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BANKING
• Bank of Utah, Ogden, has established a foreign exchange department and appointed Doug Reichman as vice president and manager of foreign exchange. Roger G. Shumway, Bank of Utah’s executive vice president and chief credit officer, will be overseeing the foreign exchange operations. Reichman has 21 years of experience as a foreign exchange manager and expert in the financial industry. Most recently, he served as vice president and foreign exchange manager for Umpqua Bank in Los Angeles and as vice president and senior foreign exchange advisor at California Bank and Trust. Reichman graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. in Spanish. Bank of Utah also announced it has signed an exclusive referral agreement with TurnPoint Foreign Exchange. Its CEO is Jason R. Langston, a 25-year veteran in foreign exchange services. He previously served as foreign exchange relationship manager for First Security Bank and Wells Fargo Bank and then went on to be managing partner and chief financial officer for GPS Capital Markets. He graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. in accounting.
DIRECT SALES
• Young Living Essential Oils, Lei, has announced that Finca Victoria Farm in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico, will become the company’s newest partner farm. The farm will provide Young Living with lime and grapefruit essential oils. The farm harvests and distills limes and grapefruits on more than 2,400 acres of farmland and is also home to a facility that will cold-press the fresh lime and grapefruit rinds to produce high-quality essential oils.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Salt Lake City is among U.S. cities with large employment in drugs and pharmaceuticals; medical devices and equipment; and research, testing and medical laboratories. A report titled “Investment, Innovation and Job Creation in a Growing U.S. Bioscience Industry,” compiled by TEConomy Partners LLC and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), said Logan and Salt Lake City are among 26 metro areas with a specialized concentration in at least three bioscience subsectors, each with three. Among metropolitan statistical areas, Salt Lake City had the sixth-largest employment in medical devices and equipment, with 8,948 workers. It was 18th for research, testing and medical laboratories, with 6,661. It was No. 21 for drugs and pharmaceuticals, with 2,510. Details are at https://www.bio.org/sites/default/files/TEConomy_BIO_2018_Report.pdf.
INVESTMENTS
• Momni Inc., a Springville-based childcare tech company, has secured additional funding of more than $1.75 million to expand its “caresharing” app, which connects mothers to mothers for childcare in their own neighborhoods and communities. The round was led by Tamarak Capital, a Utah family office, and was accompanied by investors from Utah venture service firm RevRoad and angel investors. The funding will allow Momni to greatly expand product features and launch its growing careshare platform into new geographic regions. The company released iPhone and Android apps earlier this year. The recent round brings the female-led tech company’s total fundraising to more than $2 million.
MILESTONES
• MMA Energy Capital, a Park City-based manager of capital in the renewable energy industry, has reached over $200 million in originations of renewable energy investments in Texas. MMA Energy Capital originates and manages development, construction, bridge and term loans ranging from $3 million to over $100 million. Since 2015, the company has originated and managed development and construction financing for more than 100 solar, wind and other clean energy projects across 15 U.S. states and territories, totaling more than 2.6 gigawatts of installed capacity and over $1.2 billion of committed investments. MMA Energy Capital is a trade name under which Hunt Investment Management LLC does business.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTS/RECREATION/SPORTS
• Whisper Ridge, a helicopter and cat-skiing provider operating out of Eden, has announced the acquisition of over 11,000 premium skiable acres to its existing terrain for the 2018-19 season. The company said the newly combined 70,000-plus contiguous acres makes Whisper Ridge the largest private backcountry ski resort in the world. Whisper Ridge also has announced an exclusive partnership with Powder Mountain Resort to provide heli and cat-skiing services for their patrons. Whisper Ridge will build an additional base of operations at Powder Mountain to facilitate access to its private land, which borders the public resort.
