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BANKING
• Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines has elected Douglas L. DeFries to its board. DeFries is CEO of Bank of Utah, based in Ogden. He will begin serving his first term as a member director on Jan. 1. FHLB Des Moines is one of 11 regional banks that make up the Federal Home Loan Bank System, which provides a stable source of funding for financial institutions of all sizes and types, such as banks, credit unions, insurance companies, thrifts and community development financial institutions. FHLB Des Moines has more than 1,300 members, including Bank of Utah. DeFries joined Bank of Utah as vice president-controller in 1986. He was appointed president and CEO in 2011.
• Fortis, a bank serving small to medium-sized privately held businesses in Colorado and Utah, has hired four new banking teams in Salt Lake City. Kristopher Adams will be responsible for the continued expansion and growth of the Fortis SBA lending strategy. Michael Borys, Jon Moir and Lindsey Williams will lead teams in the Utah commercial banking market. Fortis provides business and personal clients with loan, treasury management and deposit products, with an emphasis on commercial and specialty clients.
• D.L. Evans Bank, based in Idaho, has appointed Steve Ayers as vice president commercial loan officer at its Murray branch. He will be responsible for receiving, reviewing, evaluating and underwriting commercial loan requests as well as business development and marketing of existing and prospective accounts. Ayers has over 20 years of experience in banking. His education includes a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Utah.
COMPETITIONS
• The top 10 teams have been announced in the University of Utah Opportunity Quest, a collegiate business-model summary contest in which teams are competing for $8,000 in cash prizes, including a $3,000 grand prize. The winners will be determined on competition day, Dec. 3. The competition is managed by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, a division of the David Eccles School of Business at the UofU and sponsored by Zions Bank. Opportunity Quest competitions are held at colleges across Utah. Winning teams receive cash and in-kind prizes. The first-place winners advance into the top 20 of the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, where they will develop a full business model and compete against students across Utah for $60,000 in cash and prizes. The top 10 teams are Aether Masks, a company that develops improved anti-fogging surgical masks; Argus Entertainment/The 801 Concert Series, a DJ service and audiovisual production company; Cortex Evolution, offering in-depth personal coaching sessions using positive psychology; Foam Laundry, a direct-to-consumer laundry service for students living on campus; FoodsRush, an online marketplace connecting consumers and food establishments in order to eliminate food waste; Mura, a science-based productivity wellness planner designed for students; Nōmadik Living, a centralized platform of furnished apartments allowing users to live anywhere; Sadie B Personal Care, a personal-care brand designed specifically for and by Gen Z girls to empower them; T-Band, a medical device used to secure a patient’s arm during medication infusion to prevent needle complications; and Tribe, a mobile platform for team-based addiction recovery and self-improvement.
CONSTRUCTION
• HNTB Corp., an engineering and architecture firm, has named Dominic Spaethling its new Salt Lake City office leader. Spaethling will lead a team of more than 40 transportation infrastructure and architecture professionals. He will oversee the delivery of infrastructure solutions for highways, light rail, bridges and more in the Utah region. Spaethling has 25 years of experience in transportation. He previously served as HNTB’s Northwest Division sales officer, helping guide the planning process and increase the sales pipeline for the region.
CORPORATE
• Tower Arch Capital LLC, Draper, has sold KNS International LLC to an affiliate of New York-based Centre Partners Management LLC. Financial terms were not disclosed. With a warehouse in Draper, KNS is a designer of footwear for retailers and e-tailers via tech-enabled e-commerce and drop-shipping fulfillment models. Tower Arch was advised on the transaction by Stifel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP and BDO LLP.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is ranked No. 5 among states for worst work/life balance, a list compiled by nTask. New York had the worst work/life balance, with the average worker working up to 50 hours per week. South Dakota had the best balance, with 38.5 hours per week, on average. Details are at https://www.ntaskmanager.com/reports/us-work-life-balance/.
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 16 on a list of “2022’s Best Cities for Remote Workers,” compiled by LawnStarter. It compared nearly 200 of the biggest U.S. cities based on remote job opportunities, internet connectivity, cost of living, and availability of personal workspace, among 20 total factors. Frisco, Texas, leads the rankings. The bottom-ranked city is Salinas, California. Details are at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-worst-us-cities-for-remote-workers/.
