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ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
• The Void, a Lindon-based immersive virtual reality experiences company, has opened locations in three cities this summer: Atlanta; Minneapolis; and Washington, D.C. The Void has 11 locations: six in the U.S., three in Canada, and one each in Dubai and Malaysia.
• EdgeFive Group, an event production company, has opened a second location in downtown Salt Lake City. Its new sales and marketing office is in the recently remodeled historic Orpheum Theatre at 132 S. State St. The building is home to CommonGrounds, a shared office space provider. EdgeFive Group opened in late 2018 in the West Valley area. That facility will remain open and serve as a warehouse facility for all event production gear, as well as Corporate Staging Resources’ (CSR) headquarters.
BANKING
• Bank of Utah, Ogden, has hired Leonel E. Castillo as a senior vice president relationship manager and Shawn Choate as human resources manager. Castillo previously was CEO and president of AMBank. BOU Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Bank of Utah, purchased AmBancorp, the holding company for American Bank of Commerce (AmBank), in Dec. 2018. Castillo served in several leadership capacities for AMBank, including president and CEO of American Bank and CEO of AMBank and American Bank of Commerce. Choate previously served as deputy director of management services and human resources and risk manager for 12 years for Ogden City. She has also held positions in the manufacturing and hospitality industries. She is a graduate of Weber State University.
• TAB Bank, Ogden, has hired Gina Mackenzie as vice president and business development officer. Based in New York City, Mackenzie will responsible for sourcing new business opportunities by providing asset-based and factoring working capital facilities to commercial entities in the northeastern United States with annual revenues of $2 million to $150 million. Her experience in the financial services arena including working to help small and medium-sized businesses secure working capital needed to grow. Prior to her experience in the working capital space, she served in various roles at investment banking and commercial lending firms, including Credit Suisse First Boston, CIBC World Markets and Prudential Finance.
DIRECT SALES
• Nature’s Sunshine Products Inc., Lehi, has restructured its global business units by creating four regional operating business units (OBUs) “to further align and target its regional strategies driving synergies in product, organizational and go-to-market capabilities across both the Nature’s Sunshine and Synergy brands.” In conjunction with the new operating structure, the company has realigned its executive leadership. Dan Norman has been appointed as executive vice president and president of Asia/Pacific (APAC), and Bryant Yates has been appointed executive vice president and president of Europe. Latin America will report directly to the president and CEO until an OBU leader is appointed. The appointments follow the recent appointment of Eddie Silcock as executive vice president and president of North America. Norman will continue to play a leadership role in Synergy Worldwide’s global strategy as president of Synergy Worldwide, a position he has held since September 2007. Norman’s prior roles with the company include vice president of operations and vice president of information systems. Prior to joining Synergy, he was a senior manager of European operations at Tahitian Noni International from 1998-2004. Yates most recently served as president of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and wholesale. He has 20 years of global experience. He previously served as executive director of international of Nature’s Sunshine, director of international-Europe/Middle East and general manager of Nature’s Sunshine Products of Russia, an affiliate of the company. Yates has been with the company since 1999.
• Young Living Essential Oils, Lehi, has added the Mera Ocotea Farm, the newest corporate-owned farm. The 120-acre farm, located in Ecuador’s Pastaza Province, is expected to produce harvests of ocotea starting as early as 2023. With the founding of this latest farm, Young Living seeks to go beyond its goal of adding no fewer than five farms every year.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Zions Bancorporation NA, Salt Lake City, has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 34 cents per common share. The dividend is payable Aug. 22 to shareholders of record Aug. 15. It represents an increase of 13 percent from the dividend paid in the year-earlier period and in the second quarter of 2019. The board also has approved a plan to purchase up to $275 million of common shares during the third quarter of 2019. The board also declared regular quarterly cash dividends on the company’s various perpetual preferred shares. The cash dividend on the series A, G, H, and J shares are payable Sept. 16 to shareholders of record Sept. 1. The cash dividend on the Series I shares is payable Dec. 16 to shareholders of record Dec. 1.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Weber State University has selected Yimin Wang as senior international officer for international programs. In addition to leading the International Student & Scholar Center, Wang will oversee the Learning English for Academic Purposes (LEAP) program and the Study Abroad office, as well as university-wide internationalization strategies and efforts. Wang also will hold the position of assistant professor of teacher education for the Jerry & Vickie Moyes College of Education. Most recently, Wang served as executive director of INTO Illinois State University (ISU). She previously worked at ISU as associate director for the Office of International Studies and Programs.
