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Manulife and World Economic Forum Launch the Prospering in Longevity Challenge to Drive Health and Financial Resiliency

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Multi-year partnership taking steps to help shape the future and funding of human longevity innovation 

TORONTO, June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Manulife and the World Economic Forum (“the Forum”), today announced the launch of the Prospering in Longevity Challenge, through UpLink, the Forum’s open innovation platform. Earlier this year, a multi-year partnership between Manulife and Uplink was announced at the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos and the Prospering in Longevity Challenge is the first of three innovation challenges designed to help shape the future of, and investment in, longevity innovation. 

Together, Manulife and the Forum invite global start-ups with innovative preventative healthcare and financial well-being solutions, and those committed to enabling people of all generations to thrive while enjoying a financially resilient and fulfilling long life, to participate in the challenge. Applicants can begin applying today through July 22, 2024. Full project details, including eligibility criteria and timelines, can be found on the challenge page here.  

“By 2050, the global population over 65 is expected to double to 1.6 billion, bringing significant health and wealth challenges for our planet,” said Sarah Chapman, Global Chief Sustainability Officer for Manulife. “We are partnering with the World Economic Forum and UpLink because of our shared sense of urgency to find inclusive and accessible solutions to help people worldwide live longer, healthier, and better lives.” 

While people are living longer than in previous generations, it does not always equate to improved health span. On average, people spend about 50 percent of their lives in less than good health, including 12 percent in poor health1.  

As the population ages, factors like financial resilience and literacy, healthy ageing, generational skill-building, social connection, and longevity inequalities across gender, race and class will be critical in ensuring a more sustainable, healthier future – and we must act with urgency. 

The themes for the first Longevity Challenge are as follows: 

Strengthening financial resilience across longer lives, which will create solutions that democratize access to tools that increase financial resilience, e.g. empowering better financial decisions, capacity to save, behavioral focused financial apps. Embracing a preventative approach to healthcare, which will aim to surface solutions aimed to improve physical and mental health with a preventative approach to healthcare, e.g. early risk factor detection and intervention, lifestyle trackers, access to virtual medical care. 

“Innovation is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and by partnering with Manulife, we are committed to sourcing and scaling innovative solutions that strengthen financial resilience across longer lives and embrace a preventative approach to healthcare,” said John Dutton, Head of UpLink, World Economic Forum. “This collaboration will democratize access to tools that increase financial resilience and surface solutions aimed at improving physical and mental health.” 

This multi-year partnership builds upon Manulife’s continued partnership with WEF’s UpLink to run innovation challenges to spur nature-based solutions to climate change across two key areas in 2023. The first focused on sourcing innovative solutions across the entire sustainable forestry value chain, while the second surfaced innovations aimed at improving the connection between planetary and human health. In total, 21 ecopreneurial start-ups providing innovative and scalable models for sustainable forest management and more were selected as challenge winners. More information about the program can be found here.  

To learn more about Manulife’s Impact Agenda, and to track progress against its goals, visit manulife.com/impact. 

About Manulife 

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we provide financial advice and insurance, operating as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. Through Manulife Investment Management, the global brand for our Global Wealth and Asset Management segment, we serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. At the end of 2023, we had more than 38,000 employees, over 98,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 35 million customers. We trade as ‘MFC’ on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges, and under ‘945’ in Hong Kong.

Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulife.com.

About UpLink  

UpLink is the open innovation platform of the World Economic Forum, designed to unlock an ‘entrepreneur revolution’ for people and planet by supporting start-ups with innovative solutions for the world’s most pressing issues, as outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

Launched at the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Annual Meeting in Davos in partnership with Deloitte and Salesforce, UpLink builds bridges between entrepreneurs and the investors, experts and partners who can help scale their ventures. UpLink crowdsources new innovations through a competition framework known as innovation challenges. UpLink has now run more than 43 challenges and identified over 350 entrepreneurs with innovative solutions across critical SDG areas including health, food, freshwater, ocean, plastics, education, climate and more. For more information, visit https://uplink.weforum.org.  

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SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation

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XLCS Partners advises Concurrent Utility Services on sale to UniTek Global Services

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July 23, 2026

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NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — XLCS Partners, Inc., a leading middle market investment bank, is pleased to announce that it served as exclusive M&A advisor to Concurrent Utility Services LLC on its acquisition by UniTek Global Services, Inc., a portfolio company of New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC) and its affiliates, and BTG Pactual Strategic Capital.

Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Concurrent is a licensed general and electrical contractor providing infrastructure development and maintenance services to electric utilities, telecom providers, and land developers throughout the Southeast United States. The company’s capabilities span overhead and underground utility construction, professional telecom services, emergency service restoration, in-building networks, environmental services, and data center development. Backed by a safety-first culture and an experienced workforce, Concurrent has built a strong regional platform and a reputation for quality across the markets it serves.

UniTek is a leading digital infrastructure services provider supporting the expansion of fiber and data center connectivity across the U.S. and Canada. With over 600 employees and 60 locations, UniTek delivers a full suite of infrastructure services. The acquisition of Concurrent accelerates UniTek’s Power Services Division, which launched in July 2025 to broaden the company’s maintenance, repair, upgrade, and new infrastructure development services for the power sector. Concurrent’s established Southeast footprint and power capabilities directly complement UniTek’s existing broadband and data center infrastructure platform, positioning the combined company to capitalize on growing demand for resilient, modernized power infrastructure. Concurrent will continue to operate under its established brand, maintaining uninterrupted service for its customers.

