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ASSOCIATIONS
• TheNational Association of State Workforce Agencies(NASWA) has selectedJon Pierpontto serve on its executive committee. As part of this role, he will represent Utah on the committee and work with state administrators nationally on workforce issues. Pierpont is the executive director of Utah’s Department of Workforce Services and cabinet member for Gov. Gary R. Herbert. He has worked in several leadership positions within the department for nearly 25 years. In addition, Pierpont recently finished serving as the NASWA Equal Opportunity Subcommittee Chair. Pierpont will serve in the secretary position on the executive committee for a one-year term.
BANKING
•Bank of Utahhas hiredJake Larsenas a mortgage loan officer at its St. George mortgage loan office. Larsen has 15 years of experience in the banking industry. He is the founder and owner of Larsen Banking Consulting and in recent years served as a small business development officer and vice president at Rock Canyon Bank in St. George. He has also held several other business banking positions in California and Nevada. His education includes an associate of science in business from Dixie State University.
CONSTRUCTION
•Industrial Supply Co., Salt Lake City, has promotedMichelle Lakinto vice president of finance. Lakin began her career with Industrial Supply in 2015. Prior to joining the company, she obtained her CPA license and spent almost five years with a local CPA firm. She worked for several years in various industries, including manufacturing, software development and government. She received both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in accounting at Weber State University.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Sixteen local business leaders have graduated from theSBA (Small Business Administration) Utah “Emerging Leaders”program. The leaders committed to seven months of seminars designed to strengthen their practical skills as well as build their networks while they worked on a tangible three-year growth plan. Participants areJoel Tuaileva, ADO M&C;Monty Johnson, Trail Mods; Lea Ann Rodriguez, Wynsor LLC;Yancy Rod, Intelligent Enclosures;Mauricio Lizana, Aire Expresso Heating and Cooling Inc.;Darren Nord, Advanced Care Home Medical & Oxygen Inc.;Christine Jacobson, Wasatch Primary Care;Jenn Deavis, The Blueberry Hill;Sandeep Sharma, Global Consulting International; Kyle Ellis, Blue Sun Products LLC;Brittany Reece, Sugar Space;Lorraine Peart, Avalon Business Engineering Services; Shad Vick, Lunasoft;Clay Holtman, Clay’s RV and Powersports;Janeice Whitaker, KW Excavation; andJeff Reed, SWAGE Technologies.
• TheSorenson Impact Centerat the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business and Pima County, Arizona, have announced a groundbreaking effort to address the causes of homelessness in Pima County. Together, they are preparing to implement a $1.3 million federal “Pay for Success” (PFS) Supportive Housing Demonstration Grant, the first of its kind in Arizona. Funded by theDepartment of Justice(DOJ) and facilitated through a partnership between theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD) and the DOJ, the project’s primary goal is to enable chronically homeless people to find and maintain stable housing while being able to access wrap-around services. Together, the locally tailored stable housing and services will aim to reduce the burden on the criminal justice and emergency healthcare systems. A team from the Sorenson Impact Center — project directorCaroline Ross, managing directorJeremy Keele, University of Utah professorRob Buttersand senior policy associateSara Peters— recently traveled to Tucson to seek the expertise of public- and private-sector leaders and frontline service providers. The team is currently wrapping up the preliminary assessment and planning portion of its work, which was funded with a grant from theKresge Foundation. A final feasibility study and a cost-benefit analysis for the pilot project is expected to be completed around the first of the year.
ENERGY/NATURAL RESOURCES
•Vivint Solar, Lehi, has namedChance Allredas chief sales officer,Paul Dicksonas chief revenue officer andBryan Christiansenas chief operations officer. Allred has 16 years of experience building three businesses. He has been a part of the original executive team and will continue to lead the sales organization and will focus on sales team recruitment, development and leadership. As chief revenue officer, Dickson will oversee the team focused on the sales process and will continue to build out Vivint Solar’s sales operations group. A founding member of Vivint Solar’s management team, Dickson also co-founded a smart-grid energy management company as a university student and sold the business to Vivint Inc. Christiansen will remain a key player in strategy development for Vivint Solar. As chief operations officer, he will be responsible for all operations contributing to the customer experience beyond the initial sale. He joined Vivint Solar as the company’s chief strategy and innovation officer in May. With nearly 18 years of experience in financial and operational leadership positions, Christiansen has personally run six companies.
