Success does not always follow a straight line, for Austen Hacker, the path to leadership in pharmacy began behind a piano.

Today, Hacker is a licensed pharmacist in Arkansas with experience leading hospital pharmacies, opening an oncology pharmacy, and managing complex healthcare operations. But years before he stepped into pharmacy leadership, he was studying piano performance at Baylor University and planning a future in music.

That willingness to adapt, learn, and pursue the right opportunity has become a defining theme throughout his career.

“Success depends on how you feel about yourself, rather than how successful you appear to others,” Hacker says.

How Austen Hacker’s Early Years Shaped His Work Ethic

Hacker grew up in Ruston, Louisiana, and Texarkana, Texas. During high school, he balanced academics with music, track, cross-country, church activities, and volunteer work.

His family life also helped shape his perspective. In 2003, his parents adopted two biological siblings from Penza, Russia. The experience exposed him to different challenges and life circumstances at an early age.

He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas High School in 2008 before enrolling at Baylor University.

At Baylor, music was his focus. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and spent years developing the discipline required to perform at a high level.

Yet as graduation approached, he faced a difficult realization.

“Before I graduated from Baylor with my Bachelor of Music, I recognized a harsh reality: I was not talented enough to make a decent living as a pianist,” he says. “This realization led me to pursue Pharmacy as a career, which I was a much better fit for.”

That decision would change the direction of his life.

Why Austen Hacker Chose a Career in Pharmacy

After Baylor, Hacker enrolled at the University of Louisiana Monroe, where he earned both a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Science and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree.

The transition from music to medicine may seem unusual, but many of the same qualities carried over.

Both fields require precision. Both demand constant practice. Both reward preparation and attention to detail.

As Hacker progressed through pharmacy school, he discovered a profession that matched his strengths and offered opportunities to make a meaningful impact.

His career advanced quickly after graduation.

He worked in retail pharmacy before moving into leadership roles within hospital systems. Over time, he helped open and manage an oncology pharmacy, establish a surgery center pharmacy, and oversee operations at multiple hospital pharmacies.

Those experiences gave him a broad understanding of both patient care and healthcare operations.

What Makes an Effective Pharmacy Leader?

For Hacker, leadership starts with engagement.

“I strive to be as engaged as possible in everything I do,” he says. “I feel that my biggest achievements have resulted from being driven, excited for, and committed to tasks.”

That mindset helped him navigate increasingly complex responsibilities throughout his career.

Managing pharmacy operations requires balancing clinical standards, patient needs, regulatory requirements, staffing, and daily logistics. Leaders in healthcare often work behind the scenes, but their decisions can affect countless patients.

Hacker believes excellence comes from maintaining high standards while remaining focused on continuous improvement.

He also understands that setbacks are part of the process.

“In the past, I measured success by outcomes, but more recently, I realized that the best measure of success is how you grow and learn from any experience.”

That perspective has become increasingly important as healthcare continues to evolve.

Overcoming Challenges and Building Resilience

Like many professionals, Hacker’s journey has not been without obstacles.

For years, he lived with undiagnosed ADHD, which made many aspects of daily life more difficult than they appeared from the outside.

“For most of my life, I was somewhat of a social outcast,” he says. “Living a normal life was very challenging for me without understanding why.”

Rather than allowing those challenges to define him, he focused on education and professional development.

His commitment to personal growth helped him build a successful career while developing greater self-awareness along the way.

Today, he credits perseverance, humility, self-discipline, honesty, patience, kindness, and tenacity as the values that have guided him forward.

How Faith, Balance, and Technology Support Success

Outside of work, Hacker remains deeply connected to his faith.

“My relationship with God has been the key to any successes I have achieved,” he says.

He is active in church life and enjoys church music, piano, running, hiking, swimming, technology, movies, and video games.

He also believes long-term success requires balance.

“Not balancing professional and personal life can be disastrous and depressing,” he says. “You should devote no more than 40 percent of your time to achieving professional success.”

To stay organized, Hacker relies on digital tools and planning systems to manage projects and long-term goals. He combines technology with routines that help him stay focused and productive.

