Industry Briefs are provided as a free service to our readers. Company news information may be sent to brice@slenterprise.com. The submission deadline is one week before publication.
CONTESTS
• MountainWest Capital Network (MWCN) is accepting applications through June 30 for its 24th annual MWCN Utah 100 fastest-growing companies in Utah for 2018. The awards event Oct. 30 will recognize Utah 15 largest revenue-growth companies, 100 fastest-growing companies and Emerging Elite companies. Details are at https://www.mwcn.org/utah-100/.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utah is No. 2 on a list of “Top 10 States for Homeowners,” compiled by SmartAsset. Utah trailed only Idaho. SmartAsset used nine criteria to form the rankings. It noted that the median home in Utah has a value of $205 per square foot — sixth-most in the study. From 2016 to 2017, that figure grew by 9.4 percent. Average closing costs are under $1,900, the fifth-lowest in the study. It noted that upfront affordability is a concern for Utah homebuyers, with the average home being worth 3.79 times the median annual income, a below-average figure. Details are at https://smartasset.com/mortgage/best-states-for-homeowners-in-2018.
ENERGY
• Salt Lake City has joined the Utah C-PACE financing program to advance energy improvements in commercial, industrial and qualifying residential buildings. Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) is a low-cost financing mechanism for energy efficiency, renewable energy, electric vehicle and water conservation projects. The program can finance 100 percent of improvements using long-term loans with up to a 30-year payback period. The Utah Office of Energy Development and its partner, SRS, administers Utah’s program, including assisting properties with the project evaluation and financing process. C-PACE is currently being used in 35 states, and is estimated to have provided $450 million in energy improvements across 1,200 projects nationally.
EXPANSIONS
• LifeVantage Corp., Salt Lake City, has expanded by opening for business in Taiwan. It formally kicked off operations in Taiwan in conjunction with a successful market launch event on June 24 in Taipei. In addition to a formal presence in a dozen markets now in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, LifeVantage products were also recently made available to customers on a not-for-resale basis in seven additional countries as part of a new Global Customer Program launched in April.
• TCN Inc., a St. George-based provider of cloud-based call center technology, has announced an expansion into India with the opening of its new subsidiary, ClearTouch. Headquartered in Chennai, India, ClearTouch offers cloud-based, omnichannel contact center solutions in the healthcare, contact center, automotive and retail industries. TCN has more than 2,000 client accounts worldwide. With the new expansion into India, TCN is expected to triple its employee numbers, increase month-over-month growth by 18 percent and increase its overall revenue five-fold.
GOVERNMENT
• Salt Lake City has formally launched an improved website, SLC.gov. It replaces slcgov.com. The new site allows users to access core municipal functions, including bill pay, business licensing, and service requests. The redesign project began more than a year ago and was led by the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office; the city’s Information Management Services (IMS) Department; and Utah Interactive, a Salt Lake City-based online services company that focuses on e-government initiatives, including building and maintaining Utah.gov. The new site has improved accessibility features; a cleaner look; and a prioritization of service-oriented functions like bill pay, service request, employment opportunities, and permit and licensing information.
HEALTHCARE
• Sera Prognostics Inc., Salt Lake City, has hired Dr. Garrett K. Lam as chief medical officer. He takes over the new role Sept. 4. He will direct all clinical development activities for the company. Lam currently is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and chairman of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine-Chattanooga. He also serves as associate director of perinatal services for Regional Obstetrical Consultants in Chattanooga.
• Craig Ulibarri recently was named executive director at Life Care Center of Salt Lake City, a skilled nursing and rehab center. Life Care Center of Salt Lake City, located at 1201 E. 4500 S., is one of two skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities in Utah managed by Life Care Centers of America. Ulibarri has been a senior care administrator for approximately 20 years and owned a running store, Teton Running Co. He earned a bachelor’s degree in health science from Brigham Young University.
• HealthEquity Inc., a Draper-based health savings account non-bank custodian, has appointed Ted Bloomberg as executive vice president and chief operating officer, a new position. He will start his duties in the third quarter. Bloomberg is currently senior vice president of operations, strategy and support for Financial Engines. He previously was COO of the Mutual Fund Store, a registered investment adviser acquired by Financial Engines in 2016. He also served 10 years in various capacities of leadership at TD Ameritrade, including as managing director of Investools, a TD subsidiary.
