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.
ASSOCIATIONS
• The National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) recently elected its officers, with Kent Beers elected to serve as treasurer. Beers is executive director of the Division of Purchasing for the state of Utah. Officers and board members were elected during NASPO’s national conference last fall in Minneapolis. NASPO is a nonprofit association dedicated to strengthening the procurement community through education, research and communication.
• Trina Quinney-Packard, executive director of Youth Care, has been named president of the board of directors of National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP). Quinney-Packard, of Draper, took office at the association’s annual conference in Tucson, Arizona. The association is a national resource for programs and professionals assisting young people with emotional and behavioral difficulties. Quinney-Packard has been with Youth Care for more than 15 years, including 10 years as executive director. She has taught at-risk youth in public, private and residential settings from elementary to secondary levels. In addition, her educational background includes experience in learning disabilities, testing and behavior modification. Before joining the Youth Care team, Trina worked as the director of education for Olympus View Hospital for five years. She also was executive director of the NorthStar Program in Oregon. Her education includes a bachelor’s degree in special and elementary education from Southern Utah University and a master’s of educational counseling from the University of Phoenix.
BANKING
• Celtic Bank, Salt Lake City, has selected Michael Fosmark to lead its new Specialty Commercial Finance Division. The new department brings together several established lines of business within the bank, including Leasing & Equipment Finance, Construction Financing, Asset-Based Lending and Renewable Energy. Fosmark has more than 30 years of banking and finance experience. He joined Celtic Bank in 2015, having worked the previous 12 years building a local Utah bank from the ground up.
• America First Credit Union, Riverdale, has opened a location inside Lin’s Fresh Market, 150 N. Main St., Cedar City. It is the second branch opening this year for the credit union, which now has 122 locations in Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Arizona. Jennifer Wilson will serve as branch manager. She joins America First with more than 10 years of experience in retail banking sales and management. She began her career in the mortgage field working on customer service for home loans before transitioning to the retail banking side.
CONTESTS
• The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has launched the third year of InnovateHER, a cash prize competition to showcase the most innovative products and services that impact and empower the lives of women and families. Applicants do not need to be women-owned. All entries must include a business plan and a short description of how the business/idea fits challenge criteria. Entries must be submitted at innovateHER@slchamber.com by April 1. Live pitches take place April 14. Submission of the local winner to the semi-final round takes place May 12. A final round occurs July 27 at a location to be determined.
CORPORATE
• The board of directors of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies has elected Steve Miller as vice chairman. Miller will act as a conduit among company management, the board and the family owners. Miller will also assume responsibilities of the chair in the event she is unavailable. He will continue as a voting member of the board of directors, which he has been since its creation, and as a member of the executive committee. Miller has worked for the family-owned Group for more than 24 years in various leadership roles, including president of Miller Sports Properties (now LHMSE), president of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, general manager of Larry H. Miller Fleet Lease, general manager of Larry H. Miller Subaru, and director of new and used car operations for Miller Automotive Operations. Miller is currently serving as the chair of the Vivint Smart Home Arena Renovation Committee; a $125 million project announced in September.
DIVIDENDS
• Zions Bancorporation, Salt Lake City, has announced that its board of directors has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 8 cents per common share. The dividend is payable Feb. 23 to shareholders of record Feb. 16. The board of directors also declared regular quarterly cash dividends on the company's various perpetual preferred shares. The cash dividend on the series A, F, G, H and J shares are payable March 15 to shareholders of record March 1. The cash dividend on the Series I is payable June 15 to shareholders of record June 1.
• People’s Utah Bancorp, American Fork, has announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of 8 cents per common share. The dividend is payable Feb. 13 to shareholders of record Feb. 6. People’s Utah Bancorp is the holding company for People’s Intermountain Bank, with 18 locations in two banking divisions, Bank of American Fork and Lewiston State Bank, and one leasing division, GrowthFunding Equipment Finance.
• The board of directors of Dominion, based in Virginia, has declared a quarterly dividend of 75.5 cents per share of common stock. The dividend is payable March 20 to stockholders of record March 3. It is the 356th consecutive dividend that Dominion or its predecessor company has paid holders of common stock. Salt Lake City-based Questar Corp. and Dominion Resources Inc. combined companies last September.
• The board of directors of Holly Energy Partners LP has declared a cash distribution of 60.75 cents per unit for the 2016 fourth quarter. That is a 7.5 percent increase over the 56.5 cents-per-unit distribution for the 2015 fourth quarter. It represents the 49th consecutive quarterly distribution increase. HEP is based in Dallas and provides petroleum product and crude oil transportation, terminalling, storage and throughput services to the petroleum industry, including HollyFrontier Corp. subsidiaries. Through subsidiaries and joint ventures, it owns and/or operates petroleum product and crude gathering pipelines, tankage and terminals in Utah and nine other states and refinery processing units in Kansas and Utah.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Park City Culinary Institute (PCCI) has opened a culinary school at 1484 S. State St., Salt Lake City. PCCI will retain its current space in Park City at the Deer Valley Club for catered private events and corporate team-building programs. Nearly all of PCCI’s certificate programs in culinary arts will be held at the new Salt Lake location. New students can choose between eight- and 16-week programs. The school offers daytime and evening programs. The school tapped Kin Ng of MJSA Architecture to design the project.
