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BANKING
• D.L. Evans Bank, based in Idaho, has promoted Nicole Smart to assistant branch manager at its Brigham City branch. She will oversee the operations of the branch while managing resources and staff, developing and attaining sales goals, delivering customer service, and growing the location’s revenues. She also will continue serving her customers with consumer and commercial lending. Smart has 17 years of financial industry experience, beginning her career working for loan companies in 2008. In 2016, she joined D.L. Evans Bank in Fruitland and was a branch specialist before taking on the role of personal banker. After gaining seven years of experience in a D.L. Evans Bank branch, she gained knowledge of various branch roles, including operations. In 2023, she returned to Utah and became the retail trainer for all the D.L. Evans Bank Utah branches, where she worked to develop and conduct training programs
for employees.
GOVERNMENT
• Gov. Spencer J. Cox has appointed Brett Varoz to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. He succeeds Scott Stephenson. Varoz has more than three decades of corrections experience, including 21 years with the Utah Department of Corrections in roles ranging from correctional officer to correctional administrator. He has served at the Board of Pardons and Parole since 2011, including as chief hearing officer since 2020.
HEALTH CARE
• Intermountain Health has named Jeromie Atkinson as chief supply chain officer for the seven-state nonprofit health system. Atkinson will guide a systemwide team of more than 1,200 caregivers to manage $4 billion in products and services. He returns to Intermountain with more than 30 years of experience, most recently at Allina Health, where he served as vice president of strategic sourcing and supply chain performance.
• CancerVax Inc., a Lehi-based developer of a universal cancer treatment platform that uses the body’s immune system to treat cancer, has hired Gordon Ringold as strategic advisor. Ringold is CEO of Quadriga BioSciences, a clinical phase cancer biotech company, and founder and executive chairman of Maxymune, a biopharma company focused on immunological diseases. He serves on the board of directors of Okava Pharmaceuticals. From 1997 to 2015, Ringold served in various capacities as co-founder and/or CEO of Maxygen, SurroMed, Alexza and Alavita. From 1991 to 2000, he was CEO and scientific director of Affymax Research Institute (acquired by Glaxo in 1995). Before that, he served as vice president and director of the Institute for Cancer and Developmental Biology at Syntex Corp. (1986-1991). He also was on the faculty at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Department
of Pharmacology.
• PhotoPharmics Inc., a Lehi-based, privately held, clinical-stage medical device company developing next-generation therapies for treating neurodegenerative disorders through the eyes, has formed a Commercial Advisory Board, with experts in neurology, movement disorders, pharmaceuticals and medtech commercialization. The board will provide guidance as the company advances toward regulatory submission and market introduction of Celeste, its device for Parkinson’s disease. The board chair is Dr. Jordan Dubow, managing principal at Clintrex Research LLC, a division of BlueRidge Life Sciences. He is a fellowship-trained movement disorders and vascular neurologist with more than 20 years of clinical trial and industry leadership experience. He has served as chief medical officer for over a dozen companies, contributed to more than 20 new drug applications, and helped raise over $1 billion through investor engagement. The board also includes Jill Giordano Farmer, founder and owner of Boro Neurology; assistant professor of neurology at the Drexel College of Medicine; and a neurologist who established a comprehensive movement disorders and lifestyle medicine program, integrating medical, surgical and rehabilitation care. Dr. Drew Falconer is director of the Inova Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Center, associate professor of neurology at the UVA School of Medicine–Inova campus, and a specialist in the diagnosis and management of Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, with expertise in deep brain stimulation and botulinum toxin therapy. Dr. Robert A. Hauser is professor of neurology at the University of South Florida, chair of the PhotoPharmics Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board, a researcher and director of the USF Parkinson’s Disease & Movement Disorders Center, author of over 300 publications and a leader in developing novel Parkinson’s therapies. Dr. Rajesh Pahwa is the Laverne and Joyce Rider Professor of Neurology, chief of the Parkinson’s and Movement Disorder Division, director of the Parkinson Foundation Center of Excellence at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and a neurologist who has led numerous clinical trials advancing Parkinson’s disease care. Philip Cyr is senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Commercialization Practice at BlueRidge LifeSciences and with more than 30 years of experience in clinical development, market access and health economics, and leader of commercialization strategies for pharmaceuticals, biologics, cell and gene therapies and digital therapeutics worldwide. Dr. Michael Soileau is founder of Texas Movement Disorder Specialists, clinical assistant professor at the Texas A&M School of Medicine; director of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America Center of Excellence Partner Site; and frequent principal investigator in clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor and other movement disorders, leading a multidisciplinary care team in central Texas.