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A Night for Good: Goodwill Gala Unites Designers and Industry Leaders for Purpose and Style

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The annual event celebrated visionary design and inclusive workforce impact, honoring Brian Fetherstonhaugh and Synoptek while also featuring runway presentations from Collina Strada, LAPOINTE, Romeo Hunte, and Andy Yu.

NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — On Tuesday, May 20, Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey, Inc. (Goodwill NYNJ) hosted its fifth annual Goodwill Gala at Tapestry’s global headquarters in Hudson Yards, uniting leaders across fashion, technology, and philanthropy for a powerful night of purpose and style.

Co-hosted by Felita Harris, Executive Director and Co-Founder of RAISEfashion, and Peter Som, award-winning fashion designer and culinary creator, the evening honored outstanding contributions to inclusive innovation and service.

Brian Fetherstonhaugh received the Visionary Leadership Award in recognition of his decades-long commitment to Goodwill, having served as a dedicated board member since 1990. The award was presented by his former colleague, Shelly Lazarus, Chairman Emeritus of Ogilvy, who had the honor of recognizing his enduring impact.

Synoptek, a leading systems integrator and managed services provider, received the Corporate Leadership Award for its partnership in advancing digital equity and workforce inclusion.

“Being recognized by Goodwill NYNJ is an honor we’re especially proud of,” said Salil Godika, CEO of Synoptek. “It’s always meaningful to be acknowledged for the work we do with our partners, but when that work uplifts those who need it most, it carries even greater significance. At Synoptek, our commitment to excellence, our people, and our communities drives everything we do and we’re proud to stand alongside organizations making a lasting difference.”

The night also showcased an exclusive fashion presentation featuring designers known for their bold creativity and commitment to sustainability, including Collina Strada, LAPOINTE, Romeo Hunte, and Andy Yu. Each designer brought a unique perspective, illustrating how fashion can serve as a catalyst for change.

“I built my brand on the foundation of empowerment and believing in the power of you. I have always said that fashion does not have to be complicated, unattainable, or intimidating, and that making a statement with your clothing is easy. That’s why when Goodwill approached me to do this project, I was more than excited and honored to do it.” stated Sally LaPointe, founder and designer, LAPOINTE.

“Sustainability is the core of my work, so I start my projects at Goodwill,” added designer, Andy Yu. “Giving new life to second-hand pieces lets creativity shine without adding waste.”

Upcycled looks from the evening’s featured designers are now available through an online auction—offering fashion lovers a rare opportunity to own exclusive pieces while supporting Goodwill NYNJ’s job training and placement programs.

The event spotlighted Goodwill NYNJ’s mission to expand access to employment and promote sustainable fashion as a force for good.

“At Goodwill NYNJ, we believe that investing in people and the planet creates lasting change,” said Katy Gaul-Stigge, CEO of Goodwill NYNJ. “Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we’re building a more inclusive employment movement that empowers New Yorkers of all abilities and backgrounds to thrive and ensure no talent is left behind.”

The incredible support from sponsors, donors, and attendees helped the Goodwill Gala raise $586,000 to advance programs offering job training, placement, and career growth to thousands of individuals across the region.

For more information about Goodwill NYNJ or to get involved, visit: goodwillnynj.org/financial-giving/

About Goodwill NYNJ
Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey, Inc. (Goodwill NYNJ) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates retail stores across the region, fueled by donations of clothing and household items. These donations support Goodwill NYNJ’s mission to provide workforce development services, job training, and employment opportunities for people with disabilities and individuals facing barriers to work.

For 110 years, Goodwill NYNJ has helped build better lives for thousands of individuals and families across the New York City metropolitan area. Its mission is to empower people with disabilities and other barriers to employment to achieve independence through the power of work.

Learn more at www.goodwillnynj.org and find us on Facebook and Instagram @GoodwillNYNJ.

About Brian Fetherstonhaugh
Brian Fetherstonhaugh is the CEO of The Long View Talent Group and the author of the award-winning career strategy book The Long View. Brian began his career at Procter & Gamble Canada and spent over two decades at Ogilvy, where he held global leadership roles including President of Ogilvy Canada, Chairman of Global Brands, Chief People Officer, and Global CEO of its digital marketing division. A frequent lecturer at McGill, Columbia, Yale, and MIT, Brian brings deep expertise in branding, leadership, and strategy. His connection to Goodwill spans over three decades, with past roles including Chairman of Goodwill Toronto and Executive Committee member of the Goodwill International Board. Currently serving on the Board of Goodwill NYNJ, he has led the organization’s last four strategic plans and continues to support its mission through committee work, leadership training, and site engagement.

