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ECONOMIC INDICATORS
- Utah is ranked No. 6 on a list of best states for job opportunities in 2023, compiled by Scholaroo. It examined 43 metrics across five indicators to determine the benefits and opportunities a worker would have in each state. Utah was ranked No. 1 for affordability, No. 4 for state economy, No. 17 for job market, No. 25 for quality of life, and No. 48 for business-friendliness. Details are at https://scholaroo.com/report/jobs-by-state/.
- Utah women work 20.8 hours more per year than they did five years ago while men’s hours decreased by 5.2 hours, according to a study by Mixbook, a photo book design platform. For comparison, women in Idaho had the largest increase, adding 52 hours per year. The men’s increase was greatest in Montana, at 36.4 hours. For workers overall, Montana had the largest increase, at 31.2 hours, while Wyoming had a decrease of 41.6 hours compared to five years ago. Details are at https://www.mixbook.com/inspiration/overworked-states-in-america-survey.
- Utah is No. 10 on a list of states with the highest average Small Business Administration 7(a) loan amounts, compiled by Forbes Advisor. It analyzed 7(a) loan data from the SBA from the fiscal year 2018 through 2022. The average loan amount in Utah was $614,428. The national average was $704,581. In 2022, the average loan amount fell to $538,903, a decrease of over $165,000 compared to the prior year. Georgia had the highest five-year average, at $840,145. Hawaii had the lowest, at $213,505. Details are at https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business-loans/best-states-for-sba-7a-loan/.
- Diabetes costs U.S. employers approximately $245 billion a year, according to new data announced by Nomi Health, an Orem-based nationwide direct healthcare system. That is more than double what the entire American automotive industry is worth, it said. Employers spend more than $175 billion annually on direct medical and pharmacy costs for diabetic members, in addition to nearly $70 billion on indirect costs from employee absenteeism, reduced productivity and diabetes-related disability, the research showed. Nomi Health analyzed nearly half a million employer health insurance claims to reveal changes in employer spend on diabetes. The cost of care for diabetics is increasing twice as fast as for non-diabetics, and it’s growing at a staggering clip of nearly 20 percent year over year, reaching more than $20,000 average per member per year for employers in 2020-21.
- The “Bank of Friends & Family” is worth $1.33 billion to the Utah economy, according to a survey by Couponbirds. Thirty-six percent of Utahns have requested credit from friends and family over the past year, it found. The average loan amount was $1,609.38. Seventy-eight percent paid no interest on their loans, and 5 percent did not even discuss repayment terms. The most-generous state for friends-and-family lending is Rhode Island, at 83 percent, worth $1.1 billion. The least-generous is Nebraska at 25 percent, or $586 million. Details are at https://www.couponbirds.com/research-center/data/the-bank-of-friends-and-family.
- Utah is ranked No. 41 on a list of states with the highest federal average student debt, compiled by Scholaroo. The Utah average is $33,000 debt per borrower. The highest average is in Maryland, at $43,000. The smallest is in North Dakota, at $30,000. Scholaroo’s survey indicates that between 25 percent and 50 percent of college tuition costs nationally are covered by student loans, and over 15 percent of students expect to pay off their loans over more than 16 years. Details are at https://scholaroo.com/report/student-loan-debt-index/.
- Salt Lake City is No. 49 and West Valley City is No. 186 on a list of “Best Cities for a Hangover Cure,” compiled by Lawn Love. It compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on 17 metrics in five categories, including access to diners and convenience stores and walkability. The top-ranked city is San Francisco. The No. 200 city is Montgomery, Alabama. Details are at https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-hangover-cure/.
EDUCATION
- Kelly A. Tappenden has been appointed dean of the College of Health at the University of Utah, effective July 1. Tappenden comes to the UofU from the University of Illinois Chicago, where she currently serves as professor and head of the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition. She also is the interim head of the Department of Occupational Therapy. Before joining the University of Illinois Chicago, she served as a provost fellow and endowed professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Tappenden is a past president of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and was the organization’s inaugural fellow in 2012. She previously served as a board member for the American Gastroenterological Association and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Tappanden’s research focuses on intestinal failure, mechanisms of intestinal adaptation, and patient malnutrition. Tappenden succeeds R. Scott Ward, who has served as interim dean since July 2022, when he stepped in for David H. Perrin, who retired in June 2022 after eight years as the college’s dean.
HEALTHCARE
- Clene Inc., a Salt Lake City-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on revolutionizing the treatment of neurodegenerative disease, has appointed Dr. Benjamin Greenberg as head of medical. Greenberg is professor of neurology and vice chair of clinical and translational research in the Department of Neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. His clinical and research activities focus on neurology, including the diagnosis and treatment of MS and other rare neurological disorders. Robert Glanzman, Clene’s current chief medical officer, will continue to serve the company in an advisory role.
INSURANCE
- PCF Insurance Services, a Lehi-based insurance brokerage firm, has appointed Brandon Grayto the newly created role of vice president of treasury. Gray will lead investment strategies, treasury operations and financing activities; manage debt compliance; arrange funding to support business operations and M&A, as well as provide treasury-related acquisition due diligence and integration support; monitor and test the treasury business continuity plan; and drive treasury compliance throughout the organization. Gray most recently was treasurer at Ancestry since May 2018. Prior to Ancestry, Gray held several roles over 13 years at Huntsman Corp., served as senior internal auditor at Novell, and spent three years as a senior auditor at PwC.
INVESTMENTS
- Monarx, a Salt Lake City-based company offering a security solution for web hosting, has closed a $6.1 million funding round. Signal Peak Ventures led the round, with participation from Pelion Venture Partners, Kickstart Fund and Crosscut Ventures. Pelion led Monarx’s initial funding round. Monarx said it will use the funds to help it further fuel partner growth.