Looking back, his career illustrates the value of adaptability.

A young musician became a healthcare professional. A pharmacist became a leader. And throughout each chapter, Hacker continued pursuing growth rather than perfection.

His story is a reminder that successful careers are not always built by following a predetermined plan. Sometimes they are built by recognizing when it is time to change direction—and having the courage to do so.

Established SMEs should no longer be treated as the overlooked middle of the economy.

For years, the debate about economic growth in Wales has tended to swing between two extremes.

On one side is the long-standing ambition to attract major inward investors, promising large-scale employment and transformational investment, whilst on the other is the growing interest in start-ups, university spinouts and high-growth technology firms, all of which are important parts of any modern economy.

Yet between these two sits a group of businesses that rarely receives the attention it deserves, despite being central to the day-to-day reality of the Welsh economy namely established small and medium-sized enterprises.

A new report by Oxford Economics for Allica Bank makes this point powerfully by focusing on established SMEs, defined as businesses employing between five and 249 people, and it shows that while they represent only a minority of the overall SME population, they account for more than half of SME employment and nearly three-quarters of SME turnover.

In simple terms, these are the firms that do much of the heavy lifting in the small business economy. They are not the very smallest microbusinesses, nor large corporates, but they are often the companies that provide stable employment, invest locally, support supply chains, and anchor economic activity in towns, cities, and rural communities.

For Wales, the findings are particularly significant, and the report shows that established SMEs account for 44% of private sector employment in Wales, compared with a UK average of 35%. Only Northern Ireland has a higher dependence on this group of firms, and that should be a wake-up call for policymakers, because it suggests that the Welsh economy is more reliant than most parts of the UK on businesses that are already trading, already employing and already embedded in their local communities.

This is not an argument against start-up support or inward investment as Wales needs both but if almost half of private sector employment in Wales is tied to established SMEs, then any credible economic strategy has to put their growth, productivity and investment needs at the centre of policy.

Too often, these businesses fall between the cracks as they are too mature to be seen as exciting start-ups, too small to be treated as strategic anchors, and too dispersed to form the kind of single-sector cluster that attracts ministerial attention. Yet collectively, they are one of the most important engines of the Welsh economy.

The report also highlights the importance of access to finance, with Allica Bank estimating a structural SME lending gap of £65bn across the UK relative to historic trends, which equates, all things being equal, to a gap of around £2.6bn in Wales.

That matters because finance is not simply about keeping businesses afloat but about enabling them to invest in new machinery, premises, vehicles, technology, stock, people and export capacity.

When established SMEs cannot access the right finance on the right terms, their growth is delayed, their productivity suffers and their ability to compete is weakened.

This is especially relevant to Wales, where the productivity gap has persisted for decades, and many businesses operate in sectors and places that are not well served by venture capital or equity finance.

The report notes that SME finance remains overwhelmingly dependent on bank lending rather than equity, with UK SME bank lending standing at £68 billion in 2025 compared with £9 billion in equity finance.

It also notes that equity finance is heavily concentrated, with AI companies and London-based SMEs taking a disproportionate share and therefore for most Welsh established SMEs, the key issue is not whether they can raise venture capital, but whether they can secure practical lending that allows them to grow.

That is why the regional findings in the report are so important, as Allica Bank’s lending supported an estimated £8.4bn contribution to UK GDP, 118,000 jobs and £2.1bn in tax revenues in 2025. But the more interesting point is where that impact was felt, and the report shows that Allica Bank’s enabled GDP contribution was equivalent to 0.63% of the Welsh economy, almost double the UK-wide figure of 0.33%.

It also estimates that, as a proportion of regional employment, the largest jobs impact was in Wales, indicating that when lending reaches established SMEs in places like Wales, the relative impact can be greater than in larger, more financially saturated economies.

We know that Wales needs more businesses, but it also needs more of its existing firms with five, ten, twenty or fifty employees to become more productive, more export-oriented and more confident in investing.

It needs family firms, manufacturers, construction businesses, wholesalers, professional services firms, tourism businesses and local employers to have access to the finance and support that allows them to move to the next stage.

