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ASSOCIATIONS
• NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has named Angela Eldredge of Price Real Estate, Salt Lake City, to serve on its 2021 national board of directors. Eldredge will work with the board and the executive committee to guide the direction of the organization for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate. Eldredge is a member of NAIOP Utah chapter and has served in various roles, including the Utah chapter president. Eldredge was named chief operating officer of Price Real Estate in 2019.
BANKING
• First Utah Bank is expanding into Utah County with a new branch at 3601 N. Digital Drive, Suite 301, Lehi. The branch includes a drive-up ATM and drive-up window. Sonya Bankowski will serve as branch manager. She is responsible for day-day operations as well as expanding the bank’s presence in Utah County.
• D.L. Evans Bank, based in Idaho, has named Julie Taylor as the vice president branch manager at the bank’s Murray branch. Taylor has 35 years of finance and banking experience. She currently serves on the Corporate Council for the Fourth Street Clinic, which serves the homeless community.
COMMUNICATIONS
• Alianza, a Pleasant Grove-based company providing a communications platform built for service providers, has announced that Scott Wharton has joined its board of directors. Wharton has over 25 years of experience in communications technology companies. He serves as vice president and general manager of the Video Collaboration Group at Logitech. Prior to Logitech, Wharton founded Vidtel, a pioneer in cloud-based video conferencing services. He also was an executive at BroadSoft and VocalTel.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., Provo, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 38 cents per share. The dividend is payable Dec. 8 to shareholders of record Nov. 26. Nu Skin is a beauty and wellness company.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is ranked No. 6 among states for the amount of cookbooks created from 2018-21 on a per capita basis, according to data compiled by Mixbook, a photo book service. The top-ranked state is Vermont.
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 12 on a list of “2022’s Best Cities for Book Lovers,” compiled by Lawn Love. It compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on access to public libraries, bookstores, Little Free Libraries, book clubs and events. It also looked for cities with the most books “in the wild,” random reads picked up by random bookworms who can track the books’ journey and engage with other bibliophiles on BookCrossing. The top-ranked city is Pasadena, California. The bottom-ranked city is Sunrise Manor, Nevada. Details are at https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-for-book-lovers/.
• Utah is ranked No. 56 on a list for the “Christmas Cookie Price Index,” gauging the price of key ingredients in a batch of classic Christmas cookies. The list was compiled by HelloFresh and looked at 60 U.S. locations and 30 nations around the world. The cookie dough is based on a classic butter cookie recipe that creates 100 cookies. Utah’s cost is $11.40. South Carolina’s price is lowest, at $2.23, while California’s is highest, at $12.40. The most expensive city in the U.S. to bake Christmas cookies is six times more expensive than the cheapest, while outside of the states, the most expensive nation is almost four times as expensive as the cheapest in the index. Details are at https://www.hellofresh.com/grocery-delivery/2021-christmas-cookie-price-index.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Applications are being accepted until Dec. 10 for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program’s course starting March 31. To be eligible, a business must have $100,000 in revenue, be in operations for two years, have two employees (full-time or full-time-equivalent, and have a desire to grow and contribute to the business community. Course participants are assigned a personal business advisor who meets with participants five to six times a year. The application is at https://10ksbapply.com/. For questions or a detailed schedule, email paul.wolford@slcc.edu or call (801) 957-5388.
EXPANSIONS
• The Arctic Circle Restaurant chain, based in West Jordan, is partnering with Kitchen United in Scottsdale, Arizona, to offer delivery and fulfillment of its food. The Scottsdale location will serve a limited menu of Arctic Circle food. Guests can order Arctic Circle for to-go or delivery online at KitchenUnited.com. GrubHub and DoorDash will also offer Arctic Circle for pickup or delivery at a later date. Arctic Circle has 70 restaurants, including 37 in Utah. Kitchen United operates six virtual, or “ghost,” kitchen centers in Scottsdale, Arizona; Pasadena and San Jose California; Chicago; and Austin, Texas.
FINANCE
• Onset Financial, a Draper-based company focused on equipment leasing and finance, has promoted Remington Atwood to chief financial officer. Atwood joined Onset Financial in 2012 and was previously senior vice president of finance. He oversees accounting, credit and syndication for Onset, working with institutional and non-institutional funding partners. Atwood previously worked for a regional accounting firm and was responsible for auditing financial institutions across the western states. Atwood earned a master’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University.
FITNESS
• Reform RX, a Draper-based company focused on the at-home fitness market, has received an investment from Bernadette Caulfield and other angel investors. The amount was not disclosed. Caulfield is the American producer of “Game of Thrones.” The company said it will enable it to launch its RX product into both the at-home consumer and commercial markets.
HEALTHCARE
• Sera Prognostics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company focused on improving maternal and neonatal health, has announced that Dr. Woodrow Myers has joined the company as an advisor focusing on public and political affairs. Myers will work on a multi-disciplinary effort to execute a national and state-specific political and public affairs strategy focused on health equity and disparities related to pregnancy and parturition. Myers serves as national health policy advisor for the Wellness and Equity Alliance and is on the boards of Personalis Inc., Freespira Inc. and the Public Health Policy Committee of eHealth Inc. He has also served as chief medical officer and chief healthcare strategist for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, CEO for Valitàs Health Services (Corizon Health) and consultant to the California Endowment. He has served on multiple public, private and nonprofit boards, including Express Scripts, Genomic Health, LipoScience, and SynGen. In higher education, he served on the Board of Trustees of Stanford University, the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, and the Board of Trustees of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
HOSPITALITY
• Noble Investment Group has acquired the Homewood Suites by Hilton Salt Lake City Downtown. Financial and other details are not disclosed. Noble was founded in 1993 and is a minority-owned real estate investment manager with a diverse team specializing in the upscale U.S. lodging sector. Through its institutional real estate funds, Noble has invested $4 billion in communities throughout the country.
