All posts tagged: board

Reid Hoffman is leaving Microsoft’s board to go ‘founder mode’ with startup Manus

Reid Hoffman is leaving Microsoft’s board to go ‘founder mode’ with startup Manus

After a very profitable decade on Microsoft’s board, Reid Hoffman is stepping down, the company announced Thursday. Hoffman joined the board after Microsoft bought his company LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016. Hoffman was on Microsoft’s board when it invested its first $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019. Hoffman was one of OpenAI’s original investors and served on the model maker’s board until he stepped down in 2023, citing too many potential conflicts of interest to continue. He was also on Microsoft’s board when the tech giant entered into one of those non-acquisition, acqui-hire deals for $650 million with his AI startup Inflection AI. Microsoft hired Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman through that deal. Hoffman said on a recent episode of his “Possible” podcast, while talking with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, that he’s ready to go “founder mode” with his latest AI startup, Manus. Manus is a drug discovery company that raised over $50 million through a couple of seed rounds last year. Hoffman is an investor, as is General Catalyst. Hoffman is cited as a …

 The best way to board an airplane, according to science

 The best way to board an airplane, according to science

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Navigating air travel in 2026 is full of annoyances, but few bring more dread than the boarding process. What was once a straightforward exercise has grown increasingly complicated due to the proliferation of groups, zones, and variations of priority-based seating. All of this, studies show, has contributed to boarding times getting gradually longer each year. Boarding in the 1970s reportedly took just 15 minutes. Today, that process often takes up to 40. Now, a University of Florida master’s student named Adam Jacobs has built a simulator that clearly visualizes what so many travelers already feel in their gut. Jacobs created a computer model simulating a 186-seat Airbus A320neo and had computer-generated travelers board using three well-documented methods: random, back-to-front, and the lesser-known but …

BET Establishes Its First-Ever Board of Advisors

BET Establishes Its First-Ever Board of Advisors

As BET continues to chart its future beyond the dying realm of cable networks, the brand has formed its first-ever board of advisors featuring a mix of celebrities and executives. The Paramount-owned media group announced on Tuesday that the new board will “serve as a strategic and cultural sounding board” for the brand and help guide it “as BET expands its reach and continues to champion the voices and stories that move culture forward.” In other words, under the new leadership of Paramount Skydance, BET is looking for ways to evolve and grow its audience beyond the TV channel that made it famous. Joining the inaugural board is BET founder Bob Johnson, musician and actress Queen Latifah, musical artist and actor LL Cool J, NFL evp of football operations Troy Vincent, Lazard president Raymond J. McGuire and Paramount chair of TV media George Cheeks. “BET has always been more than a platform. It is a cultural institution with a responsibility to serve, reflect, and advance our community,” BET president Louis Carr said in a statement. …

Microsoft launches MXC, an OS-level sandbox for AI agents, with OpenAI and Nvidia already on board

Microsoft launches MXC, an OS-level sandbox for AI agents, with OpenAI and Nvidia already on board

For the past two years, the technology industry has raced to make AI agents more capable — teaching them to write code, navigate software interfaces, manage files, and orchestrate multi-step workflows with increasing autonomy. What the industry has not done, at least not with any consistency, is answer the question that keeps chief information security officers awake at night: what happens when an agent goes wrong? On Tuesday at its annual Build developer conference, Microsoft offered what may become the definitive answer. The company introduced Microsoft Execution Containers, or MXC — a policy-driven execution layer, built into the Windows operating system itself, that lets developers and IT administrators declare exactly what an AI agent can and cannot access, with those boundaries enforced at runtime by the OS kernel. The announcement, buried within a sweeping set of developer-focused updates, is arguably the most consequential platform move Microsoft made at Build this year, and it has the potential to reshape how every enterprise on Earth thinks about deploying autonomous AI software. MXC is not a product you …

