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.
ASSOCIATIONS
• Several changes to the Economic Development Corporation of Utah’s Board of Advisors were announced at the organization’s recent annual meeting in Salt Lake City. The new board chairman is Jay Francis, Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, who succeeds Dean Luikart, Wells Fargo. Several board members were reappointed. New board members are Craig Wagstaff, Dominion Energy; Tom Morgan, Zions Bank; Lance Bullen, Colmena; Richard Brunst, Orem City; Bret Millburn, Davis County Commission; Shawne Milne, Tooele County Commission; Cameron Deihi, Utah League of Cities and Towns; and Lincoln Shurtz, Utah Association of Counties. New ex-officio board members are Noelle Cocket, Utah State University; Steve Morgan, Westminster College; Derek Miller, World Trade Center Utah; Lane Beattie, Salt Lake Chamber; and Rep. Brad Wilson, Utah House of Representatives. Outgoing board members are Jill Taylor, KeyBank; John Curtis, Provo mayor; and David Pershing, University of Utah.
• Silicon Slopes is encouraging companies and chief executive officers to take the “ParityPledge,” an initiative of Parity.org designed to increase the representation of women at the highest levels of leadership in organizations across the country. The full list of founding companies will be officially announced during the Women’s Leadership Summit, part of the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit, in January. Silicon Slopes executives collaborated with Parity.org founder Cathrin Stickney to develop the idea for the ParityPledge over the past few months. The ParityPledge asks CEOs and their organizations to commit to including at least one qualified female candidate in the interview process for any open position of vice president or higher, including board positions, with no requirement of hiring quotas or deadlines.
BANKING
• TAB Bank, Ogden, has hired Scott F. Barnes as vice president and business development officer. Barnes will be based in Dallas and will be responsible for sourcing new business opportunities by providing asset-based and factoring working capital facilities to commercial entities in the southwestern United States with annual revenues of $2 million to $150 million. Barnes career spans more than two decades, with roles including finance, operations and business development. He previously was vice president of Comerica Bank’s Technology and Life Sciences Division. He also has been an entrepreneur, founding a boutique investment bank and a management consulting firm while also owning and operating a food services business.
EDUCATION/TRAINING
• Ardusat, a Salt Lake City-based education technology company, has changed its name to Because Learning. The company said the change reflects its expansion into new STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs and the addition of a subscription model designed to lower the price point for teachers and bring its education technology to general consumers. Because Learning will act as the parent company encompassing the Ardusat Space Program, used by K-12 students. The company’s online portal for learning experiences, called eHub, will now be known as the Because Learning Platform.
GOVERNMENT
• Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski has selected Jon Larsen to be Salt Lake City’s transportation division director. Larsen will take the lead in implementing Salt Lake City’s first-ever Transit Master Plan, which focuses on increasing connectivity, affordability and enhanced transit routes to improve the city’s transit network. Larsen has extensive experience with transportation across the Wasatch Front, including serving as the director of modeling and data for the Wasatch Front Regional Council for the past six years. He previously worked as a transportation engineer and project manager for both WCEC Engineers and Fehr & Peers. Larsen is the chair of the Utah chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and is an active member of the Utah chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). He holds a master’s degree in science from Brigham Young University.
INVESTMENT
• Weave Communications Inc., a Lehi-based patient communication technology platform, has closed on $17 million in Series B-1 funding, led by Catalyst Investors and involving existing investors Crosslink Capital and Pelion Venture Partners. The funding will help expand the company’s go-to-market efforts and continue product and network development. Catalyst partner Tyler Newton has joined Weave’s board of directors. Founded in 2014, Weave provides voice, SMS, email and marketing services to dental and optometry offices.
• Kennedy Funding Financial, based in New Jersey, has announced that it has closed a more than $1 million land loan to Saint-Prex Estates, a Utah-based residential property developer. The loan funds Saint-Prex of Midway’s acquisition of an 11.54-acre tract of vacant land, the future site of 16 single-family homes at 800 W. Swiss Alpine Road, a subdivision of Saint-Prex Estates. Each home will sit on approximately a half-acre and will range in asking price from $1.1 million to $1.6 million. Saint-Prex Estates is being developed by R. Kent Buie, an experienced real estate developer who has managed real estate development within the Intermountain Region since 1977.
LAW
• Holland & Hart has hired David J. Crapo as a partner in the firm’s Salt Lake City office. Crapo rejoins the firm’s tax practice after serving a multi-year mission for his church. Prior to joining Holland & Hart, he was a tax attorney at Crapo Smith PLLC.