FINANCE
• Simple Finance, Salt Lake City, has changed its name to Acima Credit. It will continue to provide lease-purchase financing and service and support to retail merchants and their customers who come from a variety of credit positions. The name change was driven by a trademark issue between the Utah company and Simple Bank, based in Oregon, which was awarded the trademark for “Simple” last July. “Acima” means “Rise Above,” the company said.
FOOD
• A local food grant program, called the Local Food Microgrant Fund, has been launched by Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biscupski and Alison Einerson of the Downtown Farmers Market. The fund will assist local farmers in growing more sustainable produce. Salt Lake City has allocated $85,000 to the fund, which will be administered through the nonprofit Urban Food Connections of Utah (UFCU). The grant program will allow area farmers, such as those who sell at the Downtown Farmers Market and Winter Market at Rio Grande, to apply for funds to access technology, education, tools and equipment to grow more organic local produce. Examples include the installation of sustainable farming techniques, building hoop houses or greenhouses to extend the growing season, the purchase of organic seed, continuing education for farmers, and sponsorship of labor costs.
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 firm’s 2017 board of directors. Etcheverry will serve as chairman of the board. Pos will serve as vice chairman and president. Petrogeorge and Kealy continue as vice presidents. Johnson continues as vice president and secretary. Etcheverry 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 is a member of the environmental, energy and natural resources department and concentrates his practice on environmental remediation and mining matters. Kealy is a member of the litigation department and practices commercial litigation and real estate litigation. Petrogeorge is a member of the litigation department and concentrates his practice on real estate litigation and complex commercial litigation. Johnson 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.
MEDIA/MARKETING
• KUER has hired Maria O’Mara as general manager, effective Feb. 15. O’Mara succeeds John Greene, who recently retired after 28 years of service. O’Mara currently is communications director and primary media spokesperson at the University of Utah. She has 20 years of experience in reporting and news management. She began her career as a reporter at KUER and has supervised a variety of teams that produced news and information at the Salt Lake Observer, Deseret News and KSL-TV. She also worked in public relations, managing the external communications of Rocky Mountain Power, followed by her current position at the U. She graduated from the UofU with a bachelor of arts degree in broadcast journalism.
• SageCity Media Group, Park City, has named Janet Jorgensen as publisher of its Park City and Salt Lake City properties. Those properties include Park City Magazine, Salt Lake City/Park City Bride & Groom Magazine, Park City Menu Guide, Things to Do, parkcitymag.com and saltlakebrideandgroom.com. Jorgensen is a former owner and sole proprietor of Janet Jorgensen Consulting, a Salt Lake City-based marketing and advertising consulting firm, and former senior account executive with Salt Lake Magazine. She founded Janet Jorgensen Consulting in 2014 after more than 15 years in the magazine business for local, regional and national titles.
• Sorenson Advertising, Provo, has undergone a rebrand and has changed its name to Relic. Adam Stoker, president and chief executive officer, said the new name “represents a time when ad agencies had one purpose in mind: to drive sales.” In September, Stoker announced the purchase of Sorenson Advertising with three partners — Jordan Barker, chief digital officer; Colby Remund, chief creative officer; and Nick Christensen. The company also recently moved locations from north Orem to downtown Provo.
• SkyRocket Media, a Pleasant Grove-based digital marketing company, has been rebranded as Best Company. The company said that with the rebranding, it is focusing exclusively on the development of its consumer review website, bestcompany.com.
SERVICES
• Ancestry, Lehi, has appointed Nat Natarajan as executive vice president of product and technology and Vineet Mehra as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. Both will be based in Ancestry's San Francisco office. Natarajan most recently worked at Intuit, where he was senior vice president and chief information security and fraud officer. At Intuit, he also was chief technology officer and senior vice president of product and engineering for the Consumer Tax Group. He also led global engineering, operations and platform teams at PayPal, and was one of the early members on the team that founded Travelocity.com. Mehra joins Ancestry from Johnson & Johnson, where he was global president of the company’s flagship Baby Care business. His tenure at J&J also serving as president for J&J’s Global Marketing Services organization. Prior to J&J, Mehra held leadership positions at Novartis Consumer Health, General Mills and Procter & Gamble.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Venafi, based in Salt Lake City and Palo Alto, California, has appointed Elizabeth Ireland as chief marketing officer. She will lead the development of the company’s product positioning, market strategy and go-to-market execution. Ireland has more than 25 years of marketing experience, including more than a decade in the cyber security industry. Prior to joining Venafi, Ireland was vice president of marketing and business development for Tripwire. She also has held executive marketing roles at nCircle and Extensity.