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BANKING
• D.L. Evans Bank has planned a branch at 360 E. Gentile St., Layton. The building is under construction and the bank plans to open the branch in late December. The branch will be a full-service location, offering a full range of banking products and services, with decisions made locally. The bank also has branches in Tremonton, South Ogden, Logan and Brigham City. The Layton branch will be its 37th branch in Idaho and Utah.
COMMUNICATIONS
• UTOPIA Fiber, Murray, has hired Jeff Erwin as chief operating officer. Erwin was previously a managing partner at Smart Fund, a Dallas, TX-based construction and property management company; led organizational planning and execution at Lucid Software Inc. in Salt Lake City; and led business unit strategy and portfolio management practices at Vivint Smart Home in Provo. Created by a group of Utah cities, UTOPIA is a community-owned fiber-optic network.
CONSTRUCTION
• Sinc Constructors Co., Centerville, has hired Rodney Gouff as a project manager. Gouff has over 16 years of experience in landscape operations. He will work closely with clients to provide cost estimates and manage landscape construction projects.
CONTESTS
• BoomStartup Accelerator is accepting applications until Aug. 20 for its second pitch competition. The PitchUp Two competition is open to all startups looking to improve the future and that have made less than $250,000 in the past year. Over $15,000 in cash and services will be awarded to the competition winners (over $7,000 in cash prizes, and more than $8,000 in consulting services. Applications are being accepted at https://boomstartup.com/pitchup/. The final pitch competition will be broadcast live Sept. 3.
DIVIDENDS
• The board of directors of Altabancorp, American Fork, has declared a quarterly dividend payment of 17 cents per common share. The dividend will be payable Aug. 16 to shareholders of record Aug. 9. Altabancorp is the bank holding company for Altabank, which has 25 branch locations from Preston, Idaho, to St. George.
• The board of directors of Clarus Corp., a Salt Lake City-based company focused on the outdoor and consumer enthusiast markets, has confirmed a regular quarterly cash dividend of 2.5 cents per share. The dividend will be paid Aug. 20 to stockholders of record Aug. 9.
• The board of directors of Medallion Bank, Salt Lake City, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents per share on the bank’s fixed-to-floating rate non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock, Series F. The dividend is payable Oct. 1 to holders of record Sept. 15. Medallion Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Medallion Financial Corp. and provides consumer loans for the purchase of recreational vehicles, boats and home improvements, along with loan origination services to fintech partners.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• The Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah) has promoted Vlada Yaremenko to business development manager, hired Olivia Newbold as research analyst and hired Jolly Karungi as program analyst. Yaremenko joined EDCUtah in 2019 as a business development analyst. Originally from Ukraine, she has lived in four countries. She earned a degree in international studies from the University of Utah. Newbold succeeds Elvon Farrell as research analyst. She earned a degree in economics from Westminster College. Karungi will assist business development, research/marketing and the executive team with various support efforts. A native of the Congo and raised in Uganda, She earned a B.S. in business information systems from the University of Utah.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Salt Lake City leads the nation’s cities for the strongest economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession, according to a study by SmartAsset. It analyzed data for 49 of the largest U.S. cities and considered the change in four metrics (consumer spending, small businesses open, small-business revenue and job postings) between January 2020 and April 2021, as well as the March 2021 unemployment rate. The study showed that when consumer spending is compared to pre-pandemic numbers, consumer spending in Salt Lake City is up almost 20 percent, eighth-highest among the cities. It is second for the number of small businesses currently open, with a 22.5 percent decrease since before the pandemic. It has also seen a significant uptick in new job postings. In the last week of April 2021, there were 19.8 percent more job postings when compared to the mean seven-day moving average in January 2020. In the overall rankings, Salt Lake City was followed by Fresno, California; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Memphis, Tennessee; and Minneapolis. Details are at https://smartasset.com/data-studies/cities-with-the-strongest-economic-recoveries-from-covid-19-2021
• Utahns ranked No. 2 for having the most polite tourists in the U.S., behind only Alaskans, according to a study by NextVacay.com. It devices a “tourist politeness index” to ascertain which Americans have the best and worst reputations when they vacation domestically. The least polite tourists are from Washington and Connecticut. Details are at https://nextvacay.com/travel-manners-of-american-tourist/.
• Weber County leads all Utah counties where home values have risen the most, according to a study by financial technology company SmartAsset. It measured the change in home values in each county throughout a five-year period. Weber County was followed, in order, by Tooele, Box Elder, Davis, Salt Lake, Cache, Utah, Juab, Washington and Sanpete counties. Details are at https://smartasset.com/taxes/utah-property-tax-calculator#utah/homeValueGrowth-1.
