©Renee 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIT
- a particle in French names indicating a surname that the person used as a family name
- the shorter of the two symbols used in Morse code
- a French narrative poetic form of the Middle Ages most famously associated with Guillaume de Machaut (the word literally means “spoken”, i.e. a poem meant to be spoken and not sung). See Medieval French literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot
http://web.reporternews.com/dannyreagan/perot.html
By the way, Eugenia’s siblings were:
Joseph Nesbitt Perot (1880-1912, b. Lake End, La., d. El Paso, Tx.
Irene Elizabeth Perot (8/25/1882-1969, b. Lake End, La., d. Lawton, Ok.
Lillian Rose Perot (3/29/1886-?, b. Lake End, La.
Mary Julia Perot (11/15/1888-6/12/1963, b. Lake End, La., d. Shreveport, La.
Teresa Perot (d. 9/1891) – Perhaps Eugenia’s twin who died at 2 months of age.
Getting back to the famous H. Ross Perot. He was born on June 27, 1930, to Gabriel Elias (Ross) Perot and Lulu May Ray. Gabriel, or “Big Ross” as he was known even though he was only about 5 feet tall, moved to Texarkana from Louisiana and made his fortune in cotton. Gabriel was probably born around 1900 in Louisiana. I still haven’t found him yet, but I did find that name in the 1860 Natchitoches census. That Gabriel was the 8-year-old son of Omar, 40, and Mary E. (30) Perot. Omar was also a “planter,” worth $1,600 and $10,038.
Evidently, some Perots turned their cotton planting business into fortunes and some didn’t. H. Ross Perot’s branch did, and it appears my Perot branch didn’t.
Here’s a bit more of the Perot lineage taken from the Prodigy Services Company site:
H. Ross Perot’s paternal ancestry traces back to a French-Canadian immigrant to Louisiana in the 1740s. His full name was Pierre Joseph Francois Barthelemy Vildec dit Perot. Many French used what are called “dit names,” which denoted an alias or nickname by which a person was known. The Vildec and Perot names were used interchangeably in early records, but Vildec was the original name.
snip~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique-France_Picard
Princess Fadilla of Egypt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Picard
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/madoff-case-is-paying-off-for-trustee-850-an-hour/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Hostetler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_D._Baker
Newton Diehl Baker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Nesbit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bette_Nesmith_Graham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Frye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._R._Smith
http://genealogy.about.com/b/2010/07/08/understanding-dit-names.htm
http://www.francogene.com/quebec/ditnames.php
http://www.felbridge.org.uk/index.php?p=2_60
http://www.acadian.org/acadname.html
* NOTE* Nicknames are also occupations such as blacksmith became FORGERON (Thomas Sauvage family) as well as Butcher family of Andre’ SIMON became “BOUCHERS”.
More in comments to further explore the Perrot(Parrott), Smith, Lagreene, Black, dit la Fortune, Fontaine, Picard, Hughes etc..family tree.
MissTickly
The Sandy Monocle 
http://www.francogene.com/quebec/ditnames.php
What are dit names
A “dit name” is an alias given to a family name. Compared to other alias or a.k.a. that are given to one specific person, the dit names will be given to many persons. It seems the usage exists almost only in France, New France and in Scotland where we find clans or septs.
I have a photocopy of a 1471 land record rented by my ancestor Barthelemy Hugon dit Jarret which is called Bartelemeo Hugonis alias Jarreti in this record and some others. There is another Jarret in the area at this time with another dit name, so we can say the dit name was given, in that case, to distinguish the 2 different families. Barthelemy was living in Dauphine, like many soldiers of Carignan Regiment who came here in 1665-1668. While they were not the only ones nor the first to use dit names in New France, it seems those soldiers are responsible for the great extent the dit names reached in Quebec compared to France, Acadia or Louisiana . This would explain, for example, why there is a concentration of families with dit names around Lac St-Pierre where seigneuries belonged often to retired officers from Carignan regiment (Vercheres, Sorel, Contrecoeur, etc. to name a few).
Among some reasons of dit names, we find:
Surname used in the army (can also be combined with another reason)
Place of origin (Breton, Langlois, Langevin, etc.)
Land owned or inhabited by an ancestor (Beauregard is an example)
The full name of the ancestor (Gaston Guay -> Gastonguay -> Castonguay)
The first name of an ancestor (Vincent, Robert, etc.)