• Utah is No. 39 on a list of states seeing a surge in fast-food demand in 2021, compiled by TOP Data. It analyzed GPS tracking data of millions of fast-food restaurant visits across the 20 largest fast-food chains in 2021. Utah’s increase was 31 percent. Nationally, fast-food visits are up 33 percent since the beginning of the year. Nationally, burger chains saw a 54.4 percent increase, while Mexican food chains had a 32.1 percent increase, fried chicken chains had a 29.5 percent rise and pizza restaurants saw a 16.2 percent increase. Vermont led the rankings, with an 83 percent increase. Idaho was last, at 22 percent. Details are at https://topagency.com/report/fast-food-visits/.
• Utah is ranked No. 23 among states for wasting food, a list compiled by LawnStarter. It collected data on the 50 states on how much food each state wastes, how much it repurposes, and what measures it has in place to reduce food loss. The most-wasteful state is Arizona. The least-wasteful is Massachusetts. In a breakout list, Utah is tied for second with South Dakota, North Dakota, Mississippi and Idaho for the fewest food banks. Details are at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/states-that-waste-most-food/.
• Salt Lake County leads all Utah counties for GDP growth, according to a ranking by financial technology company SmartAsset. It looked at GDP growth from 2020-21. Salt Lake County was followed, in order, by Utah, Davis, Washington, Weber, Cache, Summit, Iron, Box Elder and Uintah counties. These rankings are part of a broader study on the areas with the most incoming investment in the U.S. Details are at https://smartasset.com/investing/investment-calculator#Utah/gdpGrowth-1.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Nightingale College, a Salt Lake City-based institution offering distance education for pre-licensure nursing, has received accreditation from the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) for the Master of Science in Nursing Education (MSNEd) program. The new degree will help address the nursing shortage crisis by qualifying educators to teach future nurses. The accreditation comes after CCNE accepted Nightingale College’s candidacy for the program in January 2020 and held an on-site evaluation in October 2020. The online school now provides nursing education to students residing in 39 states, along with required clinical training with healthcare partners in 30 locations across the country.
• The University of Utah’s School of Computing has received more than $1.4 million from the state of Utah to launch a new graduate-level degree and course certificates for students interested in three emerging areas in computer science: cybersecurity, deep learning in artificial intelligence, and fairness in artificial intelligence. The three-year grants are part of a larger $10.4 million initiative from the Utah System of Higher Education to help grow the state’s workforce for its expanding tech industries. The School of Computing will develop a graduate-level Deep Learning Certificate Program, a 15 credit-hour curriculum that will teach students all aspects of deep learning in society. The money will be used to purchase computer systems with high-powered graphics processors, for faculty support, and to help establish internships with companies. The school will be establishing both a Master of Science in Secure Computing and a Graduate Certificate in Secure Computing that will boost a student’s prospects of working in the cybersecurity industry. The 15 credit-hour certificate program can be applied to the master’s degree and will also be available online. Two new courses addressing fair algorithms for business decisions will be taught to graduate students by the business school and focus on better understanding the use of fair algorithms in business decisions and maintaining that fairness during their development and deployment. The new certificates and degree offered by the UofU could become open for students as early as spring semester of 2022.
EXPANSIONS
• LifeVantage Corp., Salt Lake City, has begun business in the Philippines through its Philippine subsidiary, Protandim Philippines Corp. The market will launch with a range of LifeVantage products. The company now has operations in more than 20 countries. The company focuses on the identification, research, development, formulation and sale of advanced nutrigenomic activators, dietary supplements, nootropics, pre- and pro-biotics, weight management, skin and hair care, bath and body, and targeted relief products.
GOVERNMENT
• The Utah Office of the State Auditor has appointed Whitney A. Phillips to the newly created position of state privacy officer. Phillips will focus on the privacy practices of designated governmental entities, including cities, counties, school districts, higher education, and colleges and universities. She will also work with the Personal Privacy Oversight Commission. Phillips served as the chief privacy officer for the Utah State Board of Education since 2016. She has held a variety of prior positions in education and government. Phillips received her Ph.D. in educational inquiry, measurement and evaluation from Brigham Young University. She also earned her M.Ed. from the University of Utah in special education, an M.A. in teaching English to speakers of other languages from BYU, and a B.A. in English teaching secondary education from BYU.
