Become a CEO after your MBA: that's the promise some private equity firms are using to recruit top operating talent.
This promise propels the best and brightest into top executive roles without requiring them to climb the corporate ladder, underpinned by the belief that cultivating talent is a better bet than making semi-blind bets on external hires.
Alpine Investors and Shore Capital Partners have each built separate pipelines to funnel operational talent, aiming to equip executives to take charge of their portfolio companies.
Lower-middle-market buyout firm Shore Capital Partners runs what it calls its CXO program, a two-year training scheme that places early- to mid-career talent and recent MBA grads into C-suite-adjacent roles at its portfolio companies—typically chief of staff or vice president of business operations or strategic initiatives.
Top-performing CXO graduates then have the chance to be promoted to C-level positions. So far, Shore has produced four CEOs from the CXO program. This includes Mark Larsen, who has been CEO of medical software business Connexure since 2024.

#Companies

Sep. 4—WILSON CREEK — The Wilson Creek Devils are ready for another season of volleyball as they return a little younger, but still experienced. This year, the Devils are striving to become more unified and play together as one.
"I'm looking forward to watching this team come together and do something great," said Devils Head Coach Shawn Shahan. "See them combine and work together and become one team. That's our motto this year is 'One team, one goal.'"
Wilson Creek finished the season 6-14 last year and qualified for the district tournament after battling through the highly competitive Central Washington B League. The Devils made it into the first round of districts before ending their season against Easton.
Last year the Devils roster consisted of mostly younger players with the team being led by a group of juniors and no seniors. Although the team lost a few players in the offseason, Wilson Creek will be returning Cheyanne Dailey, Debi Horn, Lila Sackmann and Riley Larsen as seniors.
Shahan said she is confident in the girls who are returning this season to act as strong leaders for the team and has already seen them step up and work with their younger teammates.

#devils #year #younger

For the fourth straight game this preseason, Morgan challenged itself against a higher-classification team on Thursday night, and in the process enjoyed arguably its best performance to date.
Facing 5A's Bountiful, which was coming off back-to-back wins against Davis County 6A teams, Morgan took control in the second quarter with a dominant defensive performance as it cruised to the 37-14 victory over the visiting Redhawks.
"We were excited to play. Bountiful's a quality program, a really good program. We knew it was going to be a battle, so we just tried to prepare ourselves mentally for a tough fight," said Morgan coach Jared Barlow.
Morgan has now won straight games against Sky View, Park City and Bountiful since a difficult season-opening loss to Ridgeline.
Owen Gilson tossed a pair of TD passes in the win for Morgan, both to Owen Belliston, while George Thurston, Rhett Larsen and Miles Syndenham all added rushing TDs for the Trojans.

#back #facing

After an edgy win against Dundee in the season opener, Celtic, the reigning Premiership champions, showed their supremacy on Sunday afternoon at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock finally changed their turf from plastic to grass after clubs voted in favour of banning artificial turf ahead of the 2026-27 season; however, it proved a catastrophe for the East Ayrshire side, who suffered a 5-1 humiliation. Second-half strikes from Benjamin Nygren and Luke McCowan followed a first-half hat-trick from the club-record signing Kasper Høgh.
Below are the Celtic players rated in their 5-1 win against Kilmarnock.
Viljami Sinisalo: 7.5
Made a couple of smart saves soon after Høgh's opening goal. Could have done little to stop Michael Schjønning-Larsen, who pulled one back and made it 4-1 for Neil McCann's men.
Alistair Johnston: 7.5

#season #turf

A clean energy super PAC bankrolled by a left-wing billionaire is pouring millions into an effort to unseat Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., as he wages a bid for re-election in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District.
The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition super PAC had spent roughly $1.3 million on opposing Ogles and supporting his Republican challenger, Charlie Hatcher, Tennessee's former commissioner of agriculture, and recently bought another $700,000 worth of ads.
The group has raised $6.7 million this year, making Ogles a sizable portion of their spending this cycle. A Fox News Digital review of FEC filings discovered that the super PAC is bankrolled by Chris Larsen, the California-based billionaire chairman of Ripple, which is described on its website as the "leading financial technology company that offers crypto solutions for businesses."
Larsen has donated $6 million to the super PAC since Feb. 2026. His latest $5 million donation to Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC is his second-largest single donation after donating $5,444,975 to Future Forward PAC in 2024 to support Kamala Harris's failed presidential campaign.
Trump-backed Firebrand Wins Arizona Gop Governor Primary, Setting Up High-stakes Showdown