ENERGY
• Vivint Solar, a Lehi-based solar systems company, has named Bill Blodgett as vice president of customer operations. He will oversee Vivint Solar’s corporate groups responsible for customer care and experience. Blodgett has more than 25 years of experience specializing in operations and customer relations, having held roles in both small and large companies across a wide variety of industries. Prior to joining Vivint Solar, Blodgett served as vice president and general manager at Conduent. He also served as group president for Xerox and spent 14 years working at Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) as managing director and chief operating officer of several business units.
HEALTHCARE
• Marketware, a Cottonwood Heights-based healthcare relationship management and analytics technology company, has promoted Carrie Bennett to chief operating officer and hired Kelly Skeen as vice president of sales. Bennett previously served as the company’s vice president of client strategy. She will continue to lead client implementation and success, while driving Marketware’s overall vision for new product development and client expansion. Prior to joining Marketware in 2016, Bennett spent 12 years with LifePoint Health in system-level and hospital-based leadership roles. Bennett also served as a service line administrator for St. Joseph’s/Candler. Skeen has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare IT, including 15 years as the vice president of ambulatory sales for NextGen Healthcare. He also served as SONIFI Health’s vice president of sales.
• Empiric Health, a Salt Lake City-based service company that identifies unwarranted clinical variation, has hired Alycia Parker as vice president of marketing. Parker will be responsible for marketing strategy and planning, sales operations and sales support, including opportunity analyses and product/service development. Parker has more than 15 years of experience in sales, consulting, and operations in the healthcare industry, most recently serving as a senior director at Huron Consulting Group.
• Marketware, a Cottonwood Heights-based healthcare relationship management and analytics technology company, has promoted Carrie Bennett to chief operating officer. Bennett previously served as the company’s vice president of client strategy. Bennett’s experience in the healthcare industry includes 12 years with LifePoint Health in system-level and hospital-based leadership roles. Bennett also served as a service line administrator for St. Joseph’s/Candler.
• CenExcel Clinical Research Inc. has created its Centers of Excellence company, which unites four clinical research units to design and executive Phase I-IV trials to help pharmaceutical companies improve the time and cost of new therapy development for better patient care. CenExel operates facilities in Utah, California, Georgia and Maryland. The CenExel Centers of Excellence include JBR Clinical Research, Atlanta Center for Medical Research, Anaheim Clinical Trials and CBH Health. CenExel was formed in 2018 with the merger of JBR Clinical Research, a Salt Lake City facility specializing in analgesia research and vaccine testing, with ACMR, an Atlanta-based psychiatric research facility.
INSURANCE
• The Buckner Co., a Salt Lake City-based insurance brokerage, has hired Brad Kupfer as chief sales officer of employee benefits. Kupfer will be managing Buckner’s sales process for employee benefits in six offices. Kupfer has more than 30 years of experience in the employee benefits sector. His experience includes both self-funded and fully insured medical and dental plans, stop-loss contracts and high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts.
INVESTMENTS
• Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Salt Lake City, has closed a $121 million Series C financing. The round was led by Baillie Gifford’s flagship investment trust, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC, with participation by new institutional investors Intermountain Ventures, Regents of the University of Minnesota, Texas Tech University System, and select angel investors. All prior institutional investors also participated in the round, including Lux Capital, Data Collective, Mubadala Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Obvious Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Epic Ventures, Menlo Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and CRV. Recursion said the new financing will support its continued build-out of its machine learning-enabled drug discovery platform alongside new capabilities designed to radically accelerate new chemical entity chemistry and predict safety pharmacology. In addition, the Company will continue to advance its growing pipeline of pre-clinical and clinical assets, including clinical-stage programs for cerebral cavernous malformation and neurofibromatosis Type 2.
LAW
• Holland & Hart has hired Burke Gappmayer for its commercial finance practice in its Salt Lake City office and also hired Rob Lang for its Salt Lake City office. Gappmayer has a decade of specialty finance industry experience, including serving as general counsel and chief legal officer for Summit Financial Resources. Lang’s experience includes being a lawyer, Certified Public Accountant and business consultant. He has 28 years of experience in “Big 4” accounting, with nearly 20 years as a partner and senior leader at KPMG LLP, including as KPMG’s chief data transformation officer.
