Industry Briefs are provided as a free service to our readers. Company news information may be sent to brice@slenterprise.com. The submission deadline is one week before publication.
Industry Briefs are provided as a free service to our readers. Company news information may be sent to brice@slenterprise.com. The submission deadline is one week before publication.
BANKING
• Bank of Utah, Ogden, has appointed Steven M. Petersen, Benjamin F. Browning and Marlin K. Jensen to its board of directors. Petersen is chairman of the board of Petersen Inc. He is an entrepreneur skilled in product development, design and sales, and is experienced in a variety of markets requiring custom fabrication and machining. He has served as president of the Utah Steel Fabrication Association, as a national board member of NCCC, and as a member of the National Advisory Board and board of trustees of Weber State University. He is also a member of the Weber County economic development board, the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers and is also a past board member of the Ogden Chamber of Commerce. Browning, a great-grandson of bank founder Frank M. Browning, began his career at Bank of Utah in 2001 as a computer specialist and is now the business optimization director of information technology. Browning earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from Brigham Young University and received an MBA from Utah State University. He serves on the board of United Way of Northern Utah and the Ogden Rotary Club. Jensen is an attorney who served the Ogden community from 1970-1989. He served for 24 years in the First Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He returned to his law practice in Ogden when made an Emeritus LDS Church General Authority in 2012. His community service has included being a member of the Weber County Library Board, and chairman of the Weber County Board of Education, the State Fair Board and the Utah State Liquor Control Commission. He currently serves as a member of the Utah State Board of Regents. Jensen graduated from BYU in German and earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Utah College of Law.
• Zions Bancorporation, Salt Lake City, has announced that its 2016 Biennial Investor Conference for institutional investors and analysts will take place Feb. 25 in Salt Lake City and that a webcast of the event will be available on that date beginning at 8:30 a.m. The webcast can be accessed at www.zionsbancorporation.com. The webcast will be archived and available on the website for 30 days.
CONSTRUCTION
• BHB Consulting Engineers Inc., Salt Lake City, has reorganized its executive team. Chris Hofheins will serve as BHB’s president. Hofheins has 18 years of structural engineering experience. He graduated with his master’s in structural engineering from the University of Utah in 1999 and received his Master’s in Business Administration from Brigham Young University in 2003. Don Barker is the chief executive officer. His structural engineering career has spanned four decades. Jay Miller is chief operations officer and has led BHB’s CAD department for the past 14 years. Miller also is a member of the steering committee for the NCS (National CAD Standards) Layer Guidelines and a voting member on all NCS and NBIMS projects.
• Morrison Hershfield has hired Rick Ziegler to help establish the firm’s Salt Lake City office. Ziegler began his career in Salt Lake City as regional manager of ATI before relocating to Nashville, Tennessee, as a principal with SSR. He has more than 10 years of building science experience.
CONTESTS
• Nominations are being accepted for the Utah Innovation Awards 2016, organized and hosted by business law firm Stoel Rives LLP and the Utah Technology Council (UTC). Founded in 2002, the awards highlight cutting-edge and innovative work being done in Utah and the creative minds behind it. Innovations from all industries and in all areas of technology and business are eligible for consideration if they meet eligibility requirements. Finalists will be announced the week of March 21. The nomination form is at https://utahinnovationawards.com/official-2016-nomination-form/. Details are available by contacting Kelsey Koziar at (801) 428-6320 or Kelsey.koziar@stoel.com.
DIVIDENDS
• People’s Utah Bancorp, American Fork, announced that its board of directors has declared an increase to its quarterly dividend to 7 cents per common share, an increase of 16.7 percent over the prior quarter. The dividend is payable Feb. 12 to shareholders of record Feb. 1. The company also said it will have its annual shareholder meeting at 8 a.m. May 18 at American Fork City Hall, 31 N. Church St., American Fork. People’s Utah Bancorp is the holding company for People’s Intermountain Bank, whose divisions are Bank of American Fork and Lewiston State Bank.
FINANCE
• MX, Lehi, has appointed Don MacDonald as its first chief marketing officer. He will lead the company’s overall marketing and branding efforts and will be instrumental in developing its digital money management, data and analytics and customer acquisition product marketing strategies. MacDonald’s experience includes more than 20 years at Intel in a variety of roles, including four years as chief marketing officer. He was the first CMO at Fiserv and also worked at Checkpoint and Qualcomm.
