Connect with us

Technology

HKU and Getech Launch Industrial AI Joint Laboratory to Advance AI Innovation Through Industry-Academia Collaboration

Published

on

HONG KONG, April 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Getech Technology, a leading industrial AI solutions provider under TCL Industries, signed an agreement on April 16, 2025, to establish the HKU-Getech Industrial AI Joint Laboratory. Under the agreement, Getech will invest tens of millions of Hong Kong Dollars over the next five years to fund the lab’s operations, focusing on industrial AI innovation and real-world applications. As part of the collaboration, HKU’s Vice-President (Research) Professor Zuo-Jun (Max) Shen has been appointed as Getech’s Honorary Chief Scientist and will provide strategic R&D guidance and advice. The signing ceremony, held at the HKU campus, was attended by HKU President Professor Xiang Zhang and TCL Founder and Chairman Dongsheng Li, both of whom delivered keynote addresses at the event. Other attendees included Prof. Shen, Associate Vice-President (Research and Innovation), Professor Stephanie Kwai Yee Ma, as well as TCL Industries Vice President and Getech CEO Jun He.

The collaboration will draw on HKU’s research expertise and advanced capabilities in AI to accelerate the development of commercially viable, high-quality industrial AI technologies. The partnership aims to support the commercialization of academic research outcomes and foster growth in the industrial AI sector. Jointly managed by both parties, with Professor Shen serving as Director, the lab will focus on research into innovation and real-world applications of industrial AI, including optimization engines for supply chain operations; AMHS intelligent material handling and scheduling systems; the deployment of AI agents and hyper-automation; and the development of large language models (LLMs) and industrial big data platforms. The initial project, currently in the planning stage, will involve the development of an intelligent AMHS handling and scheduling system. HKU’s research team will collaborate with Getech Technology’s AMHS engineers to advance AI algorithms capable of managing over 1,000 overhead hoist transports (OHTs), with the goal of enhancing the performance of intelligent equipment. The planned research efforts align with Getech Technology’s vision of empowering smarter industries, while also underscoring HKU’s commitment to enhancing its competitiveness in the AI sector.

In his opening remarks, Prof. Zhang expressed his optimism about the partnership, “The formal agreement with TCL marks the official launch of our collaborative efforts in AI, with particular emphasis on industrial applications. HKU has made significant strides in foundational research across disciplines, backed by a cohort of distinguished researchers. We are now committed to translating these academic results into practical industrial applications and commercialization with the aim of advancing industrial development through new and emerging technologies.”

LI Dongsheng, Founder and Chairman of TCL, expressed strong support for the collaboration. He commented, “AI is a strategic priority for TCL. In 2024 alone, our AI initiatives delivered a measurable financial impact of 540 million yuan. The establishment of the lab led by Prof. Shen represents a milestone in TCL’s AI strategic roadmap.”

During the project briefing session, Mr. He outlined the lab’s framework and key initiatives planned for Phase 1. He said, “Getech is aligned with the Hong Kong government’s development roadmap by establishing our R&D center here to accelerate innovation in industrial AI. This initiative aims to position Hong Kong as a new international hub for supply chain management with the mission of driving intelligent transformation across both Chinese and global manufacturing sectors. In addition, the partnership lays the groundwork for the continued integration of industrial resources as we pursue smart manufacturing opportunities worldwide.”

In his concluding remarks, Prof. Shen, widely recognized as a leading researcher in his field, stated, “The HKU-TCL partnership represents a seminal advancement in AI, particularly for industrial applications. As AI emerges as the defining technological paradigm, HKU has remained at the forefront through initiatives such as establishing the School of Computing and Data Science to pioneer cutting-edge research. Our vision extends beyond foundational research to cross-disciplinary AI integration with global educational impact. Under Mr. Li’s leadership, TCL has consistently demonstrated its role as a ‘Technology Change Leader’ through sustained innovation. The collaboration will combine HKU’s academic excellence with TCL’s industrial expertise to create a laboratory with global impact that will drive progress in manufacturing and supply chains worldwide. As the lab’s director, I will work closely with TCL while engaging HKU faculty, students, and investors to collectively shape the future of industrial AI.”

Since the early stages of this AI wave, the Hong Kong government has demonstrated forward-looking leadership. The Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint published in 2022 identified AI as a priority sector, establishing strategic directives and action plans to strengthen the local AI ecosystem. Building on this vision, the 2025/2026 Budget proposed a HK$1 billion allocation to establish the Hong Kong AI Research Institute and approved five flagship projects led by local universities and research organizations to accelerate the development of several LLMs.