• Parsons Behle & Latimer has hired Leslie A. Gallacher for its corporate transactions and securities group. She will practice from the firm’s Lehi and Salt Lake City offices. Gallacher specializes in domestic and international compliance. She previously was general counsel for a large, Utah-based direct sales company. Outside the direct sales and marketing industry, Gallacher maintained a private practice, representing multiple health and wellness companies, acting as strategic advisor and assisting with company growth strategies, international expansion and global compliance.
MEDIA/MARKETING
• Love Communications, a Salt Lake City-based advertising, digital, marketing and public relations firm, has hired Amber Banks as controller, Annie Studer as a member of the account service team and as a senior account manager, Kat Fedorova as a media buyer, Emily Manwaring as a web designer, and Ian Smith as office manager. Banks has nearly three decades of financial experience from her time working as a controller with a number of agencies in Utah. She graduated from Salt Lake Community College with an associate degree in business management. Studer has experience in marketing, management, and public and media relations. Her education includes an MBA from the University of Utah. Fedorova has worked as a media buyer for the past five years at other agencies in Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah in the David Eccles School of Business. Manwaring has eight years of experience working in web design and branding, including working for companies across Utah. She graduated with a bachelor of science degree in digital media from Utah Valley University. Smith served many years in the customer service industry.
NONPROFITS
• Sutherland Institute, a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit, conservative, nonpartisan think tank, has announced that Stan Swim has stepped down from its board of directors after 12 years of service and will be succeeded by Ron Daw, who co-founded Daw Technologies. Swim recently accepted the position of vice president of programs and partnerships at the Bill of Rights Institute. He previously served as the president of GFC Foundation, a Utah-based grantmaking foundation. He was senior analyst for Probity Advisors and worked in the technology industry as a software engineer and database developer. His education includes a B.S. in computer science from Utah Valley University. Daw is a founding partner of Viaggio Resorts, which is developing a network of high-end fractional owned properties throughout Europe; a founding partner in Warboy Productions, which is producing an episodic TV series; and a founding partner of a Utah-based film production company making a series about the renovation of a 200-year-old palace in Italy. Daw previously was chief financial officer of The Chosen LLC, which produced a multi-season TV series on the life of Jesus Christ; and a co-founder, CEO and chairman of Daw Technologies Inc.
PHILANTHROPY
• Employees of MarketStar, an Ogden-based sales acceleration company, recently contributed more than 3,000 hours of service to complete more than a dozen projects in the Ogden and Salt Lake City areas during its July 12 “Global Day of Service.” A total of 650 employees participated in the fourth annual event. MarketStar employees based in two Ogden offices partnered with Weber County officials to renovate various areas of the Weber County Fairgrounds, where they refurbished a softball complex, planted trees, painted and made other improvements. In Salt Lake City, MarketStar partnered with the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake to paint fences, plant trees, clean up outdoor areas, and add weather stripping to doors. In addition to its Utah offices, MarketStar encouraged field employees and groups operating in satellite offices around the world to find causes they are passionate about and contribute to their local communities.
• Nearly 500 employees of Imagine Learning, a Provo-based edtech company, recently volunteered at 36 schools in the Alpine, Provo and Nebo school districts doing a variety of service projects for teachers and staff as part of the company’s annual Vision Conference. The 497 volunteers, which included over 200 remote employees who traveled to Provo from across the country, participated in projects such as painting classrooms, building desks, organizing libraries, moving rocks and weeding schoolyards. In all, the volunteers contributed 1,491 hours of work, or the equivalent of 184 eight-hour days.
• AvantGuard Monitoring Centers, Ogden, in partnership with the AG Cares Foundation, is sponsoring its seventh-annual 5K benefit race. The “AG Run For A Reason” benefit is held to help a family in the community who is experiencing financial strains from medical issues. This year, the 5K is being held to benefit the Jumper family from Farmington. Kenna and Tyler Jumper are parents of 3-year-old Charlie Jumper, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma this spring. The benefit run will take place Sept. 14 at Big Dee Sports Park in Ogden.
