AS the SFA last night launched a probe into whether Charles Green is a suitable person to buy Rangers, we take a look at his complex web of companies.The 59-year-old claims to be an old man coaxed out of retirement by mystery investors to spearhead the Ibrox takeover.But records at Companies House suggest he has spent years at the helm of a varied assortment of firms with little evidence of ever having put his feet up.Green rarely seems to stay at one company for more than a few years. Of the 38 in which he has been a director, 14 have been dissolved.He is known to now sit on the board of two firms. He became director of London-registered Sevco 5088 Ltd on May 4.
It was formed on March 29 with an address listed as the London law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse. There is no indication of what Sevco do.Rangers administrators Duff & Phelps have repeatedly refused to reveal the name of the firm Green is using as a vehicle to buy Rangers.He is also a non-executive chairman of Nova Resources Ltd, an investment company set up in the tax haven of Bermuda.It appears to operate mainly in Asia – where Green claims many of his 20-strong team of Rangers investors are based.Until February, he was chairman of Formation Group, a construction company for "high net-worth individuals".
It is not known why he resigned from them in February or whether his bid to take over Rangers had a bearing on this.Formation were created out of Green's Cheshire football agency Proactive Sports.At their height, Proactive boasted big-name clients, including Andy Cole, Stan Collymore and Wayne Rooney.Green resigned from Proactive in 2003 after warning investors that profits were going to be significantly below market expectations.In 2006, he stepped down as chief executive of Medical Solutions, who provided smear testing equipment to the NHS.
A year earlier, Medical Solutions had been hit by a financial crisis that caused their value to fall by half. Green set up Kingsbridge Holdings, who offered financial services to footballers, in 2000.They were reformed as Penmc PLC in 2004 but Companies House confirmed they had been dissolved in the last few weeks.Another company Green has been involved with are Texas Holdings. The Manchester firm are run by former scrap metal tycoon Mike McDonald.

A new entrant has joined the artistic landscape - the Auckland-based New Zealand Dance Company, which has secured $500,000 a year funding from Creative New Zealand for the next two years. It has also entered into a three-year sponsorship with Westpac and is developing significant partnerships with the innovative design company Designworks and performing arts venue The Edge.There are other contemporary dance companies nationwide, with Wellington-based Footnote Dance Company, Auckland's Atamira, Tempo and Black Grace, and Southern Lights in Canterbury.
The new venture has a long-term vision to create a permanent, high-calibre national contemporary dance company which from its Auckland base will represent New Zealand nationally and internationally.The vision for the New Zealand Dance Company is to be a hotbed of creative collaboration, a place to be artistically brave and exist to present compelling work which moves and inspires a dedicated and growing audience.Business travelers pick up tab as companies rein in expense accounts.The company has been established by two of New Zealand's most respected arts professionals - executive/artistic director Shona McCullagh and general manager Frances Turner.
McCullagh, who is a NZ Arts laureate, says of the new venture: "The creation of this company contributes to the fabric of New Zealand's strengthening cultural identity and landscape as we build to provide increasing opportunities for some of our finest dance practitioners and brilliant collaborators to share their artistry with New Zealand audiences."Over the last two years during the formation of this exciting new venture, McCullagh and Turner have set out to develop their arts company with business thinking and to challenge the paradigm.With the establishment of the New Zealand Dance Advancement Trust, an experienced board and an expanding range of generous supporters, they are excited by the possibilities the future holds.
Chesapeake has been the second-worst performer in the Standard & Poor's 500 Energy Index this year, after Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (ANR) (ANR), a Bristol, Virginia-based coal producer. Chesapeake tumbled 15 percent last week for its biggest weekly decline since September.U.S. gas prices plunged 42 percent in the past year as new wells in shale formations from Texas to Pennsylvania glutted North American fuel markets. The surfeit expanded as mild winter weather across the northern U.S. stifled demand for gas to run furnaces, said Ben Smith, president of First Enercast Financial, a Denver-based gas broker.

