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Summary: the case against the EU
What's wrong with the EU? Read on …
No demos
There does not exist a single group of people in respect of whom the EU could be a democracy.
No mandate
Even if there were or is a European demos, what is done by the Commission is not in response to any expressed or felt need of the citizens. In normal democratic politics you have occasional elections, during which time certain issues are publicly discussed. Whoever wins power has some justification for carrying out whatever programme they were proposing while trying to get elected.
This just doesn't happen in the EU. The Commission isn't elected, and the elected European Parliament does not have a mandate to do any particular course of action. Unelected bodies should not have the right to initiate legislation. So either the Commission should be elected, or it should be deprived of any right to initiate legislation.
Separation of powers
The Council of Ministers must assent to legislation, like the second chamber of many legislatures. It comprises representatives of the executive branch of each member state government. This provides those governments with a means of bypassing their respective parliaments, which often constitute the primary day-to-day democratic check on their activities.
Over time, it motivates governments to hand more powers from national parliaments to the EU, and suborns national political parties into supporting the EU if they have a reasonable chance to form the executive.
EC legislation is not sufficiently contemporaneous in its passage. It is simply bad governance to allow a legislative process to span long periods of time, and the UK Parliament at least limits the amount of time which may elapse between the initiation of a legislative measure and its conclusion.
In the EU, the Commission may wait years for an opportunity to put some pet project through the legislative machine; it's not possible for citizens opposing the legislation ever to be sure they've won.
The EU's accounts notoriously never get signed off. Member States ought simply to block the provision of new money until this happens. This is basic good governance. Because the system forces taxpayers to hand over cash even when there's no guarantee it's being spent properly, there's no discipline: money will and does get misspent. If misspending money had negative consequences, it would stop.
Whereas many people accused of error will retaliate illegally and immorally at their accusers, the EU has the exacerbating factor of paranoia about Euroscepticism. I don't have good evidence on this point yet, but my impression is that fears of exposure of one scandal or another motivate even more secrecy and vituperation from the EU's bureaucracy than would happen otherwise.
I can't find out what happened in the Hans-Martin Tillack case, but it seems the EU Commission got the Belgian police to arrest him and hand over his notes, revealing who the whistleblowers were, and that Belgian law differs from that of other EU countries in allowing the "authorities" (and it should be noted that the EU Commission is not part of the Belgian state) to get away with this, calling into serious question the appropriateness of locating so many EU institutions in that country.
If a government needs tax money to survive (and in the present day, this is effectively true around the world), and cannot on its own authority raise this tax, then it will become beholden to whoever or whatever does possess this authority (Parliament, in the case of Westminster-style polities). Parliament has the power it does because it can bankrupt the UK government if it doesn't get its way: a majority in the House of Commons which disagrees with this policy, that appointment or yonder exercise of ministerial authority can simply threaten not to pass the next Budget. The need for periodic tax-raising and the requirement for renewed elections keeps the system accountable to the public. Effectively, the tax-raising is on an annual basis, so on average the Government ought to be able to survive six months. (In practice I'm not sure what would happen if the Government lost its majority with many months to go before the next Budget vote.)
I don't understand the precise way the EU's budget works as a matter of law, but it seems that Member States are obligated to hand over money on a septennial basis; this strikes me as far too long-term a grant of legal tax-raising authority. There's much less pressure to do what citizens want if you can legally tax them for the next seven years.
Platinum Plating
Gold-plating is the embellishment of EC legislation by national bureaucracies. Sometimes this is necessary on account of the poor quality of the original legislation. In other cases, measures implementing EC legislation are not scrutinised as heavily as normal legislation and may contain unjustified extensions; these extensions are invalidly waved through under the fast-track procedures, and then defended as though they were part of the EC measure as a whole.
Platinum plating is when gold-plating happens twice: unnecessary additions have to be implemented in national law because they've been added by EU legislators purportedly implementing some international obligation.
As a general rule, national legislation should be used to implement international rules, rather than having a three-stage process with the EU in between. This insulates the public against an additional opportunity for politicians and civil servants to pass off their pet projects as legal obligations.
ECJ partiality
The Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) has held itself to be responsible for adjudicating disputes about the meaning of the treaties. The treaties empower the Community (or, later, the Union) to legislate in certain areas. The ECJ claims to have the final say on whether a measure goes beyond what is allowed in the treaties, but time after time after time, with a monotonity and regularity acquiring an almost mathematical and aesthetic purity and wholeness, this Court has decided in favour of the EU/EC/EEC against the Member State. In the fifty-year history of the EU and its predecessors, there appears to have been only one finding that a measure was ultra vires the treaties (a directive about tobacco advertising opposed by Germany).
Non-existent civil society
Civil society barely exists at the European level. By civil society I mean non-governmental, non-profit organisations (charities, political groups, many sports clubs, churches, universities, trades unions, business associations, foundations, institutes and so on), and mean to exclude for-profit organisations such as for-profit companies, cooperatives, and mutual societies, and all governmental institutions.
At the European level, most institutions corresponding to these sorts of things are either state-funded, or don't exist. The best you can get tends to be a Europe-wide confederation of national civil society institutions. There are vanishingly few Europe-wide membership organisations comprising individuals, and it is hard to set them up.
This is both a problem and a symptom.
There is no pan-European media
This is possibly the gravest of the problems, and one which is difficult to remedy by state or private action.
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Volae 2010 UpdatesPosted on February 14, 2010 by Bryan Ball
Lots of Volae 2010 updates. Most interesting is the new Club Carbon at $4200. From Volae press release…
"The new 2010 Volae lineup has just been announced at the Volae recumbents site. The new models for 2010 include the Club Carbon and Team Carbon. The frames are hand-crafted in the USA at RR Velo, owned by Fast Freddy Markham and Edgar Chavez, and have a 25 year guarantee. We are very excited about the quality, performance and value these beautiful bikes bring to the recumbent market.
The 26"/20" wheeled bikes, the Tour and Century remain the same for 2010 with great performance and competitive pricing. In the Dual 26 wheeled line-up, the Expedition and Voyager get a spec overhaul, while the Expedition Pro keeps the same great components. The dual 650c wheeled Club and Team also return for 2010. Whether you're looking for a entry-level high racer, a recreational recumbent, commuter or high performance touring machine, Volae recumbents have a bike to meet your needs. And don't forget about the Volae ES travel bikes. The ingenious coupler allows you to pack your bike in a traditional bike travel box and take your bike anywhere you want to go. All chro-moly bikes are made in the U.S.A. and have high quality craftsmanship, from the welding done at Waterford Precision Cycles to the final assembly in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. We can also customize your Volae if you don't see the exact specifications you're looking for. For more info, visit the Hostel Shoppe site or call 800-233-4340."
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Chemical production requires careful control of conditions. Improper or inconsistent levels of airborne moisture can have serious negative effects on your operations and costs, including:
- Difficulty maintaining consistency of multiple aspects of chemical production
- Variations in product quality
- Hygroscopic ingredients and products clumping together and congealing, resulting in equipment blockages and process glitches
- Unnecessarily high service and operational costs
Controlled humidity reduces output fluctuations
Humidity hindrances
In chemical production, effective control of the specification of the air is usually vital. For reasons that include health and safety, operating efficiency and profit margins.
Airborne moisture levels are a key parameter for air specifications, not least because they have big impacts on many chemical properties, and as well as knock-on effects on key parameters that include temperature and pressure.
Uncontrolled levels of airborne moisture make it difficult to maintain consistency of multiple aspects of chemical production. Humid air can make hygroscopic ingredients and products clump together and congeal, resulting in equipment blockages, process glitches and storage problems as well as difficulties with overall production efficiency.
Full control counts
Controlled humidity reduces risk and uncertainty at every stage, enabling you to establish – and maintain – exactly appropriate environments for manufacturing, packaging, transporting and storing chemical products and ingredients that are humidity-sensitive and/or hygroscopic.
Cotes adsorption dehumidifiers are the easiest and most cost-effective way to remove undesirable and uncontrolled airborne moisture from any chemical production or processing facility. This enables you to maintain consistent, controlled specifications, regardless of seasons, weather and other factors that influence the relative humidity of the surrounding air.
How you benefit
- Stable, consistent chemical production, regardless of seasonal changes, weather and other phenomena
- Better control of multiple processes and fewer variations in product quality
- Less risk of clumping, blockages and waste, with less downtime and lower maintenance costs
- Better end-to-end control of operating conditions – benefiting safety as well as profitability
How Cotes solutions stand out
Cotes solutions for tackling uncontrolled humidity in chemical production operations are
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What Size Storage Unit Do I Need?
We are incredibly busy here at Arrow Mill and our self storage area is pretty full at the moment, with some sizes of unit being completely sold out, and others not far off. So, if you do need a self storage unit in Rochdale to help you with a house move, or while you do some much-needed renovation work, or perhaps to store your business stock, then you need to act quickly and also choose your unit size carefully. Sounds easy, but can you picture all your belongings and know whether they will all fit into a 50 sq ft space, or 100 sq ft, or do you need a 270 sq ft unit? How do you make that decision??