• Half of new pet owners in Utah are experiencing post-pandemic “pet regret,” according to a poll by pet products website Innovet Pet. Nationally, one in five new pet owners say they were influenced after seeing others post their cute pets on social media. Fifty-three percent admit they did no prior research before getting their pet during the pandemic. Details are at https://www.innovetpet.com/pages/dog-adoption-pandemic.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Nightingale College, a Salt Lake City-based college featuring blended learning programs for nursing education, will host an accreditation visit by the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) on Oct. 4-6. CCNE will be conducting a virtual evaluation visit of the college’s baccalaureate degree programs in nursing. As required by the CCNE procedures, the commission provides the opportunity for program constituents and other interested parties to submit in writing third-party comments concerning the programs’ qualifications for continued accreditation. Those comments can be submitted to the CCNE at thirdpartycomments@ccneaccreditation.org until Sept. 13. Questions related to the third-party comment process or any aspect of the accreditation process can be directed to Dr. Daniel Michalski at dmichalski@ccneaccreditation.org or (202) 887-6791 Ext. 253; or Audrey Auer at AAuer@nightingale.edu or (801) 689-2160.
HEALTHCARE
• Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah has appointed Dr. Howard Colman as the new co-leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Program. Colman is a physician-scientist at HCI, where he holds Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Professorship, and serves as a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Utah. Colman serves as director of CORI and leader of the Center for Neurologic Cancers at HCI. His clinical research is focused on the development and evaluation of new treatments for primary and metastatic brain tumors.
• R1 RCM Inc., a Murray-based provider of solutions designed to improve patient experience and financial performance of healthcare providers, has appointed Jay Sreedharan as its first chief technology and digital officer. Sreedharan has more than 20 years of leadership experience, including creating mobile and consumer ecommerce solutions, developing digital payment products and establishing the best utilization of AI/machine learning and cloud computing. Most recently, Sreedharan was the senior vice president and chief technology officer for MGM Resorts International. Prior to MGM, he was the vice president of engineering at Starbucks Corp. and held several roles at Microsoft Corp.
INVESTMENTS
• Clientbook, a Lehi-based platform and mobile app that facilitates easy clienteling by high-ticket retail sales associates, has raised a $4.5 million Series A funding round, led by Salt Lake City-based Aries Capital Partners and including current investors Kickstart, also in Salt Lake City, and Florida Funders of Tampa. The company plans to use the funding to expand its team, enter new verticals, and add some product features to the Clientbook mobile app and platform. Jason Reading, who has invested in and sold numerous businesses and served as a board advisor to a variety of portfolio companies, will advise Clientbook and represent Aries Capital Partners on the Clientbook board of directors.
• DW Healthcare Partners, a Park City-based healthcare-focused private equity firm, has completed its investment in Bio Agri Mix LP, based in Toronto, Canada. Bio Agri Mix is a manufacturer and distributor of medicated feed additives and water-soluble medications for livestock. Bio Agri Mix represents the fifth investment in DWHP’s fifth fund. Concurrent with the close, Andrew Carragher, DWHP founder and managing partner; Eric Moore, principal; and Paul Hays will join the Bio Agri Mix board of directors. Bio Agri Mix represents the fifth investment in DWHP’s fifth fund.
• Prime Trust, a Las Vegas-based one-stop shop for financial infrastructure for fintech innovators, has closed on a $64 million Series A funding round, led by Traverse, Cottonwood Heights-based Mercato Partners’ growth equity fund. Other participants are Samsung Next, Nationwide, Commerce Ventures, Ayon Capital, Kraken Ventures, STCAP, s20 Capital, Seven Peaks Ventures, Diverse Angels, University Growth Fund and Nevcaut Ventures. Along with the raise, Zane Busteed, a principal investor at Mercato Partners’ Traverse Fund, and Tom Gonser, of DocuSign and Seven Peaks Ventures, will join Prime Trust’s board of directors.
MILESTONES
• Mountain America Credit Union, Sandy, has reached 1 million members. The credit union was founded in the mid-1930s and now has 100 branches across Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico.
• EyeCare4Kids, a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit, has helped 400,000 children with vision care and free eyeglasses. Santi Morales, age 9, became the 400,000th child when visiting an EyeCare4Kids mobile clinic at a Salt Lake-area Boys & Girls Club. EyeCare4Kids was established 20 years ago and has eight clinics in four states. EyeCare4Kids will have a grand opening for its main clinic in Midvale Oct. 29. The expansion gives the clinic enough space to care for an additional 20,000 children annually in Utah alone.
