Berlitz CEO Retires; Restructuring Set
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Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on March 22, 2000. All rights reserved.
Cyanamid, Berlitz, Newfields
Top Of PageGoing Once: Cyanamid to BASF
The cows at the corner of Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road
have apparently found a buyer. A German chemical company, BASF, offered
to pay American Home Products more than $3.8 billion for American
Cyanamid’s Agricultural Products Division. Also bidding in this auction
were Bayer, Dow Chemical, and Sumitomo Chemical.
American Home Products is getting rid of its agricultural business
so it will be a more attractive merger partner. BASF, now the 9th
largest agro-chemical company would be in the top three. It will use
the Cyanamid marketing force to introduce its own crop-protection
products. The Quakerbridge Road site, American Cyanamid’s global headquarters
for agricultural and biological research, has about 700 employees,
including 100 who work for another division of AHP.
American Cyanamid Agricultural Products Research Division(AHP), Quakerbridge Road, Box 400, Princeton 08543-0400. MarkW. Atwood, president, global agricultural products research division.609-716-2000; fax, 609-275-5234. Home page: www.cyanamid.com.Top Of PageBerlitz CEO Retires; Restructuring SetThe CEO of Berlitz, Hiromasa Yokoi, is retiring effectiveJune 30, and the Alexander Road-based company with more than 320 languagecenters and publishing and translation operations in 34 countriesis restructuring into two entities, Berlitz Language Services andBerlitz GlobalNET.The former company will do language instruction, franchising, cross-culturaltraining, and ELS Language Centers and will be steered by Mako Obara,president and CEO. GlobalNET will do language-related document management,software localization, translation, and interpretation services, withJames Lewis as president and CEO.Yokoi has been vice chairman, CEO, and president since 1993. JamesKahl will take the post of vice chairman and report to Soichiro Fukutake,chairman. Also retiring are Henry D. James, executive vice presidentand CFO, to be replaced by Robert Minsky. David Horn is leaving asvice president of human resources and administration. About 150 peopleare employed at the Alexander Road headquarters.Berlitz International (BTZ), 400 Alexander Park,Princeton 08540. Hiromasa Yokoi, CEO. 609-514-9650; fax, 609-514-9675.Home page: www.berlitz.com.Top Of PageNew in Town: NewfieldsGeostatistics are what an engineer can use to evaluateenvironmental data when the litigation isn’t going your way. NewfieldsInc., a company experienced in the art of using geostatistics, hasopened an office at 103 Carnegie Center. Christopher Finley is incharge, and Commercial Property Network was the broker.Newfields is known for strategic environmental management and litigationsupport. “We’ve been very successful in reducing Fortune 500 company’senvironmental liabilities through the use of geostatistics,” Finleysays. Based in Atlanta, the firm also does environmental consultingand engineering and property divestment and acquisitions. Its Fortune500 clients are most often the petrochemical and chemical firms.Founded in 1985, Newfields also has offices in Dallas, Sacramento,and Denver. Bill Hall, the co-founder, is a former partner at theprominent environmental consulting firm, Dames & Moore. Shahrokh Rouhani,the technical guru, formerly taught at Georgia Tech. Rouhani wrotethe training manual on geostatistics for the American Society forTesting Materials.Finley grew up in Berkeley Heights, where his mother taught schooland his father was a vice president of Lord & Taylor. He studied civilengineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, Class of 1990. Afterworking for the city of Rochester as an engineer, he went to smallNew Jersey consulting firm and then managed the Handex office in Morganville.”Geostatistics helps to determine the spatial relationship ofenvironmental data,” says Finley. “One way to apply it isto determine the background levels versus actual areas of discharge.”For instance, if a smelting plant is discharging pollutants, the engineerscould determine what metals (arsenic? chromium?) are coming from thesmelting plant versus what was already in the ground. “We determinewhether there was a pathway to the responsible party,” he says.Ordinary cases can last from two to five years, but cases run longerwhen people claim that an exposure has resulted in adverse healtheffect. His projects include “potable well impacts” (whethera manufacturer has polluted area wells) in New Jersey, Connecticut,and Massachusetts. “We negotiate and manage high liability caseswhere there has been an impact on potable drinking water,” hesays.Newfields Inc., 103 Carnegie Center, Suite 109,Princeton 08540. Christopher Finley, associate. 609-514-1010; fax,609-514-0055. Home page: www.newfields.com.Top Of PageLeaving TownVideo Software Limited, 20 Homestead Road, Suite1 C, Belle Mead 08502. Eric Belove, president.After the firm was acquired by LCI Communications in Manhattan, EricBelove closed his marketing firm in Hillsborough. “LCI Communicationsis a well-known meetings and events planning firm, and we have becomeLCI’s new media division,” says Belove. He can be reached at 212-937-1006.Top Of PageDeathsBernice J. Bullock-Kitchin, 45, on March 13. She workedat Educational Testing Service.Madeline Zebrowski, 57, on March 11. She had worked atMcLean Engineering.Helen Reef, 75, on March 15. Until 1998 she was deputyregistrar for the health department of Princeton Borough.Glentworth Lamb, 79, on March 16. He had been a biologistwith American Cyanamid.Earl M. Briel, 71, on March 17. He was an owner of ScubaExperience and Aquatic on Nottingham Way.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
