parcel data in‑house, delivering generative‑AI land‑selection queries for data‑center...
Exclusive: AI Startup Axiamatic Raises $54 Million to Help Companies Push Their Digital Transformations Forward
Axiamatic, an AI startup founded by serial entrepreneur Rajiv Gupta, announced a $54 million Series A round led by Greylock and Bessemer. The company offers an "agentic control plane" that creates a live digital‑twin of enterprise transformation programs by ingesting data from...
Trump’s Iran War Is Costing American Taxpayers $1 Billion a Day as the National Debt Spirals Out of Control
The Iran war, launched by the United States and Israel, is costing U.S. taxpayers roughly $800 million to $1 billion per day, far exceeding budgeted amounts. Analysts estimate that a two‑month conflict would add about $65 billion in direct war spending plus $1.4 billion...
Most Small Businesses Can’t Afford a Full-Time Finance Chief. So Mastercard Is Debuting a ‘Virtual CFO’ Built with AI
Mastercard is introducing a virtual CFO built on generative AI as the first offering of its “Virtual C‑suite” for small and medium‑sized enterprises. The service will be delivered through banks, accounting platforms and software partners and will provide cash‑flow risk...
AI Can Double Output. Human Biology Can’t
Accenture recently tied senior‑manager promotions to AI‑tool usage, signaling a broader corporate shift that treats AI‑driven output as a new performance baseline. Companies are increasingly using generative tools to double data analysis, coding speed, and meeting volume, then resetting targets...
The AI Risk that Few Organizations Are Governing
Enterprises are increasingly deploying autonomous AI agents, yet most cannot enumerate how many such agents access critical systems. These agents operate without governed identities, enforceable access controls, or lifecycle oversight, creating a hidden exposure that outpaces traditional IAM frameworks. Recent...
How Walmart CEO John Furner Is Using His Father’s Lessons—And AI—To Steer a $1 Trillion Giant
John Furner, who rose from an hourly associate to Walmart’s CEO in 2022, is steering the $1 trillion retailer through a tech‑focused transformation. Drawing on his father’s "people helping people" ethos, he has reshaped compensation, boosting top managers’ pay to as...
This Harvard Dropout Took a Company Public Before 30. Now He’s Raising $205M to Fix the Business Side of Medicine
Tim Hwang, the Harvard dropout who took FiscalNote public before 30, announced that his AI‑native healthcare platform Nitra closed a $50 million Series B, bringing total capital to $205 million. Nitra’s single‑system solution consolidates billing, scheduling, purchasing and insurance verification, now serving over...
Oil Prices Soar Past $110 While Dow Futures Sink 1,000 Points as Iran War Spirals Into Worst-Case Fears and U.S....
Oil futures surged past $113 a barrel and Brent topped $114 as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran escalated, pushing the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed. The sharp rally in crude sent gasoline price forecasts above $4 per gallon, while Dow...
Pentagon Says 7th U.S. Service Member Has Died in Mideast War After Being Injured in Iranian Attack on Saudi Arabia
The Pentagon confirmed that a seventh U.S. service member died after being wounded in an Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia, marking the latest casualty in the expanding Middle‑East war. Iran’s missile and drone strike targeted Prince Sultan Air Base, while...
Home Depot CEO Flags a Disconcerting Lack of Faith in the American Economy: ‘Our Customers Are Telling Us that They’re...
Home Depot reported a 13% drop in Q4 net earnings to $2.6 billion as a stalled housing market curtails home‑improvement spending. CEO Ted Decker said consumers lack confidence, delaying large projects despite low mortgage rates and ongoing price cuts in new...
In the $3 Trillion Private Credit Market, the ‘Shadow Default’ Rate Is Increasing as More Money Chases Lower-Quality Deals
Lincoln International’s Private Market Index shows the $3 trillion private‑credit sector is growing in size but slipping in quality. Enterprise value rose 1.9% while EBITDA growth slowed and the “shadow default” rate more than doubled to 6.4% over the past year....
America Faces a ‘Debt Crisis’ a Lot Like the 1980s when a ‘Private Pact’ Brokered by Ronald Reagan Did the...
The United States now carries a public debt exceeding $38 trillion—about 101% of GDP—and projections show it could reach 120% within a decade. Rising interest obligations threaten to crowd out vital programs, notably Social Security, which the Congressional Budget Office warns...
Trump Crackdown Drives 80% Plunge in Immigrant Employment, Reshaping Labor Market, Goldman Says
Goldman Sachs reports an 80% plunge in net immigration to the United States, falling from roughly one million annually in the 2010s to an estimated 200,000 arrivals in 2026. The decline is attributed to heightened deportations, a visa processing pause...
