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ACCOUNTING
• Eide Bailly has promoted Anders Erickson to principal. He is leading the accounting and business services firm’s cybersecurity services team. He will focus on leading and expanding the engagement and scope of the cybersecurity services team in helping companies understand cybersecurity risks, developing plans for mitigating weaknesses and managing ongoing cyber threats. Erickson earned a master’s degree in information systems management at Brigham Young University.
BANKING
• Bank of Utah, Ogden, has hired Aaron Walker as a financial advisor. Walker has 15 years of experience in the financial industry, including 13 years for Wells Fargo Bank, first in mortgage lending and then as a regional private banker overseeing one of the largest high-value books for the retail bank in Utah. Walker’s education includes attending Brigham Young University.
CONTESTS
• Nominations are being accepted for the 2018 Utah Leopold Conservation Award, presented to private landowners for extraordinary achievement in voluntary conservation. The $10,000 award is presented annually by Sand County Foundation, Utah Farm Bureau Federation, Western AgCredit, Utah Cattlemen’s Association and Utah Association of Conservation Districts. Nominations may be submitted on behalf of a landowner, or landowners may nominate themselves. The application can be found at https://sandcountyfoundation.org/uploads/UT-2018-CFN.pdf. Applications must be postmarked by Aug. 1 and mailed to Leopold Conservation Award, c/o Utah Farm Bureau Federation, 9865 S. State St., Sandy, UT 84070. The award will be presented at the Utah Farm Bureau’s annual convention in November in Layton.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Zions Bancorporation, Salt Lake City, have declared a regular quarterly dividend of 24 cents per common share. The dividend is payable May 24 to shareholders of record May 17. The board of directors also declared regularly scheduled cash dividends on the company’s various perpetual preferred shares. The cash dividend on the series A, G, H and I shares are payable June 15 to shareholders of record June 1, while the cash dividend on the Series J shares is payable on Sept. 15 to shareholders of record on Sept. 1.
• The board of directors of Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., Provo, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 36.5 cents per share. The dividend will be paid June 13 to stockholders of record May 25.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• WalletHub recently ranked Salt Lake City No. 11 and West Valley City No. 60 on its list of “Best Places to Start a Business.” WalletHub compared the relative startup opportunities that exist in more than 180 U.S. cities by using 19 key metrics, ranging from five-year business-survival rate to office-space affordability. The top-ranked city is Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. WalletHub also compiled a list of “Best Small Cities for Starting a Business,” using 18 key metrics ranging from average growth in number of small businesses to investor access to labor costs. St. George was No. 2, behind only Holland, Michigan. Other Utah cities in the list are No. 6 Clearfield, No. 7 Ogden, No. 12 Bountiful, No. 14 Springville, No. 19 Midvale, No. 22 South Jordan, No. 32 Murray, No. 37 Taylorsville, No. 41 Layton, No. 42 Holladay, No. 54 Logan, No. 56 Spanish Fork, No. 57 Tooele, No. 60 Cedar City, No. 67 Orem, No. 73 Sandy, No. 79 Roy, No. 82 Kaysville, No. 96 American Fork, No. 118 Pleasant Grove, No. 125 Lehi, No. 126 Riverton, No. 160 Draper and No. 178 Cottonwood Heights. The full report is at https://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-to-start-a-business/2281/.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Western Governors University (WGU), Salt Lake City, has hired Elke Leeds as academic vice president in the College of Information Technology. She will direct program strategy and curriculum development for the college. Leeds spent the last eight years at Kennesaw State University (KSU) leading a cybersecurity workforce development team, teaching information systems, and designing and implementing online courses. Most recently, she served as KSU's associate vice president of academic affairs and associate professor of information systems. She previously served as assistant vice president of technology-enhanced learning and executive director of distance learning at KSU. WGU's College of IT has more than 14,000 students enrolled in all 50 states.
• Graduates of the Medical Innovation Pathways (MIP) Program last week participated in an annual graduation walk to receive their certificates at the Utah State Capitol. The ceremony featured students, parents, educators and industry partners. The MIP program offers specialized courses and practical work experience to help students develop the skills needed by Utah’s medical device and laboratory testing companies. Graduates received a Medical Innovations certificate and are guaranteed an interview with industry partner companies. Industry partners include Merit Medical, Edwards Lifesciences, BD Medical, BioFire, Biomerics, Fresenius Medical Care, GE, Nelson Laboratories, Sorenson Forensics, Varex Imaging and Stryker.
ENVIRONMENT
• The Salt Lake Valley Landfill’s compost program has received a Seal of Testing Assurance certification from the U.S. Composting Council (USCC), making it just the second organization in Utah to be recognized by the national organization. In 2017, the landfill sold 6,400 tons, or 13,483 cubic yards, of compost. On average, the landfill produces 600 cubic yards of compost each week, and sells compost to everyone from home gardeners to large landscaping and construction companies. The landfill is jointly owned by Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City and is operated by Salt Lake County employees.
