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Global Communication Certification Council Names Diverse International Board to Lead Push Toward Independence

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New 2026–2027 board spans four continents, positioning GCCC to attract communication organizations beyond IABC to adopt the CMP and SCMP certifications

CHICAGO, June 8, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The Global Communication Certification Council (GCCC) today announced its 2026–2027 board of directors, a slate of nine senior communication leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

For the communication professional, the GCCC’s CMP and SCMP credentials are aligned with ISO standards for professional certification and are awarded on the basis of demonstrated competence — not membership, tenure or, training hours alone.

The board’s international composition is designed to build momentum toward the GCCC’s planned transition to a fully independent certification body — a step the Council views as essential to attracting communication associations and organizations beyond IABC to adopt the Communication Management Professional (CMP®) and Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP®) certifications.

An independent, ISO-aligned program with demonstrated global reach offers a credible standard behind which the entire profession can rally.

The new board was approved by both the current GCCC board and the International Executive Board of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), which launched the GCCC in 2014 with a goal of transitioning the Council into a fully independent non-profit organization.

2026–2027 GCCC Board of Directors

Chair: Deborah Hileman, SCMP, FCSCE, CAICP (United States)Vice Chair: Shel Holtz, SCMP, ABC, IABC Fellow (United States)Past Chair: Bonnie Caver, SCMP, IABC Fellow (United States)Secretary/Treasurer: Ann-Marie Blake, FCIPR, FPRCA, Chart.PR (United Kingdom)Director: André Oberholzer (South Africa)Director: Ruxandra-Laura Bosilca, SCMP (Belgium)Director: Waleed Bin Huzaim, SCMP (Saudi Arabia)Director: Jyoti Khan, SCMP (Singapore)Director: Tereza Urbankova, M.A. (Germany)

“This board reflects what the GCCC is becoming: a genuinely global standards body, accountable to the profession rather than to any single association,” said incoming Chair Deborah Hileman. “Independence is the natural next step, and the experience represented around this table — across industries, regions, and disciplines — gives us the credibility to make the CMP and SCMP the standard any communication organization, anywhere, can endorse.”

Why certification matters

Professional certification gives communicators a way to demonstrate, on the basis of independently assessed competencies, that their practice meets a recognized global standard. For employers, it provides a reliable signal of capability; for the profession, it raises the floor on what stakeholders can expect from those who claim communication expertise. The GCCC’s CMP and SCMP credentials are aligned with ISO standards for personnel certification and are awarded on the basis of demonstrated competence — not membership, tenure or, training hours alone. More information is available at https://gcccouncil.org.

