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BANKING
• Bank of Utah, Ogden, has hired Megan Kenley for its marketing team. Kenley will serve as a communications and marketing specialist for the bank, drawing upon her project management, content writing and graphic design skills. She previously served for over seven years as a senior account executive at MRM/McCann in Salt Lake City. Kenley’s education includes a B.A. in communications at Brigham Young University, where she performed account work in the BYU AdLab.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is the least-vulnerable state to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to rankings compiled by Innerbody Research. To score and rank each state’s vulnerability and preparedness, the company compiled and analyzed the most recent governmental data across 20 different risk indicators, ranging from health and age demographics to various strengths of health infrastructure and emergency preparedness. In key subcategories, Utah was No. 44 for emergency preparedness, No. 50 for high at-risk population rank, and No. 47 for social and physical environment.
• Utah has three cities in the top 10 list of best cities for job-seekers, compiled by Move.org: No. 1 Provo, No. 2 Ogden and No. 9 Salt Lake City. Move.org researched new job opportunities in metro areas across the nation to help those affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Its analysis included unemployment rates in all US cities with a population of 500,000 or greater, median household income, median household rent, and the number of hours worked.
• Utah is the No. 29 state most at-risk for online shopping scams, according to rankings compiled by SocialCatfish.com using data from the Federal Trade Commission in 2019. The study analyzed online shopping spending, fraud rates and the most common types of scams. Utah had the No. 29 highest rate of shipping fraud with 16.4. incidents 100,000 people and the No. 16 highest rate of billing fraud with 27.1 incidents per 100,000 people. The most at-risk state is Oregon.
HEALTHCARE
• Sera Prognostics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company focused on improving maternal and neonatal health through innovative precision biomarker approaches, has appointed Jay M. Moyes as chief financial officer. Moyes has more than two decades of experience in C-level executive and board positions of both private and public companies. Moyes’ experience includes serving as chief financial officer and director of Amedica Corp. and as CFO at XDx. He also led the finance function for 14 years at Myriad Genetics, including serving as its CFO. He currently serves as director on the public boards of Achieve Life Sciences, BioCardia and Puma Biotechnologies. Previous roles include board director service with Predictive Technology Group, Osiris Therapeutics and Integrated Diagnostics.
INVESTMENTS
• Savology, a Lehi-based financial technology startup providing free financial planning, oversubscribed a $750,000 seed round of funding. Among investors in the funding round are Brady Murray, CEO of MassMutual Intermountain West; Derrin Hill, CEO of RevRoad; Bruce Miller, founder and CEO of PROFi; and Ben Tejes, co-founder and CEO of Ascend Finance. Savology is on track to expand its network of partners to 50 providers this year.
PHILANTHROPY
• Through Rocky Mountain Power’s charitable arm, the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation has committed $311,500 for immediate support to community-serving organizations in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The total includes $100,000 for the Utah Food Bank. Other agencies include Catholic Community Services of Utah and the Cache County Community Food Bank. Rocky Mountain Power is also helping business owners who are impacted by COVID-19 to pay their power bill by suspending disconnects due to non-payment, waiving late fees, offering flexible payment arrangements and referrals to resources made available through the government aid package.
• Team members at Savage’s service support center in Midvale recently ran a successful 48-hour virtual giving campaign to help Utahns feeling the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and support the work of United Way of Salt Lake (UWSL). The supply chain company’s campaign was called “Rise to the Challenge.” All of their team’s donations and Savage’s dollar-for-dollar match will benefit the United Way of Salt Lake’s COVID-19 response efforts. Savage moved its 17th annual campaign up two months and shortened its duration from one week to 48 hours in order to address the community’s immediate needs. The campaign raised more than $82,000, which is up from about $77,000 last year.
• Young Living Essential Oils, Lehi, has donated $55,000 to Salt Lake City-based Tracy Aviary and $233,767 to Meals on Wheels in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aviary donation will help the aviary maintain operations and support conservation efforts while it is closed to the public during the pandemic. The donation will raised from the sales of Young Living's Feather the Owl Oil Diffuser. Meals on Wheels delivers healthy food to the homes of senior citizens. Young Living donated 1 percent of all North American proceeds from the Thieves product line through the month of March 2020 to Meals on Wheels. The total donation was given directly to the Meals on Wheels COVID-19 Response Fund, which benefits the program in both the U.S. and Canada.
• Cambia Health Solutions, based in Oregon, and the Cambia Health Foundation have invested in $500,000 to care for people, including front-line healthcare workers, in local communities to combat the impact of COVID-19. The actions include the foundation matching employee donations up to $100,000 to designated nonprofits, including Utah Food Bank. They also is making initial donations totaling $300,000 into shared COVID-19 emergency relief funds in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington, including United Way of Salt Lake.
• Woodside Homes, Salt Lake City, has joined Leading Builders of America’s national call to collect unused, excess masks and eye protection equipment from its trade partners, to be presented to healthcare workers. The items are being collected at Woodside Homes’ corporate office, 460 W. 50 N., Suite 200, Salt Lake City. Cash donations are also being accepted at https://www.directrelief.org
• Squatty Potty, a St. George-based producer of toilet stools, has announced the all proceeds from its humorous “Toilet Paper Seeds” program will be donated to Johns Hopkins Medicine for COVID-19 vaccine research and patient medical care.
• HighSpeedInternet.com, a Salt Lake City-based Internet comparison site, is helping five Utah families by giving two months of free Internet in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Applications will be accepted until April 19 at https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/covid-internet-reimbursement
• A team of student volunteers from University of Utah School of Medicine is encouraging Salt Lake City residents to donate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used by frontline healthcare workers treating a surge of COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks. Donations will be accepted April 17-19, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., at the Herriman Library branch, 5380 W. Main St., Herriman; and April 24-26, noon-4 p.m., at Rio Tinto Stadium, 60 W. 9400 S., Sandy. Students are looking for donations of N-95 respirator masks and other face masks, medical or disposable gloves, eye protection goggles (no swim goggles), face shields, medical or disposable gowns, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes. Original/unopened items are preferred, but not required.
SERVICES
• Lendio, a Lehi-based free online services company helping small-business owners find loans, has announced plans to hire up to 200 full-time small-business loan agents to match small businesses with CARES Act loans. The workforce expansion will enable Lendio to help meet the demand for emergency capital made available by the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Penumbra Brands, a North Salt Lake-based mobile device accessories and technology company, has appointed Kevin Cundiff as chief growth officer. Cundiff will lead the company’s partnership, business development and sales efforts. He has nearly two decades of experience in the mobile phone industry, including recently serving as vice president of services and development at uBreakiFix. He also was vice president at Fortegra/ProtectCELL, worked for T-Mobile and worked as a secondary social sciences teacher.