GSA Technology Council

Yahoo! Inc. has announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo!, has decided to return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! upon the appointment of his successor as CEO, and he will also continue to serve on the Board. Yang, 40, assumed the CEO role at the Board’s request in June 2007, and he has led Yahoo! through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.

Chairman Roy Bostock, working with the independent directors and in consultation with Jerry Yang, is leading the process of assessing potential candidates and determining finalists for consideration. The search will encompass both internal and external candidates, and the Board has retained Heidrick & Struggles, a leading international executive search firm, to assist in the process.

“Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues,” said Roy Bostock. “Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level. We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo! as a key executive and member of the Board.”

“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” said Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

via Yahoo!

Tech After Five meets Wednesday, November 19. Get the details and reserve your spot here:

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Collexis announced today that former president of the University of South Carolina, Dr. Andrew Sorensen has joined the company’s Board of Directors.

“We’re honored to have Dr. Sorensen join our Board of Directors,” said Bill Kirkland, CEO of Collexis Holdings, Inc. “His leadership experience at The University of South Carolina, Johns Hopkins University and many other institutions will be a valuable asset to Collexis as the academic and government markets represent a major area of our growth.”

Sorensen retired as President of The University of South Carolina in June 2008. He continues to serve as a distinguished professor at the University’s School of Medicine.

“Through my involvement with The University of South Carolina and Health Sciences South Carolina, I’ve seen firsthand how Collexis is creating a virtual knowledge directory of statewide biomedical research,” said Sorensen. “I’m pleased to join a company whose technology enhances collaboration, the sharing of knowledge, and ultimately helps to improve the health and well- being of South Carolina citizens.”

via: Collexis

The Upstate Entrepreneur’s Forum meets tonight to discuss what’s going on in the economy and what might come next. The description of the meeting is below:

via: Upstate Entrepreneur’s Forum

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Dallas entrepreneur Mark Cuban with insider trading for selling 600,000 shares of the stock of an Internet search engine company on the basis of material, non-public information concerning an impending stock offering.

The Commission’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that in June 2004, Mamma.com Inc. invited Cuban to participate in the stock offering after he agreed to keep the information confidential. The complaint further alleges that Cuban knew that the offering would be conducted at a discount to the prevailing market price and that it would be dilutive to existing shareholders.

Within hours of receiving this information, according to the complaint, Cuban called his broker and instructed him to sell Cuban’s entire position in the company. When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com’s stock price opened at $11.89, down $1.215 or 9.3 percent from the prior day’s closing price of $13.105. According to the complaint, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000 by selling his stock prior to the public announcement of the offering.

“Insider trading cases are a high priority for the Commission. This case demonstrates yet again that the Commission will aggressively pursue illegal insider trading whenever it occurs,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

Scott W. Friestad, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said, “As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential. Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market.”

The complaint alleges that Cuban violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission’s complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Cuban from future violations of the federal securities laws, disgorgement (with prejudgment interest), and a financial penalty.

Karen Rempe has joined the employee benefits team of Upstate-based Rosenfeld Einstein, one of the Carolinas’ fastest-growing insurance organizations, as a Flexible Spending Account Administrator.

A native of Mount Airy, North Carolina and a current resident of Easley, Ms. Rempe joins Rosenfeld Einstein with more than 20 years of employee benefits experience, including time served with North Wind, a national environmental consulting firm, and with the state of North Carolina.

“Karen is extremely knowledgeable in her field, and has a strong background in providing clients with outstanding service,” noted Howard Einstein, a principal in Rosenfeld Einstein. “As we continue to grow our practice here in the Carolinas, we’re delighted to add her to our team.”

via Rosenfeld Einstein

EMC Corporation has launched Decho Corporation, a new company which is a combination of two formerly separate EMC businesses – online backup Mozy, Inc. and Pi Corp. Decho will continue to offer the Mozy branded online backup service, as well as introduce new cloud-based services.

The personal information once stored in albums, boxes and filing cabinets—such as financial records, personal documents, family photos and videos, portfolios of professional work, and correspondence—comprises each person’s digital echo. This information is increasingly scattered across different computers, digital devices and web sites. The quantity of personal digital information produced every year around the world is now measured in the hundreds of billions of gigabytes and is expected to continue to grow annually by almost 60 percent, according to analysts. Moreover, the lifespan of this information is beginning to be measured in decades, and it is ever more valuable and often irreplaceable.