HEALTHCARE
• Health Catalyst Inc., a Salt Lake City-based provider of data, analytics and technology services to healthcare and life sciences organizations, and Datavant, a California-based company focused on helping organizations securely connect health data, have announced a partnership to improve research and care delivery with connected health data. The partnership will enable life sciences and healthcare organizations to exchange tokenized, de-identified data within the recently announced Health Catalyst Research Network and Health Catalyst Touchstone Match. The collaboration will enable data connectivity across the entire study life cycle.
HOSPITALITY
• Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City has named Pina Purpero as general manager of the 700-room convention hotel scheduled to open next fall and connected to the Salt Palace Convention Center. Purpero will be responsible for directing all aspects of hotel operations, including hotel administration, guest services and all sales and marketing efforts. Most recently, Purpero served as general manager at Hyatt Regency Lake Washington at Seattle’s Southport. She previously was general manager of The Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, where she led the luxury hotel’s overall operation through an extensive renovation and repositioning.
INTERNATIONAL
• World Trade Center Utah has hired Tiffeny Yen-Louie as chief marketing officer and managing director of partnerships. She will lead WTC Utah’s marketing and partnerships team to fulfill the organization’s mission to accelerate global growth for Utah companies. Yen-Louie most recently spent 14 years at regional advertising and government affairs agency R&R Partners, where she helped build brands for clients from the public and private sector, directed business operations for the Salt Lake City office, and managed the campaign development for four successful statewide candidate campaigns.
INVESTMENTS
• Podium, a Lehi-based company offering a communication and payments platform for local businesses, has raised $201 million in Series D funding, led by YC Continuity, with participation from Durable Capital Partners, Arpex Capital, Accel, Album VC, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Summit Partners and Sorenson Capital. This latest round brings the company’s valuation to over $3 billion.
• PathologyWatch, a Salt Lake City-based digital laboratory and pathology platform for dermatologists, has raised $25 million in Series B financing with participation from Ceros Capital Markets, Rock Creek Capital, SpringTide, Spark Growth Ventures, Blueprint Health, Blackbrook Management Group and existing investors. PathologyWatch will use the funding to broaden its outreach to dermatologists; conduct further research into skincare diagnostics and artificial intelligence; and support operations as the business expands across the country, adding new labs in Texas, Florida and Arizona.
• Qnergy, an Ogden-based manufacturer of electric power based on Stirling engines, has closed a $16 million Series C funding round led by OGCI Climate Investments, with participation from Tene Capital. Qnergy said it will use the increased investment to fund cost-saving engineering and manufacturing capabilities and to further accelerate the deployment of its products. The company’s Compressed Air Pneumatics (CAP) product, CAP3, helps customers eliminate methane emissions by converting the methane into a useable energy source. The company also has developed a biogas system to turn methane from food waste and livestock waste into electricity and useful heat. Two senior OGCI climate investment representatives, Avi Sahi, chief commercialization officer, and Jonathan Yellen, investment director, will join the board of Qnergy.
• Carketa, a Pleasant Grove-based developer of SaaS applications for the automotive industry, has closed a $6 million series seed financing led by Origin Ventures and Crosslink Capital, with additional funding from Hack VC, Lancaster and I2BF. Carketa was founded in 2019 and seeks to redefine the used-car selling experience. Carketa co-founder Jason Berry also owns Action Auto, an independent car dealership.
