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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
• The Salt Lake City Department of Airports and the Salt Lake Arts Council are accepting submissions through April 17 for artists wanting their work at an installation at the New SLC Airport, the renovation project at the Salt Lake City International Airport. Among the art installations at the project will be The New SLC Art Wall, a large installation located at the TSA security checkpoint. The installation will be approximately 30-by-11 feet. The artwork should speak to the spirit, cultures, people and context of Utah. The Salt Lake Art Design Board and airport representatives will review the submissions and narrow it down to three finalists. Those three finalists will visit the construction site to view where the piece will be installed before proposing concepts for the space. One artist will be selected for the final installation. Details are at www.saltlakepublicart.org. Submissions will be accepted via the CaFÉ website (www.callforentry.org) until 11:59 p.m. April 17.
DIRECT SALES
• Nature’s Sunshine Products Inc., Lehi, has appointed Eddie Silcock as executive vice president and president of North America. Silcock has more than 20 years of experience, most recently serving as chief sales officer of Perfectly Posh. He also was executive vice president of global sales at Young Living Essential Oils. He started his career at Avon Products Limited, holding several senior sales positions spanning over 22 years.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah ranks No. 11 among states in a study focusing on seniors having a positive impact on a state’s economy. The study was undertaken by SeniorLiving.org and used data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The rankings were based on four factors: the percentage of seniors with household income of $60,000 or more, where Utah was ranked 10th among states; the percentage of seniors in the workforce, 16th; the percentage of seniors with Medicare coverage, fifth; and the percentage of seniors receiving SNAP or food stamps, 29th.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• The Utah State Board of Regents has approved the first doctoral program at Weber State University: a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), which will be offered in two emphasis areas: Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) and Leadership. Contingent on receiving approval from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the DNP expects to begin admitting 35 students fall 2019. With this degree, Weber State will now provide education for every level of nurse, from the practical nurse to the registered nurse to the doctoral-prepared nurse. Currently, two institutions in Utah provide accredited DNP programs: University of Utah, which provides a number of specialty DNP programs, and Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. Weber State anticipates 20 annual program graduates in the family practice emphasis and 15 graduates in the leadership emphasis in each of years three, four and five following program implementation.
EXPANSIONS
• Sportsman’s Warehouse, Midvale, has announced plans to open a store in Fort Wayne, Indiana, this summer. The company’s first store in
Indiana will have over 24,000 square feet of hunting, shooting sports, fishing, camping, apparel and footwear merchandise. When it opens, Sportsman’s Warehouse will have 95 stores in 25 states.
HEALTHCARE
• PolarityTE Inc., a Salt Lake City-based biotechnology company developing and commercializing regenerative tissue products and biomaterials, has hired Richard Hague as chief operating officer. He succeeds Dr. Ned Swanson, who will continue as PolarityTE’s chief translational medicine officer. Hague’s career in the biotechnology industry spans more than 30 years. He joins PolarityTE from Anika Therapeutics, where he served as chief commercial officer. Prior to that, Hague was vice president of sales and marketing at TEI Medical. Hague also spent a significant portion of his career at Genzyme and later Sanofi (after Sanofi's acquisition of Genzyme).
MILESTONES
• Fabian VanCott, Salt Lake City, is marking the 100-years anniversary of the original Fabian firm in April. Harold Fabian co-founded Fabian & Clendenin, which merged four years ago with the former firm of VanCott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy, which itself dates back 144 years. Fabian VanCott now has more than 80 attorneys and offices in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. Harold Fabian died in 1975. The company is marking the anniversary with several community service efforts, including making a sizable donation to the new Interpretive Center at Dead Horse Point, scheduled to be completed in honor of Fabian later this year.
PHILANTHROPY
• Foremost Interiors, Salt Lake City, has announced that nonprofit Victory Outreach ministries has been named the recipient of a “Design For A Difference” makeover. The project is nearly complete at the church’s 2358 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, location. Foremost Interiors serves as the local sponsor for “Design For A Difference,” which is presented by the International Design Guild in the U.S. and Canada. Dave Aland and Foremost Interiors renovated the pastor’s office and created a children’s room and a nursery using space formerly used as storage.
RECOGNITIONS
• Bean Trailer recently was named the 2019 “Coolest Thing Made In Utah” in a competition undertaken by the Utah Manufacturers Association to improve and enhance public awareness of manufacturing and the products made in Utah. The competition received 222 nominations and the submissions were advanced through public votes online. Bean Trailer won the final-three public vote. Other finalists are Capstone Nutrition and Edwards Lifesciences.
• Vivint Smart Home, Provo, has been recognized as the “Top Home Security System of 2019” by U.S. News & World Report’s 360 Reviews team. In its new guide to home security, U.S. News calls the Vivint system the “best for a complete package of home security and automation,” and also ranks it the “Best Pro Installed Security System” and “Best Home Security System with Cameras.” U.S. News evaluated specific home security categories based on consumer needs. The 360 Reviews team applied a methodology that includes a nationwide consumer survey, opinions from independent security experts and third-party reviews.
• A pair of Utah companies — MX, Lehi, and Finicity, Murray — are among the 2019 “Best Fintechs to Work For.” MX was ranked 18th and Finicity was No. 39 on the list of 50 companies with exceptional workplace culture. The awards are determined by a two-part survey process. The first part evaluated workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics, and the second part measured employee satisfaction. The combined scores determined the winning companies and final ranking. The awards program is a project of SourceMedia and Best Companies Group.
