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ASSOCIATIONS
• Avetta, an Orem-based supply chain risk management provider, has joined the National Safety Council task force to support the “SAFER: Safe Actions for Employee Returns” initiative, a multifaceted plan developed to guide employers through the process of safely resuming traditional work and operations now and in a post-pandemic environment. SAFER will issue recommendations and guidance for employers, including small and mid-size companies, across a variety of industries.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is ranked No. 7 among the “Best States for Working from Home,” compiled by personal finance website WalletHub. The study compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 12 key metrics. Utah was ranked No. 6 in share of population working from home (prior to COVID-19), No. 13 for households’ Internet access, No. 8 for average home square footage, No. 9 for average retail price of electricity, and No. 28 for Internet cost. Delaware was ranked as the best state for working from home, while Alaska was last.
• Utahns are getting an average of 14.5 hours of extra sleep per month by working from home during the COVID-19 quarantine, according to online sleep-industry review and information site Sleepopolis. Among Utah cities, people in Summit Park are getting the most extra sleep, while Vernal is ranked last. Sleep factors in the study include the smoking rate, insufficient sleep rate, mentally unhealthy days, physical inactivity, air pollution levels and unemployment rate. Details are at https://sleepopolis.com/sleep-cities/utah/.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Two Weber State University professors have been named the university’s 2020 Brady Presidential Distinguished Professors: Sara Dant, professor and chair of the history department, and zoology professor Christopher Hoagstrom. The honor was established in 2006 to recognize WSU faculty members who have demonstrated the highest quality teaching, scholarship, research and community service. The late Rodney Brady served as WSU president from 1978 to 1985. Dant is an author and presenter whose work focuses on environmental politics in the United States, with an emphasis on the creation and development of consensus and bipartisanism. She began her career at Weber State in 2001. Hoagstrom has spent a lifetime researching and writing about freshwater fish and the rivers in which they reside. He joined WSU’s zoology faculty in 2006 and served as department chair from 2012-19. Hoagstrom has overseen teams of undergraduate students conducting multi-year field research in northern Utah and has served in leadership roles for both the Desert Fishes Council and the Ogden Nature Center.
• The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a business education network, has recognized the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah among 25 business schools as highlights of its “Innovations That Inspire” member challenge. The Eccles school was recognized for its Master of Business Creation program, which allows people to launch and scale a company while earning a master’s degree in nine months. The program started in fall 2019, and the first group of founders will graduate from the program in May. It is offered in partnership with the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute.
HEALTHCARE
• Solutionreach, a Lehi-based healthcare technology and patient engagement company, has appointed Dan Simenc as chief revenue officer. Simenc comes to Solutionreach from Lyniate, formerly Corepoint Health, where he served as the senior vice president of U.S. sales. Prior to that role, Simenc served in senior leadership roles with 3M Health Information Services, Picis, Eclipsys (now Allscripts) and McKesson.
INVESTMENTS
• Qnergy, an Ogden-based manufacturer of Stirling energy systems, has closed a $10 million Series B funding round led by OGCI Climate Investments, Tene Capital and Kibbutz EHI. The funding will be used to accelerate deployment of its compressed air pneumatics product, CAP3, which tries to abate the largest source of the oil and gas industry’s vented methane emissions. Qnergy provides reliable remote power generators to help customers improve operational efficiency, decrease operating cost and reduce emissions.
MEDIA/MARKETING
• KUER, NPR Utah has added Lexi Peery as a third reporter for its statewide coverage project. A print and radio journalist, Peery is based in St. George and will join the station’s Southwest Utah bureau in June as part of the station’s ongoing partnership with the national service program Report for America. Peery has spent the past year covering government, environment and development issues for The Spectrum & Daily News newspaper in St. George. Prior to her return to Utah, she served an environmental and newsroom fellowship at WBUR, a Boston-based NPR member station. With Peery’s arrival, David Fuchs will turn his focus to central Utah, including rural economies, communities and resources.
MILESTONES
• SimpleNexus, a Lehi-based digital mortgage platform company, has seen more than 2 million consumers download its mobile app. The milestone marks a 53.8 percent increase in consumer downloads of the app since the beginning of the year. SimpleNexus serves as a common hub where borrowers, real estate agents and mortgage originators can collaborate on loan applications, upload documents and share real-time status updates. So far, it has connected more than 2 million consumers with more than 24,000 active loan originators and 98,000 real estate agents nationwide.
