Technology

Strategic Investment Group Ushers in an Exciting New Era with Key Leadership Appointments; Nikki Kraus appointed as Chief Executive Officer and Christopher Lvoff as President and Co-Chief Investment Officer, effective immediately

Published

2 years ago

July 22, 2024

ARLINGTON, Va., July 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Strategic Investment Group (Strategic), a leader in the Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) sector, is pleased to announce the appointment of Nikki Kraus, a stalwart in the OCIO industry with over 30 years of experience, as Chief Executive Officer. In addition, Chris Lvoff, recognized for his deep asset knowledge and investment experience, has been named as President and will continue to serve as Co-Chief Investment Officer. Strategic is proud of its status as a pioneering dedicated OCIO that was female founded and continues to be female led.

Nikki Kraus brings to the table more than three decades of experience serving as a partner to institutional clients and optimizing governance structures for effective oversight and decision-making. This period included authoring two books on best practices, as well as supporting clients in achieving their investment goals. In addition to her client focus, Nikki has been instrumental in developing and executing Strategic’s business strategy, driving the important evolution of the past couple of years. She is being elevated to Chief Executive Officer from her current role as President and Chief Client Officer and will continue to be a key member of Strategic’s governing Board.

Chris Lvoff has been instrumental in shaping all aspects of Strategic’s investment process, client portfolios, portfolio analytics, and investment results, serving as Co-Chief Investment Officer alongside Markus Krygier since August 2021. He has been an active member of its governing Board since February 2023.

“Since 2019, I have had the pleasure of working with both Nikki and Chris as a member of Strategic’s Board and more recently as Chair,” said Eve Guernsey. “With her extensive experience in the OCIO space, Nikki has a deep understanding of the market we operate in, the firms we compete with, and the clients we serve. She has a clear vision for Strategic’s next chapter and a dedication to delivering for our clients. Chris is an astute investor with deep institutional investing skills and experience across asset classes. He fully understands the challenges our clients face and is focused on meeting their investment goals. With 20 years of experience in the markets, Chris has proven to be a strong, inspirational leader of our investors. I am excited to continue working with this exceptional team in our unwavering pursuit of delivering distinguished performance for our clients.”

Cyrus Jilla, Group Managing Partner at B-Flexion, a long-term shareholder partner of Strategic, commented: “Having seen Nikki and Chris in action over the last few years, we have no hesitation in supporting these new leadership roles as part of the exceptional team that is Strategic today. Under their leadership, I have no doubt the business will remain relentlessly focused on serving its clients while continuing to innovate for a stronger future.”

“We are thankful to Eve and Cyrus for their work with us over the past years and are grateful to the mission-driven and experienced team at Strategic, who makes us better each day,” said Nikki Kraus. “Chris and I are honored and energized by these appointments. We are excited to boldly fulfill our mission to empower clients to achieve transformational impact through inspired investing. Our clients are making the world a better place and our team wakes up every day excited to be part of these important efforts. We have deliberately chosen to be selective in the number of clients we serve in order to preserve our ability to generate alpha and to provide the white glove service we are known for, and we strive every day to be the gold standard in everything we do for our clients.”

About Strategic Investment Group

Strategic Investment Group®, is a pioneer in dedicated Outsourced CIO (OCIO) solutions since 1987. Strategic functions as our clients’ investment partner and co-fiduciary, effectively becoming an extension of their resources. Clients are then free to focus on their core missions, while we focus on providing the highly specialized portfolio management expertise that clients need to meet their investment goals. Our mission is empowering clients to achieve transformational impact through inspired investing. Strategic had $28 billion in discretionary assets under management as of March 31, 2024.

