Mark Pownall

It may seem like an entirely offshore deal, but Japanese tech giant Panasonic’s purchase of US satellite communications provider ITC Global has a strong Western Australian flavour.

Technology developer and investor Orbital Corporation has reshaped its board as it implements a new growth strategy, adding investment banker John Poynton as a director and promoting experienced minerals executive John Welborn to chairman.

Alex Malley may not yet be a household name, but he is working as hard as he can to make it one.

Rising political player Christian Porter wants to hear from business on ways to reduce compliance costs.

Daniel Tucker’s Carey Mining has emerged as a key backer of a proposed new Pilbara iron ore mine, which has been given the green light by the Environmental Protection Authority.

This year’s First Amongst Equals winner is a passionate medical specialist but he’s also a visionary entrepreneur who has a lot in common with successful business leaders.

Bob de la Motte’s life story makes for interesting reading, for those familiar with his work at the heart of Perth’s financial world and as a historical and socio-political snapshot told through sport.

A jury has found ex-biotechnology player and self-described Wall Street executive William Ardrey guilty of fraud relating to his tenure with Perth-based company Phoenix Eagle.

There is another road from the heavily politicised and extremely adversarial nature of our industrial relations environment.

The federal government is sending contradictory messages in its invitation to Chinese investors.

Retailer Ray Della-Polina says there are lessons for the business community in the failure of his Malz business.

Not everything new is momentous, and not all that is old should be forgotten.

This week, I started posting articles on how BNiQ, our searchable database, can help you delve into Western Australian companies and people in a previously unavailable way.

Few people are better placed to understand the changes taking place in health insurance than HBF managing director Rob Bransby.

One of the joys of being a business reporter in this state for the better part of 25 years is that the background to a story is often more obvious to me than others with less time in the field.

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, listed automotive and aerospace equipment developer Orbital Corporation has made the first major move in its diversification strategy by buying a mine site safety product spun-out of a resources-focused electrical and engineering contractor.

Mutual health funds including Western Australia’s market leader, HBF, have launched their combined push to take on the private players, which now dominate the sector following the listing of Medibank Private, as well as the growing threat from online aggregators.

WA’s tourism treasures often seem to be doing it tough, so why can’t the locals be more involved in deciding their region’s future?

Western Australia’s isolation has always made the state’s business sector innovative.

Technology will be at the forefront of changes in the workplace in the near future, but an economy-wide shift in attitude is needed.

The state’s carrot sector has undergone a period of major export growth.

The digital revolution is well and truly under way, and media is at the pointy end of the changes.

When global retailer IKEA cheekily described its annual catalogue as a ‘bookbook’ and poked fun at new technology in a YouTube video extolling the virtues of this ‘breakthrough’ development, the message was not lost on Business News.

The state government has split the advisory roles for the first tranche of its asset sales program as it starts a sell down process that it hopes will relieve its difficult budget position.

WA’s biggest deal of the year offers a cautious entry into a growth sector.

The international stage has helped this year’s local business and political leaders stand out from the pack – including our Person of the Year, Richard Goyder.

Could health insurance follow the superannuation sector, where industry funds have collectively taken on private retail players? WA’s biggest fund, HBF, is leading a national alliance of not-for-profit health insurers, which are now a minority following the recent privatisation of Medibank Private.

When the times were good we could afford to ignore some of our self-imposed economic shackles.

The mining giant says it’s about heritage, but the new moniker for its less-loved assets shows the management team has plenty of latitude.

Gina Rinehart has shown the dogged determination of an entrepreneur to develop the Roy Hill iron ore project.

The learned professors behind deregulation recommendations for the state’s taxi industry were cautious not to go too far.

Unions ought to consign bullying behaviour to the past.