ENVIRONMENT
• TheSalt Lake City Department of Sustainabilityis accepting comments through October on its draft proposal for a new market-based ordinance that aims to reduce pollution and cut energy costs, by increasing the transparency of energy use in large commercial and industrial buildings across the city. Supportive comments may be emailed to wendy.lee@slcgov.com. The new city ordinance isdesigned to make energy performance information accessible and visible to the public. The proposal would require large commercial buildings to track their energy consumption using the free, automated Energy Star Portfolio Manager program, and then submit the building’s Energy Star score to the city each year. A year later, the building’s scores would be made available to the public to help businesses, consumers and investors identify energy-efficient buildings. The city is also requesting comments about whether it should also require less-efficient buildings to conduct energy “tune-ups” every five years.
FINANCE
• Extra Space Storage Inc., Salt Lake City, has completed $1.15 billion in unsecured bank financing through a senior unsecured credit facility consisting of a $500 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility, a $430 million senior unsecured five-year term loan and a $220 million senior unsecured seven-year term loan, of which $300 million of the unsecured five-year term loan was drawn on Oct. 14. The credit agreement provides the company an option to increase capacity by an additional $350 million. Scott Stubbs, chief financial officer, said the completion of the credit facility is “a significant step in laddering our maturities, reducing our cost of debt, and diversifying our already solid balance sheet.”
•Sorensen Capital, Salt Lake City, has promotedLen Blackwellto managing director of portfolio operations. Since Blackwell joined Sorenson Capital in 2006, he has been involved in bolstering the operational capabilities of the firm and its portfolio of companies. The newly created position will enable him to play a more prominent role in the strategic direction and growth of the company as he continues his focus on the operational effectiveness of the firm’s portfolio, the company said. Prior to his experience at Sorenson Capital, Blackwell worked two decades in positions from consulting to executive positions, ranging from operations and general management to sales, marketing and a chief executive role.
HEALTHCARE
•WebPT, a Phoenix-based rehabilitation therapy platform company, has appointedNancy Hamas chief executive officer. Ham, a Salt Lake City healthcare IT veteran, will remain in Utah. Ham previously was CEO of Healthagen Population Solutions, part of her career in private and public healthcare information technology companies. She also was president, CEO and director at MedVentive, president of Sentillion, and president of ProxyMed.
LAW
•Snell & Wilmerhas hiredAlexandra SandvikandJustin W. Thomasfor its Salt Lake City office. Sandvik focuses her practice on commercial litigation and labor and employment law. She helps companies and employers resolve matters relating to policies and handbooks, employment discrimination allegations and compliance with federal and state employment laws. She received her B.A. from Brigham Young University and her J.D. from BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. Thomas concentrates his practice on commercial real estate. His leasing experience includes representing both retail and office landlords as well as retail and office tenants. Thomas also has experience in private lending, such as bridge loans and hard money lending. His education includes a B.S. from the University of Utah.
MANUFACTURING
•Purple, Salt Lake City, has appointedPeter Skallaas chief financial officer. He comes to Purple with finance and executive experience at consumer goods manufacturing, e-commerce and technology companies, most recently serving as chief financial officer at Jamberry Nails. After starting his career in the investment management industry, Skalla transitioned to become a CFO over a decade ago. He has served as CFO or outsourced CFO for Jamberry Nails, AirVend, FotoPunch and Mesa Networks. He also was co-founder of a financial technology startup Qbillion Inc. His education includes graduating from Brigham Young University.
•Durham Brands, Salt Lake City, has promotedBen Durhamto chief operations officer and president of the GIMME brand division within Durham Brands Corp. Durham previously was vice president of brands.
NONPROFITS
•David E. Letahas been elected to serve on the board of directors ofFourth Street Clinic, which provides healthcare services and related support to Utah’s homeless population. Leta is a partner in the law firm Snell & Wilmer. He has more than 40 years’ experience representing debtors, creditors, trustees, creditor committees, asset purchasers, vendors, equity holders and other parties in all aspects of financial disputes, including collections, foreclosures, workouts, receiverships and bankruptcy. He received his J.D. from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTS/RECREATION/SPORTS
•Ski Utahhas published its fifth annual magazine, marking the beginning of the 2016-17 winter season. The magazine contains 96 pages of imagery and stories, with information ranging from preseason training tips to a comprehensive guide of all of Utah’s 14 ski resorts. It also includes activities beyond the slopes, from fine dining experiences to Utah’s craft liquor movement. It also has a story about the Ski Utah Interconnect Tour. Ski Utah published 225,000 copies of the 2016-17 magazine, of which 100,000 copies will be poly-bagged with the December issue of Outside; 75,000 copies with the November issue of Texas Monthly; and 20,000 with the December issue of Orange Coast. A free copy is available at https://www.skiutah.com/resources/ski-utah-magazine.