NONPROFITS
• The Utah 1033 Foundation has appointed Dave Kaufman as president and Stephen D. Taylor as a director on its Governing Board. The foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 2011 to honor Utah’s fallen officers by providing immediate financial support to their families and presenting college scholarships to the children of active Utah law enforcement officers. Kaufman came to Utah in 2007 after a 10-year career as a marketing executive with Intel Corp. and is also the former head of school at The Winter Sports School in Park City. Currently a private investor, Taylor is a former financial services executive with more than 25 years of experience in the industry. Since leaving his last executive financial services position in 1997, Taylor has been an outdoor adventure enthusiast. Taylor’s education includes graduating from Brigham Young University.
PHILANTHROPY
• Companies with Utah ties continue to help in the recovery after Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. Huntsman Corp. has announced that Huntsman entities — including the company, Huntsman Family Foundation and the Huntsman family — have contributed over $10 million dollars to local relief efforts and Huntsman associates affected by Hurricane Harvey. Contributions are expected to continue throughout the coming months. The donations include $3 million from the Huntsman Corp., Huntsman Family Foundation and Huntsman board director Wayne Reaud. The $3 million contribution will be put into a 501(c)3 called the Huntsman Flood Fund. Gilbert I. “Buddy” Low, board member of the Beaumont Foundation of America, has also pledged an initial $500,000 to the fund on behalf of the foundation. Approximately 100 Huntsman associates in the Houston and Golden Triangle areas saw their homes significantly impacted by the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. The company is continuing to support impacted associates by offering compensation to those whose primary residence have been damaged by flood waters and providing hotel rooms and vehicles to those that have been displaced or left without transportation. The Huntsman Port Neches Operations site has also donated generators and water trucks to local shelters in Jefferson County. Ultradent Products Inc., South Jordan, has increased from $250,000 to $300,000 its donations to the Saint Bernard Project and the All Hands Volunteer organizations in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey and damage done by Hurricane Irma.
• World Trade Center Utah and UServeUtah spent the Sept. 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance feeding the homeless community at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Hall and cleaning the Weigand Homeless Resource Center. Both the dining hall and the resource center are run by Catholic Community Services (CCS). A group of 50 volunteers from 10 organizations joined WTC Utah and UServeUtah at the dining hall and resource center to serve the homeless population. Throughout the day, the group served 360 meals, prepared food for 1,200 sack lunches, installed 80 shelves, organized three donation rooms and scraped rust off of the Catholic Community Services fence so it can be painted later.
• Candlelight Homes has donated $54,000 to Millie’s Princess Foundation. The amount represents the profits made from the sale of a new Candlelight home in Saratoga Springs. The nonprofit foundation uses donations to provide financial support and hope to families affected by childhood cancer.
REAL ESTATE
• Promontory has hired Chris Messick as director of sales for the 6,400-acre private community in Park City. Messick originally joined Promontory in 2013. He also has worked at The Canyons Park City Mountain Resort and The Club at Spanish Peaks in Big Sky, Montana. Most recently, Messick was with Engel and Volkers in Park City.
SCHOLARSHIPS
• Western Governors University (WGU), a Salt Lake City-based online university, has announced 100 new scholarships — totaling $200,000 — for any of its bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in the College of Information Technology. Each Women in Technology Scholarship is valued at up to $2,000 ($500 per six-month term for up to four terms). Applications are being accepted for the scholarships through Dec. 31. Details are at www.wgu.edu/tuition_financial_aid/scholarships/women_in_technology. Recipients will be selected based on their academic records, financial needs, and readiness for online study at WGU, among other considerations.
SERVICES
• DHL Global Forwarding has expanded with a new location in Salt Lake City, about 3 miles from Salt Lake City International Airport. It offers local air freight, ocean freight, customs, storage and domestic services. The Salt Lake City station manager is Josh Rennert. The station has nine employees. DHL now has a presence in 15 U.S. cities, with plans to have 36 U.S. stations by year-end. DHL has about 350,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide.
• Extra Space Storage Inc., Salt Lake City, said Sept. 14 that 219 stores — totaling approximately 20 million net rentable square feet and approximately 173,000 units — had been reopened in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. At that time, eight properties totaling approximately 575,000 net rentable square feet and approximately 6,200 units remained temporarily closed due to impact related to Hurricane Irma. Three of the eight closed stores are owned by the company and the other five are managed on behalf of third-party owners. A real estate investment trust, Extra Space Storage owns and/or operates 1,470 self-storage properties in 38 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico.