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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
• The Salt Lake City Arts Council and Salt Lake City Parks & Public Lands have announced two opportunities for artists or artist-led teams to respond with proposals for murals at the 9 Line Bike Park. Salt Lake City Parks and Public Lands, with community support and interest, expanded the existing bike park located at 700 West and 900 South in 2017 to provide users and city residents with a unique recreational amenity. The project area encompasses 1.3 acres of property owned by Salt Lake City and is used by riders of varying ages and skill levels. A shipping container on the site is used by city crews and volunteer work groups for storage of maintenance equipment. The allocated surface area of the shipping container is 208 square feet, allowing the mural to wrap around the three visible sides of the container. Jump lines have been constructed for beginner, intermediate and advanced-level riders, with a starting platform for the jump lines constructed using large concrete blocks to stabilize the platform and provide dirt retention. The allocated surface area is 400 square feet, divided into three walls. The shipping container and starting ramp mural opportunities are open to all artists and/or artist-led teams based in Utah. Artists residing in Glendale are strongly encouraged to apply. The deadline to apply is May 4. Details are at http://saltlakepublicart.org/for-artists/calls-for-artists
BANKING
• Bank of Utah has opened branches at 3670 N. University Ave., Provo, and 144 S. State St., Lindon. It is the first location in Provo and third in Utah County. Bank of Utah recently purchased three AMBank retail branches in Provo, Lindon and Heber. The company retained many of the AMBank employees in those locations.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is No. 21 among states in a ranking of “States Most At Risk for Tax Season Scams,” predicting states most at-risk for robocall tax scams through April 28. The rankings were compiled by AllAreaCodes.com and focused on robocall tax scams through April 28. It analyzed 15 million consumer complaints related by the FTC over the past three years. Utah averaged 1,769 complaints per 100,000 people. Nevada was top-ranked at 2,579. Alaska was last, at 549. Among counties, Salt Lake County was ranked No. 37, with 1,376 complaints per 100,000 people. Fairfax County, Virginia, topped the county list, with 2,230 complaints.
• Summit County leads all Utah counties in a ranking of places where people are “best at balancing their budgets,” compiled by SmartAsset. The study took into account consumer expenditures as a percent of personal income, net wealth as a percent of personal income and bankruptcies per 1,000 people. Summit was followed, in order, by Wasatch, Davis, Sevier, Washington, Utah, Box Elder, Salt Lake, Cache and Tooele counties. Details are at https://smartadvisormatch.com/data/places-with-the-best-budgeters/utah
HEALTHCARE
• Gold Cross Ambulance, Salt Lake City, has named Ron Morris as vice president of government affairs. He will be the liaison for municipality relationships for the company. Morris comes to Gold Cross from South Salt Lake City, where he recently retired as the fire chief/emergency manger after eight years. He is a career firefighter and has served in various positions within fire departments throughout Utah. He started his career in 1977 when he joined the Salt Lake County Fire Department/Unified Fire Authority, where he finished as the deputy fire chief after 27 years. Morris also worked as a flight paramedic with AIRMED from 1984-96, while also serving as an adjunct faculty instructor at the University of Utah. He later served as the Utah fire marshal from 2005-2011. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Utah Valley University.
• Nurx, a San Francisco-based company that offers easy online access to medical providers and home delivery of medications and testing kits, is now available in Utah. The telemedicine company’s offerings include access to birth control, home cervical cancer screening, and the HIV prevention medication PrEP. Nurx includes an owned-and-operated pharmacy, a network of partner physicians and a telehealth app. Nurx is now available in 24 states and the District of Columbia.
INVESTMENTS
• Phoenix PharmaLabs Inc., a Woods Cross-based company focused on developing and commercializing a non-addictive opioid for treatment of moderate to severe pain, has announced an equity offering of more than $1.1 million through equity crowdfunding via Netcapital, a funding portal. A combination of accredited and non-accredited investors participated in the offering, which began Oct. 11 and closed March 30. The company said it hopes to start human clinical trials in 15 months.
• Quest Solution Inc., Salt Lake City, has entered into a securities purchase agreement with institutional and accredited investors that result in gross proceeds to Quest of approximately $5 million, before deducting placement agent fees and estimated offering expenses. ThinkEquity, a division of Fordham Financial Management Inc., is acting as sole placement agent for the offering. The net proceeds of the offering are expected to be used for the development of AI and machine learning solutions for school security, smart city and supply chain, as well as for increasing sales and marketing efforts and for general working capital. Quest Solution is a specialty systems integrator focused on field and supply chain mobility as well as a provider of AI monitoring and surveillance solutions. It also is a manufacturer and distributor of consumables, RFID and IoT solutions, and barcoding printers.
LAW
• Parr Brown Gee & Loveless, Salt Lake City, has hired James S. Wright as a shareholder in the real estate, land use and zoning, eminent domain, and construction law sections. Wright previously practiced with the Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman. He has experience in mediating eminent domain and unconstitutional takings claims and is knowledgeable in advising private property owners and governments on applicable property rights laws. His education includes a B.A. from Brigham Young University in 2002.
REAL ESTATE
• Richmond American Homes of Utah Inc., Orem, has debuted Rawlings Meadows, a community at 412 S. 1100 W., Orem. The neighborhood offers a collection of ranch and two-story floor plans with three to seven bedrooms.
