Latest news with #Phipps
Calgary Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Parker: Project management firm Lauren Services continues growth with office in Houston
Four young engineers worked together for a Calgary firm with a good client roster of mainly oil and gas companies, attracting the attention of an eastern Canadian company. But when they merged, the four decided they were not happy with the new focus, so in 1979 they took the plunge and founded their own company. Article content It is a fascinating story that began in space in a two-bedroom apartment in Charter Towers. Within six months of the launch, they needed to hire more people and relocate to the company's first 'real' office along 11 th Avenue S.W. Article content Article content Lauren Services has since expanded in services and staff — now numbering 100 in the Calgary head office and another 65 in its Vancouver and Kelowna, B.C., branch offices. Article content Over the years, the company was acquired by CH2M Hill for four years and then as a Canadian subsidiary of a U.S.-based engineering firm, but remains today as Lauren Services — 100 per cent Canadian-owned — and run by one of the original foursome, Rod Phipps, the managing partner. Article content Along with president Dustin Edgren and their teams, they run a leading mid-size firm, helping clients throughout North America bring big ideas to life through a full suite of engineering, procurement, and construction management services for traditional energy, transitional energy and industrial development. Article content Proud to be a preferred place of employment, Phipps says Lauren has attracted some of the brightest and best professionals in the industry. 'They have helped build a reputation that combines technical expertise with personal integrity — where talent meets character.' Article content Article content Phipps says part of Lauren's DNA is being agile. 'We can move and shift quickly based on project needs. We aren't stuck in a bureaucracy of hierarchy that gets in the way of results.' He adds the company culture means Lauren can adapt, flex and jump on opportunities to meet objectives and solve complex challenges. Article content Some of them have been distress calls from companies that were experiencing troubles due to other service providers falling behind with things such as scheduling, and asked Lauren to pitch in and rescue their projects. Article content Keeping good relationships with clients has led to expansion into B.C. — work for a Calgary client in the Vancouver area was the reason for opening an office there. Article content West Coast work has included project and construction management support for MEG's uploading expansion at Pacific Coast terminals in Port Moody and other port and terminal projects. When one of Lauren's partners moved to Kelowna, and after Fortis B.C. asked the company to help with a gas distribution project, it made sense to run an office there.
Global News
27-05-2025
- Climate
- Global News
Advocacy group calls for relief measures for Guelph schools without air conditioning
With warmer temperatures on the way in Guelph, a children's health advocate group is seeking relief for students and teachers across Canada who are stuck in classrooms without air conditioning. Currently, there are 10 schools in the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) that do not have air conditioning. Erica Phipps, executive director of the Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment (CPCHE), said there's an urgency to address the issue. 'Now is the time to make the plans, make the investments. Set the schedule for school upgrades and start chipping away at that backlog and that need for adequate cooling across all schools.' According to a recent report from the CPCHE, data shows that extreme heat affects a child's health and learning ability. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Heather Loney, spokesperson for the UGDSB, said retrofitting older buildings is a challenge. Story continues below advertisement Loney said the aging infrastructure poses some challenges when it comes to installing air conditioning in older buildings, including Victory Public School, which is over 100 years old. 'The infrastructure of putting air conditioning into a building such as that would be very different from a better school that was built a few years ago,' Loney said. Phipps said the group is calling on multiple levels of government to set the temperature threshold in school buildings and educational facilities to 26 C as a matter of policy. The CPCHE has suggested a number of climate resilience measures inside and outside of the classroom that are cost-effective, including installing window blinds or shades to keep some of the incoming solar radiation out of the classroom, appropriate guidance on fans and tree canopies and light-coloured roofs. In addition to the levels of government, the CPHE's call to action extends to educators and parents in the communities affected. 'We very much encourage parents, educators, young people and others to pick it up and run with it. Take the call to action to your local school board, members of parliament or provincial leadership. We need to make it clear and have a strong, collective voice that action on this is needed,' she said. Phipps said the upgrades need to be part of routine maintenance and done with a sense of urgency. Story continues below advertisement Loney said the board has been routinely implementing measures suggested by the CPCHE, such as light-coloured roofs and tree canopies. And as part of the board's multi-year plan, she said the UGDSB is looking at opportunities to add green energy technology into those schools and buildings impacted.
