PASAY CITY, Philippines, April 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Hong Kong-based publication FinanceAsia has recognized four SM companies in its Asia’s Best Companies 2026 poll, reflecting the views of institutional investors and financial analysts across the region after they assessed corporate performance and governance over the past 12 months.

These companies included SM Investments Corporation, the parent company of the SM Group, SM Retail, Inc. SM Prime Holdings, Inc. and BDO Unibank, Inc. which garnered a combined eight awards.

SM Investments received Gold for Best Large Cap Company and Most Committed to ESG, and Silver for Best Managed Company in the Conglomerates category in the Philippines.

“We appreciate the recognition. It reflects our continued focus on delivering consistent results and creating long-term value for our stakeholders through disciplined execution,” said SM Investments President and CEO Frederic C. DyBuncio.

SM Retail was recognized as Best Managed Company in both Retail and Consumer Durables & Apparel.

“This recognition reflects our team’s ability to execute consistently across our retail platforms, anchored on serving Filipino consumers while delivering sustainable long‑term value,” said SM Retail President Jonathan Ng.

SM Prime was recognized as Best Managed Company in Real Estate.

“Earning the trust of the investment community affirms the discipline and consistency of our execution,” said Jeffrey C. Lim, President of SM Prime Holdings, Inc. “We are grateful for this vote of confidence and remain focused on strengthening the business and creating long-term value for our stakeholders.”

BDO was recognized as Best Managed Company in Financials, while BDO President and CEO Nestor V. Tan received Bronze in the Best CEO (Philippines) category.

“These recognitions underscore BDO’s disciplined pursuit of operational excellence, enabled by managers across the organization who consistently lead with accountability and keep our customers’ needs firmly in mind,” said BDO President and CEO Nestor V. Tan.

FinanceAsia is a leading capital markets publication covering Asia’s business, sustainability, technology, and financial landscape.

About SM Investments Corporation

SM Investments Corporation is one of the leading Philippine companies that is invested in market-leading businesses in retail, banking, and property. It also invests in ventures that capture high growth opportunities in the emerging Philippine economy.

SM’s retail operations are the country’s largest and most diversified, consisting of grocery stores, department stores and specialty retail stores. SM’s property arm, SM Prime Holdings, Inc., is the largest integrated property developer in the Philippines with interests in malls, residences, offices, hotels, and convention centers as well as tourism-related property developments. SM’s interests in banking are in BDO Unibank, Inc., the country’s largest bank, and China Banking Corporation, the fourth largest private domestic bank.

For more information, please visit www.sminvestments.com

New annual observance on April 18 calls on communities and destinations worldwide to recognize the people and practices keeping endangered food traditions alive.

LONDON, April 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — With globalization, industrial standardization, and shifting consumer habits placing traditional foodways under mounting pressure, the World Food Travel Association (WFTA) today launched World Culinary Heritage Day — an annual global observance, held each April 18, dedicated to celebrating and safeguarding the food traditions that define communities, identities, and destinations worldwide. The observance evolves from World Food Travel Day, which the WFTA has organized for eight years. The rebrand reflects a broader mission and greater global appeal — shifting the focus from culinary travel to culinary heritage itself — while making the day more immediately understood by communities, media, and policymakers worldwide.

From family recipes and artisanal production methods to regional ingredients and time-honored cooking techniques, culinary heritage is one of the most accessible and meaningful expressions of culture — yet it is disappearing. Based on a comparative review of 29 countries, the WFTA estimates that approximately 13% of traditional culinary practices have disappeared or are at extreme risk — losses that are accelerating. The people who preserve these traditions — farmers, fishers, producers, cooks, and local communities — too often remain invisible.

“Culinary heritage is not simply about what is on the plate — it is about the grandmother whose recipe has been passed down for generations, the farmer cultivating a near-forgotten grain, the fishing community whose techniques predate written history,” said Erik Wolf, Executive Director of the World Food Travel Association. “These traditions are disappearing faster than we can document them. World Culinary Heritage Day is a global call to recognize their value before it is too late.”

Anyone, anywhere can take part — from home cooks and chefs to tourism boards, educators, and cultural organizations:

How to Participate

• Share a photo or short video of a traditional dish, ingredient, food tradition, or culinary experience
• Tell the story behind it — its cultural roots, personal meaning, or community significance
• Recognize the people, makers, or communities who keep the tradition alive
• Use the official hashtag #CulinaryHeritageDay

One story. One dish. One tradition. Pass it on.

Through storytelling, education, and community action, World Culinary Heritage Day aims to establish culinary heritage as an essential pillar of cultural identity, sustainable tourism, and local economic resilience — and to inspire the next generation to protect the traditions that make each place irreplaceable.