LAW
• Paul Taylor, an attorney with Ray Quinney & Nebeker, has been elected chair of the U.S. Bar’s European Patent Office (EPO) Liaison Council. For over 30 years, the council has met annually with officials of the EPO, representing U.S. users of the EPO’s services. Typically, the meetings alternate annually between an EPO office in Europe and a location in the United States, often adjoining a meeting of one of the U.S. national IP groups. The council exists solely for the purpose of these meetings with the EPO, and providing a communications channel between the EPO and U.S. national, regional and local IP groups. It comprises one or two delegates from each of over 30 U.S. IP organizations. In addition to delegates, past chairs of the Council and guests invited by the current chair may also participate in council meetings.
• Holland & Hart has hired patent and trademark partner Loren R. Hulse for its Salt Lake City office. Hulse brings legal expertise in the creation, management and protection of domestic and foreign patent and trademark portfolios to companies disrupting the life sciences, pharmaceutical, biotech, manufacturing and medical device industries. Hulse’s experience includes serving as in-house intellectual property counsel for NPS Pharmaceuticals and as patent counsel for Ceramatec Inc. Prior to joining Holland & Hart, Loren was a partner at Stoel Rives, where he served as the co-leader of the firm’s Life Sciences industry group.
MEDIA/MARKETING
• Love Communications, a Salt Lake City-based advertising and marketing firm, has opened an office in Boise, Idaho, at the Zions Bank Idaho Headquarters, 800 Main St.
PHILANTHROPY
• Two Maids & A Mop of Salt Lake City, a residential cleaning franchise, has teamed up with Cleaning For A Reason, an international nonprofit serving women with cancer. The company has agreed to help women battling cancer by cleaning two homes per month for two consecutive months throughout the year at no charge. The only requirement is that the homes be within the company’s existing service areas of Salt Lake City. Details are at twomaidssaltlakecity.com.
• Salt Lake City, in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), has received a $25,000 grant to support its out-of-school time healthy food access and nutritional literacy programs. The gift is part of a $1.5 million grant NRPA received from the Walmart Foundation to support out-of-school time programs in park and recreation agencies across the country. The grant will help YouthCity, Salt Lake City’s after-school and summer program, increase access to healthy foods and improve opportunities for physical activity. YouthCity will receive support for meals provided through USDA after-school and summer feeding programs as well as nutritional literacy materials to help ensure lifelong healthy habits for Salt Lake City’s youth.
REAL ESTATE
• Toll Brothers Inc., based in Pennsylvania, has expanded into the Utah market. The first new-home neighborhood is Canyon Point at Traverse Mountain in Lehi. Canyon Point features 204 home sites. Plans call for the sales center to open this fall, with model homes’ grand opening in early 2019. Scott Ilizaliturri, Toll Brothers division vice preisdent, is based in Utah. The company operates in 22 states and Washington, D.C.
RECOGNITIONS
• Visit Salt Lake (VSL) recently posthumously presented its annual Tourism Achievement Award to Bob Farrington, who died in April. The award is VSL’s highest honor, presented annually to honor members and community organizations for “outstanding efforts in supporting the mission of VSL and the larger tourism community of Salt Lake County.” Farrington was the first executive director of the Downtown Alliance of Salt Lake City, a position he held for 15 years and during which he played an integral part of dramatic growth in, and redevelopment of, Utah’s capital city. He also served as chairman of the cabinet for the visioning plan “Downtown Rising” and led efforts supporting the TRAX light rail system, as well as numerous small businesses downtown. Farrington later served as Salt Lake City’s economic development director and was a member of boards of many Salt Lake-based organizations.
• The Events Industry Council, in partnership with IMEX, has awarded the IMEX-EIC Innovation in Sustainability Award to the Salt Palace Convention Center and Mountain America Exposition Center. The award is designed to recognize event professionals who are driving sustainability forward through innovation, collaboration and idea-sharing. The two SMG-managed Salt Lake County facilities were recognized for their significant contributions in improving event business operations with a particular focus on creative approaches to repurposing leftover event materials to support various community organizations. Chance Thompson, senior manager of sustainability and public relations at the Salt Palace and chairperson of the effort’s Green Team Committee, has spent the past two years developing partnerships with dozens of organizations that can either recycle or repurpose materials. The concerted effort by the facilities has resulted in over 200,000 pounds of material and food being donated to community organizations. This diversion, plus some energy-saving efforts, is equivalent to eliminating 540 metric tons of carbon pollution.
