Her resignation concluded a tenure, which was marked by efforts to adapt to changing consumer tastes and fending off pressure from activist investors.

“Growing up in India, I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to lead such an extraordinary company,” Nooyi said in a statement. “PepsiCo today is in a strong position for continued growth with its brightest days still ahead.”

Pepsi stock gained cumulatively 79% since she assumed the CEO role in October 2006, according to FactSet. That’s less than both the S&P 500, which gained 112%, and Coca-Cola, which gained 108%. Its net revenue experienced growth from $35 bn in 2006 to $63.5 bn in 2017.

It also faced challenges from upstart brands that had continues to threaten its market share, including once-dominant drinks like Gatorade. Pepsi’s North American beverage business has been more challenged that its snacking business – which continued to provoke questions about whether the giant would consider splitting the two.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz had taken a stake in Pepsi and had pushed for a split of the two businesses before withdrawing and exiting the company in 2016 after a multi-year battle.

Under Nooyi, Pepsi managed to steadfastly keep both the businesses together, arguing in favor of the combined leverage it gave the company over retailers. It sought to revive its North American drink business by throwing more support behind its core brands.  Its efforts to revitalize its biggest brands included — the Pepsi Generation advertising campaign, the re-release of Mountain Dew Baja Blast and the launch of calorie-free Gatorade Zero.

It had also been continuously supporting its snack business. It announced in May, the acquisition of baked fruit and vegetable company Bare Foods. The deal can possibly serve as a building base for the broader business of plant-based snacks.

Nooyi’s departure is the latest among a growing list of recent departures in the food and beverage industry– as it faces the unprecedented challenge of remaking decades-old companies under the glare of the public eye.

Laguarta, a 22-year Pepsico veteran, has been president since September, overseeing global operations, corporate strategy, public policy and government affairs. Prior to that, he served in leadership positions in the European and sub-Saharan Africa divisions.

The international markets have been a strong point for Pepsi amid slowing growth and tougher retailers in countries like the US Pepsi this quarter reported 7% organic revenue growth in Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and 6% growth in Asia, Middle East & North Africa.

The rest of PepsiCo’s senior leadership team will remain unchanged, according to the company.

PepsiCo’s premarket stock price rose a bit higher after the announcement.

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“Issues to do with corruption, issues of how we can straighten out our state-owned enterprises and how we deal with state capture, are issues that are on our radar,” the new President said.

Ramaphosa leads the African National Congress party and is the only candidate to be nominated during a South African Parliament session. “I truly feel humbled to have been given this great privilege of being able to serve our people.”

His pledge to fight corruption is admirable: “I will try to work very hard not to disappoint the people of South Africa,” and intends to run his presidency with ‘humility, faithfulness and dignity.’

Jacob’s leadership has brought painfully difficult situations for the people. Mmusi Maimane, Democratic Alliance leader emphasizes “Zuma built a deep system of corruption that has penetrated every part of the government and the criminal prosecution system.”

However, Zuma has denied delinquency during his leadership and has expressed his views with composure: “No life should be lost in my name and also the ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as President of the republic with immediate effect,” he said.

“Even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organization, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC.”

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Former president Hollande’s Socialist Party (SP), which was in a majority in the outgoing assembly with 295 seats, ended up with a historical low of 32 seats.

The historic mandate comes a month after Macron became the youngest head of state in modern French history. The 39-year-old former banker was elected on the promise of reviving the economy.

However, his mandate will be weighed down by the abstention, which was 52% in the first round and 56.6% in the second round on Sunday.The victory when combined with the low voter turnout creates the impression that a sceptic and weary France thinks Emmanuel Macron is their best bet from among the choices before them.

Notably, most of the MPs in his party are new to the national assembly, and are expected to infuse freshness and zeal to politics. This is expected to help Macron’s aim of cleaning up French politics.

Macron is not expected to face much opposition in parliament in the near future as the mainstream Right-wing party, Les Républicains, has just over 125 seats.