LAW
• Buchalter has opened an office at 111 S. Main St., Suite 600, Salt Lake City, with seven lawyers and four professional staff, including paralegals and two law clerks. The office is anchored by real estate shareholders Keven Rowe, Jed Burton and Blake Terry, along with Landon Hardcastle, Trevor Vincent, Carly Briggs and Clayton Smith. In addition, Buchalter shareholder Marcus Williams will work out of the Salt Lake City office. The office offers expertise in commercial real estate transactions, including real estate finance and commercial leasing. Buchalter now has more than 350 attorneys in 10 locations throughout the West. A member of the Real Estate Practice group, Rowe represents clients in commercial finance, complex real estate development and leasing and corporate law. Burton joins the Real Estate Practice group and has experience navigating both the legal complexities and business realities of sophisticated commercial real estate transactions. His expertise includes acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, real estate finance (representing both lenders and borrowers), and mezzanine debt, with special proficiency in transactions involving self-storage, shopping centers, and drive-through retail. His experience also includes being in-house counsel for a publicly traded real estate investment trust. Terry also joins the Real Estate Practice group. His practice encompasses all aspects of real estate law, including sales, purchases, leasing, financing, development and redevelopment, easements, CC&Rs, owners’ associations, development agreements, due diligence review for title and survey matters, and associated agreements.
• Snell & Wilmer has hired Aline Longstaff as an associate in the Commercial Litigation practice group at the firm’s Salt Lake City office. Longstaff focuses her practice on both the district and appellate levels in the areas of complex commercial litigation, corporate governance and probate law. She also advises clients in the areas of real property disputes, eminent domain and employment law. Longstaff previously was a litigation associate at Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar PC. Longstaff’s education includes a J.D. from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School and a B.A. from the University of Utah.
MANUFACTURING
• Walker Edison, a Salt Lake City-based provider of ready-to-assemble furniture in the e-commerce space, has promoted Sharat Alankar to chief growth officer. Alankar joined Walker Edison in 2020 as vice president of strategy and analytics. For the past year, Sharat led the company’s Strategy & Program Management, Business Intelligence, Data Science and Data Engineering teams. The newly formed Growth division will include his current organization and several new departments: Technology, Customer Experience, Product Development and Marketing. He began his career in finance at JP Morgan before co-founding Origin, a fintech marketplace based in London. Before coming to Walker Edison, he led marketplace strategy and operations at Walmart eCommerce, where he also held positions in analytics within Jet.com prior to the Walmart acquisition, and corporate innovation with Store No 8, Walmart’s incubation arm.
• Mimi Hearing Technologies, based in Germany, has partnered with Park City-based Skullcandy Inc. to offer Skullcandy’s new Grind Fuel earbuds with Mimi Sound Personalization to bring users an enhanced listening experience.
PHILANTHROPY
• The most recent “Miracle Project” and delivery of free food recently took place in conjunction with the annual convention of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. The event provided direct food donations to approximately 400 families in Provo. The “Farmers Feeding Utah” campaign is an undertaking of the Miracle of Agriculture Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is the charitable arm of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. Additional logistical and in-kind support has come from invaluable partners, including Utah State University and its Hunger Solutions Institute & Create Better Health program, and the Utah Department of Agriculture & Food. Additional donations and contributions for the project in Provo were made by The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cal-Maine Foods of Delta, DairyWest and Farm Bureau Financial Services. The “Farmers Feeding Utah” campaign has provided approximately 1.7 million pounds of food, with a retail value of more than $3.7 million to approximately 40,000 Utah residents.
• Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., a Provo-based beauty and wellness products company, has announced it reached a milestone of providing 750 million meals for children since 2002 through its “Nourish the Children” initiative. Malnourished children in more than 50 countries around the world have been fed VitaMeal, a nutrient-dense food, from one of NTC’s third-party charity partners after Nu Skin sales leaders, customers or employees purchase and donate bags of food.
POLITICS
• U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, has named Washington County native Henrie Walton to serve as his next Utah state director. Walton replaces Adam Gardiner, who transitioned to the private sector in August. Walton previously served as Romney’s western Utah director, where he developed relationships with county commissioners, mayors, state legislators and other community leaders. Walton most recently served as the assistant to the president for government and community Relations at Dixie State University. Walton attended Southern Utah University.
REAL ESTATE
• Summit Venture Capital Group, in a joint venture with Anthem Capital, has acquired an approximately 163,000-square-foot mixed-use property located at 1810 Main St., Salt Lake City, for nearly $32.3 million from Laguna Point. The property includes 174 apartment units and Penny Ann’s Café. The transaction was brokered by Greg Barratt of Berkadia. Summit said multiple improvements will be made to the property, including a renovation of the common areas and individual units. Penny Ann’s Café will remain in business and not be affected by the property changing hands. Summit is a Colorado-based commercial real estate developer and investor. Anthem is a multifamily investment company based in Oklahoma.
