Latest news with #Sousa
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Hometown Hero – Izzy Sousa, St. Raphael
PAWTUCKET, RI (WPRI) — This week's Cardi's Furniture & Mattresses Hometown Sports Hero is Izzy Sousa. The St. Raphael Sophomore has gone 11-2 on the mound with a 0.91 ERA and 156 Strikeouts in 85 Innings, helping the Saints earn the top seed in the Division II State Softball Playoffs. Her success coming a year after she pitched Cranston East to the D-III State Title. 'I think it just shows that the work she put in the offseason to get stronger, because she knew she was coming up a Division, maybe two if we had stayed in Division I, she put the work in the weight room, she got so much stronger,' said Saints Head Coach Ron Larabee. 'She's amazing. Such a work horse.' 'Yeah, I think I noticed a lot of differences in my game, especially over the Summer, coming up from D-III to D-II, I mean I knew I was definitely going to have to improve myself as a person, improve myself as a player,' Sousa said. 'So, over the Summer I worked really hard, got my speed up a little bit. Started hitting my spots more consistently so I think I definitely got a lot better mentally and physically.' Transitioning to her new school and new program made easier by her new teammates. 'I mean you feel like you go into every season feeling jittery, you never know what's going to happen, but I feel like when I saw this group come to tryouts, all the girls really accepted me,' Sousa said. 'So, I felt very good coming in, so I had really high expectations for us because I knew we were all going to mesh so well together.' Sousa will look to continue to grow this Summer with her Waves Softball U16 team. A successful season should put her on the radar of college coaches and with two years still to go in her high school career, the dream of playing Division I College Softball could become a reality. 'We go away every weekend, we're going to play all around New England,' Sousa said. 'I'm going away for some weeks at a time in the Summer. I'm going out to Tampa for a little bit so I'm really, really excited for Summer. There's going to be a lot of traveling, a lot of games but you know that's what you get excited for. Summer softball is definitely the best.' 'She's just getting stronger every day, she works so hard every day,' Larabee said. 'I'm hoping that she stays right here and I'm hoping I can see her just grow into that a nice college player that she wants to be.' If you have a Hometown Sports Hero you'd like to nominate, email sports@ Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
FF News
14-05-2025
- Business
- FF News
EXCLUSIVE: "Fertile Ground" - Hugo Oliveira Sousa, OakNorth in 'The Fintech Magazine'
British neobank OakNorth has definitively planted itself in American soil with the acquisition of a community bank. So what will businesses there make of it? It may have been serendipity that OakNorth's first acquisition in the US is based in Oakland County, Michigan. But it's not just the name that should make the British neobank feel at home. Built on the back of manufacturing and tech, Michigan is a state that's proudly pro-business, with hundreds of thousands of small enterprises that fit snugly into niche lender OakNorth's target demographic of the equivalent £1million to £100million turnover. The Community Unity Bank (CUB) acquisition, which is subject to approval, is a crucial stage in OakNorth's plan to expand across the States, having first exported its business lending model there in July 2023. Since then, it has lent more than $700million stateside, including to UK businesses in the US such as nursery brand Mamas & Papas. In fact, OakNorth chief executive Rishi Khosla recently said demand from US borrowers had exceeded expectations, the bank lending three times more than anticipated. In CUB, OakNorth found a kindred spirit. Both organisations were built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs and they both set out to address a gap in the provision of small business credit in their respective markets. Now, as trade tariffs threaten between the UK and the US, OakNorth finds itself uniquely placed to assess the risks and opportunities for both business communities. Launched in 2015, OakNorth has never deviated from its target customers – growth-driven, lower-mid market businesses with a proven model and aspirations to grow. Hugo Oliveira Sousa, who arrived to set up the bank's marketing operation in 2021, says: 'Until then, OakNorth didn't have a marketing team, the business was profitable from day one and was built on referrals, which is quite a feat. It is a brand built on a niche, which is businesses that are routinely underserved in terms of their growth needs. Our differentiator from other banks is that 'No one wants to pick up a phone if they don't have to. But, if you want to make a £1million transfer to buy your next business or plot of land, and a computer says no, a chatbot can't help. You need a human who knows your business.' Sousa says OakNorth's goal has always been profitable growth. That means it has resisted the urge to move mass market, which risks onboarding unprofitable customers or such a wide range of them that the bank's customer support model becomes overloaded. So far, that's proved the right course. OakNorth's annual report for 2024 reported a pre-tax profit of £214.8million, up 14 per cent on the previous year. Loans and advances to customers rose 15 per cent to £4.42billion last year. Last summer, the bank launched its business current account to build stronger relationships with those customers. And, as senior director, Sousa now co-leads the banking team. Since a business account is a 'commodity', he says, the platform is provided by cloud banking fintech Thought Machine, but the offer is tailored by OakNorth to meet its niche market's needs. 