Latest news with #ChrisWard
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Integra LifeSciences to Host Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call on July 31, 2025
PRINCETON, N.J., July 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: IART), a leading global medical technology company, will release second quarter 2025 financial results on Thursday, July 31, 2025, prior to the market open. In conjunction with the earnings release, Integra's management team will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET. A live webcast will be available on the Investors section of the Company's website at For those planning to participate on the call, register here to receive dial-in details and an individual pin. While not required, joining 10 minutes before the event starts is recommended. A webcast replay of the conference call will be available on the Investors section of the Company's website following the call. About Integra LifeSciences At Integra LifeSciences, we are driven by our purpose of restoring patients' lives. We innovate treatment pathways to advance patient outcomes and set new standards of surgical, neurologic and regenerative care. We offer a comprehensive portfolio of high quality, leadership brands. For the latest news and information about Integra and its products, please visit Investor Relations:Chris Ward(609) Media Contact:Laurene Isip(609)
Finextra
09-07-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Truist unveils Merchant Engage
Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE: TFC) today unveiled Truist Merchant Engage, a new integrated merchant services platform designed to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) streamline operations, gain real-time insights and scale with certainty. 0 The launch marks a significant expansion of Truist's payments product suite and underscores the company's commitment to delivering modern, scalable technology that deepens client relationships and drives focused growth. This milestone reinforces Truist's ongoing investment in innovative payments technology — built to meet evolving client needs and position the bank at the forefront of digital financial services. The rollout, which began in late June and will continue into early 2026, marks a major step in Truist's journey to modernize business banking and deliver integrated, insight-driven solutions. It also marks the U.S. debut of the Pollinate platform, with Truist as the first U.S. bank to bring this solution to market. Truist Merchant Engage offers a smarter approach to serving business clients by unifying core financial services and merchant solutions into a single, intuitive digital experience. The platform features real-time dashboards, dynamic onboarding, product discovery and self-service tools that simplify operations and unlock insights. Many of the over 30 million SMBs in the U.S. — representing 99% of all businesses — still rely on non-integrated payments and business services providers, costing them up to a full day each week in administrative tasks. Valued at approximately $40 billion, the U.S. merchant acquiring market presents a significant opportunity. "At Truist, our approach to payments is built on simplicity, speed, and safety — principles that guide how we create meaningful value for our clients," said Truist Head of Enterprise Payments Chris Ward. "Truist Merchant Engage is more than a product — it's a reflection of our purpose-driven commitment to lead the industry with integrated solutions that help businesses thrive. By unifying business banking and merchant services into one seamless experience, we're enabling SMBs to operate more efficiently, make data-driven decisions and grow with confidence." "Our partnership with Truist is about helping a forward-looking institution deliver on its promise to small and medium-sized business customers," said Pollinate CEO Fiona Roach Canning. "Banks have the product breadth to serve SMBs better than anyone — but what's been missing is the experience layer to unify merchant acquiring with business banking. Pollinate helps banks bring this together in a way that's intuitive, intelligent and built for modern business owners."