The first thing you really need to do is make a list of everything that you want to go into storage – it's one thing trying to make a rough checklist in your head, but there's nothing like actually getting everything down on paper and SEEING how many items of furniture or how many boxes you have.
You then need to think about how you can stack all of these boxes – your heavy, bulky ones need to go at the bottom, whereas those with your Great Granny's antique glass ornaments obviously need to go at the top, with nothing else above/around that could fall on them. Can your super kingsize bed actually be taken apart and flat packed to save space? Could some of your boxes fit inside that wardrobe? Little tricks like this will help you make the most of your space but without damaging any of your belongings.
You also need to consider how you want to use your unit once it has been packed. Do you literally want to close the door then not even look at it again until it's time to empty it? Or (in the case of someone storing business stock, for example) do you need regular access to take items out? If it is the latter, then you need to leave yourself a suitable gap for a pathway down the middle, or maybe one down either side – this will obviously increase the size of unit that you require.
If you take a look at the storage estimator page of our website, you will see that we have put together a handy guide for you, so this, along with the hints and tips above, will enable you to select the perfect unit for you.
We are always happy to advise and guide our customers so feel free to pop in and have a look at our units, or give us a call on 01706 716000.


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|Biosequences .. Software .. Molbio soft .. Network News .. FTP
Need advice on when to harvest shoots from the aloe vera plant. - How big should they get before removing? - The best way to remove without damaging the rest of the plant? Right now the plant is so heavy, it cannot support its own weight. I either need to harvest the shoots or learn how to stake it and straighten it. Also, I have heard that once the shoots have been harvested, they can be used for a couple of days if wrapped properly. Also need advice about the best way to do this to preserve the juice. I vaguely remember hearing about using aluminum foil, but this could be faulty. Thanking in advance for your help. CUNAYL


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Catholics have sacramental understandings of marriage and ordination to which they are entitled. But the institutional church is not entitled to foist those on the rest of the population. On ordination they do not even try. On marriage I suspect they will fail.
Marriage is a many-splendored thing. There are myriad definitions of what is a dynamic and changing phenomenon. It is not hard to recall when women were considered inferior partners in marriage, when marriage between persons of differing racial groups was not allowed, indeed when rape was permitted in marriage. Social institutions change, but the need for community and the imperative of finding loving, just and generous ways of organizing ourselves as a society remain constant. Marriage is one among several ways to do that.
The American Anthropological Association studied marriage. Its 2004 "Statement on Marriage and the Family" reported that "anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies."
From a feminist Catholic theological perspective, I consider marriage a way of lifting to public expression the love and commitment of those who choose one another as life partners. There are echoes of Catholic sacramentality in my description. But because marriage takes place in the public forum, my personal definition coheres in a wide context, not simply in a parochial one.
The world's governments respect marriage as a legal contract, and the world's religions, according to their various teachings, hold marriage up as one important, though not the only, way to live in a committed relationship.
Two examples illustrate the difference between legal and religious understandings of marriage. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and president of the Interfaith Alliance, wrote, "In the United States marriage is a legal institution -- sanctioned by government and restricted by government in the number of partners allowed in a marital relationship and the minimum age of those partners." Catholic moral theologian Daniel C. Maguire offers this religious definition: "Marriage can be defined as the unique and special form of committed friendship between sexually attracted people."
The difference between their approaches is telling. Law is not religion, and vice versa. But together law and religion are useful building blocks for a common approach as same-sex marriage gradually becomes legal around the country and good people struggle to find ways to live with it.
The distinction between marriage as a legal contract that two persons of a certain age can enter into and marriage in the range of religious understandings that form part of our multireligious landscape is an important one. Separating the civil and religious aspects of marriage is a necessary first step in this contested arena, a fundamental of religious freedom in a democratic society.
By so doing, states, and eventually the federal government, can embrace same-sex marriage, as some do already, and thus offer equal benefits and responsibilities to their citizens. Religious institutions are free to carry out their own role -- to bless, sanctify, affirm spiritually, or not, those who wish to marry. This is how it is done in many other countries and it works just fine. It is society as a whole and not disparate religious groups that decide who will marry legally. No religious group is coerced against its will; no citizen who wishes to marry is barred from the privileges that marriage confers if she or he meets the state's criteria.
This approach reflects a 21st-century theopolitical awareness of what it means to live in a pluralistic society. Just as among committed Catholics there are a variety of views on marriage, so, too, are there many views among concerned citizens. We handle these matters differently among us as citizens, by making laws. The institutional Catholic church is a major player, funding efforts like Proposition 8 in California and preaching against same-sex marriage from its pulpits.
Catholic hierarchs are welcome to their opinions on the matter. They, too, each get one vote. But a look at another Catholic sacrament shows a model for how I think same-sex marriage ought to be adjudicated in the public forum.
The parallel to the Catholic sacrament of ordination to the priesthood is the most telling one. Priestly ordination as understood in institutional Catholic theology, though I hasten to add not in Catholic theology at large, is reserved for men only. This is similar to limiting the sacrament of marriage to heterosexuals only. History demonstrates that no one can compel the institutional Roman Catholic church to ordain women even if nearly all other Christian denominations do so. But neither can the institutional Roman Catholic church, which -- I repeat -- represents only one among many Catholic views, impose its will in the public arena.
Ministers, rabbis and other religious professionals, both men and women, function as agents of the state when they witness marriages. They receive certain tax benefits because of their ordination. Institutional Roman Catholic opposition to women priests based on its sacramental theology does not equate to a ban on women in ministry in the world. To the contrary, almost every other Christian denomination ordains women. Neither should a sacramental theology of opposite-sex-only marriage equate to a ban on same-sex marriage in a democracy. Nor do I think it will in the long run.
There are good reasons to oppose same-sex marriage. They are the same reasons to look critically at opposite-sex marriage. The conferral of privilege on some and not others is suspect when it leads, for example, to health insurance being linked to a person's being in relationship with someone who has a job. That health care is a human right because we all have bodies is, in my view, more consistent with Catholic social teaching and worth debating. One might interrogate the concept of marriage because too much emphasis on couples leaves aside single people and those in community when it comes to social approval. Another ethical issue is the scandalous cost of many weddings and a marriage industry just waiting to take more people's money.
As the same-sex marriage debate continues, I hope it will turn to these issues. Otherwise, it will turn into an attempt to enforce one church's sacramental theology. Informed citizens would not accept that when it comes to ministry, so there is no reason to do so on marriage.
[Mary E. Hunt is a feminist theologian who is cofounder and codirector of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Md.]


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Interested in a printed copy of Bookwyrms or the game?
Subscribe here to know when they're ready! You'll also get icons of the main cast as a thank you :)
Well, someone got unexpectedly silenced there.
Update: I've reuploaded the page to change Kveld's question because I think the new one reflects better the impression she might have gotten from just witnessing this conversation!
Are you sure that is the right question Kveld….
Me in this page: http://rs1089.pbsrc.com/albums/i354/cathyvh06/tumblr_lnrmn0nDns1qh0epb.gif~c200
Hahaha…! I loved that reaction gif XD
Bahahahaha!!! I love the second-to-last panel!!
Thank you, Britny!! 😀 I'm glad you enjoyed it! ^^
The shipping is strong with this one. I love it!
YEP. TOTALLY shipping those two!
Also, foreshadowing? 😉
They're just so different but just go! They show different perspectives to each other and cool each other down. They make a great team.
They sure make for interesting interactions, being so different! 🙂
Is it her roundabout way to tell him they're expecting?
Hahahahaha… Imagine that!
Was that…flirting?
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For a vegetarian version of this lemony soup, use organic or lower-sodium vegetable broth in place of chicken broth.
How to Make It
Heat a large saucepan over high heat. Add olive oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add garlic and onions; sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add chicken broth and 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Add orzo, lemon rind, and chickpeas. Cover and cook 10 minutes or until orzo is done. Stir in oregano and next 4 ingredients (through spinach). Ladle 1 3/4 cups soup into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with about 4 teaspoons cheese.


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Food is seductive. The Food Network, cook books, and advertisers understand the power of creating allure for food. Food imagery sells.
Certainly, we mortals consume for sustenance; additionally, we eat for our hearts and souls. As the old adage goes, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach."
Unfortunately for many of us, food becomes our drug of choice. Some drink. Some abuse drugs. Some cheat on their spouses.
I became a card-carrying food addict. After my separation and divorce, I would pick up my two toddlers from their grandparents at the end of the day and drive home, stopping at a convenient drive-through fast-food restaurant. Those choices were high-fat, low-fiber, and sodium-laden meals. I ordered too many pizzas and Chinese deliveries for the three of us. Cookies, cakes, and pies, oh my! It's amazing that my son and daughter, now 20 and 16 years old, respectively, are growing up as slim young adults. I, on the other hand, put on over a hundred pounds from this poor diet and lifestyle of sedentary office work and coming home to watch my young people.
The simple calculus for losing weight is to increase exercise and decrease caloric intake. A part of my weight loss strategy has been to keep very little food in the cabinets and refrigerator in my home. It is easy to resist cravings when the cupboards are bare.