With the establishment of the joint lab, HKU will leverage its business partners’ real-world operational environments and R&D funding to sharpen its focus on addressing industrial needs and challenges through new technologies and applied research. Capitalizing on Hong Kong’s strategic position as a hub in Southeast Asia, the lab’s “technology R&D – scenario testing – global deployment” model will provide Southeast Asian manufacturers with replicable intelligent transformation pathways. Furthermore, Hong Kong’s international talent pool will enhance the lab’s capabilities in implementing depth-focused projects. These initiatives are expected to generate a substantial number of research roles for Hong Kong and neighboring areas, bringing together leading researchers and R&D engineers to build a strong industrial AI talent pipeline and reinforce the foundational ecosystem for AI-driven industrial transformation.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/hku-and-getech-launch-industrial-ai-joint-laboratory-to-advance-ai-innovation-through-industry-academia-collaboration-302432305.html

SOURCE Getech Technology Co., Ltd

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Global AI Leader and Enterprise Transformation Visionary Zeya Ottomone Appointed Chief Executive Officer of Integrow

Published

on

By

Author of Empowered to Execute in the Agentic Era to Lead Next Generation of AI-Powered Enterprise Innovation

ATLANTA, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Integrow announced the appointment of Zeya Ottomone as Chief Executive Officer, marking a significant milestone in the company’s evolution as it accelerates its vision to become a global leader in Agentic AI-powered enterprise software and business transformation.

Integrow announced the appointment of Zeya Ottomone as Chief Executive Officer, marking a significant milestone in the company’s evolution as it accelerates its vision to become a global leader in Agentic AI-powered enterprise software and business transformation.

With more than three decades of executive leadership spanning Fortune 500 enterprises, global technology organizations, and enterprise software innovation, Ottomone joins Integrow at a defining moment in the evolution of artificial intelligence.

Widely recognized for helping organizations modernize operations, simplify complex business ecosystems, and deliver measurable transformation outcomes, Ottomone has led some of the industry’s largest enterprise modernization initiatives across ERP, CRM, workforce management, cloud computing, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and intelligent automation. His appointment signals Integrow’s commitment to redefining how enterprises execute strategy in the era of autonomous AI.

“Artificial Intelligence is no longer about automation alone, it’s about empowering organizations to execute faster, make smarter decisions, and fundamentally rethink how work gets done,” said Zeya Ottomone, Chief Executive Officer of Integrow. “We’re entering the Agentic Era, where intelligent AI agents become trusted digital teammates capable of planning, reasoning, collaborating and executing alongside people. At Integrow, we’re building the enterprise platform that makes that future practical, secure and measurable for every organization.”

Ottomone is internationally recognized as a leader in enterprise technology, SaaS transformation, digital modernization and AI-enabled business strategy. Throughout his career he has held executive leadership and C-level positions with ABB, Honeywell, AmerisourceBergen, Cable & Wireless, Chicago Tribune and Rimini Street, leading global organizations through large-scale transformation initiatives across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. His expertise spans enterprise applications, Salesforce ecosystems, ServiceNow, ERP modernization, customer experience, intelligent operations, data strategy, and the emerging field of Agentic AI.

Before joining Integrow, Ottomone led global SaaS Centers of Excellence focused on enterprise transformation, helping organizations modernize critical business operations while reducing technology complexity and accelerating innovation. A certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and recognized executive advisor, Ottomone has consistently delivered operational excellence by combining strategic leadership with emerging technologies to create sustainable business value.

His appointment also coincides with the upcoming publication of his new book, Empowered to Execute in the Agentic Era, which explores how organizations can bridge the gap between strategy and execution by leveraging AI, empowering people, and building intelligent enterprises capable of continuous innovation. The book reflects many of the same principles that will guide Integrow’s next phase of growth: human-centered AI, intelligent automation, operational excellence, and measurable business outcomes.

Under Ottomone’s leadership, Integrow will accelerate investment across:

Agentic AIEnterprise AI PlatformsIntelligent ERPAI-powered CRMHuman Capital ManagementIT Service ManagementPredictive AnalyticsAutonomous WorkflowsEnterprise CopilotsIndustry-specific AI Solutions

The company’s vision is to deliver a unified enterprise platform where AI is embedded into every business process, enabling organizations to eliminate operational silos, automate decision-making, increase productivity, and create competitive advantage through intelligent execution. “Zeya represents exactly the type of visionary leader required for the next generation of enterprise software,” said Harvey Nicholson, Chair of Corporate Governance and Member of Integrow’s Board of Directors. “His global experience, deep understanding of enterprise technology, and forward-looking vision for Agentic AI position Integrow to become one of the industry’s most innovative AI-powered enterprise software companies.”

