Leadership Appointment

Skydance Names Powell Jobs, Kotick to Board, Taps Blair as Advisor

Los Angeles – October 07, 2026 -- Skydance Corporation (NYSE: SKYD) has named Laurene Powell Jobs and Bobby Kotick as independent directors and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as a board advisor, effective immediately, following the merger of Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBD).

David Ellison retains chairman and CEO roles atop the newly combined board

Ellison will continue to chair the Skydance board and serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the combined entity. The reconstituted board retains all current Paramount directors and adds three new members: Skydance Co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs, and Activision founder Bobby Kotick, with Powell Jobs and Kotick designated as independent directors.

LV Petroleum Adds Ex-TravelCenters CEO, CFO and GM Veteran to Board

Las Vegas – October 05, 2026 -- LV Petroleum LLC has appointed Jonathan Pertchik as Chairman of its Board of Directors, alongside new board members Peter Crage and Stephen J. Girsky, bringing travel center operating experience, financial oversight and public-company governance to the privately held operator of more than 90 travel centers and 30 convenience stores across the United States.

Former TravelCenters of America CEO takes the chairman role

Pertchik previously served as CEO of publicly traded TravelCenters of America (TA), where he led the company through a period of transformation. He has known LV Petroleum founders Guy Madmon and Val Amiel since the company's early growth years and will now guide the board as LV Petroleum builds on that foundation.

Truth Initiative Names Harvard's Vaughan Rees Chief Research Officer

Washington – October 05, 2026 -- Truth Initiative, the largest U.S. nonprofit focused on nicotine addiction prevention, has named Dr. Vaughan Rees as Chief Research Officer effective October 27, succeeding Dr. Barbara Schillo.

Harvard tobacco control director takes over Schroeder Institute research arm

Rees joins from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he has directed the Center for Global Tobacco Control since 2015 and served as Senior Lecturer on Social and Behavioral Sciences. He will lead the Schroeder Institute, Truth Initiative's scientific enterprise, overseeing a research portfolio spanning tobacco and nicotine, addiction science, behavioral health, emerging nicotine products, cannabis and polysubstance use.

HudsonLake Appoints Crenshaw President Amid MWW Integration

Dallas – September 24, 2026 -- HudsonLake, the strategic communications firm acquired by MikeWorldWide (MWW) in May 2026, has elevated Quinton Crenshaw to president, giving him full executive oversight of the firm's Dallas-based operations.

Crenshaw takes the helm after a decade as executive vice president

Crenshaw, who has spent ten years in leadership roles at HudsonLake, will now direct strategy across the firm's 25-year-old organizational transformation and labor communications practice. He previously advised Fortune 500 executives across North Texas on corporate communications, internal change and brand transformation. "By combining our specialized workforce expertise with MWW's scale and multi-channel reach, we are unlocking extraordinary new opportunities for our clients, our culture and our people," Crenshaw said.

THINK Surgical Names Rick McDowell VP of Sales

Fremont, Calif. – September 22, 2026 -- THINK Surgical, Inc. has appointed Rick McDowell as Vice President, Sales, tasking him with leading the orthopedic robotics maker's national sales organization as it scales commercial operations.

McDowell reports directly to Executive Vice President Chris Marrus

McDowell will drive market strategy and growth for THINK Surgical's commercial team, reporting to Chris Marrus. He arrives with more than 20 years in medical device commercialization, clinical strategy, and capital sales across the surgical robotics sector.

MCW Inaugurates Dr. Shekar Kurpad as Seventh President, CEO

Milwaukee – September 20, 2026 -- The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) formally inaugurated Shekar N. Kurpad, MD, PhD, as its seventh President and Chief Executive Officer on September 17 at the Marcus Performing Arts Center in downtown Milwaukee, marking a leadership transition at the nation's third-largest private medical school.

Kurpad succeeds a 16-year CEO tenure at one of the country's top-performing academic medical centers

Dr. Kurpad, a neurosurgeon with more than two decades of service at MCW, takes over from John R. Raymond, Sr., MD, who led the institution as President and CEO for 16 years.

Lawrence Semiconductor Names Ex-Littelfuse Exec to Scale Epitaxy Output

Tempe, Arizona – September 20, 2026 -- Lawrence Semiconductor Research Laboratory has appointed Don Garrison, a 25-year semiconductor manufacturing veteran, to lead operations as the company moves to scale capacity at its Tempe, Arizona epitaxy foundry.

Garrison joins from Littelfuse, where he ran manufacturing across eight global sites

Garrison most recently served as Vice President of Global Operations for the Semiconductor Business Unit at Littelfuse, directing manufacturing, engineering and supply chain across eight fabrication, assembly and test sites and an organization exceeding 2,500 employees. He previously held the Director of Fab Operations role at NXP Semiconductors in Chandler, Arizona, led manufacturing excellence initiatives during a high-growth factory startup at GlobalFoundries, and spent more than a decade at Intel Corporation in technical and manufacturing positions.

CogniCor Expands Advisory Board to Fuel RIA AI Platform Growth

Palo Alto, Calif. – September 15, 2026 -- CogniCor, an intelligence and orchestration platform for registered investment advisors, has expanded its Advisory Board with six new industry figures to accelerate its push into firm-wide AI adoption across wealth management.

Beacon Pointe co-founder joins board overseeing $62 billion RIA

Shannon Eusey, Chairman and Co-Founder of Beacon Pointe Advisors, one of the largest RIAs in the country with more than $62 billion in assets under advisement, joined the board as both a CogniCor customer and RIA operator.