REAL ESTATE
•Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Park City, has opened an office at the Newpark Town Center, 1153 Center Drive, Suite 200, Park City. The new office features 4,000 square feet and nearly 40 affiliated sales associates and office staff.Kevin Larsenis the managing broker at the new office. He previously was manager of Coldwell Banker’s Salt Lake City office.
•ERA Brokers Consolidated, based in St. George, has opened an office at Lehi Station at Thanksgiving Point, which will operate as ERA Brokers. The office has more than 25 agents and the number is expected to reach 50 by year-end.Cheryl Knowltonis branch broker. She has more than 20 years of experience in the real estate industry. ERA Brokers Consolidated operates commercial and residential brokerages in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Idaho.
RECOGNITIONS
• The Executive MBA program at theUniversity of Utah’s David Eccles School of Businesswas ranked No. 79 in the world and No. 21 in the U.S. in a ranking of thetop 100 Executive MBA programsby theFinancial Times. It moved up one spot nationally and four spots globally. It was ranked No. 4 in the West. The ranking is compiled from surveys of EMBA alumni three years post-graduation and from information provided by the business schools. The survey evaluated 16 criteria in three areas, including alumni career progression, school diversity and international focus and idea generation and research productivity of the faculty. The David Eccles School of Business also ranked No. 49 for the success of its researchers, as measured by publication in international academic and business journals, and its Executive MBA received a No. 3 in the West ranking for the percentage of female students.
•Mary Lou Arveseth, a Draper financial advisor, has won the2016 Volunteer of the Year Awardfrom theInvest in Others Charitable Foundationfor her role in starting and leading the Utah chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). The AFSP received a $20,000 donation from the foundation in Arveseth’s honor. Arveseth was among seven award recipients honored Sept. 29 in New York City during the 10th annual Community Leadership Awards Gala. Recipients were selected based on their leadership, dedication, contribution, inspiration, and impact on a nonprofit and the community it serves. The Volunteer of the Year Award is presented annually to an advisor who has made a significant impact on a nonprofit as a volunteer of at least three years by creating, implementing, or managing a project or program that has moved the organization forward and has made a lasting impact on his or her community.
• Three Utah companies each have been ranked byFortunemagazine andGreat Place to Workin their list of the“100 Best Medium Workplaces”and“50 Best Small Workplaces.”The medium list includes No. 20Zurixx, Cottonwood Heights; No. 32Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City; and No. 77BambooHR, Lindon. The small list includes No. 33Jane.com, Lehi; No. 39BrainStorm, American Fork; and No. 4397th Floor, Lehi. Fortune partner Great Place to Work reviewed the survey results of more than 52,000 employees from hundreds of companies in the ranking process.
•Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City, has been named to the 2016 list of“Best Places to Work in Healthcare”byModern Healthcare. Health Catalyst was ranked for the fourth consecutive year, is 40th on the 2106 list, is 22nd among medium-sized healthcare companies, and is 26th in the survey’s supplier category. The awards recognize employers for outstanding performance in economic development, employee retention and satisfaction.
•Instructure, Salt Lake City, has been ranked No. 2 in thetop 25 highest-rated public cloud companies to work forbyGlassdoorandBattery Ventures. The list highlights 25 publicly traded companies specializing in “business-to-business” cloud computing with the highest levels of satisfaction from their employees. Instructure’s 4.6 overall company rating compares with the Glassdoor average of 3.3. Instructure CEOJosh Coatesearned a 98 percent approval rating on the website and the company earned a 92 percent positive business outlook rating.
• Three Utah companies have been listed in the category of“New Product of the Year”by theBusiness Intelligence Groupin its2016 BIG Awards for Businessprogram. They are the technology learning platformfromPluralsight, Salt Lake City;ageLOC Mefrom Nu Skin Enterprises, Provo; andImpartner PRMfrom Impartner, South Jordan. BIG’s annual awards program was launched to reward companies, products and people that are leading their respective industries.
