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ACCOUNTING
• Tanner LLC, Salt Lake City, has appointed Ben Lonsdale as associate director of business development. He will focus on recruiting and connecting clients in the high-growth startup industry, as well as established companies wanting a fresh approach to accounting services. Lonsdale has 20 years of experience in sales leadership and partnership development. He has held many sales leadership roles, including chair of the University of Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, director of sales at Paradigm Life and vice president of strategic partnerships for Diathrive. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior at the University of Utah.
BANKING
• Bank of Utah, Ogden, has named Alfred Bautista as branch manager at its Sandy location, Kim Lenhart as branch manager at its Logan branch, Cody Turner as branch manager at its Provo branch, and Jack Mangum as commercial loan officer at the bank’s Orem location. Bautista has more than 15 years of accounting and leadership experience, most recently serving several years as the branch manager at a credit union in Herriman and then accounting assistant manager in the corporate office. He graduated from Westminster College with a degree in international business. Lenhart has served in management positions for decades, most recently service as the office manager for an RV dealer in North Logan for nearly 20 years. Turner comes to Bank of Utah with several years of experience at two national banks. He received a bachelor’s degree in finance at Utah Valley University. Mangum has more than 17 years of banking experience. He graduated from Utah Valley University with a bachelor’s of science degree emphasizing banking and finance.
• Bank of Utah, Ogden, has been named successor trustee to three of Utah’s most philanthropic foundations: The Donnell B. Stewart-Elizabeth Dee Shaw Stewart Education Foundation, the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Charitable Trust, and the Donnell B. Stewart-Elizabeth Dee Shaw Stewart Foundation. The transitioning of their trust and investment portfolios to Bank of Utah occurred as their previous trustee transferred operations to another firm out of state.
• Credit Union Leasing of America (CULA) and University Federal Credit Union have partnered to offer affordability and flexibility of credit union vehicle leasing to Utah, with their first leases having closed in August. This partnership makes UFCU the only credit union in Utah to offer vehicle leasing, while further expanding CULA’s national footprint. The credit union has more than 100,000 member-owners. The first six months of 2021 were record-breaking for CULA, with over $950 million in lease originations, an 88.8 percent increase over the same period in 2019, and the highest period of originations in CULA’s more than 30-year history.
COMMUNICATIONS
• WeLink, a Lehi-based next-generation broadband provider, and Eero, an Amazon company, are partnering to deliver next-generation wireless broadband and whole-home connectivity to homes around the nation. The companies will offer connectivity using wireless-fiber, 5G mmWave technology with tri-band Wi-Fi 6.
CONTESTS
• Applications are being accepting through Nov. 1 for the 2021-22 University of Utah Opportunity Quest competition, a statewide business-plan executive summary contest offering $8,000 in cash prizes and expert feedback. Opportunity Quest first-place winners also get a guaranteed spot in the statewide Utah Entrepreneur Challenge for a chance to win more prizes. Details are at https://lassonde.utah.edu/oq. The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute hosts branch OQ competitions across the state at the University of Utah and partner universities.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is ranked No. 45 on a list of “2021’s Best States for Fishing,” compiled by Lawn Love. It considered high levels of community interest in the sport, an abundance of water sources, easy access to gear, and affordable fishing licenses, among other factors. The highest-ranked state is Alaska. The bottom-ranked state is Nevada. Details are at https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-worst-states-for-fishing/.
ENVIRONMENT
• Skullcandy Inc., a Park City-based producer of stereo headphones and wireless earbuds, has underscored its commitment to sustainability by promising to keep 1 million pounds of e-waste out of landfills globally by 2025. The company said it has saved 458,480 pounds of product from ending up in landfills to date and will exclusively use 100 percent recyclable packaging by the end of this year. Wherever possible, the use of plastic is being reduced or completely eliminated, and by 2023, Skullcandy said, it will shift to solely utilizing FSC-certified paper products.
GOVERNMENT
• The Utah Department of Workforce Services has named Jeremias Solari as the director of the Workforce Research and Analysis Division. He succeeds Collin Peterson, who recently joined the Department of Technology Services. Solari has been with the department since 2016, serving for the past two years as the division’s assistant director with direct oversight of the Labor Market Information group, the department’s economists, and the Utah Data Research Center. In the division, Solari previously served as the manager of the Utah Data Research Center and as a research economist. Prior to joining DWS he worked as a business and reporting analyst at Discover Financial Services. Solari earned a Master of Science in economics and bachelor’s degrees in economics and psychology from the University of Utah.