PHILANTHROPY
• Purple Innovation Inc., a Lehi-based comfort products manufacturer, has raised more than $100,000 and committed to manufacturing at least 1,000 emergency mattresses that will go to care facilities in need across the country in the fight against COVID-19. Purple has partnered with nonprofit Relief Bed International, a nonprofit organization providing beds to disaster victims and homeless shelters worldwide, to ensure the beds are donated to care facilities facing equipment shortages across the country, starting May 5. Purple funded and donated the mattresses by committing 10 percent of net proceeds from all purchases on purple.com from April 13-30.
• Utah Community Action (UCA), a nonprofit, is providing more than 1,600 free curbside meals daily for children during the COVID-19 pandemic and is seeking donations of baby essentials to add to the distribution. The meals are delivered and distributed at eight UCA Head Start schools in Salt Lake County, Magna and Wendover. The baby essentials, including diapers, formula, baby food, baby cereal and wipes, will be distributed weekdays along with the free curbside meals for kids, at the eight pickup sites in Salt Lake and Tooele counties. Details are at www.utahca.org/55years.
• Young Living Essential Oils LC, a Lehi-based essential oils producer, has donated $20,000 to TreeUtah and the Arbor Day Foundation in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Each nonprofit will receive a $10,000 donation to be allocated for the purchase and planting of trees. Young Living is partnering with the Arbor Day Foundation to restore wildlife habitat by planting more than 5,000 trees in Fishlake National Forest on behalf of each Young Living team member.
• Weave, a Lehi-based business toolbox company, has announced that Weave Lite, a collection of communication tools for local, service-based businesses, will be offered for free for 90 days as a way to aid companies affected by COVID-19. The SaaS product typically costs $99 per month. Details are at getweave.com/weave-lite.
RECOGNITIONS
• Ron Zarbock, owner of Spherion of Salt Lake City, has earned the Carol Peters Spirit Award, presented to an owner who embodies the Spherion spirit “by reflecting a positive and uplifting attitude while maintaining the company’s values.” The award was presented at the brand’s annual national meeting. Spherion is a staffing and recruiting company. Zarbock and his team launched programs such as “Light the Lives of Others” and the Step Up Scholarship. Through the “Light the Lives of Others” program, each of Zarbock’s six offices connects with a charity and raises money and provides training and service for that organization.
• Scott Stewart, a Farmers Insurance agent in Midvale, has been named to the national insurer’s Presidents Council. Membership in the council is the organization’s most elite honor for the top 1 percent of agents and district managers. The group of agents and district managers on the council were selected on the basis of a number of criteria, including their excellence in providing best-in-class service, their consistent top-ranked business performance and their commitment to furthering the goals and ideals of the Farmers organization. They will serve as direct liaisons with their peers across the country and act as an important sounding board to the leadership of the national insurer.
• England Logistics, a Salt Lake City-based freight brokerage firm, has been ranked No. 16 on Transport Topics' list of the “Top Freight Brokerage Firms in 2020,” the 16th consecutive year for it to make the list. The annual rankings are decided by a company’s net revenue for the most recent 12-month period.
• Avetta, an Orem-based supply chain risk management provider, has made the list of “50 Providers to Know,” compiled by analyst firm Spend Matters for the third consecutive year. The list recognizes best-in-class companies in the procurement and supply chain market. Vendors listed are independently selected by the analyst team over multiple rounds of debate, focusing on factors such as innovation, market presence, tech competency and solution delivery.
TECHNOLOGY
• ProActive Budget, a Pleasant Grove-based financial technology company, has rebranded as Qube Money. The company was founded in June 2016 by Ryan Clark to digitize the cash envelope system. In an ongoing quest to shift consumer spending behavior, Qube Money’s new app combines its digital cash envelope budgeting method with a full banking suite. The app digitizes budgets into “qubes.” Consumers then set limits for different qube budgets, like groceries, clothing and entertainment. A physical Qube Money debit card gives shoppers access to their pre-budgeted qube funds, designed to help consumers avoid overspending.
TRANSPORTATION
• SkyWest Inc., a St. George-based holding company for SkyWest Airlines and SkyWest Leasing, has announced that its 2020 annual meeting of shareholders will take place in a virtual-only format because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting will be May 5, starting at 10 a.m. The timing and process for voting by proxy remains unchanged. Shareholders as of the close of business on March 4, 2020 can access, participate in, and vote at the virtual annual meeting at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/SKYW2020 by using the 16-digit control number included on the proxy card and the instructions that accompanied the proxy materials.