Japan – NEC announces plans for transition to a Company with a Nominating Committee, etc. and implementation of organizational reforms

Jan 31, 2023 | Business

NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced that a decision to transition its structure from a Company with the Audit and Supervisory Board to a Company with a Nominating Committee, etc. was made at the meeting of the Board of Directors held on January 30, 2023. This decision is subject to approval at the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled to be convened in June 2023. The Board of Directors also decided to begin implementing organizational reforms prior to this transition, effective April 1, 2023, with the aim of establishing a business structure based on the strategic pillars of the Mid-term Management Plan 2025.

Under its Purpose-driven management, NEC is promoting initiatives that combine strategy and culture in order to achieve the Mid-term Management Plan 2025 as a milestone toward the realization of the NEC 2030VISION. In this globally intensifying competitive environment, through the reform of organizations, management, people and culture, which are the foundations that support NEC’s culture, NEC aims to further strengthen corporate governance and boost management speed to accelerate the growth of its global business pillars, thereby helping to achieve the Mid-term Management Plan 2025 and to increase NEC’s medium- to long-term corporate value as a global technology company.

1. Transition to a Company with a Nominating Committee, etc.

(1) Transition objectives and overview

NEC will separate the oversight function from execution by management in order to strengthen the oversight function of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing the execution of duties by executive officers as well as guiding the direction of management through deliberation of important matters related to NEC’s basic management policy. In addition, the majority of the Board of Directors shall be comprised of independent outside directors (5 inside directors, 7 outside directors), and the Nominating Committee, Compensation Committee, and Audit Committee shall each be chaired by an independent outside director to promote the transparency and objectivity of management.

By delegating substantial authority to executive officers with respect to business execution, NEC will accelerate timely decision-making and implementation. In line with this, in addition to strengthening the internal audit function and establishing the position of Chief Risk Officer (CRO), by reorganizing the executive meeting bodies centered on the Executive Committee, NEC will conduct swift business operations while overseeing the risks surrounding NEC.

(2) Timing of transition

Plans are slated for NEC to make its transition to a Company with a Nominating Committee, etc. once the necessary amendments to the Articles of Incorporation, etc. have been approved at the 185th Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of NEC scheduled to be convened in June 2023.

2. Organizational reforms

(1) Clarifying the organizations driving growth business in the Mid-term Management Plan 2025

NEC will establish an organizational structure that allows it to concentrate on the execution of strategies for growth businesses in the Mid-term Management Plan 2025, and accelerate the execution of these strategies. Specifically, the Digital Government/Digital Finance Business will become a newly established DGDF Business Unit. In addition, NEC will integrate the business for domestic and international telecommunications carriers, including the Global 5G Business, into the “Telecom Service Business Unit,” which will be newly established from renaming the “Network Service Business Unit.” Moreover, NEC will unify the organizations responsible for the Healthcare and Life Science-related Businesses, such as AI Drug discovery and solutions for medical institutions, and work to expand this business, which is positioned to become one of the next pillars of growth.

(2) Unify product and service functions to accelerate DX business

The Digital Platform Business Unit will be newly established to centralize the planning, development, and provision of products and services necessary for DX business development across the NEC Group. NEC will promote the standardization of common functions and assets from a global perspective, as well as expand and strengthen its end-to-end DX offerings by leveraging all of its strengths from strategic consulting to platform (NEC Digital Platform) and delivery. By providing these offerings in combination with its know-how for each industry, NEC will contribute to resolving management agenda-related issues for customers and expanding the DX business.

(3) Strengthen the support of government digitalization and national security areas

NEC will implement organizational reform from the market and business model perspective. Specifically, NEC will create a new Public Business Unit, which will be responsible for projects targeting central ministries and local governments, and build a system that can centrally support the digitalization of government in Japan. In addition, NEC will newly establish the Aerospace and National Security Business Unit, which will be placed in charge of the aerospace and defense business as an organization that supports the national security field.

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of “Orchestrating a brighter world.” NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. For more information, visit NEC at www.nec.com.

Copyright ©2023 JCN Newswire. All rights reserved. A division of Japan Corporate News Network.

MPAI Outlines Plans for the MPAI Store Foundation

Feb 28, 2022 | Business

 The Moving Picture, Audio and Data Coding by Artificial Intelligence (MPAI) standards developing organisation has concluded its 17th General Assembly. Among the outcomes are: progress towards the establishment of a patent pool for its published standards and a roadmap to establish the MPAI Store Foundation.

The MPAI Statutes define a standard development process whereby holders of standard essential patents (SEP) select their preferred patent pool administrator. The General Assembly was informed that SEP holders in approved MPAI standards are currently engaged in this activity.