VAALCO has been working with the Angolan government to identify a partner with which to drill the exploration wells. While VAALCO continues to desire a new partner, the Company recently provided the Angolan government with a written offer to proceed without obtaining a partner, subject to certain criteria including changes to the work commitment and working interest percentages. The Company is awaiting a response.
United States: As announced in September 2011, the Company acquired a 65% working interest in the East Poplar Dome field in Roosevelt County, Montana. The vertical exploration well that was spudded in December 2011 will be tested in multiple formations in the second quarter of 2012 to target the formation for completion. Those tests are underway and the Company will announce the results when known. The Bakken/Three Forks formation is present, but VAALCO has elected to test three deeper potentially productive formations. Should the Company elect to complete the well in a deeper formation, VAALCO will horizontally drill the Bakken/Three Forks formation in one of the two additional wells the Company plans to drill on Poplar Dome in 2012 in accordance with the terms of the working interest agreement.
In conjunction with the two wells to be drilled in the East Poplar Dome field, the Company is also proceeding with plans to drill two wells in the Salt Lake field located in Sheridan County, Montana. The Salt Lake field, a prospective Bakken/Three Forks formation property, is 70% owned by the Company.As previously announced, in North Texas, the Company commenced drilling a second well on the initial Granite Wash formation lease in November 2011. The well landed in the objective reservoir in February 2012 and was successfully completed and began production in March 2012.
During the first quarter of 2012, the Company sold approximately 388,000 net barrels of oil equivalent from two liftings at an average price of $116.59 per barrel compared to 450,800 net barrels of oil equivalent from three liftings at an average price of $103.76 per barrel in the first quarter of 2011. The Company reported operating income of $30.1 million in the first quarter of 2012 compared to operating income of $31.3 million in the first quarter of 2011. Crude oil production averaged 21,100 gross barrels of oil per day (BOPD) in the three months ended March 31, 2012 compared to approximately 23,200 gross BOPD in the three months ended March 31, 2011. The decrease in year-over-year production volumes primarily reflects a normal production decline from mature Gabon offshore wells

On nearly every trip DaWane Wanek takes for work, he finds himself reaching into his pocket to pay for something that he can't — or won't — charge his employer.Sometimes it's a generous tip for a particularly good waiter. Other times, it's a cab ride when he could have taken a free shuttle.If the USB key he uses to get on the Internet is too slow, he'll pay for the hotel's faster Wi-Fi and forgo a reimbursement because he considers it double-dipping.
"I'm never going to get hung up on $30, $40 or $50," he says. "It adds up, but that's my choice. ... I'm making the choice for quality of life."The days of martini-guzzling Mad Men on unlimited expense accounts have long gone. For the last few years, companies have been reluctant to even let their employees travel for work. Now, they're unleashing them again, but reining in their expense accounts.Many business travelers say they've gotten used to spending their own money on the road.Crossing Automation Crossing Automation is a leading designer and manufacturer.At times, it's voluntary.
If they go over budget, whether by chance or by choice, they take care of it themselves. Other times, the companies refuse to cover all their costs."Companies are focusing on getting the value out of their trips," says Joe Bates, senior director of research at the Global Business Travel Association, made up of business travel managers and planners."They want to make sure their travelers are being mindful of the amount they're spending to watch the bottom line."When I talk to travel managers, they're wringing their hands, saying, 'We try to balance the needs of the traveler — keeping them healthy and happy and well-fed and content — and also the needs of the company.' "
According to a recent Global Business Travel Association study, the number of business trips taken in 2011 dropped 22.7 percent from the decade before to 445 million.The average amount that business travelers spent on a trip was $564 in 2011, up from $422 in 2000. Inflation accounted for 64 percent of that increase, the study says.Travel managers say trips have gotten more expensive. In particular, they point to rising airfares and new airline fees, such as those for checking bags.With the advance of technology, other new costs have popped up.For instance, should a company reimburse an employee for Wi-Fi on a plane when the flight was too short to get much work done?Travel perks are now few and far between. Flying first or business class became a reward rather than a right during the height of the recession. Now, upscale dining and hotel stays are more frowned upon.

