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CONSTRUCTION
• FFKR Architects, Salt Lake City, has announced several new senior associates and associates. Elizabeth Morgan is senior associate architect. She has been with FFKR for 10 years. Among her projects are the Stueckle Sky Center addition to Boise State University’s football stadium and Davis Center for Performing Arts. She is currently working on the new Provo High School. James Moore is associate architect. He has been with FFKR since 2004. His projects include the Salt Lake Tabernacle seismic upgrade and renovation, BYU-Idaho Center, the BYU-Idaho Manwaring Student Center, and the Provo City Center Temple. Heidi Nielsen is associate marketing manager. She has been with FFKR since 2006. Her projects include Kaysville Library Children’s reading room artwork and Provo City School District bond campaign collateral. She currently is working on the FFKR re-brand, along with the Plaza Hotel Project Pursuit and a signage package for the Miwork Tribal Administration Building. Kylee Weathers is associate interior designer. She joined FFKR in 2011 and worked on the Museum of Natural Curiosity and O.C. Tanner projects. Currently, she is working on a children’s museum and multifamily housing developments. Troy Cook is associate landscape architect. He has been with FFKR since 2014 and has been involved in downtown Provo redevelopment and the Salt Lake City International Airport terminal redevelopment.
GOVERNMENT
• Rick Graham has been selected by Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams and confirmed by the Salt Lake County Council to lead the Office of Township Services as township and metro services executive. Graham has nearly 20 years of experience in public service for Salt Lake City, serving under three mayors as public services director.
HOSPITALITY/FOOD SERVICE
• Hampton Inn by Hilton Salt Lake City — Downtown will have an open house 2-5 p.m. April 19 to showcase a $4 million hotel renovation. Changes were made to all guestrooms and the building’s exterior. The hotel now features elements of the new “forever young initiative” (fyi), designed to provide guests with accommodations that are multi-functional, modern, convenient and comfortable. The project was led by Big Tree Corp. The 158-room property at 425 S. 300 W. is managed by Woodbury Corp.
INVESTMENT
• The Cynosure Group, Salt Lake City, has hired Keith Taylor as a managing director. He will be responsible for sourcing and managing direct private equity investments across a range of industries. Taylor most recently was a managing director at The Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C. He spent nine years with Carlyle’s Global Financial Services Fund Group, helping manage two private equity funds. Before joining Carlyle, Taylor was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, working in Goldman’s Financial Institutions Group, and he worked in a similar capacity for JPMorgan Chase and J.P. Morgan.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTS/RECREATION/SPORTS
• Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort recently got approval from the Utah County Board of Adjustment to expand on property it owns by the resort in American Fork Canyon. Snowbird was granted approval on two conditional use permits. New lifts are planned for Mineral Basin and Mary Ellen Gulch. Snowbird will not begin any lift or gondola construction for at least two years, when a detailed water analysis is performed in key areas of Mary Ellen Gulch. Mineral Basin Express will be upgraded to increase rider capacity. A new lift in Mary Ellen Gulch will provide access to Sunday Saddle, which borders both Mary Ellen Gulch and Mineral Basin. A gondola spanning from Hidden Peak to Mary Ellen Gulch also will be built. The gondola will also support a zip line system. The new lifts and gondola will provide an additional 500 acres, bringing Snowbird’s total to 3,000 acres of skiable terrain.
• A group called Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History has been formed in a partnership among Park City Mountain Resort, Park City Historical Society and Park City Municipal. It will oversee a five-year fundraising plan to help preserve mining sites located at various locations at Park City Mountain Resort. The resort has committed $50,000 in the first year toward the preservation efforts of the historic California-Comstock Mill that will begin this spring as conditions allow. Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History is co-chaired by Sally Elliott, former Summit County Council member and historian; Rory Murphy, local business owner; and Sandra Morrison, executive director of the Park City Historical Society. Details about the effort are at www.SkiMiningHistory.org.
PHILANTHROPY
• Mark Miller Subaru recently presented a check for $34,364.84 to The Children’s Center and joined the center in breaking ground for a revitalized playground for the center’s children and families. The activities followed a “Share the Love” campaign at both Mark Miller Subaru dealerships during the winter. During the annual campaign, Subaru dealers across the country donate $250 for every new Subaru vehicle sold or leased to the customer’s choice of several national and local charities. Over the past eight years of “Share the Love,” Subaru of America has contributed $65 million to charity.
