Joy Covey,Helped Grow Amazon.com

Joy Covey,a high school dropout who rose to become a formative leader of Amazon.com,was killed Wednesday,September 18 in San Mateo County,California.She was struck by a minivan while cycling downhill on Skyline Boulevard near Portola Valley and was pronounced dead at the scene,a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.She was fifty years old.
The brilliant and beautiful blonde had been named to Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business 1999.The daughter of a doctor and a nurse,she dropped out of San Mateo High School in her freshman year,but passed the high school equivalency exam and graduated from Cal State Fresno in 1982 at age 19,when she passed the CPA exam,scoring second best in the nation.She worked for accounting firm Arthur Young LLP before attending Harvard,from which she earned her MBA and JD degrees in 1989.
Ms.Covey worked in Silicon Valley as chief financial officer for audio software firm Digidesign,Inc.,shepherding it through its IPO and eventual sale to Avid Technology,Inc. before accepting the CFO position at the fledgling Amazon.com in Seattle in 1996.At the time,it had only 150 employees.Her special role at Amazon was to help founder Jeff Bezos recruit senior management and be the firm's Wall Street liaison,sharing the money-losing company's vision with nervous investors.This freed Bezos to focus on the retailer's all-important customer experience.
A multimillionaire from her Amazon stock options compensation,Covey resigned from the rat race in 2000 to pursue her interests in extreme sports and the environment,earning her pilot's license and becoming a trustee and Treasurer at the Natural Resources Defense Council.She was appointed to the board of JetBlue Airways in 2003.
Ms.Covey is survived by her son Tyler,eight.Our sincere condolences to her friends and family.

Automotive Opportunity:CarMax Jobs

CarMax is hiring.They are looking for Detailers,Technicians and Sales Consultants.Among Fortune magazine's 100 Best Places to Work For,they are offering a generous benefits package.
CarMax:Join our team!
To apply online,visit carmax.com/careers
CarMax,Inc.(KMX)

Big Blue News:Rometty Begins IBM CEO Tenure

There has been very positive feedback so far to Ginni Rometty's accession to the CEO position at IBM on January 1.She has already filled the position she previously held at IBM,Senior Vice President and Group Executive,IBM Sales,Marketing and Strategy,as well as another Senior Vice President opening.I absolutely think she's capable of filling her predecessor Sam Palmisano's shoes to lead a nearly 400,000 employee firm,said Brad Zelnick,a Senior Analyst at Macquarie Capital.
Born in 1958,Ms.Rometty began her IBM career in 1981.She was number seven on Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2011,and has made the list for seven consecutive years.Ms.Rometty has a B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering with honors from Northwestern University,and serves on the University's Board of Trustees.
IBM is very well-positioned to perform against any number of economic backdrops,Mr.Zelnick feels.It has consistently reinvented itself.In the end,it comes down to intellectual property.IBM spends six billion dollars a year on R&D,as opposed to Oracle's four billion.The company is the number one U.S. Patent Office awardee.
We expect IBM to continue consolidating the software industry.It has roughly 12 billion more to spend on that,to acquire and drive that growth agenda.
We think IBM's road map is conservative.The stock is worth considerably more than what it trades for.Warren Buffett invested in it,and he isn't known for tech investing,Mr.Zelnick pointed out.
International Business Machines(IBM),Oracle(ORCL)

Novartis Honored By Fortune Magazine

Swiss health care firm Novartis was honored by Fortune magazine as its Most Admired pharmaceutical company for 2011.It recieved an overall score of 7.02,folowed by Merck at 6.80 and Johnson&Johnson at 6.72.Last year,Novartis came in third.
The rank was decided by a survey of pharmaceutical executives,directors and analysts.They used nine criteria such as investment value and social responsibility.
Novartis is the world's third-largest pharmaceutical firm by sales.
One of its leading products is Gleevec(imatinib),a pill for patients with certain forms of chronic myeloid leukemia(CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumors(GIST).Gleevec is also approved in the U.S.,EU and Japan for a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL) and other blood disorders.It has helped many patients stay in remission for several years.
Novartis also owns the OTC brands Theraflu and Comtrex.The company has an assistance program for uninsured or underinsured patients.
Novartis AG(NVS)

Time Warner Bridges the Worlds

TV is going on the Internet on demand,says Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes(pronounced Byu-kiss).There's still some mid-hanging fruit for industry growth.If you think about all the people with mobile devices,the TV industry is turning to it.There's a tremendous amount of economic activity when TV goes mobile.
Basically every device is becoming a TV.It is also going on overseas.Time Warner network CNN goes all over the planet.TV profits,viewers and ratings are all growing and healthy.
All these new devices have helped the TV industry figure out how to be easier to find and easier to use.We've got now 150 channels buying shows off of network TV.We license more shows to network and cable channels than anyone else.We haven't licensed to competing subscription services.You pay a subscription,you can have it on any device that you own.
We had pricing growth in the mid-teens.The revenue growth in Time Warner's HBO,CNN,TNT is very strong.The TV business,the film business is really quite strong.The Internet is a great development,but let's not forget the strength and vitality of the TV business,Mr.Bewkes reminded.
Time Warner is a media conglomerate that owns several major brands in journalism and entertainment.From Time,Life,Fortune and People magazines to CNN,HBO and Warner Brothers Pictures Group,as well as allied online properties,it is a global leader in the publishing,film and television industries.
Time Warner Cable and Warner Music Group are now independent entities.They were spun off from their parent,Time Warner,Inc.
Time Warner,Inc.(TWX)

CarMax Adds D.C. Staff

CarMax is adding staff at its D.C. stores.One of Fortune magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For,they are offering a generous benefits package,including a car discount and tuition assistance.They are looking for Detailers,Technicians and Sales Consultants.
CarMax says it as an engaging workplace with opportunities for advancement,recognition and fun.You may apply online at carmax.com/careers

Job Alert:Honored Firm Seeks Advisors

Edward Jones is recruiting a number of Financial Advisors for locations on both coasts.The firm will train candidates from a variety of backgrounds.Individuals must be self-managers,sales-oriented and highly driven.A member of the SIPC,Edward Jones is Fortune magazine's #2 "Best Company To Work For."
If interested in this position,go to careers.edwardjones.com/us/index.html

Big Firms:The Hiring Outlook

The Fortune 100 top companies are adding 65,000 jobs.Among them are Sears Holdings,parent of Sears and Kmart stores.They have 21,800 openings across the board,from executive to hourly positions.Lowe's,the home improvement retailer,needs 15,000 workers,many of them seasonal.Privately held New York Life is adding 3640 staff,especially sales and sales management positions.Bank of America seeks 3400 new hires for a broad assortment of assignments.
About 15 million Americans are looking for work,so the big firms won't even make a dent with their hiring.Still,it's better than layoffs and,historically,small firms have employed the bulk of the workforce.Most of the economic recovery is contingent upon small business,not the captains of industry.

Fortune Revenue Leaders

Fortune magazine has released its list of the top firms by revenue.They are:Wal-Mart(WMT),Exxon Mobil(XOM),Chevron(CVX),General Motors(GM),Conoco Phillips(COP),General Electric(GE),Ford Motor Company(F),Bank of America(BAC),Citigroup(C) and AT and T(T).