World Culinary Heritage Day is the flagship initiative of the Taste of Place movement. Join the movement at JoinTasteofPlace.org.

Media Contact
Erik Wolf, Executive Director
World Food Travel Association
help@worldfoodtravel.org
WorldFoodTravel.org

About the World Food Travel Association

Founded in 2001, the World Food Travel Association (WFTA) is the world’s leading authority on food and beverage tourism, serving professionals, destinations, and businesses across more than 100 countries. Through its Taste of Place movement, the WFTA works to protect and promote the culinary traditions that define communities worldwide. WorldFoodTravel.org

In the first ever Q4Bio Challenge, research teams sought to demonstrate scalable quantum algorithms for healthcare, with Algorithmiq’s work alongside Cleveland Clinic and IBM earning $2 million Q4Bio prize.

• Q4Bio aims to accelerate development of quantum algorithms for healthcare that can run on quantum computers expected within three to five years.
• Teams were required to run large‑scale demonstrations on real quantum hardware.
• Five out of the six finalists used IBM quantum hardware for their research.
• Quantum computing has potential as a practical tool for healthcare, with hybrid quantum‑classical approaches paving the way toward real-world applications.

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., April 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Quantum computing is at an inflection point. In recent years, quantum computers have shown the ability to run quantum programs at a scale beyond exact classical simulation. They’re becoming useful tools for solving real-world problems, with provable quantum advantage close on the horizon. Community-led initiatives that provide funding and prizes for high-quality research can offer an early look at how quantum computing will impact fields like healthcare and the life sciences.

IBM Corporation logo.

That’s one reason the non-profit Wellcome Leap established the Quantum for Bio (Q4Bio) Supported Challenge Program. Q4Bio aims to identify, develop, and demonstrate quantum algorithms for human health applications that have the potential to run on near-term quantum computers expected to arrive in the next three to five years. The program launched in 2023 with twelve research teams from around the world receiving access to a combined $40 million in funding. By March 2026, that group had narrowed to six Phase III finalists. Now, the winners have been announced.

Wellcome Leap funds high-risk, high-reward global health research, with the aim of facilitating medical breakthroughs on time scales of 5-10 years rather than over the course of decades. That ambition is evident in the Q4Bio challenge requirements: To be eligible for a $2 million Phase III award, participating teams needed to demonstrate algorithms using more than 50 qubits and circuit depths on the order 1,000 to 10,000 gates—while also showing a clear path to scaling. More details here.

In practice, meeting those requirements meant working directly with today’s most capable quantum hardware. That’s why five of the six Phase III finalist teams used IBM (NYSE: IBM) quantum computers to generate their results, underscoring the role of “utility-scale” quantum computers with 100+ qubits in tackling demanding problems at the intersection of quantum information science and real-world use cases.

Below, we highlight the work carried out by Q4Bio’s Phase III finalists on IBM quantum hardware. Their projects offer an exciting glimpse at how quantum computing is beginning to support meaningful research in healthcare and the life sciences.

Biology at scale on IBM quantum computers

The results from these multidisciplinary, multi‑organizational teams span drug discovery, genomics, biomarkers, and fundamental biochemistry. In each area, researchers found a healthcare problem they could execute at significant scale on quantum computers today, with real potential to scale even further in the future.

Agorithmiq, Cleveland Clinic, and IBM

The winning project—led by quantum startup Algorithmiq in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic and IBM—used quantum computing to simulate key processes in photodynamic therapy (PDT), a cancer treatment based on light-activated drugs.

Algorithmiq developed an end-to-end hybrid quantum–classical framework in which novel methods for active space selection, state preparation, measurement, and post-processing enabled large-scale molecular electronic structure simulations on IBM’s quantum hardware. By executing circuits for ground- and excited-state experiments on up to 100 qubits, the teams demonstrated a scalable path toward quantum advantage in drug discovery and development. 

Sabrina Maniscalco, CEO and co-founder of Algorithmiq, said the results highlight how Algorithmiq’s approach to tightly integrated quantum-classical algorithms could play a key role in unlocking real-world quantum advantage.

“This work provides one of the clearest indications to date that quantum computing can begin to impact real, chemically relevant problems, rather than simplified benchmarks,” she said. “IBM’s quantum systems enabled execution of circuits at scales approaching 100 qubits and supported the continuous, end-to-end validation loop required to identify real bottlenecks and ensure robustness of the approach.”

Dr. Vijay Krishna, associate staff in biomedical engineering at Cleveland Clinic, added that “Q4Bio showed that when teams with complementary expertise work toward a common goal, they can make meaningful progress on problems that no single discipline can solve alone.”