About the 2026-2027 board

Deborah Hileman, SCMP, FCSCE, CAICP — Chair. Hileman is CEO of the Institute for Crisis Management, where she leads crisis planning, executive counsel, training, and real-time response work for corporate clients across multiple industries. She holds multiple credentials, is a FEMA-trained Incident Commander, and has served in leadership roles with PRSA, IABC, the GCCC and several non-profit boards.Shel Holtz, SCMP, ABC, IABC Fellow — Vice Chair. Holtz is Senior Director of Communications at Webcor, a California-based commercial general contractor, and co-host of the long-running For Immediate Release and On The Same Page podcasts. An IABC Fellow with nearly five decades in organizational and internal communications, he is the author of seven books on communications and technology.Bonnie Caver, SCMP, IABC Fellow — Past Chair. Caver is founder and CEO of Reputation Lighthouse, a consultancy that has partnered with more than 50 mid-market B2B organizations on brand, reputation, M&A, change management, and — most recently — ethical and responsible AI implementation. A 20-year consulting veteran and SCMP-certified communicator with additional credentials in crisis, reputation, and change management, she also serves on the board of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, which represents 360,000 professionals across 86 countries.Ann-Marie Blake, FCIPR, FPRCA, Chart.PR — Secretary/Treasurer. Blake is co-founder of True, a UK-based employee engagement and experience consultancy, with 25+ years leading communication and people-integration programs across EMEA, Asia, and the US, primarily in global financial services. A Fellow of the CIPR, PRCA, and CSCE, she served on the IABC Executive Board from 2020 to 2024, including as Secretary/Treasurer.André Oberholzer, SCMP, FCSCE, IABC Fellow — Director. Oberholzer is Group Head of Corporate Affairs at Sappi Limited, the US$5 billion global pulp and paper company headquartered in Johannesburg, where he leads internal, external, and reputation programs across South Africa, North America, and Europe. A past chair of IABC’s Africa region and a former South African diplomat, he was the first communications professional in Africa to earn the SCMP.Ruxandra-Laura Bosilca, SCMP — Director. Bosilca is a senior communication strategist who helps mission-driven organizations tell their stories with clarity, confidence, and credibility. Over the past 13 years, she has worked with EU institutions, international nonprofits, and research bodies across five countries, advising leaders on communication strategy, brand building, and reputation management. Ruxandra also serves on the board of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), where she leads strategic partnerships and sponsor engagement initiatives spanning Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.Waleed Bin Huzaim, SCMP — Director. Bin Huzaim is a communications and protocol professional serving as Director of Relations & Protocol at the Office of the Vice Minister of Sport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He has more than 17 years of experience in strategic communications, public relations, stakeholder engagement, and international protocol. He is a Chartered PR Practitioner and was named among PRWeek UK’s Top 110 Communications Professionals in the Middle East in both 2023 and 2024.Jyoti Khan, SCMP — Director. Singapore-based Khan is a certified change communication professional (CCMP, SCMP, Prosci®) with two decades of experience driving organisational communication and enterprise transformations at multinationals including Tata Communications, Royal Bank of Canada, Ericsson, and Microsoft. A former chair of the IABC Asia Pacific Board and Forbes Communication Council, she is recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Internal Communication.Tereza Urbankova, M.A. — Director. Urbankova is Senior Manager of Global Media Relations at Boehringer Ingelheim in Germany, with more than 25 years of senior PR and communications experience spanning hospitality, retail, IT, defense, broadcast, logistics, pharma, and engineering. She also serves on the board of the European Association of Communication Directors and the European Women’s Management Development Network.

About the Global Communication Certification Council

The Global Communication Certification Council (GCCC) is the governing body for the Communication Management Professional (CMP®) and Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP®) certifications. The Council’s purpose is to create and maintain an internationally recognized standard of communication excellence, grounded in a global understanding of key principles and job competencies, and to credential communicators who achieve that standard at various points in their careers. GCCC certifications are aligned with ISO standards for personnel certification, and the Council operates impartially and independently in conducting all certification activities. Membership in any professional association is not a condition of certification. For more information, visit https://gcccouncil.org.

Media Contact

Deborah Hileman, Global Communication Certification Council, 1 502.587.0327, dhileman@crisisconsultant.com, www.gcccouncil.org

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SOURCE Global Communication Certification Council

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ModelBest and OpenBMB Open-Source MiniCPM-OCR Series, Delivering High-Performance Document Parsing and AI-Powered Quality Control

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BEIJING, Oct. 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ModelBest and OpenBMB jointly announced the release and open-source availability of the MiniCPM-OCR series, a family of models for efficient document parsing and parsing-quality assessment. The launch includes two models: MiniCPM-OCR 1.0 (1.3B) and MiniCPM-OCR Jev (2B).

As the first OCR-focused model in the MiniCPM family, MiniCPM-OCR 1.0 brings top-tier parsing accuracy to a compact 1.3-billion-parameter architecture optimized for edge deployment, pushing forward the balance between efficiency and performance for open-source OCR models. Built for real-world conditions, it accurately parses scanned, photographed, curved, tilted and screen-captured documents without cumbersome image pre-correction, lowering the barrier to large-scale document digitization.

The model handles dense bilingual Chinese-English content, complex mathematical formulas, and multi-level or borderless tables, consistently performing at a leading level across a broad range of mainstream industry evaluations. Beyond full-page reconstruction, it supports key information extraction (KIE), pulling specified fields from invoices, IDs and financial statements according to business instructions.

Powered by DSpark decoding acceleration, MiniCPM-OCR 1.0 significantly increases end-to-end throughput while lowering per-page latency. For enterprises processing millions of pages—such as financial contract archives, academic libraries and government records—this means processing far more documents with the same hardware and time budget, at a substantially lower computing cost.

To address the long-standing need for page-by-page manual review, ModelBest and OpenBMB also introduced MiniCPM-OCR Jev, the first OCR result decision model that acts as an “AI quality inspector.” Rather than performing OCR itself, Jev compares the source image with OCR output and rapidly assigns confidence scores to text, LaTeX formulas and tables, detecting missing characters, errors and formatting misalignments. Despite its compact 2B-parameter size, Jev delivers judgment accuracy typically associated with far larger models.

Jev supports cross-model deployment and can be integrated into existing OCR workflows without replacing the underlying OCR engine. It can automatically identify reliable results for direct processing, flag potentially inaccurate outputs for human review and select the best result from multiple OCR systems. This enables enterprises to move from full manual inspection toward risk-based, automated quality control.

The MiniCPM-OCR series is available on GitHub, Hugging Face and ModelScope, and supports vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp and Ollama, along with SDKs, APIs, Agent Skill plugins and open-source fine-tuning code. Day-0 hardware adaptation covers AMD, Arm, Houmo AI, Intel and NVIDIA. Through the FlagOS software stack, it also has Day-0 support for AI and edge chips from CIX Technology, Huawei Ascend, Hygon, Iluvatar CoreX, Kunlunxin, MetaX, Moore Threads, Sunrise, T-Head, TsingMicro, NVIDIA and Apple Mac (Arm).

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SOURCE ModelBest

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Wulcea Elevates Consumer Trust in Heated Apparel Through Multi-National Safety Certifications and Rigorous Technical Testing

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NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As smart heated clothing gains broader adoption, consumers are paying closer attention to the safety and reliability of the technology behind these products. Wulcea, a brand specializing in graphene-powered heated apparel, combines its flexible GrapheneNano™ heating technology with documented safety compliance and durability testing for its heating components and battery systems.

“Trust in smart heated apparel goes beyond warmth—it comes down to confidence in battery safety and heating element reliability,” said John C, Founder of Wulcea. “Our goal is to give users peace of mind through certified technical standards.”

Advanced Graphene Heating Elements Supported by Global Standards

At the core of Wulcea’s thermal architecture is its GrapheneNano™ heating technology. Engineered to eliminate garment stiffness, Wulcea integrates flexible graphene elements that deliver balanced warmth across key upper-body zones while preserving natural garment drape and full freedom of movement.

Wulcea supports its heating components with applicable compliance documentation for major markets. These include CE and FCC compliance documentation addressing relevant electrical and electromagnetic compatibility requirements, as well as PSE compliance for applicable products in Japan. RoHS compliance further addresses restrictions on specified hazardous substances in applicable electrical and electronic components.

Multi-Certified Battery System for Dependable Power

To power its heating elements, Wulcea pairs its heated apparel with rechargeable battery systems designed for convenient everyday use. Featuring a compact design and housed in dedicated interior pockets, the batteries provide portable power while maintaining a streamlined garment profile and comfortable fit.

Wulcea backs its battery options with comprehensive third-party accreditations. UL certification demonstrates that the battery system has been evaluated against recognized power bank safety requirements, covering key areas such as overcharge protection, short-circuit protection, and thermal safety. The battery systems are also supported by applicable CE and FCC compliance documentation, addressing relevant regulatory requirements for electrical and electromagnetic compatibility.

For daily handling and travel, RoHS compliance validates that the battery system meets stringent global standards for material safety. The battery models have also undergone applicable UN 38.3 testing, supporting compliance with international requirements for lithium battery transportation.

Real-World Durability and Practical Usability

Component compliance forms Wulcea’s foundation, but reliability is defined by real-world performance. Built for high-flex endurance, Wulcea’s flexible graphene heating elements are tested through 10,000 active flexing cycles to maintain steady thermal output through repeated bending and everyday body movement.

Everyday convenience is equally essential. Built for hassle-free care, Wulcea’s heating elements withstand 100 machine-wash cycles under standard care guidelines, maintaining internal conductivity and structural stability under repeated laundering.