MEDIA/MARKETING
- Gibbs Smith, a Kaysville-based publisher and distributor, has certified as a B Corporation, focusing on pursuing purpose as well as profit. Gibbs Smith was certified by B Lab as having met certain social and environmental standards. There are over 6,200 B Corps worldwide.
NONPROFITS
- Eva Carlston Academy, a Salt Lake City-based institution helping adolescent girls with therapy, mentorship, the arts and experiential learning, has promoted Lisa Gaffney-Gonzalez to clinical director. She previously had been a therapist. Gaffney-Gonzolez has more than 20 years of experience in the social service field. She began her career with youth in the juvenile justice system and has worked in several residential treatment centers with adolescents. She earned a degree in sociology, human development and criminology from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in clinical mental Health counseling from the University of Phoenix.
PHILANTHROPY
- Smithfield Foods Inc., the Utah Pork Producers Association and the Fredette Family Foundation recently delivered 35,000 pounds of protein, or 140,000 servings, to Utah Food Bank as part of the organizations’ joint “Points for Protein” campaign. Virginia-based Smithfield and UPPA, in cooperation with the foundation, had committed to donate 50 pounds of protein to Utah Food Bank for each point scored by BYU and Utah State during the 2022-2023 football season. The donated products, which include ham, bacon, lunch meat and hot dogs, will be distributed throughout the state via Utah Food Bank’s network of partner agencies. This year’s donation brings the total donated since 2019 through the “Points for Protein” partnership to 198,000 pounds, or 792,000 servings, of protein.
- The ACMG (American College of Medical Genetics & Genomics) Foundation recently presented adaptive bicycles to Salt Lake City-area children with genetic conditions during the foundation’s “Day of Caring” event at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City. The children were from Shriners Children’s Salt Lake City and the event was part of the 2023 ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting. The foundation is a nonprofit genetics foundation based in Maryland. It fosters charitable giving, promotes training opportunities to attract future medical geneticists and genetic counselors to the field, shares information about medical genetics and genomics, and sponsors research.
RECOGNITIONS
- NView Medical was named the winner and Birch OS was runner-up in a pitch competition held during the 2023 Wilson Sonsini Entrepreneur & Investor Life Sciences Summit at the University of Utah. The summit was presented by BioUtah and the University of Utah PIVOT Center. NView’s technology integrates imaging, tracking and AI technologies to augment a surgeon’s understanding of the surgery, providing intraoperative planning, guidance and quality control. Birch OS is a digital health company providing the first Pharma ERP built around serialization compliance. The system confirms serialization compliance, inventory compliance, licensing, payments, inventory management, CEO dashboards and more. The first-place winner received a $5,000 cash award and runner-up received a $2,000 cash award. Both received additional awards, including services from Prime Path Medtech, Serfwerks and a one year membership in BioUtah. Six companies presented at the summit, from a group of more than 30 that applied. Other pitching companies are 3Helix, Phoenix PharmaLabs, Focused Therapeutics and Nanospot AI.
- The High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge has announced the top 20 teams in the high school business idea competition. Students from across Utah are competing for $30,000 in cash and scholarships. The finalists were selected from more than 150 applications. They advance to the final stage of the competition. The program is managed by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, an interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, and sponsored by Zions Bank. The public is invited to vote online for the best idea through March 24 at https://lassonde.utah.edu/hsuec/vote2023/. Open to the public, a showcase and awards ceremony will be held March 25, 2-4 p.m., at Lassonde Studios. The High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge is the youth version of the collegiate Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, which concluded recently and awarded $70,000 in cash and prizes. Finalists (in alphabetical order) are Bucks Burley and Class, American Fork High School; Click and Go, Bountiful High School; Creative Book Folding, Bear River High School; DesryoTech, Hillcrest High School; Light a Puck, Farmington High School; RecylEDU, West High School; Revamp Outdoors, Weber High School; Rift, Academy for Math, Engineering & Science; Safety Socks, Farmington High; Social Solutions, Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s; Stabilaser, American Heritage School; Stellar Water Bottles, Academy for Math, Engineering & Science; StudiUs, Park City High School; Sweet Simplicity, Orem High School; The Sork, Park City High School; Therma, Weber High School; TuneTutor, Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s; Vision, Stansbury High School; Webfork, Weber High School; and Zero, Park City High School.
RESTAURANTS
- Mountain West Commercial Real Estate says it is helping to negotiate several new locations for Jack in the Box Corp. throughout Utah. Among the proposed sites are Logon, Ogden, Kaysville, Layton, Salt Lake City, South Jordan, Orem, Provo and Pleasant Grove. Construction is underway for its newest restaurant in Salt Lake City, off 2100 S. State St., projected to open in June. There are three Jack in the Box locations in Utah: in St. George, Washington and Cedar City.
RETAIL
- Henriksen Butler, Salt Lake City, has changed its name to HB Workplaces, which the company said symbolizes the evolution of the brand over the past 43 years. The rebranding includes a new logo, tagline and website address. The company was founded in 1980 by Ron Henriksen and Steve Butler and provided local businesses with furniture from Herman Miller. Throughout the years, the brand expanded its focus to meet the needs of architects, designers, developers, general contractors and end users. HB Workplaces has showrooms in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Boise, Reno and St. George.
SERVICES
- GPS Capital Markets LLC, a Salt Lake City-based company that provides corporate foreign exchange services that help companies manage their foreign currency risk and execute foreign currency transactions, has established the “GPS–Women in Business” Employee Resource Group. The company said the group was created “to provide an inclusive and supportive community to discuss and create awareness around issues women face in the workplace. The goal is to strengthen relationships, and to support personal and professional development through mentorship, networking and philanthropic opportunities.” All GPS employees are welcome to have membership in the group and are welcome to participate.