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.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Unity Technologies, based in San Francisco, has announced a partnership with theUniversity of Utahin which all senior undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the university’s Entertainment Arts & Engineering (EAE) program can become Unity certified developers free of charge. The Unity Certification Exam and program are designed to give developers the opportunity to validate their design and programming skills and demonstrate foundational proficiency in the platform for game development. Unity serves more than 5.5 million registered developers around the world.
HEALTHCARE
•CoNextions Medical, Sandy, has hiredDr. Attila Pokaas chief medical officer. He will lead the company in its development and practice of clinical education and training for physicians and distributors, oversee clinical research collaboration and educational grants, work with physical therapists in recovery protocols, support sales and marketing programs, and help guide product development initiatives to further improve and expand the company’s products. Poka previously was chief of orthopaedic trauma at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, and clinical professor of orthopaedic trauma at Ohio University. He also held numerous appointments while at Shock Trauma Center/MIEMSS in Baltimore, Maryland.
•Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City, has hiredDavid Graueras a senior vice president. He will work directly with Health Catalyst clients across the country to help them implement the company’s methodology for systematic quality improvement. Grauer served 23 years in executive leadership positions at Intermountain Healthcare. For the past nine years, Grauer served as chief executive officer and administrator of Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Previously, he was CEO/administrator of two other Intermountain hospitals: Cottonwood Hospital and The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital/TOSH.
•TheCenters for Medicare & Medicaid Services(CMS) has announced that $902,681 in “navigator” grant awards to returning organizations in Utah: theUtah Health Policy Projectand theUrban Indian Center of Salt Lake. The awards will support local, in-person assistance to help Utah consumers navigate, shop and enroll in the variety of healthcare marketplace coverage options. In total, CMS announced $63 million in grant awards to all states using the federally facilitated marketplace. Navigators are trained individuals and organizations who help consumers, small businesses and employees as they look for health coverage options and financial assistance through the marketplace. Navigators can meet in person with consumers and help them understand the coverage options available to them as well as help them pick, apply for and enroll in a plan of their choice.
INVESTMENT
•Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC, Salt Lake City, has promotedMark MadsenandBrad Barthto industry portfolio managers on the Grandeur Peak Global Reach Fund. Madsen will lead the energy and materials team and Barth will lead the financials team. Madsen began his investment career at Wasatch Advisors, where he specialized in energy and materials, industrials and financials. Before joining Grandeur Peak on the energy and materials team at the beginning of 2016, he had spent the last seven years as a portfolio manager at Red Desert Capital and then managed an equity portfolio for a family office. Barth joined Grandeur Peak’s financials team in 2015 from Goldman Sachs, where he had been an EMEA financial institutions analyst in the Credit Research Group. Barth teaches a game theory course for MBA students as an adjunct professor at the University of Utah.
LAW
•Prince, Yeates & Geldzahlerhas hiredKiersty B. Loughmillerand will focus her practice on general corporate and natural resource law. Loughmiller previously was an associate at MacDonald & Miller Mineral Legal Services PLLC, where she specialized in oil and gas law, specifically mineral title examination that included federal, state and fee lands. She received her law degree from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark School of Law and her bachelor of science in psychology and political science from Southern Utah University.
PHILANTHROPY
•Kneaders Bakery & Caféis partnering with theHuntsman Cancer Instituteduring September, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, on a campaign to fight childhood cancer. All 52 Kneaders locations throughout the western region will sell elephant-shaped sugar cookies, with all sales going toward research into elephant DNA that may unlock the cure for childhood cancer. Dr. Joshua Schiffman, with HCI and the University of Utah, is conducting the research. Elephants almost never get cancer because they have 40 copies of a gene that prevents tumors, while humans have only two. The public can support the campaign by buying the cookies, making donations by rounding up their total purchase to the nearest dollar amount or adding a specified dollar amount to their purchase, or donating online at www.kneaders.com/fightcancer. The institute and Kneaders hope to raise more than $50,000.
SERVICES
•Progrexion, Salt Lake City, has appointedJames Potteras chief legal officer. Potter will oversee the efforts of the Progrexion legal and compliance teams. Potter has more than 30 years of experience, with a background in navigating national and international regulatory environments and managing legal and compliance departments in various industries. Prior to joining Progrexion, Potter served as senior vice president of transformation initiatives at Lineage Logistics LLC; senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Del Monte Corp.; executive vice president, general counsel and secretary at Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co.; and chief legal officer of the Prudential Insurance Co./Prudential Banks.
•Kudelski Securityhas hiredDarrell Switzerof Salt Lake City as head of the company’s global incident response and cyber resilience practice. Switzer has more than 17 years of hands-on incident response experience. He previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Citibank and FishNet Security.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• TheUtah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) Initiativeis accepting proposals for two of its grant programs: the Technology Acceleration Program (TAP) and the University Technology Acceleration Grants (UTAG). The programs target the automation and robotics, aerospace, advanced materials, big data, energy and clean technology and life sciences sectors. TAP, a competitive grant program, supports private-sector technology development for Utah-based companies. While designed for start-ups and early-stage companies, mature companies can apply to TAP for development of a new technology or product. Proposed work can include research and development, proof of concept, product validation and product development. Available to individual researchers or ad-hoc teams employed by Utah colleges or universities, UTAG is a competitive research grant for advancing the maturity of or de-risking technology that has been developed in university labs. Details are at “Our Programs” at www.ustar.org.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Unity Technologies, based in San Francisco, has announced a partnership with theUniversity of Utahin which all senior undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the university’s Entertainment Arts & Engineering (EAE) program can become Unity certified developers free of charge. The Unity Certification Exam and program are designed to give developers the opportunity to validate their design and programming skills and demonstrate foundational proficiency in the platform for game development. Unity serves more than 5.5 million registered developers around the world.