This also has implications for public policy as business support in Wales should not be designed only around early-stage entrepreneurship or large inward investment projects and should include a serious, targeted programme for established SMEs with growth potential, linking finance, management capability, innovation support, procurement opportunities and export advice.

In other words, there should be a much stronger focus on helping these firms adopt technology, improve productivity, develop leadership capacity and access the capital they need to expand.

For business leaders, the message is equally important as the firms most likely to benefit from finance are those that can show a clear plan for growth, a strong understanding of their numbers and a credible case for how investment will generate returns. In fact, being finance-ready is now a strategic necessity, not an administrative exercise.

For Wales, the wider conclusion is that established SMEs should no longer be treated as the overlooked middle of the economy. They are not marginal but are central to employment, resilience and local prosperity, and if Wales is serious about closing its productivity gap and building a stronger private sector, then backing established SMEs is one of the most important routes to growth.

Meta has lobbied U.S. lawmakers for legal immunity from lawsuits alleging child harm from its social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, according to a report.

This comes as Meta faces a wave of youth-safety litigation, including thousands of similar claims consolidated in California state courts and separate lawsuits brought by states and school districts. Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, were hit with a combined $6 million in damages after a Los Angeles jury found them negligent in a bellwether case alleging Instagram and YouTube were designed in ways that harmed a young user. Both companies have said they plan to appeal.

If language like Meta’s proposal is adopted by lawmakers and signed into law as part of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) under consideration in the Senate, the provision could undermine pending and future complaints against Meta and other social media platforms regarding child safety.

Lawmakers have not said they would be open to adopting the language, but the lobbying effort shows the kind of legal protections Meta is seeking amid government attempts to regulate online platforms.

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The proposed language would make online companies “immune from suit or liability under state law with respect to all claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the safety or privacy of individuals under the age of eighteen online or otherwise related to the provisions” of KOSA, according to Reuters.

The proposal appears alongside language that seeks to have the federal measure overrule state laws on children’s online safety and privacy.

Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway told Reuters that the provision “does not extinguish existing lawsuits, nor does it represent blanket immunity.”

“Instead, it establishes uniform national standards for online youth safety, ensuring these critical issues are governed by comprehensive federal legislation, not plaintiffs’ lawyers or patchwork state legislation,” she said.

But Julia Duncan of the American Association for Justice, a group that represents trial lawyers, said that if the provision were to be adopted, it would kill any lawsuits pending when the law took effect.

“The language is pretty clear-cut immunity against every parent, every school district, that is seeking to hold any AI or social media company accountable for harm” to children, Duncan said. “There is no other way to read this language.”

Meta has proposed the language in exchange for dropping its efforts to oppose KOSA, a source told Reuters.

KOSA, sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would require social media companies to take steps to prevent certain harms to minors, including compulsive use of their platforms.

The measure is now the subject of negotiations between Blackburn and the White House to package child online safety bills with a provision that would preempt some state laws regarding AI.

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“We have not seen that proposed language and would never consider it,”  a spokesperson for the GOP senator told Reuters.

Under the bill, tech companies would need to use care in adding specific features such as infinite scrolling, activity notifications and appearance-changing photograph filters. 

A woman won at trial earlier this year against Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, after her lawyers successfully argued the companies were aware these features were addictive and harmful to young people. The tech companies plan to appeal the ruling.

KOSA passed in the Senate in 2024 before failing in the House. The measure was reintroduced this year with support from both Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” is positioned to set a new franchise record for opening night previews, with box office sources projecting the animated sequel could pull in between $13 million and $14 million Thursday night — a figure that would mark the best previews performance the franchise has ever recorded.

Box office sources indicate that Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” is in play for a franchise record Thursday night when it comes to previews, with projections in the range of $13 million to $14 million, possibly more. Anything higher than $12 million represents a record preview night for the franchise — a mark previously set by “Toy Story 4” back in 2019, off previews that began in select theaters at 5 p.m. followed by a wide 6 p.m. release.