Keeping the original name (in local language) during the process of standardizing names to French
Miscellaneous
How to deal with them
A generic person’s name is built like this:
Joseph Jarret dit Beauregard
Joseph is the first name
Jarret is, in this case, the patronym or ancestral family name
Beauregard is, in this case, the dit name
After some generations, it is no more obvious what is the specific patronym or dit name, so we will find Beauregard dit Jarret. Moreover, it is also possible both family and dit names are switched the first time someone used a dit name.
In the records, dit names are actual alias, that is, they can be legally used to replace the original patronym. Because of this, one will find the same person known as:
Joseph Jarret
Joseph Beauregard
Joseph Jarret dit Beauregard
Joseph Beauregard dit Jarret
What this means? If you are looking for the marriage of a Joseph Beauregard married with Jeanne Joachim, you may find it as Joseph Jarret married with Jeanne Laverdure (a dit name for Joachim).
Other name variations
Dit names are not the only method of combining or changing family names.
There are also errors like switching first name and family name in one record (for example, I have a Richard VINCENT who is actually Vincent RICHARD), changing a first name to a family name (there is a Claude VINCENT who is Claude-Vincent MENNESON). The only difference with dit names in this case is that the combination happened only one time. There are spelling variations so that a Bourgault would be name Beauregard in a record. There is also a modern concept in Quebec that consists in giving both the names of the father and the mother.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_family
The Howard family is an English aristocratic family founded by John Howard who was created Duke of Norfolk (3rd creation) by Plantagenet monarch Richard III of England in 1483. However, John was also the eldest (although maternal) grandson of the 1st Duke of 1st creation. The Howards have been part of the nobility since the 15th century and remain the Premier Dukes of the Realm in the Peerage of England, acting as Earl Marshal of England. After the English Reformation many Howards remained steadfast in their Catholic faith as the most high profile recusant family; two members, Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel and William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford are regarded as martyrs: a saint and a blessed respectively.
The senior line of the house, as well as holding the Dukedom of Norfolk, are also Earl of Arundel, Earl of Surrey and Earl of Norfolk, as well as holding six baronies. The Arundel title was inherited in 1580, when the Howards became the genealogical successors to the paternally extinct FitzAlans, ancient kin to the Stuarts, dating back to when the family first arrived in Great Britain from Brittany. Thomas Howard, the 4th Duke of Norfolk’s first wife was Mary FitzAlan, who after the death of her brother Henry in 1556 became heiress to the Arundel Estates of her father Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel. Her son was the above Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel. It is from this marriage that the present Duke of Norfolk takes his name of ‘FitzAlan-Howard’ and why his seat is in Arundel Castle. There have also been several notable cadet branches; those existing to this day include the Howards of Effingham, Howards of Carlisle, Howards of Suffolk and Howards of Penrith. The former three are earldoms and the latter a barony.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Stewart
Martha Stewart (born Martha Helen Kostyra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Johnson's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Castle_(restaurant)
*COHEN*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Cosell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_and_Irene_Castle
Soundex Code for Castle = C234
Other surnames sharing this Soundex Code:
CASTEEL | CASTILE | CASTILLO | CASTLE | CASTLEBERRY | CASTLEMAN | COGDELL | COSTELLO | COSTILLO | COSTILOW | COSTLEY |
Jean Roberts was born at The Lodge, Little Hedgecourt (now known as Hedgecourt House) where her father, William Sargent, was employed as a gardener. The following are her memories of her childhood in the gardens and surrounding area from the 1930’s to the early 1950’s. Jean takes you on a walk of the gardens, with numbered references in the text that correspond to the attached map. Take a stroll with Jean around Little Hedgecourt, as it was, the country home of Andre Simon, President of the Wine and Food Society.
