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m ® #Ol httpVAvww.thecharlottepost.com 8C Cliarlotte BUSINESS THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2005 Sports 1C IMPROPER MARKDOWNS Saks Inc. cans top executives after probe VIE ASSOCIATED PRESS BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Saks Inc. on Monday said it has fired its chief accounting offi cer and other top officers after an internal investigation into improper collections of mark down allowances foimd that $20 million was inappropri ately taken fi*om vendors between 1999 and 2003. The company - which is also the target of an informal inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York - said no improper coUec- tions were identified as hav ing taken place last year. Saks said it would reimburse ven dors for money taken. Suppliers pay markdown money to compensate stores when they don’t sell products or are forced to take a deeper markdown than expected. Over the past few years, stores have placed more financial pressure on suppli ers, and that’s expected to get worse as stores consolidate and have more pow^* in nego tiations. As a result of the review, the retailer said it has asked Chief Accounting Officer Donald Wright and Saks Fifth Avenue Chief Administrative Officer Donald Watros to resign fiom their positions. Brian Martin, form^'ly the company’s gen eral counsel, was also asked to resign. Saks said other employees “directly involved in the over- coUection” will also be asked to resign. The company added that employees who failed to “adequately supervise” those involved in such over-collec tions win receive disciplinary actions including termina tion. The company expects to restate of financial state ments for fiscal 1999 through the third quarter of fiscal 2004. The restatement will be completed on or before Sept. 1. FLAT WORLD FATIGUE The energy to move ahead PHOTOCALVIN FERGUSON Black Enterprise influential blacks magazine named Duke Power vice president Theopolis Holeman is one of the most in corporate America. Duke Power's Holeman wields corporate clout By Paula Young VIE CHARLOTTE POST Theopolis Holeman isn’t a household name, but he’s made one for himself in corporate America. Holeman, a Duke Power vice president, was named one of the 75 most powadul Afiican Americans in corporate America by Black Enterprise magazine. He says the I'ecognition was an honor. “My mom would have been proud,” said Holeman. “It speaks volumes of what hard work and preparation can position you to do.” Holeman’s careo' in the energy industry has been all about hard work and preparation. Starting out in the industry in 1972, he did not see many faces that resembled his. He was the first black CTigineer at Trunkline Gas Co. in Houston, a groimdbreaking position in an industry where Afiican Amaicans were predominantly fotmd in the secretarial and labor sectors. As the sole engi neer, Holeman had to prove himself by making consistent contributions as a prefessional. “I had the good fortune to work with fair-minded people who previded those opportunities,” he said. Fast forward 30-plus years later and Holeman is still advancing up the career ladd^*. He has se«i strides in his own career as well as other Afiican Americans in executive positions within the ener gy and electric utility industry Although Holeman has worked in some part of Duke Energy for 33 years, for the past two years he was named group vice president of power, which moved him to Charlotte fix)m Houston. Holeman says he loves Charlotte. “It’s a great part of the coimtry” He says he loves the size and environment of the city even the topography of Charlotte’s rolling hills and trees. Holeman says his role is management, leader ship of the power delivery group. See HOLEMAN/7C Duke Energy-Cinergy merger creates powerhouse By Lisa Cornwell VIE ASSOCIATED PRESS Charlotte-based Duke Energy Corp. has agreed to buy rival power company Cinergy Corp. in a stock deal worth $9 billion that will create one of the nation’s largest power gen erators. The deal, armpimced Monday after being unani mously approved by both companies’ boards, would create an energy company with 5.4 million retail cus tomers, more than $70 bil lion in assets and about $1.9 billion in annual profit on $27 billion in annual rev enue. Analysts said it could ai^ur further consolidation in the industry Based on market capital ization, the combined com pany’s electric operations would be in the top five in the United States and the natural gas operations would be the largest in North America, Paul Anderson, Duke Energy’s chainnan and chief execu tive, said Monday The proposed merger would allow Duke to com plement its gas-fired op^a- tions in the Midwest with Cinergys coal-fired plants. ‘T)own the road - long term - that will give us a lot more portfolio flexibility than we have had to date,” Anderson said. Analysts questioned, howev^, whether such flex ibility would boost prof itability enough to justify the merger. James Rogers, Cinergy chairman and chief execu tive, said the merger puts Cin«gy in a better position to meet its power generating needs in the Midwest. “Over time, Duke’s Midwest plants would allow us to modernize our fleet faster as environmental reg ulations become more strin- Please see DUKE7C ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO/MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ Portalplayer Inc. engineers (from left) Vallab KulkamI, Sudhakara Ram and Jeff Hawkey conduct a teleconference meeting with project managers in India from the company’s offices in Santa Clara, Calif. As offshore outsourcing accelerates, American technology execu tives are finding they have to work later and stranger hours than before. Globalization breeds interminable work day od,” said Jeff Hawkey vice president of hardware engineering, who conducts evening meetings finm the office or on his laptop at home. “A lot of ni^ts, I go home, tuck the kids into bed and then get on the conference call.” Executives at PortalPlayer, which makes chips and software for portable music devices stuch as the iPod, say having 90 ^nployees in Hyderabad nearly doubles the amoimt of engineering work that gets done in 24 hours. That shrinks production See GLOBALiZATION/7C By Rachel Konrad VIE ASSOCIATED PRESS SANTA CLARA, California - The traffic jam ended hours ago, the parking lot is nearly empty and fluorescent lights are dimmed at PortalPlayer Inc., where the nightly brainstorming session is about to begin. Instead of gathering the few renaming souls fium their cubicles, three managers move into a conference room to dial India, where engineers 121/2 time zones ahead are just arriving in Hyderabad As coUe^ues on (^posite sides of the globe discuss circuit board configurations and debusing strat^es for a project code- named “Doi:^)elganger,” it’s just the start of another endless day for the company \^^thin twelve hours, Indian work^ will end thdr day with calls and e-mails to California, where managers in the Santa Clara headquarters will just be waking up. “We keep passing the baton between California and India, and that way we can cram a lot more work into a 24-hour peri- movers & shakers Caulton named senior VP by RBC Centura RBC Centura Bank has appointed Mark H. Caulton senior vice president, Commercial Real Estate Finance for RBC Centura. In this new role, Caulton will act as market manager for construc tion financing in Charlotte and the surrounding area. He brings more than 17 years of commercial real estate ®q)erience to his new posi tion. Caulton’s office will be located in Charlotte. Caulton Caulton received an imdergraduate degree fi*om Howard University in Washington, D.C., and a MBA fium American International College in Massachusetts. He is originally fium Springfield, Mass. The RBC Centura Commercial Real Estate group is based in Atlanta. • Cindy Curry has been appoint ed to the N.C. TYavel and Tbiirism Board She will help create policy and research for the Division of Tburism, Film and Sports Development in the N.C. Department of Commerce. Curry, a group events accounts manager at Paramount’s Carowinds, was appointed by N.C. House Speaker Jim Black (D-Mecklenburg). Know of a promotion or honor? E-mail information, and a photo if possible to herb.white@thecharlottepostoom
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