The Quantum Pangenomics project

Meanwhile, the University of Oxford and Sanger Institute’s Quantum Pangenomics project focused on converting genome problems to quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) formulations. Recent research has highlighted the potential of quantum optimization methods based on QUBO to help solve challenging real-world problems and deliver near-term quantum advantage.

As part of their efforts, the team used an IBM Quantum Heron r2 to encode the Hepatitis-D genome. In their workflow, classical systems handle problem formulation, iteration, and analysis, and quantum hardware is invoked for the most computationally challenging subproblems.

“Encoding a whole genome onto a quantum computer is a world first and represents at least one order of magnitude improvement over any other efforts to represent DNA on quantum machines,” said James McCafferty, Chief Information Officer at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. “And full credit goes to IBM in helping us achieve this.”

“This is not a toy demonstration, it involves biologically significant sequences, represented on quantum hardware using data partitioning techniques and tailored depth-reduction we developed specifically for genomic data,” said Sergii Strelchuk, associate professor of Computer Science at Oxford University. “The fact that the encoded information can be retrieved through our index-reported verification method sends a clear signal: quantum data encoding for genomics is no longer aspirational, it is ready to scale.”

Infleqtion

Infleqtion, a Chicago-based quantum startup, used an IBM Quantum Heron r2 as part of the project they led with the University of Chicago and MIT on quantum-enhanced biomarker discovery from multimodal cancer data, using hybrid quantum-classical optimization algorithms. Their work involved GPUs and QPUs working together, an exciting emerging avenue for hybrid workflows.

Fred Chong, Professor at University of Chicago and Chief Scientist for Quantum Software at Infleqtion, says Heron QPUs were the only available hardware that could meet the Wellcome Leap criteria of demonstrating quantum algorithms with greater than 50 quantum bits and a program length of greater than 1,000 quantum gates. Access to that hardware allowed his team to demonstrate a convincing proof-of-concept that a hybrid quantum-classical approach could improve a purely classical approach to identifying biomarkers.

“Our work has already identified novel cancer biomarkers for clinical evaluation, and future quantum machines will allow us to discover even more promising biomarkers that we hope will improve treatment outcomes,” Chong said.

Stanford, Michigan State University, and other collaborators

A team comprising researchers from many scientific institutions used VQE and an IBM Quantum Heron r2 processor to study ATP and GTP hydrolysis in proteins. These are fundamental biochemical reactions that power most cellular processes.

By demonstrating quantum algorithms for modeling metaphosphate hydrolysis and rigorously analyzing their resource costs, the team showed how near‑term quantum computers could act as accelerators in computational workflows for biology. They also explored potential workflows for fault-tolerant quantum computers.

“Although classical methods for biochemistry have a decades long headstart, quantum methods are really starting to become competitive,” said Ryan LaRose, a researcher on the team and professor at Michigan State University. “For our project, IBM hardware provided the number of qubits, gate fidelity, and sampling rate needed to make our experiments viable.”

University of Nottingham, Phasecraft, and QuEra

Another finalist team, led by Jonathan D. Hirst at the University of Nottingham, explored quantum-enhanced strategies for covalent inhibitor design in collaboration with Phasecraft and QuEra. Covalent inhibitors are a cornerstone of modern therapeutics—particularly in oncology and antiviral treatments—owing to their ability to form strong, durable bonds with target proteins.

The team applied quantum algorithms to generate high-fidelity molecular data, which they then used to augment classical Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations—computer simulations estimating molecular behavior by modeling electron density. This enabled more accurate simulations of covalent binding processes.

The researchers deployed this hybrid quantum–classical workflow within a drug discovery program focused on the disorder Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), highlighting the potential of quantum-enhanced methods to tackle complex, currently untreatable diseases.

As part of their study, the team utilized IBM Quantum hardware, including an IBM Quantum Nighthawk processor with 120 qubits—part of a broader effort to evaluate the capabilities of near-term quantum systems for chemically relevant modeling.

Quantum-centric supercomputing for biology and human health

Viewed as a whole, these results underscore just how quickly quantum computing is maturing as a tool for biological research. According to Ashley Montanaro, Co-founder of Phasecraft and Professor of Quantum Computation at University of Bristol, the rapid advancement of IBM quantum hardware and software played a crucial role in enabling the rapid experimental cycles required for their work.

“When the Wellcome Leap Q4Bio challenge began three years ago, it was far from obvious that any of this would work. The fact that we now have encouraging results on a real drug discovery target is a significant milestone,” he said. “The pace of progress in quantum hardware and software throughout this project has been notable as we continuously incorporated new capabilities and explored cutting-edge advancements month by month.”

