Latest news with #Lumon
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Pollen Street's Lumon drops takeover pursuit of UK's Argentex
May 30 (Reuters) - Payments services provider Lumon Acquisitions said on Friday that it does not intend to make an offer for Argentex (AGFX.L), opens new tab after the currency risk management firm rejected an earlier bid. Argentex became one of the first known casualties of the market turmoil caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies after the sharp drop in the dollar squeezed its finances in late April. Lumon, part of British private equity firm Pollen Street Capital, joins Argentex's former CEO Harry Adams and Irish entrepreneur Terry Clune in dropping their bid to acquire the British company. Adams and Clune also said on Thursday that they would not make an offer for the firm. Argentex had rejected bids from Lumon as well as from Adams and Clune in favour of an offer from cross-border payments provider IFX Payments valuing it at about 3 million pounds ($4 million). Shares in AIM-listed Argentex, which have lost more than 90% of their value so far this year, were down 2.3%. ($1 = 0.7424 pounds)
Irish Independent
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Singer and songwriter BABA: ‘I love Louis Theroux, his awkward humour, the way he disarms his guests and how effortlessly he gets people to talk'
BOOK: A Pocketful of Happiness I love a memoir, and I adore a love story – so Richard E Grant's A Pocketful of Happiness really spoke to me. It's heartbreaking but so full of love. He shares diary entries from the time he lost his wife, Joan, to cancer and writes so honestly about their life together. Before she died she told him to try and find a pocketful of happiness in each day, and that thread runs beautifully through the book. My favourite line is: 'Grief is love with nowhere to go.' I think it's so important to normalise talking about your grief. STREAMING: Severance I've just finished Season 2 of Severance and I miss it already. I absolutely loved everything about it. The premise is brilliant – full of twists and turns – and the cast, and their acting, is outstanding. I've been a huge Adam Scott fan since Parks and Recreation. But what really stood out for me was the way it was shot: the symmetry of the Lumon offices, the attention to detail, and how they make something so stark and bleak look oddly beautiful. The whole thing was an unsettling joy to watch. I can't wait for Season 3. PODCAST: Louis Theroux I'm a huge fan of Louis Theroux, and I'm so excited his podcast is back, the aptly named The Louis Theroux Podcast. I've only listened to the Bella Ramsey episode so far, but honestly, he could talk to a wall and I'd still tune in. I just love everything about him; his awkward humour, the way he disarms his guests, and how effortlessly he gets people to talk. He recently released a very important documentary called The Settlers, which everyone should watch. FESTIVAL: Culture Night I love Culture Night in Dublin each September – there's such a buzz, and it really brings the city to life. My favourite part is wandering between free events, discovering new artists and chatting to creatives from all disciplines. I always finish the night with a pint and a toasted sambo in Grogan's – it's my little tradition.
Forbes
14-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Don't We Talk About Motherhood In Business?
Patricia Nagy is the Chief Strategy Officer of The Proxy Agency, a revenue-enabling, full-funnel marketing agency in New York City. getty It's 2025, and only 10% of S&P 500 CEOs are women. While many factors contribute to this persistent disparity, one of the most significant remains motherhood. Even in an era that champions workplace equality, the path to the C-suite still stigmatizes motherhood, framing it as a career detour rather than a leadership accelerator. And yet, as of July 2024, out of the 52 female CEOs in the Fortune 500, all but two are mothers. We celebrate leadership traits like resilience, time management, crisis response, emotional intelligence and adaptability—all skills honed through motherhood. Yet, the corporate world remains hesitant to acknowledge motherhood as part of the leadership journey. Instead, the unspoken rule persists: If you're a woman in business, leave your personal life at the door. For decades, corporate culture has clung to the idea that personal matters should remain invisible in the workplace. But the pandemic shattered that illusion. Suddenly, Zoom calls exposed our kids, pets and messy living rooms. Work and home life became inextricably linked, forcing companies to acknowledge what had always been true: The personal and professional are inseparable. Yet, this "leave your personal life at the door" rule was never applied equally. The pandemic also laid bare a long-standing reality: Even in two-income households, women often still bore the brunt of domestic labor, childcare and remote schooling. While companies adapted to new ways of working, this invisible workload didn't disappear—it simply became more visible. This is the Lumon mindset—a reference to the fictional corporation in "Severance" that demands employees separate their personal and professional identities. But here's the question: Does the Lumon world apply only to women? The answer, overwhelmingly, is yes. While men are often encouraged to integrate work and family, women are expected to compartmentalize, downplay or even hide their roles as mothers as a weakness or obstacle to their careers. The consequences are real: Women who become mothers tend to face slower career progression, fewer leadership opportunities and lower earnings, while men who become fathers often see no such penalty. The outdated perception that mothers are somehow "less committed" lingers, even when research shows the opposite. It's not just about how we work, it's about who is allowed to bring their full selves to work without consequence. Some industry leaders have recently called for infusing more "masculine energy" into the workplace. This perspective is not only regressive but fundamentally misunderstands what makes leadership effective. Leadership is not about adhering