logo

PNC Financial names former BlackRock executive as president

Zawya08-04-2025

PNC Financial Services Group on Monday appointed former BlackRock executive Mark Wiedman as president, effective immediately.
Wiedman will also assume presidency of the Pittsburgh-based company's wholly owned banking subsidiary, PNC Bank, PNC Financial said.
Wiedman will report to Chief Executive William Demchak.
Michael Lyons, the group's previous president, left in January to become president and CEO-elect of payments firm Fiserv.
Touted to be a potential successor to BlackRock's CEO Larry Fink, Wiedman was the head of global client business at the asset manager. He also held several key positions at the firm since he joined in 2004 from Morgan Stanley. (Reporting by Janaki Venugopalan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

RIQ: IHC names new AI-native reinsurance platform
RIQ: IHC names new AI-native reinsurance platform

Gulf Business

time3 hours ago

  • Gulf Business

RIQ: IHC names new AI-native reinsurance platform

Image: ADGM/ For illustrative purposes International Holding Company ( The new entity is headquartered in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial centre in the UAE capital. The announcement follows last month's launch of the platform and marks a key milestone in a strategic partnership between IHC, BlackRock, and Lunate aimed at reshaping the global insurance sector through innovation, scale, and collaboration. Read: RIQ is positioned as a next-generation reinsurance company, combining artificial intelligence and human expertise to advance global risk transfer. Here's what RIQ will handle Its AI-native infrastructure is designed to enhance underwriting accuracy, capital deployment, and real-time decision-making. The platform will offer reinsurance solutions across Property and Casualty (P&C), Life, and specialised segments, with an initial focus on high-growth markets. RIQ's strategy emphasises the role of AI in improving risk selection, cost efficiency, and client servicing. RIQ's Board of Directors will be chaired by Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber and includes Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Syed Basar Shueb, Sofia Abdellatif Lasky, and Mark Wilson. 'With the unveiling of RIQ, we take a bold step toward shaping the future of global insurance,' said Al Jaber. 'RIQ reflects our ambition to build a trusted, tech-forward reinsurance champion that connects global capital with high-growth markets, all from the heart of Abu Dhabi's thriving financial center.' The company is progressing through final regulatory steps with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of ADGM ahead of full operational launch. RIQ is supported by more than $1bn in initial equity commitments and is targeting over $10bn in liabilities. Its backers say the platform is designed to transform both regional and global reinsurance markets. 'RIQ is the embodiment of IHC's vision to invest in the next frontier of global financial services,' said Syed Basar Shueb, CEO of IHC and board member of RIQ. Mark Wilson, CEO of RIQ, added, 'Our new name signals our long-term commitment to building a high-performance, AI-native reinsurance company with the scale and agility to lead in a rapidly changing world.' RIQ will continue to build its team, pursue selective partnerships, and expand global capabilities with the continued support of BlackRock and Lunate.

G42 Plants Flag in London to Power Europe's AI Ambition
G42 Plants Flag in London to Power Europe's AI Ambition

Arabian Post

time15 hours ago

  • Arabian Post

G42 Plants Flag in London to Power Europe's AI Ambition

G42 has unveiled a new London‑based subsidiary, G42 Europe & UK, designed to amplify its AI infrastructure and services across the United Kingdom and continental Europe. The entity, co‑chaired by Omar Mir and Marty Edelman, will deliver end‑to‑end AI offerings—from advisory and model deployment to supercomputing infrastructure—for sectors including finance, healthcare, energy and manufacturing. The launch comes as G42 continues its strategic European rollout, following the roll‑out of AI compute clusters and data‑centre capabilities in France and Italy. Positioned at the heart of London, the new hub aims to serve as a local nexus for AI innovation, bridging the gulf between regulatory frameworks and technological delivery. Omar Mir, an international board member at World Wide Technology with more than two decades of experience in 5G, cloud and AI services across Europe and the Middle East, will co‑lead the initiative. His counterpart, Marty Edelman, G42's group general counsel, brings deep expertise in legal oversight and governance—a reflection of G42's emphasis on secure, sovereign deployment in regulated markets. ADVERTISEMENT Mir emphasised the vision: 'Our goal is to harness G42's proven AI expertise and localise it for European and UK businesses—fuelling digital transformation, enhancing competitiveness, and building resilient, sovereign AI infrastructure in partnership with public and private stakeholders'. Edelman added that the UK and Europe represent dynamic markets with significant scope for AI‑driven innovation, and that a London hub enables the company to align closely with local regulatory regimes. G42 Europe & UK will leverage the group's global computing backbone—comprising supercomputing nodes, data centres and AI‑modeling platforms—to deliver a full spectrum of capabilities. Services will span strategic advisory, AI model development, infrastructure deployment and managed services, all with a focus on local data sovereignty and regulatory compliance. The initiative complements G42's earlier announcements of strategic investments in AI infrastructure in France and Italy. In Italy, G42 is partnering on a €1 billion supercomputing build with iGenius, while in France it has established an AMD‑powered AI facility in Grenoble. The London operation is expected to accelerate regulatory engagement and foster partnerships tailored to the European sovereignty agenda. Analysts suggest the move is part of a broader ambition by the UAE and G42 to position themselves as credible alternatives to US and Chinese cloud and AI providers. By offering sovereign, locally governed infrastructure, G42 aims to appeal to European clients seeking secure, high‑performance computing solutions. G42's broader portfolio, including Khazna data centres, Core42 sovereign‑cloud capabilities, cybersecurity firm CPX, analytics outfit Presight and AI lab Inception, will support the London hub's operations. This integrated ecosystem underpins G42's 'Intelligence Grid', a unified platform delivering enterprise‑grade AI research, analytics and cloud services. London's strategic significance is two‑fold. As a pre‑Brexit financial and regulatory anchor, it provides a gateway to both UK and EU markets. Moreover, it enhances G42's ability to work alongside national and regional authorities in shaping next‑generation AI infrastructure and data governance frameworks. Employee responses on social media underline the positive reception. A post from G42's LinkedIn noted the subsidiary 'will drive localized AI solutions and lead infrastructure build‑outs across the UK and continental Europe,' garnering broad applauds from industry peers. Industry observers acknowledge that G42's European foothold aligns with wider trends in AI geopolitics. Investment in local compute and data sovereignty reflects growing European determination to reduce dependency on US or Chinese technology ecosystems while scaling home‑grown digital capacity.

