Latest news with #Blom
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Why Australia's top tennis umpire chose Windies over Wimbledon
In 2023, a video of Blom went viral when he politely asked spectators at Wimbledon to stop popping champagne bottles while players were serving. He also once told Frenchman Elliot Benchetrit to peel his own banana after asking a ballgirl to do so. Martina Navratilova retweeted a video of the incident, writing: 'What's next – grapes? John did the right thing, that's for sure.' But Blom's idea of a good time is sitting in the stands at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, drinking rum with fans and watching Australia's cricketers. Coincidentally, Blom stayed at Australia's team hotel in Islamabad during their 2022 Test tour when he happened to be umpiring a Davis Cup tie between Pakistan and Uzbekistan. He has since travelled to India and New Zealand to watch Australia play, and plans to be in South Africa next year for the team's first Test tour since Sandpapergate in 2018. 'I'm surrounded by the world's top tennis players but I get a bit nervous around the Australian cricket team,' Blom said. 'When I see them at the team hotel, I'm a bit of a fanboy. 'It's my favourite sport. Much better than tennis. I grew up watching cricket in the '80s and '90s and it was just such a golden era that crystallised my love for cricket.' The interview is momentarily interrupted by a flight attendant announcing that the descent into Grenada is two minutes away. 'We'll get a fair view of the islands of the Grenadines out the right window,' she says over the PA. 'The temperature is 30 degrees at the airport.' Blom smiles and continues. 'It seemed like there were almost more Australians than locals in the crowd in Barbados.' There's time for a few rapid-fire questions before landing. Favourite player to watch? 'Every official loved watching Roger Federer play. He had such a unique style. He was pretty easy-going and didn't complain too much.' Best match to umpire? 'Nadal and Medvedev in 2022 (Nadal won 2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in a match that lasted five hours and 24 minutes). It was an incredible experience. It finished at 2am but I was still buzzing at 6am.' Is it the dream job? 'I think it is. It's like any job that has its issues, right? No one loves their job all the time. You do have some wonderful memories and experiences that you wouldn't get doing watching tennis as a spectator. Wimbledon is my favourite but the US Open has grown on me.' Something people don't know about umpiring? 'A lot of people think that having good eyesight is the most important thing. It's far and away not. You have to have the ability to communicate well and defuse situations before they get out of hand. If you make a big enough mistake, any player is going to go nuts.' Blom says there's one question he gets asked more than any: whether he's allowed to go to the toilet during a match. Loading 'The answer is yes,' he says with a laugh. 'But you don't do it at 6-6 in a tiebreak. You go quickly at a set break. I've probably done it once in 20 years.' Blom has no regrets missing Wimbledon. With Test cricket potentially splitting into two tiers, this might be Australia's last full tour of the Caribbean. 'It really is the dream tour,' he said.
The Age
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Why Australia's top tennis umpire chose Windies over Wimbledon
In 2023, a video of Blom went viral when he politely asked spectators at Wimbledon to stop popping champagne bottles while players were serving. He also once told Frenchman Elliot Benchetrit to peel his own banana after asking a ballgirl to do so. Martina Navratilova retweeted a video of the incident, writing: 'What's next – grapes? John did the right thing, that's for sure.' But Blom's idea of a good time is sitting in the stands at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, drinking rum with fans and watching Australia's cricketers. Coincidentally, Blom stayed at Australia's team hotel in Islamabad during their 2022 Test tour when he happened to be umpiring a Davis Cup tie between Pakistan and Uzbekistan. He has since travelled to India and New Zealand to watch Australia play, and plans to be in South Africa next year for the team's first Test tour since Sandpapergate in 2018. 'I'm surrounded by the world's top tennis players but I get a bit nervous around the Australian cricket team,' Blom said. 'When I see them at the team hotel, I'm a bit of a fanboy. 'It's my favourite sport. Much better than tennis. I grew up watching cricket in the '80s and '90s and it was just such a golden era that crystallised my love for cricket.' The interview is momentarily interrupted by a flight attendant announcing that the descent into Grenada is two minutes away. 'We'll get a fair view of the islands of the Grenadines out the right window,' she says over the PA. 'The temperature is 30 degrees at the airport.' Blom smiles and continues. 'It seemed like there were almost more Australians than locals in the crowd in Barbados.' There's time for a few rapid-fire questions before landing. Favourite player to watch? 'Every official loved watching Roger Federer play. He had such a unique style. He was pretty easy-going and didn't complain too much.' Best match to umpire? 