But what happens when the inevitable cravings hit? Dial Papa John's Pizza?
Wrong answer!
I love beans!!! Beans are a slow-burn carbohydrate; therefore, once ingested, they digest slowly. As a result, a person gets hungry slower than from eating many other foods. I like to make a big pot of beans over the weekend, and I nuke a bowl in the microwave oven without an iota of guilt whenever I need a quick meal.
But beans are boring, right?
Nope! I like to shake red pepper flakes and drizzle some olive oil atop mine. On other occasion, I add diced tomatoes (fresh or canned), chopped onions, and/or shredded cheese. Try some sour cream, bacon bits, or cilantro. There's nothing like having a healthy, tasty, and filling food waiting to slake my heart's desires.
What's your strategy for fighting your hunger pangs? I hope you take a moment to respond. Thanks in advance!
Consistency, not intensity!
God bless you,
PS Here's a great blog that covers some slow-burn carbs:


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Romelu Lukaku says there was never any doubt about him returning to Everton FC on a permanent basis.
And the towering Belgian has labelled Goodison Park as the "perfect environment" for him to flourish into one of the world's best strikers.
Lukaku sealed a club record £28m transfer from Chelsea tonight and immediately set out his ambitions to spearhead Everton's charge into the top four next season.
The 21-year-old spent a successful loan spell at Everton last term and instantly knew this was the club to launch the next phase of his career.
Lukaku said he did not speak with Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho about the move but thanked the London club for giving him the chance to play in the Premier League.
Lukaku did not want to dwell on the past and was quick to look to the future with Everton and repaying the faith manager Roberto Martinez and the Blues have shown in him.
Lukaku, who will pocket £70,000 a week in wages, said: "Last season was very good and quickly I had the feeling that this was the best place for me to develop and grow as a man and a footballer.
Read more:Lukaku to Everton: round-up of the best social media reaction
"I want to become one of the best and he wants our team to be one of the best in England.
"It has not been hard for me (to make a decision).
"I told him (Martinez) very quickly that I wanted to work with him and play at this club again.
"I decided myself very quickly that I wanted to come back here.
"I need to play at a high level and I needed to be in a place where it felt right.
"Here I have the confidence of the technical staff and I have the trust of the supporters."
Lukaku faced an uncertain future at Chelsea with Diego Costa and Dider Drogba likely to be ahead of him in the pecking order.
"This is a place where I belong," Lukaku said.
"I want to develop here and grow here and help my team-mates.
"We want to become one of the best teams in England and we want to reach the top four.
"Last year we were very close and we want to push on again.
"This is the second year and the manager wants to make a statement in this league."
Lukaku believes Martinez will become one of the world's greatest managers and said the opportunity to work under him on a long-term basis was too good to turn down.
"I developed the things you need to become a world class striker when I was here on loan," he added.
"My expectations are very high but when you have a manager who wants to push you and wants to push the team to be one of the best in the country, it is the perfect environment in which to grow.
"That's why I knew I had to come back very quickly.
"The board and my agent did very good stuff.
"Chelsea worked with us as well and they did very good stuff to get me here as quickly as possible.
"I can have a bit of pre-season here now.
"I'm 21 it's time to have a stable career as well. It was important to be somewhere like this.
"Now I don't have doubts at the end of a season."
"I just want to give 100% for this club," he continued.
"They have made a big effort for me to come here. I wanted to stay here and now I am here I want to help my team-mates to be better than we were last year."
Read more:Everton's five biggest signings as Lukaku breaks club record transfer fee
Lukaku said he left all transfer dealings down to his agent.
"When everything was done I came as quickly as I could do," he said.
"Things happen in football and sometimes it is not meant to be.
"Chelsea are a big club and sometimes it is difficult for young players to come through.
"But they gave me the opportunity to come to England.
"Chelsea are a big club and taught me how to be professional. When I came to England I was 18 and knew nothing about being professional.
"I was very ambitious but Chelsea taught me about a work ethics and winning mentality.
"I don't have negative feelings about that football club.
"But I want to have a good career. Because in football sometimes a career is only 10 years and I didn't want to spend 10 years on the bench.
"This is a club with a lot of ambition.
"And this is the perfect environment for a young player to grow."
Lukaku said the club record transfer does not act as a burden on him: "I think the club wants to make a statement and I want to help the club to make a statement in this league.
"I don't put myself under pressure and just want to help my team-mates make this team as good as possible.
"Mr Martinez will be one of the best managers in the world so for me to work under him is the best thing for me.
"I don't have any regrets and I'm happy with the choice I've made."


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Appearances, as the saying goes, can be deceptive. The man at the helm of Unilever, Paul Polman, presents exactly the sort of public face you would expect from the CEO of the world's third-largest FMCG company. Tall, tanned and self-possessed, smartly but not flashily dressed, from neat silver grey hair to impeccably shined shoes, he's every inch the textbook FTSE 100 boss.
He looks like the sort of grey-suited specimen whose idea of fun is poring over the minutiae of how to sell more margarine, tea and toothpaste, but beneath the corporate uniform beats the reforming heart of a radical. His mission? To bring Unilever and its huge portfolio of household brands - Knorr stock cubes to Domestos, Signal toothpaste to Cif - into the 21st century. And to challenge the most ingrained assumptions of the business and financial world in the process.
How many other leading lights of UK plc would dare to suggest in public that, for example, the concept of shareholder value has passed its sell-by date? Or to tell the City it would get no more earnings guidance or quarterly financial reports? Or voice the opinion that hedge fund managers would 'sell their own grandmothers if they thought they could make a profit'?
Precious few. Yet Polman (pictured on the roof of Unilever House, the company's Art Deco London HQ) has done all these things in a feather-ruffling 26 months in the Unilever hot seat. Nor has he done so from a position of great strength, with credit at the bank of goodwill to spend on such pronouncements. Unilever may be a big beast, but it's a lumbering one whose inability to proceed at more than a walking pace has frustrated markets and shareholders alike for years. However much Polman enjoys poking sticks into wasps' nests, might it not have been safer to have kept his more provocative opinions to himself?
Take the issue of shareholder value, which since the 1980s has become the prevailing orthodoxy on what business is for. The focus on delivering short-term shareholder value has led, says Polman, to widespread addiction to quick artificial highs - rather like a junkie hooked on heroin or a financial trader on cocaine.
The ultimate cost of short-termism, he says, was the financial crisis of 2008-9. 'Too many investors have become short-term gamblers: the more fluctuations in share price they can engineer, the better it is for them. It is not good for the companies or for society, but it is influencing the way firms are being run, all the same.'
He prefers to champion the customer over the investor, even if that means telling investors to wind their necks in. 'To drag the world back to sanity, we need to know why we are here. The answer is: for consumers, not shareholders. If we are in synch with consumer needs and the environment in which we operate, and take responsibility for society as well as for our employees, then the shareholder will also be rewarded.'
It is not an easy pill for all to swallow - when Polman announced his intention to abandon earnings forecasts last year, Unilever's shares dropped 10% at a stroke. Perhaps his greatest ire has been reserved for the hedge funds: he was at Davos last year when he made the 'grandmother' crack and it's not surprising to learn he no longer makes financial presentations to hedge fund managers. 'I do not wish to be political, but my decisions are made in the long-term interests of the company. It would be easy for me to jack the share price up, collect a bonus and go sailing in the Bahamas, but in five or 10 years Unilever would not be in good shape.'
His fondness for talking about the needs of society and the long view, coupled with an occasionally eccentric turn of phrase (although, like many of the Dutch, his English is fluent), make him sound a little out of step with the times on occasion. But his motivations are bang up to date. He wants to make Unilever into the kind of high-performance 21st century operation he believes it should be, and to do it by capitalising on its longstanding reputation as a good corporate citizen.
'It is clear to me we are coming out of the financial crisis and into a 'new normal', created by tremendous pressure on the resources of the earth. There are two billion more people coming in the emerging markets and standards of living there will rise,' adds Polman.
Population growth, climate change and the desire for a new social contract between business and the consumer are delivering big shocks to the global economic system, he says. We can't pretend we are not going to feel them. Nor can Unilever, which now makes some 50% of its annual sales in emerging markets.
That means pressure on prices, particularly of the edible oils that form a staple part of the company's diet. This year's results - operating profits up a tasty 26% to £5.4bn on turnover up 11% to £37.8bn - came with a warning that rising commodity costs would add about £1.5bn to the bill over the coming year.
In the longer term, Polman believes the 'new normal' requires a different approach to doing business, codified in his strategic brainchild, the 'sustainable living plan', launched last autumn. The plan has three key objectives, to be achieved by 2020: to cut the environmental impact of Unilever's products in half by slashing water use and carbon emissions; to source sustainably all its agricultural supplies; and to improve the health and wellbeing of a billion people worldwide. Oh, and to do all this while doubling sales revenues.
'Too many people think in terms of trade-offs,' Polman says, 'that if you do something which is good for you, then it must be bad for someone else. That's not right and it comes from old thinking about the way the world works and what business is for: Milton Friedman's optimisation of short-term profits. We have to snap out of that old thinking and move to a new model.