HEALTHCARE
• Nomi Health, an Orem-based company with a mission to simplify healthcare billing and lower costs, has partnered with RIP Medical Debt to eradicate more than $225 million in overdue medical bills. The contribution relieves more than 176,000 Americans across Utah, Florida, Colorado and Nebraska of their debt loads. The money owed had accumulated from surprise billing and high healthcare costs before the pandemic. The debt Nomi absolved is for individuals who meet RIP’s criteria of living at two times or below the poverty line, or those whose debts are 5 percent or more of their annual income.
• Co-Diagnostics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based molecular diagnostics company with a platform for the development of molecular diagnostic tests, is rebranding its image “to better reflect its expanded scope, mission and upcoming expansion into new diagnostics verticals, in addition to ongoing development in liquid biopsy for mutations associated with cancer and agricultural applications,” the company said. The rebranding includes a new logo, website and other related visual assets and marketing materials and will take place over the next several months. In April, the company obtained Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 by clinical laboratories certified under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) to detect the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. Since then, the company has sold over 22 million tests to hundreds of labs in over 50 countries and throughout the United States. The company is developing an at-home and point-of-care testing platform aimed at providing inexpensive, fast and accurate test results.
• Elevar Therapeutics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based biopharmaceutical company, has appointed Robert Faulkner as vice president of drug metabolism pharmacokinetics and clinical pharmacology, William Kelce as vice president of non-clinical development, and Jennifer Lee as vice president of clinical operations and data management. Faulkner’s responsibilities will span all Elevar development programs, as well as exploratory studies to support evaluation of potential pipeline expansions. He has nearly 40 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience, most recently serving as senior director of clinical pharmacology and biopharmaceutics at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Kelce will lead the strategic plan and implementation of Elevar’s non-clinical pharmacology and toxicology programs in collaboration with internal and external partners. He has nearly 30 years of experience in small molecules, biologics, and cell and gene therapy within the oncology space. He most recently served as senior director of nonclinical and early clinical development at Voison Consulting Life Sciences. Lee will be responsible for providing operational expertise on the strategy, design, execution and interpretation of data from Elevar’s solid tumor late-stage clinical programs. Lee has more than 25 years of life science experience, most recently serving as executive director and head of oncology clinical operations at Radius Health Inc.
PHILANTHROPY
• Larkin Mortuary recently donated $12,500 to the HayesTough Foundation from proceeds received from its annual golf tournament at the Eaglewood Golf Course in North Salt Lake. The donation will support the mission of the charity to provide financial support and hope to families affected by childhood cancer. Larkin Mortuary has four funeral homes in Salt Lake City, Sandy and Riverton, as well as an on-site crematory and two full-service cemeteries.
• AvantGuard, a provider of wholesale alarm monitoring and with monitoring centers in Ogden and St. George, recently held its eighth annual 5K benefit race to benefit an Ogden family in need. Each year, the company’s Ogden team members select a family to run for who is facing financial strain from medical costs. This year’s beneficiary is Xander Clark, a 13-year-old boy from Ogden who was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma in May. Support from the race will help his mother pay for the healthcare he needs and gather community support for Xander, his younger sister and his mother.
REAL ESTATE
• Dakota Pacific Real Estate, in partnership with California-based Brasa Capital Management, has begun construction on East 15 Commerce Park, a Class A, 500,000-square-foot light-industrial park near 1000 W. 700 South, Pleasant Grove. The project includes three buildings in a campus-style environment. Zions Bank is providing financing for the project. Big-D Construction is the general contractor. Leasing is managed by Lucas Burbank and Ben Richardson with Newmark. Construction of the first building is expected to be completed in spring 2022. The second is expected to be completed in late 2022. The third building is in design and its construction schedule has not be established.
• BCC Construction, Salt Lake City, has announced that it will construct Altitude, a 156-unit apartment building in Salt Lake City. The $20 million project is in an Opportunity Zone, a designated economic development areas that allow people to invest while enjoying certain tax benefits. The 117,565-square-foot, seven-story residential building near Salt Lake City International Airport will include two levels of parking and six levels of apartments. Construction will begin in the spring of 2022 and will be completed by summer of 2023.
