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CONTESTS
• Silicon Slopes is accepting applications until Jan. 7 for its Hall of Fame and awards program, designed to recognize the best and brightest entrepreneurs, philanthropists and professional legends in Utah. Company categories include advertising, physical product, “Spaces & Places,” branding, health and wellness, software, and media and entertainment. Individual categories are for the top CEO, CMO, CXO, COO, CTO, CPO, CFO, CRO, CIO and intern. The awards gala takes place Feb. 24 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Applications will be reviewed by Silicon Slopes and verified by Best Company. The cost to apply from now until Dec. 12 is $295. Details are at HallOfFame.SiliconSlopes.com.
CORPORATE
• Mercato Partners Acquisition Corp., Cottonwood Heights, has announced that the underwriter of its previously announced public offering of units has exercised its overallotment option, resulting in the issuance of an additional 3 million units at a public offering price of $10 per unit. After giving effect to the exercise of the option, a total of 23 million units have been issued in the IPO at an aggregate offering price of $230 million. MPRA is a newly incorporated “blank check” company formed to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The company intends to identify, acquire and operate a business in either the technology or branded consumer products sector “that possesses the suitable characteristics to achieve attractive long-term risk adjusted returns, though it reserves the right to pursue an acquisition opportunity in any business or industry.” BofA Securities acted as the sole book-running manager and underwriter for the IPO.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Extra Space Storage Inc., Salt Lake City, has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.25 per share on the common stock of the company for the fourth quarter of 2021. The dividend is payable Dec. 31 to stockholders of record Dec. 15. Extra Space Storage is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust that owns and/or operates 2,054 self-storage properties. It is the second-largest owner and/or operator of self-storage properties in the United States and is the largest self-storage management company in the nation.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 26 in the Healthtech Index, a list of the foremost healthtech cities in the world, compiled by software development company Moove-It.com. It compared 85 cities using several factors, including funding, company activity and salary levels, to identify which cities are developing and advancing healthcare technologies around the world, including telemedicine and health data apps. Salt Lake City is ranked No. 74 for research and development funding, No. 40 for the number of healthtech startups, No. 26 for the number of healthcare legacy corporations, No. 37 for funding and employment, No. 46 for salary levels, No. 74 for telemedicine, and No. 32 for mental health and psychology. Boston is the top-ranked city, followed by New York and San Francisco. Details are at https://moove-it.com/most-developed-healthtech-countries.
• A total of 1,014 Utahns this year have been victims of romance scams, according to a study by Dating.com Group. Utah’s scams have cost victims more than $9 million. Nationally, nearly 100,000 Americans will lose $800 million this year. Utah has had 31.63 romance scams per 100,000 people. Alaska leads with 89.26. California has had 11,310 scams, with $173.8 million in total losses. The highest average loss per scam is in Michigan, at $50,028, while the lowest is in Delaware, at $8,424. Details are at https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/romance-scams/.
• Residents of Salt Lake City pay an average of $247 in utility bills each month, compared to the national average of $316, according to a report from DoxoInsights. The highest average is in Milwaukee, at $440. Among states, Utah is ranked No. 24, at $1,864 per year. Hawaii has the highest average, at $2,755. West Virginia has the lowest, at $1,490.
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 16 on a list of “2022’s Most Generous Cities,” compiled by LawnStarter. It compared 130 of the biggest U.S. cities across 13 key indicators of philanthropic behavior, from charitable giving to volunteering rates to the number of food banks, even the number of individuals who converted their Little Free Library into a food sharing box for hungry neighbors. In breakout lists, Salt Lake City was No. 1 for “largest share of residents who do something positive for the neighborhood,” No. 4 for the largest share of residents who volunteer, and tied for last for the number of food banks. The overall top-ranked city is Minneapolis. The No. 130 city is Hialeah, Florida. Details are at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/most-generous-cities/.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• The fiscal year 2021 annual report of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah indicates that in its 20 years, the institute has worked with more than 97,000 students, awarded 1,500 scholarships, and helped students launch 2,719 startup teams that have raised more than $704 million in funding. Details are at https://lassonde.utah.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Lassonde-annual-report-2021-110221-830am_LR.pdf.
ENERGY
• Lumio, a Lehi-based solar provider, has hired David Burggraaf as chief technology officer. He will oversee technology and software engineering. Burggraaf has nearly 30 years of global enterprise technology experience, including 20 years in senior leadership positions at Adobe Workfront, Instructure, FamilySearch and Microsoft. Most recently Burggraaf was chief technology officer at Workfront.
HEALTHCARE
• NuView Life Sciences Inc., a Park City-based clinical-stage precision oncology company developing next-generation products to address the growing applications for radiopharmaceuticals and theranostics in oncology, has created a subsidiary for the Latin American market called NV-LATAM. The subsidiary will further the company’s clinical trials in Mexico City to diagnose cancer and offer a targeted therapeutic approach.
INSURANCE
• The management team at PCF Insurance Services, a Lehi-based insurance brokerage, has gifted $8.2 million to be equally distributed to its nearly 1,800 employees. The announcement follows the completion of PCF’s management and partner-led buyout from financial sponsor HGGC, which valued the business at more than $2.2 billion. Since HGGC’s investment in 2020, PCF has completed over 100 partner transactions and is on pace to finish 2021 as one of the industry’s top three acquirers. PCF expects to finish the year with nearly $400 million in revenue.