RECOGNITIONS
• Acquisition International magazine has named Elaine Beitler as Overall CEO of the Year in the U.S. Beitler is CEO of Browz, Draper. In a feature article in the April edition, the magazine notes that Beitler has been with Browz for five years and that the company has seen a 300-percent increase in client growth since 2010.
• NoDK earned first place in the first Big Idea Canvas Challenge. NoDK (pronounced “no decay”) is a device to eliminate tooth decay, developed by Dr. Steve Duffin of Oregon. It has been initially tested throughout Ecuador and Ghana. Big Idea Canvas was created by Paul Ahlstrom, founder of Alta Ventures and the Alta Innovation Institute. The inaugural BIC competition garnered submissions from over 12 countries and many states throughout the U.S. Runners-up in the competition were CodeKnack, from Peruvian-born Anasofia Monteblanco; and IntelAgent, from Jason Smith. CodeKnack is an online education platform that teaches children computer science and coding skills. The winners were announced at the Pacific Alliance Venture Capital Conference in Lima, Peru.
• US Speedskating (USS) has announced that eight-time Olympic medalist Apolo Anton Ohno will be inducted into the US Speedskating Hall of Fame, with the induction taking place May 13 at Snow Park Lodge Deer Valley in Park City. His medal count makes Ohno the most decorated American in Winter Olympics history. The three-time Olympian and 12-time U.S. national champion collected more than 30 medals in international competitions over the course of his career.
• The Brent Brown Toyota dealership in Orem recently was recently recognized for being one of the top 10 metro Toyota dealerships in the U.S. for customer retention. The company recently unveiled its newly remodeled 62,106-square-foot, multimillion-dollar dealership facility for increased customer experience to the Orem market. The project involved six months of construction and features a new car delivery area, revamped showroom and modern, updated LED lighting. The exterior received improvements, including 11,000 square feet of aluminum panel finish, LED fixtures to illuminate the parking lot and a new artificial rockwork display modeling the arches of southern Utah.
• Impartner, South Jordan, has earned a Best Portal Technology award in the 2016 Visionary Spotlight Awards from ChannelVision Magazine and Beka Business Media Inc. The awards recognize excellence in products, services and deployments across a broad range of communications technology categories. Impartner won for its flagship solution, Impartner PRM, launched last July.
• DoTerra International LLC, Pleasant Grove, is ranked 10th among the top 250 midsize employers nationally in a ranking of “America’s Best Employers” by Forbes magazine. The company was ranked No. 1 in the packaged goods category, No. 1 enterprise in the state of Utah, No. 1 employer in the mountain states area, and as the No. 2 company in the western United States. Companies on the Forbes lists of best midsize and large employers were chosen based on an independent survey among a sample of 30,000 American employees working for large or midsize companies or institutions. The survey was conducted on companies from all industry sectors employing more than 1,000 workers in the United States. A secondary dimension to the assessment involved asking employees to mention good or bad employers in sectors and industries beside their own.
RETAIL
• The Overstock.com Inc. board of directors has named Mitch Edwards as acting chief executive officer. The appointment follows the announcement by company founder Patrick M. Byrne that he will take an indefinite medical leave of absence. Byrne had recommended Edwards as his successor. Edwards was named senior vice president and general counsel in August 2015. Prior to Overstock.com, Edwards was chief financial officer and general counsel of BitTorrent Inc., Razer Inc. and Skullcandy Inc. He started his career as a mergers and acquisitions and corporate securities lawyer at Shearman & Sterling in New York and San Francisco; was a partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison in Los Angeles; and worked at the White House and U.S. Supreme Court. His education includes an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University. Byrne said in his medical leave announcement that it is unknown if he will return to work. He has Stage IV Hepatitis C, contracted overseas in 1984.
SCHOLARSHIPS
• The Wise Co., Salt Lake City, plans to hand out a total of $3,000 to three top scholars this spring. The funds are part of the company’s bi-annual scholarship program. Applicants will be asked to submit a 600-to-800-word essay, along with their written application, that answers this prompt: “What social impact would a major failure of the aging U.S. power grid have on our country? What can the average American do to better prepare for such a potential catastrophe?” The application deadline is June 1. Details are available at http://www.wisefoodstorage.com/scholarship.