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First Student Increases EPA-Awarded Electric School Bus Funding by $200M, Bringing Total to $401M

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New funding from the third round of the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program means 673 electrified buses, after First Student led all contractors in rounds one and two

CINCINNATI, May 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, First Student, the leading school transportation provider in North America, and industry leader in electrification, received $200 million in rebates from the third round of funding of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program. The new funding brings First Student’s total program awards to more than $400 million across the three funding rounds, allowing the company to accelerate its push to provide healthier and safer rides to students through electrification. This round of EPA funding will enable First Student to deploy up to an additional 670 electric school buses in 45 school districts across the U.S. Overall, from all three EPA rounds to date, First Student will be able to deploy more than 1,200 electric school buses.

“First Student is leading the way on school bus electrification and this award supercharges that effort,” said First Student Chief Executive Officer and President John Kenning. “We would like to thank the Environmental Protection Agency for their support of this important priority. America’s students deserve the cleanest, safest rides to and from school, so they arrive at school ready to learn. First Student has the resources, expertise and ground-breaking technology to meet the moment. We are excited to continue building the school bus fleet of the future with the support of the EPA.”

First Student has successfully deployed more than 350 electric buses across North America and provided more than 3 million miles of emissions free operations in pursuit of its commitment to transition 30,000 diesel vehicles to electric by 2035. Today’s EPA investment will accelerate that plan. Scaling the use of these zero-emission vehicles will provide significant and tangible improvements for the environment. Replacing just one diesel school bus with an electric school bus can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54,000 pounds each year. First Student has also been awarded approximately $65 million through other Canadian, federal, state and utility programs to electrify school bus fleets across the country.

“First Student is proud to call the EPA a partner in our school bus electrification efforts,” said First Student Head of Electrification Kevin Matthews. “First Student electric school buses funded by this program are already creating safer and cleaner rides to and from school and these investments means expanding that benefit to even more districts. Our expertise and resources ensure that school districts can put these awards to use right away, turning these rebates into much-needed fleet upgrades.”

The Clean School Bus Program allocates funds for school districts to help cover the cost of replacing fossil fuel school buses with zero-emission vehicles and associated charging infrastructure. Round two was competitively bid grants, while rounds one and three were lottery rebate awards. Today’s award represents the third batch of funding First Student has received through the program. In January 2024, the EPA awarded First Student $140 million, the largest amount awarded among all contractors, to enable First Student to deploy more than 370 new electric school buses in school districts across the United States.

In November 2022, First Student worked with 11 districts to secure EPA grants under the first round of funding. This funding, approximately $60 million, is designed to provide 11 school districts with of a total of 160 electric school buses. In awarding the rebates and grants, the EPA recognized First Student’s ability to bring utilities and municipalities together with school districts in order to build the charging infrastructure and create a seamless experience for schools.

First Student works directly with school districts on their electrification goals, collaborating on the applications to the EPA and in deploying and maintaining the vehicles. First Student has a team of internal expert consultants called First Consulting who works closely to make sure grant applications reflect specific school district needs.

B-ROLL/RESOURCES: Watch a video that showcases First Student’s electric school bus fleet.

About First Student

As a leading school transportation solutions provider in North America, First Student strives to provide the best start and finish to every school day. With a team of highly trained drivers and the industry’s strongest safety record, First Student delivers reliable, quality services, including full-service transportation and management, special-needs transportation, route optimization, and scheduling, maintenance, and charter services with a fleet of about 45,000 buses. For more information, visit firststudentinc.com .

CONTACT
Jen Biddinger
513.362.4600

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SOURCE First Student

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FMG Suite Introduces FMG Connect to Unify Advisor Tools, Data, and Workflows

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New integration layer lets partners plug into FMG so advisor systems work together, triggering faster follow-up, connected workflows, and measurable, compliant growth

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — FMG Suite, the leading marketing and growth platform for financial advisors, insurance professionals, and enterprises, today introduced FMG Connect, an integration and orchestration layer that brings advisor tools, data, and workflows together in one connected system. Work that once required the advisor to act as the middleman can now happen automatically, compliantly, and at scale.

Most advisors already use strong tools. A notetaker captures the meeting. A lead platform scores the prospect. A planning tool holds the client’s financial picture. The problem is that these systems rarely talk to each other, leaving the advisor in the middle, moving information from one place to the next by hand. Tools meant to reduce workload instead create friction, slow follow-up, and cap growth.

