Business Development & Administration Assistant: 6 to 12 month Internship

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SalaryPaidAdditional salary infoThe successful candidate will receive between £16,000 - £20,000 pro rata salary. ContractFixed termWorking hoursFull-timeNumber of vacancies1Start dateWinterClosing date11/11/2013 LocationGreater LondonFull location detailsWC1H 8BB

This is a new position for a Business Development (BD) assistant within the Cedar Consulting team based in our Kings Cross office, London. Reporting directly to the BD Manager the successful candidate will work on and help drive a variety of marketing, business development and communications projects targeting existing customers, new prospects and key partners. This internship will be for 6 to 12 months with the opportunity to apply for a full time position at the end of the period. This is a varied role and key tasks that the successful candidate should expect to be involved in include (but are not limited to):

- Working closely with Oracle and the BD Manager to promote customer focused events such as dinners and seminars.

- Help prepare and manage exhibition stands at select industry shows.

- Help with the execution of marketing campaigns.

- Help increase our social media impact.

- Assist in market analysis.

- Undertake general marketing support for the sales effort.

- Bring fresh ideas to the team.

- Developing marketing collateral.

- Assisting with admin tasks in other parts of the business.

You will need to have

- An honourable work ethic.

- A good university degree, preferably in one of the following key areas: Marketing, Event Management, Business or Social Media. We will also consider candidates with other degrees who can demonstrate the relevant skills and experience.

- A strong interest and ideally experience in Event Management and/or working on promotions.

- The flexibility to work independently or as part of a team.

- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

- Working experience in Microsoft office suite - particularly Word, XL and Outlook.

- Confidence on the phone.

- Good time management and proven track record of working to deadlines.

- The flexibility to work occasionally outside the usual business hours to complete certain tasks.

- A passion, energy and drive to be successful.

- Permission to work in the UK and Europe.

It would be desirable if you have

- Experience of working in a marketing team in a B2B environment.

- Interest in the Information Technology market place.

- Business Development Experience.

- B2B Social Media experience.

- CRM system experience.

- Clean driving license.

About Cedar Consulting

Cedar Consulting is an established software services consultancy and has been in existence for over 18 years. With offices across the globe it has an enviable client base including many blue chip companies, United Nations agencies and other large non-profit organisations. As one of Oracle’s key partners for both PeopleSoft and Fusion projects, Cedar Consulting is privileged to work across all business sectors. Driving our success is a joint Oracle and Cedar Consulting events and marketing programme going back over 10 years. At the heart of our business are our people, we aim provide a great environment to further a career and develop new skills.

Please apply with your resume and a supporting covering letter. Deadline for applicants is the 11th November.

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Obama administration unlikely to block Arizona plan to cut 250,000 from Medicaid rolls

The Obama administration would permit a controversial plan by Arizona's governor to cut an estimated 250,000 impoverished adults from Medicaid, despite a provision in the new health-care law barring states from tightening their eligibility standards for the program, federal officials said Wednesday.

Gov. Jan Brewer (R) formally requested a federal waiver from the provision last month to make the cut. But in a letter dated Tuesday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius wrote that no waiver is necessary, because the provision does not apply to Arizona's somewhat unusual circumstances.

The decision could further embolden the other 28 Republican governors who recently released a letter charging that the health-care law's Medicaid provisions impose crushing costs at a time when many states are grappling with budget shortfalls.

However, advocates for the poor noted that only about a dozen states have Medicaid programs with the particular set of features that would enable Arizona to trim its rolls. In one of those states, Indiana, the deputy chief of staff to Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) said he was not planning to follow Arizona's example. And it is not clear that leaders of any other eligible states are interested either.

"Certainly we are keeping a watchful eye on a handful of states that might wish to go in this direction," said Joan Alker, co-executive director of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families. "But Arizona is in a very unique situation . . . so it's my hope that [it] continues to be an outlier."

The state has already made some of the country's most drastic cuts to Medicaid and other health initiatives - halting coverage of organ transplants for about 100 indigent patients on a waiting list, slashing payment rates to doctors by 10 percent, and freezing enrollment in its supplemental health insurance program for children.

At issue now is the health-care law's Medicaid spending requirements for states. To participate in the health insurance program for the poor - and receive billions in matching federal dollars - states must cover all children and pregnant women up to specified levels of poverty, as well as various other populations, such as some parents of poor children.