A Strong Showing Among 2026’s Biggest Films

If the projected $13 million to $14 million figure holds, it would represent the best preview night any film has posted in 2026 so far, surpassing several other high-profile titles that have opened earlier in the year. That total would top Lionsgate’s “Michael” ($12.6 million), Amazon MGM Studios’ “Project Hail Mary” ($12 million), and Disney/Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: Mandalorian and Grogu” ($12 million).

It’s worth noting that not every major 2026 release followed the traditional preview-night model. Illumination and Universal did not hold previews for the “Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which currently owns the best three-day domestic opening of the year so far with $131.7 million.

Strong Reviews and Advance Ticket Sales Build Momentum

Heading into its opening weekend, “Toy Story 5” has benefited from an enthusiastic critical reception that has helped fuel ticket sales in the days leading up to release. The film carries a 94% certified fresh critical score, with no audience score yet available. That strong critical reception followed the film throughout the promotional rollout heading into release.

Advance demand has also outpaced one of the year’s other major animated tentpoles. Heading into the weekend, the Andrew Stanton-directed fifth installment had recorded $25 million in advance ticket sales, putting it ahead of the “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” at the same point in its own release cycle.

Domestic and Global Box Office Projections

Industry trackers are projecting a substantial opening weekend for the Pixar sequel both domestically and overseas. The domestic outlook stands at more than $140 million across 4,425 locations, with additional strength expected from premium large-format and IMAX screens. The global forecast sits at $275 million, with $135 million expected to come from an international footprint covering 87% of overseas markets, including China.

Those figures would place “Toy Story 5” among the year’s most successful theatrical openings, reinforcing the continued box office strength of legacy Pixar properties even as the broader animated film marketplace has grown increasingly competitive.

How It Compares to Pixar’s Biggest Preview Nights

While a $13 million to $14 million preview haul would set a new mark specifically for the Toy Story franchise, it would still fall short of the largest preview night any Pixar film has ever posted. The biggest previews ever for a Pixar movie in the U.S. and Canada belong to 2018’s “Incredibles 2,” which brought in $18.5 million in previews and also holds the all-time opening weekend record for the Emeryville, California-based studio at $182.6 million.

The comparison underscores both how far the Toy Story franchise has come in terms of preview-night performance and how high the bar remains across Pixar’s broader catalog of theatrical releases. For context on how dramatically theatrical release patterns have shifted over the years, 2010’s “Toy Story 3” posted previews of just $4 million, back when showtimes for such releases typically began at midnight rather than in the late afternoon or early evening hours that have since become standard for major studio tentpole releases.

A Star-Studded Voice Cast Returns

The fifth installment in Pixar’s flagship franchise brings back the franchise’s most beloved characters, with Tom Hanks reprising his role as Woody, Tim Allen returning as Buzz Lightyear, and Joan Cusack once again voicing Jessie, continuing a vocal lineup that has anchored the series since its earliest installments in the 1990s. The film is directed by Andrew Stanton, a longtime Pixar veteran whose credits include some of the studio’s most acclaimed and commercially successful releases.

Additional Star Power Behind the Scenes

The film’s cultural footprint has also been amplified by an unexpected celebrity connection in the lead-up to release. Pop superstar Taylor Swift reportedly wrote and recorded an original song for “Toy Story 5” on the same day she saw the film, after experiencing what she described as a burst of inspiration following her screening — a development that generated significant additional media attention and fan excitement heading into the film’s theatrical debut.

A Broader Moment for the Animated Franchise

The strong preview projections for “Toy Story 5” arrive amid a notable year for major franchise releases across the industry, with several other high-profile titles — including new entries in the Star Wars universe and major literary adaptations — also posting strong opening figures throughout 2026. Disney’s continued investment in the Toy Story property, now spanning three decades since the original 1995 film redefined computer animation, reflects the franchise’s enduring commercial appeal even as audience tastes and theatrical viewing habits have shifted dramatically since its debut.

