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CONSTRUCTION
• Geneva Rock, Murray, has named Shane Albrecht as vice president of area construction operations. He will oversee activities that include general construction, excavation, utility work and grading and project management teams. Albrecht has worked for Geneva Rock Products for 18 years, most recently in his role as area manager of construction. Prior to his career with the company, he worked as an engineer for Sandy City and as a project manager with Savage Asphalt Paving. Albrecht attended the University of Utah, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.
• Weber State University has announced a renovation of its 45-year-old Social Science Building. The $35 million project will include stripping down to the structure’s reinforced concrete frame and foundation, installing new steel and concrete, addressing fire suppression and detection, meeting seismic standards and other improvements. By incorporating an existing breezeway, the renovated building will have an additional 13,000 square feet, which will allow for collaboration and meeting spaces. The building will be renamed Lindquist Hall to honor that family’s name. John E. Lindquist, president of Lindquist Mortuaries and Great Western Insurance, has gifted $5 million to the project. The building is scheduled to reopen for classes in January 2019. The architect for the 119,350-square-foot project is GSBS Architects. The contractor is Big-D Construction. The renovation kickoff, featuring fireworks, takes place May 9 at 4 p.m. on the building’s east side.
CORPORATE
• The Larry H. Miller Group of Companies has appointed Lewis L. (Lee) Bird III to its board of directors. Bird is the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the At Home Group Inc., based in Plano, Texas, with 129 stores in 31 states. Bird also has served as managing director/consumer practice leader of The Gores Group, a global private equity firm; group president of Nike Affiliates for Nike Inc.; chief operating officer of Gap; and chief financial officer of Old Navy. Prior to his consumer/retail career, he held various strategic and financial leadership roles at Gateway Inc., Honeywell/AlliedSignal Inc. and Ford Motor Co. He started his career as an assistant vice president and commercial loan officer for BayBanks Inc.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Zions Bancorporation, Salt Lake City, has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 8 cents per common share. The dividend is payable May 25 to shareholders of record May 18. The board also declared regular quarterly cash dividends on the company’s various perpetual preferred shares. The cash dividend on the series A, F, G, H and I shares are payable June 15 to shareholders of record on June 1, while the cash dividend on the Series J is payable Sept. 15 to shareholders of record Sept. 1.
• The board of directors of People’s Utah Bancorp, American Fork, has declared a quarterly dividend of 8 cents per common share. The dividend will be payable May 15 to shareholders of record May 8. The dividend payout ratio for earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 was 22 percent.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is ranked fifth among states for residents having the most debt, according to analysis by SmartAsset. Utah’s fifth-highest debt-to-income ratio trails only California, Hawaii, Virginia and Colorado. The analysis indicates Utah residents have a median individual income of $21,136 and $52,150 in per capita debt, of which $38,240 is mortgage debt. Utah has the lowest delinquency rates for mortgage debt, with only 1.05 percent of mortgage debt being 90 days past due. Details are at https://smartasset.com/mortgage/states-with-the-most-debt.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• The University of Utah has hired Randall (Randy) J. Arvay as chief information security officer (CISO). Arvay previously was CISO at Mississippi Medical Center. Prior to his role at the University of Mississippi, he was chief of the cybersecurity and quality assurance in the Joint Spectrum Center for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). During his career, Arvay has been a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel; served as an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and Strayer University; and served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Miami, Southern New Hampshire University and Anne Arundel Community College. Corey Roach has been serving as interim CISO at the UofU since September 2016 and will return to his role as manager for enterprise security.
ENERGY/NATURAL RESOURCES
• LGCY Power, Lehi, has expanded into Texas and New Mexico. The solar power company now has operations in 16 states.
FINANCE
• George K. Baum & Co., Salt Lake City, has hired Kelly Murdock as a senior vice president. Murdock has 25 years of experience in the municipal finance industry. He has served as lead banker and municipal advisor to some of the largest issuers in Utah and worked on more than $5 billion of tax-exempt, taxable and variable-rate municipal transactions for a variety of issuers. He has also served as underwriter or municipal advisor for several higher education institutions. Prior to becoming an investment banker, Murdock served in several key staff positions U.S. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch and U.S. Rep. James V. Hansen. He also worked as director of Utah’s Washington, D.C. office, serving as a member of the Utah governor’s staff and as a key liaison between the state, the Utah congressional delegation and the federal government. Murdock’s education includes a bachelor’s degree in organizational communications from the University of Utah.
HEALTHCARE
• Recursion Phamaceuticals, Salt Lake City, has hired Yoshua Bengio as a scientific advisor. Bengio will further the company’s machine learning advancements in drug discovery while also helping to grow the Recursion team to drive those advancements. Bengio serves as a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms at the University of Montreal in Canada. He also is a Canada research chair in statistical earning algorithms. Last year, Bengio co-founded Element AI, which spins off applications of AI across economic sectors.