FINANCE
• Key Equipment Finance, a Colorado-based bank-held equipment finance company and an affiliate of KeyCorp, has named Amy Tieu as business development officers of Key4Green. She will support Key4Green alliances by partnering with relationship managers in the KeyBank franchise to provide lending and financing solutions to current and new clients in Utah. Key4Green is designed to help companies finance energy-efficient and renewable equipment to optimize cash flow by introducing cost reductions and lower expenses related to repair and maintenance of outdated equipment. Prior to joining the Key4Green team, Tieu spent three years as the assistant vice president for KeyBank’s commercial banking division. Before that, she was a prime brokerage associate with the Royal Bank of Scotland and an operations analyst with Goldman Sachs. Tieu holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Utah.
HEALTHCARE
• AdvancedMD, a South Jordan-based cloud platform of smart clinical, billing and patient applications, has appointed John Marron as vice president and general manager of the Revenue Cycle Management division. Marron has nearly 25 years of experience in healthcare organization business performance improvement. Marron previously was vice president of business development and product management at Gateway EDI. Most recently, he was chief executive officer of inMediata Health Group in North Carolina. He also worked 10 years at Aetna. AdvanceHD also has announced that Greg O’Neil has joined its RCM leadership team as director of RCM operations. He previously was operations team director for Intermountain Healthcare Revenue Cycle.
HOSPITALITY/FOOD SERVICE
• JMH Premium, Salt Lake City, has hired two members for its professional food science and development team: Maryanne Jones and Jiahui Chen. Jones previously worked at the Ritz Carlton in Hawaii, where she had the opportunity to do development work in fine dining and banquets. Chen previously worked at General Mills as a food scientist on the Global Baking and Global Meals teams, and as a product innovation and development scientist with Schwan's Co. JMH Premium also promoted Nicole DeBloois to director of research and development.
• Stanza Italian Bistro & Wine Bar has hired Amber Billingsly, a pastry and dessert chef. Billingsly also is pastry chef at Current Fish and Oyster.
INVESTMENTS
• VSpatial, Provo, recently raised $2.5 million in seed funding. The company s working to develop the “office of the future” by melding immersive virtuality, spatial sound and a network cloud that works from anywhere for free.
LAW
• Messner Reeves LLP has opened an office in Salt Lake City, the firm’s seventh office nationwide. The office will be managed by partner Torben M. Welch, who was previously an attorney and partner with Messner Reeves' Denver office from 2008-2017. The Salt Lake City office have the capacity to provide a full range of business legal services. Welch’s practice focuses on complex business and commercial transaction in the corporate, real estate, finance and sports industries.
MEDIA/MARKETING
• MRM/McCann has hired Daniel Chu as chief creative officer of MRM/McCann U.S. West, leading the agency’s creative operations in Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Chu has more than 20 years of global experience, most recently as global chief creative officer at the digital marketing agency Possible. Prior to Possible, he was executive vice president and creative director at Deutsch Los Angeles, and also held creative leadership positions at Momentum Worldwide and R/GA.
MILESTONES
• Albion Financial Group, a Salt Lake City-based independent wealth management firm, recently reached over $1 billion in assets under management (AUM). The milestone places Albion among the top 4 percent of registered investment advisors in an industry of more than 12,000 firms. Albion is a fee-only, fiduciary, registered investment advisor.
MUSEUMS
• The Natural History Museum of Utah has named Abigail Curran as chief operating officer, a new position within the museum’s existing management team. Her experience includes roles at Dell EMC, Cummins and Apple. Curran earned her MBA from Brigham Young University.
REAL ESTATE
• Cushman & Wakefield has hired Jennifer Curtis for its Salt Lake City office as operations director for Utah. Curtis previously was an operations manager at Marcus & Millichap and also worked in operations at Utah Valley University and Every Move Solutions. She has a bachelor of science degree in history education and Master of Business Administration from Utah Valley University.
RECOGNITIONS
• Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America recently named Brett Nilsson as the recipient of its Woodworth Memorial Award, the highest award an independent agent/broker can receive in the United States. Nilsson is senior vice president at The Buckner Co. The award recognizes the outstanding contributions of an independent agent or broker to the national association, their association colleagues and the insurance industry. During his more than 30-year career as a licensed insurance agent, broker and surplus lines broker, Nilsson has served as president of his state association and chairman of the national association. Nilsson has also served on the national association’s finance, professional liability, communications, dues task force and executive committees and board of directors. He currently serves the national association as a member of the association’s reinsurance board.
• The Utah Technology Council honored several individuals at its annual members meeting with 2018 honors. They are Howard Hochhauser, Ancestry, as CEO of the Year; Mike Peregrina, Homie, as CFO of the Year; David Burggraaf, Instructure, as CTO of the Year; Veronica Jackson, Thumbtack, as HR Exec of the Year; Catherine Wong, Domo, as Women in Tech Champion; Eric Farr and John Wade, Brainstorm, as Tech Titan; and Rep. Francis Gibson and Sen. Ann Millner as Legislators of the Year.