'Our new business model will decouple growth from environmental impact. We will double in size, but reduce our overall effect on the environment. Consumers are asking for it, but governments are incapable of delivering it. It is needed for society and it energises our people - it reduces costs and increases innovation.'
Take Persil small and mighty, a concentrated detergent that uses less packaging and is cheaper and less polluting to transport. It washes better, at lower temperatures, using less energy, he says. Everyone benefits.
In the developing world, water is precious, so Unilever has introduced an easy-rinsing detergent that saves billions of litres of water. Sustainable living is not a pipedream, he says. 'It can be done, and there is very little downside.'
But it's a hugely demanding objective all the same, especially when it comes to the supply chain. Only 10% of the agricultural produce it uses today is from sustainable sources. It's also the first time that a company the size of Unilever has nailed its colours to the sustainability mast in quite such an unambiguous fashion. What will happen if the sustainable living plan turns out to be, well, unsustainable?
'I'm uncomfortable about it myself. You have to be if you are going to achieve audacious goals. But what is the alternative? In parts of the Middle East, there are food riots and 50% unemployment. Two billion people across the globe live on less than a dollar a day.
'There will always be cynics who ask: "If you miss one target, will you still be the CEO?" But these people are spectators. We say: "We can't do this on our own, so be part of it." In that spirit, I think we can do well and move the world to a better place.'
His speech is like a fast-flowing, undammed river, drowning interruptions or digressions until he has had his say. He's a forceful arguer and trying to get a word in the other direction feels like swimming upstream.
There's also a touch of the evangelist, which may account for sometimes brusque treatment at the hands of the financial press. 'I hate to say it, but the FT has been the least supportive newspaper,' he says, bridling visibly at the name. 'Some of its reporting has been poor.'
He is clearly looking forward to a day when Unilever's performance forces the sceptics to eat their words. But although the share price is up substantially from the dark days of 2009, that rise seems to have stalled again in the past year, as fears over input cost inflation and the sustainable living plan have emerged.
There has been plenty to keep his mind off such annoyances. On his first day in the job in January 2009, he froze salaries and slashed overseas travel: salaries for many remain frozen. He then set about shaking the corporate tree so hard that, within a few months, over a third of the firm's top 100 executives had fallen out - including the CFO, chief marketing officer and global head of foods, home and personal care.
It helped that the financial crisis had made a bad situation even worse. 'It gave me a mandate. There was a burning platform out there, which people understood. We have new people in a lot of key positions,' he says unblushingly. He didn't stop at the top team either. All managers' feet are now held much closer to the fire, thanks to 30-day action plans and revised bonus schemes that combine bigger rewards for good performance with stronger penalties for underachievers.
It's all in the name of speed to market and faster, consumer-led product innovation. The global roll-out of its new Dove deodorant brands is the biggest and fastest-moving Unilever has ever attempted. 'We have now launched more new brands in new territories in the past year than we did in the previous 10,' he says.
But what about the rest of the staff? For many of the firm's 163,000 employees (half of them based in the Americas, Middle East and Asia), it must all have looked suspiciously like the thin end of a hard-nosed wedge. Not much carrot and a lot of stick. But it needed to be done, he says. 'The culture was internally focused and self-serving after years of restructuring. It was a good company with some good values, but it needed more than that to be a winner.'
There are signs, he adds, that his tough love is working. 'Our volume growth is the best it has been in 25 years and employee engagement is up. It comes from being successful - it is simply more pleasant to work in an atmosphere where people are winning.'
It has certainly been a while since a boss of Unilever could talk about winning without crossing his fingers. Although its roots date back to the Victorian era, Unilever proper was formed in 1929 by a marriage of convenience between philanthropic soap-maker Lever Brothers and Holland's Margarine Unie (the unlikely couple shared an affinity for rape seed oil as their key raw material).
For the first couple of decades of its existence, trouble was ever-present, from the Great Depression to the Second World War. This background of hardship bred a peculiarly decentralised organisation, in which local trading companies and divisions across the world were loosely united and nominally controlled by joint HQs in the UK and the Netherlands.
'Globalisation' played a big part in building Unilever's reputation for doing the right thing. Those local companies used local managers, who inclined to a more progressive and less exploitative modus operandi than more colonial rivals. It was also robust - Unilever made it through the war in remarkably good shape - but the structure had two major drawbacks. It was inefficient and, worse still, difficult (perhaps impossible) to co-ordinate from the centre.
When the consumer boom of the 1950s got underway, Unilever started to lose out to slicker centralised rivals, most notably Procter & Gamble. Unilever entered a long, if stately, period of decline.
The challenge facing Polman remains essentially the same: how to get the firm to grow as quickly as it should. On paper, Unilever has a lot going for it - a strong brand portfolio with tremendous global penetration in both the developed and emerging worlds, longstanding and fruitful relationships with its suppliers and an intelligent, diverse and experienced pool of management talent. Despite these advantages Unilever has been a chronic underperformer, frustrating both the markets and its management by consistently proving to be less than the sum of its parts. For much of the noughties, growth was negligible.
'There have been long periods of no growth and sub-optimal results,' admits Polman. Efforts to tackle the problem by major restructuring, streamlining the portfolio and hiving off businesses such as the Diversey cleaning division in 2002 and Birds Eye and Igloo in 2006 had been partially successful at best.
'There was battle fatigue and if there's one thing I am really pleased about it's that the confidence is back. When we see opportunities we are not ashamed to go after them any more,' he says.
Last year's acquisition of Alberto-Culver for £2.3bn, gave Unilever a huge stake in the high-margin, high-growth personal care market, adding brands such as VO5 shampoo, Simple soap and Noxzema to the portfolio, while a £1bn deal for Radox-maker Sara Lee's personal care business went through in 2009.
For all his desire to do the right thing, Polman - who runs marathons and climbs mountains in his spare time - is a ruthless competitor. He uses 'win' words a lot, and 'it is better to make the dust than to eat it' is another favourite expression. He also likes to test managers' mettle by 'inviting' them to join him on training runs.
He'll need all his persuasive skill to convince a sceptical financial community that the sustainable living plan is different and that finally Unilever will manage to deliver on its grand promises. Polman's appointment was itself a measure of how low the firm's star had sunk with shareholders. Not only is he the first outsider ever to be put in charge, he also spent 27 years of his career at arch-rival Procter & Gamble, working his way up from the finance department to group president in Europe by the time he left. A stint as CFO of Nestle followed, before he was headhunted for the top spot at Unilever. For a firm that prides itself on growing its own talent, this was tantamount to letting the fox loose in the chicken coop.
But it was a good match - Polman is progressive, meritocratic and unwilling to follow the herd. 'I have managed to make a decent career without ever once having played golf,' he says. 'And I have never asked for a salary increase, a promotion or a particular job. I have always had the opinion that if you do what you do well, then the opportunities will come.'
Married with three grown-up sons, he lives in the UK, but has the rootless air of someone who has followed his personal star. 'I say to my kids - don't be driven slavishly by a job title, only to find out when you get there that your ladder is up against the wrong wall.'
One of six siblings in a staunch Catholic family, Polman was born in 1956 in the Dutch town of Enschede. His father was a tyre company executive and his mother a schoolteacher who quit to raise her family. He wanted to be a doctor, but places at medical school were allotted by a lottery system and he wasn't picked. 'I still wonder what my life would have been like as a doctor.' Less well paid? He trousered a total of £2.8m in 2009, but doesn't think it's a fair question: 'You can't link money with passion and success.'
He also spent time studying for the priesthood in a Carmelite seminary - 'My family was always clear life was about more than money' - before heading to the US. He ended up at university in Cincinatti, home to P&G's head office. 'At night, I worked in a P&G building and they asked me to join them. I never wanted to go into business, but that is what life is like: there's a lot of serendipity. If you're a planner you get frustrated. Create your own opportunities and then get firmly behind them, because you made the choice.'
So why choose Unilever? 'What attracted me, selfishly I admit, is that I can use a company of this size not only to do what is right for the company but also what is right for society. There was a chance to turn Unilever into a really great company, to have the kind of personal influence which you can't have as number two.'
Unsurprisingly, he has great faith in his powers of analysis. Once he's figured something out to his own satisfaction, that's the way it's going be. Obstructions - in the form of institutions or people who don't share the same view - are either reasoned with (he is highly persuasive) or simply ignored and worked around.
Hence his novel campaign to 'reprofile' Unilever's shareholder base, to win over the long-term investors he believes his company deserves. 'We spend a lot of time disengaging from shareholders who do not benefit our strategy, and attracting those who do buy into what we are doing. There will always be people driven by short-termism, greed and self-interest, but we'd rather not have them associated with our company.'
In a world where institutional investors are used to being courted, indulged and generally sucked-up to, it makes a refreshing change to meet someone who so cheerfully adopts a 'treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen'
approach. It's yet another reason why the City looks on Unilever with uncertainty, but for Polman it's all part of trying to put that genie of shareholder value back in the bottle. 'We're trying to build our sustainable model, the share price is up 50%, and there are more "buy" recommendations on our stock than "sell" ones. Unilever is back deciding its own future.'
