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COMMUNICATIONS
• Salt Lake City officials are telling residents to expect more small cell antennae to pop up in neighborhoods to meet the growing demand for mobile and data services. The antennae will supplement existing cellular facilities such as cell towers. The Utah Legislature this year passed the Small Wireless Facilities Act, which allows wireless providers to locate small wireless facilities on existing poles or install new poles in right-of-way areas, which includes the space where the road, curb and gutter, park strip and sidewalks are located. The law does not allow cities to prohibit the placement of the devices or poles, but they can create installation standards. Details are at https://www.slc.gov/engineering/small-cell-infrastructure-design-standards/.
CONSTRUCTION
• Kier Construction, Ogden, has made several changes to its executive management team. Steve Kier has been appointed chief executive officer. He has served as company president for the past 32 years. As CEO, he will be responsible for creating, planning, and integrating the company’s strategic direction. He will continue to represent Kier in civic and professional associations in the local community, and at the state and national level. Clint Costley has been named president of Kier Construction. Costley most recently was Kier’s vice president of business development. As president, Costley will work with Kier in creating, communicating and implementing KIER’s vision, purpose and overall strategic direction. Costley holds a bachelor of arts degree in sales and service technology from Weber State University, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Utah. Zach Judkins has been promoted to director of business development. He will oversee Kier’s regional business development initiatives with new and existing clients. Judkins has nearly 12 years of experience in the construction industry and in client relations. He holds a degree in sales and service technology from Weber State University.
• Psomas, an engineering, planning and surveying firm, has rehired Stuart Adams as a senior project engineer and hired Vicky Golie as marketing manager. Adams returns to the company after being away for 10 years. He joined Psomas in 1998. Prior to that, he spent the first 10 years of his career in development projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the past four-and-a-half years, he was in Saudi Arabia, leading a team for the Saudi Royal Commission tasked with managing the design of infrastructure projects for an expansion of Yanbu Industrial City on the Red Sea coast. Golie will oversee the marketing and business development activities for the company’s Salt Lake City office. She has been in the AEC industry for 20 years. Prior to Psomas, Vicky was a marketing director at a local architecture firm.
CONTESTS
• World Trade Center Utah is accepting applications until Oct. 22 for the Utah Export Acceleration Grant Pitch Competition, a contest for small and medium-sized Utah businesses to compete for grant funds to advance their international business goals. Eligible Utah businesses may submit a two-minute video pitch on how the additional funds will help their businesses expand internationally. The top six videos will be displayed on World Trade Center Utah’s website Oct. 26-Nov. 1 and accessible to the public for voting purposes. The top three businesses will compete Nov. 8 at the Utah Global Forum. One of the final three will be selected by popular vote, with two others selected by the World Trade Center Utah team. First place is $10,000, with second place being $7,500 and third place being $2,500. Details are at wtcutah.com (under the “Grants” tab, select and “Pitch Competition”).
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah has the sixth-best economy in the U.S., according to a list compiled by Business Insider. The publication combined six measures of labor-market and general economic health — unemployment rate, job growth, per-capita GDP, GDP growth, average weekly wages and wage growth — to determine an overall score for each state’s economy. It noted that Utah’s first-quarter 2018 GDP growth rate of 3.2 percent was the second-highest, and its nonfarm payroll job growth rate of 3.5 percent between August 2017 and August 2018 was the highest in the country. The top-ranked economy was in the District of Columbia. The bottom-ranked economy was in Mississippi.
• Utah is No. 8 among states in the Tax Foundation’s 2019 State Business Tax Climate Index. The top state in the index is Wyoming. The bottom state is New Jersey. Utah’s corporate tax rate was No. 5, its individual income tax rank was No. 10, its sales tax rank is No. 16, its property tax rank is third, and its unemployment insurance tax rank is No. 16.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Weber State University has hired Guy Letendre as economic development director. Letendre has a background in operations and supply chain management for biotech and transportation companies, including Autoliv, Alexza Pharmaceuticals and Infinia Corp. Early in his engineering career, he helped develop airbag inflation devices for Autoliv. After earning an MBA, Letendre switched his career focus to business administration and consulting, supporting business development, operations and supply chain development for transit, bio tech and consumer product companies.
INSURANCE
• Diversified Insurance Group, Salt Lake City, has hired Kerry Belt and Ryan Wall. Belt, an account executive, has 25 years of industry experience. She specializes in domestic and international risk exposures faced by mid and large-sized companies in multiple industries, including retail, manufacturing, real estate, life sciences and technology. Wall, an account executive/producer, previously worked at Goldman Sachs in its private wealth management operations. He received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Utah.
REAL ESTATE
• Alpha Wave Investors LLC, a California-based private equity investment firm, has acquired Cove on Bruce Apartments, a 76-unit multifamily community in Clearfield. Financial terms and other details were not disclosed. This is the firm’s fourth acquisition in the Salt Lake City metro area in the past 12 months. Alpha Wave said it plans to implement over $750,000 in capital improvements, including adding a new leasing office and fitness center, exterior paint, signage and landscape upgrades, interior renovations, and the installation of energy-efficient fixtures. Jason Wadsworth at Carpenter Commercial represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction.
