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ASSOCIATIONS
• The Salt Lake Chamber has named Linda Wardell as this year’s chair of its Board of Governors, effective July 1. The vice chair will be Craig Wagstaff of Dominion Energy. Wardell, general manager of City Creek Center, has served as vice chair alongside chair Steve Starks, president of Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment. Wardell has more than 30 years of experience managing and marketing shopping centers. She also is involved in the community, including serving on the current board for the Downtown Alliance, executive committee of the Women’s Leadership Institute, Zions Bank Advisory Board and the Business Advisory Board for Westminster College.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Maria S. Farrington and Jim M. Wall have been selected to serve as chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Salt Lake Community College Board of Trustees. Farrington has more than 24 years of experience in local not-for-profit organizations and schools. She currently owns a nonprofit consulting business, and she is a former executive director for Holy Cross Ministries. She has also held leadership positions at the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum in Salt Lake City, the United Way of Salt Lake and the Eccles Annenberg Initiative at the Salt Lake City School District. Farrington was appointed to the SLCC Board of Trustees in 2015 and was elected as the board’s vice chair in 2017. She also represents the SLCC Trustees on the SLCC Foundation Board. Wall worked as publisher of the Deseret News Publishing Co. Inc. and as director of the Bonneville International Corporation from 2000 until 2010. Prior to his work at the Deseret News, he was the executive vice president and general manager of The Denver Post. Wall has worked with the United Way; local chambers of commerce; community and economic development organizations; college boards; the Boy Scouts of America; and local theater, opera and symphony boards. He has served on the SLCC Board of Trustees since 2015.
• Weber State University’s Board of Trustees Executive Committee has selected Betsy Mennell as vice president of university advancement. Mennell will help build and deepen relationships on behalf of the university as she oversees advancement services, alumni relations, development, economic development, government relations and marketing and communications. She joins WSU from being the associate vice president of principal gifts and special projects at Regis University in Denver. She worked at Northern Arizona University (NAU) for 18 years, most recently as vice president for development and alumni engagement and president of the NAU Foundation.
EXPANSIONS
• National Land Realty, a South Carolina-based land brokerage company, has announced it will expand by adding its first offices in Utah and Wisconsin. The company specializes in farm, ranch, plantation, timber and recreational land across the country.
FOODS
• JMH Premium, a Salt Lake City provider of food products for food service, industrial manufacturers and casinos in North America, has acquired Chef Myron’s Fine Foods of Orange, Massachusetts. Financial terms were not disclosed. Myron’s was established in 1984 by Chef Myron Becker, a professional research chef with academic degrees in psychology and food service management. His sauces are utilized in foodservice operations such as home meal delivery programs, contract management companies, white tablecloth-restaurants, health and educational institutions, convention centers, caterers and country clubs, and other establishments.
HEALTHCARE
• Co-Diagnostics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based molecular diagnostics company, has added Eugene Durenard and Ted Murphy to its board of directors. Both also will serve on the board’s compensation and corporate governance/nominating committees and audit committees as independent directors. Durerand has 20 years of multi-asset class investment and entrepreneurial experience, including as founder and CEO of Hyperbolic Holdings, a Swiss-based holding, management consulting and investment advisory company specialized in healthcare since February 2018; co-founder and chief information officer of Healthcare Impact Holdings, an investment fund specialized in later-stage healthcare private ventures since May 2018; co-founder and trustee of Healthcare Impact Foundation, a charitable organization designed to sustainably fund translation of innovation in life sciences since September 2017; co-founder of Global Better Health, a platform designed to provide scientifically-based corporate wellness and preventive programs since December 2018; and an advisor to and managing director of the Stetson Family Office since September 2016. He began his career with Salomon Brothers in London. Murphy has been senior partner in a private investment firm since June 1999. His duties have included investment analysis of various types of investment projects in healthcare, real estate and financial services. Murphy serves on the board of directors of three Canadian publicly reporting companies that have interests in various industries.