• Four chief executive officers of Utah companies have been named to the list of “Top CEOs in 2018,” compiled by Glassdoor. They are: No. 6 Kurt Avarell, Canopy Tax; No. 23 Sam Malouf, Malouf; No. 30 Larry R. Stevens, Med One Group; and No. 47 Justin Nielsen, Onset Financial. Glassdoor’s rankings are based on employee surveys.
RESTAURANTS
• Four Foods Group, an America Fork-based restaurant development, operations, finance and management company, has selected Valley Grove in Pleasant Grove as its new headquarters. St. John Properties announced the sale of five acres in Valley Grove to FFG, which will begin construction on the parcel by fall. It also will be developing a restaurant cluster housing some of the company’s fast-growing brands, including R&R Barbecue; which is slated to open in July. FFG currently owns or manages 158 restaurants in 11 states, employing more than 5,000 workers, including 1,500 of those in Utah. The FFG family includes local Utah chains Kneaders Bakery & Cafe, Mo’Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food, Swig and R&R Barbecue. Outside Utah, restaurants include 74 Little Caesars locations across the Deep South.
RETAIL
• Ross Dress for Less will open a store July 21 in the Park Plaza shopping center at 1800 North and 200 West in Clinton. The 22,000-square-foot store will bring the company’s store count in Utah to 21 and its overall number of 1,433.
SERVICES
• A new Meineke location has opened at 395 S. State St., Salt Lake City. It is owned by Nathan Atherley and sibling duo Matthew and Lindsey Wood and offers a line of car care services, from routine oil changes to extensive car repair. Atherley, who focuses on finance and sales, is a former Air Force officer and venture capitalist. Matthew Wood, who brings technical, legal and product leadership, is a former tech executive and has driven growth for large tech companies such as Solera Networks, Fusion-IO, Bluecoat and Symantec. Lindsey Wood has been in retail management for her entire career. Meineke has more than 900 locations nationwide.
• Valvoline Inc., a Kentucky-based supplier of lubricants and automotive services, has announced that franchisee Superior Lube has acquired a quick-lube location in the Salt Lake City area, that is now operating as a Valvoline Instant Oil Change (VIOC) service center. Superior Lube operates both VIOC quick-lube locations in the Salt Lake area. The newest service center is at 14 W. 200 N., Kaysville.
SPORTS/RECREATION
• GGC Member Acquisition Inc., doing business as Glenwild Golf Club and Spa in Park City, has announced the conversion of the club from a developer-owned business to a member-owned, private club. Scottsdale-based Glenwild Golf Club LLC, an affiliate of DMB Associates, was the developer of Glenwild. The current executive administration and staff across golf, dining, clubhouse facilities, spa, pool, locker room, and tennis have all been retained by the new Glenwild.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Pluralsight Inc., a Farmington-based enterprise technology learning platform company, has appointed Sean Farrington as senior vice president of sales in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA). Farrington will oversee the strategic direction, expansion and operation of commercial and enterprise sales. He has more than 17 years of international sales experience. He joins Pluralsight from customer experience management platform Medallia, where he led the European sales expansion. Prior to Medallia, Farrington served as the regional vice president and managing director of Northern EMEA for Qlik Technologies Inc.. He also previously served as the vice president of U.K. and Ireland at SAP Business Objects.
• ObservePoint, a Provo-based provider of automated data governance, tag auditing and GDPR compliance solutions, has selected Harold Madsen as vice president of engineering. Madsen has more than 20 years of experience, having previously led the development and engineering teams and projects at Novell, ApexConnex, Collabratus, and, most recently, Ancestry.com.
• Dsco, a Lehi-based inventory visibility software company, has appointed Angela Matthes as vice president of finance and strategy. She will help deepen Dsco’s business intelligence and analytics and implement advanced financial models to help the company continue refining its business strategy. Matthes has a decade of financial planning and strategic analysis experience. She joins Dsco from the University of Utah’s Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), where she was the business director of its ReImagineEHR Initiative and provided financial oversight for the department. Prior to that, she was the finance and accounting director for Neutron Interactive.
• Michael Sharp, co-founder of Jive Communications, has joined the board of directors of startup company vSpatial, a virtual reality meeting and productivity application company. Sharp also served as Jive’s chief operations officer and chief product officer through its acquisition by LogMeIn.