•Impartner, South Jordan, has been named toCIOReviewmagazine’s list of the“20 Most Promising Salesforce Solution Providers for 2016.”The magazine’s editors identified emerging companies in the technology landscape that are solving impediments and overcoming market complexities. Impartner also was shortlisted as“Best Software as a Service”by theV3 Technology Awardsand“Cloud Application/PaaS Solution of the Year”in theStorage, Virtualisation, Cloud (SVC) Awards.
• Agile Capabilities, byWorkfront, Lehi, has been awarded aDMA 2016 Innovation Awardin the content and native marketing category. Judging was based on the ability to measurably demonstrate how the company’s approach to content and/or native marketing delivers a new or unique approach to the market. It also was judged on ITS ability to focus on creative and innovative ways to use and/or deploy content — ultimately enhancing user experience and engagement — while still meeting the needs of content owners/publishers.
RETAIL
•Natural Grocers, based in Colorado, has announced it will open a new store this winter at 270 12th St., Ogden, bringing 18 jobs. Natural Grocers employs more than 3,000 people and operates 126 stores in 19 states.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
•ObservePoint, Provo, has appointedDavid Carras chief technology officer. Carr previously wasvice president of enterprise applications and vice president of software development at Vivint, chief information officer at Larry H. Miller Group of Companies,vice president of engineering and operations at Omniture, and chief technology officer at Zumint.
•StorageCraft Technology Corp., Draper, has namedJawaad Tariqas vice president of engineering. Tariq will oversee the operations of the software development and quality assurance teams. His responsibilities also include the creation of new products and features for the entire suite of backup and disaster recovery software and the StorageCraft cloud offerings. Tariq has 17 years of experience in software engineering organizations, including most recently at Fusion-io/Sandisk, including four-plus years as the software engineering director. He also worked 10 years at Novell as software engineering director. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University.
•Qualtrics, Salt Lake City, has appointedZig Serafinas the company’s chief operating officer. Serafin previously spent 17 years at Microsoft leading large teams and building multi-billion-dollar product lines. Most recently, he was a corporate vice president with responsibility for Office 365 Skype for Business. Before that, Serafin was general manager of Microsoft’s Tellme Networks.
ASSOCIATIONS
• TheNational Association of State Workforce Agencies(NASWA) has selectedJon Pierpontto serve on its executive committee. As part of this role, he will represent Utah on the committee and work with state administrators nationally on workforce issues. Pierpont is the executive director of Utah’s Department of Workforce Services and cabinet member for Gov. Gary R. Herbert. He has worked in several leadership positions within the department for nearly 25 years. In addition, Pierpont recently finished serving as the NASWA Equal Opportunity Subcommittee Chair. Pierpont will serve in the secretary position on the executive committee for a one-year term.
BANKING
•Bank of Utahhas hiredJake Larsenas a mortgage loan officer at its St. George mortgage loan office. Larsen has 15 years of experience in the banking industry. He is the founder and owner of Larsen Banking Consulting and in recent years served as a small business development officer and vice president at Rock Canyon Bank in St. George. He has also held several other business banking positions in California and Nevada. His education includes an associate of science in business from Dixie State University.
CONSTRUCTION
•Industrial Supply Co., Salt Lake City, has promotedMichelle Lakinto vice president of finance. Lakin began her career with Industrial Supply in 2015. Prior to joining the company, she obtained her CPA license and spent almost five years with a local CPA firm. She worked for several years in various industries, including manufacturing, software development and government. She received both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in accounting at Weber State University.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Sixteen local business leaders have graduated from theSBA (Small Business Administration) Utah “Emerging Leaders”program. The leaders committed to seven months of seminars designed to strengthen their practical skills as well as build their networks while they worked on a tangible three-year growth plan. Participants areJoel Tuaileva, ADO M&C;Monty Johnson, Trail Mods; Lea Ann Rodriguez, Wynsor LLC;Yancy Rod, Intelligent Enclosures;Mauricio Lizana, Aire Expresso Heating and Cooling Inc.;Darren Nord, Advanced Care Home Medical & Oxygen Inc.;Christine Jacobson, Wasatch Primary Care;Jenn Deavis, The Blueberry Hill;Sandeep Sharma, Global Consulting International; Kyle Ellis, Blue Sun Products LLC;Brittany Reece, Sugar Space;Lorraine Peart, Avalon Business Engineering Services; Shad Vick, Lunasoft;Clay Holtman, Clay’s RV and Powersports;Janeice Whitaker, KW Excavation; andJeff Reed, SWAGE Technologies.
