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ASSOCIATIONS
• Kevin Murray has been elected a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL). ACOEL is a professional association of lawyers who practice in the field of environmental law, with admittance by invitation only. One of three Utah members, Murray was the Region 8 nominee inducted at this year’s annual meeting of the college Oct. 27. Murray is a Salt Lake City partner at Holland & Hart.
• Dr. Charles L. Saltzman has been elected secretary of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) for a one-year term. Saltzman is chair of orthopaedics and the LS Perry Presidential Endowed Professor at the University of Utah. Saltzman was elected to the board in 2012. He was most recently chair of the Credentials and Research committees. In Utah, he specializes in treating patients with foot and ankle conditions.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Overstock.com Inc., Salt Lake City, has declared a cash dividend for 2017 of 16 cents per share on its Blockchain Voting Series A Preferred Stock and a cash dividend for 2017 of 16 cents per share on its Voting Series B Preferred Stock. Each is payable Dec. 15 to stockholders of record Dec. 1. The ex-dividend date for the Series B Preferred dividend is expected to be Nov. 29.
• The board of directors of Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., Provo, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 36 cents per share. The dividend will be paid Dec. 6 to shareholders of record Nov. 17.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• The Utah Medical Innovations Pathways (MIP) program has expanded to four additional school districts. Designed to help meet the state’s workforce challenges, the program was launched in September 2016 in Granite School District. The four new districts are Canyons, Davis, Jordan and Tooele. The program is supported by 10 industry partners, including Edwards Lifesciences, Merit Medical, Nelson Labs and BD Medical. MIP connects high school students with the science, engineering and technology skills necessary for a career in life science fields. MIP students have the opportunity to participate in job shadowing with one of the 10 companies in the program. After students complete the training, they graduate high school with a certificate in medical innovations, and earn a guaranteed interview with participating companies.
EXPANSIONS
• Co-Diagnostics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based molecular diagnostics company, and Synbiotics Limited, a group company of Asence Inc., a U.S. incorporated company specializing in supplying pharmaceutical products to international markets, have announced that CoSara Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture for manufacturing, has broken ground for its manufacturing facility in India. Co-Diagnostics and Synbiotics incorporated the CoSara entity in India in July. Since that time, CoSara has secured permits and approved building plans necessary to begin construction of a facility that will manufacture Co-Diagnostics products according to internationally recognized Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. The facility is expected to be completed in April, at which time CoSara will have the exclusive Indian manufacturing rights for Co-Diagnostics products.
• Vivint Solar Inc., Lehi, has expanded availability of its solar energy systems into Delaware. The company now operates in 21 states.
GOVERNMENT
• Peggy Hunt has been appointed to the Utah Securities Commission by Gov. Gary Herbert. She will serve a four-year term on the commission, which sets policy, adopts rules and adjudicates enforcement actions brought by the division. Hunt is a partner in the Salt Lake City office of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. She has been working in the area of bankruptcy and receivership law for more than 25 years and is a fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. She serves as a Panel Chapter 7 trustee for the District of Utah.
• Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski has appointed Angela Doan as senior advisor for education. Doan has extensive experience in education and law, most notably her time teaching in the Salt Lake City School District. For four years, she taught at Edison Elementary under a Title I school improvement grant, where she led the fourth-grade class as team leader. She also worked for the U.S. Department of Civil Rights, Massachusetts Advocates for Children and the New England Innocence Project. Her education includes a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Utah.
• Salt Lake County Economic Development has undertaken a 10-question survey in efforts to better understand the current state of the county’s market. The survey can be completed at https://slcoregionaldev.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4Iq6kVl733ZTHF3.
HEALTHCARE
• Empiric Health, Salt Lake City, has hired Justin Schaper as chief technology officer. He will lead the design and creation of innovative software applications designed to help health systems identify variations in procedures and improve outcomes using proprietary analytics to facilitate data-driven insights. He has more than two decades of experience in healthcare, most recently as the senior vice president of analytics for Intermedix. He also was chief information officer for PSR, which was acquired by Intermedix.
• Azova Health, Alpine, has hired David Nau as executive vice president of digital innovation. Nau has more than 25 years’ experience as a pharmacist, innovator, educator and executive leader. He previously served as the founding president of Pharmacy Quality Solutions, was a longtime staff member of the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA), and held faculty roles at universities and conducted research on innovative models for improving the quality of healthcare services.
PHILANTHROPY
• Boeing recently announced six grants in Utah totaling $300,000 for partnerships with organizations such as The National Ability Center. The investment will impact the health, wellness, physical rehabilitation and support for 1,500 veteran service-related participants, 1,050 transitioning through programs and 450 families. The grants in Utah are part of more than $50 million in grants to more than 500 nonprofit organizations across 50 nations.