Little Hedgecourt, 1930-1950
Little Hedgecourt is situated on the Northern side of Copthorne Road, the property running the length of the lakeside. Little Hedgecourt Farm was part of the Felbridge Place estate, but after the sale, in 1911, the Pattenden family, who had farmed there since 1823, moved on, and the property was eventually sold, in 1915, to a Mrs Marion Hoppe, who proceeded to extend the house. There is no written evidence but it is thought the inglenook in the drawing room and the bedroom above was probably the last building work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He had been commissioned to design a much larger extension, but the Hoppe’s sold to the Simon family before this was carried out. In 1920, Andre Simon, with his wife and family of three daughters and two sons came to live there, and that is when my father William Sargent, joined the work force of five gardeners. Andre Simon had great visions for the property and work commenced with the house adding a new kitchen, cellar, larger dining room, four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Electricity and water had also to be connected, as there was only a well at the back, and water had to be pumped to the existing bathroom. A local builder carried out the building work by the name of Mills, who also lived in Copthorne Road. There was also a Lodge bungalow built, for the Head Gardener and my parents were then able to live in Lake Cottage, later they were moved to The Lodge, where I was born. By the 30’s a lot of alterations had been made to the surrounding farmland, of which there was some 28 acres, which had been composed of rough grazing and woodland. By the time I was old enough to remember the gardens there were many delightful features.
http://www.iwfs.org/americas/a.j.a.-symons
If you were asked to name the founder of the International Wine & Food Society, you would probably answer without hesitation that it was André Simon, whose memory still dominates the organization 34 years after his death. But in truth the IWFS had two founders, and in the early days of the Wine & Food Society (as it then was) they operated as a genuine partnership.
André Simon, then aged 23, married Edith Symons in 1900. In the same year, Alphonse James Albert Symons was born, the eldest of five children of an English mother and a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, about whose origins little is known except that his name was not originally Symons. AJA and Edith were not related, but in view of later events the coincidence of surnames was a strange one. Not unnaturally, Alphonse disliked his first name, preferring to be called “AJ”, after AJ Raffles, the fictional cricketer and gentleman burglar created by EW Hornung, the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
If he had not been involved in the founding of the Society, AJ would still occupy a minor place in the pantheon of English literature. Today, he is remembered for just one book, The Quest for Corvo, published in 1934 and still in print. Baron Corvo was the pseudonym of the strange figure of Frederick Rolfe, whose best-known work, Hadrian the Seventh, is a fantasy based on its author’s failure to become a Roman Catholic priest.
The word “dilettante” might have been coined to describe AJ, who was a dandy, bibliophile, calligrapher, gambler, and compulsive collector of such items as musical boxes and Victorian card cases. His father was an auctioneer, whose brief period of prosperity came to an abrupt halt in 1921. AJ, who left school at 14, and served a three-year apprenticeship to a firm of fur traders (a period he subsequently likened to Dickens’ time working in a blacking factory) went on to assist his father, but when the auction rooms had to be sold AJ needed to find new employment.
The tall and elegant young man went on to start the First Edition Club. He had a series of financial backers, who at one time included the Foyle brothers, owners of the famous bookshop in Charing Cross Road. For a time, the Club operated from Vestry Hall at the Church of St George, Bloomsbury, in Little Russell Street near the British Museum.
Early in 1924, Symons married Gladys Weeks. AJ was an inveterate founder and joiner of clubs and societies, and in his mid twenties he found himself a member of a distinguished dining club called Ye Sette of Odd Volumes. There he met Maurice Healy, the Irish barrister and author of Stay Me with Flagons, one of the greatest of all wine books. Healy in turn introduced the young bibliophile to André Simon, by that time a successful wine merchant, author and acknowledged expert on gastronomy.
In the meantime AJ achieved his ambition of turning the First Edition Club into a limited company, and moved to grand new premises at 17 Bedford Square, with a flat for the Secretary, in the heart of literary London. With a typical Symons flourish, the new premises were opened in May 1928 by ex-king Manoel of Portugal. The Club spawned a magazine called The Book-Collector’s Quarterly, which was a joint venture with the publishing house of Cassell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassell_(publisher)
Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817-1865). In December 1998 Cassell & Co was bought by the Orion Publishing Group. In January 2002 Cassell imprints, including the Cassell Reference and Cassell Military were joined with the Weidenfeld imprints to form a new division under the name of Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd.[1] Cassell Illustrated survives as an imprint of the Octopus Publishing Group.
[edit] HistoryJohn Cassell (1817-1865), who was in turn a carpenter, temperance preacher, tea and coffee merchant, finally turned to publishing. His first publication was on 1 July 1848, a weekly newspaper called The Standard of Freedom advocating religious, political, and commercial freedom.[2] The Working Man’s Friend became another popular publication. In 1849 Cassell was dividing his time between his publishing and his grocery business. In 1851 his expanding interests led to his renting part of La Belle Sauvage, a London inn which had been a playhouse in Elizabethan times. La Belle Sauvage was destroyed in 1941 by WWII bombing.
