Dropbox Big Bucks / Organ Transplant Center / ComEd's Energy Plan /Business Briefs

Building Generational Leaders BUSINESS BRIEFS Correspondent: MG Media ▪ ▪ FCC to approve the AT&T's $48 billion deal to buy DirecTV. When this tran Like Tweet Pin +1 Subscribe Building Generational Leaders For the latest menu options, please CLICK! (Paid AD) NGLC Leadership Luncheon Partner. CLICK for details! (Paid AD) Paid AD Paid AD Paid AD BUSINESS BRIEFS Correspondent: MG Media ▪ ▪ FCC to approve the AT&T's $48 billion deal to buy DirecTV. When this transaction goes through, it will create one of the largest US pay-TV providers with over 26 million customers (AT&T - 6 mil and DirecTV - 20 mil). There are some rules and guidelines AT&T must follow to ensure that they don't discriminate against other online video providers. ▪ ▪ Home sales reached an eight-year high in June. Sales increased 3.2%. Strong job growth, rising mortgage rates help spark the surge. The medium price of a sold home was $235 grand. ▪ ▪ Coke profits jumped 19% amongst strong summer activities like concerts, festivals and global growth also helped the soft drink beverage. Bottled water played a major role in Coke's increase, with portable water being now the number one drink for consumption. Coke owns Dasani. ▪ ▪ Fast food giant McDonald's preparing to sell breakfast all-day at most all of its franchise restaurants. The question is which items will make the lunch and dinner menu? Executives are pleased with how the test of all-day breakfast are going in a number of eateries. Change expected as early as October. ▪ ▪ The review sight has suffered with decline of nearly 30% over the last year. Yelp finds itself in serious trouble as its founder and chairman, Max Levchin plans to leave. Yelp publishes crowd-sourced reviews online and has digitizes the world-of-mouth recommendations for local businesses. ▪ ▪ Alibaba, the China version of Google will invest $1 billion into its cloud computing business. In a statement, Alibaba cities cloud based revenue for Amazon increased 80%, which its CEO, Daniel Zhang says is at the heart of Alibaba's strategy to compete in that space. ▪ ▪ SEC investigates Diageo's shipment records to see if the alcohol brand pads its delivery numbers to show substantial growth to distributors. By recording more cases sent, the British based owner of Smirnoff and Johnny Walker would be able to report higher sales numbers. Diageo confirmed the SEC's inquiry. PLEASE CLICK FOR INFORMATION! (Paid AD) CELEBRITY TRAFFIC Publicist Aisha Murff celebrate birthday during boat party in the cove (Photo: Shot by Chris) Carl West posted up on boat hanging with Aisha saluting her birthday (Photo: Shot by Chris) PLEASE CLICK FOR MORE DETAILS (Paid AD) BUSINESS PROFILE Dropping the Box For Big Bucks Andrew W. "Drew" Houston, best known for being the founder and CEO of Dropbox, an online backup and storage service has been recognized for his innovative contribution to technology. According to Forbes magazine, his net worth is $1.3 billion. And Dropbox has been called one of the 20 best startups of Silicon Valley. Houston was born in Acton, Massachusetts. He graduated with a degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. It was there that he met Arash Ferdowsi who would later go on to be co-founder and CTO of Dropbox. Before working on Dropbox, Drew worked on a number of other startups which include Bit9, Accolade and Hubspot. Houston was named one of the most promising players aged 30 and under by Business Week. Dropbox has been touted as Y Combinator's most successful investment to date. Drew was also named among the Top 30 Under-30 Entrepreneurs by inc.com. MIT invited Houston to serve as speaker at its annual commencement ceremonies. In his remarks, Houston gave this advice: "They say that you're the average of the FIVE people you spend the most time with. Think about that for a minute: who would be in your circle of FIVE? I have some good news: MIT is one of the best places in the world to start building that circle. If I hadn't come here, I wouldn't have met my amazing co-founder, Arash, and there would be no Dropbox. One thing I've learned is surrounding yourself with inspiring people is just as important as being talented or working hard. Your circle pushes you to be better." CLICK to register for Global Mixx Music & Film Forum (Paid AD) Yolanda Becker, MD HEALTHY COMMUNITIESUChicago Supports Organ Transplant Fund Center The University of Chicago Medicine has become the first transplant center to contribute to the Illinois Transplant Fund (ITF), a new not-for-profit that provides financial support for organ transplants to qualified uninsured residents of northern and central Illinois and Northwest Indiana. The medical center’s initial $100,000 donation, made this