REAL ESTATE
• Olympus Property, based in Texas, has acquired Promenade at the District, a Class A, 170-unit, garden-style community built in 2012 at 11391 S. River Heights Driver, South Jordan. The community has been renamed Olympus at the District. Olympus said it plans to spend $800,000 on top of the existing finish-outs. Olympus Property owns and manages more than 17,000 units across 10 states. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. Greg Garratt, managing director of Berkadia’s Salt Lake City office, represented Olympus Property.
RECOGNITIONS
• Maile Keone has been accepted into the Forbes Communications Council, an invitation-only community for executives in communications, marketing and public relations. Keone is president of Listen Technologies, a Bluffdale-based assistive-listening solutions company. Keone was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of her experience. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors. As a council member, Keone will connect and collaborate with other local leaders in a private forum and be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share her insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts.
• Blair Jensen, a teacher at Jordan Academy for Technology and Careers in Riverton, and his skilled-trades program are among 50 semifinalists for the 2019 Harbor Freight “Tools to Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence.” A total of $1 million in cash prizes will be awarded in the program. Jensen teaches welding and agriculture mechanics. Finalists were chosen by a panel of judges from a field of 749 skilled-trades teachers who applied for the prize. Semifinalists advance to a second round of competition. Three first-place and 15 second-place winners will be announced Oct. 24.
RESTAURANTS
• The Gateway in Salt Lake City has announced a pair of new restaurants. Chedda Burger has opened a location at 190 S. 400 W. in The Gateway in Salt Lake City. The restaurant previously was on 600 SouthChef Nick Watts founded The Chedda Truck in 2012 and the company now has locations in Foothill, Lehi and The Gateway. Mr. Shabu will open a 5,000-square-foot location this fall at 159 S. Rio Grande St. It will serve shabu-shabu, an Asian hot pot dish gaining popularity in the United States and Europe.
RETAIL
• Old Navy, an apparel and accessories company, has opened at Valley Fair in West Valley City. The 12,400-square-foot store is near the center’s west entrance. Old Navy has more than 1,100 stores worldwide.
RURAL UTAH
• The Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) recently announced enhanced features to the Rural Economic Development Incentive (REDI) grant program. Administered by GOED’s Office of Rural Development, REDI gives a post-performance grant of $4,000 to $6,000 to local and urban businesses for creating new, high-paying jobs in 21 rural counties. Among the changes are raising the incentive cap of $25,000 (per business) total per fiscal year to $250,000; lowering the required wage from 125 percent to 110 percent of the county’s average wage; adding Box Elder, Iron and Uintah counties to the list of eligible locations; allowing businesses to potentially obtain the grant after six months of full-time employment; and allowing the grant to be used concurrently with other GOED incentives. The REDI grant incentivizes businesses on the Wasatch Front or elsewhere to hire remote online employees, set up a satellite hub/office space, or locate a facility in rural Utah. Businesses other than construction, retail, staffing or public utility industries are eligible to apply.
SERVICES
• Cicero Group, a Salt Lake City-based management consulting firm, has named Catherine Jaynes as a partner. Based in Dallas, Jaynes will help develop Cicero Group’s social impact and education practice areas. She has extensive experience in the public and social sectors in program design, implementation and evaluation. In some of her most recent work at the George W. Bush Institute, she was responsible for the development and execution of national and international programs, including Presidential Leadership Scholars. She also led the design and implementation of measurement and evaluation strategies across the institute and previously for the U.S. Department of Education.
• Cache Valley Electric, Logan, has appointed Bryan Webb to chief operating officer and appointed four vice presidents: Scott R. Collard, John Lee, Brian Parkin and Eric Ward. Webb comes to CVE from Layton Construction, where he spent 15 years, 10 of those as executive vice president. After four years as executive vice president of Layton’s Interior Construction Specialist group, he spent the past six years leading Layton’s Construction Services Group. Collard is now vice president and manager of the company’s Transmission Line and Substation Division. Collard is a journeymen lineman who began his career in 1985 as an apprentice through Mountain States Line. In his 10 years with CVE, Collard has been a line division manager and a line department manager, which he has held for the past eight years. Lee is now vice president and manager of CVE Technologies Group. Lee has been with CVE for 15 years, starting as a systems engineer and advancing to account manager, senior account manager and, most recently, director. Ward is now vice president and manager of the Signal and Utility Division. Ward began his career with an IBEW Electrical Apprenticeship. He joined CVE 27 years ago as a laborer, then worked as an operator, foreman, apprentice, journeyman, field superintendent, department manager, and division manager for the past five years. Parkin is now vice president and manager of the Teledata, Multimedia and DAS (distributed antenna systems) Division. CVE hired Parkin 14 years ago as a project manager for special projects. Parkin later was multimedia director and for the past eight years has led the teledata, multimedia and DAS division as manager.