• TheSorenson Impact Centerat the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business and Pima County, Arizona, have announced a groundbreaking effort to address the causes of homelessness in Pima County. Together, they are preparing to implement a $1.3 million federal “Pay for Success” (PFS) Supportive Housing Demonstration Grant, the first of its kind in Arizona. Funded by theDepartment of Justice(DOJ) and facilitated through a partnership between theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD) and the DOJ, the project’s primary goal is to enable chronically homeless people to find and maintain stable housing while being able to access wrap-around services. Together, the locally tailored stable housing and services will aim to reduce the burden on the criminal justice and emergency healthcare systems. A team from the Sorenson Impact Center — project directorCaroline Ross, managing directorJeremy Keele, University of Utah professorRob Buttersand senior policy associateSara Peters— recently traveled to Tucson to seek the expertise of public- and private-sector leaders and frontline service providers. The team is currently wrapping up the preliminary assessment and planning portion of its work, which was funded with a grant from theKresge Foundation. A final feasibility study and a cost-benefit analysis for the pilot project is expected to be completed around the first of the year.
ENERGY/NATURAL RESOURCES
•Vivint Solar, Lehi, has namedChance Allredas chief sales officer,Paul Dicksonas chief revenue officer andBryan Christiansenas chief operations officer. Allred has 16 years of experience building three businesses. He has been a part of the original executive team and will continue to lead the sales organization and will focus on sales team recruitment, development and leadership. As chief revenue officer, Dickson will oversee the team focused on the sales process and will continue to build out Vivint Solar’s sales operations group. A founding member of Vivint Solar’s management team, Dickson also co-founded a smart-grid energy management company as a university student and sold the business to Vivint Inc. Christiansen will remain a key player in strategy development for Vivint Solar. As chief operations officer, he will be responsible for all operations contributing to the customer experience beyond the initial sale. He joined Vivint Solar as the company’s chief strategy and innovation officer in May. With nearly 18 years of experience in financial and operational leadership positions, Christiansen has personally run six companies.
ENVIRONMENT
• TheSalt Lake City Department of Sustainabilityis accepting comments through October on its draft proposal for a new market-based ordinance that aims to reduce pollution and cut energy costs, by increasing the transparency of energy use in large commercial and industrial buildings across the city. Supportive comments may be emailed to wendy.lee@slcgov.com. The new city ordinance isdesigned to make energy performance information accessible and visible to the public. The proposal would require large commercial buildings to track their energy consumption using the free, automated Energy Star Portfolio Manager program, and then submit the building’s Energy Star score to the city each year. A year later, the building’s scores would be made available to the public to help businesses, consumers and investors identify energy-efficient buildings. The city is also requesting comments about whether it should also require less-efficient buildings to conduct energy “tune-ups” every five years.
FINANCE
• Extra Space Storage Inc., Salt Lake City, has completed $1.15 billion in unsecured bank financing through a senior unsecured credit facility consisting of a $500 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility, a $430 million senior unsecured five-year term loan and a $220 million senior unsecured seven-year term loan, of which $300 million of the unsecured five-year term loan was drawn on Oct. 14. The credit agreement provides the company an option to increase capacity by an additional $350 million. Scott Stubbs, chief financial officer, said the completion of the credit facility is “a significant step in laddering our maturities, reducing our cost of debt, and diversifying our already solid balance sheet.”
•Sorensen Capital, Salt Lake City, has promotedLen Blackwellto managing director of portfolio operations. Since Blackwell joined Sorenson Capital in 2006, he has been involved in bolstering the operational capabilities of the firm and its portfolio of companies. The newly created position will enable him to play a more prominent role in the strategic direction and growth of the company as he continues his focus on the operational effectiveness of the firm’s portfolio, the company said. Prior to his experience at Sorenson Capital, Blackwell worked two decades in positions from consulting to executive positions, ranging from operations and general management to sales, marketing and a chief executive role.
HEALTHCARE
•WebPT, a Phoenix-based rehabilitation therapy platform company, has appointedNancy Hamas chief executive officer. Ham, a Salt Lake City healthcare IT veteran, will remain in Utah. Ham previously was CEO of Healthagen Population Solutions, part of her career in private and public healthcare information technology companies. She also was president, CEO and director at MedVentive, president of Sentillion, and president of ProxyMed.