• Dynamic City Capital (DCC), a Provo-based real-estate investment firm, has acquired two hotels in Clearwater, Florida: the Residence Inn by Marriott Clearwater Beach and the Springhill Suites by Marriott Clearwater Beach. The seven-story, dual-branded hotel has 255 rooms. Financial and other details were not disclosed. DCC has completed six hotel transactions this year.
INVESTMENTS
• CaseWorthy Inc., a West Valley City-based provider of case management software, has received a majority investment from Symphony Technology Group, a California-based private equity firm. Financial details were not disclosed. The current CaseWorthy executives will remain as the executive team. The partnership includes the investment to strengthen CaseWorthy’s position in case management software and to develop its capabilities further to solve the data collection and data management needs of nonprofits and government agencies.
PHILANTHROPY
• Gabb Wireless, a Lehi-based company focused on safe technology for children, recently began its campaign to give away 2,500 phones to single parents during its third annual “Gabb Days of Giving.” It also will be donating $10,000 to the Single Parent Advocate, a Dallas-based nonprofit, to help single-parent families pay for their Thanksgiving dinners and support them through the holidays.
RECOGNITIONS
• World Trade Center Utah recently received a 2021 President’s “E” Award for Export Service from the U.S. Department of Commerce at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. The award is the highest recognition any U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports and is given by the president of the United States. World Trade Center Utah leads the state’s international business development and elevates Utah’s global status to promote prosperity and build economic resilience. Utah has the highest export growth rate in the nation for the past two years, with Utah businesses exporting over $17.3 billion in goods last year. The impact from WTC Utah’s services and programs has led to approximately $250 million in new trade opportunities for Utah companies, creating hundreds of jobs and bolstering economic growth over the past five years. The Commerce Department honored seven U.S. companies and organizations with the President’s “E” Award for Export Service from across the country.
• Dr. Evelyn Reed and her report co-authors from the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Utah, recently won the Joseph H. Boyes Award during the 76th annual meeting of the American Society for Surgery for the Hand at the 39th annual Adrian E. Flatt Residents and Fellows Conference. The award is presented each year to the best paper presentation at the conference. The abstract was authored by Reed, Russell Hendrycks, Emily M. Graham, Megan Rosales and Dr. Shaun D. Mendenhall, The study was supported by CoNextions Medical, a Salt Lake City-based, privately held company focused on tendon repair in the extremities.
RESTAURANTS
• Laurel Brasserie & Bar will open Dec. 1 adjacent to the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. It will serve breakfast, Sunday brunch, lunch, happy hour and dinner. The restaurant is complimented by private dining rooms, an exhibition oven, and an outdoor patio slated to open in the spring. Bonne Vie, a café and coffee bar offering baked goods and ice cream, will reopen after a refresh inside the Laurel Brasserie & Bar space.
SCHOLARSHIPS
• CareerStep, the Lehi-based Allied Health training division of Carrus, is accepting nominations for its second annual scholarship program specifically for black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) who want to begin or grow their careers in the healthcare industry. Four scholarship winners will be able to select any CareerStep program and receive additional AdvantEDGE mentoring throughout their programs. Four semi-finalists will receive a $1,000 credit toward the CareerStep program of their choice. The scholarship submission deadline is Jan. 7 or until 500 submissions are received, whichever comes first. Semi-finalists will be announced Jan. 11 and recipients will be announced Feb. 1. Applications can be submitted at https://bit.ly/BIPOCScholarship. Details are at https://www.careerstep.com/bipoc-scholarship/.
SERVICES
• Bootlegged Barber has opened a second location, its first franchised location, in Herriman. Bootlegged Barber was founded by Amanda Nevel.
TECHNOLOGY
• Domo, an American Fork-based business cloud company, has announced that Jay Brown is now a member of its board of directors. He succeeds Mark Gorenberg, who served on Domo’s board for the past decade. Brown is an entrepreneur and business leader who co-founded Roc Nation, a full-service entertainment business, in 2008 and today serves as vice chairman. He has more than 25 years of experience, including co-founding Marcy Venture Partners in 2019. Brown serves on several boards.
• Qualtrics, a Provo-based company focused on experience management, has hired DP Brightful as president of worldwide field operations. Brightful will lead the company’s global sales organization and will be an officer of the company. He most recently was global chief revenue officer at Salesforce Health. Prior to that, he spent 20 years at Microsoft, where he held a variety of senior leadership position, including leading the Office365 business for the U.S. He has also led sales teams at Verizon and IBM.
• Code Corp., a Salt Lake City-based company focused on barcode scanning and data capture technologies, has hired Scott Jackson as product manager in the industrial market. Jackson most recently worked at Boeing in Seattle, where he designed wiring systems for the Boeing KC-46A air refueling tanker. He also served as a production engineer, where he supported the automated assembly systems of the 777X wing and helped plan the $80 million expansion of its assembly line. After Boeing, he decided to pursue a MBA. During the program, he drove product enablement projects as a product manager intern at Fortem Technologies, a drone defense company. He also served as a product management and strategy consultant for five different startup companies. Jackson earned an MBA with an emphasis in product management from Brigham Young University and also earned a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from BYU.