The impressive results from Q4Bio’s Phase III finalists reflect progress toward IBM’s vision of quantum‑centric supercomputing (QCSC). Hybrid quantum–classical workflows integrate HPC, GPUs, and QPUs. Access to utility‑scale quantum processors and cloud‑based platforms enable global teams to collaborate, iterate quickly, and move toward scalable, end‑to‑end biological workflows.

Together, these results point to a broader transition: quantum computing in biology as elsewhere is shifting from a speculative experiment to a phase of measurable, application‑driven progress, with growing potential to become part of the life‑sciences computational stack.

“It’s encouraging to see so many research teams implementing QCSC workflows, where classical and quantum resources work together to achieve what neither can alone,” said Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research.

About IBM 

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to effect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Media contacts:

Brittany Forgione
IBM
Brittany.Forgione@ibm.com

Chris Nay
IBM
cnay@us.ibm.com

ASHBURN, Va., April 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC), a leading enterprise technology and innovation partner, today announced leadership appointments and organizational updates within its Consulting & Engineering Services (CES) business, strengthening its ability to help global enterprises move from AI ambition to execution. The updates bring together integrated advisory and partner-led execution, supported by a stronger AI ecosystem and a track record of delivering at scale.

DXC Expands Consulting & Engineering Services Leadership to Scale AI-led Growth

As organizations move beyond pilots toward production at scale, demand is growing deeper for advisory and partner expertise, yet many still struggle to turn ambition into enterprise-wide results. In response, DXC is strengthening CES by bringing together proven leaders and advancing its ecosystem to drive co-innovation and partner-led growth, enabling customers to move faster from strategy to impact across complex, multivendor environments and key industries including automotive and manufacturing, banking, insurance, public sector, and airlines.

 “CES is evolving to meet the moment, as we see accelerating demand for advisory-led transformation and deeper collaboration across our strategic partner ecosystem,” said Ramnath Venkataraman, President, Consulting & Engineering Services, DXC Technology. “We’re bringing together proven leaders with a track record of delivering at scale, strengthening our ability to help customers take on more complex transformation programs and deliver outcomes that drive growth.”

To advance this strategic direction, DXC is strengthening its capabilities across advisory and partnerships, with new leadership focused on accelerating impact across key areas:

• Dan Albright has joined DXC to lead AdvisoryX, its consulting and advisory group focused on helping enterprises translate AI ambition into execution. AdvisoryX combines strategic advisory with engineering delivery to help customers operationalize AI, modernize core systems, and drive measurable business outcomes. Albright brings more than 25 years of consulting leadership experience, most recently serving as Divisional President and Global Head of Consulting at NTT DATA Services.
• Srinivas Sai Nidadhavolu has been appointed to lead Enterprise Applications globally. In this role, he will drive go-to-market strategy and strengthen ecosystem partnerships to support customer-focused growth. He brings nearly three decades of experience leading global enterprise transformation programs, most recently serving as global lead for SAP at Wipro.
• To accelerate its AI ecosystem, Stan Clark will serve as NextGen AI Partnerships & Growth Leader. Clark brings more than two decades of experience building and scaling enterprise partnership ecosystems from the ground up across global systems integrators, hyperscalers, and ISVs. In this role, he will architect DXC’s next-generation AI partner model, driving co-innovation, joint go-to-market execution, and partner-sourced growth across DXC’s strategic AI landscape. Most recently, Clark served as President of Ecosystems and Markets at Cosmo Tech, where he built the company’s global partner ecosystem and led strategic engagements with leading GSIs and enterprise clients.

Together, these leaders, reporting to Ramnath Venkataraman, strengthen DXC’s ability to advance its AI ecosystem by aligning advisory and strategic partner capabilities, helping customers move faster from strategy to execution and realize impact sooner. This approach will enable DXC to scale repeatable, partner-led AI capabilities across industries and support larger, more complex transformation programs.

About DXC Technology 

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) is a leading enterprise technology and innovation partner delivering software, services, and solutions to global enterprises and public sector organizations — helping them harness AI to drive outcomes at a time of exponential change with speed. With deep expertise in Managed Infrastructure Services, Application Modernization, and Industry-Specific Software Solutions, DXC modernizes, secures, and operates some of the world’s most complex technology estates. Learn more on dxc.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: Ashley Houk-Temple, Media Relations, ashley.houktemple@dxc.com 

AUGUSTA, Ga., April 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Best Lawyers^® releases the 2027 editions of The Best Lawyers in Japan™ and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Japan™, highlighting the top 4% of legal talent in Japan.

