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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
• Canyon Corners, a mixed-use lifestyle development owned by CenterCal Properties LLC, has announced the opening of Lurie Gallery-Park City, an art gallery at 6622 N. Landmark Drive in Kimball Junction, Park City. It is operated by Park City resident Scot Lurie and will focus on establishing emerging to mid-career artists who specialize in cutting-edge pop art, street art, abstract minimalism, photography and a wide range of monumental sculptors. Lurie Gallery also advises clients on acquiring and selling secondary market art collections. Four brothers — Bruce, Evan, and twin brothers Scot and Craig Lurie — have operated art galleries, sponsored art exhibits, facilitated public art installations and bought and sold art internationally for more than 30 years. Canyon Corners also includes Whole Foods Market, Christy Sports, MOD Pizza and more, plus luxury apartments.
ASSOCIATIONS
• Whitaker Irvin Jr. has accepted an invitation to join the Board of Governors of the Salt Lake Chamber. Irvin is CEO of Q Hydrogen Commercialization, Park City. His experience includes technology deployment and program management at the aerospace and defense firm Raytheon Co. Before that, he worked in the financial sector, including at Fidelity Investments.
BANKING
• Galileo, a Salt Lake City-based company focused on card issuing and digital banking, has appointed Archana (Archie) Puri as chief product officer. He is responsible for developing, maintaining and executing new products in Galileo’s pipeline, as well as enhancing current Galileo products and features. Puri has more than 20 years of experience in technology products, with strong domain context in payments. Prior to joining Galileo, she spent eight years at PayPal, most recently as general manager for Braintree (a PayPal service) and vice president of product and technology for enterprise and partner solutions. Prior to PayPal, she spent seven years at Yahoo as a product and program manager for various strategic initiatives, including search advertising. She is a founding member of the San Francisco chapter of Chief, a private network designed specifically for senior women leaders.
• D.L. Evans Bank has opened a branch at 101 S. Main St., Brigham City. It is a full-service location offering a range of banking products and services with decisions made locally. The branch is under the leadership of Ken Doutre as vice president branch manager.
CORPORATE
• PrinterLogic, a St. George-based company focused on serverless printing infrastructure (SPI), has rebranded as Vasion and moved its global headquarters to the Tech Ridge development. The company said the new name “encompasses the expansion of cloud-based serverless software that will address the broad digital transformation market and build upon PrinterLogic’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings to help companies digitally transform.”
DIRECT SALES
• Younique, a Lehi-based direct sales company, has appointed Steve Carlile as chief marketing officer. He will oversee Younique’s branding, product marketing, digital innovation and product development. Carlile has spent two decades building global brands through marketing. He most recently led global marketing at Isagenix International. The first 16 years of his career were with Nu Skin in a variety of progressive roles, most recently serving as head of global digital marketing and CXM. Carlile also served as CMO at Solo Stove.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Clarus Corp., a Salt Lake City-based developer, manufacturer and distributor of outdoor equipment and lifestyle products, has confirmed the company’s regular quarterly cash dividend of 2.5 cents per share. The dividend will be paid Feb. 9 to stockholders of record on Feb. 8.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is ranked No. 21 on a list of states forecast to be the richest by 2025, compiled by Moneypenny.com. It used real GDP, personal income per capita and Zillow home value data from the past five to 10 years and then applied a forecasting algorithm. California is predicted to be the wealthiest. Mississippi is at the bottom of the rankings. Details are at https://www.moneypenny.com/us/resources/blog/ranked-the-richest-states-by-2025/.
• Cache County leads all Utah counties as the “best place to get a mortgage,” according to a list compiled by SmartAsset. It analyzed counties to determine where people are most likely to be approved for a mortgage. Following Cache County were, in order, Washington, Box Elder, Davis, Utah, Rich, Weber, Salt Lake, Morgan and Tooele counties. Details are at https://smartasset.com/mortgage/utah-mortgage-rates#utah/origination-rate.