Wayne Gadson, Chair of Growth Strategy, added: “The future belongs to organizations that can execute strategy with intelligence, speed and confidence. Zeya has spent his career helping enterprises achieve exactly that. His appointment marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Integrow, our customers and our partners worldwide.” As enterprises face mounting pressure to modernize operations, reduce costs, improve workforce productivity and harness the power of artificial intelligence, Integrow is uniquely positioned to help organizations transform through a single AI-powered enterprise platform that unifies finance, operations, customer engagement, workforce management, projects and service delivery.

“Our mission is simple,” Ottomone concluded. “We don’t believe AI should replace people. We believe AI should elevate people. The organizations that will define the next decade won’t simply adopt AI—they’ll empower every employee to execute better decisions every day. That’s the future Integrow is building.”

About Integrow

Integrow is a global enterprise software company delivering next-generation AI-powered business applications built on Salesforce. The platform unifies ERP, CRM, Human Capital Management, IT Service Management, Project Management, Field Service, Finance and Operations into a single intelligent ecosystem enhanced by Agentic AI.

By embedding artificial intelligence into every workflow, Integrow enables organizations to modernize operations, accelerate innovation, improve decision-making and execute strategy with confidence.

For more information, visit www.integrow.com.

Media Contact

Media Team, Integrow, Inc., 1 855-333-4769, info@integrow.com, www.integrow.com 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prweb.com/releases/global-ai-leader-and-enterprise-transformation-visionary-zeya-ottomone-appointed-chief-executive-officer-of-integrow-302833033.html

SOURCE Integrow, Inc.

Continue Reading

Technology

Lufax Announces Board and Management Changes

Published

on

By

SHANGHAI, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lufax Holding Ltd (“Lufax” or the “Company”) (NYSE: LU and HKEX: 6623), a leading financial services enabler for small business owners in China, today announced changes to its board of directors and senior management, effective July 25, 2026.

Ms. Fangfang Cai (“Ms. Cai”), Mr. Shibang Guo (“Mr. Guo”) and Mr. Peifeng Li (“Mr. Li”) have resigned as non-executive directors of the Company and from their respective positions on the Board’s committees. Mr. Tongzhuan Xi (“Mr. Xi”) has resigned as an executive director, the chief financial officer and the authorised representative of the Company (“Authorised Representative”) under Rule 3.05 of the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (“Hong Kong Listing Rules”), with effect from July 25, 2026. Each of the four directors cited personal work arrangements as the reason for their resignation and confirmed there is no disagreement with the Board and no matter relating to their departure that needs to be brought to shareholders’ attention.

The Company has begun a search for a new chief financial officer. During the transition, the CFO’s duties will be temporarily assumed by the Company’s internal team to ensure continuity of the Company’s financial functions. Mr. Xiang Ji, an executive director and the Company’s chief executive officer, has been appointed as the Authorised Representative, the Company’s designated liaison with the Stock Exchange under the Hong Kong Listing Rules, in place of Mr. Xi, with effect from July 25, 2026.

The Board has appointed Mr. Wai Kin Chim (“Mr. Chim”) as an independent non-executive director for an initial three-year term commencing July 25, 2026.

Mr. Chim, aged 65, has over 40 years of experience in international banking and extensive board experience in Asia Pacific, having worked in Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing. He specializes in risk management and internal control, with a strong emphasis on corporate governance, credit risk, market risk and capital management.

Mr. Chim served as a loan officer at Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong Branch, from October 1985 to August 1988. He was then employed by Bankers Trust Company, Hong Kong Branch, as a vice president of the Asia Credit Department from September 1988 to October 1996. He subsequently served as the managing director and the chief credit officer for Deutsche Bank AG, a company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under ticker symbol DBK, for Asia Pacific (non-Japan Asia), from October 1996 to November 2006. He joined Bank of China Limited, a company listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange under stock code 3988, as the chief credit officer from March 2007 to March 2015.

Mr. Chim was an independent non-executive director of Standard Chartered Bank (China) Limited from October 2015 to October 2017. He served as an independent non-executive director of HDR Global Trading Limited, owner and operator of the BitMEX digital asset trading platform, from February 2021 to February 2022. Mr. Chim served as a non-executive director of China Chengtong Hong Kong Company Limited from July 2022 to June 2025. Mr. Chim is currently an independent non-executive director of OCBC Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, since November 2017; an independent non-executive director of Banco OCBC (Macau), S.A., since August 2023; an independent non-executive director of China Intellogis Technology Co., Ltd., since June 2024; and a director of Hong Kong Dance Company Limited since June 2026.