That radical spirit bubbles up again. 'All I am saying is, "here's our strategy, buy into it". People forget that the financial world is only the grease in the system, it is companies such as Unilever which have the track record of value creation.'
- To manage for the short term, keeping a lid on costs and an eye on cash flow, as well as taking the long view he prefers
- To drive speed and innovation at Unilever as fast as it can go, without pushing so hard that the wheels fall off
- To win over a sceptical City by proving that sustainability really does go arm in arm with faster growth and bigger profits
1956 Born 11 July in Enschede, eastern Netherlands. Father a tyre company executive, mother a schoolteacher
1977 BBA/BA, University of Groningen. Followed by MA in economics and an MBA in finance and international marketing from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio
1979 Joins P&G finance department as a cost analyst before switching to marketing
1995 Managing director, P&G UK
2001 Group president Europe, P&G
2006 Leaves P&G after 27 years to become chief financial officer at Nestle
2009 1 January, Joins Unilever as CEO


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Our first four days of trading have been busy with over two hundred people through the doors and plenty of interest (and plenty of sales).
We have a good stock of assorted bobbins in now, very popular little decorative items (almost as popular as our selection of old souvenir tea spoons from all over the world).
And we have added some 'green' to the store to liven it up a bit (can't be all rusty metal and old wood).
And finally, we have set up a Face Book 'like' page - just trying to keep up with 21st Century marketing and webvertising!


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A Dollar In The Hand Is Worth Zero In The Wallet
Me: "Your total is $10.27, ma'am."
Customer: *waves a piece of paper* "Is this a coupon?"
Me: "Not exactly. If you put your email address on it, we'll send it to corporate and they'll send you store updates, which will also have a coupon in the first email you receive."
Customer: "Oh, great! Thanks!" *turns to leave*
Me: "Ma'am, you still need to pay."
Customer: "I just did."
Me: "I don't think so."
Customer: "No?"
Me: "No, ma'am, you didn't. Your total is $10.27."
Customer: "Well, now I know I paid! I remember you saying $10.27 before."
Me: "Yes, I did, but you didn't pay me the last time I said it, either."
Customer: "So, you know what that means?" *reaches for her unpaid items*
Me: *takes back her unpaid items* "…that you can't have this until you pay for it?"
Customer: "I'm never shopping here again!"


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Audi Motorsport Newsletter 04/2015
- DTM and World RX meet at Hockenheim
- Timo Scheider in mountain bike race in South Africa
- Basseng and Sandström strengthen MS Racing in ADAC GT Masters
Motorsport fans can already look forward to the DTM season opener at the beginning of May, as the FIA Rallycross World Championship will be staging a round in a grand festival together with the touring cars.
World Rallycross Championship at DTM season opener
The DTM season will start with an additional highlight in 2015. The season opener at Hockenheim (April 30 to May 3) will include a round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship (World RX) in which Mattias Ekström caused a sensation last year with his privately fielded Audi S1 EKS RX quattro – including a victory in the World RX round in Sweden. Hockenheim will also be seeing the inaugural event of the Audi Sport TT Cup. Therefore, Audi fans have three good reasons to travel to the DTM opener this time. Tickets are available online at www.audi-motorsport.com.
Timo Scheider on a mountain bike through South Africa
Audi driver Timo Scheider is going to pedal. From March 15 to 22, the two-time DTM Champion will be competing in the Cape Epic mountain bike stage race in South Africa with the factory team of the Cologne-based bike manufacturer Bulls. During the challenging eight-day event that starts at the campus of the University of Cape Town at the foot of the Table Mountain and finishes at the Meerendal wine estate, the 36-year-old will be pitted against the world's best mountain bikers while having to master a cumulative elevation gain of some 16,000 meters.
Tom Kristensen: Slot car debut and book project
Tom Kristensen has ended his active career as a race driver but the Dane, who continues to work for Audi as an ambassador and fitness consultant, is not suffering from boredom. The Le Mans record winner is working on a book about his career that is to be published on the occasion of the Le Mans 24 Hours. On Wednesday night, he was a surprise guest at the season opener of the RCCO slot car racing series that is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. At the controls of an Audi R8, he won a "Danish duel" against his compatriot Anders Fjordbach, who in 2015 is competing in the Blancpain GT Series in an Audi R8 LMS ultra.
Basseng and Sandström strengthen kfzteile24 MS Racing Team
kfzteile24 MS Racing Team strengthens its lineup in the ADAC GT Masters. In the 2015 season, the squad from Waldshut-Tiengen in the Black Forest is fielding two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars. Up to now, Florian Stoll and Daniel Dobitsch have been competing together in a car, now each of the two race drivers has received a new team-mate. Stoll is contesting his fifth season in the supersport car category together with Marc Basseng, the 2012 winner of the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Dobitsch relies on Edward Sandström, the 2011 winner of the Dubai 24 Hours, as a new driving partner. The squad headed by team director is now racing with Audi for the third consecutive year.
Kelvin van der Linde is Motor Sportsman of the Year
Kelvin van der Linde has received a nice accolade for his performances in his native South Africa. The Audi driver, who is only 18 years old, won the 2014 ADAC GT Masters together with René Rast in the Audi R8 LMS ultra of Prosperia C. Abt Racing and has now been voted Motor Sportsman of the Year. He had previously won the award for the first time a year ago – then as the youngest-ever recipient of this award. The up-and-coming driver from Dainfern near Johannesburg is again competing with Audi in the ADAC GT Masters this year in order to defend his title.
A word from ... Mattias Ekström
You're a DTM driver and owner of a private rallycross team. How do you view the joint appearance of DTM and World RX at Hockenheim?
It's fantastic that this is coming off. The ITR and the IMG have been working on this for a long time behind the scenes. As a rallycross team boss, I'm delighted about the RX supercars being allowed to race in front of such a great crowd at the Hockenheim Motodrom. As a DTM driver, I'm delighted about the DTM opener becoming even more interesting as a whole and that additional fans will be traveling to Hockenheim. It's a win-win situation for both – the DTM and the World RX. But the fans are the true winners.
What can the spectators look forward to on the first weekend in May?
To two of the best racing series that currently exist in the world, with fascinating race cars such as the Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM and our Audi S1 EKS RX quattro – currently the only Audi in motorsport with conventional quattro drive. In addition, there'll be the inaugural event of the new Audi Sport TT Cup. It'll be a unique opportunity to experience all this on a single weekend not to be missed by any fan. I'm sure that the best tickets for the DTM festival will quickly be sold.
The DTM had a long winter break. Now the action will soon be starting again, with testing scheduled at Portimão (Portugal) for the beginning of March. Are you looking forward to sitting in the DTM cockpit again?
As long as there's still snow on the ground here I'm still finding a bit difficult to think about a DTM race. But the upcoming track tests are sending a clear signal that we'll be starting again soon. And that's good. The new DTM season with its new format and the additional races promises plenty of suspense.
You'll be competing in car #5 in the DTM this year – that's the number you clinched your first title with in 2004. A good omen?
Yes, but not just because of that. I generally like the number '5' because a lot of things in life have to do with '5.'
Will you be competing with '5' in the Rallycross World Championship as well?
The plans for my private team, EKS, have not been completed yet. We're still looking for partners to support us. Our aim is to compete in the full World Championship. But nothing's locked in concrete yet. Obviously, I'm hoping for EKS to be able to race in the DTM festival at Hockenheim.
Coming up next week
25/02 Nico Müller's 23rd birthday
25/02 Adrien Tambay's 24th birthday
01/03 Adelaide (AUS), round 1, Australian GT Series
– End –


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former New York congresswoman Susan Molinari has signed on to be Google Inc's top lobbyist in Washington at a time when the search engine company faces growing regulatory challenges.
Molinari, once viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party, will be the vice president for public policy for North and South America, Google said in a statement on Thursday.
She replaces Alan Davidson, who began Google's lobbying operation several years ago. He stepped down in November.
Google has faced down one regulatory challenge after another in recent years, but has come through generally unscathed. It won antitrust permission to buy Motorola Mobility and ticketing software company ITA, among many recent acquisitions.
But it has also had setbacks, including a New York court's rejection of a digital books project, a failed bid for a joint venture with Yahoo! Inc in 2008 and a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission last year following Google's botched rollout of its now defunct social network Buzz. The decree calls for monitoring that lasts 20 years.
Google could also be hurt by efforts to give consumers more privacy online. The White House asked Congress on Thursday to pass a "privacy bill of rights" that would give consumers much more control over the data being collected about them by Internet and other companies.
The FTC, which also investigates violations of antitrust law, is currently looking into complaints that Google's search results favor the company's other services, among other issues.
Google hired 12 lobbying firms this past summer in the wake of the FTC probe, after previously hiring six other lobbying firms.
Government filings show Google has lobbied on issues as disparate as copyright, taxes, cybersecurity, privacy and patent reform.
Molinari, a Republican, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1990, but stepped down in 1997. She worked in television for a period and then became a lobbyist.
The appointment was first reported by Politico.