week, will be followed by additional contributions of up to $400,000 total over the next three years. UChicago Medicine’s initial contribution to the ITF is a call-to-action for other academic institutions, businesses and members of the community to support the fund as well. “We are very excited to make this program a reality. This will allow us to transplant these patients safely and provide the care and medications they need long-term,” said Yolanda Becker, MD, professor of surgery and director of the kidney and pancreas transplant program at the University of Chicago Medicine. Despite recent improvements after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, 11.9 percent of the U.S. population remains uninsured. Illinois has approximately 500,000 non-citizens with no access to publicly funded insurance programs who are effectively denied access to organ transplants. The uninsured population includes disproportionate numbers of minorities as well. Hispanics make up 30.4 percent of uninsured Americans; nearly 13.6 percent of the uninsured population is black. Nevertheless, these groups are vital participants in the organ donation community. Reports showed a 300 percent increase in the number of Hispanic first-person organ donors after non-citizens gained access to Illinois driver’s licenses in 2014. The ITF provides financial assistance for organ transplants in the form of insurance premium support to qualified patients in need. ITF has established the Transplant Insurance Premium Program (TIPP) that serves as a “last resort” for financial assistance and enables eligible patients to obtain health insurance coverage for up to 36 months. “We are grateful to the University of Chicago Medicine for taking this important step to improve the health of the community,” said Beverley L. Ketel, MD, chairman of the ITF Board and University of Chicago Medicine alumna. While much of the initial focus is on minority transplant candidates, people from all backgrounds are eligible for TIPP funding. The ITF initial 11-member board of directors is made up of physicians, health care advocates and business leaders in the local community. Visit our research blog at sciencelife.uchospitals.edu and our newsroom at uchospitals.edu/news. For more details, contact Matt Wood at 773-702-5894 or matthew.wood@uchospitals.edu. CLICK FOR DETAILS (Paid AD) POWER TO THE PEOPLEComEd's Future Energy Plan Supports a Cleaner Energy System and Promotes Critical Consumer Needs on Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its Clean Power Plan -- an ambitious plan requiring states to reduce carbon by 32 percent by 2030. ComEd stands in full support of Illinois' efforts to reach the goals of a cleaner energy system and submitted legislation this spring to help jump start that process. The ComEd Future Energy Plan leverages smart grid technology to expand energy efficiency programs, bringing energy and cost savings to everyone on the grid. It introduces a new rate design to eliminate unfair cost shifts that hit low-income customers the hardest. ComEd's plan balances the goal of clean energy with the equally important goals of ensuring that benefits flow broadly to all customers. “Continuous improvement in our infrastructure is essential to competing in the digital economy and paving the way for a greener future for Illinois,” said Michael Reever, vice president of governmental relations, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. “ComEd’s Future Energy Plan establishes important energy policy that will help achieve more energy efficiency, greater renewable energy, fairer allocation of costs, and a power grid that’s safer and even more reliable than it is today.” The Clean Jobs Coalition held a rally to highlight claims they have a plan that supports the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. Their plan has elements that promote clean energy – but it ignores the critically important goals of affordability, resilience and fairness. The plan costs consumers $700 million, fails to address reliability, and supports policies that shift the burden of grid costs from consumers who can afford to invest in individualized home solar projects to consumers who remain on traditional supply. ComEd's responsibility is to deliver the service our customers desire and to meet all the goals of a strong electric system. To that end, ComEd has hit record levels of reliability the last three years – ranking us in the top 10 percent of utilities. ComEd is delivering these results while delivering a rate reduction to customers, having filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission this year an unprecedented $50 million rate decrease. To learn more about ComEd’s Future Energy Plan, ComEd.com/energyplan. Contact ComEd Media Relations at (312) 394-3500.