Content about Professional Services

UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp, has closed on the sale of its fire and security branch operations in the US to Comvest Investment Partners.

The company provides integrated building solutions, including heating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems, building controls and automation, and fire and security systems.

The northern regions of Canada are again experiencing a mining boom and behind every mining operator there has to be solid support, as Alan Swaby discovers from the Gibeault family.

For a case study on man’s ability to adapt and prosper; look no further than Ron Gibeault and his family. Early in his career, Ron decided that a new start in the northernmost reaches of Canada was what he and his new bride needed. 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Kroff, Inc, one of the fastest-growing water treatment companies in the United States, is expanding internationally with the establishment of operations in South America.

Through the creation of a new company called Kroff Chile - Tecnologias y Procesos Limitada, based in Santiago, Kroff will provide cost-effective custom-blended chemicals and processes for water and wastewater treatment to companies in a variety of industries in that country, including energy, power and mining.

Developing new IT systems is fraught with danger at the best of times; but as Alan Swaby learns, when you harness the power of 98 different customers, you become a force for change.

Not all are tainted, by any means, but in the UK a large number of IT projects for government departments or other public bodies are either long overdue, way over budget or both. As such, the sheer size of a commissioning agency is no guarantee of success—so it’s no bad thing to take a look at how it is being done successfully in a different arena.

August Zerwick, managing director of South Africa-based engineering solutions provider MegChem, talks to Jayne Alverca about the company’s unique approach to managing complexity.

UK bank Barclays has launched a £100 million fund for UK farmers investing in renewable energy.

Developed with sector specialists, the fund is available for solar, wind, and hydro projects in the UK, with Barclays including projected feed-in-tariffs when assessing each loan.

The bank said that new figures show that over one third of the UK’s 200,000 farmers are expecting to invest in renewable energy, with the majority doing so within the next year. It added that farmers expect the investment to generate returns averaging £25,000 per year.

Pan African Shopfitters set up its own shop a long time ago and today, the retailers of Africa and beyond depend on it to turn their brand identity into reality on the street.

Now under the management of the third generation of the Blumenthal family, Pan African Shopfitters is nothing if not a dynastic enterprise, with all the advantages that entails. It is close knit, with shared values and policies; and it is agile—decisions about strategy, policy and investment can be made very quickly.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 to be the International Year of Co-operatives (IYC) and Trent Bartlett, for the last 10 years CEO of Capricorn Society Ltd and a founder of Social Business Australia,has taken on the job of chairing the IYC 2012’s Australian Secretariat. We talk to him about Capricorn, IYC, and his vision for the co-operative movement.

Steve Hartley, executive director of private aviation specialist Empire Aviation Group, talks to Jayne Alverca about the company’s approach to maximizing asset value and the flight experience in the Middle East and beyond.

Jeff Daniels looks at a relatively new approach to providing air conditioning that is contributing greater energy efficiency to the Middle East.

Jeff Daniels looks at an emergency service that knows no bounds to its possibilities.

Like many an African country, Botswana has a few large-ish urban centres where a sizeable but minority proportion of the population live, and then lots of wide open spaces where the remainder of the two million inhabitants are to be found (if you look hard enough—Botswana still has around 10,000 Bushmen living a nomadic life, much as they have for centuries).

Thirty years on, futurologists’ predictions about working in a paperless office are far from reality; but as Jeff Daniels learns, it’s not for the want of trying.