Thomas Dixon Galpin who came from Dorchester in Dorset and George William Petter who was born in Barnstaple in Devon were partners in a printing firm and on John Cassell’s bankruptcy in June 1855 acquired the publishing company and Cassell’s debts. Between 1855 and 1858 the printing firm operated as Petter and Galpin and their work was published by W. Kent & Co.
John Cassell was relegated to being a junior partner after becoming solvent in 1858, the firm being known as Cassell, Petter & Galpin. With the arrival of a new partner, Robert Turner, in 1878, it became Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Company. Galpin was the astute business manager.[3] George Lock, the founder of Ward Lock, another publishing house, was Galpin’s first cousin. Petter resigned in 1883 as a result of disagreement over publishing fiction, and in 1888 the company name was changed to Cassell & Co, Ltd. following Galpin’s retirement and Petter’s death.
Sir Thomas Wemyss Reid was general manager until 1905 when Arthur Spurgeon took over and revitalised the firm. Mainly magazine publishers, Spurgeon concentrated on reviving the book business. In 1923 the company was floated on the Stock Exchange and a few years later the magazines owned by the company were sold to Amalgamated Press following many industrial disputes.
In October 1992, Cassell & Co bought Victor Gollancz Ltd from Houghton Mifflin. In December 1998 the company was taken over by Orion Publishing Group. In 1999, Cassell’s academic and religious lists were merged with the American company Continuum to form the Continuum International Publishing Group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_%26_Cooke
http://fandaily.info/celebrity-couples/nancy-sale-johnson-is-ahmad-rashad-wife/
63-year-old Ahmad Rashad a University of Oregon graduate who began his career with the NFL in 1972 with the Cardinals of St. Louis, throughout his 10 years as a pro football player he played with the the Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks and the Minnesota Vikings. He retired in 1982 at the age of 33.
He has been married four times, his first wife was Deidre Waters in 1969, the mother of his eldest daughter Keva born a year later.
In 1976 he wedded his second wife Matilda Johnson mother of two other children, his 36-year-old daughter Maiyisha and 34-year-old son Ahmad Jr, After the third divorce he tied the knot to his third wife, Phylicia Ayers-Allen aka Phylicia Rashad December 14, 1985, she became famous for her role as Clair Huxtable in the Cosby Show, they had one daughter together 26-year-old Condola Phylea Rash?d (an actress), he became the stepfather of Phylicia 40-year-old son William Lancelot Bowles III from her first marriage to William Lancelot Bowles, a dentist.
Ahmad and the famous actress divorced in 2001, three years later he was saying his fourth “I Do” with our girl Nancy Sale Johnson.
More on Erskine, Parker, Dailey, Bowles etc..here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Johnson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bill_Cosby_Show
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procter_%26_Gamble
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Johnson_(wine)
Hugh Johnson OBE[1] (born 10 March 1939) is a British author and expert on wine. He is considered the world’s best-selling wine writer.[2][3] His 1961 tasting of a bottle of 1540 Steinwein from the German vineyard Würzburger Stein is considered to potentially be one of the oldest wines to have ever been tasted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Simon_(wine)
André Simon (28 February 1877 – 5 September 1970) was a French-born wine merchant, gourmet, and prolific writer about wine. Hugh Johnson describes him as “the charismatic leader of the English wine trade for almost all of the first half of the 20th century, and the grand old man of literate connoisseurship for a further 20 years.
