ASSOCIATIONS
• DeAnna Dipo has been named president of the Utah Association of Realtors for 2017. Dipo is sales manager at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerages’ Union Heights office in Midvale. Dipo has been a member of the UAR for more than 20 years. A 20-year real estate veteran, Dipo has worked as an agent, a manager and also ran a brokerage with her family for 10 years. Previous association leadership includes being elected to the board of directors of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors and then president in 2011.
• The Salt Lake Chamber has named Wilford Clyde as vice chair of its Board of Governors. Clyde is president of Clyde Companies. He began his career in the construction business working for Geneva Rock. He became president of that organization before moving to lead its parent company, Clyde Companies Inc., which also oversees Sunroc Building Materials, Sunroc Corp., Beehive Insurance and W.W. Clyde & Co.
• Scott Deru has been named chairman of the board of directors of United Benefit Advisors (UBA), an organization of independent benefit advisory firms joined in a collaborative effort to share wisdom, tools and resources. UBA has over 200 offices in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Deru is president of Fringe Benefit Analysts, a full-service employee benefits consulting firm headquartered in Utah and with clients throughout the country. His firm specializes in simplifying the complexities of employee benefit and human resource regulations.
BANKING
• People’s Utah Bancorp (PUB), American Fork, has hired Mark K. Olson as chief financial officer for People’s Intermountain Bank, a PUB wholly owned subsidiary. Olson has more than 27 years of financial services experience, most recently as chief financial officer of California Republic Bancorp. He also served as CFO of several other publicly held banking organizations during his banking career, including Heritage Oaks Bancorp and Pacific Capital Bancorp. He also served as Finance Director for Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Olson will join PUB July 1 and will succeed Wolfgang “Wolf” T.N. Muelleck at the end of 2017 upon Wolf’s retirement.
CONTESTS
• The registration deadline is Feb. 21 for the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, a business model competition that is open to all college students in Utah. Teams will compete for $100,000 in cash and in-kind prizes, including a $40,000 grand prize. Additional prizes are granted for best business plan, presentation, technology and more. The award ceremony will take place April 15. Details are at lassonde.utah.edu.
EXPANSIONS
• Novi Security, Orem, has expanded to offer its home and business security solution in Best Buy Canada stores, as well as online at bestbuy.ca. The company was founded in 2013 and launched sales in early 2016.
GOVERNMENT
• Salt Lake City will provide six weeks of paid parental leave to all full-time employees, Mayor Jackie Biskupski announced. The action is effective Jan. 1 and extends to birth mothers, fathers, and to those who become parents through adoption or by foster care. The expanded policy may be used concurrently with 12 weeks of job security offered through the Federal and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
HEALTHCARE
• Supplemental Health Care, Park City, has announced promoted Melissa (Missy) Blankenship, Chris Long, Linda McDonnell and Monty Houdeshell and hired Donna Carroll and Mary Lucas. Blankenship is now president of local offices. She has been with the company for 12 years. Long has been promoted to senior vice president of travel nurse operations. McDonnell is now senior vice president of travel nursing sales. Houdeshell, who joined Supplemental Health Care in 2016 as chief financial officer, now serves as chief financial and administrative officer. Carroll has joined the company as chief sales officer. She has more than 20 years of experience in sales, change leadership, recruiting and client relationship management. Most recently, she was president for North Highland. Lucas has joined the company as chief talent officer. Most recently, she was the chief resource officer at Staffmark.
INVESTMENT
• CircusTrix Holdings LLC, Provo, has received a “significant” investment from Palladium Equity Partners LLC, a private investment firm. The amount was not disclosed. The current CircusTrix management team will remain in place. Founded in 2011, CircusTrix owns and operates indoor “extreme recreation” parks. It has more than 30 locations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. It plans to accelerate new park openings following the Palladium investment. The Sage Group LLC served as financial advisor to CircusTrix. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP was the legal advisor.
LAW
• Stoel Rives LLP has named Jason B. McCammon and Jordan B. Olsen as partners in its Salt Lake City office. They are among 13 attorneys in six offices that became new partners Jan. 1. McCammon’s practice focuses on patent prosecution. He works with clients to protect intellectual property assets and helps them understand how IP protection fits into a larger business strategy. Olsen is a registered patent attorney with a practice that focuses on U.S. and foreign patent prosecution and counseling. His practice also encompasses freedom-to-operate assessments, due diligence investigations and patentability analysis. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Brigham Young University before going on to earn a law degree from its J. Reuben Clark Law School.
• Holland & Hart LLP has welcomed seven attorneys to the firm’s partnership, including two in its Salt Lake City office: Aaron Murdock and Emily Schilling. Murdock is in the firm’s Corporate practice group. He represents technology and emerging growth companies, mature enterprises, and venture capital and private equity funds in a variety of corporate and securities laws matters. He also advises fund managers with respect to the formation and operation of private investment funds. Schilling is an attorney in the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources practice. She has more than a decade of environmental law experience focused on air quality. She represents clients in air quality permitting, compliance, and enforcement matters before state agencies and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. She also has extensive experience assisting clients with strategies to prepare and submit comments in state rulemakings and federal rulemakings under the Clean Air Act, and represents clients in challenges to federal rulemakings in the U.S. Courts of Appeal, including the D.C. Circuit.
MEDIA/MARKETING
• Jive Communications, Orem, has hired Don Pratt as chief financial officer. Pratt has held CFO roles in tech companies for more than 18 years, primarily in the telecom, data, security and UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) markets.
PHILANTHROPY
• Primary Residential Mortgage Inc. (PRMI), Salt Lake City, recently raised $150,000 in eight weeks in partnership with Feeding America during its Hunger Action Month. The donations will provide more than 1.68 million meals to children, families and seniors across the nation. PRMI employees across the country raised a total of $153,251 for Feeding America.
