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Cape Coral-based financial educational training provider Tigrent Inc. has appointed Steven C. Barre as interim CEO after the departure of Charles M. Peck.
Barre has been on the company's board of directors and audit and compensation committees, and has served as the company's lead director. Prior to Tigrent, he was senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Jacuzzi Brands Inc., with annual revenues of more than $1 billion until it was sold in 2007.
Murray A. Indick, currently on Tigrent's board of directors, was appointed as chairman of the board.
Also, the company has agreed to a letter of intent to restructure its license agreements with Rich Dad Operating Co. LLC and Rich Global LLC, controlled by Kim and Robert Kiyosaki, authors of the best-selling Rich Dad Poor Dad and other books that teach readers about financial literacy. Tigrent provides courses that are based on the teachings and philosophies outlined in the book series.
The new agreement, which was planned to be finalized this past week, revises the economic terms and allows both entities increased oversight of related courses. It calls for Tigrent to grant 9.9% of its outstanding common stock to Rich Global and to redeem Rich Global's 49% interest in Tigrent's affiliate that conducts the Tigrent-Rich Global operations.
Brown & Brown Metro Inc., a subsidiary of Daytona Beach- and Tampa-based insurance company Brown & Brown, purchased most of the assets of Excel Underwriters Alliance Inc. and Spirit Underwriters Inc.
Excel Underwriters Alliance, which provides open brokerage insurance products, and Spirit Underwriters, a general underwriter, had combined annual revenues of $1.3 million.
The two firms also both offer employment practice and various liability products and services plus Excel Direct, a direct access insurance product for specialty agents and brokers with less than $1 million in revenues.
David Wash, the former president of Excel Underwriters Alliance Inc. and Spirit Underwriters Inc., and his staff will continue to operate under their company names as divisions of Brown & Brown's Mount Laurel, N.J., location.
Also, Brown & Brown promoted Thomas E. Riley, president of the South Florida and Northeastern United States regions, to chief acquisitions officer.
“Tom has been integrally involved with acquisitions for years,” J. Powell Brown, president and CEO of Brown & Brown, said in a press release. “Of the 337 acquisition transactions by Brown & Brown affiliates since 1993, he has been personally involved with nearly 25% of them.”
Riley, who will maintain his regional responsibilities, has been with Brown & Brown since 1990, joining as chief financial officer. He was elected regional executive vice president in 2001 and regional president in 2005.
Brown & Brown Inc. offers insurance and reinsurance products and services, as well as risk management, third-party administration, managed health care and Medicare set-aside services and programs.
Tampa-based UTEK Corp., an intellectual property licensing and innovation company, has changed its name to Innovaro, and is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange as INV.
The company will operate in three primary business groups: Strategic Services, an innovation consultancy division driven by Strategos; Technology Marketplaces, an online platform, partnering services, global licensing and technology transfer services; and Insights & Research.
Doug Schaedler, CEO of Innovaro, said that UTEK had recently acquired several complementary companies and changing its name to a centralized brand would better reflect these developments.
“As we looked to consolidate brands, we chose Innovaro, a name within our current portfolio which we felt could best represent the entire company, one that could scale and grow with the business,” Terresa Zimmerman, VP Marketing of Innovaro, said in a press release. “We believe Innovaro carries with it inherent relevancy and also the flexibility we need to raise awareness and visibility of our company.”
The company's new logo features seven triangles that form a larger triangle.
United Natural Foods Inc. plans to add 29 new GenDrive hydrogen fuel cell-powered lift trucks and retrofit 36 existing trucks with the technology to operate at its Sarasota distribution center starting in June.
The company has partnered with Plug Power Inc., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., and Abel Womack Inc. to replace lead acid batteries and corresponding charging equipment in the current vehicles.
Hydrogen fuel cells produce energy by combining hydrogen and oxygen in an electrochemical reaction that yields electricity, heat and water.
The company expects the conversions to achieve annual reductions of 132 metric tons in carbon emissions (equivalent to the annual emissions of 35 automobiles) and 640,000 kilowatt hours of power, along with gains in efficiency, productivity and reliability.
The 352,000-square-foot facility is the regional distribution hub for the company's southeastern customers and employs 160 people.
United Natural Foods serves conventional supermarket chains, natural product superstores, independent retail operators and the food service channel.
Syniverse, RealNetworks partner on SMS technology
In a nine-year alliance, Tampa-based Syniverse Technologies' peer-to-peer messaging products between mobile systems and carriers will be powered by RealNetworks Inc.'s. short-message service platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
RealNetworks, which already provides the technology underlying Syniverse's intercarrier SMS solution in the Americas, will supply the same platform for Syniverse's global SMS Interworking Gateway, SMS Open Connectivity and SMS-IP solutions.
Syniverse Technologies provides technologies to allow mobile communications technologies to work together.
Digital entertainment services company RealNetworks is credited with starting streaming media as a consumer category in 1995 when it launched RealPlayer, the first mainstream application for downloading and transferring online video to mobile devices. It currently operates the Rhapsody digital music service, offering subscribers more than 8 million songs.
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