USA Truck exec resigned, filing shows
Christian Rhodes stepped down from his role as chief information officer at USA Truck, effective Jan. 5, according to a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rhodes joined the Van Buren-based company in March 2014 as vice president of information services and became chief information officer in June 2015. He previously worked in information technology at LinkAmerica Corp., a communication and IT services company, and at Greatwide Logistics Services, a transportation and logistics company. USA Truck has posted three consecutive quarterly losses and has seen executive-level turnover in recent years. Chief Executive Officer Randy Rogers is the company’s fourth leader in three years. Former Chief Financial Officer Michael Borrows resigned in May and was not replaced until the fall, by James Reed. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
— Emma N. Hurt
Tyson, N.C. university team on new class
Tyson Foods and North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University are offering a class in agricultural communications, the company announced Wednesday. “This unique course provides A&T students an exclusive opportunity to learn from industry professionals,” said Antoine Alston, the associate dean of academic studies in the university’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Alston will teach the course, which will include information on how to create speeches and social-media campaigns relating to agriculture, during the spring semester. The agriculture industry employs about 17 percent of North Carolina’s workforce, according to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. A Tyson plant in Wilkesboro, which is in the western part of the state, employs about 2,700 people.
— Claire Williams
Instagram to put ads on stories feature
Instagram will start to introduce advertising to its stories feature as it becomes more popular, stepping up competition with Snap Inc.
Facebook Inc.'s Instagram said it now has 150 million daily users on the stories feature of its photo-sharing site. The feature was inspired by a popular product from Snapchat, which broadcasts short videos that disappear after they're viewed, or after 24 hours. Instagram's number for stories matches the statistic Snapchat gives for its total daily global audience.
Instagram will start to display ads between stories from friends, turning the popular feature into a moneymaker for Facebook. While Snapchat also advertises between stories, it's still building up the infrastructure that Instagram has to measure and track ads and link them to demographic data, which can attract more marketers.
"We're pairing this new format with a powerful advertising capability, so they can target the people that matter to them," said James Quarles, vice president of Instagram Business.
-- Bloomberg News
Report calls wealth disparity global risk
LONDON -- Global economic growth is necessary but insufficient to heal the fractures in society that were evident in the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and Britain's vote to leave the European Union, a report by the World Economic Forum said Wednesday.
In a wide-ranging report from the organizer of the annual gathering of political and business leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos, the World Economic Forum identified "rising income and wealth disparity" as potentially the biggest driver in global affairs over the next 10 years.
As an example of this growing inequality, the group highlighted the increases in executive pay at a time when many people in advanced economies have struggled to make ends meet after the global financial crisis.
"This points to the need for reviving economic growth, but the growing mood of anti-establishment populism suggests we may have passed the stage where this alone would remedy fractures in society: reforming market capitalism must also be added to the agenda," it said in its latest Global Risks Report.
"The combination of economic inequality and political polarization threatens to amplify global risks, fraying the social solidarity on which the legitimacy of our economic and political systems rests," it added.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 01/12/2017