Company news information may be sent to brice.w@thecityjournals.com.
ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
• The Utah Board of Tourism Development, at its November meeting, approved a production incentive for “Halloween Wars,” a series that will air on Food Network and HBO and feature cake artists, sugar artists and pumpkin carvers working in teams of three to create beautiful food displays. The show will be shot entirely in Utah County and involve 67 cast and crew. The incentive is for up to $210,000, based in Utah spending of over $1 million. Production is scheduled to take place through February, including prep and post-production. Producers are Tara Tapper, Adam Cohen and Joanna Vernetti. The director has not been determined.
• Ogden City Arts recently announced the installation of public artwork on 15 utility boxes featuring original designs by local artists. In its second round, the Utility Box Art Project continues to increase public art engagement while enhancing the Nine Rails Creative District and downtown Ogden. Participating artists are Ashley Moore, Ben Zack, Heather Olsen, Jamie Kyle, Kristy Hawkes, Rosa Cruz, Stephanie Swift, Manuel Garcia, Susan Snyder, Elizabeth Walsh, Chrystal Dawn, Erica Lyon, Nicole LaRue, Heather Joy Zelch and Van Williamson.
ASSOCIATIONS
• The Utah Mining Association approved a slate of new officers during its recent annual conference in Salt Lake City. They are Chair Tom Henrie, Materion; Vice Chair Nathan Foster, Rio Tinto; First Vice President Sean Davis, Bodell Construction, an Aecon Company; and Second Vice President Carson Pollastro, Wolverine Fuels. Brian Somers, president of the Utah Mining Association, continues as an officer. New board members are Mike Ashworth, Ashco Roofing; Jonathan Campbell, Wheeler (moving from the Executive Committee); James Fox, WSP; Greg Gold, Stantec; James Haag, Lisbon Valley; Mike Kelsey, American Gilstonite; Andy Pierucci, Savage; John Stahl, Osisko; Matt Tobey, Rio Tinto Kennecott (moving from the Executive Committee); and Luke Walker, Amex Construction. 2026 members of the Executive Committee are the officers plus: Chad Baker, Holland & Hart; Marty Banks, Parr Brown Gee & Loveless; Anup Bhawalker, Brahma Group; Todd Blake, Graymont; Wayne Bradshaw, Rio Tinto Kennecott; Denise Dragoo, Snell & Wilmer; Jared Jackson, Simplot; Lisa Kirschner, Parsons Behle & Latimer; Marc Maglione, Wolverine Fuels; Ben Romney, Wheeler Machinery; George Shaw, Lisbon Valley; Tanner Wakley, Komatsu; and Matt Tobey, Rio Tinto Kennecott. New members of the Executive Committee are Romney; Wakley and Paul Wiedmann, Rio Tinto Kennecott. Expiring terms on the Executive Committee were renewed for Banks, Bradshaw, Dragoo, Jackson and Shaw.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 33 on a list of “Best Cities for Pickleball 2026,” compiled by Lawn Love. It considered access to pickleball courts and tournaments, the size of the local pickleball community and local interest in the sport from Google searches, among 11 total metrics. St. George is ranked No. 36. The lowest-ranked Utah city is No. 344 West Jordan. The top-ranked city overall is New York City. On breakout lists, St. George is No. 8 among cities with the most pickleball tournaments, with 19 in 2025 (Houston was tops with 47); St. George is No. 5 among cities with the most pickleball courts per 100,000 residents (Fort Myers, Florida, is No. 1); and Orem is No. 7 for having the most free-to-play pickleball courts per 100,000 residents (Appleton, Wisconsin, is No. 1). Details are at https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-playing-pickleball-usa/.
• Record store clerk is the top “lost job” that Utahns miss most, according to a survey by Resume.io about professions that have vanished. It is followed by gas station attendant, film developer, video rental clerk, bowling alley pin-setter, arcade attendant, toll booth collector, VHS repair technician, door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson and paperboy. The survey also indicated that the office relic Utahns remember most fondly are clack of the typewriter (30 percent), the smell of fresh photocopies (26 percent), the Rolodex (23 percent), the fax machine (15 percent) and the dot-matrix printer (6 percent). The retro office gadgets they would like to bring back for a week are, in order, the typewriter, the pager, the overhead projector, the in-tray/out-tray, and the Dictaphone. Details are at https://resume.io/blog/lost-jobs.
• Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab was the top Utah location on a list of “Best Spots for Affordable Thanksgiving Groceries,” compiled by online loan provider Advance America and based on a survey. It was followed by No. 2 Reams Food Stores (various locations) and No. 3 Liberty Heights Fresh in Salt Lake City. Details are at https://www.advanceamerica.net/money-saving-tips/money-management/affordable-grocery-stores-thanksgiving.
• Fifty percent of Utahns want herbal extract kratom banned, according to a survey by Renaissance Recovery, a nationwide association of addiction and mental health treatment centers. The national average is 43 percent. The highest opposition number is 83 percent in Hawaii. The lowest is about 10 percent in Delaware. Among surveyed Utahns, 30 percent said kratom should be treated like tobacco, with age limits and health warnings. Twenty-six percent said it should be treated like alcohol, with licensed sellers only and no youth marketing. Forty-three percent said it should be prescription-only, under medical supervision. Details are at https://www.renaissancerecovery.com/drug/kratom/banned/.