Best Lawyers® releases the 2027 editions of The Best Lawyers in Japan™.

This year’s Best Lawyers rankings, which provide a benchmark for professional excellence through a rigorous peer reviewed process, honors 1,807 lawyers for their professional excellence, spanning 48 practice areas.

Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Law lead in representation, followed by Intellectual Property Law, Corporate Governance and Compliance Practice, Litigation, and Banking and Finance Law.

“Recognitions remain concentrated in Tokyo followed by Osaka underscoring the importance of these cities in Japan’s legal sector for our 17^th edition,” Best Lawyers CEO Phillip Greer said. “With 364,751 total historical evaluations calculated to determine this year’s results, it is clear lawyers value recognizing excellence, upholding integrity and elevating peers who meet the highest standards.”

Forty-four recipients earned the distinguished “Lawyer of the Year” distinction awarded to the individual with the highest overall peer feedback in each practice and metro area, with recognitions based on 52,288 evaluations submitted in this cycle.

Highlighting emerging talent in the region Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Japan^™ includes 466 lawyers across 28 practice areas. Corporate and M&A leads among emerging lawyers, followed by Intellectual Property Law, Labor and Employment Law, Capital Markets Law and Litigation.

“Corporate and M&A work continues to stand out as a leading area of practice, driven in part by a surge in shareholder activism following high-profile board seat victories by investors,” Greer said.

Search The Best Lawyers in Japan™ and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Japan™ results by lawyer name, firm, region and/or practice area by visiting www.bestlawyers.com. 

About Best Lawyers

Best Lawyers^® is the most established global network of legal professionals, providing elite lawyers and law firms with tools to enhance visibility, credibility and client engagement. Built on a rigorous peer-review process, Best Lawyers delivers data-driven legal recognition while offering industry insights and tech-forward marketing solutions. Powering Best Law Firms^®, we simplify the law firm selection process, fostering confidence between firms and clients.

Learn more at www.bestlawyers.com and www.bestlawfirms.com.

Media contact:
Alesia Bani
Communications Manager
Best Lawyers
abani@bestlawyers.com

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LAS VEGAS, April 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PROMISE Technology, a global leader in high-performance storage for media and entertainment, will showcase next-generation Thunderbolt 5 solutions and AI-optimized platforms at NAB Show 2026.

“The Pegasus line has evolved with each generation of Thunderbolt to become a flagship storage system for PROMISE and a well-established brand within the creator community.” said Alice Chang, Chief Marketing Officer for PROMISE. “As M&E production technology evolves, we continue to keep pace, not only with Thunderbolt but also with the leaps in performance required for AI optimized storage systems.”

“PROMISE customers demand top-tier performance,” said Ben Hacker, General Manager, Client Connectivity Division at Intel. “With Thunderbolt 5, PROMISE adds industry leading connectivity to its storage solutions, achieving 80Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth to dramatically reduce transfer times for data-intensive creators.”

Demand is driven by ultra-high-resolution formats (4K–12K), generative AI, cloud collaboration, streaming growth, and long-term archiving. PROMISE brings over a decade of post-production expertise using Thunderbolt; as well as cutting edge NVMe-oF shared storage for AI-driven workflows requiring extreme throughput, low latency, and smart features like predictive optimization and anomaly detection.

Live Demonstrations at NAB 2026

• Pegasus5 R12 Pro – Mac workflow: With Apple Mac (M5, macOS Tahoe), ~6,000 MB/s for Final Cut Pro using internal NVMe scratch.
• Pegasus5 R12 – Windows workflow: With HP Fury G1i and Adobe Premiere, GPU-accelerated editing plus PROMISE plug-in.
• Pegasus5 M8 – Compact Thunderbolt 5: Multi-GB/s via 8× NVMe on MacBook; ideal for AI plug-ins in DaVinci Resolve, Premiere, Flame.
• Pegasus5 N4 – Ultra-compact 4× NVMe with Thunderbolt 5 for mobile/on-location editing and AI tools.
• VTrak 8206 – NVMe AI server: Low-latency, scalable for AI training/inference and 8K editing with HP ZGX Nano, NVMe-oF, VTrak J5960; app-agnostic.
• Vess A8340 – Hybrid server: Intel Xeon 6, multi-GPU, NVMe/HDD; onboard AI for video indexing, tagging, subtitles to boost streaming/VOD.

About PROMISE Technology

PROMISE pioneers reliable, high-performance storage for media and entertainment via the Pegasus series and innovative tools.

Visit www.promise.com or booth North Hall — N2661 at NAB Show 2026, April 18-22, Las Vegas Convention Center.

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