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COMMUNICATIONS
• Sorenson, a Salt Lake City-based provider of language services and accessible communication for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, has named Lance Pickett as chief relationship officer. Pickett is the first deaf executive to serve in the company’s C-suite since the company’s founding 20 years ago. He began his career with Sorenson as a trainer, installing videophone equipment in customers’ homes, then rapidly advanced to director of technical support for Sorenson relay service. After 13 years, he was promoted to marketing vice president. Pickett is a graduate of Utah Valley University with a bachelor’s degree in multimedia communications technology.
CONSTRUCTION
• Hamlet Homes, Salt Lake City, has named Tami Ostmark to its ownership team, making her the first female owner. The company builds townhomes and single-family homes in Northern Utah. Since its founding in 1995, Hamlet has built over 4,000 homes in 65 communities.
CORPORATE
• Pathlight Capital LP, based in Boston, has announced it is serving as the administrative agent on the recently funded $355 million senior secured credit facility for iFIT Health & Fitness Inc., a Logan-based fitness and interactive content and equipment company. Proceeds from the facility will be used to invest in focused growth initiatives, efficiency measures and elevate the iFIT member experience.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• The Economic Development Corporation of Utah has hired Sara Adelman as senior manager of strategic marketing and Gerritt Vander Linden for an internship supporting the executive team and the Center for Economic Opportunity & Belonging. Adelman has more than 10 years of experience in marketing and communications across the nonprofit, government and IT sectors, most recently leading the content marketing strategy at Cityworks, a Trimble Company. Adelman will succeed Michael O’Malley, who is retiring from economic development July 1. Vander Linden is studying economics and political science at the University of Utah. EDCUtah said that Matt Hilburn, vice president of research and marketing, has left the organization to launch a new research and analytics consulting business.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Salt Lake City is No. 6 on a list of “2022’s Most Sustainable Cities,” compiled by LawnStarter. The top-ranked city is San Francisco. The No. 194 city is Peoria, Arizona. Details are at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/most-sustainable-cities/.
• Daggett County tops a list of the “Most Paycheck-Friendly Places in Utah,” compiled by SmartAsset. It measured the income to cost of living ratio, as well as the unemployment rate, income growth and tax rates in each county. Daggett County was followed, in order, by Wasatch, Summit, Morgan, Davis, Utah, Salt Lake, Tooele, Millard and Weber counties. Details are at https://smartasset.com/taxes/utah-paycheck-calculator#utah.
• The average Utahn is willing to drive up to 446 miles to get a good deal on a used car, according to a survey by Quantrell Subaru. Used-car buyers in Alaska are willing to drive 722 miles, while those in Vermont are prepared to drive 286 miles. The longest drive in the lower 48 states is in New Mexico, at 700 miles.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Ameritech College of Healthcare, Salt Lake City, has changed its name to Joyce University of Nursing and Health Sciences. Founded in 1979, the university said the new name “reflects the institution’s mission, values and the excellence of its people.” The university also announced it was granted institutional accreditation by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. That followed a multi-year review process that included several site visits and an analysis of the university’s faculty, curriculum, facility and programs.
• Western Governors University, Salt Lake City, and the Canyons School District have announced a partnership to encourage more education support professionals to pursue teaching credentials and careers as teachers. The benefits extend to all district employees and include fee waivers and exclusive scholarship opportunities. WGU has designated $50,000 in Pathway to Teaching Scholarship funds. Scholarships are valued up to $5,000 per award and are applicable to any approved WGU bachelor’s or master’s degree program. As many as 10 district employees will be selected to receive that scholarship. Also, Canyons’ employees are eligible to apply for the $2,500 WGU K-12 Partner Scholarship.
ENERGY
• Q Hydrogen, a Park City-based private company that has developed technology for converting water into clean, efficient and renewable hydrogen for energy and electricity production across the transportation and industry sectors, gas hired Gary Morris as chief corporate development officer. Morris will be directly involved in implementing and growing Q Hydrogen’s technology within multiple industries. Morris’ experience includes serving in leadership roles for several energy companies, including Tervita, Paradigm Energy Partners and Halliburton, for 31 years. He also continues to serve as a senior advisor to Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., an energy industry investment bank.