For further information contact:
Ken Grossfield, General Counsel
kgrossfield@strategicgroup.com

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SOURCE Strategic Investment Group

Technology

BlueNexus Technologies Unveils AquaX Hub at SIWW 2026 — AI Autonomous Operations Extended to Legacy Water Assets

Published

3 hours ago

June 21, 2026

SINGAPORE, June 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — At Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) 2026, BlueNexus Technologies unveiled the global debut of AquaX Hub™ — a compact plug-and-play edge device that brings full AI-powered autonomous operation to standalone water equipment and legacy treatment plants. The launch drew sustained engagement from utilities, industrial operators and engineering firms.

The water sector confronts converging pressures: aging infrastructure, a critical shortage of skilled technicians, and relentless operational cost escalation. AquaX Hub™ answers these directly — extending the AI autonomous operation already proven plant-wide by AquaX Robot™ to a single asset, and delivering comparable monitoring and operational management without a control-system overhaul.

“The industry cannot hire its way out of this problem,” said Jack Zhang, CEO of BlueNexus Technologies. “AI autonomous operation is no longer a future concept — the barrier to entry is gone.”

The AquaX Ecosystem

BlueNexus has built the industry’s first fully integrated AI autonomous water operation platform, spanning three complementary pillars:

AquaX Robot™ is the flagship plant-wide AI agent, built on large language models with proprietary vision, acoustic and infrared multimodal sensing. It optimizes treatment processes 24/7 and predicts equipment failures. Live deployments show up to 90% reduction in on-site staffing, a 50% drop in equipment breakdowns, and approximately 35% lower O&M costs.

AquaX Hub™, making its global debut at SIWW 2026, is a lightweight edge terminal extending that capability to any water system. With an independent local processing module, it monitors and inspects equipment through multimodal sensing and runs a self-contained processing loop. The device integrates seamlessly with existing SCADA, cloud and enterprise platforms via standardized APIs.

i-WaterHub™, the company’s standardized modular treatment plant, operated autonomously by AquaX Robot, delivers 2,500 to 40,000 m³/day for municipal and industrial applications.

Market Momentum

SIWW 2026 convened nearly 500 exhibitors from over 65 countries. BlueNexus has identified priority markets for AquaX Hub™ in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. “The conversations this week have already translated into concrete business opportunities and we expect rapid deployment in the coming months.” Zhang confirmed.

About BlueNexus Technologies

BlueNexus Technologies is a Singapore-based water-technology company building intelligent, AI-operated systems for the world’s most water-intensive industries. We design and deliver modular water treatment infrastructure that is smarter to run, faster to deploy, and built to operate autonomously.

Web: www.bluenexus.tech

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SOURCE BlueNexus Technologies

Technology

VIVATECH 2026 CELEBRATES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY WITH A RECORD EDITION SURPASSING 200,000 VISITORS

Published

11 hours ago

June 20, 2026

With the presence of Emmanuel Macron and Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India

PARIS, June 20, 2026 /CNW/ — From June 17 to 20, 2026 at Paris Porte de Versailles, VivaTech celebrated its 10th edition, surpassing the exceptional milestone of 200,000 visitors from 165 nationalities, with more than 15,000 startups present, 1,155 speakers and over 5 billion cumulative impressions on social media. Europe’s largest tech and innovation event has reached a new dimension, consolidating its status as an unmissable global gathering.

Exceptional speakers

VivaTech welcomed the greatest figures in global tech: Jeff Bezos (Amazon & Blue Origin), Dave Limp (Blue Origin), Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Henna Virkkunen (European Commission), Ekaterina Zaharieva (European Commission). Germany, Country of the Year 2026, was represented by a ministerial delegation, while India, AI Country Partner 2026, was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a continuation of the AI Summit in New Delhi.

Innovation and business at the heart of the event

More than 4,500 exhibitors, 61% of whom were international, showcased their latest innovations. Among the standout innovations: the smart contact lens by XPANCEO, the thought-controlled humanoid robot by Unitree x HABS, and the 3D-printed resorbable implants by Lattice Medical. New formats such as the Business Plaza and Investors Office Hours further accelerated business connections.