PHILANTHROPY
• Vivint Smart Home Inc., Provo, has teamed up with Vivint Gives Back to promote two major initiatives that focus on giving children in underprivileged communities access to programs and supplies to improve education. Through these initiatives, Vivint Gives Back will donate 30,000 backpacks filled with supplies to students in over 50 communities across the country. The effort was made possible through $1.2 million in Vivint employee-led donations. It includes more than 20,000 backpacks in Utah, 6,000 in Texas and 2,000 in Florida. Vivint Gives Back also sent 432 students to STEM education summer camp in partnership with the NBA’s Utah Jazz. Vivint Gives Back pledged to send one child from underrepresented communities to STEM camp for every Utah Jazz assist during the 2021 postseason. The Jazz had a total of 216 assists in the playoffs, but Vivint Gives Back decided to double that number to make it possible for 432 kids to attend camp this summer, including more than 100 attending in-person at the Vivint Arena.
• DoTerra, a Pleasant Grove-based essential oils company, has announced the grand opening of Sanaag Specialty Hospital in Erigavo, Somaliland. Backed by doTerra Healing Hands, the hospital provides quality, accessible healthcare in a region with over 600,000 people. Working with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Planning, Response-Med and various NGOs over the past four years, doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation and local partners, Jibriil Foundation and Asli-Maydi, funded the construction of the hospital to bring primary and secondary healthcare services to the remote region. DoTERRA sources different species of frankincense resins from Somaliland, Oman and Ethiopia.
REAL ESTATE
• Property at 477 N. 300 W., Salt Lake City, that is the site of a Dollar Tree has been sold for $2.3 million by San Diego-based investor Fischbeck Family Trust to a regional franchisee of Ace Hardware, owned by Jason Hurst. The franchisee will occupy the property after the expiration of the current lease. Intersection announced the sale. Its senior director, Kyle Clark, represented both the buyer and seller.
• Dynamic City Capital (DCC), a Provo-based real estate investment firm focused on hotels, has acquired the AC Hotel by Marriott Seattle Bellevue/Downtown in Bellevue, Washington. Financial terms were not disclosed. The seven-story, 234-room hotel is DCC’s fourth acquisition this year.
RECOGNITIONS
• The South Valley Chamber has announced the recipients of its Titan Awards: Fred Lampropoulos, CEO and chairman, Merit Medical Systems; Peggy Larson, former senior vice president, WCF; and Mike Leavitt, former Utah governor and founder, Leavitt Partners. They will receive the awards Nov. 3 at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City.
• Marriott International has recognized Woodbury Corp., a Salt Lake City-based real estate management and development company, as a 2020 Partnership Circle Marriott Select Brands Owner and Franchise award winner. Marriott’s top accolade, the Partnership Circle award recognizes companies with Marriott portfolios of 10 or more hotels. The winning companies represent at least three Select Brands and meet a number of extremely stringent performance thresholds and criteria.
SERVICES
• OH Predictive Insights, an Arizona-based nonpartisan market research, predictive analytics and public opinion polling firm, has expanded into Utah with its Public Opinion Pulse, a statewide survey of 800-1,000 general population adults with a statistically significant sample size of registered and likely voters included. The Pulse surveys are currently conducted on a bi-monthly basis in Arizona and on a quarterly basis in Nevada. The Utah Public Opinion Pulse started Aug. 2 and will take place on a quarterly basis.
TECHNOLOGY
• Lucid, a South Jordan-based provider of visual collaboration software, has named Kimberly Jabal to its board of directors. She will serve as chair of the company’s newly formed audit committee. Jabal brings more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry, most recently as chief financial officer at Unity Technologies, where she led the company through its IPO. Prior to that, she was CFO of Weebly and Path. She also has held senior leadership positions in finance at several technology companies, serving as vice president of finance at Lytro and in various capacities during her eight years at Google, including director of engineering finance, director of investor relations and director of online sales finance. She currently serves on the board of FedEx and is a member of its audit and information technology oversight committees, and was previously a board and audit committee member at SVB Financial Group.
• GuideCX, a Draper-based company offering a platform for customer onboarding, has appointed Kristen Habacht to its board of directors. Habacht brings more than two decades of experience in enterprise software sales and will assist in driving the go-to-market strategy for GuideCX. Habacht currently serves as chief sales officer at Shogun, an e-commerce experience platform. She previously served as vice president of sales at Trello and spent four years at Australian-based Atlassian, most recently as the global head of enterprise development representative sales.
• Entrata, a Lehi-based company offering a technology platform for the multifamily industry, has hired Mark Hansen as chief financial officer. His experience includes leading and helping manage the initial public offering process for several companies, including Pluralsight, Skullcandy, EnergySolutions and Fusion-io. Most recently, Hansen served as the head of finance and accounting as well as the interim co-chief financial officer at Pluralsight. Prior to that, he was the corporate controller and interim CFO at Skullcandy.
• Convirza, a Draper-based company focused on call tracking and conversation analytics, has appointed Mo Asady as chief technology officer. He will oversee the company’s overall product strategy and development. Asady has 20 years of technical SaaS experience, most recently serving as CTO of FreightOn.