ADT and IDEAL LIFE Partner to Offer Remote Health Management Services to Customers

ADT and IDEAL LIFE today announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to offer new and existing ADT customers real time health management services. ADT will integrate the IDEAL LIFE health monitoring and information technology into its interactive home management system, ADT Pulse. ADT Pulse currently allows customers to remotely arm and disarm their security systems; access real time video of their premises; receive notifications and alerts; lock and unlock doors; and manage their energy consumption by controlling thermostats, small appliances and lights, all from their smartphones, tablets and computers.

The capability for customers, as well as their caregivers and trusted medical providers, to monitor and track health and wellness in real time will substantially differentiate ADT from other home automation and security providers.

“ADT continues to expand the Pulse ecosystem to provide more value to its customers, and remote health management services are a natural extension to the life safety and lifestyle capabilities of ADT Pulse,” said Don Boerema, ADT’s chief corporate development officer. “IDEAL LIFE’s solutions empower consumers by educating them on the status of their conditions as well as the advantages of prevention. We look forward to working with their team to offer these valuable new services to our customers.”

“IDEAL LIFE expands and connects the care continuum by giving medical professionals the tools to more effectively manage consumers’ health,” said Jason Goldberg, President of IDEAL LIFE. “Connected home devices are revolutionizing the way we deliver healthcare, and ADT is at the forefront of this trend with their integrated smart home technology. Through this strategic partnership, we can significantly expand access to critical healthcare information. This is a great opportunity for both companies to help save more lives.”

Auto-Owners Life Insurance Company Selects Wynsure as Its End-to-End Solution for Life Insurance and Annuities

Auto-Owners Life Insurance Company (Auto-Owners Life) has chosen MphasiS-Wyde's Wynsure software as its end-to-end system for its life policy issuance and administration, billing, claims and reinsurance.
Auto-Owners Life, a subsidiary of Auto-Owners Insurance Company in Lansing, Michigan, will implement Wynsure for life, health and disability insurance, and annuities. MphasiS-Wyde, a leading IT services provider headquartered near Minneapolis, was chosen over several other competing vendors.

Bob Buchanan, Senior Vice President, Information Systems & Technology, and CIO at Auto-Owners Insurance Company, said that a cross-functional business and IT team carried out a comprehensive evaluation and determined that Wynsure was the best overall solution that will help us achieve our objectives.
"Wynsure will help us increase speed to market, letting us implement new products and enhancements faster without conventional programming," he said. "The Wynsure platform will also help us boost automation and process efficiencies to enhance responsiveness for our independent agents and policyholders."

"Auto-Owners Insurance is one of America's largest and most respected insurers, and we're looking forward to partnering with them," said Larry Erb, CEO of MphasiS-Wyde-Americas. "Wynsure's rules-based architecture lets insurers easily customize their products without relying on the vendor or IT staff, so the product is especially well suited for this growing life insurer."

Auto-Owners Life Insurance Company Selects Wynsure as Its End-to-End Solution for Life Insurance and Annuities

Auto-Owners Life Insurance Company (Auto-Owners Life) has chosen MphasiS-Wyde's Wynsure software as its end-to-end system for its life policy issuance and administration, billing, claims and reinsurance.
Auto-Owners Life, a subsidiary of Auto-Owners Insurance Company in Lansing, Michigan, will implement Wynsure for life, health and disability insurance, and annuities. MphasiS-Wyde, a leading IT services provider headquartered near Minneapolis, was chosen over several other competing vendors.

Bob Buchanan, Senior Vice President, Information Systems & Technology, and CIO at Auto-Owners Insurance Company, said that a cross-functional business and IT team carried out a comprehensive evaluation and determined that Wynsure was the best overall solution that will help us achieve our objectives.
"Wynsure will help us increase speed to market, letting us implement new products and enhancements faster without conventional programming," he said. "The Wynsure platform will also help us boost automation and process efficiencies to enhance responsiveness for our independent agents and policyholders."