Soundex Code for Sale = S400
Other surnames sharing this Soundex Code:
SALA | SALE | SALLEE | SALLEY | SALO | SAUL | SAWHILL | SCHALL | SCHEEL | SCHELL | SCHILL | SCHOLL | SCHOOLEY | SCULL | SCULLY | SEAL | SEALE | SEALEY | SEELEY | SEELY | SELL | SELLE | SELWAY | SEWELL | SHALLA | SHAULL | SHAWLEY | SHEELY | SHELL | SHELLEY | SHELLY | SHIEL | SHOUL | SHULL | SILL | SKALA | SKELLY | SLY | SLYE | SOLEY | SOLLEE | SOULE | SOWELL | SWALLOW | SWILLEY |
Soundex Code for Sales = S420
Other surnames sharing this Soundex Code:
SALES | SALLIS | SALLS | SAYLES | SCALES | SCHLACK | SCHLEKAU | SCHLOSS | SCHOLES | SCHOLZ | SCHULKE | SCHULZ | SCHULZE | SCOLES | SEALOCK | SEALS | SEELKE | SELCH | SELLS | SILK | SILLS | SKILES | SLACK | SLISKY | SLOUGH | SLYGH | SOLES | SOLIS | SULEK | SULLICK | SUWALKI | SWALES |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Seal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seals_and_Crofts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(musician)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_and_Marty_Krofft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_Foods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houghton_Mifflin
The company was formerly known as Houghton Mifflin Company but changed its name following the 2007 acquisition of Harcourt Publishing.[2] Prior to March 2010, it was a subsidiary of Education Media and Publishing Group Limited, an Irish-owned holding company registered in the Cayman Islands and formerly known as Riverdeep.
[edit] Potted history This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)
In 1832, William Ticknor and James Thomas Fields had gathered an impressive list of writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. The duo formed a close relationship with Riverside Press, a Boston printing company owned by Henry Oscar Houghton. Shortly after, Houghton also founded a publishing company with partner George Mifflin. In 1880, Ticknor and Fields and Houghton and Mifflin merged their operations, combining the literary works of writers with the expertise of a publisher and creating a new partnership named Houghton, Mifflin and Company. The company still had debt from when it merged from Houghton, Osgood and Company, so it decided to add partners. In 1884, James D. Hurd, the son of Melancthon Hurd became a partner. Three people in 1888 became partners as well: James Murray Kay, Thurlow Weed Barnes, and Henry Oscar Houghton, Jr.
Shortly thereafter the company established an Educational Department, and from 1891 to 1908 sales of educational materials increased by 500 percent. Soon after 1916, Houghton Mifflin became involved in publishing standardized tests and testing materials, working closely with such test developers as E.F. Lindquist. The company was the fourth-largest educational publisher in the United States in 1921.
In 1961, Houghton Mifflin famously passed on Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, giving it up to Alfred A. Knopf who later published it in 1962. It went on to become an overnight success and is considered by many to be the bible of French cooking. Houghton Mifflin’s strategic error was depicted in the 2009 film Julie & Julia.[unreliable source?]
In 1967, Houghton Mifflin became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol HTN. The company is currently privately held and no longer trades under this symbol.
Under (new from 1991) president Nader F. Darehshori Houghton Mifflin acquired in 1994 for $138 million[3] McDougal Littell, an educational publisher of secondary school materials, and in following year D.C. Heath and Company,[4] a publisher of supplemental educational resources. In 1996, the company created their Great Source Education Group to combine the supplemental material product lines of their School Division and these two companies.
[edit] Creation of Houghton Mifflin HarcourtMergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities have had major effects on this company.
[edit] Vivendi purchaseIn 2001, Houghton Mifflin was acquired by French media giant Vivendi Universal for $2.2 billion including assumed debt. In 2002, facing mounting financial and legal pressures, Vivendi sold Houghton to private equity investors Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital, and The Blackstone Group for $1.66 billion, including assumed debt (approximately 25% less than Vivendi had paid a year earlier).[5][6]
[edit] Riverdeep merger with Houghton MifflinOn December 22, 2006, it was announced that Riverdeep PLC had completed its acquisition of Houghton Mifflin. The new joint enterprise would be called the Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group. Riverdeep paid $1.75 billion in cash and assumed $1.61 billion in debt from the private investment firms Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group.[7] Tony Lucki, a former non-executive director of Riverdeep, remained in his position as the company’s chief executive officer until April 2009.[8]
Houghton Mifflin sold its professional testing unit, Promissor, to Pearson plc in 2006. The company combined its remaining assessment products within Riverside Publishing, including San Francisco-based Edusoft.
[edit] Harcourt mergerOn July 16, 2007 Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep announced that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Harcourt Education, Harcourt Trade and Greenwood-Heinemann divisions of Reed Elsevier for $4 billion. The expanded company would become Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. McDougal Littel was merged with Harcourt’s Holt, Rinehart & Winston to form Holt McDougal.
