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BANKING
• D.L. Evans Bank has appointed Abbigail Maughan as operations supervisor for its Brigham City branch. She will oversee day-to-day operations, train employees and recruit new hires. Maughan joins the bank with over two years of banking and financial experience.
CONTESTS
• Nominations are being accepted for the 2021 Utah Outdoor Recreation Summit Awards, which have three categories: Economic Impact Award, Social Investment Award, Stewardship Award and Every Kid Outdoors Award. Nominations may be made at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/63DPSZQ or by emailing outdoorteam@utah.gov (the name of the organization, the category and the reasons for nominating them). The Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation will narrow the list to three to five finalists per category. The Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee will vote on the award winners. The summit takes place Sept. 22-23 and Oct. 27-28 at location to be announced.
CORPORATE
• Cricut, a South Jordan-based craft machine, materials and tool company, has submitted a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The public offering is expected to follow the completion of the SEC review process, subject to market and other conditions. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. Cricut intends to list its common stock on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CRCT.
DEFENSE
• Integrated ICBM Support Services LLC (i2S2), a systems engineering and integration company, has announced its plan to establish a presence in Utah in preparation to support the U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center’s (AFNWC) next-generation mission for national security and strategic deterrence. I2S2 was formed to pursue the ICBM Integrated Services Contract 2.0. It combines the resources and expertise of three industry companies — Leidos, Amentum and Apex Systems — into one entity to meet contract challenges ahead. I2S2 was formed to help usher in a new era of response for the land-based leg of the country’s nuclear defense triad. If awarded the ISC 2.0 contract and made fully operational, i2S2 will operate with its own leadership team on the ground in Utah, working in tandem with the Air Force.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., Provo, has increased the quarterly cash dividend to 38 cents per share. The dividend will be paid March 10 to shareholders of record Feb. 26. It is the 20th consecutive year of paying and increasing the dividend. Nu Skin focuses its efforts around innovative consumer products, product manufacturing and controlled-environment agriculture technology.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is ranked No. 39 on a list of states with the most nutrition-related purchases since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, compiled by cash-back platform company Ibotta. It includes products like vitamins, nutrition supplements and dietary supplements. Utah also is ranked No. 29 on a list of states with the most cleaning supply purchases during the pandemic, also compiled by Ibotta. Both lists use data from June-December 2019 versus spending in June-December of 2020. Kansas led both lists. Alaska was last in the nutrition-purchase increases. Kentucky was last on the cleaning-supply-purchase increases.
INVESTMENTS
• Opiniion, a Lindon-based resident feedback and online reputation platform company, has secured a $3 million financing round led by the Frazier Group, with participation from RET Ventures, AIM Ventura Capital and Tamarak Capital Partners. Opiniion is an automated tool for property management companies to collect authentic real-time feedback from residents.
PHILANTHROPY
• Snowbird has announced “Play It Forward Wednesdays,” a give-back event taking place weekly through April 21. It is designed to support and bolster the local community. Snowbird will donate $5 of every ticket sale purchased online or at the ticket window for qualifying dates to participating nonprofit organizations. Play It Forward Wednesdays was developed through Snowbird’s corporate responsibility commitment, Play Forever, which aims to protect the environment and support our community. Through the Snowbird Play It Forward Fund, each week’s proceeds will go to an organization that is focused upon local relief, environmental initiatives or encourages participation in the outdoors. Guests may also donate directly to the fund without the purchase of a lift ticket. The Feb. 17 participating nonprofit was Wasatch Adaptive Sports. Future dates are Feb. 24, Cottonwood Canyons Foundation; March 3, High Fives Foundation; March 10, Utah Food Bank; March 17, Snowbird Sports Education Foundation; March 24, Wasatch Adaptive Sports; March 31, SOS Outreach; and April 7, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue. The nonprofits for April 14 and April 21 have yet to be determined.
• To commemorate Black History Month, Analytic Orange (AO), a Saratoga Springs-based, teacher-led education publishing company, is offering parents and teachers free lesson plans focusing on historic African American contributions. AO textbooks, teacher editions and support materials will be available soon nationwide for kindergarten through fifth-grade students. All materials will be available through the AO website.
