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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
• The Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board, at its April meeting, approved a cash rebate film production incentive for Belly of the Beast LLC for its documentary feature “Belly of the Beast,” which focuses on women “advocating for reproductive justice.” The rebate is for up to $68,260. The production is expected to spend $341,000 in Utah. Principal photography July 9-20, with post-production July 20-Dec. 31. The director is Erika Cohn. Producers are Cohn and Angela Tucker.
• Loveland Living Planet Aquarium has acquired “The Claw,” a 165-foot-tall structure that will crown the nonprofit’s planned nine-acre Science Learning Campus expansion. The structure was used as the stage for U2’s “360-Degree” tour from 2009-2011, traveling to 30 countries. One of two remaining structures, this will be the only “Claw” in the United States. The aquarium is planning a variety of events to take place in the plaza area underneath the structure. The plaza will feature 7,000-seat and 350-seat outdoor venues.
BANKING
• People’s Intermountain Bank, American Fork, has promoted Blaine Crosby to vice president and data officer and Josh Everton to vice president and chief information officer. Crosby has been with the bank for 28 years as a core programmer, systems administrator and overseer of the technology department. Everton has been with the bank for 11 years and has been instrumental in developing the different delivery channels of the bank, including online and mobile banking, as well as being key contributor in the bank’s mergers and acquisitions.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• The Weber State University Board of Trustees has approved several new degrees that will help students fill positions in engineering and technology fields. Trustees have approved new master’s degrees in computer science and electrical engineering and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering, manufacturing systems engineering and Spanish translation. These are the first degrees approved by the board since the Utah Legislature changed the degree-approval process in 2017. WSU has offered a four-year engineering degree since 2010. In that time, the number of students majoring in electrical engineering has grown to 186 with 108 graduates, of those 102 are working in Utah with 49 at Hill Air Force Base. The new courses will be offered starting in the fall semester 2018. These new master’s degrees bring a total of 15 graduate degrees to Weber State University for a total of more than 225 degree programs and certificates.
• Gov. Gary Herbert and Scott Anderson, Zions Bank president and chief executive officer, recently visited Mary Jackson Elementary School in Salt Lake City to teach children about financial basics in honor of “Utah’s Teach Children to Save Day.” The school’s fifth-graders learned how to make wise spending and savings choices from Herbert and Anderson and engaged in hands-on activities about spending choices and saving. Throughout the month, Zions Bank is sending more than 100 bankers into schools to teach nearly 7,000 K-12 students their financial ABCs.
HEALTHCARE
• Molina Healthcare has appointed Brandon Hendrickson as plan president overseeing Molina Healthcare of Utah and Molina Healthcare of Idaho. He will focus on ensuring the meeting and exceeding of performance targets for the company’s Utah plan, while ensuring a successful launch of the new ID Medicaid Medicare Coordinated Plan (MMCP). Hendrickson was vice president of network management and operations at Molina Healthcare of Utah from 2013-2017 and then chief operating officer. Most recently, he served as vice president of Molina’s Medicare line of business overseeing the western region for the company. Before Molina, he was a contracting executive at Humana and Altius Health plans, both in Utah. Hendrickson received his MBA from Brigham Young University and received his bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Utah.
• Wasatch Recovery Treatment Center (WRTC), a Cottonwood Heights-based substance abuse residential rehabilitation treatment center, recently had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion and grand opening of a new outpatient building at 7869 S. 700 E., Sandy, that will provide additional structured living space for clients attending treatment. The new building brings a total of four new group rooms and a yoga studio to the center.
LAW
• Michael Best Strategies has hired Chase Everton and Derek E. Brown as principals in its Utah office. They previously had their own firm, Utah Policy Advocates, a Utah-based public relations, media and government strategy firm. Everton also has experience as a government relations professional in Utah. He served as a legislative staffer in the Utah Senate, political radio show producer, trade association lobbyist, political director for the Utah Republican Party, and corporate lobbyist managing multi-state legislative efforts. Brown, an attorney who practiced constitutional and appellate law with the Washington D.C. office of Sidley & Austin, has served as a member of the Utah House of Representatives, where he served in roles such as vice chairman of the House Rules Committee. He later served as deputy chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, which included managing all of Lee’s offices in Utah. Brown also served as vice president of government relations and strategy for 1-800 CONTACTS, and served as general counsel in Washington, D.C., for U.S. Sen. Robert F. Bennett.
MEDIA/MARKETING
• McKinnon-Mulherin, a Salt Lake City-based communication firm, has hired Ted Twinting as an account manager. Twinting has more than five years of development and fundraising experience in the nonprofit sector.
PHILANTHROPY
• Mountain America Credit Union, West Jordan, has presented $72,600 to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. The money was raised by the credit union donating $50 for every three-point basket made by the Utah Jazz and the Salt Lake City Stars during the 2017-18 season, with an additional $50 donation for every game-changing shot. Over the past five years, Mountain America has donated over $300,000 to Huntsman Cancer Foundation.
