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eCampusOntario launches AI-enabled Micro-Credential Portal tool to Help Learners Address Skills Gaps

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New AI platform helps learners access in-demand skills training

TORONTO, Feb. 29, 2024 /CNW/ – Today at the 2024 Micro-Credential Forum eCampusOntario launched the proof of principle for a new AI-enabled tool designed to help learners address skills gaps with personalized educational pathway recommendations. SkillsFinder.ai uses a custom GPT powered by OpenAI to help learners to better understand their skills gaps and find a micro-credential to fill these gaps. Attendees of the Forum were able to interact with the new skillsfinder tool as part of testing the capabilities of generative AI and supporting upskilling and reskilling.

Launched in 2021 and supported by the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, the Ontario Micro-credential Portal is the platform of record for learners across Ontario to find short courses to learn the in-demand skills employers need. The Portal lists micro-credentials from Ontario’s colleges, universities, and Indigenous Institutes. The new custom GPT tool enables learners to rapidly assess their skills and competencies, match these to what employers are looking for, and find micro-credential education programs to bridge any skills gaps.

This Generative AI tool adds a smart conversational interface that allows visitor interaction and increases their engagement with the platform. By releasing SkillsFinder.ai, eCampusOntario continues its leadership role on behalf of its member institutions in Ontario and across Canada. Over the next month eCampusOntario will be testing the new proof of principle interface as part of experimenting with AI tools to empower learners. For now, skillsfinder.ai requires a ChatGPT account to use. The new Generative AI interface builds on improvements to the Micro-credentials Portal made in 2023 with the Future Skills Centre and the Conference Board of Canada that integrated Labour Market Information (LMI) into the Portal to make it easier for people to find relevant micro-credential programs, and to see 5-year job outlooks and skills associated with programs.

“By enabling people to test the new SkillsFinder.ai we will be able to learn how people interact with and use AI in supporting their personal educational journey,” says Robert Luke, CEO of eCampusOntario. “eCampusOntario is launching these tools to help learners find programs that support their career goals and help employers address upskilling needs in the workforce. The new Generative AI tool also helps our member Indigenous institutes, colleges and universities realize efficiencies and save money in reaching learners while helping to increase incremental revenue through new program registrations.”

The eCampusOntario skillsfinder.ai supports workforce development and industry engagement and personal career and learning management for individuals. eCampusOntario has built the new Generative AI interface with Techmien Corp., a Toronto-based software development firm that specializes in creating innovative solutions that incorporate leading edge technologies. The new Generative AI interface on the Micro-credentials Portal also connects to other AI-enabled platforms that eCampusOntario provides its members.

“SkillsFinder.ai is an essential tool that will help Ontarians prepare for the in-demand jobs of today and tomorrow,” says the Minister of Colleges of Universities, Jill Dunlop. “This initiative empowers learners with personalized pathways for career success, whether they are starting out, changing career pathways, or looking to upskill.”

SkillsFinder.ai is a leading-edge experimentation and proof of principle and requires a ChatGPT Plus account to use. SkillsFinder.ai will be accessible for free once pilot testing has concluded in Spring 2024.

About Micro-credentials
Micro-credentials are rapid training programs offered by postsecondary education institutions across the province that can help you get the skills that employers need. Alongside degrees, diplomas and certificates, micro-credentials offer a valuable postsecondary option for learners.

Offered by public and private colleges, universities and Indigenous Institutes, micro-credentials are short in duration, are often online and can be designed for the specific needs of employers and jobs.

Micro-credentials:

take less time to complete than degrees or diplomas,may be completed online and may include on-the-job training,are often created with input from business sectors, so the skills being taught match employer needs.

Micro-credentials Portal
The Micro-credentials Portal is now home to nearly 3,000 micro-credentials from postsecondary institutions across Ontario. Skillsfinder.ai is the next step in accessible service delivery, making it easier to find the right micro-credentials for your career goals.

About eCampusOntario
eCampusOntario, a not-for-profit organization, is funded by the Government of Ontario to be a centre of excellence in online and technology-enabled learning for all publicly funded colleges, universities, and Indigenous institutions in Ontario.

SOURCE eCampusOntario

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Southwire Shares Fourth Annual Inclusion Report, Showcasing Inclusion in Action

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CARROLLTON, Ga., Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Our Future Is Powered by Inclusion.

At Southwire, inclusion is more than a commitment. It is one of our core values and a key part of how we build worth for our team members, customers, communities and shareholders.

We’re proud to share our 2025 Inclusion Report, highlighting the progress we’ve made in advancing an inclusive culture and strengthening our impact across six key focus areas: People Leaders, Inclusive Workforce, Employee Resource Groups, Reputation and Community, Equity and Governance, and Value and Supply Chain.

Last year, our Inclusion Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) reached 70, an increase of 17 points since 2021. We also invested $1 million in inclusion-focused initiatives, contributed more than 4,800 volunteer hours in support of nonprofit organizations, and spent $890 million with small and certified-owned suppliers.