The shift of personal information from physical to digital has not yet been accompanied by a parallel shift in the way this information is organized and preserved in digital form. Decho will help individuals take full control of their digital echo through a set of cloud-based services that will enable easy and full utilization, organization and enrichment of important personal information.

“There is an immense, untapped business opportunity as personal information management inevitably migrates into the cloud,” said David Goulden, EMC Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “By bringing Mozy and Pi together to form Decho as a new subsidiary, we are creating a focused organization that can deliver on the promise of cloud-based personal information management and can help individuals everywhere preserve, manage and enrich the information most important to them.”

Decho’s initial service offering is the Mozy online backup service, the leading online backup service for both consumers and businesses. With over 900,000 users and over 25,000 business customers, Mozy safeguards over 10 petabytes (over ten million gigabytes) of customer information at its datacenters around the world. Mozy online back up offers the most comprehensive online backup solution on the market, and offers simple, automatic and secure online backup for both consumers and businesses, with support for laptops, desktops and servers running either Mac OS X or Windows.

Decho is wholly owned by EMC, which acquired Mozy, Inc. in October 2007 and Pi Corp. in February 2008. Pi was originally founded by Paul Maritz, who was named CEO of VMware earlier this year. The new company will maintain and grow its development and operations centers in Bangalore, Montreal, Seattle and Utah. The company will be headquartered in Seattle.

via: Decho

Brett C. Carter, currently senior vice president of customer service and business development, has been named president of Duke Energy Carolinas, effective Dec. 1. He succeeds Ellen T. Ruff, who will become president, office of nuclear development. The moves for Carter and Ruff are part of broader leadership changes at Duke Energy.

“The changes position the company to strengthen its focus on new generation, delivery efficiency and service excellence,” said James E. Rogers, Duke Energy chairman, president and CEO.

In his new role, Carter will be responsible for advancing the company’s rate and regulatory initiatives, and managing state and local regulatory and governmental relations, economic development and community affairs. He will also focus on education and advocacy on issues important to Duke Energy.

“Brett brings with him a deep, extensive background in customer care and business development,” Rogers said. “Our operations in the Carolinas will benefit from his focus on service and relationship-building.”

Carter joined Duke Energy in 2005 as vice president of residential and small business customers. He was also responsible for marketing strategy and operations of the Customer Service Center. A Pittsburgh, Pa., native, he earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and a master of business administration degree, with a concentration in marketing, from the University of Pittsburgh. He also completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.

via Duke Energy

Join the Carolinas Chapter of the Product Development and Management Association at its first event in Spartanburg. Sponsored by VantagePoint and Milliken & Company, the evening will combine networking and education. Attendees will also have the opportunity to tour the Milliken Product Gallery prior to the panel discussion.

For most companies collaborative product development is no longer an optional business strategy, but rather a necessity to achieve growth targets and remain competitive. But what does it take to develop, implement, and profit from a co-development effort? And how does a company take its current collaborative innovation business strategy to the next level?

What are current best practices of leading organizations?
What tools are available to facilitate the process?
What pitfalls have others encountered? And how do you avoid them?

What DMA – Collaborative Product Development
When:November 20, 6PM
Where: Roger Milliken Center, 920 Milliken Road, Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Cost to attend: The PDMA meeting is $25 PDMA members, $30 non-members.

Learn More: PDMA Carolinas November Meeting

The 2008 New Ideas for a New Carolina Business Idea Competition is once again making the rounds in South Carolina with the “Tour de Bulb”, a four-city tour of the state in which last year’s winners will pass the torch of creativity and business innovation to other South Carolina citizens.

When:
Monday, November 17, 2008
10:00 a.m.

Where:
Chapman Cultural Center
200 East St. John Street, Spartanburg

Who:
Area business leaders will speak to encourage residents to submit their ideas –

• Mayor William Barnet
• John Warner, CEO of Jute Networks LLC and manager of the Swamp Fox Community
• Ron Fulbright, Former New Ideas Winner and Spartanburg resident
• Darrell F. Parker, Dean of Johnson College of Business and Economics, USC Upstate

The New Ideas Contest deadline for entries is December 2.

via: News Ideas SC