REAL ESTATE
• Highland Flats, an all-rental community featuring integrated affordable housing units, has been proposed for the Highland Estates neighborhood of Park City by a development partnership between Colmena Group, Breen Homes and Jake Breen, managing broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Utah Properties. Located on a 40-acre parcel, Highland Flats will consist of 410 units, with 35 percent being deed-restricted affordable and workforce housing. The community will include a mix of two-story flats and townhome rentals, a clubhouse, 68 percent dedicated open space, and connected trails. Ten acres have been set aside for a future Catholic church parish. Following a work session with Summit County Planning Commission last October, the developers have modified the proposal based on feedback they received. A public hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23, when the updated proposal will be presented.
RECOGNITIONS
• SkyWest Inc., St. George, has been named to the list of “America’s Best Employers 2021,” compiled by Forbes. Of the 500 employers, SkyWest is the only regional airline on the list. Forbes’ selections were based on an independent survey of more than 50,000 U.S. employees. SkyWest Inc. is the holding company for SkyWest Airlines and SkyWest Leasing, an aircraft leasing company.
• England Logistics, a Salt Lake City-based freight brokerage firms, is ranked No. 51 on the “Training Top 100” list, compiled by Training magazine. It is the fourth consecutive year the company has been included in the rankings. The list ranks companies’ excellence in employer-sponsored training and development programs.
RETAIL
• Hobby Lobby has opened a new store in Spanish Fork. It is the company’s ninth Utah location, among more than 900 stores across the U.S. Gordon Harris is the manager of the 55,000-square-foot store at Canyon Creek Parkway and Market Place Drive.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• MX, a Lehi-based company focused on enhanced financial data, has announced that Jon Winkelried, Mike Zappert and Derek Zannuto have joined the MX board of directors. The board appointments follow TPG and CapitalG’s recently announced investment in MX. Winkelried is co-CEO and a partner at TPG. Prior to TPG, he was with the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for more than 27 years until he retired in 2009 as president and co-chief operating officer. Zappert is a partner at TPG Growth who leads software and enterprise technology investment and strategy across the TPG Growth and The Rise Fund platforms. Zannuto is general partner at CapitalG and lead investor in the company’s data, security and SaaS-based enterprise software portfolio companies. Prior to joining CapitalG, Zanutto spent a decade investing in companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Lynda.com, and CAA at investment firms TPG, Hellman & Friedman and GIC.
• Ivanti Inc., a Salt Lake City-based automation platform, has appointed Erik Randles as senior vice president of global channels and alliances. He will focus on growing Ivanti’s relationships and business with partners, developing a global integrated partner ecosystem in support of Ivanti’s growth strategy. Randles will also launch Ivanti’s global partner program later this year. Randles has more than 20 years of experience leading global business development, alliances and channel partner sales programs at both public and private companies. He joins Ivanti from VMware, where he led global business development and alliances for VMware’s cloud management SaaS business. Prior to VMware, Randles led partner organizations at several large public and hyper-growth private companies, including Hewlett-Packard Enterprise SimpliVity, Symantec and Veritas.
• Podium, a Lehi-based company offering a customer messaging platform for businesses, has appointed John Foreman as chief product officer and Tim Milliron as executive vice president of engineering. Foreman most recently was chief product officer at Mailchimp, where he started in 2011 as the chief data scientist, working his way up until he was guiding all product strategy and operations. His background includes authoring a book on demystifying data processes, along with analytics work for large businesses (Coke, Royal Caribbean, Intercontinental Hotels) and the government (DoD, IRS, DHS). Milliron most recently was vice president of engineering at TripActions. He previously was executive vice president of product development at Lytro and continued leading multi-site engineering teams at Google following its 2018 acquisition of Lytro. Before that, he held engineering and product leadership positions at Twilio and worked for over a decade at Pixar as a technical director and director of engineering. Podium also named several other executives recently. Hally Pinaud, head of product marketing, previously was head of product marketing at Gainsight. Omar Nagji, senior vice president of strategic sales, previously was vice president of enterprise at Alto Pharmacy. Tasha Bishop, executive vice president of customer success, previously was vice president of customer success at Smartsheet.