Business Insider
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
William Blair Remains a Buy on Tenax Therapeutics (TENX)
In a report released today, Matt Phipps from William Blair maintained a Buy rating on Tenax Therapeutics (TENX – Research Report). The company's shares closed today at $5.68. Confident Investing Starts Here: Quickly and easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks straight to you inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Phipps covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Incyte, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merus. According to TipRanks, Phipps has an average return of -10.8% and a 33.57% success rate on recommended stocks. Tenax Therapeutics has an analyst consensus of Strong Buy, with a price target consensus of $25.00.
Otago Daily Times
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
A war on the future
Palestinian scholars and the knowledge they hold must be saved, academics tell Tom McKinlay. Every day during the war in Gaza Prof Alison Phipps has messaged a colleague in the besieged territory, to record their final words. Because any moment might be their colleague's last. "So, every day they expect to be killed and every day they send me the last words they want to be known by. Because they entrust those in the diaspora, those of us living overseas, to be the ones who might be able to tell their story." It's not something Prof Phipps, who has worked for years supporting educational initiatives in the occupied Palestinian territories, ever thought she would have to do. But the horror in Gaza has forced the Glasgow University professor, who is the Unesco chair for Refugee Integration through Education, Language and Arts — and in 2019 was the De Carle Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the University of Otago — to take on new roles. Israel's genocidal destruction of Gaza, most recently extended to annihilation by starvation and the threat of conquest, has recast the lives of many. In the world of education as elsewhere. As in too many other ways, the numbers tell a story. The United Nations' April update reported the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had killed a total of 13,289 students of all ages (up from 12,119 in January) and 651 educational staff (498 in January). More than 21,653 students and 2791 teachers had been injured. Israel had destroyed 57 university buildings in the Gaza strip, up from 51 in January. It had deprived 87,000 tertiary students of formal learning spaces. Dr Ala Alazzeh, vice-president for community affairs at Birzeit University, in Ramallah, West Bank, recently told University World News he did not believe the destruction of universities was collateral damage. "We believe they have been deliberately targeted since the beginning of the war. It is not only the act of killing, but also the destruction of the future. It could be called educide or scholasticide," Dr Alazzeh said. Among the dead are colleagues of Prof Phipps. One such is Dr Refaat al Ar'eer, an English literature scholar who had been lead investigator in a "Cultures of Sustainable and Inclusive Peace" project. He died early in the war, in December 2023. "I received the news we all knew was coming: that the hunting of our colleague and friend Refaat al Ar'eer by the Israeli Defence Forces and their lethal, precision targeting, had resulted in his assassination," Phipps wrote later. Those who have raised their voices in Gaza have been targeted, she says. Phipps worked alongside Dr al Ar'eer in Gaza, delivering lectures remotely — the long-running Israeli blockade of Gaza meant she hasn't been able to visit the strip in person since 2013. But despite everything, Prof Phipps, who was recently back visiting at the University of Otago, has continued to support education there. In one example it involved examining a Gazan student for their PhD online, in collaboration with the Islamic University of Gaza. "So, two of us were external examiners, in other countries, and our internal examiner was in the Gaza Strip. And it was an incredibly moving experience. I mean, not only was it a fine piece of work, and the candidate passed with flying colours, but what we had to do to convene the viva," she says. "I think we all understood it as a form of triumph and resistance that you might pass a PhD during a genocide and a scholasticide." Nothing about the examination sounds easy. When the professor tried to file her report, platforms crashed, her report disappeared, then, in desperation, she wrote it again and sent it by WhatsApp messenger, so those in Gaza could take screenshots. The student's thesis addressed education within the Gaza context, education within the context of a siege and a genocide, Prof Phipps says. Much of what they had written about has since been destroyed. "And we began the viva by naming all the people who had been involved in the PhD who had been killed by the Israeli attacks. So we began by naming the vice-chancellor of the university ... one