#donation

L&T Energy CarbonLite Solutions, a division of Indian conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T), has received a limited notice to proceed (LNTP) from NTPC for work on the main plant package at the 1.6GW Lara Stage-III thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh, India.
The contract covers the construction of two 800MW ultra-supercritical generating units.
The final notice to proceed will be issued once the project receives environmental clearance and the LNTP period is complete.
The company did not disclose the exact contract value but said it falls within the Rs100bn ($1.04bn)–Rs150bn range.
L&T will be responsible for designing, engineering, manufacturing, supplying, installing, testing and commissioning boilers, steam turbines, generators, electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) and air-cooled condensers (ACC), as well as their auxiliary systems.

#notice #proceed #solutions #larsen

AC Milan's Serie A campaign begins on 23 August, with an away trip to face Ignazio Abate's Torino. One curious statistic links the Rossoneri's last three league visits to Turin: each match featured a penalty. Yet AC Milan only came away victorious when the spot-kick was awarded to the opposition, in one of football's many quirks. The sequence began in February 2025. Torino took the lead through an own goal before referee Simone Sozza awarded AC Milan a first-half penalty. Christian Pulisic stepped up, but Milinković-Savić produced an excellent save. Despite creating numerous chances and eventually finding an equaliser, the Rossoneri ultimately fell to a 2-1 defeat.
A different outcome followed a few months later, in early October 2025, when referee Marco Guida pointed to the spot during Juventus vs AC Milan with the score still goalless. Once again, Pulisic took the penalty, but his effort drifted narrowly wide, and the match finished 0-0. Two months later, it was back to Turin once more. Early in the game between Torino and AC Milan, referee Chiffi awarded a penalty to the hosts. Vlašić converted to give Torino the lead, but after a dramatic and eventful contest, the Rossoneri fought back to secure a 3-2 victory. The penalty spot has also featured prominently in Mike Maignan's summer, who began his World Cup campaign by saving Erling Strand Larsen's penalty in France's victory over Norway. Before that save on the world stage, Maignan had already denied Dybala and Çalhanoğlu from the spot in Serie A, while the only players to beat him were Pellegrini (Roma) and Vlašić (Torino, twice).
The new AC Milan 2026/27 Home Kit is available: buy it now!

#spot

John Davidson is keeping his toe in the NHL pool, but the longtime executive and former TV ******* yst is no longer with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Blue Jackets' senior adviser since May 2024 and president of hockey operations in two stints before that is now senior adviser for the Buffalo Sabres, who announced the hiring July 13. The move reunites Davidson, 73, with former Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, the Sabres' GM whom Davidson hired for that role in Columbus in 2013.
Davidson also fired Kekalainen on Feb. 15, 2024, after the two signed off on the hiring of Mike Babcock as head coach, a stint that lasted just 78 days after the controversial coach was hired July 1, 2023, to succeed Brad Larsen.
Babcock resigned amid allegations that he violated players' privacy by pressuring them to show him photos on their cellphones. It ultimately led to an investigation by the NHL Players' ******* ociation followed by Kekalainen and Davidson taking the fall, with the former's eventual firing and the latter moving to a senior advisory spot in May 2024 after ******* isting a GM search that led to the Blue Jackets hiring Don Waddell as president/GM.
Davidson's contract ran out June 30.