FMG Connect closes those gaps. A meeting ends and the follow-up is already in motion. A new prospect enters the system and personalized outreach begins automatically. Client context stays current across planning tools, contact records, and communication workflows without anyone copying it over. The next best action surfaces inside the work advisors are already doing. FMG maintains the integration layer so advisors don’t have to.

What FMG Connect Does

FMG Connect brings automated, connected intelligence to four parts of an advisor’s business:

Advisor productivity — integration with AI meeting tools and notetakers  triggers follow-up before the client leaves the roomProspecting — integration with lead enrichment providers flows data directly into personalized outreach campaigns, so advisors engage faster and convert more efficientlyRelationship intelligence — integration with financial planning and client data ensures contact records, content, and context sync automaticallyCommunication and engagement — outreach that responds to what is actually happening with a client or prospect, at scale, across compliant channels

Built for an Open Ecosystem

FMG Connect brings the FMG platform to third-party tools and data sources through FMG’s API library. Support for additional standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP) are slated for a future release as FMG expands how AI-driven systems connect across the advisor ecosystem.

The result is that work, context, and intelligence move between products without custom integration, heavy IT lift, or an advisor serving as the bridge. FMG’s intelligence no longer stays locked inside a single tool.

“Advisor technology has been fragmented for too long, and firms need more than point integrations. They need an AI-driven platform that brings tools, workflows, and data together in a way that actually drives growth,” said Michelle Feinstein, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at FMG. “FMG Connect creates a stronger foundation for advisor growth, partner innovation, and measurable outcomes by bringing systems and data into the same operating environment.”

Launch Partners

FMG Connect launches with an initial group of integration partners: Zocks, Jump, Aidentified, Wealthfeed, Tax Status, Asset-Map, and GReminders. Each has early access and is actively building toward live connections in the platform. FMG plans to expand the partner ecosystem across every product over time through integrations that deliver measurable value to advisors.

FMG Connect also extends work the company has done for years — helping advisors build stronger digital presences, communicate consistently, and grow through compliant marketing. It connects the systems and data behind those workflows so opportunities can be activated, measured, and scaled across channels. AI widens what is possible; FMG Connect makes it operational.

“Advisors don’t want more disconnected tools. They want the tools they already use to work together,” said Dave Christensen, Chief Executive Officer of FMG. “FMG Connect is how we make that happen. It gives advisors a more connected operating environment, and it gives partners a more effective way to plug into the workflows where advisor growth actually happens.”

Availability

FMG Connect is now live, giving partners the ability to build integrated features and experiences across FMG platforms. APIs are available today, with additional capabilities rolling out through the rest of the year.

FMG’s launch partners received early access last month and are currently developing their integrations. The first partner-powered features are expected to roll out to shared customers over the coming months.

As new integrations launch, FMG and its partners will share details on available features, how to enable them and the value they provide.

About FMG

FMG is the leading marketing and growth platform for financial advisors, insurance professionals, and enterprises, empowering them to scale compliant, client-centered marketing that drives organic growth. Trusted by more than 80,000 financial professionals reaching over 45 million U.S. investors, FMG is consistently ranked number one in market share and customer satisfaction in the T3 Software Survey Report and has been recognized by WealthManagement.com as Best Marketing Automation Platform. An independent study found that enterprises using FMG achieved Net Promoter Scores nearly four times the industry average, along with improvements in lead conversion, client retention, and time saved on marketing tasks. FMG is defining the future of organic growth for financial services firms. For more information, visit https://fmgsuite.com/.

Media Contact: Donald Cutler, HavenTower, dcutler@haventower.com

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fmg-suite-introduces-fmg-connect-to-unify-advisor-tools-data-and-workflows-302873540.html

SOURCE FMG Suite

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Colorado Imaging Associates and TRA Medical Imaging Launch Affiliated Radiology

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DENVER and TACOMA, Wash., Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Colorado Imaging Associates (CIA) and TRA Medical Imaging (TRA) announce the formation of Affiliated Radiology, a physician-led radiology services organization designed to provide medical imaging providers with best-in-class PACS, clinical AI infrastructure, shared radiologist read capacity, and other technology and operational services at scale.