"Auto-Owners Insurance is one of America's largest and most respected insurers, and we're looking forward to partnering with them," said Larry Erb, CEO of MphasiS-Wyde-Americas. "Wynsure's rules-based architecture lets insurers easily customize their products without relying on the vendor or IT staff, so the product is especially well suited for this growing life insurer."

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America Acquires Reed Group

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (“Guardian”), one of the nation’s largest mutual life insurers and a leading provider of employee benefits, today announced that it has acquired Westminster, Colorado-based Reed Group, a recognized leader in absence management services that help employers comply with federal and state regulation and get employees back to work quickly and safely.

Reed Group will operate as an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian, retain its name and continue to serve all of its customers as it does today. Specifically, Reed Group helps its customers reduce the cost, compliance risk and complexity of employee absences. Its products and services address FMLA, ADA, state leaves, company leave plans, and short- and long-term disability programs.

This acquisition expands Guardian’s disability and absence management portfolio, further demonstrating the company’s commitment to innovative employee benefit solutions and meeting the needs of employers.

Commenting on the transaction, Deanna Mulligan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Guardian said, “Reed Group is well recognized and respected in the marketplace with a proven track record of ensuring workplace productivity and compliance for customers. We look forward to helping ensure their continued success in the markets they serve and working with them to seek out new opportunities.”

David Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of Reed Group, added, “We are excited to have our long-term home as part of Guardian. We share their commitment to providing excellent absence management services to employers and employees. All of our customers can expect a continued high level of service from Reed Group and, backed by the strength of a Fortune 500 company, we will take advantage of new opportunities.”

Reed Group will continue to operate, and invest in, its current three divisions: Reed Group Services to help manage and administer claims and absences; LeaveProTM, a software solution that helps employers manage absences; and MDGuidelinesTM, a web-based return-to-work toolkit.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Cain Brothers & Company, LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to Reed Group on the transaction. DLA Piper served as legal counsel to Reed Group.

Life of Pi, Lincoln among Writers Guild Award nominees

Life of Pi, based on a novel by Canada’s Yann Martel, and Lincoln, based in part on the book Team of Rivals, have earned nominations for best adapted screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.

In the adapted screenplay category, Life of Pi and Lincoln are competing against Silver Linings Playbook, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Argo, about the Canadian embassy operation that helped six Americans escape from Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis.

In the original screenplay category, there were nominations announced Friday for sci-fi story Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty and The Master, which was overlooked at the Producers’ Guild Award nominations revealed Thursday.

Screenwriter David Magee bags the nomination for Life of Pi, about a boy adrift in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, based on Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel.

Tony Kushner, who won a WGA award in 2005 for an adaptation of his own play Angels in America, is the writer for Lincoln, one of several frontrunners for Oscar nominations next week. He based his script in part on the non-fiction book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Argo, with a screenplay by Chris Terrio, was based on a selection from The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and the Wired Magazine article “The Great Escape” by Joshuah Bearman.

But the film came under heavy criticism in Canada for downplaying the role of Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador who stickhandled the rescue, instead focusing on the story of one CIA agent.

The WGA Awards are to be handed out during simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles on Feb. 17. They are one of a clutch of industry honours that pave the way for the Oscars.

Ben C. Askew, Ph.D. Joins SciFluor Life Sciences as Vice President, Research

SciFluor Life Sciences, a drug discovery and development company harnessing the transformational power of fluorine to accelerate the development of innovative new therapeutics, announced that Ben C. Askew, Ph.D., has joined the company as vice president, research. In this newly created position, Dr. Askew will oversee the development and expansion of the company’s pipeline of Fluoropeutics™ – a proprietary portfolio of new chemical entities (NCEs) consisting of fluorinated versions of small molecule drugs with substantial human clinical or post-marketing experience.