RECOGNITIONS
• The Economic Development Corporation of Utah recently received a Gold Excellence in Economic Development Award for its Industry Profiles in the category of “General Purpose Print Brochure” from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). EDCUtah is a private nonprofit organization focused on bringing quality jobs and capital investment to Utah. The Industry Profiles are documents that detail the most relevant information for companies deciding where to relocate or expand their business. The information is tailored to the major industries in Utah and quantifies the strategic advantages of operating their business in Utah.
• Three finalists have been named for the 2018 Utah Leopold Conservation Award. The $10,000 award is presented annually by the Sand County Foundation, Western AgCredit, Utah Farm Bureau Federation and Utah Cattlemen’s Association. The honor, named after conservationist Aldo Leopold, recognizes farmers, ranchers and foresters who inspire others with their dedication to land, water and wildlife habitat management on private, working land. The finalists are Basque Cross Ranch of Park Valley, a cattle ranch operated by Lance and Emilie Westmoreland; Ercanbrack Livestock of Coalville, a cattle ranch operated by Ed Ercanbrack and his family; and JY Ferry & Son Inc. of Corinne, a cattle ranch owned and operated by John, Ben and Joel Ferry. Finalists will be recognized Nov. 1 at the Utah Association of Conservation Districts luncheon in St. George. The award recipient will be presented Nov. 16 at the Utah Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting in Layton.
• USANA Health Sciences, a Salt Lake City-based nutritional and skin-care products company, is on the list of “America’s Most Trustworthy Public Companies,” compiled by TFG Analytics. USANA was ranked fourth among “small/mid cap” companies with an A-plus rating, which only 5 percent of companies researched achieved. The rankings were based on dozens of factors in five key areas: financial governance, environmental, social and corporate governance, quality of earnings, relative risk, and market-implied governance.
• Utah ranked first in the Center for Digital Government’s Government Experience Awards for the second consecutive year. The center named Utah.gov first in the “Overall State Government Experience” category. Utah.Gov services also won an additional award for its notary services and for using artificial intelligence to analyze analyzing resident feedback. The Government Experience Awards recognize the achievements and best practices of states, cities and counties that excel at creating useful online government services and applications. Utah.gov is the entry point to over 1,000 online services. It is managed and operated through a public-private partnership between the state and Utah Interactive.
RESTAURANTS
• DeJoria Center, an event and adventure site in Kamas, has hired Ernesto Rocha as its executive chef of State Road Tavern & Restaurant. Rocha has 27 years of culinary experience. In the past decade, he worked as executive chef at Boutique Hotel, The Washington School House, as well as the executive sous chef at Powder, in the Waldorf Astoria. He also served as the executive chef at Zoom in Park City.
SPORTS
• Athletic Republic, a Park City-based sports training franchise, has hired Tommy Auger as the company’s chief financial officer. Auger previously served as the CFO, chief accounting officer and senior vice president for AlphaGraphics Inc. Prior to his AlphaGraphics franchising role, Auger worked for three of the “Big Four” accounting firms — Deloitte, Arthur Andersen and KPMG — and serviced certain franchising clients as well.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Tower Arch Capital, a Salt Lake City-based lower-middle-market private equity fund, has signed an agreement to sell Softvision LLC to Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Softvision has more than 2,850 employees in 11 countries and five continents. Tower Arch was advised by BofA Merrill Lynch and Kirkland & Ellis LLP on the transaction.
• HireVue, a Salt Lake City talent assessment suite and video interviewing solutions company, has named Eric Boyd to its board of directors. Boyd is CVP AI platform at Microsoft, where he oversees development of the AI tools, infrastructure, hardware, big data systems and key data sets powering the machine-learning systems driving Bing, Bing Ads and Microsoft Office. Earlier in his career, he served as vice president of engineering for Mochi Media and spent over nine years in engineering leadership roles at Yahoo, where he was ultimately promoted to vice president of platform engineering.
• TazWorks, a Draper-based technology solutions and business strategies company focusing on the background screening industry, has hired Kary Burns as director of marketing and communications. Burns’ experience includes working for large telecommunication carriers, cloud service providers and technology companies.
• Voxpopeme, a Salt Lake City video technology company, has appointed Jon Carbone as vice president of VideoCX, the company’s video-first customer experience solution. Carbone previously was a management consultant.
• PrinterLogic, a St. George-based enterprise print management software company, has promoted JD Carter to chief marketing officer. He will be responsible for product definition, corporate branding, product marketing and demand generation. He joined the company in 2013 and had served as its vice president of commercial sales. He earned a degree in business administration and an MBA from Southern Utah University.
TRANSPORTATION
• Parametrix’s Utah office, formerly in Midvale, has moved to larger space at 4179 Riverboat Road, Suite 130, Salt Lake City. The Utah office specializes in transportation planning, transportation and traffic engineering, and environmental planning and compliance. Parametrix established a presence in Utah in 2015 when InterPlan was acquired.
• SkyWest Inc., St. George, has promoted Justin Esplin as vice president of information technology. Esplin succeeds Jim Jenson, who will retire at year-end after 33 years at SkyWest. Esplin will oversee all of SkyWest’s IT operations for operating subsidiaries SkyWest Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines, including hardware, software, application development and Internet security. He has more than 17 years of SkyWest IT experience. He joined the company in 2001 and was named director of application development in 2008. Prior to his time at SkyWest, Esplin was a division software manager. He holds a computer engineering degree from Brigham Young University.