All posts tagged: CEO

Palestinian charity CEO to stand for Labour in Fife in boost for Starmer | Scotland

Palestinian charity CEO to stand for Labour in Fife in boost for Starmer | Scotland

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] The chief executive of the aid charity Medical Aid for Palestinians has been chosen as a Labour candidate to fight a key seat in Scotland, after the original candidate was suspended. Melanie Ward, who was born in Helensburgh, west of Glasgow, has been parachuted in to compete for the Westminster seat of Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy in Fife after a row over allegedly racist tweets led to the previous candidate standing down. Her appointment will delight Keir Starmer’s allies after repeated criticism over his stance on the Gaza crisis, which has led some Muslim voters and councillors to desert the party and caused tensions with Labour MPs and shadow ministers. It may also highlight previous differences between Starmer and the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, over calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Sarwar was highly critical of Starmer’s initial failure to condemn Israel’s tactics after the Hamas attacks last October. Medical Aid for Palestinians has repeatedly called for Israel to stop attacking hospitals and civilian areas; it backed demands by aid charities and Labour parliamentarians …

Skillz CEO says company isn’t done fighting bots in mobile gaming

Skillz CEO says company isn’t done fighting bots in mobile gaming

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Join gaming leaders live this May 20-21 in Los Angeles to examine the strategies needed to adapt and excel in an ever evolving landscape, featuring insights from leading voices and thought leaders in the industry. Register here. Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise spoke in the company’s earnings call about the company’s recent lawsuit against AviaGames, and the alleged “willful pattern of deceit” on the part of its executives to use bots to defraud players. According to Paradise, Skillz received $50 million from AviaGames as part of a settlement agreement that totals around $80 million. But the company is far from done, adding that AviaGames is not the only company out there using bots to defraud customers. At the conclusion of Skillz’s patent infringement lawsuit against AviaGames, the jury awarded the former almost $43 million. However, Paradise says Skillz and Big Run Studios entered into the settlement agreement with AviaGames afterwards. Starting next year, Skillz receives $7.5 million in licensing royalty payments for four years annually. However, Paradise said that $80 million is a “drop in …

Rowing startup Hydrow acquires a majority stake in Speede Fitness as their CEO steps down

Rowing startup Hydrow acquires a majority stake in Speede Fitness as their CEO steps down

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Hydrow, the at-home rowing machine, announced Thursday that it has acquired a majority stake in Speede Fitness, the company behind the AI-enabled strength training machine. The rowing startup also announced that CEO and founder Bruce Smith will step down, and President and CFO John Stellato will take over day-to-day operations, per CNBC. Smith is now the chairman of Hydrow’s board. Hydrow declined to share how much of a majority stake it now has in Speed Fitness. It’s possible that the company may acquire the remainder of Speede, but it is uncertain at this time. Founded in 2017, Hydrow’s connected rowing machines (which range from $1,695 to $3,995) simulate the feeling of rowing on water through a patented electromagnetic and computer-controlled drag mechanism. The company has raised $300 million to date and touts notable investors such as Activant Capital, Constitution Capital, L Catterton, Liberty Street, RX3, and Sandbridge Capital, as well as several professional athletes and celebrities like Travis Kelce and Justin Timberlake. As of April, delivered unit sales were up 35% year over year, …

EA CEO wants games to be a platform for socialization and self-expression

EA CEO wants games to be a platform for socialization and self-expression

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the gaming industry’s top leaders? Learn more about GamesBeat Summit sponsorship opportunities here.  Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, said that in North America, engagement for the top 10 franchises has increased market share since fiscal 2022, or the year ended March 31, 2022. “For a company that has some of the biggest IP in the world, this trend presents an incredible opportunity to evolve as an industry leader,” Wilson said. With The Sims community hitting its 25th anniversary, Wilson said that since 2014, The Sims 4 has surpassed 85 million players, up double digits year over year. The Sims Online and The Sims Mobile have been downloaded more than 500 million times. Hundreds of millions user-generated content items were share in the fiscal year. Fifteen content updates are coming for The Sims 4 this year. Of course, this growth doesn’t mean EA will knock it out of the park every quarter or year. The company’s stock price fell in after-hours trading today after its …

Here’s what Exxon’s CEO gets wrong about the climate crisis

Here’s what Exxon’s CEO gets wrong about the climate crisis

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Oil and gas conglomerate Exxon Mobil could be a key player in global efforts to combat the climate crisis — if only governments would remove burdensome regulations and stop wasting money on inefficient clean energy incentives. Sound contradictory? It is. Nevertheless, that was the message shared by Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods on Monday in Beverly Hills. As I watched a livestream of the Milken Institute Global Conference, I was frustrated but not surprised to hear Woods imply that emerging technologies such as carbon capture and green hydrogen — on which Exxon and other oil giants are spending a tiny fraction of their cash — will be the main drivers of climate progress. We need those technologies for sure. But solar panels, wind turbines and batteries are cheap enough and reliable enough to get us most of the way to 100% clean energy, scientists say. Woods, however, said hardly anything about solar and wind power, instead calling on the federal government to ease permitting regulations to make it easier for companies to build large-scale …

Former Starbucks CEO says company needs to revamp its stores after big earnings miss