The Guardian
03-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Welfare bill revealed Labour's new MPs have minds of their own
As Labour officials sounded warnings to Downing Street last month about the scale of the rebellion against the government's welfare bill, one concern was particularly stark: many of the supposedly-loyal 2024 intake were among the rebels. Officials were told not to worry, however, sources have told the Guardian. Many of those MPs had been personally selected at the general election by Morgan McSweeney and other senior advisers to Keir Starmer. The 'Starmtroopers', as they had come to be known, could be talked down with a simple phone call. This week's dramatic events in the Commons, when ministers had to gut their own bill less than two hours before a vote when confronted by a widespread and sustained rebellion, have proved the folly of making assumptions about the class of 2024. Far from being blindly loyal, these 243 MPs have proved in their first year to be a diverse, wilful and occasionally troublesome group to manage. 'We are showing ourselves to be slightly less controllable by the party than people would have thought,' said one. Another added: 'They are finding out we are capable of independent thought, because many of us have actually lived a life beforehand. We are not just lobby fodder [MPs who have little role but to vote as they are told].' Among the new Labour MPs were Chris Ward, Starmer's former chief of staff, who is now his parliamentary aide; Georgia Gould, the head of Starmer's local Camden council; and Josh Simons, the former head of the Starmerite thinktank Labour Together, who did all vote for the bill on Tuesday. Several were selected late in the day, leading to accusations that the leadership was 'parachuting in' its favoured candidates before local activists could object. They included Torsten Bell, the former head of the Resolution Foundation thinktank, and Luke Akehurst, a member of Labour's governing National Executive Committee. But several of the new intake have participated, or even spearheaded, rebellions against the government in their first 12 months. Chris Hinchliff, the MP for North East Hertfordshire, led a rebellion against the planning bill. His colleague Neil Duncan-Jordan, organised one against the cuts to winter fuel payments. Duncan-Jordan is emblematic of a particular sort of new MP: the 33 'bonus' Labour MPs who were not expected to win their seats and are proving difficult to whip. This was abundantly clear during this week's standoff between the government and backbenchers. Out of the 126 signatories to the first reasoned amendment, which would have put the bill on pause indefinitely, 70 were newly elected MPs. They included Yuan Yang, the former Financial Times journalist, and Polly Billington, who advised Ed Miliband when he was Labour leader. 'The Starmtrooper stuff was completely insane,' said one former Labour adviser who was close to the selection process. 'These are a clever, impressive group of people. But with that comes independent thought.' Labour insider say there are several reasons this intake of MP is proving trickier to manage than expected. Beyond the bonus MPs, many of whom were not carefully vetted, there is a far larger group of members who have brought with them expertise from various sectors of society and are unwilling to act against the interests of those they used to represent. Marie Tidball, for example, introduced Starmer on stage at the Labour conference in 2023. But as a disabled MP and long-term campaigner for disability rights, she was unwilling to vote for the welfare bill, and gave one of the most powerful speeches in the Commons against it. Others say Downing Street has been poor at giving roles to MPs who might be newly elected but are often experienced in politics or other fields. 'I'm a campaigner,' said one. 'But I've not been given any campaigning to do. I've had to invent my own local campaigns to run.' The truculence of the new intake is causing irritation for some in the party. One new MP who has remained loyal to the leadership said: 'There is a lot of political naivety here. They don't understand that a year after a historic victory, we shouldn't be undermining the leadership that helped get them elected.' Another Starmer ally said: 'This group hasn't had to vote on a war yet, or see one of their colleagues killed.' Some round the prime minister are worried that this group of MPs now has a taste for rebellion and will do so again in the future. Several are now sounding the alarm about their concerns relating to proposed changes to special educational needs, which are due to be published in the autumn. Others believe the experience of the last week might have had the opposite effect, and scared many off trying the same tactics again. 'At times it felt like we came close to toppling the government,' said one new MP. 'We won't try that again in a hurry.'
San Francisco Chronicle
24-06-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
California bill would block companies from selling location data to ICE
SACRAMENTO — In response to aggressive immigration raids, a California lawmaker is reviving a bill that would bar data brokers from selling consumers' precise location data. The bill, AB322, aims to protect vulnerable people from a host of nefarious uses of their private data, including sexual assault victims, women seeking abortion care and people attending protests, said Assembly Member Chris Ward, D-San Diego. The measure is getting renewed attention in light of the immigration raids and massive protests in the Los Angeles area. 'We're seeing ICE raids across the state and we're seeing mothers, fathers, children being kidnapped from the streets of California,' Assembly Member Liz Ortega, D-San Leandro, said at a news conference announcing the legislation. 'This bill will ensure that our data is protected and that corporations and this government, the federal government, is not using it to weaponize our information to go after our beloved community members and taxpayers.' The concern from Ortega, Ward and other supporters of the bill is that federal immigration agencies that have contracts with private data brokers will use immigrants' and protesters' precise location data silently collected by their phones, fitness trackers and social media apps to target them. 'Federal agencies are increasingly turning to powerful digital surveillance tools like geofencing and commercially purchased location data to track, target and detain individuals,' Ward said. 'Advocates warn that instead of warrants, agents are relying on this purchased data to monitor people's whereabouts, especially in sensitive locations.' A previous, more ambitious version of the bill died last month in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It faced steep opposition from tech companies, business groups and law enforcement. Tech companies argued the bill would have imposed unworkable requirements on them as they're already struggling to comply with California's landmark tech privacy laws. They also oppose limits in the legislation on companies' ability to collect and store location data. The Cellular Telephone Industries Association, which represents cell phone companies, opposed the previous bill 'because it continues to raise security concerns and will create operational barriers and confusion, undermining critical goods and services that rely on location information,' Jack Lestock, an advocate with the group, told lawmakers in April. Ward, the measure's author, said he's narrowed the bill somewhat, including by eliminating a provision that allowed people to sue companies and instead gives enforcement power to the state attorney general. It remains to be seen whether the increased attention over immigration raids and narrowed scope will be enough for the bill to advance this time. It must clear both houses of the Legislature by Sept. 12 and be signed by the governor to become law. CTIA and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees federal immigration enforcement, did not immediately respond to questions about the newly introduced version of the bill. The bill isn't the first introduced in response to aggressive immigration raids and resulting protests in Southern California. Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill last week to limit when police officers can obscure their identity with masks amid widespread videos showing ICE agents obscuring their faces and hiding their identification during raids.
