Pinnacol names new president, chief exec
Pinnacol Assurance, the state’s biggest workers’ compensation insurer, on Thursday named Kenneth Ross its new president and chief executive. Ross will succeed Gary Pon, who recently announced his retirement after 20 years as Pinnacol’s CEO.
Ross, who will begin work in early September, was previously with the New York State Insurance Fund, the largest workers’ compensation insurance provider in New York, including five years as executive director and CEO.
A-Basin sees record skier, ‘boarder visits
A record number of skiers and snowboarders hit Arapahoe Basin during the 2004-05 season.
The Summit County resort tallied 326,165 skier visits last season, up from 275,428 skier days during the 2003-04 season. The previous high, 317,401 skier days, came during the 2002-03 ski season.
Spokeswoman Leigh Hierholzer attributed the growth to an early opening and good snowfall. This summer, the resort is spending $1 million to build a new rental and repair shop at the mountain base.
US BioGen to build Colo. ethanol plant
Renewable-energy firm US BioGen plans to build its first ethanol plant in northeast Colorado’s Morgan County, which stands to gain 40 to 45 jobs.
The plant will cost about $85 million to $105 million, company executives said Wednesday. Jon Becker, executive director of the Morgan County Economic Development Corp. said salaries at the plant will be 15 percent to 20 percent higher than the average county salaries.
Judge bars Google’s use of Microsoft exec
Google Inc.’s plan to open a research center in China was disrupted Thursday in Seattle, where a state judge temporarily blocked the company from hiring a former Microsoft Corp. executive to head the facility.
Judge Steven Gonzalez in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order barring former Microsoft vice president Kai-Fu Lee from working on competing projects at Mountain View, Calif.-based Google. Microsoft claims Lee was privy to confidential information about its strategy for China.
DaimlerChrysler CEO plans to step down
DaimlerChrysler chief executive Juergen Schrempp, the onetime apprentice mechanic who engineered the controversial marriage of Daimler-Benz to Chrysler, announced Thursday that he will step down at the end of the year.
Dieter Zetsche, who led the resurgence of the U.S.-based Chrysler Group, will take over the world’s fifth-largest automaker, a company Schrempp envisioned after the 1998 merger as a giant that could weather increasingly global competition.
Senate panel gives Cox nod to lead SEC
The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday approved President Bush’s nomination of Rep. Christopher Cox, R.-Calif., to be the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The committee also endorsed the nominations of Roel Campos and Annette Nazareth to fill two Democratic positions on the five-member SEC.
The full Senate will vote on the nominations before it adjourns this week.
Delta jiggers schedule to improve plane use
Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation’s third-largest carrier, announced several changes to its fall schedule on Thursday, highlighting the company’s attempts to have more of its flights arrive and depart on time.
Starting Sept. 1, the airline will reduce to 45 minutes the minimum time its narrow-body aircraft spend on the ground between flights – achieving a 10-minute reduction – and will make better use of aircraft by freeing eight additional planes from the schedule.
Greenspan’s cash in T-notes, safe accounts
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who boldly goes where few others go in the economic-policy universe, plays it safe when it comes to his own investments.
Solid ground is his preference on personal financial matters. Greenspan keeps all of his holdings in money market accounts and Treasury securities, which are considered the world’s safest investment, a financial disclosure form shows.
Cisco, researcher settle over bared flaw
Cisco Systems Inc. and a network security firm reached a settlement Thursday with a researcher who quit his job so he could deliver a speech on a serious flaw in Cisco software that routes data over the Internet.
Michael Lynn, who left his job at Internet Security Systems Inc. hours before his speech, agreed never to repeat the talk he gave at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Wash. man wins bid for Frontier Mercedes
Mike Goyal, a real estate investor in Blaine, Wash., placed the winning bid for a Mercedes M-Class automobile on Frontier Airlines’ new online frequent-flier miles auction and shopping site, Frontier More (www.fron tiermorestore.com).
The auction opened July 14 and closed Thursday evening. Frontier plans to announce the winning bid at Murray Motor Imports at 940 S. Colorado Blvd.