• Superior Lube Inc., a franchisee of Valvoline Inc., has acquired a quick-lube location now operating as a Valvoline Instant Oil Change service center at 55 W. 800 N., Orem. It is the company’s fifth service center in the Salt Lake market and is among 1,300 company-owned and franchised quick-lube locations.
• U-Haul Company of Utah Inc. has announced that Oquirrh View Storage has signed on as a U-Haul neighborhood dealer to serve the West Jordan community. Oquirrh View Storage, at 6088 W. 9790 S., will offer U-Haul trucks, trailers and moving supplies.
SPORTS
• Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation has hired Luke Bodensteiner as general manager of Soldier Hollow and chief of sport development. Bodensteiner will oversee all aspects of the daily operation of the Nordic venue in the Heber Valley. The Soldier Hollow Nordic Center was added to the foundation’s operational oversight in 2016. Bodensteiner previously was the chief of sport of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, where he led the U.S. Ski & Snowboard teams, the national training and education Center of Excellence in Park City, its sport science and medical programs, coach education and club development, athlete identification and development, athlete career and education programming, and club-level competition and ranking systems. Prior to joining U.S. Ski & Snowboard, he was a cross-country racer for the U.S. Ski Team, competing in the Olympics in 1992 and 1994.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• Axcend, a Provo-based liquid chromatography systems company, has hired Ross Hansen as vice president of sales. He will be responsible for leading and directing worldwide sales efforts for Axcend, both domestically and around the globe, including both direct and channel sales programs. Hansen has more than 30 years of experience in sales and sales management of scientific instruments, with a specific emphasis on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry, including sales management, sales and field sales/support positions with Thermo Fisher Scientific, Agilent (and Hewlett Packard/Agilent) and Perkin Elmer. He also spent four years with the Monroe County Regional Crime Lab in New York as a forensic scientist and more than two years with Schenectady Chemicals as a synthetic organic chemist.
• MasterControl, a Salt Lake City-based company focused on compliance software for life sciences and other regulated companies, has hired Michelle Tanner as chief financial officer. Tanner has more than 20 years of financial expertise and leadership experience, most recently holding executive positions at InsideSales and Venafi, two other SaaS companies based in Salt Lake City. Tanner earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Utah.
• ReliaQuest, a Florida-based cybersecurity company, has opened a cybersecurity technology center outside Salt Lake City. The company said the center will accelerate its engineering and development capabilities in support of the company’s first-of-its-kind platform, GreyMatter. It also will house ReliaQuest’s fourth security operations center, joining existing brick-and-mortar locations in Tampa, Florida; Las Vegas; and Dublin, Ireland. ReliaQuest plans to hire a team of 50 in this new office by 2021.
TRANSPORTATION
• Pilot Freight Services Inc., a Pennsylvania-based provider of transportation and logistics services, has promoted Shawn Burrell to regional vice president. He will oversee Pilot’s western region from Salt Lake City. A 27-year veteran of the transportation industry, Burrell began his career at Pilot Salt Lake City as a district manager in 2003. In his new role, Burrell will work to enhance and support district managers with a clearly defined goal of increasing sales in the region while continuing to reach new levels of operational success.
TRAVEL & TOURISM
• Visit Salt Lake has appointed Judy Cullen as managing director of partner development, following the retirement of Pat Holmes after 32 years with VSL. Cullen will be responsible for the development and management of strategic partnerships with Salt Lake businesses engaged in the hospitality tourism industry. She also will oversee VSL’s governance programs, including communication to the board of directors and standing committees; development and execution of VSL membership strategies and goals; and directing and managing the organization’s advertising sales, partnership revenue programs and cooperative marketing agreements. Cullen’s hospitality-based career began with Salt Lake’s Gastronomy Inc., as communications director, followed by serving as director of marketing at Salt Lake Brewing Co. and marketing director of the Tsunami Restaurant Group.