ENVIRONMENT
• Bowman Consulting Group Ltd., a Virginia-based engineering services firm, has partnered with Transportation Energy Partners and dozens of public and private partners on “Drive Clean Rural USA,” a U.S. Department of Energy-funded pilot project to bring alternative fuel sources, like hydrogen, electric and more, to rural communities. “Drive Clean Rural USA” is an eight-state pilot project, with Utah participating, funded by the DOE and managed by the nonprofits TEP and Clean Fuels Ohio. The project brings together rural government leaders, business owners, fleet managers, farmers and industry experts to accelerate rural communities’ access to clean fuel transportation solutions. Participating county government and private fleet partners will receive free technical assistance from Clean Cities coalitions and the project’s industry partners. Drive Clean Rural USA is a three-phase project that will run through June 2024.
EXPANSIONS
• MarketStar, an Ogden-based company focused on outsourced sales and B2B revenue acceleration, has secured a location in Dublin, Ireland, for its EMEA headquarters. The company said it will create 300 jobs there over the next three years, bringing its Dublin-based team to 500 people by 2025. In 2019, MarketStar acquired Product2Market, an Irish inside sales and sales development agency based in Dublin. Founded in 1988, MarketStar employs more than 1,750 employees worldwide.
HEALTHCARE
• Lipocine Inc., a Salt Lake City-based biopharmaceutical company focused on neuroendocrine and metabolic disorders, has appointed Jill M. Jene and Dr. Spyros Papapetropoulos to its board of directors. Jene has more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical strategy, leadership and deal-making experience. She is the founder and principal of Jene Advisors, a biopharmaceutical advisory firm. Jene was the vice president and head of corporate development, strategy, portfolio planning and alliance management at Adamas until the company was sold to Supernus in November 2021. Before joining Adamas, Jene was vice president of business development for PDL; led business development at twoXAR pharmaceuticals; led more than 36 transactions at Depomed (now Assertio); and held positions at Baxter International, the 3M Co. and Cell Genesys. Papapetropoulos is a biopharmaceutical executive, neuroscientist and neurodegenerative disease clinician. He is currently chief medical officer at Vigil Neurosciences Inc. Prior to Vigil, he served as senior vice president and head of development at Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc.; CEO at SwanBio Therapeutics; head of research and development and chief medical officer at Cavion; and held senior/executive positions at Biogen Inc., Allergan plc, Pfizer Inc., and Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc.
• Sera Prognostics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company focused on improving maternal and neonatal health by providing innovative pregnancy biomarker information to doctors and patients, has named Dr. Jane F. Barlow to its board of directors. Barlow has served as CEO of Jane Barlow & Associates LLC, a consulting firm focused on value-based health care services and executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Real Endpoints, a data, analytics and advisory firm, since January 2017. She previously served as associate chief medical officer at CVS Health, chief medical officer of CVS Health’s Government Services arm, and vice president of clinical innovation at Medco Health Solutions. She currently serves on the board of directors of ContraFect Corp., Viracta Therapeutics Inc. and Point Health; the advisory board of Refactor Health; and the Biotech Advisory Board of Pictet Asset Management. Barlow previously served on the boards of directors of Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc., Therapeutics MD Inc. and SilverScript Insurance Co.
• BlueWind Medical Ltd., a company developing a device for treatment of overactive bladder, has appointed Charles F. Cargile as chief financial officer. The company’s main offices are in Park City and Israel. Cargile has more than 25 years of public company executive experience, including 16 years as chief financial officer of Newport Corp, four years as CEO and chairman of the board of Sunworks Inc., and chief financial officer of The Tattooed Chef. Cargile has also served on the boards of directors of four public companies, with experience on various committees.
INVESTMENTS
• Filevine, a Salt Lake City-based legal work platform, has raised $108 million in a Series D funding round led by StepStone Group, with additional funding from Golub Capital. Signal Peak Ventures and Meritech Capital, repeat investors in Filevine, also participated in the round. Filevine said the funding will help power its expansion more deeply into big law, insurance defense, corporate, governmental, and nonprofit legal counsel teams. Filevine also said it recently made several internal promotions, including Sean Dowdle to executive vice president of sales, Alex Pearson to general counsel, Michael Anderson to senior vice president of product strategy, Cain Elliott to head legal futurist, and co-founder Nate Morris to chief culture officer.
• PassiveLogic, a Salt Lake City-based company offering an autonomous building platform, has secured $15 million from Brookfield Growth, the growth technology investment arm of Brookfield. The capital will support the development of a first-of-its-kind autonomous buildings platform that can be used to retrofit buildings of all shapes and sizes, and pave the way for the next 30 years of energy efficiency, PassiveLogic said.
