Jose Roman, a native of Ecuador, joined Infiniti parent Nissan Motor in 2012 and has more than 25 years of automotive experience in such markets as Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Japan. He takes the helm of Infiniti on July 1.
By ANNIE MA and THALIA BEATY (Associated Press)
Natalie Coles will never forget receiving an unexpected phone call in 2020. On the line was Virginia-based Dominion Energy, offering to give money to Wilberforce University, the small historically Black college where she is in charge of fundraising.
The company’s $500,000 donation went in part toward laptops and hot spots for students when the pandemic shut down the college’s campus outside of Dayton, Ohio.
“It was like manna from heaven,” Coles said.
Historically Black colleges and universities, which had seen giving from foundations decline in recent decades, lately are benefiting from an increase in gifts, particularly from corporations and corporate foundations. Some have received a new look from companies amid the reckoning over racial injustice spurred by the killing of George Floyd. But the colleges also have been pitching themselves, emphasizing their ability to deliver returns on the investment in student mobility.
Another factor in the giving by corporations has been the influence of their Black employees.
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER (AP Economics Writer)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kwasi Bandoh, a senior recruiter for an airline, stood before a group of aviation mechanic students at their graduation ceremony last month and congratulated them for all having jobs.
As some of the students began nudging each other, Bandoh realized that perhaps not every one of them had already been hired.
“Who doesn’t have a job?” Bandoh demanded, surveying the 15 graduates before him at the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics’ training facility in Hagerstown, Maryland. “Who doesn’t? Because I have a job for you.”
The crowd of about 70 friends and relatives, gathered in a hangar where the students had been trained, laughed appreciatively. Fourteen of the 15 graduates did have jobs, and the only one who didn’t had an interview lined up for the next day.
As happy as the moment was for the graduates, it epitomized the struggles of recruiters for airlines, plane manufacturers and repair shops that are desperately seeking mechanics. Most of their existing mechanics are aging, and demand for travel is growing.
A Tampa lawyer and “Jeopardy!” champion will join Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Disney World oversight board, which is at the center of his nationally watched battle with the world-famous attraction.
DeSantis named Charbel Barakat to the five-member Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s Board of Supervisors on Thursday.
He will replace Michael Sasso, an Orlando attorney who resigned May 22, the day before his wife, Meredith Sasso, was appointed by DeSantis to the Florida Supreme Court.
Barakat is vice president and chief counsel for the Florida and Mid-Atlantic regions of D.R. Horton Inc., the nation’s largest homebuilder.
He serves as the vice president of the Tampa Bay chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. He also serves on the Florida Development Finance Corp. and as a commissioner for the Second District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, which recruits, interviews and certifies judicial nominees.
“I’m honored to be asked by Gov. DeSantis to serve the people of Florida,” Barakat said in a prepared statement. “I hope to help bring additional efficiency, safety, and accountability to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District so that it may better serve the common good.”
NASA and Boeing officials said the first crewed flight of the CST-100 Starliner will be delayed yet again after new issues related to the spacecraft’s parachutes as well as the discovery that much of the tape used in the hardware was flammable.
“Bottom line here, safety is always our top priority. It’s always been that way with human spaceflight, and so that drives this decision,” said Mark Nappi who heads up Boeing’s Starliner program. “You can say we’re disappointed because it means that delay, but the team is proud that we’re making the right choices.”
The mission that aimed to take up NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station was slated to fly as early as July 21 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This mission dubbed CFT was supposed to pave the way for the spacecraft’s certification to perform regular transport service to the ISS.
CFT’s July target was already a delay from the spring, and has been more than a year since Boeing’s successful redo of an uncrewed flight to the ISS called OFT-2. That mission came after more than a year and half delay from the first uncrewed flight attempt, which made it to orbit but missed its rendezvous with the ISS. NASA deemed that 2019 flight a “high visibility close call” that forced a major overhaul of the program including hardware, software and management practices from both Boeing and NASA oversight.