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CORPORATE
• HealthEquity Inc., a Draper-based independent health savings account non-bank custodian, has begun an underwritten public offering of $410 million shares of its common stock. HealthEquity intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with cash on hand and debt financing, to fund the merger consideration for its pending acquisition of WageWorks Inc., or for general corporate purposes if the acquisition is not consummated. Wells Fargo Securities LLC is acting as lead book-running manager for the offering. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. and RBC Capital Markets LLC are acting as book-running managers for the offering.
ENERGY
• Anderson King Energy Consultants LLC has announced the sale of Utah assets owned by AVAD Energy Partners LLC and other partners to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed amount. The assets in Carbon and Emery counties include roughly 40,000 acres, natural gas production and associated infrastructure.
EXPANSIONS
• Summit Cos., a Minnesota-based fire and life safety company, has entered the Utah market with the acquisition of Chaparral Fire Protection in Salt Lake City and St. George. Financial terms were not disclosed. Chaparral has been providing fire and life safety services in Utah since 1980.
INVESTMENTS
• DigiCert Inc., a Lehi-based provider of security solutions for identity and encryption, has announced that Clearlake Capital Group LP, a private investment firm, and TA Associates, an existing investor and global growth private equity firm, have reached a definitive agreement to make a strategic growth investment in the company. As a part of the transaction, Clearlake and TA will become equal partners in DigiCert. The company will continue to be led by CEO John Merrill and the current management team, who are investing alongside Clearlake and TA in the transaction. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Jason Werlin, a managing director at TA Associates, will become chairman of the DigiCert board of directors upon the closing of the transaction. Hythem El-Nazer, a managing director at TA, will join the DigiCert board. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2019.
• SynergySuite, a Lehi-based, cloud-based restaurant management platform company, has announced $6 million Series A funding to accelerate growth in the U.S. market and continue product innovation. The round was led by First Analysis, a Chicago-based venture capital firm, with participation from Irish private equity firm Oyster Capital. SynergySuite will use the funding to expand sales, marketing, implementation and client success.
• Blue Matador, a South Jordan-based cloud infrastructure monitoring company, has closed $3.1 million in seed funding led by Peterson Ventures, with participation from new investors Prelude Venture Fund, SaaS Ventures and Forward Venture Capital, along with existing investors Trilogy Partners and Cobre Capital.
LAW
• Parsons Behle & Latimer, Salt Lake City, has named Cory D. Sinclair as chief operating officer. Sinclair also serves as Parsons Behle & Latimer’s general counsel and is a firm shareholder. Sinclair is a member of the firm’s litigation practice group and specializes in antitrust, intellectual property, complex commercial litigation, class-action defense and all damage-related issues. Prior to joining Parsons Behle & Latimer eight years ago, Sinclair worked in the antitrust division at the United States Department of Justice. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Utah and a Juris Doctorate with from the S. J. Quinney School of Law at the UofU. As an adjunct professor, Sinclair has taught antitrust courses in the economics department, and law classes at the S.J. Quinney School of Law, to graduate and undergraduate students at the university.
MANUFACTURING
• Merit Medical Systems Inc., South Jordan, has appointed Dr. Nicole Priest as chief wellness officer, a newly created position. She will implement a coordinated global wellness program designed to help Merit employees around the world live healthier, more fulfilling lives. Priest has experience in primary care medicine, including a board certification in family, integrative and lifestyle medicine. Since 2016, she has worked as the doctor at Merit Care, the on-site healthcare office at Merit Medical’s global headquarters. She previously worked at Moab Family Medicine in Moab, Rocky Mountain Hospice in Murray and Wasatch Internal Medicine in Millcreek. Priest received her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Utah and has been an adjunct instructor of family and preventative medicine at the UofU since 2005.
MILESTONES
• HealthTree, a Salt Lake City company offering an online portal for multiple myeloma cancer patients, has reached more than 4,200 patient users on its platform. HealthTree.org also serves as a database for the research community. The figure represents roughly 4 percent of all U.S. patients with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. HealthTree.org is a division of the nonprofit organization CrowdCare Foundation.
REAL ESTATE
• Promontory Club — Park City, a vacation home community, has introduced a new neighborhood called Pinnacle at Promontory. It consists of 143 acres. It will feature Skyhouse, which will include a pool and outdoor courtyard for gatherings, spa treatment rooms, showcase kitchen with private entertaining space, and a state-of-the-art fitness center and movement studio. An initial release of 16 homesites is expected in late summer.