LAW
• Parsons Behle & Latimer has hired Tyler G. MacKay and J. Chad West as associates in the Salt Lake City office. MacKay represents businesses of all sizes in startup, capital raising, corporate and transactional matters as a corporate associate attorney. His practice includes representing angel investors, angel groups and venture and growth capital firms on structuring, forming and operating funds and deploying capital. His experience includes being a venture capital fund administrator and an early employee at a venture-backed SaaS startup providing software to venture capital firms. MacKay earned his J.D. from the Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School. West assists large and small businesses in a variety of general business matters as a corporate associate attorney, including formation, corporate governance, contract drafting and negotiation and acquisitions. West has extensive commercial litigation experience representing clients in breach of contract, collection, real estate and other matters. West obtained his J.D. from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law and his undergraduate degree in business administration from Utah State University.
NONPROFITS
• Visit Salt Lake, a private, nonprofit corporation that promotes Salt Lake as a convention, sports and travel destination, has promoted Caryn Bradshaw to director of services, promotions and athlete experiences for Sports Salt Lake. Due to the substantial growth of sports tourism in recent years, VSL recently launched Sports Salt Lake as its sports sales and marketing division. Bradshaw started at Visit Salt Lake in 2007 and has held several roles within the organization. In her new role, she will collaborate with sports event planners to select venues, oversee volunteers, assist in marketing initiatives and serve as Sports Salt Lake’s main liaison for incoming sporting events.
PUBLIC POLICY
• Former Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert has been appointed as a member of the National Assessment Governing Board to fill the open post available for a Republican governor. The board is a nonpartisan body established by Congress to oversee and set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as The Nation’s Report Card. Herbert will serve a term of four years. He recruited the help of his former education advisor, Tami Pyfer, to assist with the role. Herbert was nominated by the National Governor’s Association, where he served as chair. The appointment complements Herbert’s public policy portfolio as he works to establish the newly created Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy at Utah Valley University. The institute will serve as the university’s home for public policy research, internships and community forums.
• Mallory Bateman has been named director of demographic research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, which conducts economic, demographic and public policy research. She succeeds Pamela Perlich, who is retiring but will continue to serve as a senior advisor to the Gardner Institute. Bateman is the institute’s senior research associate and Bureau of the Census State Data Center coordinator at the Gardner Institute. Her expertise includes urban planning and demographics, including recent research on generations in Utah, households, commuting patterns and fertility. Bateman helped lead 2020 Census efforts for Utah, and serves on the national State Data Center Steering Committee and the American Community Survey Data Users Group Steering Committee. She will continue in these roles in her new position. Perlich worked as a senior research economist with the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR), which was merged into the Gardner Institute in 2015. Prior to joining BEBR, she worked in the Utah Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, concentrating on long-run economic and demographic projections.
RECOGNITIONS
• Eight Utah companies have been named to the inaugural “Best-Led Companies” list, compiled by Inc. The list includes companies with revenue of $50 million to $2 billion. To be considered for the list, companies were evaluated according to their leadership teams’ superlative accomplishments in four areas: performance and value creation, market penetration and customer engagement, talent and leadership team. The final list recognizes 250 companies. Utah companies are No. 28 Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City; No. 53 Domo, American Fork; No. 96 Owlet Baby Care, Lehi; No. 113 Overstock, Midvale; No. 118 Pattern, Lehi; No. 141 Health Equity, Draper; No. 205 Lucid, South Jordan; and No. 206 Vivint Smart Home, Provo.
• The Energy, Natural Resources & Environment Law (ENREL) Section of the Utah State Bar awarded Hal J. Pos the Edward W. Clyde Distinguished Service Award, presented to attorneys based on their overall contributions to the section and to the practice of environmental law. Pos is a senior member of Parsons Behle & Latimer’s Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources practice group, with over 36 years of experience focused on the representation of U.S. and global corporations in the natural resources industry facing complicated legal issues concerning cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties, CERCLA liability, and property acquisition transactions.
• Ioniq Sciences Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company developing a multi-cancer screening technology for early detection, has been awarded the “Oncology Innovation of the Year 2021” designation by MedTech Breakthrough Awards. The annual awards program recognizes “breakthrough” companies, people, platforms and products in the health, fitness and medical technology industries.
• Lucidspark, the virtual white board product of Lucid Software, South Jordan, has received an honorable mention in the “Experiences” category in Fast Company’s inaugural “Next Big Things in Tech” list. Lucidspark was among the top 24 companies that are innovating and transforming how people communicate and experience the world. Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech list recognizes nearly 100 technologies that are making waves and reaching key milestones in having a positive impact for consumers, businesses, and society at large over the next five years. Lucidspark enables teams to stay creative and productive from any location, and the shared visual workspace provides everyone in or out of the conference room the same opportunity to contribute ideas and be heard.
RESTAURANTS
• Mountain Mike’s Pizza, a California-based family-style pizza chain for more than 40 years, has signed a five-unit deal in Utah, with the first location to open by Christmas in Orem. The deal is with RVTC Enterprises LLC, owned by Utah residents and area dairy farmers Robert Viveiros and Tony Cabral. Mountain Mike’s Pizza has more than 240 locations.