But he can expect defeated presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to keep him on his toes. She won a seat in parliament after defeating an LREM candidate. Her far-Right Front National, she said, would be ‘the only force of resistance against the dilution of France, its social model and its identity’.

She took a swipe at the president right away by saying, “The massive abstention considerably weakens the legitimacy of the new national assembly and this five-year term starts on very poor foundations.”

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Rigby was previously the CEO of GAB Robins UK until Crawford acquired the company in 2014. Since then, Rigby served as the CEO of Crawford Europe and Latin America.  In his new role, he assumes additional responsibility for the Asia-Pacific and United Kingdom regions, and he will serve as a member of Crawford’s Global Executive Management team (GEM).

“I’m confident Kieran is the right person for this role,” said Harsha V. Agadi, President and Chief Executive Officer. “His character promotes both innovation and inspiration, and with his proven track record of leadership and success, I believe he’ll continue to grow our company and build for the future. I look forward to the new ideas and fresh focus he’ll bring to Crawford’s leadership team.”

Rigby, who will be based in London, will report directly to Andrew Robinson, Global Chief Operating Officer, and will be responsible for growing the business, continuing to strengthen Crawford’s global capabilities and realigning the company’s operating model for further efficiency and profitability across the company’s international businesses.

“Crawford’s global presence, strength and breadth of capabilities is unmatched by others in the marketplace,” Robinson said. “We are excited to have Kieran lead, grow and further develop our operations, as well as pursue new and innovative ways to serve our clients.  I look forward to working with Kieran as we realize these ambitions.”

Rigby’s appointment follows the resignation of Ian V. Muress, CEO international, after 16 years of dedicated and loyal service to the company.

“We would like to thank Ian for the contribution he has made to the business and for his commitment to our clients,” said Agadi. “We wish him well as he moves to the next stage of his career.”

“It is a great honor to be given this opportunity,” said Rigby. “This is an exciting time for Crawford & Company. It is also a time to critically examine all parts of our operations to grow our revenue and presence in the marketplace – a marketplace that is rapidly changing and requiring our constant innovation.”

Throughout his career, Rigby has served in senior leadership positions in claims and loss adjusting, and he’s also active in the industry, holding excellent professional qualifications, including Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute, Chartered Insurance Practitioner, Fellow of Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters and past President of the Federation of European Loss Adjusting Associations.

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The investment is expected to create 35,000 temporary construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs, Chief Executive Darren Woods said in a speech at CERAWeek, the world’s largest gathering of energy executives.

“Exxon Mobil is building a manufacturing powerhouse along the US Gulf Coast,” said Woods. “These businesses are leveraging the shale revolution to manufacture cleaner fuels and more energy-efficient plastics.”

US President Donald Trump praised the company’s spending plans as an example of ‘a true American success story’.

“This is exactly the kind of investment, economic development and job creation that will help put Americans back to work,” Trump said.

Woods also spoke about climate change and how Exxon is doing its bit.

“I believe the assumption that affordable energy and a cleaner environment are a zero-sum game is mistaken,” he said. “It underestimates the power of technology.”

Woods highlighted Exxon’s research into carbon capture sequestration, biofuels and other areas as ones helping the company expand its operations beyond oil and gas.

“The only way to keep winning in a competitive market is to keep innovating,” he said.

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Processing of regular H1-B applications which aren’t premium takes between three to six months. The suspension is effective April 3, and could last up to six months, according to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The H-1B visa programme is the main pathway for highly skilled foreigners to work in US companies. The visas are doled out by a lottery and the number of applicants continues to swell each year with outsourcing firms flooding the system.

There have been calls for reform of visas for highly skilled workers. There is a proposal to eliminate the lottery system in favour of a preference system created by USCIS to give priority to foreign students educated in the US. This is to weed out foreign outsourcing firms, which are said to exploit the system.

