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Stanley Announces Second Annual Stanley Creators Fund Grant Opportunity

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The Iconic Food and Beverage Brand will Offer Philanthropic Grants of up to $50,000 USD that Support a New Generation of Innovators

Applications Open Now for Global Entries Through October 4, 2024

SEATTLE, Sept. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today Stanley, the innovative food and beverage brand, announced the opening of applications for its annual grant program, Stanley Creators Fund, to support individuals and organizations working at the intersection of humanity, sustainability and possibility, developing innovative solutions to solve some of our communities’ deepest challenges. Grants of up to $50,000 USD each will be offered to up to eight recipients as part of the 2024-2025 program. Applications are open now through October 4, 2024.

Inspired by the company’s founding in 1913 by inventor William Stanley, Jr., Stanley Creators Fund is designed to support a wide variety of causes and challenges, such as climate change, food security, housing security, and equity and justice. The program amplifies a new generation of Creators, Builders and Inventors who reflect the many communities they serve and are leading social change for a better future.

“Stanley is consistently innovating – always anticipating what’s next. And we invite our Creators Fund applicants to do the same – innovate and look forward to how they can help solve global environmental, societal and social challenges,” said Matt Navarro, Global President, Stanley. “Via the Stanley Creators Fund, we celebrate our incredible global changemakers who are dedicated to making a difference in their communities.”

In its inaugural year, Stanley Creators Fund awarded grants in the amount of $50,000 to five U.S.-based nonprofit organizations: Black Girl Environmentalist, Boyz N the Wood, Catalyst for Change, Let’s Go Compost, and the Refugee Collective (formerly Multicultural Refugee Coalition). In the eight months since Stanley’s catalytic grant awards, recipient outcomes include increasing organizational capacity, transitioning volunteers to full-time staff, increasing numbers of program participants, launching new initiatives, building partnerships with public and private institutions, and attracting additional funding. Read more about last year’s grant winners’ initiatives here.

“Becoming a Stanley Creators Fund grantee was and will forever be a turning point for Let’s Go Compost,” says Lauren Click, Founder, Let’s Go Compost. “We cannot put into words how grateful we are, and — most importantly — the thousands of students we are now able to serve.”

Eligibility Requirements
Stanley Creators Fund supports the voices, ideas and advancement of social entrepreneurs who are deeply engaged in their communities, have designed innovative solutions to a pressing challenge, and bring optimism to their work.

Recipients must meet the following eligibility criteria.

Demonstrate an aligned purpose with Stanley Creators Fund.Operate in alignment with Stanley’s values and standards, including its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.Be a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, or global equivalent, with a minimum of two years of operating history. In absence of operating history, proof of concept may be demonstrated.Have annual operating incomes of no less than $100,000 USD and no more than $2,000,000 USD.

Applications are now open through October 4, 2024 for creative leaders and the nonprofit organizations they represent. Short-listed applicants will be notified by December 2024.

To learn more about Stanley Creators Fund and to apply, visit https://www.stanley1913.com/pages/stanley-creators-fund-info.

About STANLEY
Invented by William Stanley, Jr. on September 2, 1913 (official patent date), the all-steel vacuum bottle revolutionized the way people enjoyed food and beverage. Since then, Stanley brand has been delivering superior food and drinkware for active lifestyles and remains dedicated to this simple promise: buy Stanley products, get quality gear. Built for Life®. Learn more, visit www.stanley1913.com.

About HAVI
HAVI is a global, privately owned company that connects people with ideas, data with insights, supply with demand, restaurants with deliveries and ultimately, people with the products they love. Whether we are sourcing, storing or delivering products, we bring unmatched category expertise and unrivaled operational excellence, combined with powerful digital analytics and insights. Founded in 1974, HAVI employs more than 10,000 people and serves customers in more than 100 countries. HAVI’s business units include Supply Chain, tms and Stanley. Our portfolio of businesses offers best-in-class sourcing and supply chain capabilities, brand defining marketing and promotion services and innovative consumer products. For more information, please visit HAVI.comtmsw.com and stanley1913.com.