On December 3, 2007, Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson Learning) announced that it had agreed to acquire the assets of the Houghton Mifflin College Division for $750 million, pending regulatory approval.
On November 25, 2008, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced a temporary freeze on acquisition of new trade division titles, allegedly in response to the economic crisis of 2008.[9] The publisher of the trade division resigned, apparently in protest.[10] Many observers familiar with the publishing industry saw the move as a devastating blunder.[11][12]
Harcourt Religion was sold to Our Sunday Visitor in 2009 [13]
[edit] Houghton Mifflin Harcourt restructuringOn July 27, 2009, the Irish Independent newspaper reported that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s controlling shareholder EMPG was in the process of a re-structuring negotiations with its unsecured-debt holders that would lead to the conversion of the debt into equity. The news story reported that the unsecured debt holders would receive a 45% equity stake. As a result, the royal family of Dubai via their Istithmar World Capital investment vehicle became major stakeholders.[14] Estimates were that EMPG would cut its debt from $7.3bn to $6.1bn. On August 15, 2009, the Financial Times newspaper reported in an interview with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s CEO at the time, Barry O’Callaghan, that the refinancing had received approval of more than 90% of lenders. The terms included the holding company debt converting into 45% of the fully diluted common equity, an effective 25 per cent relaxation of financial covenants, second lien lenders agreeing to convert their holdings into a PIK instrument, reducing annual interest costs by $100m, and a further $50m increase its working capital facility.[15]
[edit] Second round restructuringA further restructuring of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s debts was confirmed by the company on 13 January 2010.[16] The proposed restructuring materially impacted the shareholders of EMPG, the former holding company of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.[17]
[edit] Recapitalization in 2010On 22 February 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that EMPG and HMH had reached an agreement to restructure the finances of the company and recapitalize its balance sheet with a substantial fresh cash investment by institutional investors.[18]
The agreement, supported by 100% of HMH’s creditors, highlighted a reduction in the senior debt to $3 billion from the current $5 billion, with new equity issued to the senior debt holders (including Paulson & Co. and Guggenheim Partners),[19] conversion of the $2 billion mezzanine debt into equity and warrant, receipt of $650m of new cash from the sale of new equity. In addition to the key highlights, HMH announced its new $100m Innovation Fund, to invest in the next generation of technology for the education industry.
The Irish Times[20] reported that the investments by the then equity holders of EMPG, including HMH’s CEO at the time, Barry O’Callaghan, private clients of Davy Stockbrokers, Reed Elsevier, and others of over $3.5 billion would be written down to zero. Additionally, the Irish Independent reported that following the restructuring, the investors of EMPG would have a nominal investment in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via warrants over 5% of the company if it exceeded the $10 billion valuation[21] placed on the company at the time of the merger between Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep and Harcourt. In addition to the warrants in HMH, the EMPG shareholders would continue to own a stake in the international investment vehicle, EMPGI which has stakes in China, the Middle East and elsewhere.
The Financial Times reported[22] that no management changes were expected as part of the deal with both the CEO at the time, Barry O’Callaghan and the CFO, Michael Muldowney expected to remain in their roles. The Times reported that a new nine-member board was to be created with the CEO the only executive representative, one independent, two representative of Paulson & Co, and one director from each of Apollo, BlackRock, Guggenheim Partners, Fidelity and Avenue Capital.
On 10 March 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it had completed its re-capitalization.[23] In addition to a new investment of $ 650 million of equity, the debt levels of the company were reduced by approximately 60% and the annual interest payments by over 75%. According the Irish State Broadcaster, RTE, the old equity investors based in Ireland has lost all their investment.[24] The Irish Independent reported that the old shareholders were denied a shareholders meeting to vote or discuss the restructuring.[25] The former shareholders have been left with warrants over 5% of the company, in the case its value recovers to previous levels.