RECOGNITIONS
• The Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce has announced the recipients of this year’s Titan Awards, presented to individuals who have “consistently demonstrated their commitment to the community over a number of years by giving back, being actively engaged, and making a significant positive impact.” They are Gov. Gary Herbert; Natalie Gochnour, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and associate dean of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah; and Nick Rimando, goalkeeper for Real Salt Lake. The Titan honorees are nominated by the Titan Committee and selected by the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors. They will be honored at an awards event Oct. 24, 6-9 p.m., at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City.
• The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) recently honored the Salt Lake County Health Department as “Local Health Department of the Year” in the extra-large local health department category (serving 750,000 residents or more). The award was based on the department’s response to the county’s hepatitis A outbreak from 2017–19; innovative use of real-time public health data; proactive regulation of scrap metal recycling; and its new public health center in downtown Salt Lake City that features co-located clinical services provided by Community Health Centers Inc. Judges scored award applicants on their innovation and creativity, implementation, impact in the community and public health, and engagement of community and diverse partners. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also was honored in the category.
• Qualtrics, a Salt Lake City-based experience management company, has been named one of the top 10 most innovative companies in the 2019 Greenbook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) report. Qualtics was ranked No. 8 on the top-50 list. The company was also named a leader in every subcategory, including Technology, Data and Analytics, Qualitative Research, Strategic Consultancy, and Full and/or Field Service Design. The GRIT Report is based on feedback from insights professionals around the world.
• Tower Arch Capital, a Salt Lake City-based lower-middle market private equity firm, has been ranked as one of the best private equity firms for entrepreneurs by Inc. Magazine. The magazine’s inaugural list of the “Top 50 Founder-Friendly Private Equity Firms” is based on research listing “50 firms with a track record of successfully backing entrepreneurs” and treating them “as partners and operators.”
SPORTS
• Salt Lake City’s Regional Athletic Complex (RAC) will host the 14th US Quidditch Cup in April 2021. US Quidditch, the national governing body for the sport of quidditch, announced the event location selection recently. The 2021 Quidditch Cup will be the first major quidditch event to be held west of the Rocky Mountains. The event is the national championships for US Quidditch, featuring 84 teams from two divisions: collegiate and community. Sixty collegiate teams and 24 community teams will qualify through regional championships and at-large bids and have the opportunity to compete at US Quidditch Cup to be crowned the National Champions in their division. The 2021 event in Salt Lake City is anticipated to draw around 7,000 attendees with a direct estimated economic impact of $2.6 million. Quidditch is a full-contact, competitive, mixed-gender sport inspired by the “Harry Potter” series.
TRANSPORTATION
• The Salt Lake City International Airport has installed a queue management system to help passengers see how long it takes to go through security screening lines. The system uses cameras and Bluetooth technology to track wait times, which are then posted to airport monitors and at www.slcairport.com. Five 49 inch-monitors are located at the entrance to the checkpoints in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. The technology detects and tracks passengers anonymously as they enter the security screening line and continue through the line to the screening exit.
TRAVEL & TOURISM
• Visit Salt Lake has appointed Teri Klug as director of community outreach, a newly created position. Klug will work to enhance the organization’s mission and activities to diverse audiences throughout Salt Lake County and advise the CEO and board of directors on policy issues and current events that will help grow the impact of the visitor economy in Salt Lake County, as well as assist stakeholders in developing strategies to leverage positive messaging to increase the visitor economy’s impact in the areas of economic and workforce development. The past five years, Klug owned and operated a business consulting firm. Prior to that, she was director of strategic development for EDCUtah. Prior to relocating to Utah in 2009, Klug was president and founder of Bronte Productions in Richmond, Virginia, an in-house consultancy firm; created opportunities in real estate development and provided full-service marketing and business development for an architecture firm; served as a U.S. congressional liaison officer and operations and planning specialist for FEMA; worked as education division manager for a financial investment firm in Sydney, Australia; was venue operations manager for the Sydney Olympic Organizing Committee for the 2000 Summer Games; was vice president of business development for Dardick Technology; and, while attending the University of Utah, served the state of Utah in flood mitigation. She is a graduate of the University of Utah.