About Synoptek
Synoptek is a global, full-service business and digital technology solutions provider and advisory firm that helps companies envision, transform and evolve their customer experiences, application ecosystems and infrastructures. As a systems integrator and managed technology provider, Synoptek partners with organizations worldwide, helping them navigate the ever-changing technology landscape and build solid tech foundations for their businesses. With its comprehensive offerings, global workforce and strategic technology partnerships, Synoptek helps companies optimize their IT environments and enable innovation through technology. With growth, ownership, inclusiveness and philanthropy embedded in its DNA, Synoptek is committed to delivering improved business results and unmatched service to all its stakeholders.

About LAPOINTE
Designed by Sally LaPointe and produced in NYC, LAPOINTE is a color-driven luxury fashion brand known for making a statement with bold monochromatic palettes and head-to-toe sets that embrace simple, effective empowerment of individual expression. LaPointe graduated with a BFA in Apparel Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2006 and, with fellow RISD graduate Sarah Adelson, moved to New York City and founded the eponymous collection in 2010. LAPOINTE soon became the go-to brand for a broad range of women including Zendaya, Beyonce, Rihanna, Oprah Winfrey, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Hailey Bieber, Jennifer Lopez, and Jessica Chastain, to name a few. LAPOINTE is sold via its e-commerce flagship site shopLAPOINTE.com as well as top retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Harrods, among others.

About Collina Strada
Collina Strada isn’t just a fashion label, it’s also a platform for social issues and awareness. Created by Hillary Taymour, her main concern is staying true to her craft, and staying on course to becoming a fully sustainable and radically transparent brand in the near future. Based and manufactured in New York, the brand’s cult status core pieces transcend trends. Taymour’s designs are imbued with a fearlessly fluid attitude, re-inventing classics and unexpected details. Collina Strada embodies humor and youth. The brand DNA is now firmly cemented in the ability to look inward, even when we’re loud and expressive on the outside. Season after season, Collina Strada’s goal remains the same: to encourage self-reflection through clothing. How can you be the best version of yourself today?

About Romeo Hunte
Raised in Brooklyn, New York, Romeo Hunte has always been inspired by the women around him and their creative approach to fashion. After turning down two full athletic scholarships in Track and Field, he pursued his passion for design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Hunte launched his namesake brand, Romeo Hunte New York, while working full-time as a personal shopper in luxury retail and in editorial styling. Over the past decade, he has proven to be a hardworking self-starter, excelling in both unique design and business. He has secured lucrative partnerships with renowned companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Christian Louboutin, Speedo and was the first Black designer to collaborate with Tommy Hilfiger. Specializing in mixing high-quality fabrics, Hunte skillfully plays with denim and leather, transforming them into ready-to-wear pieces for any occasion. His innovative approach has garnered an impressive cult following of VIPs, including Beyoncé, Michelle Obama, Steph Curry, Kyrie Irving, and Stevie Wonder, proving that there is no limit or box you can put him in.

About Andy Yu
Andy Yu is an Asian American fashion designer celebrated for his sustainable, upcycled creations and his ability to blend art, culture, and community. After studying fashion and graphic design at Virginia Commonwealth University, Yu launched his first womenswear collection at just 22, with pieces selling at major retailers like Barneys and Saks. Over the years, he built a successful fashion business, Contributing to brands such as Magaschoni Cashmere, J.Crew Luxury, and Michael Kors. His designs, often upcycled from vintage materials, have garnered attention from fashion icons, including Martha Stewart, who owns over 20 pieces from his private collection. Yu’s commitment to the community is evident in his work as a mentor up-and-coming designers and support for local initiatives, including the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts and the Community Center of Northern Westchester. Through his work, Yu continues to inspire by merging sustainability with style, fostering connections across cultures.

Goodwill Contact: LaKara Person, lperson@goodwillny.org, (929) 627-0222

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QUIGLEY-SIMPSON LAUNCHES NEW AI DISCOVERABILITY AND VISIBILITY OFFERING

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Agency Helps Brands Improve How They Are Discovered, Understood, Referenced, and Recommended Across AI-Powered Platforms

LOS ANGELES, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Quigley-Simpson, the impact-obsessed independent marketing agency, today announced a new AI discoverability and visibility offering designed to help brands improve how they are discovered, understood, referenced, and recommended across AI assistants, large language models (LLMs), search engines, and digital media environments.

As consumers increasingly turn to AI-powered platforms for information, recommendations, and purchasing decisions, brands face a new challenge: ensuring accurate, credible, and authoritative information about their business is available and accessible to both people and AI systems.

“Consumers are no longer discovering brands through search engines, advertising, or social media alone,” said Carl Fremont, CEO of Quigley-Simpson. “AI platforms are becoming an increasingly important source of information and recommendations. Brands must now think beyond traditional visibility and consider how they are represented across the broader AI ecosystem.”

The new capability helps brands understand and improve the signals that influence how AI systems interpret, evaluate, and recommend information. Unlike point solutions focused solely on monitoring AI responses, Quigley-Simpson’s approach combines communications, content, creative, media, analytics, and optimization to help brands actively strengthen their visibility and authority.

Built on the agency’s integrated operating system, the offering leverages expertise from communications, creative, media, analytics, strategy, and technology teams to address this emerging challenge.

“We believe brands now need to market to both humans and machines,” said Jeff Ratner, President, Media, Data & Analytics at Quigley-Simpson. “The information AI platforms use doesn’t appear by accident. It is shaped by content, communications, media signals, authority, and credibility across the digital ecosystem. What differentiates our approach is our ability to move beyond diagnosis and activate solutions through integrated communications, creative, media, and analytics programs.”

Historically, communications strategies were designed primarily to influence people. Today, they also influence the systems increasingly shaping consumer discovery and decision-making.

“Brands have spent decades optimizing how they communicate with consumers,” said Alissa Stakgold, President Strategy and Creative Services, at Quigley-Simpson. “Now they must also consider how they communicate with the AI systems that summarize, interpret, and distribute information at scale. This capability helps brands better understand those dynamics and respond strategically.”

The offering combines proprietary methodologies with leading third-party technologies, including AI visibility and monitoring platforms, while leveraging Quigley-Simpson’s broader media, analytics, and intelligence infrastructure.

Initial services include:

• AI visibility and discoverability audits
• Brand authority and citation analysis
• Competitive benchmarking
• Communications and content strategy
• Creative and messaging optimization
• Media and content amplification
• AI response monitoring and reporting
• Ongoing optimization and measurement

The framework is built around five core pillars: Content, Credibility, Connections, Coverage, and Calibration.

Together, these pillars help brands strengthen the signals that influence how AI systems interpret, reference, and recommend information while improving consistency across communications, content, media, and customer experiences.

ABOUT QUIGLEY-SIMPSON:
Headquartered in Los Angeles, with an office in New York City, Quigley-Simpson is the largest WBENC-certified woman-owned advertising agency in the country and an impact-obsessed marketing partner for brands seeking measurable growth. Its fully integrated offerings span brand strategy, creative development, media planning and buying, digital performance, analytics, and AI-enabled solutions. For 25 years, Quigley-Simpson has helped brands break through growth barriers by connecting brand building with business outcomes. As a full-solutions, full-journey agency, it transforms insights into action and action into measurable impact, delivering results that drive long-term growth and competitive advantage. Clients include industry leaders such as JPMorgan Chase and Procter & Gamble, alongside high-growth brands including Generac, Simply Business, Finance of America, and Kumon. Quigley-Simpson’s approach is rooted in a simple philosophy: be Brand-led, Demand-driven, and Impact-obsessed.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quigley-simpson-launches-new-ai-discoverability-and-visibility-offering-302800753.html

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Dialogica Emerges from Stealth to Empower Lawyers to Reclaim Their Time

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New class of legal cognition provides fully secure, local platform to remove the rote, non-billable work that slows lawyers down

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Dialogica (“Dia”), the new, voice-first class of legal cognition built to empower lawyers to reclaim their time while preserving legal judgment, trust, and confidentiality, announced its public launch today. The company is supported by Ground Up Ventures, led by Cory Moelis, and global leading lawyers, including Tom Glocer, ex-CEO of Thomson Reuters, and members of the board of directors at Morgan Stanley and Merck, Scott Taylor, former GC of Symantec, Health Ingram, a Top 40 BioTech Regulatory Counsel and Partner at Goodwin Proctor, and partners at various AmLaw 50 law firms.

Dia was built to free lawyers from the rote work that holds firms back, like calendaring, timekeeping, redlining, precedent searching, tracking clients, matters, deals, and cases, and much more, so they can focus on what they do best. Sensitive firm data stays within the firm’s walls, and Dia works seamlessly with the systems and technology already in place. The result is more billable time and revenue per lawyer, and more room for work-life balance that is rarely afforded in the industry.

The launch comes as current ‘last mile’ legal AI tools have focused on the drafting work that lawyers spend years training to do. Dia is focused on the first mile of legal work; this is the high-friction layer where matters start, where time is lost, and where repetitive work slows lawyers down. It operates as a horizontal, voice-first dialogue layer that strengthens what firms already have rather than replacing it, and was built to provide a practical, secure way to give lawyers an intuitive, easy-to-use system while maintaining the standards of security, confidentiality, and control that their clients demand.