Reporting By Diane Bartz; editing by Andre Grenon


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|You are in: UK: England
Thursday, 4 July, 2002, 12:30 GMT 13:30 UK
Man denies Thatcher statue charge
A theatre producer accused of decapitating a statue of Baroness Thatcher has pleaded not guilty to criminal damage.
Paul Kelleher, 37, from Isleworth, west London, appeared in court on Thursday and was released on bail with an order to return on 24 July.
The eight-feet white marble sculpture, which was on display at Guildhall Art Gallery, has now been withdrawn from view.
City of London Magistrates' Court was told how Mr Gilbert entered the gallery carrying a cricket bat.
John Gilbert, prosecuting, said: "When he was beside the statue he took out the cricket bat and took a swipe at the statue.
"He took another swing at the statue with that heavy pole and in that way he knocked the head of the statue off.
"He didn't run, he stayed in order to be arrested, and he was taken to a police station and interviewed.
Mr Gilbert also said that Mr Kelleher was making a protest against global capitalism.
When asked to enter a plea, the accused said to the court clerk: "With the greatest respect to the court ma'am I'm unable to enter a plea of guilty due to the fact it is criminal damage.
"I'm not a criminal so I will have to enter a plea of not guilty."
'No hurt'
Mr Kelleher, who is defending himself, said: "The objective of the exercise yesterday was to remove the head of the statue for some of the reasons the prosecution have said.
The sculpture is insured for a sum of £150,000, but the cost to repair it is not known.
Sculptor Neil Simmons, 44, said he was "deeply saddened" by the damage.
It took him two years to find the right size piece of marble for the 1.8-ton statue, and eight months and several sittings with Lady Thatcher to complete.
A spokesman for Lady Thatcher said there would be no statement from her.
See also:
01 Feb 02 | UK Politics
26 Jan 02 | UK Politics
21 Jan 02 | UK Politics
24 Dec 01 | UK Politics
03 May 99 | Thatcher Anniversary
26 Apr 99 | Thatcher Anniversary
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This report was commissioned by the EBRD to analyze and identify constraints and opportunities in the Ukrainian dairy sector and review the results of a rural household dairy farmer training. The report is structured in three chapters. The first reviews the overall sector in Ukraine and explains clearly why rural household production is struggling to compete. The second chapter presents commercial and household dairy farm investment models, exploring whether the latter can modernize their technology and still be profitable. The third gives an overview of the dairy farm training activities that took place in the Sumy Oblast of Ukraine.
The report explores the roots of rural household milk quality and supply problems, which include poor credit access and animal nutrition knowledge, and suggests solutions such as stronger state support policies, regulation of antiobiotics use in household farms, and the introduction of price premiums by processors to reward rural household farms that produce higher quality milk.
|Download Publication
|Improving Milk Supply in Northern Ukraine
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Chairman Emeritus
Mark Ingall
Born and educated in England, Mark began his career in advertising in the media department of Saatchi & Saatchi in London in 1982 - cutting his media teeth on TV planning and buying for Procter & Gamble. In 1984 Mark moved into Saatchi's International media group to work on the British Airway's business. In 1986 he took over responsibility for that group – its client roster included British Petroleum, DHL, Gillette, Hilton Hotels, Hewlett Packard, ICI, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble to name a few. In May of 1999, Mark moved to the USA to take up the newly created position of Director, Global Strategic Media at Citi. In this role, he is responsible for media strategy and execution across Citi's Global Consumer Businesses: Cards, Retail Banking and Consumer Finance.
Chairman Emeritus
Andrew McLean
Andrew left the UK & moved to New York to join The Media Edge in 2000 after 5 years at The Walt Disney Company where he was Executive Director European Advertising & Media. The role was to generate effective communication by using creative and innovative media solutions to drive box office & home entertainment sales of filmed entertainment products released by The Walt Disney Company under it's Buena Vista & Miramax brands. It included the directing of advertising strategy, media planning, overseeing all media buys & negotiation, performance evaluation, adaptation of creative work, placing trailers, working with in house creatives and creative agencies, promotion agencies, promotional partners, developing their internet site and other new media applications. He studied for his MBA while at Disney & was heavily involved with their work in the new area of Digital filmed entertainment.
Tom Brookbanks
Tom Brookbanks is a Senior Vice President, Director responsible for business to business communications on the Samsung account at Starcom New York.A driver of change in the international BtoB and retail branding space, Tom was recognized by The Internationalist as one of its "Agency Innovators". His teams have been recognized with awards for media creativity and innovation in driving change including an M&M Europe Award for rebranding Andersen Consulting as Accenture and for the launch of the world's first smartphone. He gained his retail chops in support of Chevorn's Texaco and Chevron brands and in communicating Citi's diverse retail services through and coming out of the financial crisis.
Fraser Riddell
My career started in the UK in 1990 as a media planner buyer @ TMD (later Carat), progressing to become a board account leader at MediaCom UK overseeing a team of 15 across a wide range of client businesses. In 2001 I moved into international media operations, and set up the international client management unit at MediaCom Europe, servicing global clients such as Oracle, Nokia, Shell, Coca Cola and P&G over the following 10 years. During this time I also performed the Chief Business Development Officer role for MediaCom, winning over $3bn in new business in international and multilocal pitches. I moved to New York with my family in 2011 to continue my international career, where I now lead the MediaCom Beyond Borders International client account management unit, running Revlon, Subway, Brand USA, American Eagle and Indeed.com with my team. I sit on the MediaCom Executive Committee where I represent global and US international client issues.
1st Vice President
Amanda Marano
Washington Post
With over 13 years of relationships and experience in the cross-platform media sales, Amanda Marano is an integral part of the NY-based global digital team for The Washington Post. Prior to joining The Washington Post, she began her career at Ogilvy & Mather and transitioned to the publisher/brand side of the business. Initially starting as a Sales Assistant at Conde Nast, she soon began climbing the ladder at some of the world's leading business news brands, including The Economist, The New Yorker, The BBC and Bloomberg. In her past roles, she's developed and broke new business across the travel, financial, energy, pharmaceutical, luxury and corporate categories. Key client relationships include: IBM, GE, Citi, Richemont, UPS, PWC, TD Ameritrade, Giorgio Armani, GSK, L'Oreal, Chevron and Marriott. Key agency relationships include the following : Ogilvy, Neo, MEC, Deutsch, PhD, Initiative, Zenith, OMD, Havas, The GiantSpoon, Mediacom, GroupM, Mindshare, Annalect, UM, The Gate Worldwide.
Tim Wastney
November 2017 Tim began his role as SVP Advertising Sales, Americas. Based in New York, he is responsible for advertising revenues for all BBC Global News Ltd products, namely BBC.com and BBC World News, the BBC's global 24-hour news channel, as well as TopGear.com, BBCgoodfood.com and the BBC World Service digital portfolio.
Tim started his media career in London in 1999 working for Fox Kids before joining the BBC in 2001 working in an advertising strategic role for BBC World News TV. During Tim's 17 year career with the BBC he has held senior roles focused on driving revenue both nationally and internationally for the BBC based in Canada, Singapore, Australia and the UK working across sales, business intelligence and business development disciplines.
In April 2007, Tim was appointed as Head of Business Strategy-Global at BBC Advertising where he was responsible for commercial strategy across advertising sales. This included BBC World News TV and the commercialisation of the digital news service BBC.com.
In April 2013, Tim was also appointed to the position of Regional Sales Director, Australia & NZ which further entailed outlining the commercial strategic vision for the BBC News services in the region. Following this Tim was appointed to VP-Global Business Intelligence and Strategy reporting into the EVP Sales to further shape BBC Advertising's direction across products and global markets based in London. Further to this, Tim was appointed to Sales Director Singapore, and VP Digital Canada to lead on sales and strategy for BBC Advertising in both countries.
Michael Paradiso
CA Technologies
As Vice President, Content & Advertising, Mike is responsible for delivering corporate advertising and solutions level content that aligns with overall brand and messaging strategy atCA Technologies, one of the world's largest enterprise software companies. Mike leads a group that creates and develops brand and solutions advertising, corporate collateral and assets to drive awareness around strategic themes and solution level content to support business unit needs and goals. Mike oversees the development of the global advertising and media strategy and is responsible for the execution of those programs. Mike's previous role at CA Technologies was in Field Marketing where he was responsible for developing and implementing a variety of marketing programs to support a 200+ person, $800 million sales team. Mike led a group that identified and executed lead programs and pipeline generating activities to drive new revenue opportunities across CA Technologies portfolio of products. Mike earned a bachelors degree from St. John's University and an MBA in International Business from Hofstra University. Mike served on the Board of Directors for BPA International from 2002 to 2008 and it currently on the board of directors for the United States Chapter of the IAA. In 2007, he was named a Marketer of the Year by B2B Magazine and in 2009 he was named to The Internationalist Magazine's 2009 Internationalist of the Year List.
VP of Young Professionals
Katrin Barbarello
As a native German, Katrin Barbarello has spent the last 7+ years in PR and media sales in New York City. Katrin has acquired a strong expertise in international media during her time with the leading global media and advertising services company Publicitas and with CNN International. At Publicitas, Katrin oversaw all online business, covering the travel, fashion, finance, tech, defense, aviation and education category. She worked on accounts like Google, Hyatt, JP Morgan Chase, Boeing, CA Technologies, Michael Kors and Tiffany's & Co.
