The Cable Center appoints interim exec new president
The Denver-based Cable Center has chosen a president and chief operating officer. Larry Satkowiak, who has served as the interim COO since July, has been named to the position permanently.
Satkowiak’s appointment follows the June retirement of chief executive Bob Russo, a former Daniels and Associates executive. Satkowiak, 52, joined the center in 2004 as chief financial officer.
A search for Russo’s successor will begin early next year.
Past Cable Center leaders have come directly from the cable industry, but Satkowiak has a background in nonprofit management.
“The executive committee and board of directors was very impressed with the job he did as COO,” said Bill Bresnan, chairman of the center’s board and executive committee. “We felt that the most important thing was to have a good manager there, a good financial manager, a good administrator and a good leader of the team. And he has all of those qualities.”
Satkowiak said he would continue working on the Cable Center’s strategic plan and reach out to the local, national and international cable community.
DENVER
State orders company not to seek investors
Colorado regulators on Tuesday ordered a Georgia company that finances church and other nonprofit construction projects to stop soliciting investors.
The Colorado Division of Securities entered a final cease- and-desist order against Cornerstone Ministries Investments Inc., alleging it violated state laws by selling unregistered securities from 2000 to 2004.
Cornerstone sold its bonds and common stock to approximately 99 investors in Colorado, according to state securities regulators. The transactions included 144 sales of bonds and 10 sales of common stock.
Regulators said Cornerstone portrayed itself as being listed with the Chicago Stock Exchange but actually did not comply with the exchange’s conditions, making its securities unregistered for sale in Colorado.
SYDNEY, Australia
Murdoch, telecom boss discuss projects
Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman, and Sol Trujillo, chief executive of Telstra, Australia’s dominant telecom company, have held lengthy talks to discuss “how the two companies can work together” in the Internet age, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.
The meeting, which lasted several hours, was described as “very cordial” with aides predicting follow-up discussions. It is the first time the Australian- born Murdoch has met Trujillo, the former US West CEO who took over at Telstra in July.
DENVER
Pinnacol Assurance board picks new chief
Pinnacol Assurance, a provider of workers’ compensation insurance in Colorado, announced Tuesday that its board of directors elected Gary Johnson as chairman.
Johnson replaces Diedra Garcia, who will step down Nov. 30 to address the “growing demands” of her own company.
COLORADO SPRINGS
United adding flights to San Antonio
United Airlines is adding daily service between Colorado Springs and San Antonio on its regional jet operation United Express through Trans States Airlines.
It is part of new service between San Antonio and seven cities. The Colorado Springs flights start March 3.
WASHINGTON
Former BET owner starting a hedge fund
Robert L. Johnson, who became a billionaire after selling Black Entertainment Television, is starting a hedge fund with Deutsche Bank AG as he aims to build the largest money manager owned by black Americans.
“It’s an opportune time to get in,” Johnson, 59, said Tuesday in an interview. “This is an area in which African-Americans have not successfully penetrated.”
NEW YORK
Delphi investors fight executives’ bonuses
A group of Delphi Corp. investors filed a motion opposing proposed bonuses for executives of the bankrupt auto parts maker, claiming they were involved in accounting fraud.
The motion was filed Tuesday by a group of four Delphi investors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York City, said Alexander Coxe, a spokesman for the New York law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann.
WASHINGTON
Fed pick backs curb on mortgage firms
Ben Bernanke, the nominee to become chairman of the Federal Reserve, said Congress should limit the massive holdings of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to minimize any danger their debt poses to the economy.
“Capping the size” of the two mortgage companies’ portfolios is “important for controlling potential systemic risk,” Bernanke said in a written response to a list of wide-ranging questions from Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.
$122 million pact ends suit against Ellison
A California judge approved on Tuesday an unusual legal settlement that will require Oracle Corp. chief executive Larry Ellison to donate $100 million to charity and pay another $22 million to the attorneys who sued him for alleged stock-trading abuses.
Barring an appeal, the $122 million settlement finalized by San Mateo Superior Court Judge John Schwartz closes the books on a shareholder lawsuit filed nearly four years ago.
NEW YORK
Ex-Adelphia exec set to admit fraud today
Former Adelphia Communications Corp. vice president Michael Rigas is expected to plead guilty today and avert a retrial on securities fraud charges, a court official said.
Rigas, 51, is scheduled to plead guilty before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York City, said the judge’s law clerk, Andrew Woolf. Jurors deadlocked at Rigas’s first trial last year and convicted his father, John, and brother, Timothy, of conspiracy and securities fraud.
DECATUR, Ill.
Archer Daniels plans grain-chemical plant
Archer Daniels Midland Co., the world’s largest grain processor, said it will build a plant that makes propylene glycol and ethylene glycol, used in many commercial and industrial applications, from renewable resources such as corn instead of oil-based chemicals.