What Comes Next

With Thursday night’s preview figures expected to be finalized in the early morning hours, box office analysts will be closely watching whether “Toy Story 5” can convert its record-setting preview performance into a similarly dominant opening weekend that meets or exceeds the current $140 million domestic projection. A result in that range would mark one of the strongest openings of the year for any film, animated or otherwise, and would further cement the Toy Story franchise’s status as one of the most reliable box office performers in Disney and Pixar’s combined portfolio.

Should the film’s global performance also meet projections near $275 million, it would represent a significant box office event for the international animation market as well, particularly given the substantial contribution expected from Chinese theaters, where Western animated franchises have faced an increasingly competitive landscape in recent years from strong domestic Chinese animated productions.

Box office trackers indicated they would have further updates on the film’s final preview numbers once Thursday night’s complete figures were tallied and confirmed across the full slate of participating theaters nationwide.

Accenture’s latest quarterly earnings have reignited concerns over whether artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape the global IT services industry. While the consulting giant delivered a solid financial performance, a sharp decline in new bookings and a reduction in guidance have raised fresh questions about the pace of enterprise technology spending.

According to market expert, Sandip Agarwal from Sowilo Investment Managers, the headline numbers were largely in line with expectations, but the drop in order inflows deserves close attention.

“I see Accenture’s numbers in three parts. First, the reported numbers show no disappointment. Second, bookings are down 14.7%. Managed services performed slightly better, but the decline is unexpectedly sharp, which is definitely a negative read-through. Third is the guidance cut. I do not read too much into it because, excluding the Federal Reserve-related impact, you have to align your growth accordingly,” he said.

AI Yet to Be Blamed Officially

Despite widespread speculation, Accenture has not directly attributed weaker bookings or lower guidance to artificial intelligence. Agarwal believes that is an important distinction.

“The current quarter’s numbers are good, so there is no negative surprise. AI has not been mentioned as the reason for softer bookings or the guidance cut. That is a positive read-through,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that the steep decline in order bookings cannot be ignored.
“The order book is materially lower. A 15% year-on-year decline is substantial. The deflationary impact of AI, which we expected, will likely continue for another quarter or so. After that, the industry should have a better base from which to grow,” he added.
Limited Impact Expected on Indian IT
While Accenture’s stock reacted sharply to the results, Agarwal believes the implications for Indian IT companies could be less severe than many investors fear.

He noted that Accenture has historically grown at a slower pace than Indian IT firms and expects domestic companies to remain relatively resilient.

“Accenture’s growth rate has always been 2-3% lower than Indian IT growth. I do not see a material impact on current analyst forecasts for Indian IT. There may be a stock rub-off effect because Accenture fell sharply, but from an operational perspective, Indian IT should be in a much better position from this quarter.”

Why Indian IT Could Stay Resilient
Agarwal also pointed out that Indian IT companies have a different geographical exposure compared to Accenture, making them less vulnerable to some of the current global uncertainties.

“Indian IT companies do not have the same level of exposure to West Asia as Accenture. We are more exposed to Europe and the US, and I do not see those regions showing a significant slowdown yet,” he said.

He added that discretionary spending remains under pressure due to several macroeconomic concerns.

“Discretionary spending is low because of uncertainty over the war, corporate earnings, interest rates, and AI. There is also a lot of euphoria around AI, which is drawing investment toward that space,” he added.

A Buying Opportunity Despite Near-Term Pain?
While acknowledging that the sector could witness another quarter of weakness, Agarwal believes current valuations already reflect much of the pessimism.

“Right now is probably the time to buy. Hardware spending has already seen a strong upcycle. AI platform providers like Microsoft and Grok should continue to do well, and IT services are now entering the next phase,” he said.

He expects concerns around AI replacing traditional IT services to fade over time.

“There could be one more quarter of pain. People will talk about the death of IT, but I remain optimistic given current valuations. It is a lower-growth industry now, but even lower growth deserves a minimum valuation multiple,” he said.

Looking ahead, he remains constructive on the sector’s earnings outlook.

“We see EPS growth of 50% to 70%, depending on the company. Even if valuation multiples remain unchanged, that can still deliver very attractive returns over the next two to three years.”