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CONSTRUCTION
• Honnen Equipment Co. has appointed Tim Stokes as the company’s director of customer and product support. He will join the executive team and will have direct influence over the operations and strategies for all parts, service and customer support teams companywide. Stokes has spent the past 18 years working in agricultural John Deere dealerships. Stokes succeeds Dean Hirt Jr., who is retiring after over 30 years with Honnen. Dean has held various leadership roles with Honnen over the years. Honnen is the authorized dealer for John Deere construction and forestry equipment in the Rocky Mountain region.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utahns’ preference for interior design is “farmhouse,” followed by “modern” and “mid-century modern,” according to an analysis of Google searches by Modsy. Using Google’s Keyword Planner, Modsy took the number of average monthly searches based on a number of related search terms for each style before combining the number of searches for each style to discover the most-searched in each state. The results show the nation is largely split between the more traditional farmhouse style, which was preferred by 26 states, and more modern decor, preferred by 16 states. Details are at https://www.modsy.com/design-trends-by-state/.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Brigham Young University and the University of Utah are ranked highly for entrepreneurship for 2021 by Princeton Review. BYU is ranked No. 3 for undergraduate programs, behind top-ranked University of Houston and No. 2 Babson College, while the UofU is ranked No. 10. For graduate programs, BYU is No. 12 and the UofU is No. 16. Princeton Review selected the schools and tallied its rankings based on its survey of administrators at more than 300 undergraduate and graduate schools offering entrepreneurship studies. It analyzed more than 40 survey data points to determine the school lists and rankings for 2021. This is the 15th year that Entrepreneur has partnered with the Princeton Review to publish the list.
• Weber State University has honored four faculty members with the annual Research, Commercialization and Entrepreneurial Awards. The awards provide an opportunity to recognize faculty who have made significant contributions to Weber State, the community and the world through research and innovation. The Office of Sponsored Projects and Technology Commercialization sponsors the awards, which include three categories: Outstanding Research, awarded to economics professor John Mukum Mbaku; Innovation Success, awarded to microbiology professors Michele Culumber and Craig Oberg; and Norsatch Entrepreneurial Spirit, awarded to chemistry professor Edward Walker. The 2020 award recipients received a $1,500 prize as well as recognition for their contributions and achievements.
• Weber State University is No. 17 in master’s-level universities in the U.S. for the number of students who study abroad in short-term programs. It is the second consecutive year for WSU to be ranked in the top 20. The ranking comes from the 2020 Open Doors Report, which is sponsored and funded by the U.S. Department of State and produced by the Institute of International Education. The 2020 report ranks universities for study abroad participation during the 2018-19 academic year, prior to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that year, 351 Weber State students participated in short-term study abroad programs.
FINANCE
• Walker & Dunlop Inc., a Maryland-based commercial real estate finance company, has expanded its footprint in the West with the hiring of senior director Colton Smith, based in Salt Lake City. Smith will focus on sourcing debt financing for all commercial real estate asset classes nationally, as well as expanding the firm’s reach and capabilities within Salt Lake City and the greater Utah region. Smith has over 10 years of commercial real estate experience, most recently as a first vice president with Marcus & Millichap. Before that, he founded the commercial lending division for a Salt Lake City real estate conglomerate.
HEALTHCARE
• MedLite ID, a St. George-based medical device manufacturer, has hired Bruce Thompson as vice president of sales. Thompson has over 30 years of sales and leadership experience. Including 15 years focusing on the healthcare industry. Prior to joining MedLite ID, he grew and led sales teams in North America and globally for companies including Unitron Hearing and Pella Windows.
INVESTMENTS
• DW Healthcare Partners, a Park City-based healthcare-focused private equity firm, has announced an investment in CareXM, a Lehi-based provider of virtual care and patient engagement solutions for post-acute and non-acute healthcare providers. The amount was not disclosed. CareXM is one of three investments in DWHP’s fifth fund.
LAW
• Holland & Hart has hired real estate development attorney Allison Phillips Belnap for its Salt Lake City office. She guides clients through the acquisition and development of high-end residential, hospitality and commercial real estate properties. She recently rejoined Holland & Hart, having practiced at the firm after graduating from law school. She then served as an assistant dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. Prior to rejoining the firm, she practiced law with Ballard Spahr. Before attending law school, she was a professional actor and director, and faculty member in the Department of Theatre and Media Arts at BYU. She received her J.D. and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from BYU.
