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Insurance, Cybersecurity, and Computer Science Leaders Join AIQA Global Advisory Board

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AIQA Names Inaugural Advisors as Independent Assurance Moves into Enterprise AI Governance

CHICAGO, Aug. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — AIQA Global, LLC today announced the formation of its inaugural Advisory Board, bringing together leaders in corporate risk, cybersecurity, computer science, enterprise compliance, and entrepreneurship to support the continued development and market adoption of the AIQ™ Score — a 0–200 evidence-based assessment of enterprise AI governance quality across 250 factors — and AIQA’s broader analytics and assurance services.

The Advisory Board is being announced as enterprises increasingly confront the operational, regulatory, cybersecurity, and fiduciary implications of AI deployment, and as institutional buyers, insurers, and regulators look beyond self-reported governance claims toward independent evaluation.

“Enterprise AI adoption has advanced much faster than enterprise AI governance,” said James E. Malackowski, Co-founder and Chairman of AIQA Global. “Self-attestation is not governance. The institutions deploying AI at scale require independent, evidence-based frameworks evaluated with the same rigor historically applied to financial controls, cybersecurity, and operational risk. This Advisory Board reflects the interdisciplinary expertise necessary to help build that infrastructure.”

The composition of the Advisory Board reflects the Chicago Principles for Independent AI Assurance — a framework AIQA introduced earlier this year setting out that AI assurance must be Independent, Measurable, Auditable, Comparable, Continuously Updated, and Accountable. The founding advisors are:

The first advisors are:

Jon Held, Chairman of J.S. Held LLC, a global consulting firm that brings technical, scientific, financial and strategic expertise to serve the insurance, legal and corporate markets.  Clients include 70% of the Forbes Top 20 Insurance Companies, 81% of the Global 200 Law Firms, and 65% of the Fortune 100 Companies.  

The AIQ score’s 250 factors need the same scrutiny J.S Held experts apply to high-stakes technical assessments.  As a member of the AIQA Global Board of Advisors, Jon will help refine the framework to validate that it holds under real-world scenarios.             

Mike Hrabik, Chief Executive Officer, SecureSky cybersecurity and compliance. He founded SecureSky, Inc. in 2018 and previously served as Global CTO and Americas Regional CEO of NTT Security. As co-founder and President of Solutionary, acquired by NTT in 2013, Mike was principal architect of the company’s patented ActiveGuard® technology and its Security Operations Centers. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Hrabik shares that “SecureSky safeguards client environments and data by implementing robust technical controls that govern AI usage and defend against modern threats. AIQA’s evidence-based standard is the only framework that focuses on verifiable proof of effective AI governance, deployment, and use.” 

Michael Mitzenmacher, Thomas J. Watson Sr. Professor of Computer Science, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Algorithms and computer science. Michael has been on the Harvard faculty since 1999 and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. An ACM Fellow and author of more than 250 conference and journal publications, he received the 2002 IEEE Information Theory Society Best Paper Award and the 2009 ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Award, and co-authored a standard textbook on randomized algorithms and probabilistic techniques. His recent work includes large language model systems.

“My work is the design and analysis of algorithms, and when I see a scoring method I want to examine and understand it; what is being measured, what basis underlies it, and how are its components put together and weighted. AIQA has been willing to openly describe its methodology, which is why I agreed to advise.  If companies cannot interrogate and understand their rating, they will not have the means to improve,” Mitzenmacher adds. 

Albert D. Napoli, an award-winning instructor, Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Southern California Entrepreneurship and company building. He has taught entrepreneurship and family-business strategy for more than a decade at the oldest university entrepreneurship program in the United States. Albert advises AIQA on building a category-defining company and the market infrastructure required to establish independent AI governance measurement at scale. He partners with CEOs and executive teams on growth, value creation, and leadership transition. He holds a B.S. in business economics and finance, an MBA, and an Ed.D., all from USC.

Each advisor was selected based on their ability to help AIQA engage the institutional constituencies most consequential to the long-term development of AI governance standards — insurers, enterprise risk officers, regulators, compliance professionals, academic institutions, and corporate boards.