Affiliated Radiology will provide partnering organizations access to a scalable technology platform centered on PACS, AI-supported workflows, and clinical AI diagnostic tools through common, shared infrastructure. By aggregating technology investment, purchasing power, and clinical scale across multiple organizations, Affiliated Radiology is designed to lower the cost of technology, including AI-supported pre-drafting capabilities, and pass those benefits directly to its partners.

The partnership will also be supported by a growing network of radiologists, creating opportunities for participating practices to share read capacity, subspecialty expertise, and coverage while maintaining local ownership and physician leadership.

Together, CIA and TRA represent nearly 200 radiologists serving hospitals, imaging centers, and communities across the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions. The organizations are looking to expand Affiliated Radiology’s capabilities nationally by adding other medical imaging providers and partners to the partnership.

Douglas Seiler, M.D. and physician President of TRA Medical Imaging, said: “Technology is fundamental to how radiology is practiced today. Affiliated Radiology gives groups the scale to access sophisticated PACS, reporting and AI infrastructure while connecting them to a broader network of radiologist expertise and clinical capacity.”

Josh Bryant, M.D. and President of Colorado Imaging Associates, added “This partnership allows us to combine the strengths of multiple radiology practices with the technology and clinical scale of a much larger organization. We can share infrastructure, expand access to AI, and support one another clinically without sacrificing local ownership or physician leadership.”

Affiliated Radiology will also pursue opportunities to create greater operational scale through shared services, infrastructure, and other administrative functions, reducing the cost and complexity of these areas so partners can remain focused on delivering exceptional care to the communities they serve.

For more information about Affiliated Radiology, visit: www.affiliatedradiology.com

Jill Makowichuk, Director of Marketing, jmakowichuk@tranow.com Ph: 253-680-3389

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SOURCE TRA Medical Imaging

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ENVESTNET TO ACQUIRE VESTMARK, EXTENDING ITS CAPABILITIES TO MEET THE ADVISOR MARKET’S GROWING DEMAND FOR INCREASINGLY SOPHISTICATED TRADING AND TAX SOLUTIONS

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Acquisition Adds Vestmark’s Trading, Tax Transition, and Engineering Capabilities — and a Complementary Client Base — to Envestnet’s Ecosystem, While Accelerating Delivery of Core and AI-Forward Innovation

BERWYN, Pa. and BOSTON, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Envestnet, a leading Adaptive WealthTech company serving more than a third of all advisors across all its platforms and $8 trillion in platform assets, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Vestmark, a premier provider of portfolio management technology, institutional-grade trading, and outsourced investment management services for some of the industry’s largest wealth firms. Vestmark supports more than $2 trillion in assets and five million-plus accounts.

As wealth management firms grow, their operating models change along with what they require from technology. Adding Vestmark enables Envestnet to solve more complex wealth management challenges for more firms and advisors. With Vestmark, the Envestnet adaptive wealthtech platform scales more effectively to support all firms, from emerging RIAs to the largest advisory firms in the industry, across their wealthtech needs.

The result is one connected ecosystem across the full wealth management lifecycle — from understanding an investor’s needs to constructing, personalizing, implementing, trading, and managing portfolios at scale.

Highlights

Built to solve the hardest problems in wealth technology. The combined company brings the skill, expertise, and technology to handle the most complex and demanding operational workflows in the industry — and the breadth of data, drawn from working with some of the market’s most sophisticated participants, to sharpen the decision intelligence delivered to every client.An adaptive continuum, adopted at each firm’s pace. As wealth management firms grow, their operating models change — and so does what they require from technology. Adding Vestmark gives Envestnet enhanced capabilities and the modularity needed to support the most sophisticated wealth management workflows in the industry, from emerging RIAs to the largest, most complex advisory firms — all on one adaptive ecosystem with no forced migration.One new firm comprised of two deep benches of experience. For two and a half decades, Envestnet has worked alongside the industry’s most sophisticated independent broker-dealers, scaled RIAs, and hybrid firms. Vestmark brings that same caliber of expertise, built over 25 years with wirehouses and other clients running institutional-grade trading operations. With broader and more varied capabilities, Envestnet is positioned to compete across an expanded addressable market and more effectively serve a greater variety of customer needs.Continued investment in both product roadmaps. Envestnet and Vestmark will each continue to invest in and execute against their existing product roadmaps — including VestmarkONE, VAST, Envestnet Enterprise, Tamarac, and MoneyGuide, with incremental investment in AI-forward workflows and unification.

