BizTimes Milwaukee

Kodak's CEO tells 17,000 employees that the only option for the 131-year-old company is to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company had 64,000 employees in 2003.

I have just returned from digitalNow, an annual executive summit that brings together 250 CEOs and volunteer leaders from some of the most influential professional, nonprofit and trade associations in America, many with a global reach.

As the economy recovers, now is the time for company owners to plan for their next move, as the mergers and acquisitions market is quickly heating up.

A panel of accomplished executives will be featured in the BizTimes Women in Business Conference to be held on the morning of Thursday, May 17, at the BizExpo at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino.

Ryan Thompson, social media specialist at Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc., taught himself to play guitar when he was just 15 years old. After discovering his proficiency for the piano he switched and now regularly plays keyboard and experiments with electronic instrumentation with his band, The Pubbys.

Randy Spaulding, founder and chief executive officer of West Bend-based Spaulding Clinical Research, will lead the 2012 United Way of Washington County campaign this fall.

In the business world, virtual platforms such as blogging, commenting, tagging, emailing, texting and video chatting have all become normal channels of communication. Executives who have yet to embrace the new forms of communication risk leaving opportunities behind.

The number of daily flights by Frontier Airlines out of General Mitchell International Airport was recently reduced to seven. In May of 2011, the company operated 86 flights out of the Milwaukee airport.