Delta Dental of Virginia has been quietly building two new private, for-profit companies as it seeks to expand its reach beyond being Virginia’s largest provider of dental insurance.
Both Roanoke Valley-based startup companies operate in the technology realm of the insurance business, with one providing real-time insurance claim processing and the other specializing in helping companies administer and analyze their dental benefits.
“They will help us because this will help to drive costs down in the long term,” George Levicki, president and CEO of Delta Dental of Virginia, said Monday.
By investing in new lines of business, Levicki said Delta Dental will be in a better position to compete in the changing insurance environment and take advantage of opportunities created by the overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
Plus, Levicki said, the new businesses will add 36 jobs in the Roanoke Valley this year.
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Bill Stone, chairman and chief executive officer, SS&C Technologies.
When financial services company SS&C announced last March that it intended to establish an Evansville office, it caused ripples of excitement through the local business community and in at least one college classroom.
SS&C is a publicly held Windsor, Conn.-based company that provides software and related services to the financial services industry. The company has 27 offices around the world, and its 5,000 clients have a combined $16 trillion in assets under management.
“When I told my students that SS&C was coming, a cheer went out,” said Peter Sherman, assistant dean and associate professor of management at the University of Evansville’s Schroeder Family School of Business Administration.
That attitude is a big part of what attracted SS&C to Evansville in the first place, said company founder, President and Board Chairman Bill Stone.
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With the regions car manufacturers now winning awards for their electric vehicle technology, Enda Mullen looks at how one Midland battery maker is embracing an anticipated boom in the market and how it is managing the risk.
Back in the 1960s the cult cartoon show The Jetsons painted a future where people did their daily toing and froing in cars that could fly.
Though flying cars remain a fanciful notion, predictions in more recent times given the worlds rapidly diminishing oil reserves have focused on a future where cars are no longer reliant purely on fossil fuels but on whatever power source is fuelling the National Grid.
Indeed were now at the point where the electric vehicle, or EV as it has been coined, is well and truly with us.
Many of the main manufacturers are now selling cars which you plug in to recharge their battery and which travel milkfloat fashion in eerie silence.
You can choose from several, including a Nissan Leaf, a Tata Indica, a Mitsubishi i MiEV, a Peugeot iOn or sometime fairly soon a Vauxhall Ampera.
And those who want to get far away from those unfortunate milkfloat comparisons can even plump for a performance-focused Tesla Roadster that brings sportscar thrills to the EV market.
The infrastructure is here too and in Birmingham city centre you can utilise parking meter-style charging points at special parking spaces thanks to the CABLED (Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators) project and even park for free to boot.
But how likely is that all-electric future?
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IBTraveler
The attacks came just days after an unidentified hacker, proclaiming Palestinian sympathies, posted the details of thousands of Israeli credit card holders and other personal information on the Internet in a mass theft.
Stock trading and El Al flights operated normally despite the disruption, which occurred as Israeli media reported that pro-Palestinian hackers had threatened at the weekend to shut down the TASE stock exchange and airline Web sites.
While apparently confined to areas causing only limited inconvenience, the attacks have caused particular alarm in a country that depends on high-tech systems for much of its defense against hostile neighbors. Officials insist, however, that they pose no immediate security threat.
Born and raised in Corpus Christi, Yolanda Garcia Olivarez remembers how much she admired Dora Cervera Mirabal.
Olivarez watched the dedicated author, businesswoman, civic leader and philanthropist carry out her vision for the community with a passion that inspired everyone who knew of her.
“She was a pioneer, an amazing lady in her own right and she certainly cared about the community,” Olivarez said.
On Wednesday, Olivarez will be honored with the Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s annual award named in honor of the late Mirabal.
Olivarez is this year’s recipient of the Dora Cervera Mirabal Women’s Leadership Award, which the Hispanic chamber will present to her during its 73rd anniversary Nuestro Éxito Annual Gala and Awards Ceremony.
“To be honored by her I’m just so humbled by the whole thing,” Olivarez said. “I’d like to think I did a lot in the Corpus Christi community.”
Olivarez was appointed by the Obama administration in 2009 as regional administrator for Region VI of the U.S.
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FEI Co. announced Monday that it bought a Pennsylvania electron microscope maker. With the $30.5 million purchase of ASPEX Corp., FEI acquired microscope technology it has used in its oil and gas drilling products. “With this acquisition, FEI now owns the essential hardware and software that has been part of our rapid growth and expanding potential in the natural resources business,” said FEI chief executive Don Kania. ASPEX also provides microscopes used in the military, industry and manufacturing. The company had revenue of $10 million in revenue during its profitable fiscal year. ASPEX’s revenue has grown 24 percent each year since 2006, FEI said. FEI, a Hillsboro-based maker of scientific instruments, saw its stock rose 86 cents to close at $41.94 after Monday’s mid-afternoon announcement.