Since joining CNN International in March 2016, Katrin has been busy leveraging global integrated advertising solutions including TV, Digital, Social, Events and custom branded content for clients like Marriott International, Schneider Electric, Merck and CA Technologies.
VP of Marketing
Caitlin Crawford
Caitlin Crawford is the Senior Director of Marketing at Adweek, leading all marketing and communications initiatives for the company. Having established her marketing prowess over the past decade at a variety of media organizations ranging from The Wall Street Journal to Live Nation Entertainment, Crawford has a talent for building consensus, instituting processes that streamline communication and helping clear the runway for teams to meet aggressive growth goals. Leveraging strategic and creative skill sets, she has consistently led teams in creating innovative, cross-platform programs for a wide array of advertising partners. Since joining Adweek in September of 2017, Crawford has singlehandedly built the marketing department from the ground up, contributing significantly to the company's increased revenue and growth across advertising sales, events, memberships and more. Caitlin is a graduate of Wellesley College.
VP Area Director USA/Canada
Brendan Ripp
National Geographic
Brendan Ripp is Executive Vice President, National Geographic Partners, FOX Networks Group. In this role, Brendan oversees National Geographic Partners' brand revenue across all platforms including National Geographic Linear TV, OTT, as well as digital, social, mobile and print. Ripp, joined the company in November of 2016 to lead the National Geographic Advertising Sales and Client Solutions' teams. Brendan most recently served as President of Technology, Telecommunications & Finance, Sales and Marketing for Time Inc. In this role, he focused exclusively on these categories as part of Time Inc.'s new advertising sales go-to-market strategy. Before Time Inc's vertical restructure in Q1 '16, Brendan served as Group Publisher of the Sports Illustrated Group which also includes SI, SI.com SI for Kids, Fansided.com GOLF and Golf.com. He led the development of nearly two dozen brand extensions including a new film production unit, a college sports vertical, consumer events and most recently the launch of SI Overtime, a branded content studio. At Sports Illustrated Brendan shepherded the brand through unprecedented growth and diversification across all platforms, as well as new marketing and live-event initiatives. During his tenure, Sports Illustrated debuted four franchises and designed a groundbreaking OTT sports video network, 120 Sports. In collaboration with leagues and media companies, 120 Sports achieved record digital growth in audience and was named a 2014 Top 25 app by Apple. Brendan also served on the board of 120 Sports and SI Play, a business launched in 2015 that is devoted to youth and amateur sports. Prior to Sports Illustrated, Brendan attained success serving in leadership positions at Fortune, Time and Money. All three brands achieved consistent revenue gains and financial performance milestones while each brand expanded its consumer footprint through innovation and cross-brand collaboration. At Fortune, as Vice President of Advertising Sales, Brendan drove revenue growth and the continued expansion of Fortune's robust conference business, which hosted its most successful Fortune Global Forum in Chengdu, China. Also, the 2013 Fortune 500 issue was the largest since 2008 and had the best ad performance of any Fortune issue since 2004. At Time, where he was Publisher, Brendan was responsible for growing Time's business across new media platforms and for fostering Time's reputation as a leading advertising solutions partner. In April 2010, Brendan helped launch Time's iPad app, the first iPad app for Time Warner, which was followed by the hugely successful Life Photo App. As Publisher of Money he was instrumental in launching multi-platform, cross-title partnerships with This Old House and Real Simple. Brendan began his Time Inc. career in 2000 as a Junior Sales Representative for Time, and over the next decade rose through the organization, becoming the publication's youngest Publisher (at 33) since founding editor Henry R. Luce. Before joining Time Inc., Brendan worked in JWT's Global Account Management group, developing and coordinating television, print, digital and outdoor advertising campaigns that ran in more than 20 countries. Brendan graduated from Gettysburg College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international business management and economics. In 2014, Gettysburg College President Janet Riggs presented Brendan with the 2014 Young Alumni Achievement Award. He is a board member for several organizations, including the National Board of Directors of the American Advertising Federation, Concern Worldwide, International Advertising Association (IAA) and the Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment Advisory Board. Brendan is a member of the NY Ad Club, Financial Communications Society and Gettysburg College's Campaign Executive Committee.
VP, Digital
Marcus Harper
Marcus was born in the UK & educated at St Edwards Oxford & the École Supérieur de Commerce in Bordeaux (France). Marcus spent 9 years with Renault-Nissan (ranked #2 by sales globally) in Paris serving as Global B2B Finance Controller & then Head of Brand, Product & Pricing for large cars in the UK. Marcus spent 4 years with Avis Budget Group EMEA overseeing Fleet Procurement & Asset Optimization (where he introduced technology to predict demand & optimize vehicle supply to increase operating returns). This led to Marcus joining Yahoo to lead the Automotive & then EMEA Strategic Client business. In 2014 Marcus joined Quantcast (global leader – AI marketing technology) to help build the EMEA & then Global Advertiser & Agency business.
Co-VP of Thought Leadership and Insights
Dana Seigal
Dana is an award winning, customer-centric Senior Sales Exec with 15+ years experience delivering best in class solutions for best in class clients. Currently a very happy Global Account Manager for Technology Powerhouse Sprinklr, helping Strategic Enterprise Accounts manage their Customer-Centric (social) Digital Transformation. Dana focuses on helping clients achieve their professional goals and takes pride in working with some of the best in the business.
Co-VP of Thought Leadership and Insights
Brent Buntin
Code and Theory
As Director of Strategic Partnerships, Brent leads business development efforts at Code and Theory. Brent has worked in variety of marketing and sales roles over his career. His experience includes branded entertainment, event marketing, startups, cross-platform media sales, and SaaS enterprise sales. Prior to Code and Theory, Brent held positions at Yext, Bloomberg, Inadco, and Forbes. Brent has a B.S. in Marketing and International Business from New York University.
VP, Golf
John Fredette
John's experience includes television and digital, branded entertainment, direct and event marketing. Prior to Xerox, he worked for, IBM, and TJX Corporation in West Bridgewater, Mass. John has an MBA in Marketing from Babson College and BFA in Graphic Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
VP, BrillIAAnce Awards
Matt Rayner
Leader of Starcom's global partnership with Samsung Electronics in over 70 countries. I also manage the teams in New York that support Samsung for the US market and serve on the Starcom USA and Global leadership teams.
Starcom handles Samsung's entire media business: from an old school page in the WSJ for a company milestone; through real-time social amplification of cultural events in broadcast media; to dynamic e-commerce optimization using our trading desk and mobile DSP partners to geofence retail sales. We tie these activations together with others in targeted experience platforms that resonate with consumers and live vibrantly right across their personal media universes, encouraging them to participate and create. And we do it all at the speed of Samsung, where short project times and rapid innovation are the secrets to success.
Linda Brancato
US News & World Report
Linda Brancato joined U.S. News & World Report this year as Vice President of Advertising, responsible for leading the digital advertising sales team across all U.S. News platforms.
Prior to that she was SVP of Advertising at the New York Daily News, holding positions in sales, marketing and branded content over a 24-year career, and transitioning the advertising team and clients to be fully integrated and cross-platform. Linda has worked within a wide variety of business categories covering education, healthcare, energy, pharmaceutical, financial and national retail.
John Campbell
National Geographic
Campbell is Senior Vice President, Global Media for National Geographic Partners, FOX Networks Group. He is responsible for revenue and partnership opportunities across all National Geographic linear, print, digital, social and events including National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Wild, National Geographic Mundo, National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Kids and nationalgeographic.com Campbell joined the National Geographic Society in 2007 as a senior sales executive at National Geographic Traveler, quickly rising to Vice President, Global Partnerships and U.S. Publisher of National Geographic magazine and digital. He now oversees the North American sales team and the digital planning + pricing team. Campbell works closely with the Fox Network Group (FNG) teams across the globe to build and sell custom integrated programs and partnerships, around premium content, for like-minded brands to create new revenue opportunities across the portfolio. Prior to joining National Geographic, Campbell began his career as a Planning Supervisor for Mindshare North America and an Integrated Account Manager for Popular Science, Bonnier Corporation.
Jason Dailey
Jason is the U.S. Agency Partner Development lead at Facebook. In this role he partners with agencies and clients to help them drive meaningful business outcomes on Facebook's platforms. Prior to Facebook, he was the SVP of Search, Social and Performance Marketing at Mediavest, spent 9 years at Microsoft Advertising, and began his career in management consulting.Jason has spoken extensively on topics related to Search, Social, Multi-Screen Engagement, and the Future of Digital Media. He received a B.S. from MIT and an MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business.
Eric Kelliher
Strategic and highly motivated sales leader, Eric started his marketing career as an intern for the VP of Marketing for New York Yankees. From there on, continued to diversify his skill sets in Account Management, Advertising and Sales by working with B2B and B2C clients. Previously worked with CBS Interactive, The New Yorker and Fortune Magazine. Currently working as a National Sales Director at Reuters, Eric strives to achieve results beyond-acceptation through his reputation of leadership, collaboration, and quality amongst clients and colleagues. He has developed expertise in strategic planning, content branding, sponsorship activation and much more.