• Smithfield Foods Inc. joined forces with Smith’s Food and Drug to donate more than 35,000 pounds of protein to Utah Food Bank. Smithfield’s contribution was part of the company’s 2018 Helping Hungry Homes donation tour. Now in the program’s 10th year, Helping Hungry Homes is Smithfield’s hunger-relief initiative focused on alleviating hunger and helping Americans become more food secure. The donation is equivalent to more than 143,000 servings. Since the program’s inception in 2008, Smithfield has provided more than 100 million servings of protein to food banks, disaster relief efforts and community outreach programs nationwide.
• Architecturally significant chairs refurbished by Weber State University interior design students were recently auctioned at the Copper Nickel in Ogden during the seventh annual Charitable Chair Event. Proceeds will benefit Catholic Community Services of Northern Utah. Students from five WSU interior design courses participated by designing or refurbishing 24 chairs of historical influence or significance. As part of the process, students solicited community sponsors for services, products and funds to aid in the restorations.
REAL ESTATE
• Primary Residential Mortgage Inc. (PRMI), Salt Lake City, has promoted Darryl Lee to executive vice president and chief legal officer. Prior to joining PRMI in-house and as its senior vice president and general counsel in 2015, Lee represented PRMI as its outside general counsel for 15 years. Lee has been practicing law for 38 years. Previously, he practiced as an attorney with a national law firm, first in its Washington, D.C., office and then in its San Francisco office. Later, he was associate general counsel for Thiokol Corp. and then a partner with two Salt Lake City law firms before coming to PRMI.
RECOGNITIONS
• Mountain America Credit Union, West Jordan, is ranked No. 20 among large companies and Castle & Cooke Mortgage, Draper, is ranked No. 8 among small and medium-sized companies in Fortune’s 2018 Best Workplaces in Financial Services & Insurance. The rankings considered input from more than 76,000 employees in the financial services and insurance sectors. Employees were evaluated on more than 50 elements of their experiences on the job, including employee pride in the organization’s community impact, belief that their work makes a difference, and feeling their work has special meaning.
• Qualtrics, an experience management company, has been selected as a finalist for “Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards” for its “5 for the Fight” campaign to accelerate funding for cancer research. The awards honors businesses, policies, projects and concepts that offer innovative solutions to the issues facing humanity. The campaign invites everyone to donate $5 to the fight against cancer in honor of someone who has been touched by the disease.
• Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in the U.S., has named Zions Bank on its list of “BCA 10: Best Businesses partnering with the Arts in America” for 2018. The Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), a division of Americans for the Arts, will present awards Oct. 2 in New York City to 10 U.S. companies for their commitment to the arts through grants, local partnerships, volunteer programs, matching gifts, sponsorships and board membership.
RESTAURANTS
• Alamexo Mexican Kitchen, Salt Lake City, has named Dan Creagh as manager of the downtown Salt Lake City restaurant at 268 S. State St. He previously worked at restaurants in Miami and North Carolina, with cuisine ranging from oven-fired pizza to upscale Asian fusion. He relocated to Utah in 2017.
RETAIL
• Mountain West Commercial Real Estate has announced that Target will open a small-format store at 1290. N. State St., Provo, in the Riverside Plaza shopping center. To open later this year, the 26,100-square-foot store will be Target’s first small-format store in Utah. MW retail specialists Garrett Blomquist and Ben Brown represented the landlord in the transaction.
RURAL UTAH
• The Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board, at its April meeting, endorsed $50,000 Rural Fast Track grants for three companies. Genco Mine Service, in Huntington in Emery County was endorsed for a grant tied to building a new warehouse to house inventory and increase production space. The $105,600 project is expected to result in two new full-time positions. Grimshaw Drilling, in Enoch in Iron County, was endorsed for a grant to help the company purchase equipment, including a backhoe, two flatbed trailers, a semi-truck, front-end loader, two excavators and a water truck. The $1.13 million project is expected to result in one new full-time position. Westside Woodworks, of Moab in Grand County, was endorsed for a grant tied to creating a 1,000-square-foot addition to the current woodshop and buying a new dust collection system, an air compressor, a wide belt sander and three materials handling carts. The $120,476 project is expected to result in two new full-time positions. The grants had been approved by the Rural Development Partnership Board.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• HireVue, Salt Lake City, has appointed Michelle Vargas as senior vice president of human resources. She will direct the continuing development of long-term HR strategies and infrastructure to support HireVue’s growth and international expansion. Vargas has 25 years of experience in human resources management, most recently serving as the vice president of HR consulting at NFP. She also held senior roles with AutoPoint and iBAHN.
TRANSPORTATION
• Nikola Motor Co., Salt Lake City, has hired Jesse Schneider as vice president of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. Schneider is an automotive industry veteran who has spent most of his career working for BMW and Mercedes-Benz. He has spent nearly 20 years in vehicle electrification, fuel cells, electric and hydrogen infrastructure and tanks at automakers in Germany, the United States and China. Schneider also organized the worldwide standardization for electric and fuel cell vehicle infrastructure.