From bringing together more than 2,000 team members at Include Summit to earning recognition as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® and one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Inclusion, we continue to create opportunities for people to contribute, grow and lead.

As we look ahead, our focus remains clear: embedding inclusion into how we lead, operate and grow. When every team member is empowered to contribute, we create stronger ideas, better decisions and greater value for all our stakeholders.

We invite you to explore the full Inclusion Report to learn more about the people, programs and partnerships helping power our future.

Please also visit our social media channels and Inclusion website to help us share our story.

Together, we will continue Building Worth for generations to come.

For more Southwire news, visit www.southwire.com/newsroom.

About Southwire
Southwire Company, LLC is North America’s leading wire and cable company. The $9.7B organization is made up of more than 9,000 team members across the globe who unite as ONE Southwire each and every day to serve each other, their customers and their communities. Southwire and its subsidiaries provide solutions including building wire and cable, metal-clad cable, utility products, portable and electronic cord products and OEM wire products. In addition, Southwire offers electrical products, engineered solutions and a variety of field support services. For more on Southwire’s products and solutions, its community involvement and its vision of sustainability, visit www.southwire.com.

© 2026 Southwire Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Contact: Ashley Bush
Senior Director, Communications
Phone: (678) 684-7634
ashley.bush@southwire.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/southwire-shares-fourth-annual-inclusion-report-showcasing-inclusion-in-action-302872756.html

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ZAGENO Earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2026 North American Life Sciences E‑Commerce Company of the Year Recognition

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Honored for transforming life sciences procurement through digital innovation, automation, and a customer-first platform

SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Frost & Sullivan has recognized ZAGENO with its 2026 North America Life Sciences E-Commerce Company of the Year Recognition for helping transform life sciences e-commerce beyond traditional online purchasing into a unified procurement orchestration platform. By serving as a single entry point into scientific procurement, ZAGENO enables scientists, procurement teams, suppliers, and enterprise systems to operate within one connected workflow—reducing procurement friction while improving governance, visibility, and operational efficiency across research organizations.

As life sciences organizations embrace increasingly digital, automated, and globally distributed research operations, procurement has become a strategic function requiring greater visibility, governance, and integration. Rather than navigating fragmented supplier portals, distributor systems, and punch-out catalogs, organizations increasingly need a single platform that orchestrates the entire procurement lifecycle. ZAGENO delivers that capability by unifying sourcing, ordering, approvals, supplier management, spend visibility, tracking, and payment into one governed workflow.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, ZAGENO has built one of the industry’s largest procurement ecosystems, providing access to more than 50 million laboratory products from over 5,000 suppliers. Serving as a single entry point into scientific procurement, the platform centralizes sourcing, ordering, approvals, tracking, and payment while integrating directly with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Procure-to-Pay (P2P), and accounting platforms such as SAP, Coupa, and Oracle NetSuite. Researchers can search by product name, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number, or chemical structure, compare pricing, availability, and delivery timelines in real time, and consolidate purchases from multiple suppliers into a single purchase order and invoice. At the same time, procurement teams maintain governance, supplier oversight, and spend visibility through configurable approval workflows operating seamlessly in the background.

“ZAGENO continues to redefine digital procurement by extending life sciences e-commerce beyond an online marketplace into a procurement orchestration platform,” said Ana Dominguez, Best Practices Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Its ability to unify supplier networks, enterprise systems, governance, and intelligent automation within a single workflow helps reduce procurement friction while enabling researchers and procurement teams to operate more efficiently. Investments such as the company’s expanded engineering hub in Bangalore have further accelerated innovation and enabled faster delivery of customer-driven enhancements aligned with evolving research needs.”

The platform reduces longstanding procurement inefficiencies by orchestrating suppliers, enterprise systems, and purchasing workflows through a single interface. Scientists save an average of 6.5 hours per week sourcing and ordering laboratory materials, while procurement teams benefit from configurable approval workflows, supplier governance, real-time spend visibility, automated three-way matching, and streamlined reconciliation that can reduce invoice processing time by as much as 40%. Together, these capabilities improve compliance, increase operational efficiency, and enable researchers to spend more time focused on scientific discovery.

ZAGENO continues to advance AI-powered capabilities that improve search precision, surface supplier and fulfillment insights, automate repetitive procurement tasks, and support smarter purchasing decisions across the procurement lifecycle. Combined with one of the industry’s largest supplier ecosystems, deep enterprise integrations, and a customer-driven innovation model, these capabilities position ZAGENO as a trusted procurement infrastructure partner helping life sciences organizations navigate increasingly complex research environments.