LAW
• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has hired Christine Durham for the firm’s litigation department as senior of counsel in its Salt Lake City office. Durham’s experience includes 35 years of service as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court. With her appointment by Gov. Scott M. Matheson in 1982, she became the first woman to serve on the Utah Supreme Court and later became the court’s first woman chief justice. She also served at the district court level. Since 2018, she was an attorney at Zimmerman Booher, an appellate law firm in Salt Lake City.
• Dorsey & Whitney LLP has expanded its intellectual property practice in Salt Lake City with the addition of Richard Green as of counsel. Green is a registered patent attorney with experience helping intellectual property owners protect and commercialize their innovations. He counsels inventors regarding patentability and IP strategy, and prepares and prosecutes patent applications for life sciences and chemical technologies. Before joining Dorsey, Green was of counsel with Stoel Rives in Salt Lake City. His education includes a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Utah and a J.D. from the UofU’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.
• Buchalter has hired four attorneys in Salt Lake City. Jason Croft has joined the firm as a shareholder and global chair of the Patent Procurement and Strategy Practice group. Croft manages patent-related matters for public and private companies. R. Chad Pugh has joined as a shareholder and member of the Litigation Practice group. Pugh represents clients in commercial litigation matters, with an emphasis in consumer financial services, securities and real property matters. Melanie Marcheschi has joined the firm as a member of the Real Estate Practice. Marcheschi’s expertise includes commercial acquisitions; dispositions; leasing; and title, survey and environmental due diligence in connection with those transactions. She represents buyers, sellers, property owners, tenants, and developers. Jake Barney has joined as a member of the Litigation Practice group. Barney has represented clients in litigation at both the trial and appellate court levels. His practice includes professional liability, commercial contracts, real estate matters, trade secrets, construction, shareholder/member disputes, and other complex business matters.
MILESTONES
• Nature’s Sunshine Products Inc., a Lehi-based natural health and wellness supplement products company, is marking 50 years in business. It was founded in April of 1972 by Gene and Kristine Hughes and now markets and distributes nutritional and personal care products in more than 40 countries.
• Airbnb has announced that in 2021, older adult hosts (age 60 or older) in Utah earned approximately $40 million through hosting. The typical income for those hosts was more than $13,000, or nearly 30 percent of the median retirement income for those 65 and older.
PHILANTHROPY
• Nomi Health, an Orem-based direct healthcare company, has announced it will sponsor $1 million in therapy and mental healthcare services for frontline healthcare workers in several states. The program will launch May 1 in Utah, Florida and Texas, and on June 1 in Colorado, Hawaii and Nebraska. Healthcare workers will have access to no-cost therapy and mental health services through Tava Health’s online platform. Workers in frontline care professions will be eligible to receive up to 12 free sessions per person.
• USANA, Salt Lake City, has donated $50,000 in aid to help feed Ukrainian refugees who have crossed into Poland and Romania, along with money for food purchases for those still living in Ukraine. The donation is through an emergency grant request from Children’s Hunger Fund. The money will be split into two parts. The first $30,000 will purchase food for Ukrainian refugees crossing into Romania and, if circumstances permit, food for individuals still in Ukraine who need aid. It will provide resources for 1,500-2,000 refugees. The remaining $20,000 will purchase $10,000 in food for refugees crossing into Poland, with the other $10,000 for food for Slavic Gospel Association pastors in Ukraine who continue to help families still living in the country. An estimated 1,400-1,600 refugees and displaced people will be helped.
REAL ESTATE
• Investment Property Exchange Services Inc., Salt Lake City, has hired Ashleigh Price as vice president of national accounts for its Mountain team. Her responsibilities will include educating and consulting with clients and tax, legal and real estate professionals to structure 1031 tax-deferred exchanges at the company’s Utah headquarters and throughout the state. Price has over 10 years of 1031 Exchange, CRE, property management wealth management and instructional experience.
• Two multifamily properties totaling 100 units have been sold by The Ritchie Group and Work Horse Properties to InTrust Property Group for an undisclosed amount. Northridge South Ogden, 1290 E. 5850 S., Ogden, is a fully renovated, 52-unit property built in 1973 with additional units added in 2018. Northridge Roy, 5489 S. 2350 W., Roy, is a 48-unit property built in 1968 and renovated in 2021. The sales were arranged by CBRE. Multifamily investment brokers Eli Mills and Patrick Bodnar represented the sellers, and CBRE’s debt and structured financing broker, Doug Birrell, secured the financing for the buyers.