These visas are used extensively by tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple. President Trump has been reported to be considering larger restrictions on the H-1B program, to address concerns that the program is taking jobs away from domestic tech workers.

According to the earlier draft memo obtained by Bloomberg News, Trump’s larger overhaul would require companies to attempt to hire American workers first. If they did recruit foreign workers, priority would be given to the highest-paid, in an effort to open entry-level positions to Americans.

– See more at: http://www.internationalfinancemagazine.com/article/US-temporarily-suspends-premium-processing-of-H1B-visa.html#sthash.Q8qBrCMm.dpuf

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Enacted in 2010 by a Democrat-controlled Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama, FATCA is virtually unknown to most Americans but has been wreaking havoc with the global financial system outside the US. Touted as a weapon against ‘fat cat’ tax evaders stashing funds offshore, FATCA is instead an indiscriminate information dragnet requiring all non-US financial institutions (banks, credit unions, insurance companies, investment and pension funds, etc.) in every country in the world to report data on all specified US accounts to the IRS.

If any country refuses to comply, FATCA provides for its financial sector to be hit with crippling penalties that will tank its economy.

“FATCA,” says Green, is “an extraterritorial diktat that burdens other countries’ financial institutions and their clients, which violates other countries’ sovereignty, and which is detrimental to their consumers and taxpayers. FATCA turns law-abiding, middle-class Americans living overseas, of whom there are approximately eight million, into financial pariahs,” leading to record numbers of US citizenship renunciations.

With Obama in the White House, doing away with FATCA was virtually impossible, despite repeal bills introduced by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). “FATCA is a textbook example of a bad law that doesn’t achieve its stated purpose but does manage to unleash a host of unanticipated destructive consequences,” states Sen. Paul.

But now, with Donald Trump’s election and a GOP-led Congress expected to pass a comprehensive tax reform package this year, the situation has changed.

Most importantly, the 2016 Republican Platform calls for FATCA’s repeal, denouncing the law’s “warrantless seizure of personal financial information without reasonable suspicion or probable cause” and its threat to the “ability of overseas Americans to lead normal lives.”

As his co-leader of the campaign to Repeal FATCA, Green has turned to former US diplomat and longtime Senate leadership staffer Jim Jatras of the media and government relations firm Global Strategic Communications Group (GSCG). Jatras, a leading authority on FATCA, edits the online publication www.RepealFATCA.com, which is dedicated to getting rid of what he calls “the worst law most Americans have never heard of”.

On Green’s initiative, Jatras is assembling a team of experienced DC professionals to push the repeal effort over the top (Twitter @RepealFatca). “Nigel’s deciding to step up to the plate is just tremendous,” says Jatras. “Billions of dollars have been wasted worldwide complying with FATCA, billions of words have been written complaining about it. Now it’s time for action. When that tax bill gets to President Trump’s desk, we want FATCA repeal in it.”

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Nigel Green

February 1, 2017: US President Donald Trump’s ban on visitors from seven Muslim-majority nations has spooked markets, but clued-up investors won’t be panicking, they’ll be seeking out bargains.

The American markets fell on Monday below 20k, taking their cue from weak European and Asian markets.

For the past few months, a Trump presidency has been widely regarded as positive for stocks. But it appears that the rose-tinted glasses have come off as the travel ban for seven Muslim-majority countries has indicated to investors that there are major geopolitical headwinds brewing as the controversy intensifies.

The markets have been reacting to the fact that last Friday, Trump put a 120-day hold on permitting refugees into the States, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria, plus a 90-day ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya and four other nations. Many nations, including long-standing US allies, have called the measures divisive and discriminatory.

The markets are jittery, but this is more a bump in the road than a major obstacle – for the moment at least. Markets typically have a knee-jerk reaction to unexpected or controversial geopolitical events.

There is also the argument that markets were overvalued and investors might have been looking for an excuse to sell, and this measure by Trump provided them with that.