“We are very excited to welcome Ben to SciFluor, and to add his extensive pharmaceutical industry experience and scientific knowledge to our management team,” said Arthur Hiller, chief executive officer of SciFluor Life Sciences. “His proven background in drug discovery and development – including successfully bringing multiple drugs to market and leading multi-national discovery and development partnerships – will expand our base of expertise at SciFluor and be a tremendous asset to the company as we advance our portfolio of novel fluorine-enabled drug candidates across a wide range of therapeutic areas.”

Dr. Askew joins SciFluor with more than 20 years of experience in senior research positions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, where he specialized in building high functioning medicinal chemistry organizations, defining early IP and long-term R&D strategy, and leading NCE discovery programs. Most recently, Dr. Askew served as entrepreneur-in-residence for Third Rock Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on building life sciences companies, where he provided strategic input and scientific leadership for several of Third Rock’s portfolio companies, including Blueprint Medicines and Sage Therapeutics. Prior to that role, Dr. Askew served as vice president of research, global head of NCE Technologies for EMD Serono, the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany and held positions of increasing responsibility at Merck & Co. and Amgen, where he played a key role in building the company’s Small Molecule Research Organization. He holds a B.A. from Gannon University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh.

“I am excited to be a part of the SciFluor team and to play an integral role in the growth of this company and its innovative R&D programs,” said Dr. Askew. “As a passionate drug hunter, I was attracted to SciFluor because of the inherent opportunities within their portfolio of proprietary, fluorine-enhanced NCEs and the potential to make an impact on not just one, but a variety of therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular disease, central nervous system disorders and infectious disease. With a rapidly growing pipeline, the SciFluor team has achieved great progress in a short amount of time, and I look forward to continuing to advance these efforts to deliver high quality clinical candidates in critical areas that will make meaningful differences in patients’ lives.”

Ben C. Askew, Ph.D. Joins SciFluor Life Sciences as Vice President, Research

SciFluor Life Sciences, a drug discovery and development company harnessing the transformational power of fluorine to accelerate the development of innovative new therapeutics, announced that Ben C. Askew, Ph.D., has joined the company as vice president, research. In this newly created position, Dr. Askew will oversee the development and expansion of the company’s pipeline of Fluoropeutics™ – a proprietary portfolio of new chemical entities (NCEs) consisting of fluorinated versions of small molecule drugs with substantial human clinical or post-marketing experience.

“We are very excited to welcome Ben to SciFluor, and to add his extensive pharmaceutical industry experience and scientific knowledge to our management team,” said Arthur Hiller, chief executive officer of SciFluor Life Sciences. “His proven background in drug discovery and development – including successfully bringing multiple drugs to market and leading multi-national discovery and development partnerships – will expand our base of expertise at SciFluor and be a tremendous asset to the company as we advance our portfolio of novel fluorine-enabled drug candidates across a wide range of therapeutic areas.”

Dr. Askew joins SciFluor with more than 20 years of experience in senior research positions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, where he specialized in building high functioning medicinal chemistry organizations, defining early IP and long-term R&D strategy, and leading NCE discovery programs. Most recently, Dr. Askew served as entrepreneur-in-residence for Third Rock Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on building life sciences companies, where he provided strategic input and scientific leadership for several of Third Rock’s portfolio companies, including Blueprint Medicines and Sage Therapeutics. Prior to that role, Dr. Askew served as vice president of research, global head of NCE Technologies for EMD Serono, the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany and held positions of increasing responsibility at Merck & Co. and Amgen, where he played a key role in building the company’s Small Molecule Research Organization. He holds a B.A. from Gannon University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh.

“I am excited to be a part of the SciFluor team and to play an integral role in the growth of this company and its innovative R&D programs,” said Dr. Askew. “As a passionate drug hunter, I was attracted to SciFluor because of the inherent opportunities within their portfolio of proprietary, fluorine-enhanced NCEs and the potential to make an impact on not just one, but a variety of therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular disease, central nervous system disorders and infectious disease. With a rapidly growing pipeline, the SciFluor team has achieved great progress in a short amount of time, and I look forward to continuing to advance these efforts to deliver high quality clinical candidates in critical areas that will make meaningful differences in patients’ lives.”