Clark D. Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes, has been named “Giant in our City” by the Salt Lake Chamber.
Ivory will be honored as the 45th recipient of the honor at a celebration taking place April 25 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City.
The award recognizes those with exceptional and distinguished service, as well as extraordinary professional achievement, and is widely viewed as the most prestigious business award given in Utah. Established in 1969, it is presented periodically by the chamber’s Board of Governors.
“While I am honored to receive this special recognition,” Ivory said, “I have to point out that any accomplishments that we may have had are a result of a great number of community partners and Ivory team members working together to contribute to and uplift our broader community.”
Ivory Homes has been Utah’s top homebuilder since 1988. Ivory was ProBuilder’s National Home Builder of the Year in 2021.
“As a business leader and philanthropist, Clark Ivory has made a lasting mark on our community,” said Derek Miller, the chamber’s president and CEO. “From excellence in home building, to his leadership and hands-on service finding solutions to some of our biggest challenges, Clark is always finding ways to help our community prosper. We are thrilled to recognize Clark with this award and cannot wait to see what he will do next.”
Ivory’s background includes growing up in Millcreek and being a student with a passion for tennis, football and selling innovative new products, with his savvy for selling starting at the age of 14. He traveled door to door to sell Paper Mate erasable pens and Nike athletic shoes to various teams with their team logos stenciled on the back.
After a year of college, he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Rome, Italy. While studying Italian in the Mission Training Center, he met Christine Cahoon, who served in Milan, Italy. They married a year after his mission.
Ivory graduated from the University of Utah in 1988 and received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1992.
Ivory purchased Ivory Homes in 2000 and built upon his father’s leadership legacy. The company has built more than 25,000 single-family homes and 3,000 apartment homes throughout Utah.
For nearly 20 years, the company focused on building semi-custom homes for move-up buyers in Utah but it shifted its focus to building housing at every price point. As of Jan. 1, Ivory Homes had 1,917 homes under construction — 667 traditional Ivory homes and 1,250 apartment homes, student housing or affordable townhomes for its nonprofit.
Ivory also served as a director of the Salt Lake City branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2006 to 2011, including three years as chair. He also served on the University of Utah’s Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2014, serving five years as chair. In 2005, he chaired the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors and more recently co-chairs Utah Community Builders, the chamber’s nonprofit entity that focuses on employee mental health and family-friendly workplaces.
Ivory also helped found the Utah Impact Partnership, advancing impact solutions for homelessness, and helped start the Utah Housing Preservation Fund. In 2018, Ivory and his daughter Abby launched the nonprofit Ivory Innovations, which showcases the most promising innovators in housing affordability.
Clark and Christine Ivory also have been involved in philanthropy, gifting more than 4,100 scholarships to students at Utah universities and colleges. They recently opened Ivory University House, providing housing for 624 students adjacent to the University of Utah. All proceeds from the project accrue to student scholarships, internships and housing stipends.
Clark, Christine and son Ellis Ivory lived in Bucharest from 2014 to 2017, where they served as mission leaders of the Romania-Moldova Mission. The experience heightened their awareness of human suffering and increased their commitment to helping those in need.
The Ivories are the parents of four daughters and one son. They have four grandchildren.