Salt Lake Chamber announces awardees to be honored at Sept. 17 event

The Salt Lake Chamber, Utah’s largest business association, has announced the people and organizations that will be honored during its annual meeting Sept. 17. 

The honorees of its annual awards “have demonstrated exceptional support to advance the chamber’s mission and bolster the business community over the past year,” it said. 

“Our annual meeting is an opportunity to recognize the strength of Utah’s business community,” said Derek Miller, the chamber’s president and CEO. “The Salt Lake Chamber has been part of several groundbreaking initiatives through the years, and it’s because of business and community leaders like those we’re recognizing this year that we continue to see Utah grow and prosper. We thank these individuals for their dedication, hard work and innovative solutions, and we look forward to seeing the business community continue to thrive and build a prosperous future for all.”

Award recipients this year are:

President’s Award for Excellence, honoring an individual or organization selected by the president and CEO: KSL, which offers information via digital and mobile delivery and an online marketplace.

Legacy Award, honoring a longstanding business in Utah: Jacobsen Construction Co. Founded in 1922, Jacobsen now has over $1 billion in annual revenue. Its signature projects include the Utah State Capitol seismic reinforcement and historical restoration, City Creek Center, Provo City Center Temple, Primary Children’s Hospital campus in Lehi and more.

Fortitude Award, honoring a corporate business in Utah: Delta Air Lines. Delta is Salt Lake City’s largest global carrier, offering more flights out of Utah than all-other carriers combined, with more than 230 peak-day departures to nearly 90 destinations across the globe, including nonstop service to trans-Atlantic destinations like Amsterdam, London and Paris.

Beehive Award, honoring an organization that helps build the community through volunteerism: Sunroc Corp. Since 1937, Sunroc has offered construction services to municipalities, state agencies and professional contractors throughout the Intermountain West. A subsidiary of Clyde Companies, it provides materials and services, including ready-mix concrete, asphalt, aggregates, masonry, earthwork, utility construction and asphalt paving.

Opportunity Award, honoring a small business in Utah: Alpha Coffee. Alpha Coffee is a veteran- and woman-co-owned company offering customers coffee; promoting the warrior lifestyle; providing high levels of service; and giving back to veterans, the planet and the community. Founded by Carl and Lori Churchill in 2010, it has grown to two shops in the Salt Lake City area, along with selling online to customers in all 50 states and military personnel around the world.

Icon Award, honoring a woman-owned business in Utah: Blendyd Studios. Founded in 2023, Blendyd offers software modernizing recruiting in the trucking industry by building next-generation technologies to maximize operational efficiencies and provoke new conversations around the future of talent acquisition. Specifically, it empowers freight carriers to find, nurture and hire the best drivers.

Trailblazer Awards, honoring “rising stars” in the community: Rep. Tyler Clancy, District 60, Utah State House of Representatives; and Madison Keyser Williams, director of corporate development, Utah Paperbox.

Clancy represents an area that includes parts of downtown and east Provo. Sworn in at 25, he is the youngest person elected to the Legislature since 1834. He has sponsored over 10 bills signed into law after serving in only two sessions. Clancy also serves the community as a Provo police officer.

Keyser Williams oversees HR, supplier audits and marketing/PR at Utah Paperbox. She began her HR career in 2018 with Zions Bancorporation and Amazon before joining her family’s business in 2022 as the fifth generation. Keyser Willams is set to follow in her father’s footsteps as the company’s future president.

Chamber Champions, honoring exceptional chamber volunteers: Lucy Knight Andre, general counsel, chief of staff and corporate secretary, Stadler US Inc.; Dori Clark, marketing division sales manager, Lagoon Corp.; TJ England, chief legal officer, C.R. England; Kimberly Flores, co-founder, fulFILLed Lifestyle Co.; Kamea Johnson, owner and operator, Chosen Creative Stationery and the Utah Letter Writing Club; and Lee Weech, vice president of sales, Executech.

Since joining Stadler in 2016, Andre has helped oversee the setup and expansion of Stadler’s North American operations. Andre has seen the company grow from eight full-time employees to over 450, build and fill a 250,000-square foot manufacturing facility, and secure over $2 billion in orders. Her experience includes working as an editor, a college professor, a prosecutor, a partner at a law firm and as in-house counsel for multiple organizations.

Clark has been at Lagoon for 23 years, including in the marketing/group sales office for the past 14 years, focusing on scheduling and facilitating corporate events. Clark also has served on the Salt Lake Chamber’s Women & Business Conference Committee and previously as the vice chair and chair of the Davis Chamber Leadership Institute Committee.

TJ England manages the legal department and oversees all legal, regulatory, human resources and labor relations matters for C.R. England, one of the nation’s largest freight carriers. He serves as a member of the American Trucking Association’s Litigation Center Board of Directors. Prior to C.R. England, England was in private practice at the Utah law firm of Ray Quinney & Nebeker.

Flores’ fulFILLed is a zero-waste store and refill shop in Park City, offering refillable household cleaning and personal care products as well as hundreds of package-free goods to those looking to live a life with less plastic. Flores previously was the public relations manager at Waterford.org. Prior to her work with the early education nonprofit, she was the director of public relations and communication at the Salt Lake Chamber and for nearly 15 years was a television news journalist.

In addition to owning and operating Chosen Creative Stationery and the Utah Letter Writing Club, Johnson also is the author of Identity Mark, which focuses on understanding misplaced identity in America, herd mentality and the effects of groupthink. Her specialty is working with startups, SMEs, businesses and leaders to craft personal and brand identity and to translate their value proposition in the marketplace effectively. Her career has been centered in sales, finance, talent coaching and development of large sales teams, mindset and behavior training, and entrepreneurial education.

Weech has helped clients find solutions for managed IT, security and cloud-based solutions throughout the western states for eight years. Weech is the former chair of the Salt Lake Chamber’s President’s Ambassadors and volunteers within the Daybreak community in South Jordan.

The annual meeting and awards luncheon will take place Sept. 17 at Salt Lake City Marriott Downtown at City Creek.