Servicio Empresarial
Hispanic News Agency (HINA)
De un total de $2.4 mil millones en inversión de capital hecho por ComEd en el 2015 -la más grande en tres décadas-, $653 millones fueron destinados a negocios en manos de minoría, de mujeres y veteranos, informó la empresa.
Mientras que el total de capital invertido representa un incremento del 42 por ciento, en comparación con lo desembolsado en el 2014, el gasto en proveedores de este grupo de diversidad se incrementó aún más alto, 57 por ciento, como un reflejo del compromiso de la compañía de crecer financieramente y, al mismo tiempo, aumentar los gastos en empresas en desventaja, agrega.
La información aparece en el más reciente reporte de Negocios de Diversidad, Veteranos y Pequeños Negocios como así lo requiere la Comisión de Comercio de Illinois (ICC),
El Acta de Modernización de la Infraestructura de Energía (EIMA) o la “Smart Grid Law” fue formulada por la Asamblea General de Illinois en 2011, y que autoriza a ComEd a invertir $2.6 mil millones en 10 años, para fortalecer y modernizar el sistema, en un esfuerzo que está resultando en el mejoramiento del servicio, el ahorro operacional y de los clientes en el pago de las facturas, entre otros beneficios.
Según el comunicado de prensa de ComEd, el programa ha llevado a la instalación de cientos de miles de cables subterráneos, el reemplazo de miles de postes eléctricos, la modernización de subestaciones y la instalación de un sinnúmero de medidores inteligentes (smart meters) a lo largo del norte de Illinois.
La legislación establece un amplio rango de desempeño por servicios, incluido un gasto con proveedores de Diversidad en al menos 15 por ciento en los próximos 10 años.
Desde el 2012, ComEd ha hecho un total de $4 mil millones en gastos a la cadena de proveedores, incluido 1.6 mil millones para negocios en manos de minorías, mujeres y veteranos.
Solo en el 2015, la compañía gastó un total de $314 millones con proveedores de Illinois, para exceder con creces el objetivo de los $68 millones para todo el año.
“La Diversidad es el centro de la cultura de ComEd y crear oportunidades para los proveedores de diversidad e la clave para hallar el cambio necesario en nuestros clientes, así que nuestra gasto en diversidad continuará creciendo”, dijo Anne Pramaggiore, presidente y CEO de ComEd.
Chicago-area plastic surgeon helps people feel like themselves again
Dr. Carlos Farias opened InsideLook MD with the Latino community in mind
By Tara García Mathewson
Dr. Carlos Farias trusts his skills as a plastic surgeon enough to operate on his own mother. While that surprised her, initially, the doctor’s confidence speaks to his vast experience in the field.
While the average plastic surgeon does about five facelifts per year, racking up less than 200 in a 35-year career, Farias has done more than 6,000. And he knows facelifts scare people. Everyone has seen a celebrity take plastic surgery too far. Yet Farias guarantees a natural look. Not just because he is confident in his own skills, but he know the limits of his technique.
“I tell people ‘I’m not promising you that you’re going to look natural — it’s 100 percent,’” Farias said. “There’s a big difference between something that is a promise and something that is just a fact.”
The type of facelift Farias has perfected throughout his career works on the facial muscles, never deeper than that. While he says in all his thousands of patients there have been some who have been disappointed, none have said it was because the facelift left them looking unnatural.
Farias’ mother, Linda, says she was amazed by his confidence when he suggested a facelift for her. Even with her son in the business she wouldn’t have considered the procedure without his prodding. But Linda, now 73, was going through a tough time back in 2005 and her son invited her up to Missouri, where he was working at the time, for a facelift. A few years later he followed it up with a laser procedure on her neck.
“I know it may sound kind of trite to say it changed my life but I had come to the point in my life … where I didn’t even want to look in the mirror anymore,” she said.
“You have to go through it to understand really how life-changing it can be for you.”
Now Linda is the first face her son’s patients see when they walk into his newly opened Downers Grove practice,InsideLook MD, co-founded with Dr. Robert Paresi. As the patient care coordinator, Linda has been excited to see the confidence boost plastic surgery can give people who become unhappy with their own bodies.
Farias calls it the sweatpants stage — people who see themselves getting older and feel like their outside doesn’t match their inside. They start thinking, “what’s the point?” They choose sweatpants over slacks. Then, after post-op, Farias sees these same people get younger-looking haircuts and bring back more stylish clothes.
“It’s reflective of somebody who feels more confident again,” Farias said.
He doesn’t think plastic surgery should be considered vanity. While insurance companies call it cosmetic, he considers it reconstructive — helping people look like themselves again.
Farias didn’t always plan to be a plastic surgeon. He got his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993 and then went on to earn his medical degree at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. His first interest was ear, nose and throat surgery. But when he rotated on the plastic surgery service a couple months into his internship year, he fell in love with it.
His interest in the face remained, steering him toward procedures like facelifts. Inside Look does a range of procedures, however, including rhinoplasty, neck firming, chin implants, liposuction, brow lifts, and breast augmentation or reduction.
Farias plans to build up Inside Look with the Latino community in mind. When he first moved to the Chicago area, it was as an employee of Lifestyle Lift, which eventually went under due to circumstances beyond Farias’ control. In the six months of normal operations, Farias saw about five patients per week who were Spanish speakers who chose him because of their common heritage. That’s the group he most hopes to serve with his own practice, which aims to offer affordable, safe and personalized treatments.
Learn more about the practice at insidelookmd.com.