'Nadal and Medvedev in 2022 (Nadal won 2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in a match that lasted five hours and 24 minutes). It was an incredible experience. It finished at 2am but I was still buzzing at 6am.' Is it the dream job? 'I think it is. It's like any job that has its issues, right? No one loves their job all the time. You do have some wonderful memories and experiences that you wouldn't get doing watching tennis as a spectator. Wimbledon is my favourite but the US Open has grown on me.' Something people don't know about umpiring? 'A lot of people think that having good eyesight is the most important thing. It's far and away not. You have to have the ability to communicate well and defuse situations before they get out of hand. If you make a big enough mistake, any player is going to go nuts.' Blom says there's one question he gets asked more than any: whether he's allowed to go to the toilet during a match. Loading 'The answer is yes,' he says with a laugh. 'But you don't do it at 6-6 in a tiebreak. You go quickly at a set break. I've probably done it once in 20 years.' Blom has no regrets missing Wimbledon. With Test cricket potentially splitting into two tiers, this might be Australia's last full tour of the Caribbean. 'It really is the dream tour,' he said.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chemours Appoints Industry Vet Nathan Blom as Vice President of Liquid Cooling Growth Portfolio
WILMINGTON, Del., June 10, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Chemours Company ("Chemours") (NYSE: CC), a global chemistry company, announced the appointment of Nathan Blom as Vice President of its liquid cooling portfolio, effective June 9, 2025. With Blom's wealth of technology and data center experience, his addition reinforces Chemours' commitment to driving near- and long-term growth in the liquid cooling market. Bringing over two decades of experience in executive leadership, business transformation, and go-to-market strategy across the technology and data center infrastructure sectors, Blom is a strong addition to Chemours leadership. The appointment supports the company's "Pathway to Thrive" strategy, with liquid cooling representing a key growth driver and an entry into a transformative new market. "Nathan's deep expertise in liquid cooling and his proven track record of scaling innovative technologies make him the ideal leader for our growing liquid cooling portfolio," said Gerardo Familiar, President of Advanced Performance Materials at Chemours. "As we expand our presence in this rapidly evolving market, Nathan's leadership and first-hand perspective will be instrumental in helping us deliver high-performance, sustainable solutions that drive a lower total cost of ownership and smaller footprint for our customers." Prior to joining Chemours, Blom served as Co-CEO and Chief Commercial Officer at Iceotope Technologies, a liquid cooling company, where he spearheaded the business' commercial expansion, product roadmap, and market positioning following a successful Series B funding round. Prior to Iceotope, Blom held senior leadership roles at Lenovo, where he played a pivotal role in the integration and growth of the Data Center division, and HP, where he led OEM business development and sales across the Americas. "Liquid cooling is not just the future of the data center industry—it is now the present reality for all those involved in designing and constructing data centers, both at large scale and the edge," said Nathan Blom, VP of Liquid Cooling at Chemours. "Chemours has taken one of the most strategically important positions in the liquid cooling market by enabling hyper-efficient heat capture that allows for the maximum density of the highest performance components. I am excited and honored to join the team at Chemours that has proven their capacity to create industry-leading technologies that balance performance, environmental impact, and a commitment to continued innovation." Nathan holds an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary, and a BA from Texas Lutheran University. Chemours' Liquid Cooling portfolio includes Opteon™ two-phase immersion cooling technology, which offers an ultra-low global warming potential (10), a power usage effectiveness (PUE) approaching 1, and superior performance capabilities compared to traditional or other liquid cooling technologies. The technology nearly eliminates water use, reduces space requirements by 60%, and lowers energy consumption by up to 40% and cooling energy use by up to 90%. For more information, visit About The Chemours Company The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) is a global leader in providing industrial and specialty chemicals products for markets, including coatings, plastics, refrigeration and air conditioning, transportation, semiconductor and advanced electronics, general industrial, and oil and gas. Through our three businesses –Thermal & Specialized Solutions, Titanium Technologies, and Advanced Performance Materials – we deliver application expertise and chemistry-based innovations that solve customers' biggest challenges. Our flagship products are sold under prominent brands such as Opteon™, Freon™, Ti-Pure™, Nafion™, Teflon™, Viton™, and Krytox™. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC, Chemours has approximately 6,000 employees and 28 manufacturing sites and serves approximately 2,500 customers in approximately 110 countries. For more information, visit or follow us on LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to a historical or current fact. The words "believe," "expect," "will," "anticipate," "plan," "estimate," "target," "project" and similar expressions, among others, generally identify "forward-looking statements," which speak only as of the date such statements were made. These forward-looking statements may address, among other things, new product development, technology and expected contributions to advancing the data center energy efficiency, improving sustainability, circularity, decreasing environmental footprint, plans to continue investment in research and development, and management performance, all of which are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements also involve risks and uncertainties that are beyond Chemours' control. Matters outside our control, including general economic conditions, geopolitical conditions and global health events, and changes in environmental regulations in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that affect demand for or adoption of our products, have affected or may affect our business and operations and may or may continue to hinder our ability to provide goods and services to customers, cause disruptions in our supply chains such as through strikes, labor disruptions or other events, adversely affect our business partners, significantly reduce the demand for our products, adversely affect the health and welfare of our personnel or cause other unpredictable events. Additionally, there may be other risks and uncertainties that Chemours is unable to identify at this time or that Chemours does not currently expect to have a material impact on its business. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024. Chemours assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason, except as required by law. View source version on Contacts INVESTORS Brandon Ontjes Vice President, Head of Strategy & Investor Relations +1.302.773.3300 investor@ NEWS MEDIA Cassie Olszewski Media Relations & Reputation Leader +1.302.219.7140 media@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Wire
10-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Chemours Appoints Industry Vet Nathan Blom as Vice President of Liquid Cooling Growth Portfolio
WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Chemours Company ('Chemours') (NYSE: CC), a global chemistry company, announced the appointment of Nathan Blom as Vice President of its liquid cooling portfolio, effective June 9, 2025. With Blom's wealth of technology and data center experience, his addition reinforces Chemours' commitment to driving near- and long-term growth in the liquid cooling market. 'Liquid cooling is not just the future of the data center industry—it is now the present reality for all those involved in designing and constructing data centers, both at large scale and the edge,' said Nathan Blom, VP of Liquid Cooling at Chemours. Bringing over two decades of experience in executive leadership, business transformation, and go-to-market strategy across the technology and data center infrastructure sectors, Blom is a strong addition to Chemours leadership. The appointment supports the company's 'Pathway to Thrive' strategy, with liquid cooling representing a key growth driver and an entry into a transformative new market. 'Nathan's deep expertise in liquid cooling and his proven track record of scaling innovative technologies make him the ideal leader for our growing liquid cooling portfolio,' said Gerardo Familiar, President of Advanced Performance Materials at Chemours. 'As we expand our presence in this rapidly evolving market, Nathan's leadership and first-hand perspective will be instrumental in helping us deliver high-performance, sustainable solutions that drive a lower total cost of ownership and smaller footprint for our customers.' Prior to joining Chemours, Blom served as Co-CEO and Chief Commercial Officer at Iceotope Technologies, a liquid cooling company, where he spearheaded the business' commercial expansion, product roadmap, and market positioning following a successful Series B funding round. Prior to Iceotope, Blom held senior leadership roles at Lenovo, where he played a pivotal role in the integration and growth of the Data Center division, and HP, where he led OEM business development and sales across the Americas. 'Liquid cooling is not just the future of the data center industry—it is now the present reality for all those involved in designing and constructing data centers, both at large scale and the edge,' said Nathan Blom, VP of Liquid Cooling at Chemours. 