of the vice-deans, one of the supervisors, members of the family. So all of the people were named at the start and it took us half an hour." Prof Phipps has also helped convene a summit at Glasgow University, for the top UK universities, to look at rebuilding higher education in Gaza. Among other issues up for discussion was a call from colleagues in Gaza for governments to open their borders, to get leading academics out. "Because at a time of genocide, the culture is destroyed unless its carriers can be saved," Phipps says. "And so one of the reasons why we've always granted asylum to dissidents and to politicians and to elites is because they are the carriers of the culture. And they are the ones who do go back and rebuild the country afterwards." It was the case with many South Africans who lived outside their country in exile during Apartheid, then returned to rebuild. The UK government has been lobbied to grant visas through the Council for At-Risk Academics — an organisation founded to help academics escape Nazi Germany and whose first president was Ernest Rutherford. This year, they have managed to get 15 people visas to study in the UK, Phipps says — a fraction of the number of people from Ukraine afforded the same assistance. Given the many challenges the people of Gaza face, from the task of staying alive, to finding food, water and shelter, education might seem like a lesser priority. But education has long been a huge part of life in the occupied territories, Phipps says. "October 2023, Palestine had some of the best outcomes for higher education in the world." Education there is the lifeline, the most important thing, she says. "People are unbelievably serious about it." Tertiary education is often forgotten in an emergency, she says, yet it is critical to the rebuilding of a country and the survival of the people. "Without it, there are no doctors, there are no medics, there is no cultural work, there is no education at a high level, there is no studying of geography or history that tells you who you are as a people." Palestinian education researcher Saleh Albalawi knows these stories first hand, he, and his family, are among the few to have escaped Gaza — among a vanishing few to have made it to New Zealand, where he is now working towards his PhD. Their long flight began early, when in mid October 2023 the IDF issued an evacuation order to the 1.1 million residents of Gaza City. The following months saw his family, including his three children, move between UNRWA shelters, living in nightmarish, crowded conditions before managing to cross from Rafah, in southern Gaza, into Egypt. That was only possible because Albalawi's consulting work in the strip meant he had UN papers. There would have been next to no chance otherwise. He confirms an assessment shared by Phipps that the first thing that needs to happen in Gaza is a ceasefire, swiftly followed by humanitarian assistance. Little can be materially achieved without it. "Because each moment in Gaza, we have lost our beloved one ... each minute, we lost a person," he says. Once a ceasefire is in place, the focus can shift to the destruction wrought by Israel. And an early priority will be the education system, he says. "Because since one and a-half years, the students in Gaza didn't officially enrol in the school, which means two school years without enrolment, without learning, which means that we have a big educational loss now due to the current conflict." It is an issue in which Albalawi is deeply invested. A research project in Gaza on which he worked, investigated the various factors already negatively impacting schools there — including proximity to the border with Israel — so resources might be directed to address them, ensuring equality of access to education for all. Again, numbers tell the story of the challenge ahead. Gaza had 672 schools, Albalawi says. None are still operating. It's a crushing reality given schools are more than just places of learning in the lives of Palestinian communities. They are centres of community, resilience and resistance, from where Palestinians can look to a future, Albalawi says. Education provides a way to address the huge power imbalance between Israel and Palestine. "Because we know that there is imbalance of power between Palestine and Israel. "We look to education as the only tool to have this balance. Because we cannot build, for example, the power to fight, but we can build the human to build the country. So, a school for us means a lot." In the peace they pray for, the Palestinians of Gaza will rebuild their education infrastructure, but, in the present moment, Albalawi supports the idea of allowing some scholars and students to work and study elsewhere on special visas or scholarships. "Maybe we ask the government here to facilitate a kind of scholarship for Gaza students who want to continue their studies in New Zealand. And also facilitate the visa for them to come here to continue their studies." Dr Ritesh Shah, a senior lecturer in Te Pūtahi