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Southwire Welcomes New Executive Leaders

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Southwire is welcoming three new executives and has announced expanded responsibilities for two current members of the executive team.Nick Brazis will now serve as Southwire’s EVP, Chief Financial Officer, Elizabeth Spence will join the team as the company’s EVP, Chief People and Culture Officer and Jeff Fleece will serve as SVP, Chief Digital Information Officer.Christy Wright will expand her responsibilities to now serve as Southwire’s Chief Supply Chain and Business Systems Officer.Burt Fealing will expand his role, adding leadership of Southwire’s Operational Sustainability, enterprise Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) and Community Affairs teams.

CARROLLTON, Ga., July 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As Southwire continues its efforts to create long-term value for its stakeholders, the company announced the appointment of several new leaders this week.

“The strength of any organization starts with its people, and we’re excited to welcome these accomplished leaders to Southwire’s executive team,” said Ganesh Ramaswamy, Southwire’s President and CEO. “Their experience and fresh perspectives will help us execute our strategy, strengthen our business and position us for generations of continued growth. I look forward to working alongside them as we move forward.”

Joining the company as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer is Nick Brazis. He most recently worked at Pentair, Inc, where he served as CFO and EVP, leading all finance and accounting functions. Prior to joining Pentair, Brazis was Senior Vice President at Daikin in North America. He also served on the board of directors for acquired companies and chaired the Daikin Applied Advisory Board. Brazis has more than 20 years of industry experience, including working for 3M, Inc and Caterpillar, Inc.

“It is an honor to join Southwire and be part of an organization with a strong legacy and an ambitious vision for the future of the industry,” said Brazis. “I’m passionate about building teams, strengthening customer relationships and delivering meaningful results. I look forward to working with my new colleagues to build on the company’s momentum and create long-term value for our customers and stakeholders.”

Elizabeth Spence joins the team as Southwire’s Executive Vice President and Chief People and Culture Officer. She most recently served as EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer at Graphic Packaging in Atlanta. Spence brings more than 25 years of human resources leadership, focusing her career at the intersection of human resources, strategic communications and business transformation. She previously served as CHRO of Gypsum Management and Supply and has held progressively senior roles at large, complex organizations, including Coca-Cola, AT&T and Assurant. Spence is recognized for her expertise in leadership development, organizational transformation, succession planning and culture. 

“Southwire has built a remarkable culture and a strong reputation for innovation, and I’m honored to join at such an exciting time for the company,” Spence said. “I’ve always believed that an engaged workforce and strong leaders are the foundation of business performance, and I look forward to helping Southwire develop the talent and culture to power its continued growth.”

Christy Wright will expand her responsibilities to now serve as Executive Vice President, Chief Supply Chain and Business Systems Officer. Wright, who joined Southwire in 2007, has served as EVP, Chief Supply Chain Officer and Interim CFO since February. In this role, she will be responsible for developing and executing the company’s strategy for procurement, strategic sourcing, vertical integration, Southwire Continuous Rod (SCR®), business process excellence and enterprise operating systems. Christy will help ensure Southwire’s sourcing capabilities, strategic supply network and business operating system create sustainable competitive advantage, support profitable growth and drive continuous improvement across the enterprise.

“I am extremely excited about the growth and opportunities that are ahead for our industry and for Southwire. As we advance, it is critically important we remain focused on continuous improvement,” said Wright. “We are building momentum around a more structured, consistent and repeatable approach to performance, one that helps us identify opportunities, solve problems at the source and sustain progress over time. I am proud of the way our team continues to identify solutions to best serve our stakeholders.”

Burt Fealing, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Sustainability Officer, will now also lead the company’s Operational Sustainability, enterprise Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) and Community Affairs teams. In this role, he will further Southwire’s commitment to sustainability.

“The most successful organizations understand that sustainability amplifies performance,” said Fealing. “It strengthens customer relationships, inspires innovation, attracts talent, builds trust and reinforces our generational resilience. When sustainability is woven into every aspect of how we deliver value, its impact reaches far beyond financial results.”

Jeff Fleece will join Southwire as the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Information Officer. Jeff is a global business executive who most recently served as Chief Information Officer of Baker Hughes. In this role, he was responsible for leading the company’s global IT strategy and digital transformation, as well as driving internal productivity solutions.

“Southwire is in a unique and exciting place in the electrical industry, and I am thrilled to be joining an organization with such a rich history and strong leadership position,” said Fleece. “The company has made significant steps in the digital transformation space over the last several years, and I look forward to advancing these efforts alongside the team.”

These moves will all take effect by the end of July.