As a key contributor to the industry's conversion from manual, open cassette handling to SMIF-based full automation, Brain helped lead the first full implementation of SMIF automation at a leading foundry in Taiwan. Brain served as vice president, marketing and technology at Aquest Systems where he led the development and sales effort for the company's conveyor system; prior to that held multiple roles at Asyst Technologies including responsibility for system development and marketing."I am especially impressed with the number of significant new products Crossing brought to market in the past year," said Brain. "In particular, the groundbreaking design of the DARTS(TM) FOUP buffer has established a new generation of flexible, near-tool buffering devices. I look forward to building on Crossing's success by leading the development and delivery of additional advanced material handling solutions for the semiconductor and related industries."
Crossing's market-leading DARTS FOUP buffering system has proven its ability to reduce fab traffic, shorten delivery times and improve wafer storage and throughput in the production environment. Available in a floor or ceiling-mount configuration, the DARTS FOUP buffer increases tool utilization by up to 30 percent, while significantly reducing congestion and work-in-progress cycle times. It is also being sought out by equipment manufacturers looking for new options to deliver increased equipment productivity in a small footprint. About Crossing Automation Crossing Automation is a leading designer and manufacturer of fab and tool automation equipment, recognized for solving the critical issues facing today's semiconductor device and equipment companies. The company increases fab productivity and reduces equipment costs by consistently delivering fast, reliable 200mm, 300mm and 450mm wafer and carrier handling products, supported by sophisticated control software. The company's solutions are available in multiple configurations to address the customers' desire for maximum flexibility.
Kane Biotech uses patent protected technologies based on molecular mechanisms of biofilm formation/dispersal and methods for finding compounds that inhibit or disrupt biofilms. The Company has evidence that these technologies have potential to significantly improve the ability to prevent and/or destroy biofilms in several medical and industrial applications.These statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements.

Provident New York Bancorp,parent company of Provident Bank, has been named one of America's 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in an annual survey commissioned by Forbes and prepared by GovernanceMetrics International (GMI), a global leader in corporate governance. The survey, now in its fifth year of publication, ranks the nation's top 100 companies that have "consistently demonstrated transparent and conservative accounting practices and solid corporate governance and management." "What these companies have in common is what they don't have: problems that indicate elevated risk," said GMI Chairman James A.
Provident New York Bancorp was ranked in the Small-Cap Company category, and received an accounting and governance risk (AGR) score of 93 out of a possible 100, and an average score of 97 over the last four quarters. "We are gratified that our business practices have been recognized by Forbes and that Provident New York Bancorp has been named one of America's most trustworthy companies," said Jack L. Kopnisky, President and CEO of Provident Bank.Our website explains that GMI creates the list by examining more than 8,000 companies traded on U.S. exchanges.Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist.Every three months, it assigns each company an accounting and governance risk score, or AGR, based on proprietary modeling designed to identify practices that historically have had a high correlation with increasing shareholder risk. Our website further reports that in order to qualify for the roster, the 100 companies all had to have market caps of $250 million or more at the time the list was prepared (March 13, 2012), have maintained AGR ratings of "conservative" or "average" for the last four quarters, had no amended filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, no SEC enforcement actions, and no material restatements.Headquartered in Montebello, N.Y., Provident Bank, with $3.2 billion in assets, specializes in the delivery of service and solutions to business owners, their families, and consumers in communities within the greater New York City marketplace through teams of dedicated and experienced relationship managers. Our franchise includes 36 Financial Centers. Provident Bank offers a complete line of commercial, business, and consumer banking products and services.There are a number of important factors described in documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements.