• Aldon, a Maryland-based owner, manager and developer of multifamily assets, has purchased Millpond Apartments at 79 N. 1020 W., American Fork. Financial terms were not disclosed. Salt Lake City-based Tablerock Capital sourced the acquisition and participated in the purchase. Maryland-based LGA Capital sourced the debt financing. Millpond Apartments was completed this summer and features 214 apartment homes in 12 three-story buildings on nearly seven acres.
• Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. has hired Irwin Laroza as a senior director in Salt Lake City. He will focus on securing debt and equity financing for commercial real estate owners and developers through life insurance companies, banks, pension funds, conduit lenders, debt funds and other private lending sources; and government-sponsored entities. Loroza is a veteran commercial real estate lending professional, having held positions with a number of institutions over the past 15 years, including Chase Bank, Wells Fargo and Zions Bank. Most recently, Laroza was a U.S. Small Business Administration business development officer with Meadows Bank in Las Vegas.
• McWhinney, a national real estate investment, development and management firm, has entered the Salt Lake City market with the completion of a joint venture agreement with Salt Lake City-based developer RL Group and Colorado’s Sage Hospitality Group for the redevelopment of two former Red Lion Hotel towers and the surrounding development site. The five-acre site is in the city’s Granary District. RL Group acquired the Red Lion Hotel towers and surrounding development site in December 2019. Conversion of the first tower into 184 micro apartments is slated for completion by late 2022. McWhinney, RL Group and Sage Hospitality Group are working on a vision and development plans for the second tower and remaining land.
RECOGNITIONS
• During its annual meeting, the Economic Development Corporation of Utah presented awards to David Lang, Natalie Gochnour and the Utah Transit Authority for their leadership in economic development. Lang was honored with the Nick Rose Award for Leadership in Economic Development, which is presented to a private-sector individual who has demonstrated exceptional dedication to EDCUtah and economic development throughout the state. Lang recently retired from Goldman Sachs, which opened an office in Salt Lake City in 2000, and Lang led its Utah operations for 12 years. He also served on the EDCUtah Board of Trustees. Gochnour received the Thayne Robson Award for Leadership in Economic Development is presented to a public-sector individual who has demonstrated exceptional dedication to EDCUtah and economic development throughout the state. Gochnour is an associate dean in the David Eccles School of Business and director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah. She also serves as the chief economist for the Salt Lake Chamber. UTA received the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Cornerstone Award, presented to associations, organizations or developments “that have merit far beyond their own boundaries and have had profound and long-term positive impact on the state’s economy.”
• Dr. Andrew Fletcher, medical director of Consultative Services at ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, and ARUP’s Consultative Services team are among six healthcare leaders and systems honored with 2021 Choosing Wisely Champion Awards from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). The awards program recognizes pathologists and laboratory professionals whose efforts drive effective lab testing utilization to reduce overuse or waste in medicine, cut healthcare costs, and improve patient care. It is an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). Fletcher is being honored for continuing education work around Choosing Wisely guidelines and for his collaborative initiatives with hospital systems that promote quality healthcare improvement. The Consultative Services team is being recognized for its collaborations with health systems nationwide as they better implement Choosing Wisely guidelines to optimize both reference and in-house laboratory testing. ARUP is a national reference laboratory and a nonprofit enterprise of the University of Utah and its Department of Pathology. It offers more than 3,000 tests and test combinations, ranging from routine screening tests to esoteric molecular and genetic assays.
• Dr. Andrew Fletcher, medical director of consultative services at Salt Lake City-based ARUP Laboratories, and ARUP’s consultative services team, led by Sandy Richman, are among six healthcare leaders and systems honored with 2021 Choosing Wisely Champion Awards from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). Launched in 2016, awards program recognizes pathologists and laboratory professionals whose efforts drive effective lab testing utilization to reduce overuse or waste in medicine, cut healthcare costs, and improve patient care. The program is an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). Fletcher is being honored for continuing education work around Choosing Wisely guidelines and for his collaborative initiatives with hospital systems that promote quality healthcare improvement. ARUP’s Consultative Services team is being recognized for its collaborations with health systems nationwide as they better implement Choosing Wisely guidelines to optimize both reference and in-house laboratory testing.