• Brandless, an omnichannel commerce platform, has leased the entire top floor of the Mountain Tech II building in Lindon. The announcement was made by Colliers. Brandon Fugal of Colliers represented Brandless in securing the 25,000-square-foot Class A space. Financial terms were not disclosed.
• Ensign Engineering & Land Surveying has leased 18,534 square feet at 45 W. Sego Lily Drive, Sandy, for its headquarters. The lease and expansion was announced by Colliers. Travis Yates, vice president, and Vic Galanis, executive vice president, represented Ensign in the headquarters expansion. Financial terms were not disclosed.
RECOGNITIONS
• Visit Salt Lake, a private, nonprofit corporation promoting Salt Lake as a convention and travel destination, has named Clay Partain, managing director of Sports Salt Lake, as recipient of the 16th annual Dianne Nelson Binger Sales Leadership Award. The award is presented to VSL’s top salesperson in honor of Dianne Binger, a tireless advocate for Salt Lake and the state for 18 years. Since being hired in the director of sports sales in 2014, Partain booked just shy of 98,000 room nights in 2021, cared for existing clients, forged relationships with 112 new potential clients, hosted 13 site inspections, conducted two sales missions, attended four tradeshows, and served on the national Sports ETA board of directors. Partain also assumed leadership of Sports Salt Lake, a new division of Visit Salt Lake.
• Raj Ramanan, chief operating officer at Scorpion, a Lehi-based company providing technologies and services for local businesses, has been named among five winners of the “2022 Localogy Leaders Award.” Localogy is a trade association focused on building and growing the U.S. local marketplace for both its members and local and small-business companies who depend on them. The awards program recognizes executives driving innovation in their organizations, client communities and the marketplace at large.
• Aktify, a Lehi-based company whose artificial intelligence is designed to sales and marketing teams identify customer intent and drive revenue, has been named a winner in the Business Intelligence Group’s Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards program. The award recognizes Aktify’s achievements in collective intelligence and natural language understanding.
• PatientBond, a Salt Lake City-based company offering patient engagement software-as-a-service, has been named to a list of “The Americas’ Fastest-Growing Companies 2022,” compiled by The Financial Times and Statista Inc. It is the third consecutive year for PatientBond to achieve the recognition.
RECREATION
• Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club, St. George, recently unveiled its new David McLay Kidd-designed golf course to members and dignitaries. During the 17-month renovation project, he redesigned the club’s former Johnny Miller and Fred Bliss-designed course, which opened for play in 1996. He was assisted on the Entranda project by Troon’s design, development and agronomy team. The new course plays to a par of 71 and measures 7,065 yards from the tips, an increase of 20 yards from the previous design.
• The Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation has announced that the 2022 Utah Outdoor Recreation Summit will take place Sept. 12-13 at the DeJoria Center in Kamas. The event’s theme is “Outdoors Forward.” Details are at utahoutdoorsummit.com.
RETAIL
• The Gateway in Salt Lake City is adding two tenants: Italian Graffiti and Jade Furnish & Design. The 5,000-square-foot Italian Graffiti is slated for a summer opening at 156 S. 400 W. It will offer a contemporary interpretation of classic Italian fare and hand-crafted family recipes from chef-partner Marc Marrone’s Italian-influenced upbringing in New York City. The 5,000 square-foot Jade Furnish & Design will open in August at 79 S. Rio Grande. The showroom will feature in-house furniture and decor options with products readily available to suit all styles and budgets.
TECHNOLOGY
• Xevant, a Lehi-based company offering automated data analytics for pharmacy benefit professionals, has added five management team members: Ashwin Patel, senior vice president of data; Gerrit Lemmen, vice president of rebates; Greg Abram, vice president of sales; Mike Simmons, vice president of product management; and Sahily Paoline, clinical director. Patel has 20 years of leadership experience in data warehousing and business intelligence practices within the healthcare sector. Lemmen is an experienced leader in the PBM, specialty and formulary rebate markets. He previously led commercial rebate operations teams at Magellan Rx Management. Abram has more than 12 years of experience in the PBM and healthcare markets. Prior to Xevant, he served in multiple leadership and growth positions with Myriad Genetics, Navitus Health Solutions and others. Simmons has 18 years of experience in product management and launch. Paoline is a licensed pharmacist and has more than 20 years of experience delivering clinical care, building and leading organizations, and staffing and motivating teams in the pharmaceutical and digital health industries.