MEDIA/MARKETING
• The Salt Lake Tribune has hired as Lauren Gustus as executive editor. The announcement was made by the newspaper’s nonprofit board. Gustus will oversee news gathering and a newsroom staff of about 70 starting Dec. 3, becoming the third woman to hold the post in the newspaper’s 150-year history, the Tribune said. Gustus succeeds the Tribune’s interim editor Dave Noyce, who replaced editor Jennifer Napier-Pearce in August. Gustus worked at the Tribune as an assistant sports editor from 2004-07 before filling management and corporate roles in the Gannett newspaper chain, including managing editor for the Reno Gazette-Journal and overseeing the Coloradoan in Fort Collins. She most recently has been editor and president of The Sacramento Bee and western region editor for The McClatchy Co., overseeing approximately 250 journalists in 10 newsrooms. Her first journalism job was as a sports writer in Los Angeles.
• Relic, a Provo-based agency specializing in tourism marketing and advertising, has joined forces with EKR. The combined company will be known as Relic+EKR. Relic will continue to focus on the tourism industry, while EKR focuses on various industries from tech to manufacturing and more. By joining forces, Relic+EKR has become a full-service agency offering research, strategy, creative, digital and traditional media, public relations, content and web services.
• KUER (NPR Utah) has completed a construction project that will expand the NPR member station’s broadcast footprint in southwestern Utah. With a new, more powerful signal heard at 93.9 FM, KUER is now serving listeners throughout St. George, Cedar City, and Washington and Iron counties. Launched in 2016, the project is a part of KUER’s statewide service mission, which seeks to provide high-quality news, information and entertainment to Utahns across the state. The station is part of the University of Utah. The new frequency (KUQU 93.9 FM) restores NPR programming in the area following the exit of Nevada Public Radio from St. George in April. KUQU is an FCC-licensed station based at Pine Spring Knoll near Enoch. In a $1.2 million project, KUER installed a new antenna, transmitters and other equipment that greatly increased its existing coverage in Iron and Washington counties. Previously, NPR Utah relied upon low-power translators to serve individual communities, one of which (107.9 FM) will continue to serve Ivins and Santa Clara due to terrain issues.
NONPROFITS
• Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum has hired Kathleen Bodenlos as executive director. Bodenlos will provide strategic direction for the museum and be responsible for the success of its mission, as well as overseeing the areas of finance, exhibits, education, marketing, operations and philanthropy. Bodenloss has over 20 years of executive management and strategic development experience for both corporations and nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining the Discovery Gateway team, she served on the executive management teams of both Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Museum Center. Before working in the museum field, she worked in executive leadership roles for corporations, primarily in the medical device industry.
• The Sundt Foundation, Salt Lake City, and established by Sundt Construction Inc. in 1999, has named Jasen Bennie to its board of directors, representing the Salt Lake City giving area. Bennie serves as the Intermountain area manager out of Sundt’s Salt Lake City office. He has been an active member of the Sundt Foundation since joining Sundt over a year ago. The foundation board is composed of 12 employee-owners and convenes quarterly to approve grants based on recommendations made by employee-owner committees in each Sundt office.
PHILANTHROPY
• KeyBank’s Utah market supported various local and state community organizations with grants totaling $34,000 in September. The grant recipients provide education, training, scholarships, food, health and housing in Utah communities. September’s gifts were made as part of the company’s commitment to support organizations and programs that prepare individuals for thriving futures. Contributions included $15,000 to the American Indian Services scholarship program, $10,000 to the Columbus Foundation, and contributions to Red Barn Farms, the Salt Lake Community College PACE Program, Westminster College and the American Red Cross of Utah.
• Nu Skin, Provo, has announced it has surpassed 700 million meals purchased and donated since 2002 through its Nourish the Children (NTC) initiative. Malnourished children in more than 60 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 and employees purchased and donated the bag of food. The program feeds more than 120,000 every day.
• Aptive Environmental, a Provo-based pest control company, has donated up $275,000 to the United Nations Foundation’s “Nothing but Nets” in 2020. In honor of Malaria Awareness month in November and Giving Tuesday, Aptive pledges to match donations up to an additional $50,000 from its community of customers and sales representatives on Dec. 1, bringing its donation potential to nearly $400,000. The foundation’s “Nothing But Nets” is a grassroots campaign that sends insecticide-treated bed nets to regions of the world plagued with malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Since 2016, Aptive has contributed over $912,000 to the campaign.
REAL ESTATE
• Property Management Professionals LLC (PMP) has announced a partnership with the SunRiver St. George Community Association, an active-adult golf course community in St. George. SunRiver is a resort-style community boasting an 18-hole PGA championship golf course, a 35,000-plus-square-foot community center, and recreational amenities. PMP begins as managing agent Dec. 1 and will employ 21 full-time and part-time on-site staff members at SunRiver. PMP’s partnership with SunRiver will mark the opening of their eighth full-service division in four states.
RECOGNITIONS
• Ten Utah companies have been named to Deloitte’s 2020 Technology Fast 500, a list of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. They are No. 25 Homie, South Jordan; No. 63 Awardco, Orem; No. 100 Podium, Lehi; No. 143 SimpleNexus, Lehi; No. 150 Acima Credit, Draper; No. 188 Dental Intelligence, Pleasant Grove; No. 294 Slingshot, Lehi; No. 367 PolarityTE Inc., Salt Lake City; No. 396 Lendio, Lehi; and No. 470 Signs.com, Salt Lake City. Companies are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2016 to 2019. Companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues, and meet other criteria.
• Workfront, a Lehi-based work management application platform company, has been named a “Leader” by independent research firm Forrester in its new report, “The Forrester Wave: Collaborative Work Management Tools, Q4 2020.” Workfront is the top-ranking vendor in the Current Offering category, and the report noted Workfront’s enterprise capabilities as a strength. Forrester analysts selected the nine “most significant” providers for participation, and conducted an evaluation of each company’s capabilities.
SERVICES
• U-Haul Company of Utah Inc. has announced that Engine Worx, 3021 N. Fairfield Road, Layton, has become a U-Haul neighborhood dealer. It will offer U-Haul trucks, trailers, towing equipment, moving supplies and in-store pickup for boxes. U-Haul has 22,000 locations in the U.S. and 10 Canadian provinces.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Fortem Technologies Inc., a Pleasant Grove-based company focused on airspace security and defense for detecting and defeating dangerous drones, has announced the formation of a Government Advisory Board composed of former military, intelligence and federal government executives across civilian, defense, and intelligence sectors. The board provide insights to help the company further advance the work and goals of the U.S. government and its allies. Government Advisory Board members include Bruce Lemkin, former deputy undersecretary of the Air Force, International Affairs; Kevin Meiners, former deputy director of national intelligence for Enterprise Capacity; Lynn Wright, former deputy director of naval intelligence; Terry Ryan, former CEO of Tenax Aerospace, Mercury Federal Systems and Adroit Systems; director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, Department of Defense; deputy director, Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office; professional staff member for the Senate and House Select Committees on Intelligence; and USMC infantry commander; Rose Mooney, technical and FAA policy expert on drones; former executive director, Mid-Atlantic Aviation; and who has been working in the UAS industry for over 15 years and served as an advisor to NASA on UAS; Gene Colabatistto, current president/CEO of General Aerospace Co. and former executive at several other companies; Maryam Rhamni, who serves on the board of the Society of High-Performance Computing Professionals, has worked in several critical infrastructure sectors and is the current forum co-chair for the IEEE Women in Engineering; Marshall Wright, former director of business development for the Utah Governor's Office for Economic Development; and David Redl, former administrator, Department of Commerce, NTIA; primary advisor on telecom policy, including broadband access and spectrum; and fostered the private sector’s lead in 5G deployment.
TRAVEL & TOURISM
• Visit Salt Lake has selected Cornerstone and Modern Expo & Events to design, build and procure the equipment for the new Visit Salt Lake Broadcast Center. The aim of the center is to combat the impact of COVID-19; assist in the recovery of Salt Lake’s visitor economy; and adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of hosting meetings, conventions and events. The broadcast center will be located in the Visitor’s Center of the Salt Palace Convention Center and is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2021. It will support VSL’s efforts in the meeting, convention and event space and also enhance the distribution of its messaging and that of its members and stakeholders. Visit Salt Lake also has launched “Salt Lake Bound=FREEdom Found,” an incentive-based travel campaign featuring a number of travel and in-market adventure incentives. When booking two or more nights in participating Salt Lake lodging properties, regional and national travelers can select between $100 in Sinclair gas cards or a $200 Delta Air Lines’ eGift Card. For those preferring in-market incentives, it offers the option to select two 2-day Connect Passes, VSL’s all-inclusive pass that allows visitors to experience 13 of the area’s top attractions. Skiers and snowboarders have the option to choose two complimentary one-day Ski City Super Passes, allowing skiers to choose which of Salt Lake’s four resorts they want to ski on any given day.