ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT

• Layton-based My Bead Therapy, in association with The Artisan Group, was recently selected to send the “Family Nest Bracelet” in an exclusive collaborative gift bag prepared specially for celebrity Tom Cruise and family. Designer Heidi Kingman made the entire piece using sterling and copper wire and sterling sheet metal, without any commercial store-bought components. The bracelet integrates the initials of parents Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on the bird nest clasp, and their daughter Suri’s name on the tag. My Bead Therapy designs can be found online and at area art fairs.

• The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has given $120,000 to the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), the largest two-year program support grant given by the Warhol Foundation to any arts organization in the country in 2011. According to its website, the Warhol Foundation is the “pre-eminent national funder of innovative contemporary art.” UMOCA has enjoyed a string of recent successes, with its audience growing from 19,000 in 2009 to 101,000 in 2011. Volunteer support from the community has also grown exponentially, with the museum’s annual volunteer hours increasing from approximately 150 in 2009 to 6,000 in 2011.

 

BANKING

• Bank of American Fork president and CEO Richard Beard presented a check March 30 for $21,000 to the Saratoga Springs Library. The money will be used to help with the year-old library’s expansion. At the library’s grand opening in March 2011, Bank of American Fork presented a check for $30,000 to the library, matching donations raised by the community. This most recent donation comes in time for the library’s one-year birthday.

• Employees of Ogden-based TAB Bank is in its third year of providing financial assistance and other resources to St. Anne’s Center in Ogden, which meets the basic food, clothing, and shelter needs of the poor, the transient and the needy.  The current facility was built in 1994 with the help of generous donations from the community. The facility contains a 100-bed homeless shelter and a soup kitchen which is open daily for lunch to anyone in need. In addition to providing financial assistance, TAB Bank employees recently participated in a diaper donation drive on behalf of St. Anne’s Center.  TAB employees donated a total of 3,423 diapers and 3,934 baby wipes.

• America First Credit Union, Riverdale, has created a new employee volunteer service program called The Greater Good with the mission of providing more projects for the specific benefit of the many communities where it operates and its employees live. America First employees are organized within 11 geographic community service areas and directed by the volunteer program administrator. Each employee team is led by a service area captain and assisted by task leaders for quarterly projects to benefit the community. Projects each quarter have been assigned a theme. During the first quarter of 2012, employee volunteer teams have been focusing on the health and human services of their communities. For the remaining three quarters, The Greater Good will work on community beautification (April-June), education (July-September) and the firm’s Warm the Soles shoe donation drive (October-December).

• Bank of American Fork was named the Innovative Community Bank of the Year in its size category by the Western Independent Bankers Association (WIB) and BDO, a financial consulting firm. Utah’s largest community bank was honored for its new AccountSmart Tools for Seniors product, which helps senior citizens avoid financial exploitation.• Security Service Federal Credit Union will host a shred day from 9 a.m. to noon on April 14 at two Utah locations — 2655 W. 4700 S. in Taylorsville and 175 E. 200 S. in Orem. The event is designed to assist residents with the safe and free disposal of unwanted, personal documents. People can drive up and drop off bags and boxes. Volunteers from Security Service FCU will help with unloading, and all documents will be shredded on site. For more information, visit online at https://bit.ly/ssfcueventsutah.

• J. Michael Jensen has been promoted to vice president and controller at Brighton Bank, Salt Lake City. In addition to his new responsibilities he will continue functioning as the bank’saccounting information officer/systems manager.  He has been with the bank since 2001.

 

COMMUNICATIONS

• Mobile broadband site MobilityTechZone recently honored the 4G LTE 700 signal booster from St. George-based Wilson Electronics, manufacturer of North America’s top-selling line of cellular signal boosters, with its LTE Visionary Award. The 4G LTE 700, designed to improve the performance of any LTE device operating on Verizon Wireless’ 700 MHz 4G network, was among 20 products recognized by MobilityTechZone for contributions to advancing the future of mobile broadband.

 

COMPUTERS/SOFTWARE

• Lindon-based Domo, a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) venture started by Omniture co-founder and former CEO Josh James to redefine the business intelligence market, has appointed Heather Deason Zynczak as chief marketing officer. With close to 20 years of industry experience, Zynczak has held executive marketing and product management positions at some of the world’s largest enterprise technology companies. She spent the last six years at SAP, where she most recently served as global vice president of marketing. In that role, she was responsible for marketing SAP’s business suite of products, representing more than $3 billion in annual revenue. Prior to SAP, she spent five years at Oracle as senior director of product strategy, setting the strategic direction for more than 30 high-revenue products.