“Selling Concurrent was one of the biggest decisions of my career, and Anthony, Jay, and the XLCS team guided us through every step with professionalism and genuine care for our people,” said Steve Sarno, CEO of Concurrent. “They stayed fully engaged throughout, gave us honest and thoughtful advice, kept our best interests front and center, and delivered an outcome that exceeded our expectations. I would recommend them without hesitation to any owner considering a transaction.”

XLCS acted as the exclusive M&A advisor to Concurrent, and the transaction was led by Anthony Contaldo, Partner, and Jay Cremer, Vice President. The transaction was completed on July 1, 2026.

About XLCS Partners, Inc.

XLCS Partners is a leading global investment banking firm providing M&A advisory services. Visit www.xlcspartners.com for more information.

Media Contact: 
Kendra Span 
kspan@xlcspartners.com
615-379-7783

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/xlcs-partners-advises-concurrent-utility-services-on-sale-to-unitek-global-services-302833542.html

SOURCE XLCS Partners, Inc.

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XLCS Partners advises Concurrent Utility Services on sale to UniTek Global Services

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3 minutes ago

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July 23, 2026

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NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — XLCS Partners, Inc., a leading middle market investment bank, is pleased to announce that it served as exclusive M&A advisor to Concurrent Utility Services LLC on its acquisition by UniTek Global Services, Inc., a portfolio company of New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC) and its affiliates, and BTG Pactual Strategic Capital.

Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Concurrent is a licensed general and electrical contractor providing infrastructure development and maintenance services to electric utilities, telecom providers, and land developers throughout the Southeast United States. The company’s capabilities span overhead and underground utility construction, professional telecom services, emergency service restoration, in-building networks, environmental services, and data center development. Backed by a safety-first culture and an experienced workforce, Concurrent has built a strong regional platform and a reputation for quality across the markets it serves.

UniTek is a leading digital infrastructure services provider supporting the expansion of fiber and data center connectivity across the U.S. and Canada. With over 600 employees and 60 locations, UniTek delivers a full suite of infrastructure services. The acquisition of Concurrent accelerates UniTek’s Power Services Division, which launched in July 2025 to broaden the company’s maintenance, repair, upgrade, and new infrastructure development services for the power sector. Concurrent’s established Southeast footprint and power capabilities directly complement UniTek’s existing broadband and data center infrastructure platform, positioning the combined company to capitalize on growing demand for resilient, modernized power infrastructure. Concurrent will continue to operate under its established brand, maintaining uninterrupted service for its customers.

“Selling Concurrent was one of the biggest decisions of my career, and Anthony, Jay, and the XLCS team guided us through every step with professionalism and genuine care for our people,” said Steve Sarno, CEO of Concurrent. “They stayed fully engaged throughout, gave us honest and thoughtful advice, kept our best interests front and center, and delivered an outcome that exceeded our expectations. I would recommend them without hesitation to any owner considering a transaction.”

XLCS acted as the exclusive M&A advisor to Concurrent, and the transaction was led by Anthony Contaldo, Partner, and Jay Cremer, Vice President. The transaction was completed on July 1, 2026.

About XLCS Partners, Inc.

XLCS Partners is a leading global investment banking firm providing M&A advisory services. Visit www.xlcspartners.com for more information.

Media Contact: 
Kendra Span 
kspan@xlcspartners.com
615-379-7783

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/xlcs-partners-advises-concurrent-utility-services-on-sale-to-unitek-global-services-302833542.html

SOURCE XLCS Partners, Inc.

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Fathom Applauds Introduction of the FRONTIER Act, the First Federal Blueprint for Independent AI Verification

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July 23, 2026

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Reps. Lori Trahan (D-MA-03) and Jay Obernolte (R-CA-23) introduce a bill to build a competitive marketplace of independent verifiers for frontier AI models.

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fathom welcomes the introduction of the FRONTIER Act, the most complete federal framework yet for independent, third-party verification of frontier AI. The legislation is built to earn public trust as AI technology continues to accelerate. As frontier systems begin to take autonomous action in the world, the gap between what these models can do and our ability to keep them in check is widening. FRONTIER is the starting point to close that gap.

“AI governance keeps running into the same wall. The technology is hard to measure and it moves faster than any law can keep up with,” said Andrew Freedman, Co-Founder and CEO of Fathom. “Trying to write the perfect rules and freezing them in place won’t work. What will work is a competitive market of independent verifiers who are accountable for real-world outcomes and who the government can actually count on. The FRONTIER Act shows we can move fast and still get this right.”

The bill gets the fundamentals correct. It sets one public standard – the adequate mitigation of catastrophic risk – and holds both the AI companies and their independent verifiers accountable to it. FRONTIER does not freeze a single testing method into statute. Instead, it licenses competing verification organizations, allows them to sharpen their methods, and gives the government the power to revoke a license when a verifier’s work does not hold up in the field. That is how you build a system that keeps pace with the science instead of falling behind it.

Fathom thanks Reps. Trahan and Obernolte for their leadership, and for their courage in releasing a discussion draft, inviting scrutiny, and incorporating substantive improvements from across the field. One priority improvement as the bill advances: giving the government a fuller range of tools to act upstream – for pushing companies to close identified gaps in risk mitigation early, rather than only once a catastrophe is imminent. We are committed to working with these sponsors, committees of jurisdiction, and Congressional leadership to continue refining the bill in the weeks and months ahead.

About Fathom
Fathom is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to build a governance architecture that helps society navigate the transition to a world with AI by fostering trust, safety, and innovation. Fathom has developed and championed the independent verification model for AI and works with policymakers across the country to put it into practice. Learn more at http://fathom.org.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fathom-applauds-introduction-of-the-frontier-act-the-first-federal-blueprint-for-independent-ai-verification-302833546.html

SOURCE Fathom AI Inc.

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