4/7/2021: On May 5, attorney Katherine Witherspoon Fry will present a one-hour webinar to address ways to limit legal liability and provide advice for creating a business plan that minimizes your workplace’s exposure to Covid-19 while maintaining productivity.

Fry is an employment law partner at the Pennsylvania-based law firm of Offit Kurman. She has 26 years of experience in employment law as a litigator, advisor, and mediator. She advises clients and litigates cases nationwide, and has made two appearances before to the U.S. Supreme Court. She also teaches HR law as an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware and is a Delaware Supreme Court-appointed hearing officer and certified mediator. She is a graduate of Duke University and the New York University School of Law.

The webinar, which will start at 1:30 pm EDT, will include a 50-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes for questions. Fry plans to present the “latest & greatest” in terms of new developments for policies, standards and more. Participants who have a topic they would like Fry to address can send it to her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“We think that members will benefit from Katherine’s expertise,” said chapter President John Accorsi, senior account/product manager, M. Holland. “The presentation will be forward-looking in terms of employees returning to the workplace as business travelers, with the pandemic hopefully in our rear-view mirror.”

“This program is actually a real education event that the New England Chapter is pleased to be able to offer to everyone,” said Lori Parent, who co-chairs the chapter’s education committee with Jonathan Rufe, Rainbow Rubber and Plastics, Inc.

The webinar is free to all WAI members and to non-members who sign up for a one-year membership prior to the event at a special rate of $75, with chapter membership added for $15. For more details on the event, and to register, go to wirenet.org.

4/6/2021: Rosendahl Nextrom reports that it has completed the extension at its site in Pischelsdorf, Austria, which has seen the addition of some 3,000 sq m over two levels.

A press release said that the newly created space was for the mechanical assembly, steel construction and warehouse departments. This warehouse was also partially built with a basement, resulting in a storage height of a good 16 m. The focus was on making work processes and daily work even more efficient. For example, automated parallel vertical storage systems were installed so orders could be processed even faster and more efficiently. Furthermore, the production processes have also been automated and thus improved.

“All in all, a very functional hall is now available,” the release said. The infrastructure design makes the hall future-proof and flexible. “Of course, good building physics is also important in order to be able to operate the hall economically in the future.

4/6/2021: Germany’s Leoni Group announced that it has sold Leoni Studer AG, part of the company’s Wire & Cable Solutions (WCS) division, to a consortium of buyers led by former Board member Bruno Fankhauser and Helvetica Capital.

A press release said that the sale was an important step towards focusing the Group on wiring systems business. The deal saw the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board sell Leoni Schweiz AG, which is the holding company of Leoni Studer AG, a specialist in high-quality cables and wires for complex applications in the industrial and infrastructure sectors. Both sides signed a corresponding agreement after several months of negotiation. The transaction is expected to be completed before the end of the first quarter of 2021.

Leoni announced that the company will sell the units of the Wire & Cable Solutions (WCS) division to focus on the wiring systems business. In the past financial year, Leoni laid the foundation for the reorganization of WCS into units to be sold. Leoni Schweiz AG is now the first unit being sold.

“The sale of Leoni Schweiz AG shows that besides the sequential improvement of our operating performance, we are also making progress in focusing on the wiring systems business,” said Leoni AG CEO Aldo Kamper. “The market environment for transactions appears to be steadily improving, and we received tangible indications of interest for further WCS units. We will sell further units if we achieve fair value and if buyers present a viable concept.”

The buyer consortium’s business concept for Leoni Schweiz AG envisions that the company will realize its full potential quickly and flexibly on an independent and stand-alone basis. The business will be further developed in the field of special and safety cables, halogen-free, flame-resistant plastics as well as irradiation cross-linking and sterilization.

As a long-standing member of the management of Studer AG and Leoni Schweiz AG, Bruno Fankhauser has been familiar with the business and the market for over 20 years and will contribute this expertise to the further development of the company as the future CEO of the independent Studer Cables. “We intend to further expand Leoni Studer’s leading position and its core technical competencies,” said Fankhauser. “With this step we are also providing stability and continuity for our employees and business partners.”

4/6/2021: The Prysmian Group will supply 770 km of submarine telecom cables for the Norte Conectado project—awarded by RNP, Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa, a Brazilian Internet provider—that will connect the city of Macapá to Santarém and Alenquer, which are located in the north of the Amazon region.

A press release said that Prysmian will provide its widely used MINISUB of repeaterless, optic submarine cables. They have a high fiber count that will be deployed in four separated links, enabling a reliable flow of data traffic to 9.2 million households. The project will enable connectivity cross 59 municipalities in northern Brazil, and makes it possible to extend it to other Amazonian countries. The cables will be produced at Prysmian’s plant in Nordenham, Germany, and delivered in the second half of 2021.

“We are honored to contribute to this valuable project and support sustainable development by improving the data connectivity for the local communities and public institutions,” said Prysmian Group Submarine Telecom BU Director Ashutosh Bhargavas. “Prysmian has been operating in Brazil for more than 90 years and is in the unique position to serve its customers directly from there.”