Former Starbucks CEO says company needs to revamp its stores after big earnings miss

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz weighed in Sunday on the coffee chain’s dismal latest quarterly report, saying he believes the company will recover if it improves its U.S. stores. Schultz, who no longer has a formal role within Starbucks, sees an obvious reason for the downturn. He wrote that the company needs to improve its mobile order and pay experience and overhaul how it creates new drinks to focus on premium items that set it apart. “The stores require a maniacal focus on the customer experience, through the eyes of a merchant. The answer does not lie in data, but in the stores,” Schultz wrote in a letter on Sunday evening posted to LinkedIn. On Tuesday, Starbucks slashed its full-year forecast after a surprise decline in same-store sales led the company to miss Wall Street’s estimates for quarterly earnings and revenue. Since the report, the company’s shares have fallen 17%, dragging its market value down to $82.8 billion. Analysts, caught off guard by the chain’s underperformance, have been looking for an explanation for why Starbucks’ U.S. traffic fell 7% in the …

Elon Musk’s no.2 at Tesla goes back to China as the CEO isolates himself at the top

Elon Musk’s no.2 at Tesla goes back to China as the CEO isolates himself at the top

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Elon Musk’s no.2 at Tesla, Tom Zhu, is going back to his responsibilities as VP of China as the CEO isolates himself at the top. Zhu has long been the leader of Tesla’s operations in China and led the very successful Gigafactory Shanghai effort. Gigafactory Shanghai quickly became Tesla’s best-performing manufacturing facility and to replicate the success in Texas, Musk made Zhu in charge of all Gigafactories back in late 2022. However, we reported that Zhu was taking an even bigger role at Tesla as Musk was busy running several other companies and spending especially more time at his newly acquired Twitter. We exclusively reported that Zhu was even made in charge of North American sales and became the de facto head of Tesla’s automotive business – second in command to Musk at Tesla. He was elevated to the critical “leadership” at Tesla that need to reported their stock transaction to the SEC: Screenshot In recent months, Musk took over North American sale operations from Zhu, according to sources familiar with the matter. As …

Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo talks about AI, chatbot platform Poe, and why OpenAI is not a competitor

Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo talks about AI, chatbot platform Poe, and why OpenAI is not a competitor

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Last November, Adam D’Angelo found himself at the epicenter of one of the biggest controversies in the tech industry. The board of OpenAI — the $80 billion startup leading the AI bandwagon — had abruptly booted its CEO, Sam Altman, only to reinstate him just days later. D’Angelo was on the board that dismissed Altman… and he was (and remains) on the board that brought him back in. In fact, he was the only person who kept his seat amidst the ensuing restructuring that saw a lot of the original board leave. It was certainly a rocky time for OpenAI, but it was perhaps doubly so for D’Angelo, since the drama was playing out while his own company, Quora, was taking big steps towards AI. Quora, the crowdsourced Q&A site D’Angelo co-founded and leads as CEO, had been building an AI platform of its own while also fundraising (a $75 million round that valued it at $425 million, per PitchBook). The company in February 2023 had launched Poe (short for Platform for Open Exploration), …

Hims & Hers Health Shares Tumble After CEO Says ‘Will Hire Anti-Israel Student Protesters’ 

Hims & Hers Health Shares Tumble After CEO Says ‘Will Hire Anti-Israel Student Protesters’ 

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Publicly traded telehealth company Hims & Hers Health, Inc. tumbled into a correction at the end of last week when the CEO said he and other executives were “eager” to hire anti-Israel student protesters.  “Moral courage > College degree,” Palestinian-American CEO Andrew Dudum wrote on X.  Dudum said, “If you’re currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your university’s divestment from Israel, keep going. It’s working.”  “There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline,” he noted.  Substack author Jordan Schachtel responded to Dudum’s post on X by indicating his activism is a “violation of fiduciary duty…”  Violation of fiduciary duty in support of Hamas. Bold move, Cotton. — Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) May 2, 2024 “What does this have to do with your business? why does this belong at a public company? Marshall Wace isn’t paying you to play politics,” Martin Shkreli wrote. what does this have to do with your business? why does this belong at a public company? Marshall Wace isn’t paying you to play politics — Martin Shkreli (e/acc) (@MartinShkreli) May 2, 2024 Here’s …

TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s Path From Quiet Tech Exec to Met Gala Red Carpet

TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s Path From Quiet Tech Exec to Met Gala Red Carpet

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Although the Met Gala serves as a branding event for Vogue, it has long accepted sponsorships from the tech giants that have threatened the very survival of legacy media publications. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, appeared as the ball’s honorary chair in 2012. Four years later, when Apple was a Met Gala sponsor, its chief executive, Tim Cook, showed up in tux and tails. And Instagram supplied cash in 2022. The 2024 event is sponsored, in part, by TikTok, the social media goliath whose future looks murkier than that of Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, The New Yorker and other magazines, which has laid off employees and shuttered or sold off some of its publications in recent years. TikTok found itself in jeopardy last month, when President Biden signed a bill that gave ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, nine months to sell off the app or face a ban in the United States. In the wake of that political firestorm, Shou Chew, the 41-year-old chief executive of TikTok, is expected to …