Despite Trump’s Muslim ban spooking markets, clued-up investors won’t be panicking, they’ll be seeking out bargains – and perhaps hoping that the sell-off continues.

They will be aware that the world is changing fast. Change means volatility.

Whilst some people are put off investing because of volatility, many of the most successful investors welcome it.  This is because profitable opportunities are found where there are fluctuations and portfolios can be topped- up and advantage can be taken of lower entry points.

Nigel Green is the founder and CEO of deVere Group

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January 27, 2017: Republican or Democrat, American or not, it’s hard to avoid the inexplicable rise to fame of The Apprentice star and occasional professional wrestler, Donald Trump. The billionaire’s pledges around immigration, healthcare, and employment have drawn significant media attention but Trump’s ascendency has ramifications for just about every facet of Western life.

Satoshi Nakamoto

One of the more significant developments of the post-Obama United States could be a rapid increase in the value of Bitcoin, a type of money traded exclusively on the internet and without any coins or notes to speak of. Estimates of Bitcoin’s future price and its penetration into mainstream society are almost uniformly positive.

It’s easy to see why; Bitcoin is already accepted at major outlets like Microsoft, Tesla Motors, Expedia, and Steam. It also has quite a large following in casino, a niche that (arguably) gave Satoshi Nakamoto’s cryptocurrency its first major outing as a payment option. Many iGaming sites now accept Bitcoin exclusively.

Vegas Casino, in particular, has built its entire business around Bitcoin, expanding to include a sportsbook and 18 rooms with live dealers. To streamline the transition from fiat currencies to crypto, A visit to Vegas Casino also provides gamers with a link to a currency exchange right from the homepage. It’s both a novel approach to business and a strong show of support in digital money.

Transition Team

With Trump now firmly entrenched in the White House, there are two factors that could affect Bitcoin’s price going forward.

Firstly, the real estate magnate has a number of Bitcoin advocates on his transition team, a situation that could further enmesh Bitcoin with wider society. For example, Peter Thiel, a man perhaps best known as one of the founders of PayPal, is on Trump’s executive committee. Thiel has interests in Bitcoin currency exchange BitPay, and 21.co, a development platform that supports Bitcoin microtransactions. Jim O’Neill, a cohort of Thiel at Mithril Capital, another of the PayPal founder’s businesses, and Balaji Srinivasan, of 21.co, have both been touted for the role of Head at the Food and Drug Administration.

Ignoring the pair’s almost comical inadequacy for the role (O’Neill has no medical experience while Srinivasan reportedly has a vendetta against the FDA, recently deleting tweets to hide that fact), Donald Trump has nevertheless injected some support for Bitcoin and modern payment methods into the structure of his new government.  

Obamacare

Perhaps the biggest factor influencing Bitcoin’s value going forward though is President Trump’s potential for causing global economic instability. If any of his more extreme pledges ever make it off the drawing board – axing the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare”, for example – the dollar could take a dive.

Bitcoin’s price climbs in response to financial strife. It happened after Brexit, gaining $100 (£80) overnight, after November’s presidential election result (+4.6%), and as a response to the Chinese yuan’s dramatic collapse towards the end of 2016 (+10%). In every case, the hike is caused by investors in conventional currencies looking for somewhere safe to hoard their money.  

Bitcoin’s newfound status as an alternative commodity to gold (attained on January 4 this year, when it was briefly more valuable than bullion) means that it’s now used just as frequently as a “hedge” against inflation. With that in mind, it’s easy to see Bitcoin’s value becoming more stable in the future, especially if the pace of its mainstream adoption continues.

So, what about Bitcoin’s value? A Danish bank called Saxo Bank has been at the centre of that conversation since late last year. Saxo Bank predicted that Bitcoin would close at $2,100 (£1,687) per coin by the end of 2017, a surge of 165% from December 7, 2016. It’s not beyond the realms of imagination (Bitcoin gained more than 120% last year) but the bank itself admitted that it was an “outrageous” forecast.

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