HEALTHCARE
•CoNextions Medical, Sandy, has hiredDr. Attila Pokaas chief medical officer. He will lead the company in its development and practice of clinical education and training for physicians and distributors, oversee clinical research collaboration and educational grants, work with physical therapists in recovery protocols, support sales and marketing programs, and help guide product development initiatives to further improve and expand the company’s products. Poka previously was chief of orthopaedic trauma at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, and clinical professor of orthopaedic trauma at Ohio University. He also held numerous appointments while at Shock Trauma Center/MIEMSS in Baltimore, Maryland.
•Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City, has hiredDavid Graueras a senior vice president. He will work directly with Health Catalyst clients across the country to help them implement the company’s methodology for systematic quality improvement. Grauer served 23 years in executive leadership positions at Intermountain Healthcare. For the past nine years, Grauer served as chief executive officer and administrator of Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Previously, he was CEO/administrator of two other Intermountain hospitals: Cottonwood Hospital and The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital/TOSH.
•TheCenters for Medicare & Medicaid Services(CMS) has announced that $902,681 in “navigator” grant awards to returning organizations in Utah: theUtah Health Policy Projectand theUrban Indian Center of Salt Lake. The awards will support local, in-person assistance to help Utah consumers navigate, shop and enroll in the variety of healthcare marketplace coverage options. In total, CMS announced $63 million in grant awards to all states using the federally facilitated marketplace. Navigators are trained individuals and organizations who help consumers, small businesses and employees as they look for health coverage options and financial assistance through the marketplace. Navigators can meet in person with consumers and help them understand the coverage options available to them as well as help them pick, apply for and enroll in a plan of their choice.
INVESTMENT
•Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC, Salt Lake City, has promotedMark MadsenandBrad Barthto industry portfolio managers on the Grandeur Peak Global Reach Fund. Madsen will lead the energy and materials team and Barth will lead the financials team. Madsen began his investment career at Wasatch Advisors, where he specialized in energy and materials, industrials and financials. Before joining Grandeur Peak on the energy and materials team at the beginning of 2016, he had spent the last seven years as a portfolio manager at Red Desert Capital and then managed an equity portfolio for a family office. Barth joined Grandeur Peak’s financials team in 2015 from Goldman Sachs, where he had been an EMEA financial institutions analyst in the Credit Research Group. Barth teaches a game theory course for MBA students as an adjunct professor at the University of Utah.
LAW
•Prince, Yeates & Geldzahlerhas hiredKiersty B. Loughmillerand will focus her practice on general corporate and natural resource law. Loughmiller previously was an associate at MacDonald & Miller Mineral Legal Services PLLC, where she specialized in oil and gas law, specifically mineral title examination that included federal, state and fee lands. She received her law degree from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark School of Law and her bachelor of science in psychology and political science from Southern Utah University.
PHILANTHROPY
•Kneaders Bakery & Caféis partnering with theHuntsman Cancer Instituteduring September, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, on a campaign to fight childhood cancer. All 52 Kneaders locations throughout the western region will sell elephant-shaped sugar cookies, with all sales going toward research into elephant DNA that may unlock the cure for childhood cancer. Dr. Joshua Schiffman, with HCI and the University of Utah, is conducting the research. Elephants almost never get cancer because they have 40 copies of a gene that prevents tumors, while humans have only two. The public can support the campaign by buying the cookies, making donations by rounding up their total purchase to the nearest dollar amount or adding a specified dollar amount to their purchase, or donating online at www.kneaders.com/fightcancer. The institute and Kneaders hope to raise more than $50,000.
SERVICES
•Progrexion, Salt Lake City, has appointedJames Potteras chief legal officer. Potter will oversee the efforts of the Progrexion legal and compliance teams. Potter has more than 30 years of experience, with a background in navigating national and international regulatory environments and managing legal and compliance departments in various industries. Prior to joining Progrexion, Potter served as senior vice president of transformation initiatives at Lineage Logistics LLC; senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Del Monte Corp.; executive vice president, general counsel and secretary at Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co.; and chief legal officer of the Prudential Insurance Co./Prudential Banks.
•Kudelski Securityhas hiredDarrell Switzerof Salt Lake City as head of the company’s global incident response and cyber resilience practice. Switzer has more than 17 years of hands-on incident response experience. He previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Citibank and FishNet Security.
TECHNOLOGY/LIFE SCIENCES
• TheUtah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) Initiativeis accepting proposals for two of its grant programs: the Technology Acceleration Program (TAP) and the University Technology Acceleration Grants (UTAG). The programs target the automation and robotics, aerospace, advanced materials, big data, energy and clean technology and life sciences sectors. TAP, a competitive grant program, supports private-sector technology development for Utah-based companies. While designed for start-ups and early-stage companies, mature companies can apply to TAP for development of a new technology or product. Proposed work can include research and development, proof of concept, product validation and product development. Available to individual researchers or ad-hoc teams employed by Utah colleges or universities, UTAG is a competitive research grant for advancing the maturity of or de-risking technology that has been developed in university labs. Details are at “Our Programs” at www.ustar.org.