The Governance of the MPAI Ecosystem (MPAI-GME) standard envisions an “MPAI Store” tasked with receiving submissions of implementations, verifying their security and conformance, and making them available to other implementers and consumers. Because of the specific characteristics of AI technologies, the MPAI Store coordinates with MPAI-appointed performance assessors that guarantee that implementations are reliable, robust, replicable and fair. The MPAI Store will be a not-for-profit commercial entity where both MPAI members and associations representing the society at large are present.

The General Assembly approved a set of documents guiding the development of use cases and functional requirements for Neural Network Watermarking (https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-nnw/) and the publication of a series of short videos with the title “MPAI talks to industry” (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt7pQybjzBbsF5tuvETdhogtJPvUu3pQv) illustrating the various aspects of MPAI activities.MPAI develops data coding standards for applications that have AI as the core enabling technology. Any legal entity supporting the MPAI mission may join MPAI (https://mpai.community/how-to-join/join/), if able to contribute to the development of standards for the efficient use of data.

MPAI is currently engaged in extending some of the already approved standards:

– AI Framework (MPAI-AIF https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-aif/): Specifies an infrastructure enabling execution of implementations and access to the MPAI Store.

– Context-based Audio Enhancement (MPAI-CAE https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-cae/): Improves the user experience of audio-related applications in a variety of contexts.

– Multimodal Conversation (MPAI-MMChttps://mpai.community/standards/mpai-mmc/): Enables human-machine conversation emulating human-human conversation.

– Compression and Understanding of Industrial Data (MPAI-CUI https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-cui/): Predicts the company performance from governance, financial and risk data.

– Governance of the MPAI Ecosystem (MPAI-GME https://mpai.community/standards/governance/) : Establishes the rules governing submission of and access to interoperable implementations.

MPAI is developing other 9 standards:

1) Server-based Predictive Multiplayer Gaming (MPAI-SPG https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-spg/): Trains a network to com¬pensate data losses and detects false data in online multiplayer gaming.

2) AI-Enhanced Video Coding (MPAI-EVC https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-evc/): Improves existing video coding with AI tools for short-to-medium term applications.

3) End-to-End Video Coding (MPAI-EEV https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-eev/): Explores the promising area of AI-based “end-to-end” video coding for longer-term applications.

4) Connected Autonomous Vehicles (MPAI-CAV https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-cav/): Specifies components for Environment Sensing, Autonomous Motion, and Motion Actuation.

5) Avatar Representation and Animation (https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-ara/): MPAI-ARA Specifies descriptors of avatar impersonating real humans.

6) Neural Network Watermarking (MPAI-NNW https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-nnw/): Measures the impact of adding ownership and licensing information in models and inferences.

7) Integrative Genomic/Sensor Analysis (MPAI-GSA https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-gsa/): Compresses high-throughput experiments data combining genomic/proteomic and other.

8) Mixed-reality Collaborative Spaces (MPAI-MCS http://mcs.mpai.community/): Supports collaboration of humans represented by avatars in virtual-reality spaces called Ambients

9) Visual Object and Scene Description (MPAI-OSD https://mpai.community/standards/mpai-osd/) : Describes objects and their attributes in a scene and the semantic description of the objects.

Visit the MPAI web site (https://mpai.community/), contact the MPAI secretariat (secretariat@mpai.community) for specific information, subscribe to the MPAI Newsletter and follow MPAI on social media:

– LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13949076/)

– Twitter (https://twitter.com/mpaicommunity)

– Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mpaicommunity) ,

– Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mpaicommunity/)

– YouTube (https://m.youtube.com/c/mpaistandards).

Most important: join MPAI (https://mpai.community/how-to-join/join/), share the fun, build the future.

MPAI

Leonardo Chiariglione

00390119350461

http://mpai.community

ContactContact

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  • Technology

NASA Plans Coverage of Webb Space Telescope Deployments

Dec 30, 2021 | Business



Over about the next two weeks, NASA will provide broadcast coverage, a media briefing, and other updates on major deployment milestones for the James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s largest and most powerful space science telescope.


Broadcasts of milestone events will air live on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.


Webb, an international partnership with the ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency, launched Dec. 25 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The observatory had been folded up, origami style, to fit inside an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket for launch. Webb is now in the complex and intricate process of unfolding in space, as it travels nearly 1 million miles to its destination, the second Lagrange point or L2.


Webb’s deployment sequence is a human-controlled process that provides the team with the flexibility to pause, assess data, and adjust as needed. The timing and order of all milestones may therefore change. NASA will host live broadcast coverage to mark the following milestones, with specific times and dates updated as they approach:

  • Sunshield tensioning: The full deployment of the sunshield, the most challenging element for Webb, will mark a critical milestone for the mission. This step is scheduled for completion about eight days after launch, no earlier than Sunday, Jan. 2.
  • Secondary mirror support structure deployment: The support structure that holds the secondary mirror in position to focus light collected by the primary mirror is set for deployment about 10 days after launch, no earlier than Tuesday, Jan. 4.
  • Webb deployments complete: With the unfolding of the second of Webb’s primary mirror wings, the Webb team will have completed all observatory deployments. This is scheduled to take place about 13 days after launch, no earlier than Friday, Jan. 7.


NASA provides regular updates on the Webb telescope blog. The public can also follow Webb’s deployments online via a “Where is Webb?” interactive tracker and a Deployments Explorer.


NASA Press Briefing


NASA will hold a media briefing as soon as possible after the end of the live broadcast coverage of Webb’s final deployments. The agency will determine the timing of this briefing as final deployments approach and stream the event live on its website.


NASA’s media accreditation policy for virtual activities is available online.


Social Media Engagement


Members of the public can stay connected with the mission and let people know about Webb’s deployments on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with #UnfoldTheUniverse. Follow and tag these accounts:

  • Twitter: @NASA, @NASAWebb
  • Facebook: NASA, NASAWebb
  • Instagram: NASA, @NASAWebb



Additional Webb Resources:

  • Digital media kit
  • Image and video galleries
  • Media interview request form


The Webb mission will explore every phase of cosmic history – from within the solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, and everything in between. Webb will reveal new and unexpected discoveries and help humanity understand the origins of the universe and our place in it.


For more information about the Webb mission, visit:




https://webb.nasa.gov

Equinor plans to launch GW-size floating wind concept in Scotland

Nov 1, 2021 | Business

Having reaffirmed its commitment to Scotland earlier this year, the offshore energy company has now revealed its preferred floating wind foundation design for full-scale gigawatt (GW) commercial floating offshore wind, if successful in ScotWind. The Wind Semi, a semisubmersible wind turbine foundation, has been designed with flexibility, specifically to allow for fabrication and assembly based on local supply chain capabilities.

“We are ready to develop the next generation, large-scale commercial floating offshore wind in Scotland. By leveraging our twenty years of floating offshore wind experience and innovations, we plan to develop GW-size floating projects in one single phase. Implementing large scale projects will accelerate Scotland’s energy transition to net zero. At 1GW, this project would be over 30 times bigger than Hywind Scotland, the UK’s and Equinor’s first floating project and have the potential to not only position Scotland as a leader in deep water technology, but also create opportunities for both existing suppliers and new entrants to the offshore wind sector”, says Sonja C. Indrebø, Equinor’s vice president of Floating Offshore Wind.

To ensure that the technology can be deployed cost effectively whilst maximising local benefits, Equinor has developed a set of design principles and solutions that are applicable across floating concepts.

Equinor installed the first ever floating offshore wind turbine in 2009, and operates Hywind Scotland (30 MW), the world’s first floating wind farm. Since it began production in 2017, Hywind Scotland has consistently achieved a higher capacity factor than other UK wind farms, demonstrating the true potential of floating offshore wind.

“Hywind Scotland proved that the floating concept works, and as we move to the next generation floating offshore wind projects, we need to demonstrate that floating offshore wind is deployable at scale, in different geographies cost effectively whilst bringing local benefits. We have seen the journey of fixed bottom offshore wind, and combined with our long experience in floating, we can take learnings into account as we design and innovate the concepts for full-scale GW floating wind farms”, says Indrebø. 

The Wind Semi has several features making it particularly suited for harsh waters, and solutions that can maximise the opportunities for the Scottish supply chain:

  • Increased dependability: By introducing a passive ballast system, the Wind Semi has a simple substructure design, reducing the risk of system failure and the amount of maintenance needed
  • Simpler, more robust design: A flat plate design that is free from bracings, heave plates and complicated nodes that are prone to fatigue cracking
  • Flexibility towards the supply chain: With a harbour draught of less than 10 m, the Wind Semi’s turbine integration can be assembled at most industrialised ports. The Wind Semi’s simpler flat plate design enables the substructure to be built in blocks that can either be fabricated locally and/or shipped from other locations. 

“Scotland can be in the forefront of this exciting technology. We asked ourselves how we can achieve industrial standardisation and maximise local content opportunities to create additional and sustainable long-term value from floating offshore wind projects. With a design-based approach we’ve used our experience and gone right back to basics to incorporate this focus in the initial concept design”, says Indrebø.

Equinor will select the best suited floating wind concept for its projects. Water depths, conditions around shipyards and ports, and the specialisations and capacity of the local supply chain are primary drivers for selecting a given design.

Selecting the most cost-efficient concept design and achieving optimal fabrication efficiency is key to competitive full-scale floating wind parks. In Scotland, Equinor will actively work to develop a broader and more competitive supply chain that can efficiently and effectively deliver a ScotWind floating projects safely, on time, and on budget. In particular, Equinor will work closely with the domestic supply chains in Scotland and rest of the UK to maximise the opportunities for local suppliers and local communities.

EQUINOR

  • Equinor is committed to long term value creation in a low carbon future and targeting carbon neutral operations globally by 2030.
  • In Scotland, Equinor has a broad range of activities that are contributing towards a sustainable energy transition. In addition to Hywind Scotland, Equinor together with its partner, SSE Thermal, plans to jointly develop a new low-carbon power station, which could become one of the UK’s first power stations equipped with carbon capture technology. The Peterhead CCS Power Station would propel the UK’s ambitions for carbon capture in power generation, meeting 15% of the UK Government’s 10 million tonne target for carbon captured by 2030. Equinor’s upstream operations headquarters are based in Aberdeen employing around 500 people onshore and offshore including the operations of the Mariner field, east of Shetland.
  • Equinor is truly a broad energy company, the only company in the UK with the whole complement of operational assets in offshore wind and oil & gas, an established energy trading business and prospects in emerging businesses such as hydrogen and CCS.
  • In the UK in total, Equinor currently powers around 750,000 UK homes through its three offshore wind farms Sheringham Shoal (317MW), Dudgeon (402MW) and Hywind Scotland (30MW). Equinor is also a partner in the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank, which is currently under construction. At 3.6GW this wind farm will be the largest in the world, and a flagship for digitalization and innovation. Equinor will operate the wind farm from the North East of England for its lifetime of up to 35 years. The Service Operations Vessels for the wind farm will be provided by Aberdeen’s North Star, creating 130 UK jobs. The £270million contract has enabled North star to enter the renewables market and attract further investment.  The offshore wind major is also planning to extend its Dudgeon and Sheringham Shoal wind farms, doubling (719MW) the offshore wind capacity off the coast of Norfolk.
  • In the Norwegian North Sea, Equinor is currently constructing the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm under development, Hywind Tampen (88 MW) which will go online in 2022.

Rickie Bowser’s “Visionary Power” Presents Why God’s Plans Are Greater Than Our Plans

Jul 19, 2021 | Business

Vision provides guidance and permits us to oversee our lives, allowing us to achieve our objectives and fulfill our purpose. We must have a clear vision of where we want to be in the future in order to grasp what has to be done in the present. Life will become simpler and more meaningful once you realize that vision and purpose. However, in a world where society tells you to go after fleeting pleasures—will it be possible to focus on things that last and genuinely matter?
 
Rickie Bowser, a Brooklyn native who grew up in an area where drugs, alcohol, sex, sports, wealth, and materialism are considered gods. He once craved for the worldly influences of these things—yet in his desire for fortune and power, he found no satisfaction. Until he found God and yearned to know him more. In his book, “Visionary Power: The Power of a Successful Visionary,” he presents a paradigm shift that will lead readers to seek out the vision of God for their lives.
 
Bowser writes through experience. This book is full of biblical insights, wisdom, and empowerment. It is a combination of inspiring biblical passages and real-life events that everyone can relate to. Bowser wrote it so that people could understand how vision can be employed in their daily lives while bringing the reader closer to God. It brings the reader closer to his words while assuaging any concerns they may have about them. More significantly, the book corrects many of the erroneous beliefs that keep Christians from experiencing God’s blessings. The book will help anyone who has a misaligned mindset or a worldly view.
 
Get your copy now!
 
Buy the book at: https://youronlinepublicist.com/product/visionary-power-the-power-of-a-successful-visionary-by-rickie-bowser/

Visionary Power: The Power of a Successful Visionary
Author: Rickie Bowser
Publisher: Your Online Publicist
Published Date: June 2021
Book Genre: Religious & Spirituality, Christian Book
 
 
About the Author:

Rickie Bowser grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He believes God ordained his life for him before the foundation of the world. When he looks at his life, and at who he is, it is based on what God hid inside of him, and how powerful God’s word is too, and for him.

Would Rickie have chosen a life of addiction, if he was God for his life; a life of destruction and chaos; he doesn’t think so. His mother believed that if he would go to church that something good would happen for him, she herself didn’t even go, but she believed that if he went, his life would be changed. She was right; this is how God was able to grow His word in him without Satan knowing; He hid His word in him before the foundation of the world.

Rickie Bowser’s understanding of this! is why he is able to write this book called “Visionary Power: The Power of a Successful Visionary,” because it was a gift given to him by his heavenly father, to use as a road map, from his past, through his present, and into his future.

Enjoy as you read the first of many books, Rickie Bowser believes God has given him the gift to write to encourage, and to help propel people into their destiny; for their lives are not mistakes, but purposeful lives, predestined for greatness. Rickie is a witness of this; a light shining in the darkness. There is a true light that lights everyone who comes into the world.