• LeisureLink, Salt Lake City, has closed on a $17 million round of growth funding. The capital was provided by Clearstone Ventures, Kinderhook Industries and Escalate Capital Partners and will be used to scale company operations to meet the demand for LeisureLink’s services.
GOVERNMENT
• Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski has appointed Julio Garcia to oversee Salt Lake City’s Department of Human Resources. Garcia has spent the majority of his career working in local government, with a strong emphasis on human resources. For five years, he served as the director of elections for Salt Lake County. In 2010, he was named the associate director of human resources for Salt Lake County. From 2012-2015, he was a member of the Salt Lake City Civil Service Commission. He holds a master’s of public administration from the University of Utah.
LAW
• Shareholders at Parsons Behle & Latimer, Salt Lake City, have elected Raymond J. Etcheverry, Hal J. Pos, Michael R. Kealy (Reno office), Michael P. Petrogeorge and Kristine E. Johnson as the 2016 board of directors. Etcheverry will continue serving as chairman, president and CEO. He is a member of the firm’s litigation department and practices in the areas of antitrust, intellectual property, securities, class action defense and complex business litigation. Pos continues as vice chairman, vice president and treasurer. He is a member of the environmental, energy and natural resources department and concentrates his practice on environmental remediation and mining matters. Petrogeorge and Kealy continue as vice presidents. Petrogeorge is a member of the litigation department and concentrates his practice on real estate litigation and complex commercial litigation. Kealy is a member of the litigation department and practices commercial litigation and real estate litigation. Johnson continues as vice president and secretary. She is a member of the intellectual property department and concentrates her practice on intellectual property litigation, including patent infringement and trade secret litigation, as well as maintaining a commercial litigation practice.
• MacDonald & Miller Mineral Legal Services PLLC, Midvale, has hired Thomas W. “Tom” Clawson in an of-counsel capacity. Clawson has worked as a natural resources and environmental lawyer since 1990. He represents clients in the areas of oil and gas, water, mining, public lands, real estate development and environmental law. Clawson most recently was with Fabian VanCott and also worked for VanCott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy for 24 years. Before practicing law, Clawson worked for Exxon Co., U.S.A., as an exploration geophysicist in Denver, Colo. and Midland, Texas. He earned his J.D. from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah in 1990.
• John A. Adams of Ray Quinney & Nebeker has earned the ANSI-accredited Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US) credential through the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Adams joins the ranks of more than 8,000 professionals worldwide who currently hold one or more IAPP certifications. Adams, a litigator and former managing partner of RQ&N, leads the firm’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Practice Group.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTS/RECREATION/SPORTS
• Deer Valley Resort will pay homage to its late director of skiing, Stein Eriksen, during the 2016 FIS Visa Freestyle International Ski World Cup, set for Feb. 4-6. Eriksen was director of skiing for more than 35 years. The Stein Eriksen Celebration of Life will take place Feb. 4. The resort will commemorate Eriksen’s three gold medals at the 1954 World Championships in Sweden by contributing $54 of each lift ticket sold that day to the Youth Sports Alliance’s (YSA) Stein Eriksen YSA Opportunity Endowment Fund. The Stein Eriksen YSA Opportunity Endowment Fund is dedicated to providing support for youth to participate, learn, compete and excel in winter sports. Lift tickets that day will feature a tribute to Eriksen and a commemorative pin has been sketched and designed by Stein Eriksen’s granddaughter Raymie. For each ticket holder and daytime World Cup event attendee, complimentary pins will be available at resort ticket offices. In addition, some of Eriksen’s favorite Norwegian foods will be served at resort restaurants throughout the day. Following the aerial event on the morning of Feb. 4, a celebration will take place 1:35-2 p.m. at the World Cup aerial venue finish area, with friends and family sharing memories and stories. Aerial demonstrations of Eriksen’s famous front flip will be performed and a celebration video will play during the dedication.
REAL ESTATE
• Fairbridge Properties, a New Jersey-based privately held real estate investment company, has sold the Price Human Services Building at 475 W. Price River Drive, Price. The two-story, 37,829-square-foot building was sold at 100 percent occupancy. After acquiring the building in 2013, Fairbridge began a preventative maintenance program that included a landscaping overhaul and major improvements to the façade. Most recently, the firm completed the installation of a 21,622-square-foot roofing system. Fairbridge also implemented the Internet-based Angus work order system, which increased management efficiency. Tenants include the Utah attorney general’s office; the Utah Department of Workforce Services; the Utah Department of Family and Child Services; and the Utah Department of Rehabilitation Services, which signed a five-year lease extension last summer.
