Milwaukee-based Duncan Solutions announced that Mike Nickolaus has been named the company's president of its U.S. organization. In this position, Nickolaus will concentrate on strategic planning, business development, marketing and sales, the company said.

Prior to joining Duncan Solutions, Nickolaus led business development for the public safety solutions division for Affiliated Computer Services Inc. Nickolaus, who lives in Washington DC, received his MBA in public policy and finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Duncan Solutions is a provider of parking solutions and is an integrated provider of parking meters, parking citation issuance handheld computers and citation processing and collection services.

Milwaukee-based Rexnord Corp. announced today that George Moore has been named the company's new chief financial officer. He will replace Tom Jansen, who is retiring after working for Rexnord for 25 years.

Prior to joining Rexnord, Moore was the executive vice president and CFO for Maytag Corp. Prior to joining Maytag, he worked as a CFO for Danaher Corp. Moore also held the positions of CFO and later president for Yield House Inc.

Moore has a bachelor of arts degree in accounting from Loyola College and is a certified public accountant.

"George brings a wealth of financial and executive-level experience to Rexnord and will play a strong role in our continued growth," said Rexnord president and chief executive officer Bob Hitt. "I am excited to have him on the Rexnord team."

Rexnord manufactures mechanical power transmission and conveying components. The company has about 5,800 employees worldwide.

Milwaukee-based The Marcus Corp. today reported first quarter, for fiscal 2007, net earnings of $13.7 million, or 45 cents per diluted share, down from net earnings of $15.5 million, or 50 cents per diluted share, during the same period last year.

However, last year's first quarter net earnings included $3.1 million of earnings from discontinued operations, primarily from gains from the sale of the company's discontinued limited service lodging division.

The company's total revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2007 were $93.4 million, an 8.3 percent increase from revenues of $86.2 million for the same period last year.

"Fiscal 2007 is off to a very good start, with increased first quarter revenues and operating income in both divisions (lodging and theaters)," said Stephen H. Marcus, chairman and CEO of The Marcus Corp. "In addition, earnings from continuing operations improved for the fifth consecutive quarter. Marcus Hotels and Resorts led our first quarter performance, with a 27.9 percent increase in operating income, while Marcus Theatres' operating income improved for the third straight quarter."

Attendance at Marcus Theatres was up six percent in the first quarter, Marcus said.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, was by far our strongest performer during the first quarter," he said.

Marcus Theatres, the company's movie theater division, owns or manages 501 screens at 44 locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Ohio, and is building new movie theaters in Brookfield, Sturtevant and Green Bay.

The company's lodging division, Marcus Hotels and Resorts owns or manages 13 hotels and resorts. Revenue per available hotel room increased 7.2 percent in the first quarter, the company said. The company is adding a new lobby bar and contemporary nightclub to the Wyndham Hotel in downtown Milwaukee, and is remodeling all of the guest rooms and meeting space. The company is also expanding the conference facilities at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa in Lake Geneva and is adding a new restaurant, spa and salon at The Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

AT&T Inc. announced today that it has agreed to a multi-year contract to provide a suite of teleconferencing services for Milwaukee-based Metavante Corp., a subsidiary of Marshall & Ilsley Corp.

The addition of teleconferencing services will enable Metavante to give its remote workers a cost-effective way to collaborate on projects for its customers, the company said

"Adding teleconferencing capabilities to our mix of services is a logical extension of our current networking platform and will enable our financial services experts, account managers and design engineers to cost-effectively collaborate from anywhere in the world," said Brian Hurdis, senior executive vice president and chief information officer of Metavante. "We're continuing to work with AT&T and use its technology expertise to provide the highest-quality support and service to our customer base."

The new contract builds on a long-term relationship between the companies in which AT&T is providing a global networking solution including local-access, private-line and long-distance services, high speed data services and global Internet access.

Metavante provides banking and payment technologies to financial services firms and other businesses around the world. The company uses AT&T's high speed network to support a variety of financial services for its clients.

The BizTimes Stock Index lost 0.05 points to close at 158.89 Monday, and local stocks took a beating this morning falling even further in early trading today as decliners far outnumbered advancers. A report that the pace of housing starts in the U.S. fell six percent in August, which was twice as fast as expected, sent stocks tumbling on Wall Street this morning. New housing construction notched its fifth decline in six months, hitting its lowest point in over three years. The largest local decliners this morning were Fiserv Inc. (down $1.31 to $45.48), Joy Global Inc. (down $1.11 to $36.41) and MGIC Investment Corp. (down 95 cents to $60.95). The largest local advancers this morning were Gehl Co. (up 18 cents to $25.36) and Actuant Corp. (up 17 cents to $45.40). The BizTimes Stock Index was created by Small Business Times and is monitored by North Shore Bank. The index, which measures the stock values of publicly held companies based in southeastern Wisconsin, is updated daily and can be viewed at www.biztimes.com.