to a singular, gendered ideal—it's about a balance of skills that drive business success. Empathy, collaboration and effective communication—qualities often associated with women and working mothers—are just as critical as decisiveness and risk-taking. Research consistently shows that diverse leadership improves profitability, strengthens workplace culture and fosters innovation. The notion that businesses should embrace a more "masculine" ethos not only dismisses the strengths that many of today's top leaders bring to the table but also reinforces the very biases that keep women—especially mothers—from advancing. Instead of regressing to outdated ideals, organizations should focus on building leadership teams that reflect the diverse strengths needed for long-term success. The irony of corporate culture's dismissal of motherhood is that many of the most sought-after leadership skills are developed through parenting. • Crisis management and decision-making under pressure: Mothers don't have the luxury of hesitation. Whether responding to a medical emergency or handling a last-minute childcare issue, they make fast, high-stakes decisions daily—a skill that translates directly to the business world. • Time management and prioritization: There is no workforce more efficient than working mothers. Juggling school drop-offs, client meetings and deadlines forces them to maximize efficiency in a way that many executives strive to achieve. • Emotional intelligence and communication: Parenting teaches patience, negotiation and the ability to read between the lines—just like managing teams, resolving conflicts and driving business relationships. • Adaptability and resilience: No plan is ever set in stone. Mothers learn to pivot quickly, adjust to unforeseen circumstances and keep moving forward—just as business leaders must do in times of uncertainty. By treating motherhood as something that must be hidden or minimized, businesses create a pipeline problem that directly impacts leadership diversity: • Many women don't feel supported at work and may be more likely to leave the workforce, leading to a loss of top talent. • Fewer women in leadership means fewer role models for future female leaders, reinforcing the cycle of underrepresentation. • Companies miss out on leadership skills that working mothers bring to the table, such as crisis management, adaptability and emotional intelligence. It's not enough to advocate for gender diversity in leadership without addressing the structural barriers that disproportionately hinder mothers from advancing. Until businesses recognize and dismantle these barriers, the leadership pipeline will remain broken. If nearly all female Fortune 500 CEOs are mothers, why isn't motherhood recognized as part of the leadership conversation? The reality is that the traits most valued in business—resilience, adaptability, crisis management and emotional intelligence—are sharpened through the experience of parenting. Yet, corporate culture continues to sideline motherhood, treating it as an obstacle rather than a source of strength. The companies that will thrive in the future are those that recognize leadership isn't about reinforcing outdated notions of who belongs at the top, but about leveraging the full range of skills and perspectives that drive success. That means fostering an environment where the realities of work and life are not at odds but understood as interconnected. It means measuring leadership by ability, vision and results, not by outdated assumptions about commitment or capability. Let's expand, not restrict, the definition of leadership to reflect the complexity and diversity of today's workforce. Motherhood and leadership are not in opposition. It's time to start recognizing what has always been true. Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only community for sales and biz dev executives. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Adam Scott is addicted to doing laundry
Adam Scott is addicted to doing laundry. The 'Severance' actor, 52, made the admission to People and said it winds up his wife as he does it at all hours if he can't sleep. He said: 'You know, something that is a habit of mine, and I don't know if it's toxic or not. 'My wife has started losing patience with me... (it's) that I love doing laundry.' The 'Parks and Rec' star went on to explain his routine with cleaning clothes, adding: 'I love it and I'll do it at all times of the day. 'Like if I can't get to sleep, I'll look for laundry to do and I'll do it. I love putting it in and measuring the soap and waiting and then putting it in.' His enthusiasm for laundry has earned him the title of having a 'toxic trait' from his wife, Naomi Scott, though he's not sure if that label truly fits. Adam said it wasn't always his passion, adding: 'It's not something I've always loved. 'I kind of discovered, in turning into a grown-up, that I love the process of doing laundry. '(My family) find it annoying, honestly.' Adam met his wife, producer Naomi Scott (née Sablan), in 1998, and the two married in 2005. They now have two children – son Graham and daughter Frankie – and have co-founded Gettin' Rad Productions together. The actor also reflected on the reception of 'Severance' season 2, in which he stars as Mark S., an employee of the enigmatic company Lumon. In the sci-fi thriller, Mark struggles with his severed personality, attempting to separate his work life from his personal grief over the death of his wife. He said about the new run of the show: 'I feel great. It is nice to be able to talk about it because we've been sitting on all these big crazy secrets for years, but it's also great to see the reaction because you really just never know how people are gonna react until it's out there in the world.' The actor also admitted the team behind the series was initially anxious about how the second season would be received. He added:'We were freaked out that people wouldn't like it or that they just wouldn't think it's as good as season one. 'And so we were scared that people wouldn't watch as much in the numbers that they did season 1, so it's great to see it out in the world and people reacting well to it.'
