Davos

Davos (Romansh:  Tavau , archaic Italian: Tavate, local German pronunciation [daˈfoːs], German pronunciation [daˈvoːs]) is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,136 (2014). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range. At 1,560 m (5,120 ft), it is the highest "town" in Europe.

Davos is host to the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global political and business elites (often referred to simply as Davos) and the home of one of Switzerland's biggest ski resorts. At the end of every year it serves as the site of the annual Spengler Cup ice hockey tournament, hosted by the HC Davos local hockey team.

History

The current settlement of the Davos area started back in High Middle Ages with the immigration of Rhaeto-Romans. The village of Davos is first mentioned in 1213 as Tavaus. From about 1280 the barons of Vaz allowed German-speaking Walser colonists to settle down, and conceded them extensive self-administration rights, causing Davos to become the largest Walser settlement area in eastern Switzerland. Natives still speak a dialect that is atypical for Graubünden, showing similarities with German idioms of western parts of Switzerland, especially the Upper Valais. In 1436, the League of the Ten Jurisdictions was founded in Davos.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, the first of which is titled A Game of Thrones. It is filmed in a Belfast studio and on location elsewhere in Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Spain, Scotland, and the United States, and premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011. The series has been renewed for a sixth season, which will premiere on April 24, 2016.

The series is set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, and interweaves several plot lines with a large ensemble cast. The first narrative arc follows a civil war among several noble houses for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms; the second covers the attempts to reclaim the throne by the exiled last scion of the realm's deposed ruling dynasty; the third chronicles the rising threat of the impending winter and the legendary creatures and fierce peoples of the North.

Executive officer

An executive officer (often abbreviated XO) is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.

Administrative law

While there is no clear line between executive or principal and inferior officers, principal officers are high-level officials in the executive branch of U.S. government such as department heads of independent agencies. In Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), the Court distinguished between executive officers and quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial officers by stating that the former serve at the pleasure of the president and may be removed at his discretion. The latter may be removed only with procedures consistent with statutory conditions enacted by Congress. The decision by the Court was that the Federal Trade Commission was a quasi-legislative body because of other powers it had, and therefore the president could not fire an FTC member for political reasons. Congress can’t retain removal power over officials with executive function (Bowsher v. Synar). However, statutes can restrict removal if not purely executive (Humphrey’s executor), but can't restrict removal of purely executive officer (Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52 (1926)). The standard is whether restriction "impedes the president’s ability to perform his constitutional duty" (Morrison v. Olson, 487 U.S. 654 (1988)).

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer (CEO in American English) or managing director (MD in British English) describes the position of the most senior corporate officer, executive, or administrator in charge of managing an organization. The CEO of a corporation or company typically reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the entity. Titles also often given to the holder of the CEO position include president and chief executive (CE).

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of an organization's CEO are set by the organization's board of directors or other authority, depending on the organization's legal structure. They can be far-reaching or quite limited and are typically enshrined in a formal delegation of authority.

Typically, the CEO/MD has responsibilities as a director, decision maker, leader, manager and executor. The communicator role can involve the press and the rest of the outside world, as well as the organization's management and employees; the decision-making role involves high-level decisions about policy and strategy. As a leader of the company, the CEO/MD advises the board of directors, motivates employees, and drives change within the organization. As a manager, the CEO/MD presides over the organization's day-to-day operations. The term refers to the person who takes all the decisions regarding the upliftment of the company, which includes all sectors and fields of the business like operations, marketing, business Development, finance, Human resources, etc. The CEO of a company is not necessarily the owner of the company.

Jon Snow

Jon Snow (born 28 September 1947) is an English journalist and television presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known as the longest-running presenter of Channel 4 News, which he has presented since 1989.

Snow has held numerous honorary appointments, including Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.

Early life

Snow was born at Ardingly in Sussex, the son of George D'Oyly Snow, Bishop of Whitby, and his wife Joan, a pianist who studied at the Royal College of Music. He is a grandson of WW1 General Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow (about whom he writes in his foreword to Ronald Skirth's war memoir The Reluctant Tommy) and is the cousin of retired BBC television news presenter Peter Snow.

Snow won a choral scholarship by Winchester Cathedral, and spent five years at the Pilgrims' School. He grew up at Ardingly College, where his father was headmaster. In 2013, he recounted how the inquiry into Sir Jimmy Savile had allowed him to re-evaluate his own childhood when he was molested by one of the school's domestic staff.