• Incline at Anthem, a 298-unit, age 55-plus multifamily complex in Herriman, has been sold by Buchanan Street Partners to Ridan Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed. Incline at Anthem was completed in 2018 on eight acres. The sale announcement was made by Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap. Daniel Shin, IPA senior managing director, and IPA’s Brock Zylstra, Steve Gebing, Cliff David and Hamid Panahi procured the buyer. Justin Forman is Marcus & Millichap’s broker of record in Utah.
• Aspen Village Apartments, a 90-unit apartment community at 3043 W. 3500 S., West Valley City, has been sold by Next Wave Investors LLC, a private equity firm, to an undisclosed local buyer. Next Wave, through a subsidiary company, purchased the property in 2019.
RECOGNITIONS
• Several Utah companies are on the 2021 Technology Fast 500 list, compiled by Deloitte. The rankings were compiled based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their percentage fiscal-year growth over a three-year period. Utah companies on the list are No. 36 Kenect, Pleasant Grove; 107 Awardco, Provo; No. 188 Filevine, Salt Lake City; No. 292 SimpleNexus, Lehi; No. 311 Podium, Lehi; No. 317 Dental Intelligence, Pleasant Grove; No. 365 Lucid, South Jordan; No. 377 JobNimbus, Lehi; No. 392 Pattern, Lehi; and No. 403 eLuma, Lehi.
• ARUP Laboratories, a Salt Lake City reference laboratory, has received the Thomas A. Martin Business Recycler of the Year Award from the Recycling Coalition of Utah in recognition of the company’s recycling program efforts, which keep about 300 tons of material out of Utah landfills annually. The Recycling Coalition of Utah is a nonprofit organization that comprises local governments, businesses, institutions and recycling innovators committed to improving recycling in Utah. Its annual Thomas A. Martin Award is given to a private-sector organization that goes above and beyond in its recycling efforts. This year’s award was presented during RCU’s annual conference at Salt Lake Community College’s Sandy campus. Over the past year, ARUP has recycled 78.5 tons of Styrofoam, cardboard and plastics; 52 tons of comingled waste; 50 tons of metals; 30 tons of food waste; 26 tons of electronic waste; and 25 tons of glass. Also honored with awards for their recycling programs were Greystar Property Management, Lehi City and Ryan Smith of Recyclops.
• USANA, a Salt Lake City-based provider of nutritional products, received the Product Innovation award for its Mood and Relaxation product line, and the Vision for Tomorrow award for its charity, USANA Kids Eat, during the 2021 Direct Selling Association (DSA) Engage Conference. Also, Sarah Searle, USANA’s director of communications, was named as one of the PR Professionals of the Year in the Corporate category by industry publication PRNews. The DSA Awards highlight a new product or service introduced to the marketplace in the previous year that sets a high standard of excellence and innovation.
TECHNOLOGY
• Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corp., involved in developing robotic systems to augment humans to enhance productivity and safety, has moved into a new headquarters and production facility at 650 S. 500 W., Suite 150, in the Granary District of Salt Lake City. The office, lab space and production facility occupies more than 60,000 square feet. The company said it is expecting to increase its headcount by 60 percent to 70 percent during 2022. The new space nearly doubles the size of its previous headquarters. The company estimates that it will be able to produce between 300 and 500 commercial units of its Guardian XO exoskeleton and Guardian XT robotic system per year at its new facility. The new headquarters are in the Industry Salt Lake City building. The company has signed a 12-year lease with options to extend for up to six additional years. Barb Johnson and Kreg Peterson of CBRE represented Sarcos on the lease transaction.
• Guard Dog Solutions Inc., doing business as guardDog.ai, has appointed Alexander Morrise as chief data scientist at the company’s Office of the CTO. The Salt Lake City-based company is focused on cybersecurity protection for consumers and businesses. Morrise will oversee data analysis, machine learning, and the advancement of the company’s Autonomous Incident Response (AIR) technology.