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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT

• Ancestry, a Lehi-based company focused on family history and consumer genomics, has appointed Gene Alston as an independent member of its board of directors. Alston has more than 20 years of business leadership experience and currently is vice president of commerce business and operations at Facebook, where he is responsible for all strategy and teams for commerce products across Facebook’s family of apps, revenue and client satisfaction globally. Prior to his current role, he led global marketing partnerships at Facebook. Before Facebook, Alston was at Pinterest, Groupon and PayPal, where he led teams and was responsible for business development, partnerships, acquisitions and international expansion.

 

ASSOCIATIONS

• NACM Business Credit Services, Salt Lake City, has named Kelly Passey, Plastic Specialties, as the chairperson of its board of directors. Other new board officers are Tina Hatfield, Mountainland Supply, vice chairperson; and Stephanie Johnson, Gritton & Associates, as treasurer. Newly elected board members are Hatfield and Stephanie Johnson, Gritton & Associates. NACM Business Credit Services is an affiliate of The National Association of Credit Management (NACM) and is an advocate for business credit and financial management professionals.

 

BANKING

• Bank of Utah, Ogden, has hired Don Nielsen and Rick Northcott as mortgage loan officers. Nielsen will work at City Creek Bank Center, 50 S. 200 E., Salt Lake City. For nearly 20 years, Nielsen served as director of servicing risk management and vice president of mortgage servicing for Select Portfolio Servicing, where he managed multiple departments including mortgage advance control, investor accounting and assignment completion. He also worked for more than 10 years as vice president of operations and systems for American Express Centurion Bank in Salt Lake City. A Certified Public Accountant, Nielsen holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, a Master of Science in Management Information Systems from the John M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Weber State University. Northcott, working at the branch at 144 S. State St., Lindon, has more than seven years of customer service and sales experience. Most recently, he worked for Paramount Residential Mortgage Group on the Driggs Mortgage Team.

 

CONSTRUCTION

• Pentalon Construction, Salt Lake City, has promoted Kristin Winter to estimator. She is responsible for operating and maintaining proficiency in cost estimating and project award. Winter started her career with Pentalon two years ago as estimating assistant, where she gained instruction and discipline in conducting company bids, executing presentations and proposals for clients, and supporting all aspects of subcontractor and supplier estimating and bidding processes.

 

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 74 on a list of 2021’s “best cities for urban gardening,” compiled by LawnStarter. It compared the 150 largest U.S. cities across 12 factors, including the average amount of sunshine between spring and fall, community-garden access and the availability of regional gardening clubs. On a breakout list, Salt Lake City was No. 5 for having the most community gardens per 100,000 residents. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, led the overall rankings. Anchorage, Alaska, was No. 150. Details are at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-cities-urban-gardening/.

 

• Utah is ranked No. 23 on a list of “most catfished states” in 2020, compiled by SocialCatfish.com. It used data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the FTC. In Utah, 296 victims lost more than $6 million to romance scammers in 2020. Nationally, victims lost $304 million, up from $201 million in 2019. The most-targeted state was California, with 3,110 victims losing $120 million. Wyoming was the least-targeted, with 44 victims losing $377,214.

 

GOVERNMENT

• The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office has announced that Joseph Tarver will assume the leadership role of the Investigations Division as the new chief of investigations. Tarver has served as assistant chief and deputy chief in the Murray City Police Department. Tarver began his law enforcement career as a patrol officer with Murray PD in 1984. He worked his way up through the organization, serving as a detective, a sergeant and a lieutenant until 2014 when he was promoted to deputy chief.

 

HEALTHCARE

• Sera Prognostics, a Salt Lake City-based company focused on improving maternal and neonatal health by providing innovative pregnancy biomarker information to doctors and patients, has appointed Benjamin G. Jackson as general counsel. For the past 15 years, Jackson has represented Myriad Genetics Inc., beginning as a law clerk initially focusing on intellectual property, and ultimately advancing to become general counsel of a global molecular diagnostics enterprise. He has written and presented extensively in the area of molecular diagnostics intellectual property, while also possessing experience in a wide range of legal matters, including patent and commercial litigation, M&A transactions, interactions with government and private payers, corporate legal policies and contracting.

