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NEXTGEN launches Connect to Empower Technology Start-Ups and ISV Vendors in Australia and New Zealand.

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Wendy O’Keeffe returns to Australia to lead NEXTGEN’s newest initiative.

Introducing NEXTGEN Connect – an incubation and distribution hub for innovative technology in ANZ. With a more agile go-to-market strategy, Connect accelerates time to market and drives faster ROI for tech start-ups and cloud vendors.

SYDNEY, Oct. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — NEXTGEN, an Exclusive Networks company, is excited to announce the latest innovation from NEXTGEN and officially launch Connect across Australia and New Zealand. This new business initiative is dedicated to providing comprehensive support for technology start-ups and modern cloud vendors, focusing on growth and scalability in an ever-evolving digital landscape. Connect which will be led by one of the industry’s most experienced executives, Wendy O’Keeffe, who will return to Australia from building and expanding NEXTGEN’s businesses in the ASEAN markets.

Connect aims to bridge the gap between emerging technology providers, end-user clients and partners by offering a unique blend of in-house channel services leveraging NEXTGEN oSpace for pipeline creation, Elastic Digital for brand awareness, NEXTGEN’s AWS practice for cloud marketplace, proactive partner engagement with dedicated Partner development managers, and partner-led professional services. By combining these critical elements, Connect will not only enhance the growth potential of its vendors but also ensure that they can deliver faster paths to revenue.

Wendy O’Keeffe, stated, “This is an extremely exciting initiative and one that I’m very much looking forward to leading. The difficulties of launching and making headway in our market just shouldn’t be allowed to deny customers here timely access to the best technology and this initiative provides a vehicle to simplify this. I’m embracing and leveraging NEXTGEN’s market leadership with the emerging technology market to ensure this continues.”

Marketing, particularly end-user engagement, is positioned at the very heart of the Connect offering, leveraging data driven sales intelligence to identify and target customers, influence their buying journey and deliver sales execution. Compared to the heavy cost impost and uncertainty of traditional market entry strategies, our approach provides superior, scalable alternative for lead generation, sales finalisation and market representation services that reduce risk by linking investment to performance, establishing market viability quickly and cost effectively and generating ROI far faster.

Over the years NEXTGEN has developed relationships with venture capitalists, such as NightDragon and Titanium Ventures. This has enabled NEXTGEN to gain unique expertise and understanding in scaling out lighthouse technologies for start-ups and innovating incumbents, helping market challengers become leaders, and enabling leaders to keep challenging their competitors. In addition to NEXTGEN Distribution, NEXTGEN Connect will allow another option and route to market to support the tsunami of SaaS vendors coming out of the technology “Valleys” of the world.

Significantly, the Connect initiative comes just 6 months after NEXTGEN’s acquisition by cybersecurity solutions specialist Exclusive Networks, where the scale, resources, and delivery of a single global organization are propagating and accelerating a well-established culture of innovation.

In summary, NEXTGEN CEO, John Walters, stated, “This is an exciting time, as within 6 months of our acquisition, we are announcing the launch of another NEXTGEN innovation for the channel. NEXTGEN has been at the forefront of bringing next generation technologies DownUnder. Our leading relationship with venture capitalists and the AWS marketplace needed a fresh solution to increase the support for emerging technologies, ISVs, and start-ups. Leadership is critical, and as Wendy’s role in ASEAN comes to a close, this is the perfect opportunity for her to lead our next significant initiative and develop a new channel model.”

About NEXTGEN “An Exclusive Networks Company”

NEXTGEN is a pioneering technology services provider that makes it easy for technology partners to do business with international vendors on complex and ever-changing product suites through the active management of a portfolio of established and emerging technology vendors, coupled with innovative and unique services across cybersecurity, cloud, enterprise software and data management solutions. Acquired by Exclusive Networks, the global cybersecurity specialist with the ability to serve customers in over 170 countries, NEXTGEN’s specialist knowledge, technology platforms and services are now combined with the scale and delivery of a single global organization, enabling more partners and vendors to stay relevant and remain ahead in this dynamic IT environment. Visit https://nextgen.group

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SOURCE NEXTGEN Distribution Pty Ltd

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FULTON FINANCIAL CORPORATION APPOINTS DAVID S. SCHULZ TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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LANCASTER, Pa., July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fulton Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: FULT) (“Fulton”) today announced the appointment of David S. Schulz as a member of its board of directors (the “Board”) for a term commencing September 14, 2026 and expiring at Fulton’s 2027 annual meeting of shareholders.