More strikes set for England’s largest exam board

More strikes set for England’s largest exam board

Hundreds of staff at exam giant AQA will strike for four more days over an ongoing pay row. Around 400 members of Unison will walk out on Friday after AQA leaders refused to meet for talks to discuss an alleged 10 per cent real-terms cut to staff wages over the last five years. The union is calling for pay restoration, which it previously said would require a 7.3 per cent rise this year. AQA issued what it described as a “generous” 5.2 per cent average increase instead. Unison warned the action could cause delays to students receiving their results this summer – but the exam board claimed the series will still be delivered “smoothly”. Walkouts at AQA HQ Assessors, exam paper authors and customer service staff will take part in the strikes from June 5 to 8 across three AQA sites, including its Manchester headquarters, as well as its offices in Guildford and Milton Keynes. The dates have been chosen to disrupt training for examiners planned to take place this weekend. It follows three days …

Hegseth names investor who called Mamdani ‘Islamist’ to Pentagon tech board

Hegseth names investor who called Mamdani ‘Islamist’ to Pentagon tech board

The Defense Department has appointed 33 members to its recently established Science, Technology and Innovation Board (STIB) — one of whom is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist accused of making Islamophobic remarks targeting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced on social media that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named Shaun Maguire,… Source link

Synopsys reaches settlement with Elliott, says Jesse Cohn to join board

Synopsys reaches settlement with Elliott, says Jesse Cohn to join board

NEW YORK, May 27 : Chip design software maker Synopsys has reached an agreement with activist investor Elliott Investment Management that will give one board seat to the activist investor’s managing partner Jesse Cohn, the company said on Wednesday. The board is being expanded to 11 members with the appointment of Cohn, who will also join the board’s corporate governance and nominating committee, it added. Synopsys, which has a market valuation of about $100 billion and counts Tesla and Google parent Alphabet among its customers, has held discussions with Elliott, one of the industry’s most powerful activists, for roughly two months. “Synopsys is essential to the global chip industry and is well-positioned to benefit from increasing AI investment and engineering complexity,” Cohn said in a statement. Elliott, which has a history of successful investments at technology and semiconductor companies, pushed the company to improve its margins, and Synopsys’ stock price has climbed roughly 20 per cent since Elliott’s involvement became public. The hedge fund built a multi-billion-dollar investment in the company, sources familiar with the …

Billy Graham’s grandson joins board as Leighton Ford Ministries builds for the future

Billy Graham’s grandson joins board as Leighton Ford Ministries builds for the future

Leighton Ford also names new president as more ministry leaders and ministries seek to discern their ‘truest calling’ CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As Leighton Ford Ministries (LFM) continues to respond to opportunities to walk alongside more leaders and ministries through pivotal seasons of transition and growth, the ministry is announcing new leadership to build for the future. Stephan Tchividjian, the Co-Founder and CEO of the National Christian Foundation of South Florida and the eldest grandchild of evangelist Billy Graham, has joined the LFM board. Rich Hurst, a sought-after church leadership consultant who has served as LFM’s Chief of Staff, has been named President of LFM, effective July 1. And Dave McKechnie, who previously served as LFM’s President, was just elected as Board Chair. “I have incredible respect for the legacy of LFM, particularly as it’s always thinking about the future,” said Tchividjian. “It’s thinking about the next generation. How do we mentor tomorrow’s pastors, tomorrow’s ministry leaders? It’s not a stagnant ministry. And that’s what I’ve always loved about it.” McKechnie, who served as Senior Pastor …

The House | The Hunt To Uncover The History Of A Mysterious Old Parliamentary Board Game

The House | The Hunt To Uncover The History Of A Mysterious Old Parliamentary Board Game

5 min read2 hr After chancing upon an old parliamentary board game, Daniel Brittain persuaded two hereditary peers to join battle There was something about it that wasn’t quite like the other chess boards piled in a corner as if hiding. It was the day after Boxing Day and I was idling in a favourite shop in the town of Corbridge, between Newcastle and Hexham. With little else to do, I investigated and so stumbled on an artefact at once trivial and timely. For instead of the regulation black and white squares, this board carried slogans such as One Man One Vote, Home Rule and Abolition of the Lords. What was this? The front of the board proclaimed it to be House of Commons – The New Parliamentary Game. New it might once have been: the packaging suggested that it had not been new for at least a century. Delight at unearthing this piece of parliamentary ephemera was tempered by the fact that were no playing pieces – and no rules. Further investigation …