For years, states could also choose to use extra federal funds to expand that coverage beyond the minimum to include, for instance, childless adults who are poor. The health-care law turns that option into a mandate. Starting in 2014, states will have to open Medicaid eligibility to all individuals who earn up to 133 percent of the poverty level - with the federal government covering nearly all the additional cost.

In the meantime, the law directs states to maintain their current level of coverage, even if it is above the old minimum standard.

In Arizona's case, this requirement appeared to block Brewer's proposal to save $541 million by bumping 250,000 childless adults and 30,000 parents of poor children from the state's Medicaid plan halfway through the 2012 fiscal year. (The move would save an estimated $900 million more the following year.)

But as Sebelius's letter noted, while the 30,000 parents fall under Arizona's regular Medicaid plan, the childless adults are covered through a "demonstration waiver" that permits the state to run Medicaid as a managed care system, similar to an HMO plan.

Such agreements are fairly common and frequently run three to five years. According to HHS officials, the health-care law's Medicaid eligibility freeze applies only while these agreements are still in effect. For most states, that means 2014 and beyond. But Arizona's agreement expires Sept. 30.

This means that when the state applies for a new agreement, it can tighten its eligibility rules for childless adults, Sebelius said in her letter. Technically, HHS must still sign off on any new agreement. However, a senior official at the agency said officials had no intention of withholding approval to prevent Arizona from dropping its childless adults - most of whom earn less than $10,830 per year to qualify for the program.

"That would be pretty disingenuous of us to do, given the guidance we've just given the state," the official said.

Monica Coury, a top official in Arizona's Medicaid program, said she was very pleased with HHS's position. "The secretary's letter is extremely well written, and it addresses the state's concerns," she said. "Now it's a question of reviewing it and determining what policy direction will work best for the state."

Even if Arizona's majority Republican legislature were to adopt Brewer's plan, state Democrats would probably counter with a lawsuit. They argue that because Arizonans voted to expand Medicaid to childless adults in a referendum, state lawmakers lack the authority to roll it back.

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Obama administration renews aviation biofuel program

Crew prepare a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft before the world's first commercial biofuel flight to Amsterdam from Heathrow Airport in London February 24, 2008.

Credit: Reuters/Luke MacGregor

By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON | Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday renewed an interagency agreement that backs the development of biofuels for the aviation industry and reiterated its support for embattled federal renewable fuel targets.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood signed a pact extending a program that has worked with the private sector and rural communities to create an alternative to fossil fuels for aviation.

"We want to re-affirm the importance of this particular industry in this administration," Vilsack told reporters at an industry conference in Washington.

The "Farm to Fly" program aims to support annual production of 1 billion gallons of aviation biofuels by 2018.

The program will focus on evaluating various sources of renewable alternatives to jet fuel, while also developing state and local partnerships with private companies.

Federal support for biofuels has come under increased scrutiny amid complaints from livestock producers and refiners that the federal biofuels mandate has contributed to higher food prices and could threaten gasoline supplies.

Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced legislation that would eliminate the corn-based ethanol portion of the mandate, which requires increasing amounts of renewable fuels to blended into U.S. gasoline and diesel supplies.

The Obama administration's support for the mandate could block attempts to curtail the targets, though, especially as most lawmakers from major grain-producing states oppose any limits on the mandate.

Vilsack encouraged the biofuel industry representatives to remain "vigilant" in support of the mandate.

"There are industries and folks who are deeply concerned about the progress that is being made, who want to show that progress down," Vilsack said. "Now, is not the time to step back, now is the time to continue moving forward."

Vilsack told reporters that the mandate was lowering, not raising, gasoline prices for consumers and creating jobs in rural communities.

Oil refiners, who want the mandate rescinded, say the targets are approaching a point where compliance would require the industry blend more ethanol into gasoline than can physically be done at the 10 percent per gallon level.

This problem is referred to as the "blend wall".

Supporters of ethanol argue the "blend wall" could be easily overcome if refiners drop their opposition to allowing gasoline with 15 percent ethanol content, or E15.

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved use of E15 in cars built since 2001, which now account for about two-thirds of U.S. passenger vehicles on the road, but gasoline station operators and oil refiners have voiced concerns that higher blends could hurt vehicle engines.

(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Ros Krasny and Leslie Gevirtz)

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