“We’re honored to receive this recognition from Frost & Sullivan. As research organizations become more connected and more complex, procurement has evolved far beyond purchasing. Our vision has always been to simplify that complexity by bringing scientists, procurement teams, suppliers, and enterprise systems together through a single procurement orchestration platform. We’re proud to see that vision recognized, and even more excited about what’s ahead for our customers,” said Florian Wegener, CEO & Co-Founder, at ZAGENO.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan honors one company with its Company of the Year Recognition, awarded to organizations that demonstrate exceptional growth, innovation, and customer value. The selection process includes rigorous research, competitive benchmarking, and in-depth industry analysis.
Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards recognize companies worldwide for excellence in leadership, technology innovation, customer service, and strategic execution—highlighting those that are shaping the future of their industries.

About Frost & Sullivan

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Lindsey Whitaker
P: +91- 9953764546
E: Lindsey.Whitaker@frost.com

About ZAGENO

ZAGENO is the procurement orchestration platform for life sciences, connecting scientists, procurement teams, suppliers, and enterprise systems through a single, governed workflow. With access to more than 50 million laboratory products from over 5,000 suppliers, ZAGENO helps research organizations simplify procurement and accelerate discovery. Talk to the ZAGENO team to learn more: https://go.zageno.com/request-a-demo.

Contact:
Ivana Visnjic-Lynch
P: +1 508 524 5206
E: ivana.visnjic-lynch@zageno.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zageno-earns-frost–sullivans-2026-north-american-life-sciences-ecommerce-company-of-the-year-recognition-302872724.html

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

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Shutterstock Appoints Three Accomplished Business Leaders to Board of Directors

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Timothy Adams, Matthew Salzberg, and Michael Thompson bring extensive financial, operational, investment, and technology expertise to Shutterstock’s Board

NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), a family of brands delivering scalable creative and GenAI solutions to help customers fuel great work, today announced the appointment of Timothy Adams, Matthew Salzberg, and Michael Thompson to its Board of Directors.

The appointments add three accomplished executives and investors with deep experience across technology and emerging markets, investment and capital allocation, building and scaling businesses, and public-company finance and governance. Their collective expertise further strengthens the Board as Shutterstock remains focused on creating long-term value for the Company and its shareholders.

“The caliber of leaders joining our Board speaks to both the strength of Shutterstock and the opportunity ahead,” said Jon Oringer, Executive Chairman of the Board at Shutterstock. “Tim, Matt, and Michael have each built impressive careers leading, investing in and advising companies through periods of growth and transformation. They bring deep financial, operational, governance, and technology expertise, along with the independent perspective that comes from having successfully navigated complex business environments. We are thrilled they have chosen to bring that experience to Shutterstock.”

Timothy Adams is a seasoned financial executive and board director with more than 20 years of leadership experience across public and private technology companies. He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Validity Inc. and previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Rapid7, Inc., and BitSight Technologies, Inc. Adams also served on the Board of Directors of Model N, where he chaired the Audit Committee. Throughout his career, he has led and advised on IPOs, M&A transactions, capital raises, and strategic financings, bringing extensive experience in public-company governance, financial discipline, and investor relations. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from Murray State University, and an M.B.A. from Boston University.

Matthew Salzberg is a CEO, investor, and founder with extensive experience building, scaling, and transforming technology-enabled businesses. He is co-founder and Chairman of Unlimited, an alternative investment manager, and co-founder of Embark Veterinary and Coldcart. Salzberg founded Blue Apron in 2011 and served as CEO for its first six years, growing the company from an idea into a nationally recognized consumer brand with approximately $910 million in annual revenue and more than 5,000 employees. He led Blue Apron’s 2017 initial public offering and later served as Chairman of its Board. Salzberg also founded venture capital firm Material, and previously served as CEO of Ambr Group. He holds an A.B. in Economics, summa cum laude, from Harvard College, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Michael Thompson has served as Managing Partner of Reinvent Capital, a private investment fund focused on technology companies, since 2017. Previously, he founded and served as Managing Partner of BHR Capital, a New York-based hedge fund. Thompson has invested in and advised numerous innovative technology companies throughout his career, with particular experience across aerospace, advanced energy, emerging technologies, and AI applications in the physical world. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Joby Aviation, Oklo Inc. and American Banknote Corporation, and is an advisor to Xona Space Systems. Thompson holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Finance from the Honors Program at the University of Georgia.

About Shutterstock
Shutterstock is in the business of turning ideas into impact. Powered by a global network of millions of creators and our cutting-edge technology, we provide businesses, creatives, and brand leaders with the essential, universal ingredients to make their work more effective. Shutterstock offers access to one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of high-quality licensable assets, specialized training datasets, evaluation tools, and end-to-end strategic partnerships for the full model training lifecycle, as well as advertising and distribution solutions, exclusive editorial content, and full-service studio production—delivering unparalleled resources to fuel great work.

Discover our impact at www.shutterstock.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shutterstock-appoints-three-accomplished-business-leaders-to-board-of-directors-302872650.html

SOURCE Shutterstock, Inc.

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