“Wealth management offerings have been siloed for too long, with advisors, traders, and portfolio managers each locked into their own piece of the puzzle,” said Chris Todd, Chief Executive Officer of Envestnet. “Bringing Vestmark into the Envestnet ecosystem changes that. Wherever a firm sits today, and wherever they’re headed next, they’ll have a platform that can grow with them. We’re not slowing down to make this happen — we’re speeding up, protecting what makes each company great and putting even more behind the roadmap our clients are counting on. Our AI strategy unifies, orchestrates, and personalizes the advisor experience at Envestnet, and will extend across Vestmark’s workflows too. That’s a real reimagining of how advisors do their jobs.”

“For 25 years, Vestmark has focused on helping wealth management firms navigate increasingly complex portfolios with greater scale, personalization, and efficiency,” said Karl Roessner, Chief Executive Officer of Vestmark. “Envestnet and Vestmark bring complementary capabilities and expertise to the market, and together we can create something neither company could deliver on its own. We will build on the technology, services, and client relationships that have made Vestmark successful, while accelerating investment in portfolio management, tax management, and AI-driven capabilities that help wealth management firms operate more efficiently and deliver better outcomes for their clients.”

Capabilities Extended Across Both Client Bases Over Time

Both companies will keep building — and moving faster. VestmarkONE and VAST remain core to the combined offering, and Envestnet will continue to deliver against the Envestnet, Tamarac, and MoneyGuide roadmaps announced earlier this year, including the recent launch of Wealth Trading, Report Studio, expanded alternatives solutions, and enhanced MoneyGuide capabilities. Vestmark adds a deep bench of engineering and product talent, giving both companies more capacity and greater velocity in launching products.

Over time, that momentum will extend across both client bases. Vestmark clients gain access to Envestnet’s recently enhanced reporting and planning strengths, including Tamarac and MoneyGuide, while Envestnet clients gain access to more modular trading, rebalancing, and sophisticated tax transition capabilities — including VestmarkONE, VAST, and Vestmark’s Pulse AI-powered monitoring and intelligence tools. It also opens the door to new AI-enabled capabilities for advisors and the clients they serve, surfacing insight earlier in the process, making personalization easier to deliver at scale, and returning more of the advisor’s day to growth and/or giving them back time to spend with clients.

Vestmark’s products, technology, and client-facing teams will continue to serve the wealth firms, asset managers, and advisors that depend on them, now backed by Envestnet’s broader platform and resources with no requirement for clients of either company to migrate platforms due to this transaction. For clients of both companies, this means more optionality over time — open architecture and third-party flexibility that lets enterprise firms differentiate their businesses and build what’s next.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, pending customary conditions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Advisors

Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal advisor, and UBS, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, RBC Capital Markets, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisors to Envestnet.

WilmerHale LLP acted as legal advisor, and Raymond James & Associates and Berenson & Company acted as financial advisor, to Vestmark.

About Envestnet

Envestnet is a leading Adaptive WealthTech company that helps advisors meet the moment with its comprehensive technology, insights, and industry-leading support. This empowers advisors to make smart decisions throughout every step of a client’s financial life. Backed by 25 years of experience and approximately $8.0 trillion in platform assets, Envestnet is trusted by a broad range of financial advisors across many leading banks, wealth managers, brokerages, and RIAs.

For a deeper dive into how Envestnet is shaping the future of financial advice, visit www.envestnet.com. Stay connected with us for the latest updates and insights on LinkedIn and X (@Envestnet).

Envestnet refers to the family of operating subsidiaries of the holding company, Envestnet, Inc.

About Vestmark

Headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts, and founded in 2001, Vestmark is a leading provider of portfolio management solutions and outsourced services for financial institutions and their advisors. Vestmark enables wealth management firms to efficiently manage customized client portfolios through an innovative, enterprise-ready platform. Supporting more than $2 trillion in assets and more than five million investor accounts, Vestmark partners with some of the largest and most respected firms in wealth management.

For more information, visit www.vestmark.com.

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SOURCE Envestnet

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