“I spent years watching my colleagues, and brilliant lawyers, lose hours every single day to work that had nothing to do with being a lawyer,” said Austin Worrell, Co-Founder and CEO, Dialogica. “We built Dia to give lawyers this time back, without touching their judgment, training on firm data, or asking anyone to change how they work. We want lawyers to be able to focus on counsel, strategy, and client services; the work that defines a great law firm, and that no AI could ever replace.”

“We built Dia to be the first platform that works the way law firms already operate, rather than force them into a new system,” said Joshua Goodman, Co-Founder and CTO, Dialogica. “At the same time, Dia does not compromise on security, ensuring firms get all the benefits without anything leaving their environment. This is an exciting moment to work with firms that want to move now to define the modern legal practice and future-proof their practices.”

Scott Joachim serves as President of Dialogica, and has almost three decades of experience as a corporate attorney. He previously served as Co-Chair of the Global Private Equity Practice at Paul Hastings, an “American Lawyer Top 25” international law firm, and chair of the private equity practice at leading technology law firm Fenwick and West. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University. “The intersection of law and technology is at a critical inflection point. I joined Dialogica because I’ve seen first-hand the inefficiencies and frictions in law practice that our products solve. The numbers are undeniable.”

“There is nothing in the market right now making non-billable hours more productive,” said Cory Moelis, General Partner, Ground Up Ventures. “In a field where privacy is absolutely critical, you can’t just build using foundational models. Assistants are emerging as the next wave as models become commodities, and that’s why I’m thrilled to be involved with Dialogica, as they are ahead of this curve.”

About Dialogica
Dialogica, Inc. is the company behind Dia, a secure amplified intelligence platform built to help law firms clear the clutter of daily practice while preserving the legal judgment, client trust, and confidentiality that define the profession. Designed for the operating realities of sophisticated firms, Dia is a voice-first dialogue layer that works across existing systems to reduce repetitive, non-billable work and give lawyers more time for the counsel, strategy, analysis, and client service only they can provide. For more information, visit: dialogicaai.com.

Media Contact
Dialogica@5wpr.com

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NEUBERGER MUNICIPAL FUND ANNOUNCES MONTHLY DISTRIBUTION

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NEW YORK, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Neuberger Municipal Fund Inc. (NYSE American: NBH) (the “Fund”) has announced a distribution declaration of $0.05417 per share of common stock. The distribution announced today is payable on July 15, 2026, has a record date of June 30, 2026, and has an ex-date of June 30, 2026. The Fund seeks to provide income that is exempt from regular federal income tax. Distributions of the Fund may be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax for some stockholders.

The distribution announced today, as well as future distributions, may consist of net investment income, realized capital gains, and return of capital. In the event the Fund distributes more than its net investment income during any yearly period, such distributions may also include realized gains and/or a return of capital. To the extent that a distribution includes a return of capital, the NAV per share may decline and an investor’s cost basis of their shares will be reduced. In compliance with Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, a notice would be provided for any distribution that does not consist solely of net investment income. The notice would be for informational purposes and not for tax reporting purposes, and would disclose, among other things, estimated portions of the distribution, if any, consisting of net investment income, capital gains and return of capital. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of all distributions paid in 2026 will be made after the end of the year.

About Neuberger

Neuberger is an employee-owned, private, independent investment manager founded in 1939 with approximately 3,000 employees across 26 countries. The firm manages $567 billion of equities, fixed income, private markets, real estate and hedge fund portfolios for global institutions, advisors and individuals. Neuberger’s investment philosophy is founded on active management, fundamental research and engaged ownership. The firm is proud to be recognized for its commitment to its two constituents, clients and employees. Again in 2025, we were named Best Asset Manager for Institutional Investors in the US (Crisil Coalition Greenwich) and the #1 Best Place to Work in Money Management (Pensions & Investments, firms with more than 1,000 employees). Neuberger has no corporate parent or unaffiliated external shareholders. Visit www.nb.com for more information, including www.nb.com/disclosure-global-communications for information on awards. Data as of March 31, 2026.

Statements made in this release that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the adverse effect from a decline in the securities markets or a decline in the Fund’s performance, a general downturn in the economy, competition from other closed end investment companies, changes in government policy or regulation, inability of the Fund’s investment adviser to attract or retain key employees, inability of the Fund to implement its investment strategy, inability of the Fund to manage rapid expansion and unforeseen costs and other effects related to legal proceedings or investigations of governmental and self-regulatory organizations.

Contact:
Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC
Investor Information
(877) 461-1899

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