HOSPITALITY
• My Place Hotels of America has opened a location at 1167 W. 80 S., Hurricane. It is the company’s fourth location in Utah. The three-story, 46-unit hotel is the company’s 49th My Place location across 22 states. It is locally owned and developed by Stepping Stones Development, who broke ground less than 10 months ago.
INVESTMENTS
• MX, a Lehi-based data platform for banks, credit unions and fintech companies, has announced a $100 million Series B financing round. The round was led by Battery Ventures, with participation from new investors H.I.G. Growth Partners, Point72 Ventures, SorensonVentures, Pelion Venture Partners and Cross Creek Capital; from existing investors Industry Ventures, Digital Garage, TTV Capital and Commerce Ventures; plus from customers National Bank of Canada and Washington Federal Bank. The new round brings the company’s total equity financing to $175 million. The company also announced it has reached the 2,000-customer milestone with the signing of Synovus Financial Corp. as its newest customer.
• Columbus Pacific has closed on a $165 million loan from Mosaic Real Estate Credit for construction financing for Pendry Park City, schedule to open in the Canyons Village in the winter of 2021. Pre-construction work has begun on the development, with an official groundbreaking date slated for this summer. The 233-key, ski-in lift-out luxury resort will feature guestrooms and suites, along with 152-fully serviced residences ranging in size from 446-square-foot studios starting at $395,000 to 2,600-square-foot, four-bedroom penthouse residences up to $3.65 million. It also will feature five restaurant concepts, a fitness center and spa, more than 7,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, and 40,000 square feet of commercial space on its 2.5 acres. Mosaic’s financing consists of a three-year senior construction loan with two 12-month extensions.
LAW
• Durham Jones & Pinegar has hired T. Richard Davis and Lynda Cook as of counsel attorneys, Davis in the firm’s Litigation section and Cook in the Real Estate section. T. Richard Davis focuses on real property, banking, commercial transaction and litigation matters, including acquisitions, sales, tax-free exchanges, financing, real estate development, commercial and residential leases, foreclosures, loan workouts, title disputes, quiet title actions, easements, boundary line disputes and mechanics liens. Cook has more than 30 years of experience as a real estate attorney. She handles a wide variety of transactional and real estate matters, with an emphasis on commercial and real estate loan documentation and negotiation primarily representing institutional lenders. She also handles commercial real estate purchase and sale transactions, as well as associated due diligence reviews. She has prepared and negotiated commercial leases for all kinds of projects, including retail, resort and office developments.
MILESTONES
• Entrata, a Lehi-based technology provider to the multifamily property industry, has announced that 1 million units across all business verticals are now implemented onto Entrata Core, a suite of accounting, leasing, purchasing and facilities software for the property management industry. Full-platform Entrata Core users are able to sign in once and access all applications and reports in a single database that allows for easy monitoring of an entire portfolio.
PHILANTHROPY
• Neighbor.com, a Lehi-based peer-to-peer self-storage company, has announced it will pay a different Neighbor customer’s monthly mortgage payment each month. Part of the startup's referral program, the “Neighbors” will be determined on the final day of each month, starting in July. To participate in the Neighbor referral program, customers invite their friends to the marketplace to become a Neighbor “host” or “renter.” Hosts provide extra space for rent in their home, garage or property. A renter simply pays for the space that fits their belongings and budget. As customers refer new friends to Neighbor and those friends take specific actions on the platform, the customer's position on the referral leaderboard will adjust accordingly. The customer atop the leaderboard at the end of each month will be rewarded by having Neighbor.com make their mortgage payment for the following month, up to $5,000.
REAL ESTATE
• Colliers International has hired Tanner Riedel for the firm’s downtown Salt Lake City office at 111 Main and Mark Haroldsen for its Utah County office in Pleasant Grove. Riedel previously was with Cushman Wakefield and focuses on office and investment transactions. Haroldsen has 25 years of experience with clients throughout the Utah market. He previously was with Cushman & Wakefield. His experience includes property acquisition, management and deal structure, including the disposition and acquisition of industrial, retail, multifamily and office, as well as consulting clients for favorable debt structures.