The VivaTech x Bloomberg Awards

For the first time, VivaTech presented the VivaTech x Bloomberg Awards, recognising the most influential figures in global tech, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Visionary Award), Joe Tsai (Leadership Award) and Yann LeCun (Momentum Award).

Innovation open to all

VivaTech also took over the Champs-Élysées on June 14th for an open-air technology showcase, before opening its doors to the general public on June 20th with astronaut Thomas Pesquet as guest star.

“This 10th edition was not a celebration of the 9 previous years, but the opening of a new decade full of promise.” — Maurice Lévy, Michèle Benbunan & François Bitouzet, VivaTech

See you from June 16 to 19, 2027 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles for VivaTech 2027!

About VivaTech

VivaTech accelerates innovation by connecting startups, tech leaders, major companies, and investors responding to our world’s biggest challenges.

Each year, over four exciting days in Paris, VivaTech creates Europe’s biggest startup and tech event, exploring the most disruptive topics in tech with world-premiere demos, launches, and conferences in a collaborative ecosystem. This is where business meets innovation. Join us for the eleventh edition of VivaTech 16-19 June 2027.

For more information go to our website at https://vivatech.com/media or follow us on social media @VivaTech.

Contact
press@vivatechnology.com

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SOURCE VivaTech

Technology

Pope Leo XIV embraces paediatric patients at CNAO in Pavia

Published

14 hours ago

June 20, 2026

PAVIA, Italy, June 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) served as the first stop today during Pope Leo XIV’s pastoral visit to the city of Pavia. His choice to begin his journey at this center reflects a profound commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue between advanced scientific progress and the alleviation of human suffering.

CNAO President Gianluca Vago and General Manager Sandro Rossi received His Holiness, illustrating the center’s distinctive capabilities. CNAO stands out as a unique reality in Italy, remaining one of the very few facilities worldwide capable of delivering hadrontherapy using both protons and carbon ions. The technological core of the facility is its synchrotron, a subatomic particle accelerator that generates ultra-high-precision beams to treat complex, inoperable and radioresistant tumours. This cutting-edge technology allows for the targeted eradication of diseased cells while meticulously preserving surrounding healthy tissues, drastically improving patients’ survival and quality of life.

Furthermore, CNAO is expanding its capabilities as a premier multi-center utilizing new ion species, like Helium, later Oxygen and Neon. Soon, treatments will incorporate the Leo Cancer Care upright positioning and imaging system. The immediate future also includes beginning therapies with a Hitachi dedicated proton accelerator and gantry and a BNCT system for metastatic diseases, equipped with an electrostatic accelerator produced by TAE Life Science. With these new technologies, CNAO will become one of the most technologically advanced center in the world.

To date, over six thousand individuals, including approximately three hundred children and adolescents, have benefited from these life-saving treatments.

During his visit, the Pope engaged with CNAO’s Board of Directors, a collaborative body uniting national universities, clinical institutions, and research centers. He also extended his heartfelt greetings to the two hundred employees of the center. These doctors, physicists, engineers, and researchers tirelessly operate the advanced technologies in the service of oncology patients.

The emotional pinnacle of the day was the Holy Father’s private gathering with a delegation of young children who underwent treatment. The paediatric patients and their families shared a deeply touching moment of closeness, receiving the Pope’s comforting embrace.

“The visit of Pope Leo XIV honours us and represents a moment of extraordinary human value”, stated CNAO President Gianluca Vago. “In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, the Holy Father emphasizes the necessity of a science that constantly safeguards the centrality of the person and directs technology toward the common good. In a time marked by global tensions, CNAO testifies daily how the incredible power of the atom can be used not to destroy, but to heal. The particle beams we utilize against disease are, symbolically, Rays of Hope, sharing and supporting the IAEA project bearing this name. The embrace the Holy Father reserved for our children reminds us that scientific research finds its most authentic purpose when it encounters listening, compassion, and hope”.

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