India faces two years of sugar surplus, growers and officials say
India faces two years of sugar surplus, growers and officials say

Gulf Today

time17 hours ago

  • Gulf Today

India faces two years of sugar surplus, growers and officials say

India is set to produce surplus sugar for at least two consecutive years, as millions of farmers expand the area under sugarcane cultivation amid ample rainfall, boosting crop yields, growers and industry officials said. The rebound in production would allow the world's second-largest sugar producer to increase exports in 2025/26, they said, after poor rainfall cut sugarcane yields and led to two years of export restrictions. 'Sugarcane usually gives us good returns, but sometimes we can't plant it due to a lack of water,' said Umesh Jagtap as he planted the crop on a three-acre plot in Maharashtra, a leading sugar producing state in the west. 'This year, we had heavy rain in May, and the forecast says more rain is on the way. So we're planning to plant more than usual.' Farmers from Maharashtra and neighbouring Karnataka struggle to irrigate their sugarcane crop in May. This year, however, Maharashtra and Karnataka received 1,007 per cent and 234 per cent more rainfall than average, respectively. The rainfall will benefit the crop to be harvested in the 2025/26 season, starting October, and will also support planting for the 2026/27 harvest, said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF). Sugarcane typically takes 10 to 18 months from planting to harvest. As a result, farmers who began planting this month are expected to harvest their crop during the 2026/27 season. The NFCSF estimates gross sugar production in 2025/26 to rise by nearly a fifth from a year earlier, reaching 35 million metric tonnes. For the 2024/25 marketing year to September, India's net sugar production is expected to fall below consumption for the first time in eight years. This decline stems from a 2023 drought that hit sugarcane planting and forced India to prohibit sugar exports in 2023/24 and allowing merely 1 million tonnes in 2024/25. India was the world's No. 2 sugar exporter during the five years to 2022/23, with volumes averaging 6.8 million tonnes annually. 'Looks like production is set to bounce back strongly, so New Delhi will probably have no trouble allowing exports of over 3 million tonnes in the next season starting October,' said a Mumbai-based trader with a global trade house. Meanwhile Cristal Union, France's second-largest sugar and ethanol maker, on Tuesday posted a 62 per cent fall in net profit in 2024/25 to 117 million euros ($134 million), weighed down by a fall in sugar prices, and warned of weak results in the current fiscal year. Sales for the year ended January 31 declined to 2.65 billion euros from 2.8 billion the previous year, while adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by a third to 287 million euros, the cooperative said. Other European sugar and ethanol groups, including France's largest producer Tereos and Germany's Suedzucker, have also posted steep profit declines, pressured by weak European sugar prices amid high local supply and strong Ukrainian imports. Higher volumes partly offset the decline in European sugar prices and limited the fall in revenue, the group said. However, a further slide in sugar prices since the start of the year and high costs were likely to weigh on this year's results, it said. 'The Group expects sharply lower results for 2025/26, as a result of much more unfavourable market conditions and sharply rising agricultural and industrial production costs,' the group said in a statement. Meanwhile Argentina's government has increased the prices of sugar- and corn-based bioethanol for mandatory blending with fuels for local use, according to a resolution published in the Official Gazette on Friday. The Energy Secretariat, under the Ministry of Economy, set the price of sugarcane-based bioethanol at 792.122 pesos (about $0.67) per liter, up from the previous price of 788.181 pesos per liter. Meanwhile, the price of corn-based bioethanol rose to 726 pesos per liter (about $0.61), up from 722.395 pesos before the resolution was announced. The changes take effect from the date of publication in the Official Gazette and will remain in effect until a new price is published to replace them. Reuters

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store