 

• Valley Behavioral Health has officially opened a new Adult Autism Center of Lifetime Learning, the first of its kind in Utah, at 6232 S. 900 E., Murray. It offers training and educational experiences in the areas of differentiated academics; library; culinary; agriculture; arts and crafts; fitness; home living; vocation; social and leisure; and barber, medical and dental visits.

 

• Owlet Baby Care Inc., a Lehi-based company offering a nursery ecosystem for parents, has named Kate Scolnick as chief financial officer and Laura Durr joins as a new member of the company’s board of directors. Scolnick has three decades of global financial management experience. She previously served as vice president of finance at enterprise cloud software company Anaplan, and served in previous positions at Seagate Technology, Intel, McAfee and EMC. In addition to joining the company board, Durr will lead the audit committee. She previously served as executive vice president and CFO of Polycom and held various other financial leadership roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lucent Technologies and International Network Services. Durr currently serves on the board of directors at Netgear and Xperi Holding Corp.

 

HOSPITALITY

• Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City has appointed Jarrod Finley as the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. Finley has more than 20 years of hospitality experience, most recently serving as vice president of sales for the San Diego Tourism Authority. He also has held sales and marketing leadership positions at the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, Anaheim Marriott, and Marriott International’s U.S. Account Sales team. Attached to the Salt Palace Convention Center, the 25-floor, 700-room convention hotel is scheduled to open in 2022 and is designed for large-scale meetings and conventions and will have 60,000 square feet of meeting space.

 

MANUFACTURING

• Spectrum Solutions LLC, a Salt Lake City-based life science and medical device manufacturing company, has named David J. Vigerust as chief scientific officer. Vigerust has founded, led as CEO and previously served as chief scientific officer for a number of progressive life science and advanced biotech companies. In addition to his new role at Spectrum, he also holds teaching positions at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the Department of Neurological Surgery as well as the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy. In his career, he has developed several novel molecular diagnostic assays for the prediction of cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetes, infectious disease and cancer.

 

NONPROFITS

• Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit that raises funds for 170 children’s hospitals in the U.S. and Canada, has hired Frances Fu as chief financial officer. Fu will oversee the organization’s national financial teams, as well as its business intelligence and data programs. Fu most recently served as CFO of venture capital firm RET Ventures. She simultaneously worked as a management consultant, providing operational, financial and strategic planning support for startup and small businesses. Her experience also includes serving as president of ProCure Proton Therapy Center, a cancer treatment facility focused on proton radiation therapy. During her tenure with ProCure, she co-founded the ProCure Cancer Foundation, a company-supported nonprofit developed to assist cancer patients. Fu also served as a healthcare investment banker with Banc of America Securities in New York and worked at Ernst & Young LLP prior to that.

 

PHILANTHROPY

• Mountain America Credit Union and the Utah Jazz have announced a $5,000 donation to Utah Girls Love You (UGLY) as part of the “Pass It Along” program. Each season, five charities are selected for a $5,000 donation. The program has donated $200,000 to 40 local charities. UGLY helps struggling families bridge the gap by providing resources that go beyond government assistance.

 

• Solight Design, a company producing rugged, portable, origami-inspired solar lights, has announced a partnership with NavajoStrong, a nonprofit dedicated to getting essential supplies to communities on the Navajo Reservation. Solight is donating lights to the reservation via its “Give a Light” program. Previously, the program supplied humanitarian aid for regions in need, including Haiti, Puerto Rico, The Florida Keys, Ghana, Ecuador, Miami and more after natural disasters left families powerless and in the dark. Among the 55,000 homes located on the Navajo Reservation, about 15,000 households do not have electricity.

 

• Comcast Corp. has announced a $1 billion commitment over the next 10 years to reach 50 million low-income Americans with tools and resources to succeed in a digital world. The commitment will include investments in several areas, including additional support for the Lift Zone initiative, which establishes Wi-Fi-connected safe spaces in 35 community centers in Utah and more than 1,000 community centers nationwide for students and adults by the end of 2021; new laptop and computer donations; grants for nonprofit community organizations to create opportunities for low-income Utahns, particularly in media, technology and entrepreneurship; and continued investment in the company’s Internet Essentials program, which has connected up 160,000 people throughout Utah to the Internet.