“We’re excited to welcome Dave to Fulton’s board of directors,” said Curt Myers, Fulton Chairman, CEO, and President. “Dave brings extensive financial leadership experience gained through more than a decade of service with publicly traded companies. His expertise in finance, strategic planning, risk, and mergers and acquisitions will provide valuable perspective as we continue to execute our growth strategy and create long-term value for our shareholders, customers and communities.”

With the addition of Schulz, Fulton’s Board will have 11 members, and he will serve on the Audit and Risk committees. Schulz has also been appointed to the board of directors of Fulton’s banking subsidiary, Fulton Bank, N.A.

Schulz served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Wesco International, Inc. (“Wesco”) from 2016 to June 2020, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Wesco from June 2020 to February 2026 and as Executive Vice President and Special Advisor to the CEO of Wesco from February 2026 until his retirement on May 31, 2026. 

Prior to joining Wesco, Schulz served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Armstrong Flooring, Inc. and was previously Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Armstrong World Industries, Inc. and Vice President of Finance of the Armstrong Building Products division.

Before joining Armstrong World Industries in 2011, he held various financial leadership roles with Procter & Gamble and The J.M. Smucker Company. He was also an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

In 2025, Schulz joined the board of Sterling Infrastructure, Inc., and he was appointed as chair of the audit committee in 2026. He also serves on the company’s compensation and talent development committee.

ABOUT FULTON FINANCIAL CORPORATION

Fulton, a $34 billion Lancaster, Pa.-based financial holding company, has more than 3,400 employees and operates more than 215 financial centers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia through Fulton Bank, N.A. Additional information on Fulton can be found at https://investor.fultonbank.com.

Contact: Steve Trapnell
717-291-2739

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SOURCE Fulton Financial Corporation

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Octavio Marquez Elected to MSA Safety Board of Directors

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PITTSBURGH, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Board of Directors of MSA Safety Inc. (NYSE: MSA), a global leader in the development of advanced industrial safety technology products and solutions, today announced that Octavio Marquez, president and chief executive officer of Diebold Nixdorf, has been elected to the company’s Board of Directors. His election was part of the MSA Board’s regular succession plans.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to add Octavio to the MSA Board,” said Robert A. Bruggeworth, MSA chairman. “He brings a broad range of executive leadership experience, including strategy development, capital allocation, business transformation and serving international markets, which will serve MSA well.”

“Octavio’s perspectives will be an asset to me and our entire Executive Leadership Team,” said Steven C. Blanco, MSA president and CEO. “It is a pleasure to welcome Octavio to MSA, and I look forward to working with him.”

Mr. Marquez joined Diebold Nixdorf in 2014 and has held senior leadership roles across the company’s Global Banking organization and its Americas region, including as executive vice president of Global Banking and senior vice president of the Americas. Before joining Diebold Nixdorf, Mr. Marquez held leadership positions at Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and NCR.

Diebold Nixdorf automates, digitizes and transforms the way people bank and shop. As a partner to the majority of the world’s top 100 financial institutions and top 25 global retailers, its integrated solutions connect digital and physical channels conveniently, securely and efficiently for millions of customers every day. Headquartered in North Canton, Ohio, Diebold Nixdorf employs approximately 20,000 employees globally, supporting more than 100 countries.

Mr. Marquez holds a degree in business and finance from Universidad Iberoamericana and has completed executive education programs at MIT Sloan, The Wharton School and The University of Texas at Austin.

About MSA Safety

MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE: MSA) is the global leader in advanced industrial safety technology products and solutions. Driven by its singular mission of safety, the company has been at the forefront of safety innovation since 1914, protecting workers and facility infrastructure around the world across a broad range of diverse end markets while creating sustainable value for shareholders. With 2025 revenues of $1.9 billion, MSA Safety is headquartered in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, and employs a team of approximately 5,300 associates across its more than 40 international locations. For more information, please visit www.MSASafety.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/octavio-marquez-elected-to-msa-safety-board-of-directors-302831265.html

SOURCE MSA Safety

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BlueFolder Field Service Software Launches New AI-Powered Features to Transform How Teams Work

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New AI capabilities instantly surface customer insights and transform technician notes into actionable summaries to help field service teams work faster, stay aligned, and deliver better service

AUBURN, Ala., July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — BlueFolder field service software recently announced the launch of two powerful new AI features: AI-Powered Customer Summaries and AI-Powered Field Notes Summarization. Together, these capabilities are designed to eliminate the time-consuming, manual work of reviewing fragmented customer records and lengthy technician notes—giving field service teams instant clarity to respond faster, make smarter decisions, and deliver exceptional service.

BlueFolder expands it’s field service and work order management suite with two exciting new AI field service features.

Built directly into the BlueFolder platform, both features leverage artificial intelligence to automatically compile and summarize complex, unstructured data into clear, easy-to-read overviews. The result: technicians, dispatchers, and managers always have the context they need, right when they need it.

AI-Powered Customer Summaries

As field service organizations grow, customer information becomes increasingly scattered across emails, service request logs, and communication histories. BlueFolder’s AI Customer Summary feature addresses this challenge head-on by consolidating those interactions into a single, actionable snapshot.

Instead of manually digging through multiple records before a service call or customer interaction, teams can now access a real-time summary highlighting key concerns, past service activity, and recent updates. The feature goes beyond basic summarization and surfaces critical business insights such as equipment past due for maintenance, approaching warranty expirations, and proactive revenue opportunities, empowering teams to recommend follow-ups or upgrades directly from the customer record.

Built-in traceability links each summary back to its original source communications, so users can validate insights with confidence, ensuring both speed and accuracy in every customer interaction.

AI-Powered Field Notes Summarization

In many service organizations, technicians log updates across multiple visits, often resulting in long, fragmented notes that are difficult to review at a glance. BlueFolder’s AI Field Notes Summarization feature solves this by automatically condensing multiple technician entries into a structured summary that highlights key milestones, actions taken, and next steps.

Rather than scrolling through pages of updates, managers and dispatchers can immediately understand job status and determine what needs to happen next, improving alignment between field and office teams, accelerating decision-making, and reducing miscommunication. The feature is especially valuable for complex or multi-day jobs, where clear continuity and smooth technician handoffs are critical to delivering consistent service. It’s another featuring making BlueFolder’s work order management software capabilities stronger every day.

“History is one of the most powerful tools a service team has — the problem is it’s usually buried. BlueFolder’s new AI features fix that. Your team walks into every interaction already knowing the customer, knowing the equipment, and exactly where things stand. That changes the entire experience,” says John Shaw, VP, Technology, Service Operations.

AI as a Core Part of the BlueFolder Platform

The launch of these two features reflects BlueFolder’s broader commitment to embedding AI throughout its field service management software as an integrated layer of intelligence that makes every workflow smarter. Rather than requiring teams to change how they work, BlueFolder’s AI capabilities are designed to surface the right information at the right moment automatically, within the tools that technicians, dispatchers, and managers already use every day.

“AI is transforming what’s possible in field service, and BlueFolder is answering that call. These features are the result of deep platform expertise and a clear vision for where the industry is headed. We’re embedding intelligence throughout the platform because we know it makes our customers more competitive, more efficient, and better positioned to grow,” says Stephen Myslicki, Group President of Field Services.

Availability

Both AI-Powered Customer Summaries and AI-Powered Field Notes Summarization are available now to BlueFolder customers as optional, easy-to-enable features within the platform. They are part of BlueFolder’s growing suite of AI-driven capabilities designed to help field service organizations operate more efficiently and scale with confidence.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bluefolder-field-service-software-launches-new-ai-powered-features-to-transform-how-teams-work-302831320.html

SOURCE BlueFolder

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