On 19 September 2011, it was announced that Linda K. Zecher would be replacing Barry O’Callahan as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt after O’Callahan resigned in order to spend more time with his family. Linda came to HMH from Microsoft, where she had built its $8 billion Worldwide Public Sector business. At Microsoft, she led a global team of nearly 2,000 professionals to provide innovative technology and programs to customers in the education, government, and healthcare sectors. During her tenure at Microsoft, Linda oversaw the Company’s global education efforts, including programs and initiatives such as Shape the Future and Partners in Learning, which connects educators and school leaders to improve student performance. Linda currently works out of the corporate headquarters in Boston.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Elsevier
*LAMERT*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispin_Davis
Ian Edward Lamert Davis (born 10 March 1951) was a longtime top senior partner and director at management consultancy McKinsey & Company, serving as managing director (chief executive) from 2003 to 2009. He succeeded Rajat Gupta on 1 July 2003. He joined McKinsey in 1979, retired in 2010 and currently serves as a senior partner emeritus.
Davis was born in Kent, UK. Prior to becoming managing director, he was office manager of McKinsey’s London and UK office. He has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford University.[1] He is a member of the board of BP.
He is the brother of former Reed Elsevier chairman Crispin Davis.[2]
Davis is a Non-Executive Director at Johnson & Johnson Inc, BP plc, Teach For All Inc, Big Society Trust and Majid Al Futtaim Holdings LLC. He is a Senior Adviser to Apax Partners LLP, a Non-Executive Board Member at the UK Cabinet Office and an Advisory Director of King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Davis
*LAMBERT*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Lambert_Mellon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinsey_%26_Company
http://www.iwfs.org/americas/a.j.a.-symons
If you were asked to name the founder of the International Wine & Food Society, you would probably answer without hesitation that it was André Simon, whose memory still dominates the organization 34 years after his death. But in truth the IWFS had two founders, and in the early days of the Wine & Food Society (as it then was) they operated as a genuine partnership.
André Simon, then aged 23, married Edith Symons in 1900. In the same year, Alphonse James Albert Symons was born, the eldest of five children of an English mother and a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, about whose origins little is known except that his name was not originally Symons. AJA and Edith were not related, but in view of later events the coincidence of surnames was a strange one. Not unnaturally, Alphonse disliked his first name, preferring to be called “AJ”, after AJ Raffles, the fictional cricketer and gentleman burglar created by EW Hornung, the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
If he had not been involved in the founding of the Society, AJ would still occupy a minor place in the pantheon of English literature. Today, he is remembered for just one book, The Quest for Corvo, published in 1934 and still in print. Baron Corvo was the pseudonym of the strange figure of Frederick Rolfe, whose best-known work, Hadrian the Seventh, is a fantasy based on its author’s failure to become a Roman Catholic priest.
The word “dilettante” might have been coined to describe AJ, who was a dandy, bibliophile, calligrapher, gambler, and compulsive collector of such items as musical boxes and Victorian card cases. His father was an auctioneer, whose brief period of prosperity came to an abrupt halt in 1921. AJ, who left school at 14, and served a three-year apprenticeship to a firm of fur traders (a period he subsequently likened to Dickens’ time working in a blacking factory) went on to assist his father, but when the auction rooms had to be sold AJ needed to find new employment.
The tall and elegant young man went on to start the First Edition Club. He had a series of financial backers, who at one time included the Foyle brothers, owners of the famous bookshop in Charing Cross Road. For a time, the Club operated from Vestry Hall at the Church of St George, Bloomsbury, in Little Russell Street near the British Museum.
Early in 1924, Symons married Gladys Weeks. AJ was an inveterate founder and joiner of clubs and societies, and in his mid twenties he found himself a member of a distinguished dining club called Ye Sette of Odd Volumes. There he met Maurice Healy, the Irish barrister and author of Stay Me with Flagons, one of the greatest of all wine books. Healy in turn introduced the young bibliophile to André Simon, by that time a successful wine merchant, author and acknowledged expert on gastronomy.
In the meantime AJ achieved his ambition of turning the First Edition Club into a limited company, and moved to grand new premises at 17 Bedford Square, with a flat for the Secretary, in the heart of literary London. With a typical Symons flourish, the new premises were opened in May 1928 by ex-king Manoel of Portugal. The Club spawned a magazine called The Book-Collector’s Quarterly, which was a joint venture with the publishing house of Cassell.
Symons’ self-composed epitaph was that “No one so poor has lived so well”
Soundex Code for Symons = S552
Other surnames sharing this Soundex Code:
SAMMONS | SAUMENIG | SEAMANS | SIMINGTON | SIMMONS | SIMNING | SIMONS | SIMONSEN | SIMONSON | SYMONS | SZYMANSKI |