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Simply announces compatibility with AI glasses from Meta

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NEW YORK, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Simply, the creative hobbies leader behind the market leading apps Simply Piano, Simply Guitar, Simply Sing, and Simply Draw, today announced compatibility with AI glasses from Meta.

 

The launch signals Simply’s next leap – from mobile and augmented reality into AI glasses – as part of its long–term vision to build a fully multimodal AI platform that connects physical creativity, digital experiences, and wearable interfaces.

After pioneering music learning through augmented reality with Simply Piano for Apple Vision Pro and Simply Piano for Android XR, Simply is now expanding its creative hobbies ecosystem into AI–powered wearables. The new integration with Simply Draw and AI glasses from Meta lets learners capture their drawing process in real time, generating AI–enhanced timelapses and shareable creative assets that showcase their creation. 

“This is an exciting step toward a new era for creativity,” said Yuval Kaminka, CEO and Co–Founder of Simply. “We believe that the way we experience the arts, learning, playing and creative expression at home will become fully contextual. AI glasses allow us to move closer to a true AI creative companion – a multimodal AI, one that understands what you’re doing and supports you in the moment.”

“AI glasses are becoming a natural extension of how we learn and create,” added Eliran Douenias, Head of Product Innovation at Simply. “Our products already enable immersive and virtual experiences with XR and spatial computing, now we’re adding AI glasses from Meta as the next interface – and it’s just the first of an exciting roadmap ahead.”

“Simply’s early move into the AI glasses space puts us ahead of the curve and positions us to lead in how wearables – specifically AI glasses – become part of everyday creative life,” said Douenias.

With this launch, Simply is expanding its platform for the AI era. The new compatibility with AI glasses from Meta enhances how learners see, capture, and share their creative process, with many more experiences to follow.

About Simply

Simply is the world’s leading AI creativity platform redefining how people learn and express themselves through music, arts, crafts, and more. Its award–winning apps – Simply Piano, Simply Guitar, Simply Sing, and Simply Draw – have empowered millions globally to pick up and develop fulfilling creative hobbies that last.

Contact info: eliran@hellosimply.com

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Levine Leichtman Capital Partners Hires James Smith as Managing Director

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LONDON, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (“LLCP”) announced today that James Smith has joined the Firm as a Managing Director in the Investment Management group. James will be based in LLCP’s London office.

Josh Kaufman, Head of Europe at LLCP, said, “We are thrilled to welcome James to LLCP. James adds valuable experience to the team within our core Business Services sector vertical. We look forward to the impact he will have as our European business and team continues to grow.”

James joins LLCP from Advent International where he was a senior member of the European Business & Financial Services team and participated in numerous successful transactions over his 12-year tenure. Prior to Advent, James worked at Bain & Company. James’ full biography can be found at https://www.llcp.com/team

About Levine Leichtman Capital Partners

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, LLC is a middle-market private equity firm with a 42-year track record of investing across various targeted sectors, including Business Services, Franchising & Multi-unit, Education & Training and Engineered Products & Manufacturing. LLCP utilizes a differentiated Structured Private Equity investment strategy, combining debt and equity capital investments in portfolio companies. LLCP believes that by investing in a combination of debt and equity securities, it offers management teams growth capital in a highly tailored, flexible investment structure that can be a more attractive alternative than traditional private equity.

LLCP’s global team of dedicated investment professionals is led by 9 partners who have worked at LLCP for an average of 20 years. Since inception, LLCP and its affiliates have managed approximately $18.5 billion of capital across nearly 20 investment funds and has invested in approximately 120 portfolio companies. LLCP currently manages $12.6 billion of assets and has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, London, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Media Contact: Isabel Moon, imoon@llcp.com

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Appian Advances AI in Process to Deliver Enterprise Outcomes at Scale

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New capabilities in agentic automation and AI-assisted spec-driven development transform complex work.

ORLANDO, Fla., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Appian [Nasdaq: APPN] today announced enhancements to the Appian Platform, including AI-assisted spec-driven development and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration for agents. By anchoring AI within processes, Appian eliminates the primary hurdles to AI value: fragmented data, and a lack of reliability and control. Process models provide the structure needed to deliver results safely, and at scale.