PHILANTHROPY
• America First Credit Union, Riverdale, recently donated $10,000 to 10 organizations across Utah and southern Nevada at its annual Community Assistance Holiday Giving event at the Davis Conference Center in Layton. The recipients are Christmas Box International, The Road Home, SafeNest, The Lantern House Homeless Shelter, YCC of Northern Utah, the Cathedral of the Madeline Good Samaritan Program, For the Kids, Three Square, the Food & Care Coalition and the Catholic Community Services Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank. The Community Assistance Holiday Giving event is funded by the America First Credit Union Charitable Foundation. The program’s mission is to provide funds to assist the homeless and other disadvantaged individuals in the communities America First serves. Money for the program is raised through America First Credit Union member donations and distributed to organizations that provide job assistance, training, housing, food and medical attention to those in need.
• The divisions of People’s Intermountain Bank — which include Bank of American Fork, Lewiston State Bank, and People’s Town and Country Bank — have presented 130,843 teddy bears and other stuffed animal boys to family support centers in Utah during the past 20 years. The annual Project Teddy Bear involves collecting and donating the toy animals, which are used at the crisis centers in play therapy, to soothe an upset child or are given to children to help them feel love and comfort. Among organizations helping with the project this year were a club from Spanish Fork High School that collected 600 stuffed animals (different clubs from SFHS have participated in Project Teddy Bear for 13 years); The Hulk Squad from Maple Mountain Junior High School that collected 120; and Bailey’s Moving & Storage, which provided all of the boxes, labor and a large moving truck to deliver teddy bears to three support centers. Centers receiving the donations were the Salt Lake County Family Support Center, the Utah Valley Family Support & Treatment Center and the Family Connection Center in Clearfield.
RECOGNITIONS
• Several companies based in Utah are among the “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America,” a list compiled by Entrepreneur magazine. The Entrepreneur360 list of 360 private companies includes No. 3 Malouf, Logan; No. 21 Axum Corporate Health Strategies, Herriman; No. 29 Nav, with main offices in Draper and California; No. 56 Edge, Orem; No. 134 Aptive Environmental, Provo; No. 244 97th Floor, Lehi; and No. 336 Backyard Bookkeeper, Cottonwood Heights. Listed companies were identified based on the results from a study of independently owned companies using a proprietary algorithm and other advanced analytics. The algorithm was built on a balanced scorecard designed to measure five metrics reflecting major pillars of entrepreneurship: innovation, growth, leadership, impact and business valuation.
• StorageCraft, a Draper-based data security company, has been named a winner of two data-protection software subcategories in the 2018 Annual Report Card produced by CRN. The subcategories are Partnership and Managed and Cloud Services. The Annual Report Card summarizes results from a survey that details solution-provider satisfaction in the areas of product innovation, support and partnership for the hardware, services and software vendors with which they team.
SERVICES
• TrueNorth Wealth, a Salt Lake City-based fee-only financial planning firm, has announced promotions for Joseph Griffin, Mallory Edinborough, Carly Chasse’ and Sam Watkins. Griffin, currently president and chief operating officer, has been promoted to CEO. He has been with the company for six years and has a bachelor’s degree. Edinborough has been promoted operations manager to chief operating officer. She has been with the company since April and previously worked in the insurance industry. Chasse’ has been promoted from office manager to managing director. She has been with the company since April and previously was a pharmacy technician. Watkins, a financial advisor, is adding the new role of chief investment officer. He has been with the company since December 2016. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brigham Young University. The company has finished a banner year in 2018, with a 320 percent increase of new assets under management, compared with a standard year.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Frelii Inc., a Lehi-based medical technology company focused on gene sequencing and artificial intelligence, has appointed Leslie M. Norris to its board of directors. Norris has nearly 40 years of experience as business strategist and brand expert, working with Fortune 100, mid-cap, early-stage and startup companies, all in a global capacity. She is currently the founder and CEO of Springboard5 Marketing, a global strategic public relations and marketing firm that focuses on life science, biotech and technology companies. She is also founder and CEO of ARCexperts, a global audit, risk and regulatory compliance firm. She also she serves as an independent consultant and advisor to tech and life science companies, has been an angel investor for 25 years and has worked with investment groups in the U.S. and Europe.