LAW
•Snell & Wilmerhas hiredAlexandra SandvikandJustin W. Thomasfor its Salt Lake City office. Sandvik focuses her practice on commercial litigation and labor and employment law. She helps companies and employers resolve matters relating to policies and handbooks, employment discrimination allegations and compliance with federal and state employment laws. She received her B.A. from Brigham Young University and her J.D. from BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. Thomas concentrates his practice on commercial real estate. His leasing experience includes representing both retail and office landlords as well as retail and office tenants. Thomas also has experience in private lending, such as bridge loans and hard money lending. His education includes a B.S. from the University of Utah.
MANUFACTURING
•Purple, Salt Lake City, has appointedPeter Skallaas chief financial officer. He comes to Purple with finance and executive experience at consumer goods manufacturing, e-commerce and technology companies, most recently serving as chief financial officer at Jamberry Nails. After starting his career in the investment management industry, Skalla transitioned to become a CFO over a decade ago. He has served as CFO or outsourced CFO for Jamberry Nails, AirVend, FotoPunch and Mesa Networks. He also was co-founder of a financial technology startup Qbillion Inc. His education includes graduating from Brigham Young University.
•Durham Brands, Salt Lake City, has promotedBen Durhamto chief operations officer and president of the GIMME brand division within Durham Brands Corp. Durham previously was vice president of brands.
NONPROFITS
•David E. Letahas been elected to serve on the board of directors ofFourth Street Clinic, which provides healthcare services and related support to Utah’s homeless population. Leta is a partner in the law firm Snell & Wilmer. He has more than 40 years’ experience representing debtors, creditors, trustees, creditor committees, asset purchasers, vendors, equity holders and other parties in all aspects of financial disputes, including collections, foreclosures, workouts, receiverships and bankruptcy. He received his J.D. from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTS/RECREATION/SPORTS
•Ski Utahhas published its fifth annual magazine, marking the beginning of the 2016-17 winter season. The magazine contains 96 pages of imagery and stories, with information ranging from preseason training tips to a comprehensive guide of all of Utah’s 14 ski resorts. It also includes activities beyond the slopes, from fine dining experiences to Utah’s craft liquor movement. It also has a story about the Ski Utah Interconnect Tour. Ski Utah published 225,000 copies of the 2016-17 magazine, of which 100,000 copies will be poly-bagged with the December issue of Outside; 75,000 copies with the November issue of Texas Monthly; and 20,000 with the December issue of Orange Coast. A free copy is available at https://www.skiutah.com/resources/ski-utah-magazine.
REAL ESTATE
•Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Park City, has opened an office at the Newpark Town Center, 1153 Center Drive, Suite 200, Park City. The new office features 4,000 square feet and nearly 40 affiliated sales associates and office staff.Kevin Larsenis the managing broker at the new office. He previously was manager of Coldwell Banker’s Salt Lake City office.
•ERA Brokers Consolidated, based in St. George, has opened an office at Lehi Station at Thanksgiving Point, which will operate as ERA Brokers. The office has more than 25 agents and the number is expected to reach 50 by year-end.Cheryl Knowltonis branch broker. She has more than 20 years of experience in the real estate industry. ERA Brokers Consolidated operates commercial and residential brokerages in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Idaho.
RECOGNITIONS
• The Executive MBA program at theUniversity of Utah’s David Eccles School of Businesswas ranked No. 79 in the world and No. 21 in the U.S. in a ranking of thetop 100 Executive MBA programsby theFinancial Times. It moved up one spot nationally and four spots globally. It was ranked No. 4 in the West. The ranking is compiled from surveys of EMBA alumni three years post-graduation and from information provided by the business schools. The survey evaluated 16 criteria in three areas, including alumni career progression, school diversity and international focus and idea generation and research productivity of the faculty. The David Eccles School of Business also ranked No. 49 for the success of its researchers, as measured by publication in international academic and business journals, and its Executive MBA received a No. 3 in the West ranking for the percentage of female students.