RECOGNITIONS
• Ally Bank, Midvale, has been named the Best Online Bank of 2017 in the fifth annual rankings compiled by personal finance website GOBankingRates. The bank was chosen for its competitive annual percentage yield (APY) and no monthly maintenance fees or minimum balance requirement. This is Ally’s best showing in the rankings to date, which includes Editor’s Pick Awards in the categories of Best Savings Account for No Fees or Minimums and for the Best CD Account for No Minimums. Ally also ranked in the top 10 list for Best Checking Accounts. Ally has been featured on the best banks list five consecutive years this year claims a top spot across four of the five ranking categories. It was named Best Online Bank for the third consecutive year, from a group of 30 online-only banks evaluated by GOBankingRates.
• Zurixx LLC, Salt Lake City, has been named to The Silicon Review’s 2016 list of “50 Fastest Growing Private Companies to Watch.” The listing identifies the most dynamic companies that have made significant contributions in the field of business and technology in 2016. A developer of financial education programs, Zurixx has achieved 5,626 percent growth the past three years, with 2015 revenue exceeding $130 million.
• The Internet of Things (IoT) identity solutions of DigiCert, Lehi, have been recognized as the IoT Enterprise Security Platform of the Year by the IoT Breakthrough Awards. The DigiCert platform provides automated, high-volume digital certificate issuance and provisioning to establish device identity and authentication, encryption and data integrity.
• Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Salt Lake City, has received two Fierce Innovation awards from the publishers of FierceBiotech and FiercePharms. The company earned honors for Best Biotech Innovation and Best in Show — New Product or Service for 2016. Recursion’s computationally intelligent platform was recognized for its ability to span the life science industry, from drug screening to target identification to compound intelligence. Fierce Innovation award applications are reviewed by a panel of executives from Medidata, PwC, Verily, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, Amgen and more.
• ARIIX and Impartner earned several honors in the One Planet Best in Business Awards, an annual industry and peers recognition program honoring employees and companies of all types and sizes worldwide. ARIXX, Bountiful, earned Silver for Fastest Growing Company of the Year. Fred Cooper, the founder and chief executive, was named a Silver winner for CEO of the Year. Riley Timmer, founder and chief operating officer, earned Gold for COO of the Year. Deanne Latson, founder and chief product officer, earned Silver for Female Executive of the Year. The company earned Gold for Executive Team of the Year. It earned Gold for Most Innovative Product of the Year for companies with 100-499 employees. Impartner, South Jordan, earned Silver for Most Innovative Product of the Year for companies with 11-99 employees.
RETAIL
• Kent Randall has opened a Signarama location at 2778 W. 12600 S., Suite 103. Randall is a Utah native, an attorney and an entrepreneur. He still operates Star Labs Consulting, started by Randall in 2012 and with locations in Salt Lake City, Honolulu and San Diego.
• Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings Inc., Midvale, is expanding operations to include new retail stores in Everett, Washington; Pueblo, Colorado; and Visalia, California. The Everett location will be the 10th company store in Washington. The Pueblo store will be its sixth in Colorado. The Visalia location will be the eighth in California. With the planned openings combined with the company’s previous announced 2017 store openings, Sportsman’s Warehouse will operate 85 stores in 22 states.
• Deka Lash, an eyelash extension brand based in Pittsburgh, has opened a retail studio in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City. It is owned and operated by Steve and Liz Gordon. Deka Lash provides semi-permanent eyelash extensions. The company has more than 40 franchise licenses in seven states.
SCIENCE
• The Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) initiative has awarded 26 early-stage companies grants in the second round of its Technology Acceleration Program (TAP). USTAR anticipates awarding a total of $4.5 million in fiscal year 2017. TAP is USTAR’s competitive grant program stimulates technology development for early-stage companies. USTAR received more than 155 applications. Awardees for the round are Applied Biosensors, Salt Lake City; Base2 Genomics, Salt Lake City; Blyncsy, Salt Lake City; Eastwind Networks, Salt Lake City; Brenkman and Co., Logan; Granite Mountain Technology, Salt Lake City; H20 Tech, Spanish Fork; i-CalQ, Salt Lake City; Isogeometrx, Mapleton; iVeena, Salt Lake City; KiLife, Orem; Leonhardt’s Launchpads, Salt Lake City; Navigen, Salt Lake City; NovaBio, Draper; nView Medical, Salt Lake City; Optisys, West Jordan; PlusOne Technologies, Sandy; RodMax Oil and Gas Inc., Cedar Hills; Sharp Eyes, Salt Lake City; StreamDX, Salt Lake City; T3S, Salt Lake City; TherapEase Innovations, Mapleton; Turner Innovations, Salt Lake City; Verde, Springville; Vivcor Systems Inc., Lehi; and XEnd Medical Systems; Salt Lake City.
SERVICES
• McKinnon-Mulherin has promoted Madeline Brown to team leader for sales and business communication. Brown joined McKinnon-Mulherin in September 2015 and brings editing, writing and proofreading expertise to the position.
SPORTS
• Athletic Republic, Park City, has hired Peter Barbaresi as an advisor. He served as the chief executive officer of Velocity Sports Performance since 2009 and left his post this past summer to serve as CEO of Yoga Six, a yoga studio chain business. He will continue his role leading Yoga Six.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Tracking First, a Sandy-based advertising technology startup, has promoted John Boyd to chief operating officer and hired Craig Monson as vice president of sales, succeeding Boyd. Monson previously was involved in enterprise sales at Adobe Omniture.