COMPANIES

For the first time, Australia's biggest airport will be managed by a woman effective on 1 July, the company said as Ms Kerrie Mather has been appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sydney Airport.

Failure to actively groom women throughout the leadership pipeline is a huge risk for businesses, particularly with a growing skills shortage in many industries and an ageing workforce, but if it's done well it can represent a vast opportunity.

The banking industry is set to review the long-term future of paying by paper as the chequebook's days are numbered while PINs continue win over pens.

Australia's government led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard did not promise to give the local cattle industry any compensation for the recent implementation of a live export ban to Indonesia, which will last for six months.

Sony Corp.'s film studio said yesterday it has provided notice to the approximately 37,500 people who may have had some personally identifiable information stolen during the recent attack on sonypictures.com.

Nintendo Co. unveiled at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, the Wii U, the high-definition video-game console succeeding the market leader Wii.

Treasurer Wayne Swan is set to release today the Productivity Commission's report on international climate regimes at noon in Brisbane. Mr Swan will try to justify to opposing industry that seven of Australia's top-10 trading partners have adopted major policies to reduce pollution. The coal and gas industries have continue to oppose the carbon tax legislation further arguing the report should look at the measures taken by Australia's competitors.

As the Australian share market went down for a sixth consecutive trading day, investors went to the New Zealand markets, which rose close to 20 points to 3525.39, a change of about 56 percent.

While many people are controlling their urges to grab a hold of the iPhone 4 thinking the iPhone 5 will be launched in the near future, the actual release of the highly anticipated smart phone remains a whodunit.

The Reserve Bank's decision to hold off plans for an upward rate adjustment in the past few months had impact well on Australia's consumers, who are now more spend-thrifts and conscious on what to spend on.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announces PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita) (PCH-1000 series) as the official platform name for the next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP). Wi-Fi model will be available for 24,980 yen (including tax) in Japan, $249 in US and euro 249 in Europe, 3G/Wi-Fi model will be available for 29,980 yen (including tax) in Japan, $299 in US and euro 299 in Europe and successively launch in global market starting the end of 2011.

Parrot, leaders in wireless peripherals for mobile phones, revolutionised the video gaming world by creating the AR.Drone, the first flying object in Augmented Reality piloted through Wi-Fi.

Global mining giant Rio Tinto has announced on Wednesday the doubling of the company’s fleet of automated-driven truck haulers currently deployed in the Pilbara region of Western Australia to further raise its ore production.

Cadbury has apologised to Naomi Campbell after its Dairy Milk Bliss adverts "upset" the supermodel.

Packaging and labelling company ProScales has announced the launch of its new deli labelling system, AdPro, which prints shopper-marketing directed ads on deli labels.

Virgin Australia continues to construct a strategy to take on Qantas with the news that it has entered into a partnership with the powerful Singapore Airlines.

Over the last few years, tax compliance risks related to global employee mobility have grown rapidly.

Many organisations conduct surveys to find out what their people think and feel. Whilst such initiatives ostensibly exist to improve performance, the truth is that lip service is often paid to them.

Finland-based Nokia is now facing the challenge to raise its market share amidst debt rating cut to the lowest investment grade by Fitch Ratings due to the declining market share of its Symbian smartphones.

Australia's stock market has opened at a modest pace taking on from overnight leads as Wall Street gave up mid-session gains as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke hinted that further stimulus is required to boost the US economy.

Mortgage Ezy CEO Garry Driscoll said careful modelling of its current and expected mortgage book show it will be able to maintain its 'no clawback' stand for brokers, bar any unforseen changes in the market.

HP Financial Services, a subsidiary of leading information tech hardware company Hewlett-Packard, announced it will be making up to $2 billion available to "help clients finance their way into the cloud."

Sony's E3 kicked off its E3 press conference with an apology about the recent PSN outage. SCEA President Jack Tretton presented a humbled figure as he gave a carefully worded apology about the outage and "taking gamers away from doing what you love to do".

Sony cut off its Brazilian music entertainment website while it looks into a possible breach. Sony also is investigating a hacker group's claim that it stole data related to the company's game operation. The possible attack on Sony's Brazilian website may have altered some content, a spokesman said.

Weak trading sessions in the US and European markets will likely rebound in local trading on Tuesday. Investors at the Australian Stock market would likely be on the sidelines as there would be some reluctance ahead of the RBA interest rate pronouncement at 2:30PM AEST.

Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines have inked a "major alliance strategy" that will help transform Virgin Australia into a global airline and create problems for rival Qantas international operations.

By the end the year, most Australian newspapers will be charging for the content they post online, following the success of leading business daily The Wall Street Journal and amid softening revenues for newspapers from print subscriptions and advertisements.

Frequent travelers across the Asia-Pacific, specifically from Australia to Singapore, can take advantage of the new arrangement between Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines.

Global resource company BHP Billiton has announced the start of its oil production in the Gulf of Mexico following the lifting of deep-water drilling ban on the area imposed last year by US President Barack Obama.