• Visit Salt Lake recently presented its 12th annual Dianne Nelson Binger Sales Leadership Award to Mark H. White, senior vice president of sales and services at the organization. The award is presented to Visit Salt Lake’s top salesperson. Leading a team of 22 hospitality industry professionals based in five cities, White and his team booked 165 future meetings, athletic events and conventions last year. Those events will attract more than 375,000 attendees who will occupy 736,000 hotel room nights and spend nearly $350 million while in Salt Lake. This new record high in bookings represents an 8 percent increase over the previous record year. White joined VSL in 1993 as director of ski tourism, became director of conventions and athletic events and then vice president of sales. He recently was promoted to senior vice president over sales and services.
• KLAS Research has named Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City, to its “A-List” of healthcare information technology companies that combine high customer satisfaction with high rates of customer retention. The companies are in the inaugural report titled “Decision Insights 2018: National Trends & Best Practices.” Health Catalyst was the only data analytics company among the eight companies named to the report’s “A-List.” The report’s results are based on 1,157 software decisions that healthcare organizations have made in the last 12 months or will make in the next 24 months. In its analysis of decisions made across the HIT software spectrum, KLAS included 35 vendors that each received at least 10 buying considerations.
• The STEM Action Center team and STEM Action Center board has selected five people as recipients of its fourth annual STEM Innovation Awards, which were presented in partnership with the Utah Technology Council as part of the Utah Innovation Awards dinner. Honored for their contributions to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education statewide are Cassandra Ivie, a senior at Copper Hills High School; Todd Monson, eighth-grade science teacher at Oquirrh Hills Middle School; Spencer Holmgren, principal of Hillcrest Elementary School; Kevin Reeve, co-founder of Cache Makers and volunteer mentor; and Rachel Fletcher, counselor at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education. The teacher, counselor, principal and mentor received a trophy and a $2,000 grant for STEM projects, while the student will receive a trophy and an iPad Mini.
• Boostability, a Lehi-based SEO, website and social media provider, has received two Internet marketing service awards: a 2018 “Top Digital Agencies” award from B2B review firm Clutch and a “Top 10 SEO Solutions Provider, 2018” award from Marketing Tech Outlook magazine. The Clutch honor is given to companies by location and business type. In receiving the award, Boostability was recognized as a “Top Digital Marketing Company” in the Salt Lake City area. The Marketing Tech Outlook honor is based on an analysis of “scores of SEO solutions providers in the market.”
• CleanSpark Inc., a Salt Lake City-based microgrid company, has been named in Navigant Research’s top 10 global microgrid rankings. The list includes companies “positioned to emerge as leaders in this market over the next 10 years.” Navigant Research is a market research and consulting team that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets.
• The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards recently named Tabitha Bell, 18, of Sandy as one of America’s top 10 youth volunteers of 2018. She was named during the program’s 23rd annual national award ceremony in Washington, D.C. Selected from a field of more than 29,000 youth volunteers from across the country, Bell earned the title of National Honoree, along with a personal award of $5,000, an engraved gold medallion, a crystal trophy for her school, and a $5,000 grant from The Prudential Foundation for a nonprofit charitable organization of her choice. Bell is a senior at Waterford School and has raised more than $115,000 through her nonprofit, Pawsitive Pawsibilities, to provide nine service dogs to people who otherwise could not afford one. Also honored in Washington was Abigail Slama-Catron, 13, of Sandy. Bell and Slama-Catron were named Utah’s top youth volunteers in February. Slama-Catron is a seventh-grader at Midvale Middle School and helped invent a “bionic scarecrow” to keep birds away from airplanes as they take off and land at airports. It is being used at Salt Lake City International Airport. The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards is a national youth recognition program sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).
• Dhati and Diha Oommen, sisters and co-CEOs of Butterbands, recently competed at the National Young Entrepreneurs Academy competition after winning the fourth annual Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneurs Shark Tank Investor Panel. The pair competed among 18 students and won $5,000 for their business idea. Butterbands offers headbands for girls and women. The Oommen sisters outsource their work to India to help create jobs and employ other women and the headbands are made with traditional sari materials. The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA) is a program for students ages 11-18 who have an entrepreneurial mindset and want to take their business idea to the next level. The program takes them through the brainstorming process, helps them develop a business plan, prepares them to pitch the plan to a panel of investors, and helps them launch a real business. The Shark Tank event is the event is the culminating event where students obtain funding to grow their business.
SCHOLARSHIPS
• Geneva Rock Products Inc., Orem, has announced a scholarship contest to support U.S. students in their educational goals to join the construction industry. The company will offer $4,000 annually in scholarship awards. A $2,000 award will be issued in the fall and the spring semesters. Details are at https://genevarock.com/scholarship/.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• One Click Retail, a Sandy-based e-commerce data measurement, sales analytics and search optimization company, has appointed Boren Novakovic to executive vice president and managing director. Novakovic also is chief executive officer of London-based PlanetRetail RNG. He will also be responsible for integrating the two companies under the direction of Ascential plc. Spencer Millerberg, who founded One Click Retail in 2013 and led the company through and beyond its acquisition by Ascential, will remain with Ascential in a product development role. He will work with Danny Silverman, chief marketing officer at Clavis Insight, which was acquired by Ascential in December, and a product development team.