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BANKING
• Bank of American Fork has opened a new branch at 95 E. 500 S., Bountiful. The full-service branch is the company’s second location in Davis County and its 15th overall. A grand opening, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house, will take place June 8. Notable hires for the new branch include Richard Mortensen, branch manager. He has 30 years of experience in lending and 10 years as a manager. Sherri Nelson, operations manager, began her career with Bank of American Fork in 2001 and has held a variety of positions at the bank. David Jackman, commercial loan officer, has 20 years of commercial-lending experience and has been a reserve police officer in Bountiful for 15 years. David Child, mortgage loan officer, received his MBA from the University of Utah in 2001 before he began a career in real estate.
CONSTRUCTION
• BHB Consulting Engineers, Salt Lake City, has promoted Marty Olson and Brett Goodman to principals. Olson joined the company in 2006. He has a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of Utah. His notable projects include Boyer 101 Office, Kane County Public Safety Complex and Bluff Fort Visitors Center. He specializes in exterior cladding structural design, having designed the cladding for the New Zealand Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand; 5th and Columbia High-Rise in Seattle; and the Nike World Headquarters in Portland, Oregon. Olson serves as BHB’s controller. Goodman started as a project engineer at BHB in 2006. In addition to becoming a principal, Olson also manages BHB’s engineering department. His portfolio includes the Granite School District Granger High School, Alpine School District Orem High School, University of Utah John M. and Karen Huntsman Basketball Training Facility, Springville Library and George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center parking structure. He graduated from the University of Utah.
CORPORATE
• ProLung Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company involved in predictive analytics technology and non-invasive tests for the risk stratification of lung cancer, has closed on a private placement with proceeds of $8.2 million.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of SkyWest Inc., St. George, has declared a quarterly dividend of 8 cents per share. The dividend will be paid July 7 to shareholders of record June 30.
ENERGY/NATURAL RESOURCES
• Vivint Solar, Lehi, has launched a retail sales channel. It will has kiosks at retail locations in Utah, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York by the end of June, with plans to expand further throughout the year. The retail channel is led by new vice president of retail sales Trever Bybee. He has served in leadership roles within the solar industry and experienced retail sales success as a co-founder and owner of a retail team for a mobile company.
EXPANSIONS
• Spirent Federal Systems, Pleasant Grove, has opened a customer support office in Israel. The company provides positioning, navigation and timing test solutions to the government and its contractors. It has support and sales offices throughout the U.S.
GOVERNMENT
• Salt Lake County has hired Sara Pearce as head of the county’s Center for the Arts (CFA) Division. Pearce has more than 25 years of experience in nonprofit arts administration leadership and large-scale event management, most recently as managing director of Sundance Institute, which oversees the Sundance Film Festival. She has served on the Motion Picture Advisory Committee for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the Park City Chamber Board, and on the advisory board of Salt Lake Community College’s School of Arts, Community and Media. Pearce’s hiring follows the move of long-time CFA director Phil Jordan into a new role with the county, as cultural planning and project director.
• The Salt Palace Convention Center has hired Brian Savage as event manager. Savage came to the Salt Palace as a client when producing the 2015 Salt Lake City Parliament of the World’s Religions. His career has been focused on in fundraising and event production for national agencies focused on AIDS and breast cancer awareness, youth education and world religions.
HEALTHCARE
• SelectHealth has named Thomas Risse as vice president and chief financial officer. Risse has over 25 years of experience in healthcare finance, with experience in health plans, hospital systems, medical groups and integrated delivery systems. Since 2009, he has been serving as the chief financial officer for the Hawaii region of Kaiser Permanente. From 2003 to 2009, Thomas worked for Providence Health & Services in Olympia, Washington, where he served as chief financial officer of the Southwest Washington region. Prior to that, he held finance roles with several organizations in California, including Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Health Net and Daniel Freeman Hospitals.
• ProLung Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company involved in predictive analytics technology and non-invasive tests for the risk stratification of lung cancer, has promoted Ryan Snow to director of marketing and business development and Aaron Stout to chief accounting officer. Snow has been with ProLung for three years and has worked in several positions, including European development director. He received his B.S. degree in business and accountancy from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. Stout previously was controller at the company. He has more than 10 years of finance and operations experience with multiple public and privately held companies in the manufacturing and medical device industries. Prior to joining ProLung, Stout was the controller of Amedica Corp. and served as a senior financial accountant with America First Credit Union. He has masters of professional accounting from Weber State University.
INVESTMENT
• Podium, Lehi, has raised $32 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Accel, with participation from Summit Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and previous investor Y Combinator. Podium is a software-as-a-service platform enabling businesses and consumers to interact through messaging tools and online reviews. It has 175 full-time employees.