RECOGNITIONS
• Century 21 Everest, Cottonwood Heights, has been named the top office in the U.S. and the world in the Century 21 system, based on sales production in 2018. It is the fifth consecutive year for the office to be recognized with the top honor. CEO/owner George Morris has led Everest for 10 years and been a real estate professional for almost 25 years. The franchisee has nearly 1,000 agents across 16 offices throughout Utah and California.
• Neighbor.com, a Lehi-based self-storage app company, has been named one of Fast Company’s 2019 “World Changing Ideas” in the Apps category. Now in its third year, the World Changing Ideas award honors businesses, policies, projects and concepts that offer innovative solutions to the issues facing humanity. A panel of judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 2,000 nominees from around the world. Neighbor’s platform allows homeowners and renters to list empty space for rent, allowing these “hosts” to make up to $15,000 per year off of the extra space in or around their home.
RETAIL
• Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings Inc., Midvale, has appointed Robert K. Julian as chief financial officer, effective April 24. Kevan Talbot will continue to serve as CFO until the effective date of Julian’s appointment and will then assist in the transition of responsibilities to Julian until a date to be determined between Talbot and the company. Julian will oversee all financial aspects of the company, including financial planning and analysis, accounting and financial reporting, tax, internal audit, investor relations, treasury and risk management. He most recently was executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer for Deluxe Entertainment Services Group from July 2017 to June 2018. Prior to that, he was senior vice president and chief financial officer for Callaway Golf Co. from May 2015 to April 2017, and as executive vice president and chief financial officer for Lydall Inc. from October 2012 to May 2015. Previously in his career, Julian held senior financial roles at Rockwell International, Honeywell, Cisco Systems and Fisher Scientific.
SERVICES
• Visible Supply Chain Management, a Salt Lake City-based shipping and fulfillment services company, has hired Naruby Schlenker and Richard Garcia as vice presidents of business development. Schlenker in 2010 co-founded Ordoro, a company that delivers a SaaS e-commerce logistics platform. Garcia has more than a decade of experience in business development and logistics. Before joining Visible, he served as the director of business development at Shippo. Visible Supply Chain Management also has announced that The Cynosure Group is now a minority shareholder and member of the company board of directors. Cynosure is a family-backed investment firm based in Utah. Financial terms were not disclosed.
• LSI Inc., Layton, has appointed Robert Bunnett as chief operating officer. Bunnett is the founder of both Atlas and Accelerate. He also was SM&A senior vice president of operations, senior vice president of business development, and senior vice president of Innovation. His client-facing leadership roles at SM&A included account executive, site director, engagement lead, capture mentor, proposal manager and program manager. He also worked at McDonnell Douglas. Bunnett served on the board of directors of CSPi. LSI provides economic development and sustainment services to U.S. federal, state and local government agencies; and business development, capture, proposal, technical and program services to prime contractors, subcontractors and manufacturers.
• GoReact, an Orem-based video-based skills training platform company, has hired Brent Bingham as chief strategy officer. Bingham has more than 20 years of experience in educational technology, including holding leadership positions at Apple Education, Pearson, Power School and Frontline Education.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Avii, a Lehi-based company offering a platform for tax, audit, advisory, management consulting and compliance practices, has formed an advisory board. The members are Kent Thomas, founder and former CEO of Advanced FCO and former CPA and president of the Utah Association of Certified Public Accountants (UACPA); Jan Newman, partner of SageCreek Partners; former executive vice president at Novell; and founder or significant contributor to KeyLabs, Altiris, Vivint Solar, AviaCode, CentralLogic, AboutTime Technologies, IMSAR and Workfront; Greg Butterfield, founder and managing partner of SageCreek Partners and a serial entrepreneur with a direct role in Vinca, Altiris, Symantec, Omniture, Domo, Vivint Solar, Workfront, Venafi, Cybage and LGCY Power; Jeff Bickel, managing partner at Tanner LLC; Cheryl Snapp Conner, founder and CEO of SnappConner PR; Ken Knapton, senior vice president and chief information officer at Merrick Bank and founder and principal of Rocky Mountain CIO advisory; Galen Murdock, founder and chairman of Veracity Solutions; and Brad Hansen, founder and principal of Hansen Management Consulting and former CEO of GoEngineer.
• Spirent Federal Systems, a Pleasant Grove-based provider of GPS/GNSS test equipment, has announced that Robert Lollini and retired Air Force Col. Bernard Gruber have joined the company board of directors as CoB and Government Security Committee chairman, respectively. Lollini is CEO and president of BioFire Defense LLC. He has held various executive positions in recent years, including serving on the board of directors for Myrexis Inc. and chief financial officer and treasurer of BioFire Diagnostics. Gruber has held several positions in commands focused on navigation in space, including serving as the chief of space and global integrated intelligence at the Pentagon from 2009-2010 and director of the Global Positioning System (GPS) at the Los Angeles Air Force Base from 2010-2013. He is currently the director of precision guidance and advanced programs at Armament Systems at Northrop Grumman. Lollini and Gruber replace Lawrence Garrett and George Emery on the Spirent board.