'If you want to make a transfer of £1million to buy your next business and the computer says 'no', a chat bot can't help. You need a human' 'When we began work on the business product we knew 60 per cent of our customers on the lending side were recurrent customers, but that's event-driven, we didn't keep a consistent relationship,' he says. 'We had customers asking us for a business account that was as seamless as their loans, so we realised it was something we could do. But there's no point in acquiring thousands of business customers if you can't monetise and support them with a product they are willing to pay for. We say clearly, we're not competing on price. We compete on premium service to meet specific needs.' An example of those needs could be a customer who has to open a bank account fast for a special vehicle it has created for an acquisition – that would typically result in rejection from a neobank and a waiting time of months with an incumbent. 'We can do it quickly because we understand complex company structures,' says Sousa. 'Solving specific needs for specific problems that a business has is proving to be 10 times more valuable than having people open accounts en masse.' As OakNorth is laser-focussed on the challenges it seeks to solve, Sousa says features such as the business account's AML provision and payment cards are delivered by proven third parties. 'Our app, our front office, our experience, all that is done in-house,' he adds. 'But for cards, for example, why spend millions developing that technology when it's already there and you can plug and play? Our data platform is proprietary, so we develop that. It's connecting our systems and that's an important point. 'If you go to one of the incumbents and ask for a business loan, it's a completely different unit to when you go to open a business account. All these systems are disconnected. But a customer is a customer – a business owner may have six different businesses and is probably saving with us at a personal level. So having a unified view is important for our experience and it's something that we want to control.' OakNorth will be hopeful its niche focus will win favour with the US's small to medium-sized businesses, while being protected from defaults by its commitment to building holistic customer data – something that CUB will give it a headstart on in Michigan. After all, community banks have a long tradition of knowing their local users well in a vast country. According to umbrella group, the Independent Community Bankers of America, they provide 60 per cent of small business loans under $1million and 80 per cent of banking industry agriculture loans. And that strong local focus, designed to create and maintain wealth within the areas they serve, is traditionally built on local knowledge and community activism. Community Unity Bank was created in 2023 as a reaction to a decline in local banks and industry consolidation, plus a perceived lack of personal service and empathy during the economic crisis of 2008 and the COVID pandemic. With parallels to OakNorth, it brought together entrepreneurs from around Oakland County to meet a need for small business lending and aims to be 'client-centric and service driven' while 'deploying state-ofthe- art technology that is easy to use'. Its team has worked hard to establish relationships with businesses in the south east of Michigan while providing loans for business expansions and bank accounts to both businesses and individuals. A recent survey by McKinsey of 1,200 American SMEs found their most important criteria when selecting a primary bank was robust relationship management followed by the availability of online and mobile tools. With a commitment to offering both of those, the combined OakNorth and CUB teams promise to be a powerful force in a state that is all about expansion. As Henry Ford, one of Michigan's most famous entrepreneurs, said: ''If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.' This article was published in The Fintech Magazine Issue 34, Page 51-52
Al Etihad
08-05-2025
- Sport
- Al Etihad
Familiar rivals Sharjah, Shabab Al Ahli seek edge as most successful side
9 May 2025 00:12 KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)Dubai's Shabab Al Ahli and Sharjah, the two most successful domestic sides this season, will go up for a cup title shot in Abu Dhabi on Friday when take the field for the UAE President's Cup summit clash for one of the most prestigious trophies in domestic football will kick off at 7.30pm with all roads leading to the Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, the home of Al Jazira Sousa's Shabab Al Ahli are the ADNOC Pro League champions-elect while Sharjah are still fighting to secure the second spot with three matches to go. In the history of the President's Cup also, the two teams share the record for the most number of titles won – 10 and one of them will nudge ahead before midnight latter, under coach Cosmin Olaroiu, are also due to play in the Asian Champions League Two final in Singapore on May 18. Along with the fact that Olaroiu has been named the national team manager who must spearhead the UAE's World Cup qualifying with five players from his club side on upcoming international duty, it means Sharjah will have to approach the final with a lot more strategic factors at stake to promised to deliver the best at the media interaction on the eve of the match. "We are in the final of the tournament, and will play our best football. We have the experience required for the finals and we have had a good track record in the tournament, but we know that the task will be very difficult."We have nothing to lose, and we are clinging to our