Business Journals
01-06-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
D.C. business owners may not be as financially prepared as they believe
Nearly all (94%) of small business owners (SBOs) across the country report they believe their company is financially prepared for the next 12 to 18 months. Digging deeper in Washington, D.C., SBOs are concerned about their ability to sustain operations, with 81% saying it would take just two quarters or less of revenue shortfall before they became worried about their company's future — higher than the national average at 72%. This is according to TD Bank's inaugural Financial Preparedness Survey: Small Business Owners Report, which surveyed U.S. SBOs' current confidence in their financial preparedness. A core survey sample was conducted in the D.C. metro area. In D.C., the majority of SBOs (82%) are the sole person responsible for managing their company's financial preparedness. When asked about the top barriers to better determining their financial picture, local business owners indicated their top gaps are a lack of financial education and/or previous business experience and having trouble adapting to customer preferences. Long-term preparedness of D.C.-area business owners also is in question, with just 26% indicating they have a retirement or succession plan in place. There are several reasons why these have not been developed, with 39% reporting they don't believe their business is mature enough yet to warrant a succession plan, 32% of SBOs expressing concern about the cost involved and 22% worrying about potential family conflicts when discussing the future. Nearly a quarter (21%) of D.C. SBOs stated they have no plans to ever develop a retirement/succession plan. "Small business owners often act as the whole executive team of their enterprise —CEO, CFO, marketer, HR and more — which means they frequently are focused on day-to-day operations," said Chris Ward, regional president of the Mid-South Metro, TD Bank. "SBOs don't have to do it all alone and accessible resources such as their banker can offer financial check-ups and guidance on how to create a business and financial plan that spans several years." Local business' outlook mixed Looking to the next 12 to 18 months, 76% of D.C. SBOs expect their business to meet or exceed profit expectations and 75% anticipate they will hire additional staff. Survey respondents also noted they are taking steps to improve their business' outlook over the next year and a half, including using digital and AI budgeting tools (51%), getting a loan or line of credit from their bank (48%) and hiring a financial advisor (41%). Still, economic conditions remain a top external concern for SBOs in D.C., with inflation and interest rates ranking as their biggest worry in the year ahead. Survey participants also indicated they have operational concerns for their companies, with investing in marketing, needing to reduce their workforce and labor shortages topping the list. "Owning and operating a small business is a rewarding but stressful enterprise," Ward said. "Indicators show that SBOs are still feeling positive but are closely watching external factors. Just as individuals create a 'rainy day fund,' SBOs should aim to build up their cash on hand to better withstand the unexpected." TD Bank's Financial Preparedness Survey: Small Business Owners Report surveyed business owners with more than $100,000 in annual revenue and 100 or fewer employees. A representative sample of 150 business owners in D.C. participated. Among these, 75% had fewer than 20 employees and more than half had annual revenues between $100,000 and $500,000. TD Bank is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S. by assets, providing over 10 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,100 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. Find out more at