“We are not announcing this board because of the news,” said Chase Malackowski, Co-founder and Head of Product for AIQA Global. “We are announcing it because the news keeps making the same point in the few weeks, AI models under test escaped their sandbox and broke into a live company’s systems. The largest open-weight model ever built was published for anyone to download and run privately. And the chief executive of OpenAI said we are now in the singularity. Ask most enterprises how they govern AI and you get a policy document. A policy document would not have caught any of this. Boards need a score they can check and compare.”

As enterprise AI adoption accelerates, AIQA believes independent governance assurance will increasingly become part of procurement review, insurance underwriting, financing diligence, regulatory examination, and board-level fiduciary oversight.

Separately, AIQA Global announced that Founder and Chairman James E. Malackowski has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Generative AI for Value Creation Program at Webber International University, where he will advise on both for-credit and non-credit curriculum. Most working professionals still learn AI governance on the job. AIQA views university instruction as part of the same problem the AIQ™ Score addresses: a shared standard only works if the people applying it are trained to it.

About AIQA Global

AIQA Global, LLC is the first independent AI governance rating firm, providing enterprises, investors, insurers, and boards with a standardized, quantitative measure of AI governance quality. The company’s AIQ™ score quantifies enterprise AI governance quality across 250 data points and five dimensions. AIQAglobal.com

AIQ™ scores are based on disclosed and verified data and represent AIQA Global’s independent assessment of AI governance quality. Scores do not constitute regulatory compliance, legal advice, or investment advice. No assurance is provided regarding future performance, risk outcomes, or insurance eligibility. AIQ™ and AIQ™ score are trademarks of AIQA Global, LLC. Copyright 2026 AIQA Global, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Graco® SnugRide® Turn & Slide™ Brings Unique Turn-and-Slide Innovation to Families

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Graco’s first-ever rotating infant car seat goes beyond turning alone, sliding baby closer to help make getting in and out of the car easier.

Turn & Slide goes beyond rotation alone, turning 180° toward the caregiver and gliding smoothly on and off the base to bring baby closer.Designed for growing families, the car seat helps reduce reaching, lifting and maneuvering while preserving neighboring seat-space.Available now for $349.99 at GracoBaby.com, Amazon and Babylist.

ATLANTA, Nov. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Graco® today announced the availability of its SnugRide® Turn & Slide Rotating Infant Car Seat, designed to make one of the most repeated parts of caring for a baby easier: getting baby in and out of the car. As Graco’s first-ever rotating infant car seat, Turn & Slide combines a 180° rotation with a unique sliding motion that brings baby closer to the caregiver.

From the first ride home to daycare drop-offs, doctor appointments and family outings, parents are constantly on the move. SnugRide Turn & Slide was designed to make those moments easier, helping reduce the physical effort of the in and out transitions so caregivers can spend more time focused on their baby and the moments that matter.

“At Graco, we’re always looking for ways to make parenting easier,” said Kerry Strzelecki, Vice President of Brand Management at Graco. “Turn & Slide was designed with that goal in mind, going beyond rotation to bring baby closer to the caregiver. We’re proud to offer families an innovation that takes some of the effort out of getting on the go, giving parents more time to focus on the moments that matter.”

Going Beyond Rotation
Beyond its unique turn-and-slide design, SnugRide Turn & Slide is engineered to rotate without blocking the neighboring seat, helping preserve second-row space and support three-across seating in many vehicles. This gives growing families more flexibility, especially when traveling with multiple children.

Additional features include:

Lightweight Portability: The lightweight carrier is designed to make moving baby between the car, stroller and home easier.Simple, Secure Installation: SnugLock® Technology enables installation in less than one minute using the vehicle seat belt or LATCH, while the InRight™ LATCH system provides a one-second, click-secure attachment.Adjusts as Baby Grows: The No-Rethread Simply Safe Adjust™ Harness System allows the headrest and harness to adjust together as baby grows, while the 4-position adjustable base with bubble level helps support proper installation.

Backed by Graco’s Commitment to Safety
For more than 65 years, Graco has been committed to providing families with products built around safety and quality. SnugRide Turn & Slide is Graco® ProtectPlus Engineered™, undergoing rigorous frontal, side, rear and rollover crash testing. The seat also features an integrated Anti-Rebound Bar and PureProtect™ fabrics that are fire-resistant without added chemicals.

Following the voluntary recall of select SnugRide Turn & Slide infant car seats earlier this year, Graco implemented engineering updates and completed additional testing and validation to address the issue before bringing the product to market.

Available Today
The SnugRide Turn & Slide Rotating Infant Car Seat (MSRP $349.99) is available at GracoBaby.com, Amazon and Babylist in Noir, Mulberry and Sandstone colorways.

Turn & Slide will also be available as part of a travel system with the Modes™ Nest Stroller beginning in December 2026 for an MSRP of $674.99.

For more information about Graco and the SnugRide Turn & Slide Rotating Infant Car Seat, visit www.gracobaby.com and follow along on social at: @graco on Instagram and Facebook, and @gracochildrensproducts on TikTok.

About Graco
Graco is one of the most recognized children’s products brands that provides innovative and reliable solutions to help parents make smart choices while taking care of their little ones. For more than 65 years, Graco has built high-quality products that parents can trust, including car seats, strollers, travel systems, swings, highchairs, playards and nursery care essentials. Graco is part of Newell Brands Inc., a leading global consumer products company, with its products available globally through a variety of retail partners.

About Newell Brands
Newell Brands (NASDAQ: NWL) is a leading global consumer goods company with a strong portfolio of well-known brands, including Rubbermaid, Sharpie®, Graco®, Coleman®, Rubbermaid Commercial Products®, Yankee Candle®, Paper Mate®, FoodSaver®, Dymo®, EXPO®, Elmer’s®, Oster®, NUK®, Spontex® and Campingaz®. Newell Brands is focused on delighting consumers by lighting up everyday moments.

This press release and additional information about Newell Brands are available on the company’s website, www.newellbrands.com.

*Based on 2024 Baby Gear Brand Health Tracker Data

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AI Search Is Killing the Click. Breaker Says B2B Growth Must Move Beyond Traffic

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As AI summaries reduce referral search clicks and automated traffic clouds website metrics, Breaker says B2B marketers need to turn increasingly valuable visits into identifiable, ongoing audience relationships.

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Artificial intelligence is weakening a metric B2B marketers have long treated as evidence that content is working: the website visit. Pew Research Center found users clicked traditional search results in 8% of visits containing a Google AI summary, compared with 15% of visits without one. Links inside the AI summaries received clicks in only 1% of visits.

A company can now appear in an AI-generated answer without receiving a visit. Even when someone does click through, the visit alone may reveal little about the visitor’s identity or potential fit as a buyer. “Clicks and traffic that aren’t identifiable to a human are a poor signal,” said Ben Billups, founder and CEO of Breaker.

AI Visibility Does Not Guarantee Demand

Large language models (LLM) are already changing how people discover online content. The Interactive Advertising Bureau found that 95% of publishers it surveyed reported moderate or significant effects from LLM-driven discovery. For marketers, that changes what visibility can tell them. Billups said businesses still need to make themselves discoverable to AI systems, but appearing in an answer does not mean the system is recommending them.

An AI response may mention several companies, compare pricing or social proof, or surface an advantage held by a competitor. That makes the value of an AI-driven referral difficult to interpret. “We don’t have visibility into the chat that led to the traffic, so there’s no way to know definitively what context AI is putting your company into,” Billups said.

AI discovery can also be less predictable than traditional search. “As AI becomes more dominant, it’s more important to be discoverable and to have positive sentiment online, but reach is less deterministic,” Billups said. “What AI thinks is relevant to one user, it may not think is relevant for another.”

Anonymous Traffic Is a Weaker Signal

Traffic volume presents a separate measurement problem because a growing share of web activity is automated. Statista reported that bots generated 53% of global web traffic in 2025. For marketers, that makes a visit less useful as a signal unless they can determine who or what produced it.

For B2B companies, actions that help establish visitor identity can provide more information about actual buyer interest. Newsletter subscriptions, resource downloads, forms, and demo requests can help marketers distinguish potential buyers from bots and determine whether a contact matches the company’s ideal customer profile (ICP).

Billups uses a hypothetical example to illustrate the difference. “Let’s say that 50% of your traffic is bots, 50% is human, and 20% of the human traffic is actually in your ICP,” he said. “Versus with a newsletter, you can know in advance that 100% of the traffic is in your ICP and human.”

Post-Search Growth Starts With What Happens Next

Clicks still matter, but Billups says marketers should pay closer attention to what visitors encounter after arriving. What matters next is if that visit gives the business a way to identify a potential buyer and continue the conversation. “We still need clicks, but particularly in B2B, it’s the messaging that tells someone if they’re a good fit for your product,” Billups said.

Once someone subscribes to a newsletter, however, the interaction is longer than the visit. Once someone subscribes, the company can identify them, continue communicating over time, and nurture if they fit its ICP. That continuity is key in B2B, where a purchase decision may be months away. “Relationships are built on time, trust, and communication,” Billups said. “Simply knowing about a business or product is not enough.”

About Breaker    
Breaker is the only email platform that sends your newsletter and grows your list with high-value B2B prospects—on autopilot. Powered by advanced targeting, AI enrichment, and proprietary deliverability systems, Breaker ensures every email reaches the inbox while generating verified, sales-ready subscribers for as little as $1.50 each. Seamless CRM integrations, white-glove migration, and built-in analytics make it easy for marketers to scale outreach and convert engagement into pipeline. Built by marketers, for marketers. For more information, visit joinbreaker.ai.

References 

Gaudiaut, T. (2026, May 26). Bad bots are taking over the web. Statista. statista.com/chart/35950/share-of-global-web-traffic-generated-by-humans-and-bots-since-2018/Interactive Advertising Bureau. (2026, July 16). The AI discovery shift: How publishers are navigating the new search and discovery landscape. iab.com/insights/ai-insights-engine-july-2026/Chapekis, A., & Lieb, A. (2025, July 22). Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results. Pew Research Center. pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/

Media Inquiries:
Karla Jo Helms
JOTO PR™ 
727-777-4629

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Byzfunder to Participate Alongside Leading Fintech Executives and Investors at Exclusive 2026 KBW Fintech Ecosystem Conference

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The invitation-only gathering brings together influential voices shaping the future of financial services.

NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Byzfunder, a leading technology-driven provider of small business financing, today announced its participation in the 2026 KBW Fintech Ecosystem Conference, taking place November 10–12 at Convene 30 Hudson Yards in New York City.

The conference will feature executives from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal and Capital One, alongside participants from across the financial technology and investment communities.

Byzfunder’s participation underscores the company’s expanding presence within the financial technology industry and its continued investment in artificial intelligence, proprietary underwriting technology, risk analytics, and scalable financing infrastructure.

Led by CEO Ilya Fridman, Byzfunder has developed an integrated technology platform designed to transform small business financing through intelligent automation, advanced credit decisioning, and data-driven risk management.

“The financial services industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation, driven by artificial intelligence, automation, and increasingly sophisticated data analytics,” said Ilya Fridman, Chief Executive Officer of Byzfunder. “The KBW Fintech Ecosystem Conference brings together an exceptional group of industry leaders and institutional investors who are helping shape that transformation. We look forward to exchanging ideas and exploring opportunities as we continue building the next generation of technology-driven small business financing.”

Byzfunder’s ongoing investment in financial technology and institutional-grade risk management reflects its long-term strategy of combining innovation with disciplined, scalable growth.

About Byzfunder

Byzfunder is a leading financial technology company providing innovative working capital solutions to small and medium-sized businesses nationwide. Combining approximately two decades of industry experience with proprietary technology, artificial intelligence, advanced risk analytics, and automated underwriting capabilities, Byzfunder has developed a scalable financing platform designed to deliver efficient access to capital.

For more information, visit byzfunder.com.

Media Contact

Xin Hamilton, CMO

press@byzfunder.com

byzfunder.com

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