• Laurie Knape has been named a 2021 Women in Supply Chain Award winner by Supply & Demand Chain Executive, a publication covering the global supply chain. Knape is HSE Profession-Regulatory and Industry Relations at Orem-based Avetta. The award honors female supply chain leaders and executives whose accomplishments, mentorship and examples set a foundation for women in all levels of a company’s supply chain network. Knape helps Avetta clients and suppliers worldwide with supply chain risk management, and enterprise and workplace safety through contractor management and prequalification using Avetta Connect software. She oversees regulatory compliance for the Avetta Connect program. Knape has more than 20 years of HSE experience.
• TCN Operator, the flagship platform for St. George-based TCN Inc., has received the 2021 Contact Center Technology Award presented by Customer Magazine. The platform offers a set of advanced call center tools for boosting agent productivity and improving customer experience.
• Twenty-two Utah restaurants are among winners of the 2021 Restaurant Awards, presented by Wine Spectator. The 40th annual program recognizes the world’s best restaurants for wine. This year’s awards program recognizes 2,917 dining destinations from all 50 states in the U.S. and more than 72 countries. Launched in 1981, awards are judged on three levels: the Award of Excellence, the Best of Award of Excellence and the Grand Award. Utah restaurants earning the Best of Award of Excellence designation are Aerie, Snowbird; Bangkok Thai on Main, Park City; Courchevel Bistro, Park City; Glitretind Restaurant, Park City; Rime Seafood and Steak, Park City; Spencer’s For Steaks & Chops, Salt Lake City; Tupelo Park City; Veneto Ristrante Italiano, Salt Lake City. Utah restaurants earning the Award of Excellence designation are 350 Main New American Brassirie, Park City; BTG Wine Bar, Salt Lake City; Cena Ristorante, Park City; Fireside Dining, Park City; Log Haven Restaurant, Salt Lake City; Painted Pony Restaurant, St. George; Riverhorse on Main, Park City; Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Salt Lake City; Sorrel River Grill, Moab; Spotted Dog Café, Springdale; The Lodge Bistro, Snowbird; The Mariposa, Park City; The Steak Pit, Snowbird; and The Tree Room, Sundance.
• The University of Utah is tied for No. 3 in a ranking of “Best Undergraduate Game Design Programs,” compiled by U.S. News & World Report. Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Southern California tied for No. 1. The UofU was tied for third with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University. The UofU’s Entertainment Arts & Engineering video game design program is under the College of Engineering.
SERVICES
• Global Leader Group, a global professional leadership development and management consultancy firm, has launched a new entity for the European, Middle Eastern and African regions: Global Leader Group EMEA. The growing demand of its international clients in those constituencies has driven the expansion from its foundation, which is currently based in Salt Lake City. Richard Knight will lead the new division of the Global Leader Group. His career of 30 years includes international experience of nearly two decades.
• Crewe Advisors, a Salt Lake City-based IRA firm launched in 2015, is expanding with the addition of a Scottsdale, Arizona-based team spun out of BMO Wealth Management. The team joining Crewe Advisors consists of partners Jason Miller and Kris Yamano, who will add to Crewe Advisors’ leadership, along with partners and advisors Duncan Corley and Louise Goudy and senior associate Kimberly Mawk. They have a combined industry experience of more than 100 years. Crewe Advisors is a fee-based, independent, SEC-registered investment advisor providing financial, estate, investment, tax, risk and philanthropic planning.
TECHNOLOGY
• Strider Technologies Inc., an economic statecraft intelligence startup with operations in Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C., has hired Cooper Wimmer as executive vice president of business development. Wimmer will help Strider cultivate strategic partnerships and identify new market opportunities for its products and services. Wimmer most recently served as the president of Actagon Inc., the strategic advisor to the Swedish defense, industrial and telecommunications industries. He had a 22-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he conducted and led clandestine operations on 10 tours on four continents as an operations officer, chief of station, and Director National Intelligence representative. He served one tour at CIA headquarters.
• DataBank, a Dallas-based provider of enterprise-class colocation, connectivity and managed services, has expanded capacity at its SLC5 data center at its Granite Point North campus complex in Bluffdale. It opened data halls Nos. 4 and 5 at the data center. The data halls each provide 10,000 square feet of raised-floor space and 2 megawatts of IT load.
• Spiff, a Sandy-based company offering sales commission software, has hired Raphael Bres as its chief product officer. Bres has over 25 years of experience in Enterprise Financial Applications and software-as-a-service, working with leading software companies such as PeopleSoft/Oracle, Microsoft, Workday and FinancialForce. Most recently, he served as chief product officer at Tradeshift. He started his career at Deloitte Financial Audit and Deloitte ERP Consulting.