All are valuable on Earth because they are rare – a consequence of how the planet formed, said Sara Russell, head of meteoritics at the Natural History Museum."The iron in the early Earth melted and migrated to the core of the planet, and took those metals with it," she told the Guardian. "The ones that we mine now on the surface probably come from asteroid impacts over the years."She thinks it would be unwise to bring asteroids into orbit around the Earth for the mining process because of the risk that pieces would break off and create more "space junk" – articles circling the planet at high speed which can strike and damage craft entering or leaving orbit.
Asteroids offer far better prospects for mining than the moon, the crust of which is like the Earth's. Asteroids are comparatively small – from a few metres to many miles long – and are the remnants of the formation of the solar system 6bn years ago. They have no appreciable gravity.Diamandis has advocated asteroid mining for some years, and gave a TED talk on the topic in 2005.Mining asteroids would take billions of dollars in investment to build the infrastructure on the moon or in orbit, said Crawford of Birkbeck. "The question is whether the profit could cover the cost," he said.
There are about 1,500 "Near Earth Objects" which have been located by Nasa, travelling in orbits that regularly cross the Earth's.Travelling to them would take less energy than travelling to Mars. Anderson believes about 150 of them contain water and other valuable minerals.In that case, mining asteroids could be hugely profitable – though of course bringing the rare metals back to Earth in any quantity might depress the price.Crawford suggests that instead the metals could be kept in space and used to build rockets which, because they would not have to escape Earth's gravity well, could be used to explore the rest of the solar system far more cheaply than the current cost of rocket launches.
But the precedents for the return on investment from space mining is not encouraging so far. In 2003 the Hayabusa expedition took off with a mission of scraping a little piece off an asteroid and bringing it back: after multiple failures in which the rockets shut down but were eventually coaxed back to life, in 2010 it brought back its sample – 50 grammes, at a total cost of ￡150m.The Apollo missions, which brought nearly 300kg of moon rocks to Earth, cost the equivalent of ￡77bn in today's money. A Nasa mission that aims to bring back just 60 grammes of an asteroid will cost about ￡620m.

Michael A. Hackworth, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist who had the IMAX theater at the Tech Museum of Innovation named after him, has died at 71.Surrounded by his family, Hackworth passed away at his home in Saratoga on Saturday, according to his daughters.He was a 40-year veteran of the semiconductor industry, working for Motorola, Fairchild Semiconductor and Signetics. His greatest claim to fame was as a co-founder in 1985 of Cirrus Logic, a supplier of high-precision analog and digital signal processing components for audio and energy markets. He served in several roles there, including CEO and chairman of the board.
He also served on several private high-tech company boards and coached entrepreneurs in their company formation phases.Hackworth was a strong believer in hard work, community service and ethics, taking a leadership role in several local nonprofits, including the Tech Museum, San Jose Ballet Silicon Valley, the San Jose Symphony, the Montalvo Arts Center, the Santa Clara County Children's Shelter, Second Harvest Food Bank and the Silicon Valley Charity Ball.
He also served on many boards, including the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.March 2012 Looking Good for New Salons.He also created the Hackworth Fellowships at Santa Clara University 10 years ago."He will be remembered as living his guiding principles to their fullest: Dream big, work hard and do the right thing," his family said in a written statement.Born in San Mateo, he spent the first five years of his life in Atwood, Kan. He had fond memories of the family farm and relatives there who supported him and his mother while his father served in World War II, according to the family's statement.
Hackworth graduated from Serra High School and Santa Clara University with a degree in electrical engineering. He began his career in high school in 1957 working part time for a passive component startup, Ultronix, serving the instrumentation and aerospace industries, and continued with them until several years out of college.A "credibility chasm" between Chesapeake's management and investors will continue to overshadow the company's operating performance (CHK) and will weigh on the share price for at least the next 12 months, said Tim Rezvan and Ryan Mueller, New York-based analysts at Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc.