Carolyn Whelan

Manager, Writer, Editor, Analyst
carowhelan@gmail.com

News

Newsweek

Can micromobility make our cities, skies and lives healthier?

April 15, 2021

The bicycle is an unlikely winner of the pandemic. In the past year, Paris has permanently cleared out cars on tony Rue de Rivoli near the Louvre to ease its flow of bikes, buses and feet and Lima has said it would grow its cycle network by 300 kilometers.

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Luud Schimmelpennink: the Che Guevara of bike sharing

April 15, 2021

As an icon of the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s, the famous picture of Che Guevara in a beret has proved remarkably durable. Less familiar today, though created around the same time by the vanguard of what is now a micro-mobility revolution, is the iconic white bicycle.

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Jessica Schreiber gives new life to discarded fabric

September 8, 2021

It’s a long walk from the drab entrance of New York’s Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT) to the colorful offices of Fabscrap, a redistributor and recycler of pre-consumer fabric, which comes directly from designers rather than from stores or homes. But for founder Jessica Schreiber, the trip from New York City’s Sanitation Department to social entrepreneur was lightning fast.

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Soup kitchen confidential. Feeding America’s hungry during Covid

October 7, 2020

“We needed a radically different approach,” says Kathryn Garcia, New York City’s Sanitation Commissioner and Food Czar, recalling how she and colleagues set about feeding the city’s vulnerable over the pandemic, adding that traditional soup kitchens would not work as would-be diners socially-distanced to stop the spread.

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Education in a pandemic: The pros and cons of school closures

June 10, 2020

At the peak of Covid-19 lockdowns globally, an estimated 1.5 billion children in 195 countries were out of school, either learning remotely or not at all. This almost certainly both damaged their education and reduced the productivity of the millions of working parents who suddenly had to combine operating a home office with child care.

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Jacky Grimshaw on a life serving Chicago’s most vulnerable

February 3, 2022

“It came from being a girl scout,” Jacky Grimshaw said, on what sparked her to pursue a career in public service, working to make life better for Chicago’s most vulnerable. “It instilled in me a sense of service, of helping others.” As a result, she notes, her career has been “eclectic”.

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Humanizing Cities: Halfway between Rio and 2050

November 5, 2021

As I reflect on my time at the watershed Rio Earth Summit — which birthed both citizen influence over UN talks and the famous UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) — and on today’s COP26, three things stand out.

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New York's Redistricting Czar urges people to go local

November 2, 2021

“I get seasick. My wife’s the sailor,” joked David Imamura, a lawyer specializing in white collar crime, now Chair of New York State’s (NYS) Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC), on his NYS listening tour. Monday brought him upstate to Binghamton; Wednesday to Syracuse; and Thursday to Plattsburg.

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Assisted Living after Covid

October 21, 2020

The images are heartbreaking, the statistics even worse. Though the US leads the world in total deaths from COVID-19, during wave one of the pandemic care homes were, in relative terms, the deadliest place to be in Canada, where they accounted for four in every five deaths.

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From a cell to a home: housing released prisoners in the pandemic

October 21, 2020

Crowded jails have emerged as a hotbed of COVID-19 with up to 40% of inmates in Los Angeles County infected by late May. To try to stop the spread, officials sharply reduced jail populations, releasing roughly 5,000 (nearly 30%) of inmates, all of whom were serving time or awaiting hearings but unable to post bail for non-violent, non-serious felonies or misdemeanors.

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Two scientists envision the U.S.’s proposed pandemic preparedness agency

July 19, 2021

Imagine if we had a centralized system that could anticipate viruses like COVID-19. One that also predicted the probability infection would spread along with its impact so we could act before it takes hold. The last 18 months would have been very different.

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Tatiana Schor shows the way for other scientists in government

August 3, 2021

“I fell in love with Manaus. It’s another world. I decided then that I would come North,” recalls Tatiana Schor, professor at the Federal University of Amazonas. She found herself working in the Amazon after accepting a tenure track position offer from the federal university’s geography department as she was finishing her Ph.D.

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Humanizing Cities: all I needed to know about jobs I learned in Kigali

June 25, 2021

As cities across the world race to kickstart their economies through infrastructure jobs programs, I was struck by how smoothly a micro-version of this has taken flight in cash-strapped Rwanda.

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Higher education – What’s it worth?

July 3, 2014

As university graduates box up their caps and gowns for the summer and embark on the world of work, they might be surprised to learn that senior executives value a diploma far less than skills or contacts.

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Turning the clock on climate change

November 15, 2016

Q&A with James Gifford, senior fellow at the Initiative for Responsible Investment at Harvard and director of Impact at private equity firm Tau Investment Management

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Small business efforts to hire young people in the US

February 10, 2015

Across the United States, small businesses are developing innovative strategies to hire and upskill young workers in ways that are both good for business, and that reduce the unemployment hardships that disproportionately impact disadvantaged young people.

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Technology and its impact on transportation

December 15, 2014

Roughly half of private operators across the world believe mobile technologies boost network or on-time performance, cut costs and improve passenger satisfaction

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A poll of young people across the world on their challenges, plans and aspirations for the future

2015

Approximately 75 million youth globally are actively seeking meaningful employment. To effectively compete for economic opportunities and succeed in the 21st century economy, these young people will require a mix of education, employability, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills.

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Visionaries Unbound

2013-2014

After unheralded growth, the world is bumping up against its limits. Widespread affluence and urbanization have enriched many. But the rising tide also strains resources

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Brewing a better beer for Africa

June 24, 2011

Fortune -- A guy walks into a bar and orders a pint of beer. But this isn't a pub in London or a sports bar in Milwaukee -- it's a watering hole in Uganda.

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Google's chief of environmental policy explains strategy

October 17, 2008

Dan Reicher, director of climate and energy initiatives at Google.org, the for-profit philanthropic arm of the Internet search giant, is spreading the anti-coal gospel in government and industry circles.

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Former mayor of Bogotá leaves his mark on many cities

December 28, 2007

NEW YORK — Mass transit projects regularly perish in the process, when special interest demands may derail the best intentions of public policy makers. So it often goes in Latin America, where wealthy land owners exert strong influence.

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The next big thing: Battery-powered bikes

March 14, 2007

Picture electric bikes and Pee- Wee Herman's clunker may spring to mind. Not anymore. From California to China, 'e-bikes' are taking off as an alternate means of transportation, after years of being overshadowed by their muscle- powered cousins.

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Brazil is driving a revival in sugar cane fuel

December 18, 2004

For Ronaido Silveir Ribeiro, the future is here, and it's called ethanol. The Sao Paulo-based cab driver switched last year from gasoline and cannot see himself going back soon.

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A hot year for coffee? The signs look good

March 19, 2005

Punta da Sarra is a vast coffee plantation in the Ribeirão Preto valley north of São Paulo. For a few years now, lush sugar cane has filled half the fields, a response to rock-bottom prices in the $80 billion world coffee market.

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Where fashion meets farming: Fast, sleek and expensive, vicuna makes a comeback

May 29, 2004

The wet marshes of Wales are an unlikely place to raise guanacos, a camel-like breed whose brethren include llamas and alpacas.

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His strategy wins nation clout on the global stage

December 4, 2004

BRASÍLIA — Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, a cinema buff and former movie producer, likes to go over a script in his mind of Brazil's future.

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Cantor sees new life in eco-credit trading

December 24, 2004

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald has perhaps been best known for tragically losing much of its staff in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

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Developing countries' economic clout grows

July 10, 2004

It all started with drugs. Three years ago a few emerging economies — Brazil, South Africa and India — got together to fight pharmaceutical companies' high prices for life-saving medicines.

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Stepping off the Trodden Path

February 27, 2005

When people step off the treadmill, they have no idea where they will end up. The International Herald Tribune profiles three professionals who took the leap and landed on their feet. It's mainly for the laughs.

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Early signals: A boom in Buenos Aires

March 29, 2003

Could Argentina be the next hot Latin property market? High-end apartments in Buenos Aires changed hands in January at a 24 percent faster cleip than in December

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A Latin Revival

August 23, 2003

Latin America stocks have rallied nearly 30 percent in a year as investors have shrugged off fears of instability in Brazil in response to the market-friendly stance of the new president

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Finding love (and a way to pay the bills) in Brazil

February 26, 2005

For many people, basking on the Brazilian beaches and sampling local food and music for play and pay would be as good as it gets job-wise. Not for Andrew Draffen, an Australian who cut his writing teeth 15 years ago with the Lonely Planet travel guide in Brazil when it was fringe backpacker reading.

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Is the party about to end in Brazil?

August 8, 2010

FORTUNE -- Marcelo do Rio stands outside his new Brazilian pizzeria, grinning. The sale of his brewpub chain financed the launch of his new business -- and the purchase of his swank Rio home.

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CAC-40 Index May See Shuffle

November 20, 2001

PARIS -- Four times a year, French stock market officials meet behind closed doors to eject companies that no longer make the grade in the CAC-40 index and to name the firms that will replace them. This October, people in the know say, they decided to give it a miss. In a way, it's understandable.

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Aventis May Make Investors Queasy

July 20, 2001

PARIS -- Investors watching with hope as Aventis holds exclusive talks with Germany's Bayer AG over the sale of its CropScience unit might want to put the drug group under the microscope one more time.Selling CropScience, which is 76% owned by Aventis and 24% held by Schering AG, might well make life more difficult for Aventis .

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Prominent Scientists Break Away To Form Swiss Drug Company

July 11, 2002

PARIS - Several prominent scientist from GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Roche Holding AG are breaking away from their parent companies

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Alstom Names Former CEO Of Elf as Adviser to Chairman, (with John Carreyrou)

February 22, 2002

PARIS -- Moving to allay investors' concerns about its financial disclosure, engineering company Alstom SA named a respected French executive to advise its chairman on financial matters and said it would replace its chief financial officer by the summer.

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Weak Dollar Hinders Drug Makers

July 12, 2002

PARIS -- European drug companies that make their best returns in the U.S. will see some of that revenue evaporate as the dollar slips against key European currencies, adding to pressure over earnings uncertainty in the sector.

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Has Sanofi Stock Jumped Too High

May 29, 2001

PARIS -- Few drug stocks have shot up as far and as fast as French pharmaceuticals company Sanofi-Synthelabo SA. Shares in Europe's seventh-biggest drug maker have surged more than 75% since June on bullish forecasts for three of its drugs and the prospects of several others in the pipeline.

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European Biotech Industry Ripe For Consolidation

October 29, 2001

The biotechnology industry is ripe for a bout of consolidation, given the demise in the initial-public-offering market...

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Lafarge, San Gobain face threat from US Slowdown

August 6, 2001

Investors can be forgiven for flocking to Old Economy names such as Lafarge SA and Saint-Gobain SA. The French cement and building supply companies are among the world's biggest...

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Bulls Say Qualcomm Is Poised for More Gains

February 9, 1999

Since its inception, San Diego-based Qualcomm has been a trailblazing technology company, paving the way with CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), the dominant wireless standard in the U.S. Market leaders like Motorola , Lucent Technologies and Northern Telecom all have used Qualcomm's technology in their wireless systems.

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Chips Intact Despite Taiwan Quake

September 21, 1999

All roads lead to Taiwan, at least when it comes to semiconductor manufacturing. Around 70% of 'fabless' semiconductor companies -- including such cutting-edge chip makers as Broadcom, Galileo Technology, MMC Networks, PMC-Sierra, S3, and Xilinx -- outsource their chip production to Taiwanese facilities. Testing and assembly...

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Some Sour on Semiconductor Equipment Stocks

November 23, 1999

Since bottoming out during last year's Asian financial crisis, shares of semiconductor equipment manufacturers have been on a tear. Fueled by economic recovery abroad, bullish demand for PCs, a memory chip shortage and new markets like data networking, stocks of equipment makers have quadrupled...

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Have 'B to B' E-Commerce Stocks Hit a Wall?

November 30, 1999

A year ago, investors couldn't get enough of e-tailers and online auction houses, as they bid up shares of eBay and uBid big time. From January to April 1999, their stock prices more than tripled.

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DSL Is Poised For a Big Comeback

November 18, 1999

1999 was the year cable modems emerged as the high-speed access route of choice for Internet users (see Weekday Trader, 'Excite Deal Shows Cable Modem Is King ,' January 19).

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Nordic Handset Makers Face Price Erosion

October 14, 1999

GENEVA -- The new Millennium is almost upon us, yet we've only scratched the surface of mobile phone penetration in much of the world. That could change quickly as mobile devices add more and more features, like data communications and enhanced Internet connections.

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Old World Investors Like Old Economy Stocks

January 6, 1999

D espite their recent pullback, tech stocks are still very richly priced -- the world over. As the stocks of U.S. Internet wunderkinden went through the roof, some investors looked for technology leaders in Europe.

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Defense Stocks go on the Defense Again

March 2, 2000

For the defense industry, the 1990s will go down as the Decade of Togetherness. Encouraged by a cost-cutting Pentagon, U.S. defense in the 1990s...

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Upwardly mobile: MIT professor speaks out on transit, technology in emerging economies

January 19, 2010

Ralph Gakenheimer is a Fulbright Scholar, World Bank Advisor, and MIT professor of urban planning who has emerged as one of the leading experts on transportation in developing countries.

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BP produces biodiesel fuel from African plant

September 7, 2007

(Fortune Magazine) -- Can a poisonous plant become a biodiesel hero and help African economies in the process? BP (Charts) thinks so.

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Wal-Mart Banks On Mexico

February 4, 2008

(Fortune Magazine) -- For years, Wal-Mart tried to enter the U.S. banking business, but it gave up in 2007, pulling its application after endless outcries from domestic retail banks

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Castro's Revenge: A Cuban oil rush is underway

March 19, 2007

Sometime later this year,less than 70 miles from Florida, a consortium of Spanish, Indian, and Norwegian companies will likely start drilling for oil.

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Argentina: Cheap Steaks, High Stakes

March 8, 2004

It's summer in Buenos Aires, and revelers are spilling onto city streets. Hotels in seaside Mar del Plata bulge with businessmen, many of whom made big money

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Are Patents Really A Virtue?

October 16, 2000

(FORTUNE Magazine) – In this era of insane stock valuations, how can you ever tell when a company's technology is really worth the multiple that investors are paying? One obvious way, it would seem, is to look at the company's patents (if you have a Ph.D., that is).

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Emerging Markets That Live Up To The Name

December 18, 2000

After repeatedly disappointing U.S. investors, a few countries in Latin America and Asia are finally reaping the benefits of a rising middle class. This time it really is different.

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China's New Frontier: Telecom in South America

June 25, 2009

(Fortune Magazine) -- At phone operator Movistar's sales offices in Buenos Aires, customers line up to buy high-speed wireless services to access the web on their mobile phones.

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The Long and Wireless Road

November 27, 2000

Presents an interview with Prudential Volpe wireless equipment analyst Pete Peterson. Peterson's views on third generation, or 3G, cellular technology; Opinion that the term 3G is often applied to any wireless technology that significantly increases capacity and capability and decreases cost.

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International First: Latin Outsourcing

July 26, 2004

Where does an Indian outsourcing company go when it wants to outsource? These days, it's likely to be Buenos Aires.

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Easing The Misery

July 16, 2004

A small army of therapist soothes a troubled nation. Life got you down? In recent times, as an econimic depression wiped out bank savings and millions of jobs, all too many Argentines would have said yes.

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A Cheap-Peso Boom

May 18, 2003

Argentina has found an economic formula that works: export more, import less. The peso, once pegged to the dollar, is now worth about 30 U.S. cents. That's been a boon to the country's export industries.

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A Province That Works

November 30, 2003

In 1835 Charles Darwin described the Argentine province of Mendoza as having a 'sad and disagreeable aspect,'' and he noted that the population in recent years had suffered a 'fall in prosperity.'' Few people could dispute the famed scientist.

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Taut-Tech: Smaller, Softer Artificial Muscles to Help Bring Power to Toys and Cell Phones

November 9, 2011

Artificial muscles already help human eyes blink, robotic fish swim and mechanical arms in space replace solar panels. Now a new, potentially wearable type of artificial muscle is expected to do all of those things while being lighter, smaller, softer and cheaper.

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The Doctor Is Out, but New Patient Monitoring and Robotics Technology Is In

May 25, 2010

A new generation of medical devices using wireless communications, sophisticated software and data center-driven 'cloud' computing promises to deliver health care in ways previously limited to the confines of fancy hospital rooms.

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How to Reduce Car-Made Pollution? Tune Up the Existing Technology

March 4, 2009

Projected carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars could remain level at three gigatons through 2050 despite many more personal vehicles on the road with only minor and affordable changes to existing engines, chassis and systems, according to a new report.

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Blooms Away: The Real Price of Flowers

February 12, 2009

Roses are red… They are also fragile and almost always flown to the U.S. from warmer climes in South America, where roughly 80 percent of our roses take root; to warm the hearts of European sweethearts, they are most often imported from Africa.

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Is the Sun Setting on Solar Power in Spain?

October 20, 2008

On the outskirts of Seville, Spain, 600 rotating mirrors send shafts of light to a collector atop a soaring 380-foot- (115-meter-) tall tower. Its scalding 480-degree-Fahrenheit (250-degree-Celsius) steam drives a turbine generating a peak capacity of 11 megawatts (MW) of electricity for the national grid.

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Different Strokes: New Lower-Pollution Auto Rickshaw Engines Could Save Lives and Curb Climate Change

April 6, 2012

Banned in Delhi for a decade, smog-spewing combustion engine–powered rickshaws are fading away in India and in many other countries, thanks not only to inroads by minivans, but also...

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NO REALLY, IT’S A HUT

November 2009

Set at 9,169 feet in the Swiss Alps, the Monte Rosa Hut is a three-hour, cross-glacier hike from a train station outside Zermatt (Rotenboden). So when it came time for a $6 million renovation, Swiss enginners faced a Matterhorn-size challenge.

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Buenos Aires Steps Lively

December 15, 2006

'Crises are painful, but you emerge stronger,' says Alan Faena, a fashion designer who partnered with designer Philippe Starack and a group of American investors

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Argentina uncorked

February 2005

Argentina's Aconagua-at 22,835 feet, the highest peak outside the Himalaya-offers Seven Summits cachet without requiring crack mountain skills.

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More than a pretty face

June 2007

Seema Dhundia is used to being out in front: She was commander of the world's first all-female paramilitary in India; now she's heading up the first all-female U.N. peacekeeping force in Liberia.

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Word of Mouth: A New Vintage

February 20, 2004

Already on in-the-know oenophiles' itineraries, the wine route leading into the countryside from the provincial capital of Mendoza, Argentina, is uncorking as an increasingly enviable place to sip and sup.

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Megatrends 2020 Report

2020

The world changed in March 2020. Almost overnight, the COVID-19 pandemic strained health care systems to the breaking point, put much of the global economy on an indefinite hiatus and radically reshaped societal norms and interactions. For businesses everywhere, these events are undermining established assumptions while catalyzing new models and approaches.

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America’s Private Enterprise Leadership Network for CFOs Perspectives

2011

On November 8, members of the American Private Enterprise Leadership Network will gather in Palm Springs, California, for their Fall Meeting.

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Due diligence on corrupt practices

Despite more than a decade of deal-making experience in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, corporate investors in emerging markets still face many risks.

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National strategies for competitive advantage and growth through cleantech

2011

As the world shifts to a resource-efficient and low-carbon economy to address the rising consumption of energy and raw materials, many countries are embracing national cleantech

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Global cleantech insights and trends report

The business landscape these days presents a new reality that forces us to face new business, financial, strategic and operational risks.

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Parker petroleum in Jumandia

September 4, 2007

Parker Petroleum has operated in Jumandia for 10 years. However, some opposition has developed to its new project, a refinery that is important to the company's growth.

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Buying a diamond – Determinants of price

January 2, 2008

The diamond industry does not make it easy to comparison shop. How should a purchaser value a stone and what attributes determine a diamond's price?

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Behind the Small Packages Success Story

2008

Single-serve packages are a hit in India and other poor nations, where shoppers buy sachets of shampoo for just pennies per day.

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Product Customization Decisions: Order Does Matter

2008

In an unforgettable scene from When Harry Met Sally, Meg Ryan's high-maintenance character asks a waitress for dressing on the side, lightly toasted bread and endless other options,triggering a near apoplectic fit in dining companion Billy Crystal.

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Speech of ITU Secretary General at the opening of Telecom

December 12, 2003

ITU is the organizer of the TELECOM event. Founded back in 1865, it is the world's oldest intergovermmental body, and a United Nations agency.

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France Sauvage

August 1994

St Tropez not your scene? Try one of WWF-France's 10 Gites Panda, or Panda Lodges, where binoculars, birdcall cassettes, and maps of the area's walks are standard guest amenities.

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Irian Jaya

July 1992

Irian Jaya is one of only three places on earth where one can stand on now-capped montain peaks on the Equator. The name, Irian Jaya, is a combination of Biak dialct and Indonesian words that roughly means 'glorious shimmering land'.

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US Senators Encourage Social Activism

June 9, 1992

On June 8, 40 young activist from the United States discussed their environmental priorities with eight American senators at Global Forum.

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Bluebook-Internal quarterly publication for senior managers with financial and company information

March 1996

Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information systems.

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Briefing Package

July 19, 1996

This is a Digital Confidential document but the contents can be used at your discretion as background in responding to internal and external questions.

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Today's Electronic News

March 20, 1998

The Boeing Company today disclosed a plan to steamline facilities, focus manufacturing and assembly operations, and eliminate redundant laboratories.

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Web Adds to Flower Power

May 4, 1998

'I'll still wonder if the flowers were wet because the stems were damp or my palms were so sweaty,' said Jim McCann, president of 1-800-Flowers.

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