• Thrive Smart Systems recently won the $40,000 grand prize and first-place title at the 2019 Utah Entrepreneur Challenge at the University of Utah. The event featured the best collegiate entrepreneurs in Utah competing for $100,000 in cash and prizes. It is a statewide business-model competition open to all university students in the state. It is managed by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, an interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business, and sponsored by Zions Bank. Thrive, from Brigham Young University, is a wireless sprinkling system designed to be reliable, environmentally friendly and affordable. Other winners in the event included SHERO with second place ($10,000), DeGraw Custom with third place ($5,000), DeGraw Custom with the Stoel Rives Best Technology Award ($3,000), True Adherence and NALZA with the Emerging Entrepreneur Awards ($2,000 each), Desert Oak Phototherapy with the online voting People’s Choice Award ($1,000), Blue and White Collar for Best Speed Pitch Award ($1,000), SHERO and Blue and White Collar for Sustainable Business ($5,000 each), DeGraw Custom for Bootstrap ($2,000), Freyya for Prototype ($1,000), Quantum Snow for Best Video ($1,000), and Beacon Sleep Solutions for People’s Choice Showcase ($1,000).
• Noisy NICU Cap, a team from American Heritage High School, won the grand prize of $7,000 in the 2019 High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, a program managed by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, an interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business, and sponsored by Zions Bank. The state’s top high school entrepreneurs won $30,000 in cash and prizes at the event. Noisy NICU Cap’s idea is a cap that protects newborn babies from the loud sounds experienced in the NICU. Second place ($5,000) went to Career Rocket, a team from Waterford High School, and third place ($2,000) went to Enable Helmets, a team from Park City High School. The Bad Hair Co. (Desert Hills High School) earned the People’s Choice Award ($1,000). Dormmock (West High School) won the Best Prototype Award ($500). The STEM Entrepreneur Award ($1,000) went to H2ONE: Vita Portable Water Filter (Bountiful High School). The Top Online Vote Award ($500) went to The Quick Pitch (Cyprus High School). Little Healthcare (West High School) won the Judges Award ($1,000). Participants earning Lassonde Studios scholarships of $1,000 each are Jonny Vizmeg (Dormmock), Carson Young (H2ONE: Vita Portable Water Filter), Hridhay Suresh (Parallel), Kaden Terry (CheapEats), Kyla Schramm (GrowGrub), Samantha Davis (GrowGrub), Ben Gubler (FamTrack) and Nicholas Wankier (Sporknife).
• Four Utah companies have been ranked in the 2018 Corporate Equality Index released recently by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, an educational arm of an LGBTQ civil rights organization, based on meeting strengthened criteria to meet the evolving needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community around the world. Nationally, 892 companies and law firms were rated in the new index. The report also unofficially rated 135 Fortune 500 companies that have yet to respond to an invitation to participate in the CEI survey assessing their LGBTQ policies and practices. The average score for companies and law firms based in Utah is 63 percent. The four Utah companies rated are CHG Healthcare Inc., Midvale, with a rating of 85; Overstock.com, Midvale, 70; SkyWest Airlines Inc., St. George, 70; and Gastronomy Inc., Salt Lake City, 25. The full report is available at www.hrc.org/cei.
• A 30-student team from Brigham Young University is competing against more than 130 other colleges nationwide in the 2019 National Student Ad Competition sponsored by the nonprofit American Advertising Federation. This year’s real-world marketing challenge supplied by national hot dog chain Wienerschnitzel is to rethink the health image of the all-American hot dog. Wienerschnitzel operates seven restaurants in Salt Lake City. BYU students will present their campaign to industry judges on April 27 at the University of Colorado as the first step of a competition culminating with the announcement of the winning school on June 5. Students from the winning team announced by the federation in June will work with Wienerschnitzel to produce at least a portion of their winning campaign.
SCHOLARSHIPS
• Leah Joyner has received the 13th annual Dianne Nelson Binger Scholarship from Visit Salt Lake. The scholarship honors VSL’s former president and CEO and her legacy to the Salt Lake hospitality community. It is bestowed annually to a female student at the University of Utah in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism of the College of Health. Joyner is a Ph.D. student, teaching and research assistant in parks, recreation and tourism at the UofU. Her research focuses on food justice, sustainable tourism, agritourism, and additional ethical aspects of food-related leisure experiences. Joyner has worked with farmers and tourism industry partners on agritourism development projects both in the U.S. and internationally. She currently serves as a research fellow with the Race, Ethnicity and Social Equity (RESET) in Tourism Initiative.
SERVICES
• Fulcrum Partners, a Florida-based executive benefits consultancy, has opened Fulcrum Partners Salt Lake City at 8706 S. 700 E., Suite 105, Sandy. The office will serve new and ongoing clients in the Intermountain West. Managing director Phil Currie Jr., who founded Fulcrum Partners Los Angeles and now heads Fulcrum Partners Newport Beach, will also lead the team in Salt Lake City. Fulcrum Partners financial consultants Adam Monson and Tom Cook also will be part of the team in the Salt Lake City office.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Appliqate, a Wyoming corporation, has acquired a minority stake in Utah-based NUI Social. Appliqate also acquired ownership of its digital wallet assets and intellectual property. NUI was founded in 2017 and has over 300,000 sales representatives focused on providing people the opportunity to earn money by bringing exposure to digital applications on an array of platforms. NUI has recorded as many as 10 million app downloads surveys and other activities in a one-month period. Appliqate has acquired equity in NUI for 15 million restricted common shares of stock issued by the treasury of the company. In preparation for the acquisition and other future goals, the majority shareholder of the company has agreed to return 115 million shares of stock to the company treasury, allowing the company to complete the transaction and set aside 100 million shares to establish an employee stock option program for its Appliqate affiliates without any dilution to the shareholders.