• Utah saw a 11 percent reduction in financial aid applications by eligible high school seniors in 2020, compared with 2019, according to TOP Data. The nation saw a 13.1 percent reduction in eligible students applying for financial aid during that time. TOP Data said the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 is the likely cause behind fewer high school seniors wanting to commit to college enrollment in 2021.
GOVERNMENT
• The Utah Department of Workforce Services has named Christina Davis as the communication director. Davis has been a part of the department’s Communication Division for five years and has served as a strategic communication manager and public information officer. Prior to joining DWS, she spent more than 10 years in the private sector at strategic communication and marketing firms in Utah and California. Davis succeeds Nate McDonald, who was recently appointed as a deputy director of the department.
HEALTHCARE
• Lipocine Inc., a Salt Lake City-based biopharmaceutical company focused on metabolic and endocrine disorders, has closed an underwritten public offering of nearly 16.5 million shares of its common stock, offered at $1.75 per share, to the public. It included the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase more than 2.1 million additional shares of common stock at the public offering price. Gross proceeds to Lipocine were approximately $28.7 million before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses payable by the company. Raymond James & Associates Inc. acted as sole book-running manager and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. acted as co-manager for the public offering.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTS/RECREATION
• The Utah Outdoor Recreation Summit, normally a large, three-day event, will be two smaller, regional gatherings this year. A limited number of attendees will be allowed at each event. Each event will have a theme on different topics and with different speakers. The dates are Sept. 22-23 and Oct. 27-28. Themes, speakers and locations will be announced.
PHILANTHROPY
• Bank of Utah, Red Hanger Cleaners, Arctic Circle Restaurants and Smith’s Food & Drug stores are participating in the 35th annual Scouting for Food drive, taking place through Feb. 12. The Boy Scouts of America Crossroads of The West Council is asking the public to drop off non-perishable food at a list of community donation sites throughout Utah during the drive. Bank of Utah and Red Hanger locations will distribute grocery bags and serve as drop-off sites. Arctic Circle Restaurants will distribute donation bags through their drive-through windows and ask their customers to drop filled bags off at the donation sites. Scouts BSA troops, Red Hanger and some food banks and pantries will then pick up the canned goods at drop-off sites and deliver them to food assistance organizations. Scouts collected donations from shoppers at more than 50 Smith’s Food & Drug stores Feb. 6, designated Scouting for Food Day and coinciding with the national Souper Bowl of Caring Drive. The Scouts and the Utah National Guard will deliver the tons of donated food to food banks and pantries in store communities. Details about the food drive are at www.utahscouts.org/scoutingforfood.
REAL ESTATE
• Inside Real Estate, a Draper-based independently owned real estate software company and a technology partner to agents, teams and brokerages, has created a Home Ownership Division. It is dedicated to empowering residential real estate brokerages and their agents to become the primary homeowner advisor across all stages of their customers’ home buying, selling and owning journey. A dedicated Inside Real Estate team has been working on the project throughout the past year and will launch the platform beta with a number of partner real estate brokerages in mid-2021. Ned Stringham will remain CEO of Inside Real Estate and also will oversee the development of the Home Ownership Division. Scott Petronis recently joined as chief technology officer and Imran Kasam as engineering director of the new division. Inside Real Estate’s current business will continue with its kvCORE platform and other products operating as the CORE Division. Joe Skousen becomes the CEO of that division, and Nick Macey its president.
• The Real Brokerage Inc., a U.S. real estate brokerage, has expanded into Utah with the appointment of Chris Martindale as state principal broker. Martindale began his career in 2006 and has sold over 500 homes. Real is now operating in 23 states and the District of Columbia.
• The CW Group has named Chris L. Winter as division president of Cole West Home and Cole West Development, St. George. Cole West Home is a home builder specializing in the construction of high-end homes, second homes and luxury vacation rental homes in St. George. Winter will oversee all real estate and construction activities of the Southern Utah operation for the CW Group. Winter previously served as vice president of finance for the Northern California Division of PulteGroup. He sat on the Operating Committee, where he partnered with division executives to acquire and develop traditional single-family, infill townhome and retirement communities under the Pulte, Del Webb and Centex brands. Winter began his time with PulteGroup as a controller. He started his professional career as an auditor with Ernst & Young LLP in Sacramento in 2003. Winter earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting and Master of Accountancy from Brigham Young University.