About Southwire:
Southwire Company, LLC is North America’s leading wire and cable company. The $9.7B organization is made up of more than 9,000 team members across the globe who unite as ONE Southwire each and every day to serve each other, their customers and their communities. Southwire and its subsidiaries provide solutions including building wire and cable, metal-clad cable, utility products, portable and electronic cord products and OEM wire products. In addition, Southwire offers electrical products, engineered solutions and a variety of field support services. For more on Southwire’s products and solutions, its community involvement and its vision of sustainability, visit www.southwire.com.

© 2026 Southwire Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Contact: Ashley Bush
Director, Communications
Phone: (678) 684-7634
ashley.bush@southwire.com

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SIGGRAPH 2026 Returns to Los Angeles, Spotlighting Southern California’s Computer Graphics Community

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Dozens of Los Angeles-area artists, researchers, and studios take the world stage at the 53rd annual SIGGRAPH conference, from blockbuster visual effects to university research

LOS ANGELES, July 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The 53rd annual SIGGRAPH conference will bring together thousands of innovators, researchers, and industry leaders from around the world at the Los Angeles Convention Center from Sunday, 19 July through Thursday, 23 July 2026 to explore today’s innovations, trends, and future predictions of computer graphics and interactive techniques. For the first time since 2023, the conference returns to LA, a frequent host city and a global capital of film, games, and immersive media.

LA will not only serve as the host city for SIGGRAPH 2026 but also take center stage, showcasing its creative and technical talent throughout the conference. With the creative industries accounting for 15.4% of California’s total employment when direct, indirect, and induced jobs are counted, local innovators will lead and contribute to sessions, forums, panels, workshops, and more, highlighting Southern California’s vital role in shaping the future of computer graphics and interactive techniques.

“LA always feels like home for SIGGRAPH. It’s exciting to be back, where we’re able to welcome the broad and vibrant community of artists and technologists in Southern California and beyond,” said SIGGRAPH 2026 Conference Chair Chris Redmann. “The SIGGRAPH community in LA really represents a cross-section of the entire community: World-class research institutes, world-class studios, both film and game, and everything in between.”

SIGGRAPH 2026 continues its mission to build communities that invent, educate, inspire, and redefine the computer graphics landscape. While the conference draws talent from around the world, LA-based professionals are making a significant impact across nearly every facet of the event. Some of the locally based contributors include top talent from Lightstorm Entertainment, Paramount Animation, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Netflix and its Eyeline Labs, Magnopus, Electronic Arts, and Activision, alongside leading researchers and educators from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Southern California (USC).

Attendees can find these local leaders featured in a variety of roles, including the following sessions and experiences:

Production Sessions invite attendees behind the scenes of some of the world’s most ambitious entertainment projects, offering a rare look at the artistry and innovation behind today’s blockbuster films, immersive experiences, and games. LA is well represented:“Wētā FX Presents: Avatar: Fire and Ash” brings the latest chapter of the franchise to the stage with Richard Baneham and Peter Litvack of Lightstorm Entertainment.“Research to Reality: Scaling Generative AI for The Wizard of Oz at Sphere” details how generative AI was scaled for the large-format venue, and will be presented by Rudy Grossman, Kevin Mullican, and Ben Grossmann with Magnopus, and Wyatt Bartel with Sphere Entertainment Co.
 Spatial Storytelling expands SIGGRAPH’s narrative frontier, exploring how stories are experienced through space, immersion, and interaction.“OUT OF THE ASHES: A Work-In-Progress Spatial Story of the Human Cost of Climate Change” is presented by Nonny de la Peña with Emblematic Group and Rory Mitchell with Mercantile.Live performance in virtual space is explored with “Virtual Theatre: Producing Live Theatre on Virtual Stages” with Stephen Butchko with The Ferryman Collective and “Inside the Show: A Live VR Performance and the Backstage Systems Behind It” from Stephen Butchko, Whitton Frank, and Deirdre V. Lyons with The Ferryman Collective.
 The Immersive Pavilion offers a dedicated space for virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences, including “Uncanny Alley: A New Day”, from Butchko, Frank, and Lyons with The Ferryman Collective.
 The Games Summit convenes developers and studios around the art, technology, and craft of games.“Performance Capture at Scale: Building a Pipeline for Battlefield 6 Cinematics” features Pasha Sol with Electronic Arts.“Forging the Glacier at IO Interactive: Fireside Chat with Henrik Schlichter” includes John Canning with Advanced Micro Devices.“Beyond the Dot: New Ways to Reduce Motion Sickness in Gaming” is presented by Ewa Trusz with Activision.
 Talks present ideas, techniques, and works in progress from across the field.“Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender – Hybrid Stylization A Contextual Approach to the Painterly Aesthetic” features Jerry Huynh with Paramount Animation and a team from Flying Bark Productions on a rendering workflow that moves final stylization into compositing for painterly, temporally stable strokes. Huynh also joins Paramount Animation colleagues Karyn Buczek Monschein, Patrick Kueking, and Samantha Steyns for “Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender – Strike Force A Hybrid In-House Production Model for a Modern 2D/3D Animated Feature Pipeline”, on the in-house team built to run finaling, FX, layout, and compositing across a distributed pipeline.“Dressing the Masses – Managing Character Variations at Scale” and “Assets in Motion (AIM) – Injecting life into a static and linear asset building process” feature Brian Cohen with Sony Pictures Imageworks on managing character variation and asset pipelines at scale.“In Defense of Euler Angles in Game Programming” features USC’s Matthew Whiting discussing how to choose rotation representations that produce the right motion for the application.
 Panels bring experts together for candid discussion.“The Perpetual Pipeline – 50 Years of Symbiosis in Computer Graphics” features Paul Debevec with Netflix, a longtime figure in LA’s graphics research community, on a panel marking 50 years of collaboration between graphics researchers and filmmakers and how AI is now accelerating the research-to-screen pipeline.“The Previs Battleground: Precision Planning vs Creative Freedom” features Karl Herbst with Sony Pictures Animation on a panel examining how previs is evolving across animation, VFX, and games, and the trade-offs between fast, exploratory workflows and high-fidelity planning.
 Courses welcome beginners and experts alike to immerse themselves in foundational topics and state-of-the-art methods.“Hands-on Course: NVIDIA: Introduction to Slang: The Next-Generation Shading Language” is led by Chris Hebert with NVIDIA and introduces Slang, an open-source shading language that simplifies cross-platform graphics development while maintaining performance on current GPUs.“Physics Is Easier Than You Think: From Classical to Neural Elastic Simulation” features Jernej Barbič with USC and walks attendees through the foundations of elastic simulation to the current research landscape of neural physics.“Fluid Simulation with the Lattice Boltzmann Method” features Kui Wu with LightSpeed Studios on the Lattice Boltzmann Method as a GPU-friendly alternative to traditional solvers, with applications across industrial simulation, game production, and visual effects.
 The Educator’s Forum inspires the next generation by engaging a community committed to curriculum, pedagogy, tools, and career development. LA educators feature throughout, including:USC’s Peter Brinson and Andreas Kratky on cross-cultural game design in “Bridging Artistic Expression and Game Design through Cross-Cultural Collaboration: An Educational Framework from a Seven-Year Japan–U.S. Program”, and Sanjay Madhav and Matthew Whiting on teaching game programming in “No Engine Required: Teaching Game Programming (Mostly) From Scratch”.Benjamin Noble with The Third Floor on animation and VFX hiring trends in “Current Hiring Trends in the Animation & VFX Industry”, and Xin Xin with Processing Foundation and Alex Avila with the Los Angeles Unified School District on expanding coding access in “Art + Code: Case Study in Expanding Access with p5.js”.“‘Live from LA!’: Facilitating Personal and Political Storytelling through Immersive Youth Theater” features Xin, with collaborators from UC Santa Barbara, on an immersive youth-theater production blending dance, poetry, and projection-mapping, using p5.js tools to support young people’s political storytelling through personal narratives.
 Technical Papers, the premier venue for the latest advances in computer graphics research, showcase deep local strength, anchored by UCLA. Chenfanfu Jiang with UCLA contributes across multiple papers spanning deformable-body dynamics, knitwear simulation, and material point methods, alongside Kui Wu with LightSpeed Studios and a Netflix and Eyeline Labs cluster on video relighting and compositing that includes Li Ma, Mingming He, Ning Yu, and Paul Debevec.
 Technical Workshops invite researchers and practitioners to engage in advanced discussion. Chenfanfu Jiang with UCLA organizes or co-organizes several, including “Generative AI Meets Computer Graphics”, “Differentiable Physics for Graphics and AI”, “Human–AI Co-Creation in Generative Art: Graphics Methods, Systems, and Applications”, and “Graphics4Science 2026: Graphics for Cross-Scale Reliable Scientific Instruments”.
 Frontiers turns the spotlight on emerging, multi-industry topics. Shahram Ghandeharizadeh with USC leads “Dronevision, Holodecks, and Spatial Computing Using Swarms of Flying Light Specks”, while “Graphics In Medicine: From the Dev Floor to the Operating Room 2”, organized by Enoch Omale with Illuminant Surgical, brings together speakers from USC, UC Irvine, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
 The Art Gallery presents work at the intersection of art and technology, including “Are We Gazing at the Same Moon?” by independent artists Jeyun Cloud and Ziqian Yin.
 LA-based experts will also contribute to Posters and the ACM SIGGRAPH 365 Chapters: West Coast Meetup, organized by Joan Collins with the LA Professional ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter and Sunil Rampersad with the Professional and Student Chapters Committee.

Los Angeles’ presence at SIGGRAPH 2026 further proves the region’s role in shaping the upcoming trends of computer graphics and interactive technology. For the full conference lineup and registration details, please visit s2026.siggraph.org.

About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2026
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2026, the 53rd annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 19–23 July at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

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Club Offers for Travel Enthusiasts in Germany

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BERLIN, July 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Travelzoo® (NASDAQ: TZOO), the club for travel enthusiasts, announces four of many new Club Offers for Club Members in Germany.

Rigorously vetted and negotiated for us travel enthusiasts:

FROM €2799 PP—MALDIVES: LUXURY RESORT WITH FLIGHT, SAVE €1600
7 nights, in either a beach villa or an overwater villa. All-inclusive across 5 different restaurants, with stand-up paddling, yoga, and a snorkeling trip.€89 PP—MEISSEN: HOTEL ON THE ELBE WITH CASTLE VIEWS
2 nights including breakfast in the restaurant’s winter garden. Views of the cathedral and the Albrechtsburg, Germany’s oldest castle building built in 1471.€149 PP—3 DAYS IN THE BLACK FOREST WITH 6-COURSE DINNERS, SAVE 57%
Great for hiking or cycling. Many trails start right outside the hotel, including the Baiersbronn Seensteig with its waterfalls and glacial cirque lakes. The offer includes e-bike rental and half board.FROM €309 PP—ROME, 4 DAYS, WITH FLIGHTS
Cappuccino and breakfast with a view: the 4-star hotel’s breakfast restaurant and rooftop terrace look out over St. Peter’s Basilica. Twenty minutes’ walk to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.

Offers have limited inventory and are subject to availability.

Are you a travel enthusiast? Join the club today: https://travelzoo.com

Who are we?
We, Travelzoo®, are the club for travel enthusiasts. We reach 30 million travelers. Club Members receive Club Offers negotiated and rigorously vetted by our deal experts around the globe. Our relationships with thousands of top travel companies give us access to irresistible deals. Our club and its benefits are built around the lifestyle of a modern travel enthusiast.

Travelzoo
Unter den Linden 40
10117 Berlin

Media Contact: 
Natalia Cwierz – Berlin
+49 30 311 975 20
ncwierz@travelzoo.com

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NEREUS™ Powers Forward: Sponsors No. 47 IndyCar Entry, Celebrating 47 Years Since Last New U.S. Motion Sickness Treatment

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WASHINGTON, July 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Vanda) (Nasdaq: VNDA) today announced that NEREUS™ (tradipitant), the first new prescription medication approved for prevention of vomiting induced by motion in 47 years, will sponsor the No. 47 entry in the NTT IndyCar Series with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

The partnership aligns NEREUS’™ breakthrough innovation in motion relief with the high-speed world of IndyCar racing, where focus and stability are essential.

This sponsorship marks a symbolic milestone: 47 years since the last new motion sickness treatment was introduced in the United States. NEREUS™ represents a modern advancement as a selective NK-1 receptor antagonist designed to prevent vomiting induced by motion, offering a new option for millions who experience motion sickness during travel.

“Partnering with the No. 47 car perfectly captures this historic moment and our shared commitment to performance under challenging conditions,” said Mihael H. Polymeropoulos, M.D., President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Vanda. 

The NEREUS™-branded No. 47 IndyCar will feature prominent sponsorship visibility across select NTT IndyCar Series events in 2026.

About NEREUS™ (tradipitant)

NEREUS™ is an oral NK-1 receptor antagonist FDA-approved for the prevention of vomiting induced by motion in adults. It is the first new pharmacologic treatment approved for this indication in over four decades.

About Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Vanda is a leading global biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies to address high unmet medical needs and improve the lives of patients. For more on Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., please visit www.vandapharma.com and follow us on X @vandapharma.

About Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is a championship-winning team competing in the NTT IndyCar Series.

Corporate Contact:
Kevin Moran
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.
202-734-3400
pr@vandapharma.com 

Jim Golden / Jack Kelleher / Dan Moore
Collected Strategies
VANDA-CS@collectedstrategies.com

Follow us on X @vandapharma

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