Company news information may be sent to brice.w@thecityjournals.com.
DIRECT SALES
• LifeVantage Corp., a Salt Lake City-based health and wellness products company, has hired Mike Edwards as chief technology officer. He will focus on accelerating the company’s digital strategy to better support its independent consultants and customers worldwide. Edwards has more than 25 years of experience as a senior executive specializing in technology leadership and enterprise transformation and has expertise in e-commerce, AI, CRM systems and mobile technology. He most recently served as CTO at a direct selling company.
GOVERNMENT
• The Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Securities has announced the appointment of Roger Silvers to the Utah Securities Commission. Silvers fills a role designed to complement the four other commissioners — who represent the securities industry — by providing an explicitly independent perspective, unaffiliated with industry interests. He succeeds Mark Zimbelman in the commissioner position representing the public at large. Silvers has expertise in the enforcement of securities laws and international regulatory cooperation. A former senior economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he currently serves as a distinguished academic at the University of Utah.
HEALTH CARE
• Intermountain Health has named Eric Liston as regional president of Intermountain’s Canyons Region, which includes all Intermountain hospitals, clinics and community programs from central Utah north into Idaho. Liston will guide clinical and business operations across hospitals, clinics and community programs; foster integrated delivery and proactive care; and strengthen relationships with caregivers, physicians, trustees and community partners. He also will serve on Intermountain’s Enterprise Leadership Team and System Operations Council, lead the Canyons Region Executive Team, and act as board liaison to support governance across the region. He will work with Intermountain departments, including Enterprise Shared Services, Clinical Shared Services and Select Health insurance, to leverage system capabilities and advance outcomes for patients, members and communities. Liston has worked for Intermountain for 25 years, previously serving as vice president and chief clinical shared services officer. Liston succeeds Sue Robel, who has served as president of Intermountain’s Canyons Region for the past four years. Robel, who retires on Feb. 15, served as Intermountain’s chief nursing officer from 2019 until 2022, then as president of Intermountain’s Canyons Region from 2022 until 2026.
• CancerVax Inc., a Lehi-based pre-clinical biotechnology company developing a breakthrough universal cancer treatment platform, has named Mark M. Davis as senior scientific advisor. He is a professor of microbiology and immunology and the director of the Center for Human Systems Immunology and co-director of the Parker Center for the Immunotherapy of Cancer at Stanford University. Davis was the founding director of the Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection.
• Light-Hope Diagnostics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company aiming to deliver solutions for early cancer detection using serum small non-coding RNAs as biomarkers, has announced Dinesh Patel as a seed investor. Patel is an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He co-founded TheraTech Inc., a drug delivery company that was acquired by Watson Pharmaceuticals (now Teva Pharmaceuticals) and also has played a transformative role in Utah’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. He served as managing director at vSpring Capital and serves on several nonprofit boards.
LAW
• Holland & Hart LLP has hired Dane Johansen as a partner in its Salt Lake City office. A securities and capital markets attorney, he has nearly two decades of capital markets experience, including extensive work on IPOs, debt and convertible note offerings, with listings on major exchanges worldwide. Johansen’s securities and capital markets practice encompasses guiding emerging companies through their path to becoming public companies, including IPO preparation and listing processes. He counsels boards and general counsel on SEC reporting obligations and advises investment banks and other financial institutions on public offerings. Additionally, he serves as an expert witness on securities law matters. In his fund formation practice, he advises fund managers, investors and sponsors from strategic discussions on fund structuring through the ongoing operation and regulation of private funds. His experience includes a secondment with the asset management division of J.P. Morgan. He also structures complex debt financing arrangements integral to M&A and strategic transactions. He negotiates sophisticated credit facilities and handles corporate restructuring matters, providing clients with innovative financing solutions that support their broader business objectives. Before joining Holland & Hart, Johansen was a shareholder at Parr Brown Gee & Loveless and previously practiced at Paul Hastings, Allen & Overy, and Dorsey & Whitney in Hong Kong. His education includes earning his J.D. from Brigham Young University.
REAL ESTATE
• Gantry, a California-based independent commercial mortgage banking firm, has promoted Abi Hunter to director, working from the firm’s Salt Lake City production office. Hunter will identify new client assignments and develop a self-directed book of debt and equity financing business. She will also continue to collaborate on client assignments with Gantry’s national loan production teams serving clients across the nation from 12 regional offices. Hunter joined Gantry in June 2023. She has processed and closed financings in excess of $393 million for a wide range of asset classes in 26 states with 49 of Gantry’s lender partners. Prior to joining Gantry, Hunter built a career in fintech and digital payments, managing her employer’s payments programs with global companies. Her work included negotiating commercial agreements, expanding existing relationships, launching new lines of business, and leading international market expansion. She has lived in and around the Salt Lake City region over the past 20 years and received her bachelor’s degree from Weber State University.