RECOGNITIONS
• The Downtown Alliance recently presented Downtown Achievement Awards for extraordinary contributions to downtown Salt Lake City’s vitality, safety and livability. The Fourth Street Clinic has served homeless Utahns for over 30 years. In 2020, it was on the frontline of COVID-19 screening and testing for individuals experiencing homelessness and completed over 8,000 tests. During the pandemic, Caputo’s Market & Deli reassigned employees and communicated their safety measures and service adaptations to customers. Since 1991, Plan-B Theatre has produced unique and socially conscious theater created by Utah playwrights. Domain Companies & GIV Development have developed Avia and Mya, two distinct buildings in one new transit-oriented development. At the Downtown Achievement Awards, the Vasilios Priskos Honors were presented to Bill Knowles, downtown ombudsman. Knowles has been an ombudsman for construction mitigation on key downtown developments over the past 25 years.
• Utah Healthcare Executives (UHE), the Utah chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), recently presented Healthcare Executive Awards for outstanding service in the healthcare industry in Utah. The Senior-Level Healthcare Executive award was presented to Greg Angle, president of the HCA Mountain Division, and Alison Flynn Gaffney, executive director of University of Utah Health. The Early-Career Healthcare Executive award went to Brent Schmidt, administrator at Sevier Valley Hospital (Intermountain Healthcare).
• Clean Seat, a toilet seat designed to prevent messes caused by common negligence, has won first place and the $4,000 grand prize at the 2020-21 University of Utah Opportunity Quest business-model and executive-summary competition managed by students at the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and sponsored by Zions Bank. Earning second place was uAir, which won $2,000, while third place went to Parq ($1,000). The best-video winner was H2OWake ($500). Judges’ award winners were Haven Rest and Kurl Up ($250 each).
RETAIL
• The Domain Cos. has announced that Rebel House, a boutique fitness studio, will open this spring, anchoring the new mixed-use development that houses Mya apartments and The Shop shared workspace in downtown Salt Lake City. It will use 2,588 square feet on the ground level of the Mya and The Shop building. It is Rebel House’s third location.
SERVICES
• Ancestry, a Lehi-based company focused on family history and consumer genomics, has appointed Mark Thompson as chairman of the board. Thompson previously served as president and CEO at The New York Times Co. Prior to that, he served an eight-year term as director general (CEO and editor-in-chief) of the BBC.
SPORTS
• Nordic Valley Ski Resort, Eden, recently opened its first high-speed chairlift with at least six new trails. The six-person chairlift, named the Nordic Express, is the resort’s first new lift in over 10 years and Nordic Valley is now just one of three Utah resorts to offer a lift of this type. Manufactured by Leitner Poma, it is 4,213 feet in length with a vertical rise of 1,400 feet. The lift is located on 300 skiable acres that’s been owned by Nordic Valley but never developed. Roughly 50 of the 300 acres in the expansion area are skiable for this winter.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Tafi, a Salt Lake City-based company focused on customizable 3D avatar solutions, has announced four executive appointments. Preston Woo, a strategist and dealmaker in technology and finance, joins as chief strategy officer. Woo most recently was CSO at Ossia. Earlier, he served as CFO at Sarcos Robotics, led business development for technology licensing at Intellectual Ventures and was a member of the private equity investment team at Vulcan Capital. He sits on the board of directors for Ossia and Recon Dynamics. Stephanie O’Farrell, a marketer and general manager, has been named as chief marketing officer. She most recently worked at MolsonCoors. She is a senior-level brand marketer and general manager with 14 years of experience. Jessica Rizzuto, an executive in e-commerce and digital monetization, will serve as senior vice president of e-commerce. She most recently was director of digital marketing at Owlet. Prior to that, she worked in the nonprofit sector, leading advertising and optimization campaigns in digital, television, and mail as the director of digital technology and marketing. Her education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Utah in political science and economics.