In brief

New CEO of Save the Children

Charles MacCormack is retiring as CEO of Save the Children, and the Westport-based nonprofit promoted Carolyn Miles to become its first woman CEO in eight decades of operation.

Miles started with Save the Children in 1998 in a marketing role and currently is chief operating officer of an agency with a $550 million annual budget and field offices in some of the most stricken countries in the world. She attended Bucknell University as an undergraduate and has an MBA from the University of Virginia”™s Darden School of Business.

Save the Children Chairman Anne Mulcahy said the company considered outside candidates in a search conducted by Spencer Stuart.

“Carolyn was the right choice,” Mulcahy said in a statement. “She has an in-depth knowledge of global children”™s issues, many years of experience in leading large organizations and is highly results driven. But most importantly, she has an authentic passion for our mission, to make lasting change in the lives of the children who need us most.”

 

Sikorsky finalizes Aussie sale

In a deal reported last summer by the Fairfield County Business Journal, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. finalized a contract to sell the government of Australia two dozen Seahawk helicopters.

Stratford-based Sikorsky is a subsidiary of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp.

Including a long-term service deal, the contract is worth $3.3 billion, including a services component revealed in February. The helicopters would include engines supplied by a General Electric Co. plant in Lynn, Mass., and onboard systems from Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp.

Separately, Sikorsky announced multiple sales in the first two days of the Paris Air Show in mid-June. The company sold two of its large S-92 civilian helicopters to China Southern Airlines Co., along with a mid-size S-76 helicopter. Milestone Aviation Group, which has offices in Ireland and Ohio, bought two S-92 models along with an S-76. Heli-Union, a Paris-based company that services offshore oil platforms, bought two S-76 helicopters. Brazil”™s navy bought two S-70 versions of the Sikorsky Seahawk maritime helicopter, while a Mexican state bought an S-70 version of the Sikorsky Black Hawk.

 

GE details ecomagination

General Electric says it invested $1.8 billion last year under its ecomagination collection of products and services designed to minimize any impact on the environment.

Fairfield-based GE says that kept it on track to meet its goal of investing $10 billion on ecomagination between 2010 and 2015.

Of more than 20 new products released last year, GE highlighted its WattStation charging station for electric vehicles and its Nucleus smart meters to help homeowners manage their energy consumption.

GE indicated it has improved its own energy efficiency by nearly a third since 2004, in part through so-called treasure hunts in which teams of employees scour facilities for systems that waste energy.

GE gets initial union OK

Fairfield-based GE announced in mid-June it reached tentative agreements on labor contracts with leaders from its two largest unions, in advance of a June 30 ratification vote by more than 15,000 workers in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

GE reached the initial agreements with IUE-CWA and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), after four weeks of what it called intense negotiations.

“While the proposal contains important improvements and advances, it also contains certain disappointments,” John Hovis, general president of UE, said in a statement. “However, given the current economic climate, overall it”™s an agreement we can support.”

Fieldpoint buys securities firm

Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust acquired Nutmeg Securities L.L.C., a broker dealer based in Westport.

The companies did not state financial terms of the deal, which Greenwich-based Fieldpoint said expands its wealth management offerings to include traditional debt and equity securities transactions, as well as insurance and annuities contracts.

Nutmeg Securities will maintain its Westport location.

 

Jacobs leads buy of shipper

The former CEO of United Rentals Inc. acquired a controlling stake in Express-1 Expedited Solutions Inc.

Greenwich resident Bradley Jacobs led an investment group that could invest as much as $150 million in the Michigan company, which had $158 million in revenue last year arranges ground and air-based shipping for some 4,000 business customers.

 

Passur revenue rises

Passur Aerospace Inc. revenue climbed 45 percent to $6.9 million, resulting in a profit of roughly $400,000, even as the company sold $10 million in stock in May to pay down debt.

The Stamford-based company provides aircraft arrival and departure time for airlines and corporations by analyzing passive radar signals, those from commercial radio and TV transmitters that reflect off aircraft to give their position. Passur”™s website includes a LiveMonitor function where one can view traffic at several tristate airports.

 

Bank branch to close

Webster Financial Corp. is closing its lone branch in Newtown, one of six in Connecticut the Waterbury-based bank said is not generating enough foot traffic to continue operating.

The branch at 14 Church Hill Road had $22.6 million in deposits as of a year ago, a slight increase from 2009. Webster said most existing staff would get jobs in other branches in the region, save branch managers who could apply for open positions within the company.