NONPROFITS
• The Sorenson Impact Center at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business has awarded sub-grants to five nonprofit service providers and two government entities to participate in a Pay for Success (PFS) feasibility program. The program is funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service’s (CNCS) Social Innovation Fund (SIF) and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. The seven sub-grantees will be the third cohort to participate in the Sorenson Impact Center’s PFS feasibility program, for a total of 27 participants since 2014. For the most recent cohort, 26 applicants (including both government jurisdictions and nonprofits) competed for sub-grants. For its 2017 cohort, Sorenson Impact selected the following governments and nonprofit service providers to receive in-depth tailored technical assistance and cash sub-grants: the Columbus Community Center, a Salt Lake City nonprofit dedicated to providing disability services and developer of the “NextWork” vocational training program for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Friends of the Children, an international nonprofit organization with a mentoring model for helping high-risk children avoid negative behaviors and achieve successful life outcomes; Institute on Aging, which focuses on transitioning and diverting older adults and adults ages 18 and over with disabilities out of California nursing homes; Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, which plans to increase access to contraceptives and expand trainings to educate individuals about the importance of contraceptives through the statewide expansion of the HER Salt Lake Contraceptive Initiative; Richmond City Health District in Virginia; UTEC, operating in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts; and the Washington State Department of Early Learning.
OUTDOOR PRODUCTS/RECREATION/SPORTS
• Vista Outdoor Inc., Farmington, has named Kenny Bement as vice president and corporate controller. He also will assume the role of chief accounting officer from Tom Sexton on June 5. Bement most recently served as controller of reporting and governance for Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Previously, he held various corporate and business segment finance positions of increasing responsibility, including at Raytheon, where he oversaw the company's SEC reporting, corporate accounting and accounting policies. He also served for nearly five years on the staff of the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board after starting his career with IBM. Bement earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting as well as a Master of Accountancy from Brigham Young University.
REAL ESTATE
• The former Martin Resources building in Salt Lake City has been sold by Martin Resources to Miller Family Real Estate LLC. Financial terms were not disclosed. The property will be used as expansion space for the Larry H. Miller Super Ford store in Salt Lake City, located at 1300 South along Interstate 15. With the expansion, Miller Family Real Estate LLC has expanded its footprint by 3.4 acres. Robert Kingsford and Mark Jensen of Newmark Grubb ACRES represented Martin Resources in the transaction.
RECOGNITIONS
• Visit Salt Lake (VSL) has received the 2016 Gold Service Award from Meetings & Conventions. It is the 22nd time VSL has received the award, which is voted on by readers of Meetings & Conventions magazine.
RETAIL
• Overstock.com Inc., Salt Lake City, has appointed Allison Abraham as the company’s first chairwoman of the board of directors. Jonathan Johnson, Overstock’s chairman of the board of directors since 2014, remains on the board and continues in his role as president of Medici Ventures, Overstock’s blockchain technology subsidiary. Also elected to the board is Overstock’s president, Saum Noursalehi. Abraham has served as a director on the board for 15 years and is chairwoman of its audit committee and a member of the compensation committee and nominating and corporate governance committee. She is president and founder of The Newton School, a private, nonprofit school serving grades K-8 in Sterling, Virginia. She previously managed her own consulting business; served as a director of privately held Precision Imaging Inc.; was president and director of LifeMinders Inc.; was chief operating officer of iVillage Inc.; and was president, COO and director of Shoppers Express. Noursalehi has been Overstock.com’s president since 2016. He began his career with the company in 2005, and served as senior vice president of marketing, senior vice president of product development and chief revenue officer. Noursalehi received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Utah. Johnson joined Overstock in 2002 and has served as the chairman of Overstock's board of directors since April 2014, transitioning to the position after five years as the company's president, and later as the acting CEO and executive vice chairman of the board. His education includes a bachelor’s degree in Japanese from Brigham Young University and a Juris Doctor degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU.
RURAL UTAH
• The Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board, at its May meeting, endorsed four Rural Fast Track grants. Each was for $50,000. Gagon Family Medicine, of Carbon County, was endorsed for a grant to help the company purchase equipment in a $1.2 million project that will allow the company to expand operations into Emery County with a remodeled building that will include exam rooms, an X-ray room, labs and pharmacy. The project is expected to result in five new full-time positions. Horizon Metals, of Juab County, was endorsed for a grant to help build a 30,000-square-foot building. The nearly $1.9 million project is expected to result in the creation of four full-time positions. Emery Animal Health, of Emery County, was endorsed for a grant to help buy equipment to expand diagnostic and treatment services. The $112,000 project is expected to result in one new full-time position. ICORR Technologies, of Morgan County, was endorsed for a grant to help the company purchase a mud pump and rig tender truck and expand current operations and service more clients. The $103,000 project is expected to result in one new full-time position.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• BioFire Diagnostics LLC, a bioMérieux company, has a new home, the Alain Mérieux Center for Molecular Diagnostics, 515 Colorow Drive, Salt Lake City. The new 285,000-occupied-square-foot facility will serve as the global hub for bioMérieux’s molecular diagnostics business. The company’s FilmArray technology and five FDA-cleared FilmArray panels test for more than 80 different viruses, bacteria, parasites, yeast and antimicrobial resistance genes.
• ApolloDx, Salt Lake City-based medical diagnostic company, has been awarded a National Institute of Health (NIH) Phase 1 grant to develop an aptamer-based portable biosensor device to test for acetazolamide (ACZ) in patient urine. Results from this grant will allow pharmaceutical companies to monitor patient compliance in clinical drug trials.
• Access Development, Salt Lake City, has appointed Chris Doxey as vice president of product. He will be responsible for optimizing the user experience across the catalog of Access products and services, including client web portals and the My Deals Mobile smartphone app. Doxey most recently was vice president at Lendio. He also has held positions at Sungard Financial and Datamark. He earned an MBA from the University of Utah in 2011, after earning his undergraduate there in 2006.