Jude Bellingham scored in the third minute of extra time to lift England past Norway 2-1 and into the World Cup semifinals for the first time since 2018.
Bellingham’s goal was his second of the game — he also had an equalizer late in the first half. The Real Madrid star is now tied with England teammate Harry Kane with six goals in this tournament, behind the eight of France’s Kylian Mbappé and Argentina’s Lionel Messi. He scored twice in the round of 16 as England beat co-host Mexico.
England, winner of the 1966 World Cup and facing pressure to return to the **** le match, is now one win away from getting there. The Three Lions will face either Argentina or Switzerland, who were set to play Saturday night in Kansas City, Missouri.
Andreas Schjelderup scored in the 36th minute for Norway, a squad that reached its first quarterfinals and took the internet by storm with its “Viking row” and the charisma of 6-foot-5 striker Erling Haaland.
Haaland — the Manchester City star who had seven goals in this tournament — was held without a goal for the first time in the World Cup. He was subbed out on Saturday for Jorgen Strand Larsen in the second half of extra time.

Viewers were left stunned by Norway manager Stale Solbakken’s decision to substitute star striker Erling Haaland in extra time of their World Cup quarter-final with England, sparking injury fears.
Haaland has been at the heart of Norway’s impressive run at their first World Cup since 1998, scoring seven goals - including two in their sublime last-16 win over Brazil - to take the Scandinavian side to the last-eight.
But with Norway needing his goalscoring heroics more than ever as they trailed 2-1 to England, Haaland was bizarrely substituted at half-time of extra time by Solbakken.
He was replaced by Crystal Palace striker Jorgen Strand Larsen, who had battled illness the week prior to be fit for the clash in Miami.
“It has to be an injury,” Alan Shearer told BBC Sport. “There is no way you take Haaland off if you are in desperate need of a goal.”

Norway are dealing with an unwanted setback ahead of their World Cup quarter-final against England.
According to The Standard, several players have been affected by a sickness bug ahead of Saturday’s mouth-watering encounter in Miami.
Despite the illness spreading through the squad in recent days, head coach Stale Solbakken believes the situation is improving as his team prepares for their last-eight clash with England.
Reports from Norway claim several players have experienced flu-like symptoms since the start of the competition.
Among those affected were striker Jorgen Strand Larsen, who missed Norway’s opening match after falling ill, and defender Marcus Holmgren Pedersen, who was unavailable for the team’s shocking round-of-16 victory over Brazil for the same reason.

OTTUMWA — You never know when an opportunity will arise.
Quinn Larsen, for example, took full advantage of an opportunity to produce a power surge like few Ottumwa hitters have experienced. Stepping up with the first game of an Iowa Alliance Conference south division doubleheader at Des Moines East on the line, Larsen connected on the first of five home runs in six trips to the plate including a game-winning home run against the Scarlets and a two-run home run in a 7-1 win over ninth-ranked (4A) Fort Dodge.
The power surge helped spur Ottumwa to six wins in seven games at a key point of the season. The run not only helped the Bulldogs reach 20 wins in a season for the sixth straight summer, but helped Ottumwa to secure at least one extra home game this season as the Bulldogs prepare to host Iowa City High in a Class 4A, Substate 8 first round contest on Friday.
"It's a really good way to look at it. Our doubleheader with Iowa City Liberty didn't have to be our last two home games of the season," Larsen said. "If we played our best baseball, we knew we could earn this opportunity."
While the results weren't always in Ottumwa's favor, the lessons learned from a competitive schedule that featured 12 games against teams that spent time in the Class 4A statewide rankings this season. Three straight conference wins over Des Moines Roosevelt and Des Moines North, in which the Bulldogs outscored the Roughriders and Polar Bears 43-11, helped Ottumwa secure its 15th winning season in 16 years despite opening with four straight losses to top-10 opponents West Des Moines Valley and Indianola.

The Denver Broncos clearly liked what they saw from the St. Louis Battlehawks this spring.
In addition to agreeing to sign Battlehawks wide receiver Hakeem Butler, the Broncos are also signing St. Louis cornerback/returner Sean Fresch, according to a report from James Larsen of UFL Newsroom. Fresch (5-8, 173 pounds) worked out for the team last week, but he was not eligible to sign until after the UFL championship game on Saturday.
The 24-year-old cornerback played college football at Rice before totaling 29 tackles, four pass breakups and two sacks with the Battlehawks this spring (10 games). Fresch also returned 32 punts for 333 yards and three kickoffs for 85 yards during the 2026 UFL season.
WR Hakeem Butler
CB/PR Sean Fresch