Sara Mascall
The Wall Street Journal
Sara Mascall leads the Technology, Media & Telecom Advertising Vertical at The Wall Street Journal as Vice President, and works creatively with her teams based across the United States to engage key partners in developing strategic programs and initiatives. Key partnerships include Oracle, Samsung, Epson, Netflix, Hulu, IBM, Amazon. She has been with the Wall Street Journal for over 10 years in a variety of roles including Director of the West Coast, Southern California, Digital Account Executive (Tech/Finance). She is based on the West Coast moved from her hometown of San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2013 and although she visits San Francisco frequently she truly enjoys the community and warm weather Culver City has to offer. Sara was honored by the IAB with Sales Person of the West in 2011 and prior to working at WSJ she worked at IDG for many years on brands such as CIO.com.
Sheevani Raikundalia
Outfront Media
Sheevani Raikundalia currently serves as Vice President, Client & Agency Partnerships at OUTFRONT Media. In this role she is responsible for growing revenue across brands and agency holding companies. This also includes overseeing industry relations and shaping the go-to-market strategy for the company. She most recently ran East Coast Sales for the Guardian, one of the fastest growing global news brands in the U.S. Prior, Sheevani held the position of VP, East Coast Sales at the Washington Post. For 8 years, she built the East Coast advertising business as a leader in the New York Office.
She previously held digital sales leadership and sales roles at top media brands including The New York Times, Yahoo! and CNN.
Sheevani is also very active within the New York advertising industry. She is currently a board member of the International Advertising Association. Additional affiliations include Advertising Women in New York, Financial Communications Society and Advertising Club New York.
In her personal time, she enjoys travel (global and US,) is a New York
"culture vulture" specifically live music and dining.
Brendan Spain
Financial Times
Brendan Spain is VP, Advertising - Americas at the Financial Times. In this role, he oversees all revenue-generating advertising business lines in North, South, and Central America across all industries and platforms. Spain has played a vital role at the FT for over nine years. As an original member of the FT Digital Development Group, he has worked extensively with the FT key clients in developing marketing solutions that leverage branded content, audience data and insights, and creative storytelling. Aside from geeking out in spirited digital conversations around measurement, the duopoly, and UX, the thing that excites him most is a powder day on the ski slopes.
Spain graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a BA in Theatre. He lives in New York City.
Kyle Vinansky
Kyle Vinansky is the Vice President of New York Sales at Forbes Media. He is responsible for leading the integrated
sales and sales planning teams across Forbes' digital, print, BrandVoice, Insights, and live platforms.
Kyle joined Forbes in 2011, and was previously the Director of Content Partnerships, overseeing the eastern region
for the company's award-winning content marketing platform, BrandVoice. In 2015, he was recognized by min as a "Rising Star" and was awarded Forbes' "Malcolm S. Forbes Award" as the top global advertising sales team member.
A graduate of Penn State University, Kyle lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Abbey.


text:
the new edge club 94 with spw
It's a pilot of a new radio show playing underground techno and electronic weirdness.
If there are any internet stations or pirate radio station wanting to pick this up PM me or use the contact info on Soundcloud. Thanks, SPW.
the new edge club 94 with spw
Discuss musical topics that are not directly 808 State related.
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text:
The Cohoes city school district, outside Albany, is considering a gifted program for elementary students and adding college-level courses after discovering that its top students improved less on standardized tests in the past two years than everyone else in the district.
In Ardsley, N.Y., a Westchester County suburb, administrators intend to place more special education students in regular classes after seeing their standardized test scores rise in the last year.
And as the New York City Department of Education begins grading each public school A to F for the first time this fall, more than half the evaluation will be based on how individual students progress on standardized tests.
All three changes resulted from an increasingly popular way of analyzing test scores, called a "growth model" because it tracks the progress of students as they move from grade to grade rather than comparing, say, this year's fourth graders with last year's, the traditional approach.
Concerned that the traditional way amounted to an apples-to-oranges comparison, schools in more than two dozen states have turned to growth models. Now a movement is mounting to amend the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for reauthorization this year, to allow such alternative assessments of student progress.
Many urban educators contend that growth models are a fairer measure because they recognize that poor and minority students often start out behind, and thus have more to learn to reach state standards. At the same time, many school officials in affluent suburbs favor growth models because they evaluate students at all levels rather than focusing on lifting those at the bottom, thereby helping to justify instruction costs to parents and school boards at a time of shrinking budgets.
Adding growth models as a way to satisfy federal requirements to demonstrate "adequate yearly progress" could make it easier for some schools to avoid penalties because they would receive credit for students who improve performance but still fall below proficiency levels. It could also increase pressure on high-performing schools that sail above state standards to prove that their students are continuing to advance.
Federal education officials agreed in 2005 to a pilot program allowing up to 10 states to experiment with growth models, but emphasized that they remained responsible for ensuring that all students would reach reading and math standards by 2014, and show consistent gains along the way. Seven states — North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Delaware, Ohio, Florida and Iowa — have joined the pilot so far, federal officials said, and on Tuesday, the Education Department green-lighted Alaska and Arizona to use growth models to analyze data from the 2006-7 school year.
"A growth model is a way for states that are already raising achievement and following the bright-line principles of the law to strengthen accountability," Margaret Spellings, the secretary of education, said in a statement. "We are open to new ideas, but when it comes to accountability, we are not taking our eye off the ball."
In New York, education officials are developing a statewide growth model that will be in place by the 2008-9 school year, to be used as an additional way to measure student learning. Fifteen New York school districts, mainly in the Albany and Catskill regions, have experimented with growth models on their own through a voluntary program started by two regional support educational agencies in 2005. The districts typically pay these agencies from $1,000 to $6,000 to train administrators and staff, and an additional $2.50 a year for each student for the data analysis, which is partly reimbursed through state aid.
"There is absolutely a need for this kind of data," said Timothy G. Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, which represents about 700 districts. "It keeps the focus on student achievement, and not on whether you're going to pave the parking lot or who's going to get hired as next year's coach."
But as growth models become more widespread, some teachers and parents have complained that they are hard to understand and place too much focus on test scores. Teachers' unions, even while supporting the concept, have protested the use of growth models for performance reviews and merit pay.
"It's detrimental for education," said Aimee Bolender, president of the Alliance-AFT, which represents 9,000 teachers and other staff members in the Dallas schools. "It is pulling apart teams of teachers and it doesn't look at why test scores are low. From the very beginning, we viewed it as a slippery slope that did not do anything valuable to improve the educational environment in the schools."
Ms. Bolender's union is fighting a decision by the Dallas school district to remove about 30 teachers from five middle and high schools this summer after not enough of their students passed the state tests, and too many failed to show adequate progress on growth models. Ms. Bolender said that many teachers question the reliability of the growth model data, calling it "voodoo math" because "you have to be a Ph.D. in statistics to even comprehend it."
Even some supporters of growth models have expressed concerns that they could shift attention and resources away from the neediest students. Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, an advocacy group for disadvantaged children, said she was worried about growth models' focusing too much attention on students at the top. "It risks so broadening the federal government's involvement that its historical role will be dissipated," she said.
While growth models have existed for at least two decades, they were not widely used by school systems until recently because few states had the extensive testing data required for the analysis. But under the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires annual testing for students in Grades 3 through 8, states have developed larger databases ripe for the growth-model approach, which many experts see as a more thorough picture.
"When you look at achievement, every single wealthy suburb has high test scores," noted Theodore Hershberg, a professor of public policy and history at the University of Pennsylvania. "That's a terrible way to measure the performance of a school or an individual teacher because what you're really looking at is family background or family income."
In the high-performing Ardsley schools, where more than 87 percent of the students passed state reading tests this spring, district officials have long mined scores on their own, compiling a thick data book for review and coining the saying: "In God we trust, everybody else bring data."
But this year, they employed a more sophisticated growth model, which showed, for instance, that seventh-grade special education students had benefited from learning in regular classes. So this fall the district will expand the mainstreaming to the elementary and high schools. "This gives us the ability to measure whether a program has any teeth or is all fluff," said Richard Maurer, the superintendent.
Cohoes school officials have spent more than $1 million on programs for their most struggling students in the past five years, and wanted to find out how much they had progressed. They learned that the lowest-level students were doing fine, while their high achievers were starting to fall behind.
Charles S. Dedrick, superintendent of the 2,200-student district, said that parents had complained that their children were scoring too low on the Advanced Placement exams to receive college credit, but he thought there was just a problem with the A.P. coursework. Now, after examining over time the state test scores of students in advanced classes, he sees a more systemic problem. So the district has made top-level students a priority, too, and is considering starting a gifted program, expanding A.P. and college-level courses, and adding an International Baccalaureate program to keep them challenged.
"The fact is we serve all students, and not just the lower-end students," said Mr. Dedrick, who travels across the state to speak about growth models to school superintendents. "If you're just concentrating on one group of kids, it's not fair because both sets of parents pay taxes."