Mātauranga, the Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Auckland and co-director of Tāwharau Whakaumu, the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies, is another with long experience of working in Gaza, supporting education programmes. It was there he met Albalawi, who contacted him once he was out of Gaza. Following a "significant amount of advocacy" at the University of Auckland, and with the support of many, Shah secured a funded PhD position for Albalawi at the institution. "It was not easy at any stage of the process," Shah says. "Our university systems and structures are not really that adaptable to deal with students fleeing humanitarian crises." New Zealand should be looking to follow Australia's example, he says, which recently established the Refugee Student Settlement Pathway. It "will encourage university students and staff to play an active role supporting young refugees to pursue their education in Australia". Among its goals is to "provide hope and a future for young refugees and allow them to pursue their educational goals in safety". The scheme is initially focused on displaced people in the Asia Pacific. Given the destruction visited on Gaza by the IDF, there need to be pathways out of the territory so the expertise and knowledge held by students and scholars isn't entirely lost, Shah says. "It means that we need to be able to open humanitarian corridors and visa pathways for people to get out and continue learning elsewhere." Elsewhere internationally, US-based network Scholars at Risk (SAR) has been working with host institutions in Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the United States to secure placements for Palestinian scholars. SAR supports calls to protect higher education communities from attack, including by implementing a cessation of hostilities and release of noncombatants, to support scholars and students who are at-risk and protect and promote academic freedom and institutional autonomy, a SAR spokesperson said. Elsewhere in New Zealand, a University of Otago spokeswoman said the university is investigating how it can support academic colleagues and students displaced through conflict. "The vice-chancellor will be updating the university's academic group, Senate, on this work soon and will look to take a proposal forward to the university council in the coming months," the spokeswoman said. In an emailed statement, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington said it maintains a policy of institutional neutrality and does not take positions on behalf of its community. "This approach, shared by many leading universities, applies regardless of the issue and does not reflect individual views of its staff, leadership, or our wider community." The University of Canterbury expressed concern about conflicts across the globe impacting students, scholars and universities. "The right to an accessible education is at the heart of UC's strategy," a spokesperson said. "The University of Canterbury contributes to this through its full membership of the Scholars at Risk Network whose mission is to protect scholars and promote academic freedom. The university will continue to use that mechanism as a way to support displaced scholars and also has offered scholarships to refugees." Meanwhile, Prof Phipps is still in daily contact with her colleague, recording those final messages. Because nothing has changed. "Nothing's over," she says.
Business Insider
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Keros Therapeutics (KROS) Gets a Hold from William Blair
William Blair analyst Matt Phipps maintained a Hold rating on Keros Therapeutics (KROS – Research Report) yesterday. The company's shares closed yesterday at $13.76. Protect Your Portfolio Against Market Uncertainty Discover companies with rock-solid fundamentals in TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter. Receive undervalued stocks, resilient to market uncertainty, delivered straight to your inbox. According to TipRanks, Phipps is an analyst with an average return of -10.3% and a 35.07% success rate. Phipps covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Incyte, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Amgen. The word on The Street in general, suggests a Moderate Buy analyst consensus rating for Keros Therapeutics with a $30.71 average price target. Based on Keros Therapeutics' latest earnings release for the quarter ending December 31, the company reported a quarterly revenue of $3.04 million and a GAAP net loss of $46.03 million. In comparison, last year the company earned a revenue of $143 thousand and had a GAAP net loss of $40.24 million Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 7 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is positive on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders buying their shares of KROS in relation to earlier this year. Last month, ADAR1 Capital Management, LLC, a Major Shareholder at KROS bought 934,258.00 shares for a total of $9,462,055.64.