chances to win. We are capable of dealing with a competitor that I consider the best in the country this season. I think this will be a difficult match, but we will get through it together. I hope the match will be fun for everyone."The Romanian, 55, sat on the dias dressed in a red jacket, the predominant colour of Shabab Al Ahli, has sparked a revival of sorts at Sharjah since taking over in 2021. When Olariou was reminded of the fact that he has also coached the rivals from Dubai in his previous stint for 4 out of the 10 years he has spent in the UAE, and asked to put it in current context, he said: "Perhaps I am older, and I prefer shorter tournaments, but in general, I always strive to win all possible titles and I expect my players also to give their best tomorrow."While Sharjah quelled Shabab Al Ahli in the ACL Two quarter-final on the way to the final, Sousa's men had revenge in the most recent meeting – the semi-final of the ADIB Cup – before falling short to Al Jazira in the is keen to make up for that miss with one more crown before the coronation in the Pro League. "We have talked about the experience and the path of this competition. As a team, we are united, determined and have a winning mentality. We would like to add to this historic season, and we want to be the best."On their rivals, Sousa said: "We know each other well. We know that the team is very strong and that they are very good in defending. They also rely on counter-attacks. And so we need to focus, control the game in the midfield and be strong in this match."While Sharjah were also represented by captain Shahin Abdulrahman, keeping Sousa company was Guilherme da Silva or better known as Bala. On a side note to a question on Bala, the manager said he believed that the naturalised forward, 23, has the potential to play in the European leagues. Meanwhile, the hosts Jazira have been preparing to roll out the red carpet while expecting fans to throng the 40,000-capacity stadium. In conjunction with local authorities, traffic arrangements have been made including Park and Ride buses from Zayed Sports City.
Sharjah 24
08-05-2025
- Sport
- Sharjah 24
Small details to decide Sharjah vs Shabab Al Ahli cup final
Romanian coach Cosmin Olăroiu (Sharjah) and Portuguese coach Paulo Sousa (Shabab Al Ahli) expressed pride in reaching the final of what is considered the most prestigious domestic football competition in the UAE. They spoke during a joint press conference organised by the UAE Football Association. Olăroiu: "We have nothing to lose" Olăroiu praised his players' efforts throughout the season and noted that finals require high physical and mental readiness. With extensive experience in such matches, he believes his side is well-prepared, despite acknowledging the threat posed by Shabab Al Ahli, particularly from set pieces. He stressed tactical discipline and highlighted this as his third final with Sharjah, having won the previous two. Sousa: A chance to showcase our character Sousa said reaching the final is a proud moment and an opportunity to compete for another title. He acknowledged the strength of both teams and emphasised the importance of focus and intensity, especially given the familiarity between the sides after several meetings this season. He also praised Olăroiu's coaching record and wished him success in his upcoming national team role.
CBS News
01-05-2025
- CBS News
Man allegedly filmed teen trying on bathing suit in Massachusetts Target dressing room
A Swansea man is facing charges after he allegedly used his cellphone to record a 17-year-old girl who was trying on a bathing suit and nude inside a dressing room at the Target in Swansea. A clean shaven 25-year-old John Michael Williams entered Fall River District Court looking much different than the bearded man police say they caught on surveillance. "She went into the changing room, undressed to try on the bathing suit and noticed a cellphone sticking under the partition of the changing room. The screen was facing her, and she noticed it was flashing red indicating it was recording," said prosecutor Henry Sousa. The teen immediately contacted her parents and police who obtained the store's surveillance, images which police posted on social media. Allegedly altered appearance before arrest A tip led them to the home of Williams' aunt where he was living after a violent domestic situation at home and was found in the bathroom allegedly altering his appearance. John Michael Williams is accused of recording a teen inside a Target dressing room. CBS Boston "The defendant was reportedly heard activating hair clippers, changing his appearance. While in the bathroom they observed hair, clumps of hair had been cut off on the floor," said Sousa. The fitting rooms at the Target are unisex which is not uncommon in many stores, but some customers say it can open the door to an uncomfortable situation. "I don't think they should have unisex dressing rooms. No, I think it should be men and women. Separate," said Sunshine Plante. Another woman said the situation is troubling. "If I ever go into a fitting room, I look for cameras, anything that could be suspicious," she said. Released on $1,000 bail Williams left the courthouse without commenting after posting $1,000 cash bail. He allegedly admitted to police he made the recording and was sorry he did it. "I made a mistake, a terrible mistake that I regret. Not just because you showed up or because I saw my picture on Facebook, but because it's wrong, I know it's wrong and I don't do stuff like that, but it's been a terrible year," said Sousa in court. For now, Williams has to wear a GPS monitoring device, stay away from the teen, and have no unsupervised visits with children under the age of 18. He's due back in court June 11.