'Chemours has taken one of the most strategically important positions in the liquid cooling market by enabling hyper-efficient heat capture that allows for the maximum density of the highest performance components. I am excited and honored to join the team at Chemours that has proven their capacity to create industry-leading technologies that balance performance, environmental impact, and a commitment to continued innovation.' Nathan holds an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary, and a BA from Texas Lutheran University. Chemours' Liquid Cooling portfolio includes Opteon™ two-phase immersion cooling technology, which offers an ultra-low global warming potential (10), a power usage effectiveness (PUE) approaching 1, and superior performance capabilities compared to traditional or other liquid cooling technologies. The technology nearly eliminates water use, reduces space requirements by 60%, and lowers energy consumption by up to 40% and cooling energy use by up to 90%. For more information, visit About The Chemours Company The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) is a global leader in providing industrial and specialty chemicals products for markets, including coatings, plastics, refrigeration and air conditioning, transportation, semiconductor and advanced electronics, general industrial, and oil and gas. Through our three businesses –Thermal & Specialized Solutions, Titanium Technologies, and Advanced Performance Materials – we deliver application expertise and chemistry-based innovations that solve customers' biggest challenges. Our flagship products are sold under prominent brands such as Opteon™, Freon™, Ti-Pure™, Nafion™, Teflon™, Viton™, and Krytox™. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC, Chemours has approximately 6,000 employees and 28 manufacturing sites and serves approximately 2,500 customers in approximately 110 countries. For more information, visit or follow us on LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to a historical or current fact. The words "believe," "expect," "will," "anticipate," "plan," "estimate," "target," "project" and similar expressions, among others, generally identify "forward-looking statements," which speak only as of the date such statements were made. These forward-looking statements may address, among other things, new product development, technology and expected contributions to advancing the data center energy efficiency, improving sustainability, circularity, decreasing environmental footprint, plans to continue investment in research and development, and management performance, all of which are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements also involve risks and uncertainties that are beyond Chemours' control. Matters outside our control, including general economic conditions, geopolitical conditions and global health events, and changes in environmental regulations in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that affect demand for or adoption of our products, have affected or may affect our business and operations and may or may continue to hinder our ability to provide goods and services to customers, cause disruptions in our supply chains such as through strikes, labor disruptions or other events, adversely affect our business partners, significantly reduce the demand for our products, adversely affect the health and welfare of our personnel or cause other unpredictable events. Additionally, there may be other risks and uncertainties that Chemours is unable to identify at this time or that Chemours does not currently expect to have a material impact on its business. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024. Chemours assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason, except as required by law.
The South African
04-06-2025
- Business
- The South African
Kaizer Chiefs star's future in doubt as Blom returns
Kaizer Chiefs star Njabulo Blom has returned to Major League Soccer side St. Louis City SC following the end of his season-long loan. However, his future across the Atlantic is far from secure. Fresh from lifting the Nedbank Cup and reigniting his form at Naturena, Blom now finds himself at a crossroads. Despite the successful spell in South Africa, St. Louis City have yet to confirm whether the midfielder will form part of their plans for the upcoming 2025 MLS campaign. With one international squad slot newly available at the club, speculation is mounting, but no decisions have been made, according to Soccer Laduma . The 25-year-old midfielder, who originally hails from Dobsonville, played a pivotal role upon his return to Chiefs in September 2024. He helped the Soweto club clinch the Nedbank Cup, reinforcing his reputation as one of South Africa's brightest midfield talents. Blom's impressive form reminded fans why he was lured to the MLS in the first place. Yet, despite his resurgence, early indications suggest he may not feature in St. Louis City's first-team plans for the 2025 season. St. Louis City recently freed up an international squad slot after Dutch club Sparta Rotterdam exercised their purchase option on Icelandic forward Nökkvi Thórisson. This move potentially clears a path for Blom to be re-registered with the MLS outfit. However, sources close to the situation say the decision remains far from settled. 'It's not looking good, but the international spot opening creates some hope. However, nothing has been decided and I'm sure all avenues will be explored. He has got a great agent,' the source revealed. Will the Kaizer Chiefs utility player find a new home or continue in the MLS? Let us know by leaving a comment below or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