•Mary Lou Arveseth, a Draper financial advisor, has won the2016 Volunteer of the Year Awardfrom theInvest in Others Charitable Foundationfor her role in starting and leading the Utah chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). The AFSP received a $20,000 donation from the foundation in Arveseth’s honor. Arveseth was among seven award recipients honored Sept. 29 in New York City during the 10th annual Community Leadership Awards Gala. Recipients were selected based on their leadership, dedication, contribution, inspiration, and impact on a nonprofit and the community it serves. The Volunteer of the Year Award is presented annually to an advisor who has made a significant impact on a nonprofit as a volunteer of at least three years by creating, implementing, or managing a project or program that has moved the organization forward and has made a lasting impact on his or her community.
• Three Utah companies each have been ranked byFortunemagazine andGreat Place to Workin their list of the“100 Best Medium Workplaces”and“50 Best Small Workplaces.”The medium list includes No. 20Zurixx, Cottonwood Heights; No. 32Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City; and No. 77BambooHR, Lindon. The small list includes No. 33Jane.com, Lehi; No. 39BrainStorm, American Fork; and No. 4397th Floor, Lehi. Fortune partner Great Place to Work reviewed the survey results of more than 52,000 employees from hundreds of companies in the ranking process.
•Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City, has been named to the 2016 list of“Best Places to Work in Healthcare”byModern Healthcare. Health Catalyst was ranked for the fourth consecutive year, is 40th on the 2106 list, is 22nd among medium-sized healthcare companies, and is 26th in the survey’s supplier category. The awards recognize employers for outstanding performance in economic development, employee retention and satisfaction.
•Instructure, Salt Lake City, has been ranked No. 2 in thetop 25 highest-rated public cloud companies to work forbyGlassdoorandBattery Ventures. The list highlights 25 publicly traded companies specializing in “business-to-business” cloud computing with the highest levels of satisfaction from their employees. Instructure’s 4.6 overall company rating compares with the Glassdoor average of 3.3. Instructure CEOJosh Coatesearned a 98 percent approval rating on the website and the company earned a 92 percent positive business outlook rating.
• Three Utah companies have been listed in the category of“New Product of the Year”by theBusiness Intelligence Groupin its2016 BIG Awards for Businessprogram. They are the technology learning platformfromPluralsight, Salt Lake City;ageLOC Mefrom Nu Skin Enterprises, Provo; andImpartner PRMfrom Impartner, South Jordan. BIG’s annual awards program was launched to reward companies, products and people that are leading their respective industries.
•Impartner, South Jordan, has been named toCIOReviewmagazine’s list of the“20 Most Promising Salesforce Solution Providers for 2016.”The magazine’s editors identified emerging companies in the technology landscape that are solving impediments and overcoming market complexities. Impartner also was shortlisted as“Best Software as a Service”by theV3 Technology Awardsand“Cloud Application/PaaS Solution of the Year”in theStorage, Virtualisation, Cloud (SVC) Awards.
• Agile Capabilities, byWorkfront, Lehi, has been awarded aDMA 2016 Innovation Awardin the content and native marketing category. Judging was based on the ability to measurably demonstrate how the company’s approach to content and/or native marketing delivers a new or unique approach to the market. It also was judged on ITS ability to focus on creative and innovative ways to use and/or deploy content — ultimately enhancing user experience and engagement — while still meeting the needs of content owners/publishers.
RETAIL
•Natural Grocers, based in Colorado, has announced it will open a new store this winter at 270 12th St., Ogden, bringing 18 jobs. Natural Grocers employs more than 3,000 people and operates 126 stores in 19 states.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
•ObservePoint, Provo, has appointedDavid Carras chief technology officer. Carr previously wasvice president of enterprise applications and vice president of software development at Vivint, chief information officer at Larry H. Miller Group of Companies,vice president of engineering and operations at Omniture, and chief technology officer at Zumint.
•StorageCraft Technology Corp., Draper, has namedJawaad Tariqas vice president of engineering. Tariq will oversee the operations of the software development and quality assurance teams. His responsibilities also include the creation of new products and features for the entire suite of backup and disaster recovery software and the StorageCraft cloud offerings. Tariq has 17 years of experience in software engineering organizations, including most recently at Fusion-io/Sandisk, including four-plus years as the software engineering director. He also worked 10 years at Novell as software engineering director. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University.
•Qualtrics, Salt Lake City, has appointedZig Serafinas the company’s chief operating officer. Serafin previously spent 17 years at Microsoft leading large teams and building multi-billion-dollar product lines. Most recently, he was a corporate vice president with responsibility for Office 365 Skype for Business. Before that, Serafin was general manager of Microsoft’s Tellme Networks.