Khaleej Times
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
UAE: How to master power dressing in 2025 using Apple TV+'s 'Severance' for inspiration
Eid celebrations are over, school holidays are winding down and regular office hours have resumed. The UAE is back to business. And, for the first time since Covid took a wrecking ball to office dress codes, workwear is at the top of the fashion agenda, thanks to the most-watched TV show in the history of Apple TV+, the sci-fi dystopian thriller Severance. If you've not seen it (and you really must), the overall premise is an exploration of what happens if our work lives are entirely separated from our home lives. The protagonists undergo a procedure that separates their conscious into Innies (corporate drudges tasked with 'work that is mysterious and important' for Lumon Industries, their employer and inventor of the severing concept) and Outies, the side of the self that gets to live life, blissfully ignorant of office politics, and immune from Sunday night dread as the work week looms. To be 'severed' promises the ideal work:life balance. As you'd expect from Apple, the production design is impeccable, a masterclass in storytelling through the use of colour. On the severed floor at Lumon, the protagonists of the Macrodata Refinement team are shown via a palette of almost exclusively blue and green. Not since the 1988 movie Working Girl made Melanie Griffiths' boxy suits and bouffant hair de rigueur, has office style been so aesthetically all-in. But while Working Girl was about power dressing, Severance's corporate automatons are powerless. Each day they are dressed by their Outie, consciousness switching to their innie persona in the Lumon Industries elevator. 'She dresses me in the morning, like I'm a baby,' bemoans Helly R, played by Britt Lower, of her Outie's control over what she finds herself wearing each day. While the conflict between Helly R's inside and outside selves is central to the show's narrative thread (no spoilers here), were I in her nude, block-heeled shoes, I'd be less quick to condemn my Outie's fashion choices. Like Apple's iconic founder, the late Steve Jobs, who wore an Issey Miyake black turtleneck, Levi's 501 blue jeans and New Balance trainers from the 1990s until his death in 2011, there is something to be said for a workwear wardrobe that is reliable, repeatable and rudimentary, as Lumon Industries' verbose Mr Milchick may or may not have said. As Severance 's central female character, and the standard bearer for the show's style credentials, Helly R's office wear, as chosen by her Outie Helena, revolves around some form of blue A-line pencil skirt, three-quarter length sleeve knit top, and those nude heels (specifically French footwear brand Repetto's Marlow style; designed for dancers, durable for eight hours at your desk, whether your job entails running down Lumon Industries' endless sterile corridors or not). There are no prints, no extraneous detail, and very little variation in silhouette, bar the occasional shift dress. Build a wardrobe of mix-and-match block-coloured basics, and you too can devote as little time as Helly R does to thinking about what to wear for work (even if her lack of sartorial say-so is down to bioengineering rather than free will). The trick is to find a palette you are comfortable working within, pun entirely intended. For me, it would be a spectrum of beige, from ivory to camel (do not attempt this if you have children under the age of five). Then, harness the discipline to shop only within those shades, sticking to simple shapes that suit your body type. Thus, in true Lumon style, freeing your creativity and frivolity to run wild outside of office hours. Just not too wild. Where Helly R's wardrobe is a lesson in restraint, it's wise to be discerning in your choice of televisual style cues. I once got carried away watching a Love Is Blind reunion show, ending up down a Google rabbit hole and impulsively ordering a floor-length rhinestone sheath dress from partywear brand Babyboo. It looked fantastic on screen, but, being neither a reality TV star, nor a highschooler with an upcoming prom, it has yet to emerge from its box. In a world of unlimited style choices, there's something to be said for limiting your shopping self's freedom of thought (Season 3 of Severance?). So, the next time a new series of Selling Sunset tempts me with the prospect of 150mm heels, I'll stream some discordant jazz and hit up Clarks for a Helly/Helena-approved court shoe instead.