Mr. Chim obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1983 and an MBA degree from Indiana State University, USA, in 1985. He also graduated from the Senior Executive Program at Columbia University in 2000.

In connection with these changes, with effect from July 25, 2026, Ms. Cai will step down from the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, and Mr. Koon Wing Ernest Ip has been appointed as a member to that committee. The Company’s Special Committee will comprise Mr. Dicky Peter Yip, Mr. Koon Wing Ernest Ip and Mr. Siu Hong Cheng, continuing under the chairmanship of Mr. Dicky Peter Yip, with effect from July 25, 2026.

The Board would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Cai, Mr. Guo, Mr. Li and Mr. Xi for their service during the tenure of their office and warmly welcome Mr. Chim to the Board.

About Lufax

Lufax is a leading financial services enabler for small business owners in China. The Company offers financing products designed principally to address the needs of small business owners. In doing so, the Company has established relationships with 85 financial institutions in China as funding partners, many of which have worked with the Company for over three years.

Investor Relations Contact

Lufax Holding Ltd
Email: Investor_Relations@lu.com

ICR, LLC
Robin Yang
Tel: +1 (646) 308-0546
Email: lufax.ir@icrinc.com

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lufax-announces-board-and-management-changes-302834065.html

SOURCE Lufax Holding Ltd

Continue Reading

Technology

UMD Smith School Researchers Warn AI Security Lapses Highlight Urgent Need for Independent Oversight

Published

on

By

COLLEGE PARK, Md., July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A series of recent AI security lapses—including the OpenAI–Hugging Face breach—raises a fundamental question, say a pair of researchers at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business: Can tech companies safely govern the powerful AI systems they build, or is stronger outside oversight now essential?

In its incident report, OpenAI confirmed that one of its experimental AI agents exploited a weakness in its testing environment while working on a routine benchmark task. The system wasn’t instructed to behave maliciously; instead, its persistence turned a small design flaw into a real escape. Earlier tests showed similar behavior, including agents that learned to bypass security checks by manipulating authentication tokens.

This pattern echoes findings from Dean’s Professor of Information Systems Siva Viswanathan at the Smith School, who studies how large technology platforms enforce rules. His research on mobile app privacy—published in Management Science—examined Google’s rollout of Android 6.0, which gave users more control over what data apps could collect. Developers were granted a flexible window to update their apps. Many used that flexibility to delay compliance for months, continuing to gather user data until Google imposed consequences such as lower search rankings and reduced visibility in its app store.

Viswanathan’s takeaway: when companies rely on voluntary compliance, self‑interested actors often exploit the slack. Real accountability requires pairing flexibility with firm, enforceable penalties.

That lesson now reverberates across the AI sector. As companies race to build increasingly capable systems, Viswanathan says oversight must treat these AI systems as strategic actors and must include strong safeguards that can pause or reverse a system before harm occurs.

He notes that a separate study from Anthropic underscores the stakes. In controlled tests, even an AI system designed to monitor another AI inherited the same flaws it was supposed to catch. In some cases, the “judge” model failed to flag clear sabotage because it agreed with the agent’s goals, allowing dangerous behavior to pass without human review.

Balaji Padmanabhan, Dean’s Professor of Decisions, Operations and Information Technologies and director of the Smith School’s Center for Artificial Intelligence in Business, extends Viswanathan’s governance argument into the realm of autonomous AI agents, warning that the same structural weaknesses now carry far higher stakes.

“The fact that this breach occurred organically without the AI agent being asked to be malicious is itself notable. Imagine what someone who actually intends to do harm can do. It’s also not terribly reassuring that the same firms we depend on for AI infrastructure, who are facing these issues, are the ones assuring enterprises that their systems with guardrails are perfectly safe,” says Padmanabhan. “We have to wake up to the fact that we’ve created capabilities that let software become as powerful as we want it to be—and then some. It’s time we seriously ask what’s needed to create an infrastructure to play defense well.”

Across the independent studies, the pattern is consistent, says Viswanathan: Voluntary compliance fails when the governed actor is more capable than the regulator. And AI systems cannot be governed by trust or good intentions alone. Oversight must be preventive, independent and capable of stopping harmful behavior before it spreads.

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

Contact: Greg Muraski, gmuraski@umd.edu

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/umd-smith-school-researchers-warn-ai-security-lapses-highlight-urgent-need-for-independent-oversight-302834112.html

SOURCE University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business

Continue Reading

Trending