HEALTH CARE
• Dr. Megan J. Engelen has opened a practice in partnership with MDVIP at 1377 E. 3900 South, Suite 200, Salt Lake City. Her specialties include diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, women’s health and preventive interventions like managing pre-diabetes and obesity. Engelen has more than 15 years of experience. MDVIP has a national network of more than 1,400 primary care physicians serving over 425,000 patients.
LOGISTICS
• The Utah Inland Port Authority board recently approved the addition of 178 acres in Willard City to the Golden Spike Project Area. The district is located between Interstate 15 and the Union Pacific mainline, between Weber and Box Elder county labor sheds. The expansion builds on earlier amendments in unincorporated Box Elder County, Brigham City, Tremonton and Garland. With the new amendment, the project area now encompasses multiple cities across Box Elder County, each positioned to support high-value manufacturing, distribution and agricultural industries. The Golden Spike Project Area was originally approved in August 2023, with its first amendment adopted in October 2024.
MILESTONES
• Agilix Labs, an Orem-based company that builds AI-driven learning tools, has announced that BusyBee, its AI-powered assistant, has surpassed 2 million graded student submissions. BusyBee’s Grading Assistant, built using Amazon Bedrock, returns instant feedback on nearly all student submissions where it is enabled. Before BusyBee, many students received limited or delayed feedback on work; now every submission can get a response aligned to the teacher’s rubric.
PARTNERSHIPS
• Quantum Critical Metals Corp., a Vancouver, Canada-based mineral exploration company, and Nusano, a West Valley City-based technology company specializing in advanced mass-separation processes, have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development and refining of critical minerals in North America. The partnership aims to strengthen supply chains for U.S. and Canadian industries by bringing high-purity mineral processing back to North American soil. Under the MOU, Quantum will supply material from its Canadian projects to Nusano’s facility in Utah for refining into metals. Target elements include antimony, cesium, gallium, germanium, rubidium, tin, zinc, gadolinium and other rare earth elements. The companies also will evaluate the joint development of a dedicated refining hub in Utah to integrate concentration, extraction and processing operations for North American and allied markets.
• Owlet Inc., a Lehi-based company focused on smart infant monitoring, has announced a partnership with Locus Health, focused on remote patient monitoring. The collaboration connects data from Owlet’s FDA BabySat device directly into the Locus Health platform, giving health care providers ongoing and secure access to infant health information after hospital discharge. The Locus platform is used at many health systems across the U.S. and in Canada and has been developed in part through a Small Business Innovation award by the National Cancer Institute.
RECOGNITIONS
• Najat Khan of Recursion, a Salt Lake City-based clinical-stage biotech company, has been named to the list of the “Fiercest Women in Life Sciences” by Fierce Pharma. Khan recently was promoted from research and development officer and chief commercial officer to CEO, president and a board member. Before joining Recursion, she was chief data science officer and senior vice president for R&D at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. Earlier, she was a senior principal and partner with The Boston Consulting Group.
• Four Utah companies are on a list of “America’s Dream Employers 2026,” compiled by Forbes, in partnership with market research firm Statista and based on a survey of 10,000 college students in the U.S. and 140,000 U.S.-based employees at companies that employ at least 1,000 people in the country. The Utah companies are No. 217 Myriad Genetics, No. 236 ARUP Laboratories, No. 308 Zions Bancorporation (all three in Salt Lake City); and No. 391 America First Credit Union, Ogden.
• Canary Speech, a Provo-based company focused on AI-powered vocal biomarker technology, has received 2025 North America Technology Innovation Leadership Recognition from Frost & Sullivan in the intelligent vocal biomarker diagnostics industry for its outstanding achievements in technology innovation. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents the Technology Innovation Leadership Recognition to a company that demonstrates outstanding strategy development and implementation, resulting in measurable improvements in market share, customer satisfaction and competitive positioning. Canary Speech uses real-time vocal analysis to screen for mental health and neurological disorders.
• Ogden City Arts recently recognized six honorees at a private event held at Union Station for the 2025 Mayor’s Awards in the Arts celebration. The awards program recognizes individual artists and arts organizations that are making a difference in the community through the arts. Recipients include Lifetime Contribution, Pat Poce; Performing Arts, Jean Louise England; Visual Arts, Steve Stones; Arts in Education, Angelika Pagel; Folk Art, Rene Venegas; and Legacy in the Arts, Julia Aldrich (posthumous award).
• Several Utah faculty members have been named to a list of “Highly Cited Researchers” by Clarivate, a research-focused analytics firm. The list recognizes individuals who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields of study. The 2025 list includes the top 1 percent by citations for their field over the past 11 years. Those making the list from the University of Utah are William “Bill” Anderegg, professor, School of Biological Sciences, UofU College of Science; Nathorn “Nui” Chaiyakunapruk, professor, Department of Pharmacotherapy, UofU College of Pharmacy; Aaron Quinlan, department chair, Department of Human Genetics, UofU School of Medicine; Alessandro Rigolon, associate professor, Department of City & Metropolitan Planning, UofU College of Architecture & Planning; and Dennis Wei, professor, School of Environment, Society & Sustainability, UofU College of Social & Behavioral Science. The list also includes Julianne Holt-Lunstad and Arden C. Pope, both of Brigham Young University. Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Social Connection & Health Lab at BYU. Pope is the Mary Lou Fulton Professor of Economics at BYU. The list also includes Peter B. Adler, professor, Wildlife Resources/Ecology Center, Utah State University.