 

RECOGNITIONS

• The Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce, at its recent awards gala in Ogden, recognized the winners and recipients of its annual awards. The Large Business of the Year is Northrop Grumman. Other finalists were EideBailly and Ogden Clinic. The Small Business of the Year is The Monarch. Other finalists were Huntsville Square and Mountain Donuts. The Chairperson of the Year is Jodi Brown, Morning Speaker Series. Other finalists were Joseph Nielson, Contacts 1; and Maresha Bosgieter, Spikers. The Volunteer of the Year honoree is Walter Stuart, LegalShield. Other finalists were Jessica Brooks, Stratos Wealth Partners; and Samuel Smith, Platinum Payments. The Wall of Fame inductee is Debbie Williams, Timeless Medical Spa and Weight Loss Clinic. The Athena Leadership Award honoree is Danielle Pierce Croyle, South Salt Lake Police Department. The Sue Westenskow Award honoree is Hogan & Associates Construction. The TOUMAC Western Big Hat honoree is Col. Jon Eberlan, 75th Air Base Wing, and commander at Hill Air Force Base. The Chamber Impact Award honorees are Weber County, Ogden City and the Standard-Examiner.

 

• The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) recently awarded Mountain America Credit Union with a CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council Diamond Award for the multifaceted category, in recognition of its “Pass It Along” program with the Utah Jazz. Each season, five charities are selected for a $5,000 donation. The award recognized the program’s unique design and impact. The Diamond Awards recognize outstanding marketing achievements, with the multifaceted category recognizing credit unions that have taken a creative approach to sponsorships.

 

• Weber State University earned first place for Energy Performance and second place for Presentation in the international Solar Decathlon Build Challenge, a collegiate competition in which student teams design and build high-performance, low-carbon homes powered by renewables. More than 100 teams submitted detailed design proposals. From those designs, nine international teams were eventually selected to spend a year building their structures. Teams were judged on their innovation and excellence in architecture and engineering. Fifty WSU students contributed to build a net-zero home in central Ogden. In addition to Weber State students, Davis Technical College and Ogden-Weber Technical College students worked on the project.

 

SERVICES

• Power Plus Productions, a Southern California-based company providing staff and equipment for production events, has announced a corporate expansion with new offices in Salt Lake City. The company said the expansion into the market is based on opportunities presented by the growth of the tech sector, the need for production company options, and existing clients opening offices throughout the Greater Salt Lake area.

 

TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES

• Scorpion, a Salt Lake City-based provider of technology and services for local businesses, has announced a $100 million investment from Bregal Sagemount to expand its technology and customer offerings. Blair Greenberg, partner at Bregal Sagemount, and Kirk Smith, principal, will join Scorpion’s board of directors. The funding comes as Scorpion plans to open a new headquarters in the Salt Lake City area. It has nearly 1,000 employees. The company also has expanded its impressive management team, appointing Daniel Street as CEO, Mikel Chertudi as chief revenue officer, Raj Ramanan as chief operating officer, and Azim Nagree as executive vice president of operations and M&A. Scorpion founder Rustin Kretz remains the product visionary and will transition to its chief product officer and chairman of the board. Street is a former senior vice president of digital for Nexstar, CEO of Loku, executive at KKR and management consultant at Bain & Co. Chertudi has more than 15 years of experience in marketing, product and sales in B2B and B2C revenue models, and is a former head of digital marketing, growth and inside sales at Adobe. Ramanan has leadership and operational experience from his time spent at McKinsey, Disney and KKR. Nagree has 15 years of experience in growing, scaling and exiting innovative startups and previously was principal of Nagree Consulting and vice president of account management at Cision.

 

TRANSPORTATION

• Frontier Airlines will expand its service at Salt Lake City International Airport starting June 10 with three nonstop flights each week to both Chicago O’Hare and Dallas.