• During the weekend of Oct. 13, Bridging the Gap, a national digital inclusion program, distributed more than 300 computers and Internet service to low-income residents of Salt Lake City. The computers were distributed in partnership with local housing authorities and nonprofits. Bridging the Gap is a nonprofit-led initiative of PCs for People and Mobile Beacon that helps community anchor institutions like housing authorities, schools, libraries and nonprofits provide affordable computers and Internet service to individuals and families below the 200 percent poverty level. PCs for People distributed 300 refurbished computers and 4G LTE mobile hotspots with three months of unlimited Internet service to eligible low-income individuals and families from the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, the Housing Authority of the County of Salt Lake, Utah Nonprofit Housing Corp., International Rescue Committee and Utah Health & Human Rights. The Salt Lake City Public Library provided basic computer training and one-on-one technical assistance during the distribution events and will continue providing ongoing computer classes at the library. Mobile Beacon donated 200 computers, 150 mobile hotspot devices, and provided monetary and on-site support for the events. Comcast Internet Essentials also attended and donated 100 computers to the event.
RECOGNITIONS
• Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams’ work to reduce and prevent homelessness has made him a finalist in the 2017 “New Ideas Challenge,” a competition among state and local policymakers to propose the best ideas for expanding opportunity and improving government in the new economy. McAdams is one of three finalists in “The Future of Communities” category for the “Collective Impact on Homelessness,” which brings together a coalition of state, county and city government representatives with more than 30 providers to reform how services are delivered. The Challenge program is open to the 155 members of the NewDEAL (Developing Exceptional American Leaders), an organization that aims to support state and local pro-growth progressive elected officials through the exchange of ideas and engagement with other top public, private and nonprofit sector officials. The six winners will be announced Nov. 16 at the seventh annual NewDEAL Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C.
• Elephant Hill, Moab, is one of four winning trails in the 2017 Outstanding Trails program, undertaken by BFGoodrich Tires, in collaboration with 4 Wheel Parts, United Four Wheel Drive Associations, Jeep Jamboree USA, Blue Ribbon Coalition and Off Road Business Association. Each of the four trails will receive $5,000 grants for education and preservation. More than a dozen trails were nominated from eight states. Elephant Hill was nominated by Red Rock Four Wheelers. The competition invites off-road clubs from around North America to nominate local trails that merit grants for maintenance or refurbishing. A panel of four-wheel industry experts helped select the four winning trails based on their uniqueness, terrain type and enthusiast following. The grants may be used for maintenance, repair, preservation efforts, signage and education.
SCHOLARSHIPS
• Western Governors University, Salt Lake City, is offering $500,000 in scholarships for veterans, active-duty military, reservists and military family members who want to earn a bachelor’s or master’s degree in high-demand fields, including IT, business, K-12 education and health professions (including nursing). Applications are now being accepted through Jan. 31 for the WGU Salute to Veterans Scholarship. Up to 200 scholarships will be awarded —$650 per six-month term for up to four terms. Of the 86,000 students currently enrolled at WGU nationwide, about 10 percent are active-duty military personnel, veterans or dependent family members of military personnel.
SERVICES
• HireVue, a Salt Lake City-based provider of video intelligence solutions, has hired Kimberly Simms as senior vice president of customer success. Simms most recent was vice president at Anaplan and previously worked at IBM and Accenture.
• RevRoad, a business accelerator, has relocated its headquarters to 1555 N. Freedom Blvd., Provo. The company will have an open house/grand opening from 3-7 p.m. Nov. 16. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is at 4 p.m. Each quarter, RevRoad accepts a crew of “Roadies” (portfolio companies) and keeps them on board for 24 months. Roadies get to focus on their big idea while RevRoad helps take care of their needs. RevRoad offers services hubs in what is called the “RevRoad Exchange,” which includes strategy, marketing, video production, tech development, sales, systems, legal help and more. RevRoad accepts a small equity share from Roadies rather than accepting cash for services or providing capital directly.
• Mercer has hired Kelly Esselman as health office business leader in its Salt Lake City office. In her time at Mercer, Esselman has worked in a variety of leadership capacities, including senior health consultant, enterprise segment leader, Denver team leader and most recently the Mountain States sales leader. Mercer delivers advice and technology-driven solutions that help organizations meet the health, wealth and career needs of a changing workforce. It has more than 22,000 employees in 43 countries and operates in more than 130 countries.