Integrated NTC temperature sensors provide thermal monitoring and are designed to stop heating if temperatures exceed 131°F (55°C). Combined with runtime of up to 10 hours on the low setting and a discreet interior control button, these features support practical everyday use in cold-weather conditions.

Aligning Technical Standards with Everyday Warmth

By combining graphene-based heating technology with documented battery safety compliance and durability testing, Wulcea continues to focus on the technical foundations of dependable heated apparel. This approach reflects the brand’s emphasis on bringing together safety considerations, practical functionality, and everyday comfort for cold-weather use.

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SOURCE Wulcea

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NIDS Co., Ltd. Confirms CES 2027 Participation, Pursues Expansion of Global Supply Chain for Environmental Sensors

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Company introduced optical and gas sensors at SEDEX and is strengthening its composite sensor business for robotics, home appliances, automotive, and smart building applications

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Environmental sensor manufacturer NIDS Co., Ltd. has confirmed its participation in CES 2027 and is moving to expand its global business-to-business (B2B) supply chain. Building on its experience supplying sensors to domestic and international home appliance and automotive companies, the company aims to secure overseas customers and extend its applications into smart building HVAC and robotics.

NIDS recently participated in the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association’s Sensor Pavilion at SEDEX 2026, held at COEX in Seoul, where it introduced its next-generation sensor modules. The company said the exhibition allowed it to raise awareness of its technology among domestic home appliance and electronic component industry professionals and to lay the groundwork for collaboration in the sensor field.

The company will use CES 2027 as its next stage. NIDS plans to firm up discussions on sensor module supply with global home appliance makers, HVAC specialists, and robotics companies. It aims to extend the industry contacts gained at the domestic exhibition overseas and to convert product introductions into actual supply opportunities.

Founded in 2000, NIDS develops and manufactures environmental sensors and air quality management solutions. According to the company, it has supplied more than 10 million sensors cumulatively to domestic and international companies, including Dyson, Samsung Electronics, and Hyundai Motor. Drawing on this supply track record, the company intends to showcase its precision sensing technology and mass-production capabilities to overseas customers.

Its main products include particulate matter sensors, optical gas sensors based on non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) technology, composite environmental sensors, and electronic nose sensor modules. The particulate matter sensors measure PM1.0, PM2.5, and PM10, while the gas sensor lineup targets carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), and other gases. The electronic nose is used for detecting everyday odors, gas leaks, and fires. The company said it designs the core components required for air quality measurement in-house and has a system in place to mass-produce 5 million units annually.

The area where NIDS will expand development and supply going forward is next-generation composite sensor modules. The company has been pursuing a sensor business that responds to industry-specific demand in home appliances, automotive, and smart building HVAC, and is now concentrating its capabilities on markets such as robotics, industrial safety, and odor detection based on this technology. Building on its experience supplying individual components, NIDS plans to continue developing and supplying, on a B2B basis, modules that handle multiple types of environmental data.

The company will also highlight its sensor product lineup and its newly developed ultra-compact MEMS sensor technology at the exhibition. NIDS plans to introduce its optical and gas sensor lineup along with examples of their application in actual air quality management systems. By explaining both the measurement functions of its components and its experience operating sensors for finished-product services, the company aims to broaden the scope of partnership discussions.

NIDS explained that, because it owns its precision sensors, it can control sensor sensitivity and tune algorithms to suit the system in which they are applied. Drawing on this technical operating experience, the company plans to pursue partnerships with customers and to promote its business capabilities extending from sensor components to air quality and odor management and industrial safety management.

NIDS will also leverage its existing branch network in its overseas market development. Through its overseas bases in the United States, Japan, and China, the company plans to widen its touchpoints with buyers and seek new supply opportunities in conjunction with its CES participation. Its goal is to generate export results by combining exhibition participation with its local networks.

The company intends to keep expanding the global supply of sensor components as a core pillar of its business. Building on the supply experience accumulated in home appliances and automotive, it will broaden its partners to robotics, HVAC, and smart buildings, and respond to industry-specific air quality measurement demand through the development of next-generation modules.

“We plan to continue expanding the development and B2B supply of next-generation composite sensor modules needed across a range of industries, including home appliances, automotive, and smart building HVAC,” NIDS said.

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SOURCE NIDS Co., Ltd.

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