Advancements in AI agents enable more intelligent, coordinated work

AI agents in Appian are smarter, safer and more effective because they have better structure, context and guardrails. Appian is enhancing interoperability across its AI ecosystem. By adopting powerful standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP), Appian agents will be able to interface securely with external enterprise systems. Third party AI agents will have access to powerful Appian tools like data fabric which uniquely provides unified read-write access to enterprise data.

Appian is also advancing agent learning by providing users the ability to track agent performance, and then apply an agent’s memory across processes to improve decision making. Users will soon be able to expand on this by giving AI guidance on what objectives to optimize against and recommend improvements that can be applied safely.

Customer value

Global Excel Management, a worldwide healthcare risk management provider, uses Appian to transform claims processes with AI.

“As part of our digital transformation we are evolving our claims processes by transitioning from fragmented workflows to an enhanced level of operations using technological advancements enabled with AI features,” said Pascal Tanguay, SVP, Global Technology Services, Global Excel Management. “With Appian, our processes will be unified. From initial intake to adjudication, our advanced technology will reduce redundant tasks and lessen complexity for our team members. This ensures that our claims processes are consistent and completed more efficiently and accurately.”

Context gives agents a common vocabulary for business data

To support advanced agent capabilities, Appian is augmenting its industry-leading data fabric. Appian’s data fabric has been enhanced to provide a unified metadata model that gives agents clearer context about how information is structured and connected across systems.

Furthering its commitment to supporting industry-leading data platforms, Appian is launching a technology partnership with Snowflake. This unites Appian as the AI orchestration layer with Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud, combining data aggregation, model training, and process orchestration to enable immediate business value. Direct MCP-enabled integration between Appian data fabric and Snowflake equips agents with deep enterprise context, and allows them to interact directly with Snowflake Cortex AI to drive intelligent, data-backed decisions.

“Enterprises don’t need more AI experiments, they need AI that delivers real business outcomes on governed data,” said Baris Gultekin, Vice President of AI, Snowflake. “By combining Appian’s process orchestration and data fabric with the Snowflake AI Data Cloud, we’re bringing intelligence directly into the flow of work. Together, we enable secure, enterprise-grade AI where agents can access trusted data through Cortex AI, act with context, and drive measurable impact across the business.”

AI-assisted spec-driven development

AI-assisted development has revolutionized coding, but mission-critical work needs more than fast, cheap code. Appian puts structure around AI-assisted development. Without that structure, AI-generated code can introduce compliance issues and technical debt instead of business value.

Appian is introducing AI-assisted spec-driven development. AI extracts rich specifications from legacy applications to create a clear visual plan. This plan helps visualize the UI, data models and process flows for rapid and iterative operational improvements. AI developer agents, operating under human supervision, complete tasks according to specifications, accelerating delivery and reducing rework.

New developer MCP servers will allow organizations to use their choice of AI development tools, such as Claude Code or Kiro to build and update Appian applications. Appian will support a wide range of AI models, enabling teams to work in the environments they prefer.

Together, these enhancements will deliver the speed and developer productivity of AI-assisted development, with enterprise-grade control.

“Appian Composer, Agents and Appian MCP servers enable trusted agentic process orchestration and application modernization,” said Mike Beckley, Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Appian. “Composer complements Appian’s agentic orchestration and data fabric with new spec-driven development tools that are both conversational and iterative. Beneath the covers, Appian Composer is built on Appian’s new open MCP – a model-driven representation of your complete application estate—requirements, apps, data entities, logic, workflows, security/governance rules, integrations, and multi-object dependencies—now exposed as context for developers and agents to safely evolve and optimize.”

The advancements announced today were unveiled at Appian World 2026 and will be available in coming releases. Learn more at www.appian.com

About Appian

Appian provides process automation technology. We automate complex processes in large enterprises and governments. Our platform is known for its unique reliability and scale. We’ve been automating processes for 25 years and understand enterprise operations like no one else. For more information, visit appian.com. [Nasdaq: APPN]

Follow Appian: LinkedIn, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and X.

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