• New American Funding, a national mortgage broker, has opened an office at 335 E. St. George Blvd., No. 202, St. George. The branch will offer a variety of mortgage services to consumers and real estate agents facilitating home purchase loans in the St. George area and surrounding cities. The branch manager is Natalie Drake. She has more than 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry.
RECOGNITIONS
• The Ogden/Weber Chamber of Commerce has announced award recipients and finalists that will be honored at the chamber’s 99th annual dinner Feb. 5. The Wall of Fame honorees are Jim and Norma Kier. The Sue Westenskow Education recipients are Stephen G. and Susan Denkers Family Foundation and Willard L. Eccles Charitable Foundation. Kristie Nielsen of Weber State University is the recipient of the Women in Business Athena Award. Nominees for Business of the Year are American Nutrition Inc., Davis Hospital and Medical Center and Fresenius Medical Care Inc. Nominees for Small Business of the Year are Raymond James Financial, Wasatch Pharmacy Care and Zucca. Nominees for Volunteer of the Year are Carson Artzt, Utah Direct; Kearston Cutrubus, Cutrubus Motors; and Jacqueline Hoff, Mansell Real Estate. Nominees for Chairperson of the Year are Eric Isom, Legislative Affairs; Sheryl Cox, Top of Utah Military Affairs; and Debbie Williams, Spikers.
• Hoby Darling, chief executive officer of Skullcandy, has been ranked No. 15 in a list of micro cap U.S. CEO rankings compiled by ExecRank. He is the only Utah CEO in the top 25. ExecRank produces C-suite executive rankings based on statistical and algorithmic analysis of executive performance across 24 areas.
• Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. and USANA Health Sciences have been named among seven of the nation’s best places to work within the direct selling industry by Direct Selling News. The inaugural contest was run through Quantum Workplace and was open to all direct selling companies headquartered in North America with 50 or more corporate employees.
• CertCentral, the certificate platform from DigiCert, Lehi, has been named a finalist for Internet of Things (IoT) Security Product Excellence in Info Security Products Guide’s annual Global Excellence Awards. Winners will be announced Feb. 29 in San Francisco. CertCentral handles all aspects of the digital certificate management lifecycle in one cloud-based portal that is capable of supporting active deployment of billions of certificates simultaneously.
RETAIL
• Smith’s Food & Drug has broken ground on a new Smith’s Marketplace store at 400 S. 950 W., Springville. Smith’s Marketplace will anchor the first phase of the 25-acre commercial development named Springville Marketplace and paves the way for the development of two junior retail anchors, along with seven additional commercial pads. The land was previously owned by Suburban Land Reserve and Property Reserve Inc. Both are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The 123,000-square-foot multi-department store will offer grocery, pharmacy, apparel and household needs. A new Smith’s fuel station will be added adjacent to the store. The anticipated completion date is late fall. When completed, it will be the seventh Smith’s in Utah County. Bateman-Hall Construction has been named the general contractor.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• The Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) Initiative is accepting proposals for the pilot round of its pre-seed funding program, the Technology Acceleration Program (TAP). The program is intended to support technology development and prototyping work in private industry in support of science- and technology-related economic development in Utah. TAP will provide funding to Utah-based science and technology startups and early stage companies. The purpose of the program is to accelerate science and technology companies to market entry, or to mature a new technology within an existing company. Targeted technology sectors for the program include automation and robotics, advanced materials, energy and clean technology and life sciences. Details are available at ustar.org.
• StorageCraft Technology Corp., Draper, has named Marvin Blough as vice president of worldwide sales. He will focus on expanding the company’s global reach by establishing channel partnerships that enhance the profitability for the channel partner. Blough is also responsible for working closely with international distributors to introduce the StorageCraft product line into new markets. Blough has more than 30 years of experience in global direct and channel go-to-market efforts in IT security and software. Most recently, he was vice president of worldwide sales at Dell Sonic WALL for nine years.
• Intermountain Technology Group (ITG), Draper, has changed its name to ZAACT. The company said the new name is a combination of “exactly” and “act.” ZAACT is a Microsoft “Gold Partner” that enhances Microsoft products through its own line of products, services and support to help companies increase their productivity.