• Greystar, a South Carolina-based company focused on the investment, development and management of rental housing properties, has promoted Jennifer Velilla to director of real estate. She will be based in the company’s Salt Lake City officer and will be responsible for overseeing property management operations in Utah. Velilla has been involved in the multifamily industry since 1999 and her expertise spans portfolio management, property repositioning, lease-ups and renovations. Prior to joining Greystar in October 2017, she oversaw a portfolio of assets in the greater Chicagoland area for Penobscot.
• Entrata, a Lehi-based technology provider serving the multifamily property industry, has hired Virginia Love as industry principal on the organization’s executive team. Love will be directly involved in marketing, product and sales as a liaison from the industry to these departments. She has more than 27 years of experience in the industry, most recently serving as vice president of marketing and leasing for Chicago-based real estate investment and property management company Waterton.
RECOGNITIONS
• Ivanti, a Salt Lake City-based IT company, has been recognized by Supply & Demand Chain Executive (SDCE) as a recipient of an SDCE 100 Award for 2019. This is the second consecutive year that Ivanti has been recognized by SDCE for supply chain excellence. The SDCE 100 is an annual list of 100 great supply chain projects. Ivanti is being recognized for teaming with its partner Procensis, a mobility and network design solutions provider, to enable Dorman Products to move to a next-generation mobile solution that included voice for its distribution centers, leveraging Ivanti Velocity, Speakeasy and Avalanche, all solutions powered by Wavelink.
• Qualtrics, a Salt Lake City-based experience management company, has announced that its Qualtrics Experience Management (XM) Platform has been recognized as a “2019 Top Rated Customer Experience Management Platform” by TrustRadius, a review platform for B2B technology. Qualtrics earned the honor based on more than 260 customer reviews and achieved top rankings in each of the following categories: usability, return on investment, implementation services, and likelihood to recommend and renew, including a perfect score for customer support. Qualtrics is the only vendor to be named a leader across all market segments.
SERVICES
• ConsultNet, a South Jordan-based provider of IT staffing and solutions, has promoted Miner Smith to chief operating officer, following the recently announced retirement of the organization’s previous COO and president, Tony Marolda. Smith will oversee ConsultNet’s business operations and financial functions. He joined the company in 2017 as senior vice president of strategic development. Prior to that, he was executive vice president at Pyramid Consulting, responsible for all staffing operations in North America.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Nav, a Salt Lake City-based fintech company, has hired Jacque Morgan as vice president and general manager of enterprise partners. Morgan previously worked at Visa for 18 years, focusing on the small business audience and serving as the vice president and head of small-business product and client management. She also has experience as a small-business owner.
• InsideSales.com, a Provo-based artificial intelligence sales platform company, has appointed John Markovich as chief financial officer. He will be responsible for the company’s financial operations and positioning the company for its next phase of growth and expansion. Markovich has more than 25 years of financial leadership experience, including extensive experience with rapidly growing public and private high-growth software, services and e-commerce companies. Prior to joining InsideSales.com, Markovich was the CFO of OmniGuide Holdings Inc. and previously held CFO positions at Veritone Inc., NanoH2O Inc., EMCORE Corp., Pictos Technologies, Optical Coating Laboratories and AutoByTel.com.
TRANSPORTATION
• Quality Custom Distribution, a California-based subsidiary of Gold State Foods, has opened its newest distribution center in West Valley City. It provides distribution services to Starbucks, Chick-fil-A and Chipotle. The distribution center is the sixth new QCD facility to open in the past three years and is one of 19 across the country. QCD’s fleet in Salt Lake City completes more than 18,000 deliveries a year, and travels over 700,000 miles annually. The new center services all of the Salt Lake City, Richfield and Logan areas in Utah, as well as parts of Nevada, Wyoming and Idaho. While the company has been serving the region for decades, the new center evolved from a simple depot with only 11 drivers to a fully functioning, thriving distribution center that employs more than 40 people.