INVESTMENT
• Soltis Investment Advisors, St. George, has announced management changes. As Hal Anderson, president and chief executive officer, embarks on a full-time service opportunity, Lon Henderson, who recently returned from a similar service opportunity, will resume his role as chairman of the board. The firm’s executive team structure will be aligned, with the partners of the firm serving as managing partners and comprising the executive leadership team: Henderson, Kim Anderson, Tyler Wilkinson, Clark Taylor, Tyler Finlinson and Brent Moore.
MANUFACTURING
• The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), a Manufacturing USA institute that works to support advanced composite technology and grow capital investment and manufacturing jobs in the U.S. composites market, has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Utah Advanced Materials Manufacturing Initiative (UAMMI). The memorandum joins the organizations’ resources to address specific focus areas such as technology research and development while expanding certain initiatives and programs for those in the composites manufacturing community. UAMMI is a consortium of industry, academic and training institutions and government agencies that advances research and innovation in advanced composites and materials manufacturing.
PHILANTHROPY
• Bank of Utah donated $148,669 to community organizations within its 18-location footprint in 2016. Bank employees also gave back to their communities by donating 822 services hours to 70 charitable organizations.
REAL ESTATE
• Windermere Utah Real Estate recently brokered the sale of a $2.85 million house in Farmington, which the company said is the most expensive home sale in Farmington’s history and the second-most-expensive home ever to sell in Davis County, based on data from UtahRealEstate.com. The 12,665 square-foot, timber-framed house has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, chef’s kitchen, theater room and swimming pool. It sits on five acres. UtahRealEstate.com data indicates that in 2016, 161 homes across the Wasatch Front sold for $1 million or more, about the same number as in 2015 but 25 percent higher than were sold in 2014.
RECOGNITIONS
• The University of Utah announced the winners of the 2017 Distinguished Innovation and Impact Award, which recognizes faculty who create products and initiatives with potential to change the world and improve lives. Troy D’Ambrosio is executive director of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, assistant dean at the David Eccles School of Business and a presidential chair in entrepreneurship. John Kircher is a professor of educational psychology, an inventor and co-founder of Conversus, a company specializing in lie detection using a unique technology developed by Kircher and his colleagues.
• Several Utah-based companies are listed in the eighth annual DSN Global 100 list, a ranking of the top revenue-generating direct selling companies in the world, compiled by Direct Selling News. The list is based on 2016 revenues. Nu Skin Enterprises was No. 11, with revenues of $2.2 billion. Others are USANA, No. 20, $1 billion; Young Living, No. 22, $1 billion; Nature’s Sunshine Products, No. 50, $341 million; 4Life Research, No. 51, $328 million; LifeVantage, No. 68, $207 million; and ARIIX, No. 82, $151 million.
• Salt Lake City is ranked second, behind only Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the list of “2017 Best Large Cities to Start a Business,” compiled by personal finance website WalletHub. The website ranked the 150 largest U.S. cities using 18 key indicators of startup viability. Salt Lake City ranked first in financing accessibility, sixth for prevalence of investors, seventh for venture investment per capita, 19th for share of college-educated population, 40th for cost of living and 66th for labor costs. Details are at https://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-to-start-a-business/2281/.
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 40 in a WalletHub list of “2017’s Best Cities for Hispanic Entrepreneurs.” The analysis of the 150 largest U.S. cities involved 21 metrics. The top city was Laredo, Texas. Nine of the top 20 cities are in Texas.
SCHOLARSHIPS
• DoTerra International, Pleasant Grove, will provide an additional $500,000 in new scholarships over the next five years for women attending Utah Valley University. It company recently hosted its second annual Women’s Leadership Luncheon and Fundraiser to support UVU’s Women's Success Center, raising $304,209 for scholarships for women facing financial hardship to complete their education.
SERVICES
• Ernst & Young LLP has relocated its Salt Lake City office to the Gateway Tower West building at 15 West Temple. The office has more than 150 employees and the new location features about 14,500 square feet of office space, an open layout, more collaboration rooms, tech-enhanced work spaces, a coffee hub and panoramic views of the Salt Lake Valley and downtown.
• Experticity, Salt Lake City, has hired Greg Cox as chief product and technology officer. He will lead the company’s engineering, product and business intelligence teams. Cox served as an advisor to ReadyPulse, which merged with Experticity in 2016. Before joining Experticity, Cox was a co-founder and chief technology officer of YouLookFab.com and held various leadership positions in product development and business strategy at Microsoft, where he worked on mobile software platforms and user experiences.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Finicity Corp., Salt Lake City, has named Marianne Sullivan as a member of its board of directors. Sullivan also will assume the role of audit committee chair. Sullivan has 25 year of experience at Fannie Mae, where she most recently served as senior vice president of single-family strategic initiatives and business capabilities. Her experience also includes serving as a director at Merscorp Inc.
• Marketware, a Cottonwood Heights-based healthcare relationship technology company, has hired Alex Obbard as senior vice president of sales. Obbard has more than 25 years’ experience building and leading sales teams and driving SaaS-based sales growth. Before joining Marketware, Obbard served as senior vice president of sales at Solutionreach, vice president of sales at Burton group, managing vice president of sales for Gartner and vice president of sales and marketing at dotOne.