• Solera Networks, a South Jordan-based provider of advanced security intelligence and analytics services, has appointed John Vecchi vice president of marketing. Vecchi brings more than 16 years of experience delivering new security and technology products to market. He joins Solera from Zscaler, where he was vice president of global marketing. Prior to Zscaler, he was head of global product marketing for Check Point Software. He has also worked for Symantec Corp. and McAfee.

• Salt Lake-based ChartLogic Inc., an electronic health records provider that helps physicians offer better patient care through advanced technology, has chosen Arizona-based Telesphere as its cloud-based Unified Communications as a Service (UCaas) provider. Telesphere provides a business communications experience by integrating a range of real-time communication services such as hosted VoIP, SMS, instant messaging, presence, video conferencing, Web collaboration and data sharing – including electronic whiteboards – with non-real-time services such as voicemail, e-mail and fax. 

 

CONSTRUCTION

• The Utah Heritage Foundation has recognized the Keyser Building renovation with a statewide award. The structure, located at 320 W. 200 S., Salt Lake City, was built in the early 1900s. It was recently purchased and renovated by U.S. Translation Co., which was honored by the foundation in the Stabilization, Renovation or Restoration Project category. U.S. Translation Co. will occupy the third floor of the Keyser Building, while the Peruvian Consulate in Utah will make its new home on the lower level. The first and second floors (both 8,000-plus feet) are currently open for lease and have the same urban industrial feel as the finished third floor.

• Mike Holland was recently named vice president of the federal division at R&O Construction, Ogden. He has been with R&O since 1998. Previously he worked as the senior estimator and project manager for R&O’s Federal Group. He graduated from Weber State University in construction management, and is a LEED green associate. R&O is actively working on several federal projects located on three U.S. borders. Holland will oversee the project selection, estimating and operations of R&O’s federal projects as a business unit. In addition, Mike Phillips was recently hired by R&O Construction as vice president of project development. He brings 35 years of construction experience to the company. 

 

ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT

• Four economic development entities have moved to a single location in downtown Salt Lake City. The Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), World Trade Center Utah (WTC Utah), the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) and the Utah Office of Energy Development (OED) have moved to 60 E. South Temple, third floor. The building will be rebranded as the World Trade Center at City Creek. It is at the intersection of State Street and South Temple, near the Eagle Gate. In announcing the moves to the new site, representatives of each organization praised the new arrangement. 

 

EDUCATION/TRAINING

• Stevens-Henager College donated 20 HP620 laptops to Springville High School on April 6. The computers replace those destroyed in a fire last month. The high school will use the computers for a new mobile computer lab to serve multiple classrooms.

• Hui Xu, a visiting professor of international business and marketing from Nankai University in China, is Utah Valley University’s first Fulbright scholar-in-residence. Along with Prof. Hui’s expertise and UVU’s Chinese initiative, UVU is providing greater opportunities to students and the local community for engagement with government, higher education, business and cultural organizations in China.

 

ENVIRONMENT

• With the support and partnership of Utah Clean Cities Coalition and PetroCard, Waste Management has opened a new, public compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station at 8652 S. 4000 W., West Jordan. CNG is a domestically available, economical clean burning alternative fuel for vehicles. CNG reduces smog-causing emissions, enables vehicles to run quieter and costs one-third less than diesel or gasoline. Waste Management is expanding the use of CNG in the Salt Lake City metro area by investing in CNG waste and recycling collection trucks and by opening a public CNG fueling station for other fleet operators.

 

FINANCE 

• Sorenson Capital, Salt Lake City, recently added David Dame as a managing director to its senior management team. Additionally, four senior team members have been promoted: LeGrand Lewis to principal, Tommy Macdonald and Peter Sturgeon to vice president and Tom Pierce to director of tax. Dame’s career has included functional leadership roles in sales, marketing, R&D and services. This led to numerous P&L executive positions ranging from small $20 million enterprises to large billion dollar entities. His investing career has spanned 12 years and has primarily been focused in the technology sector. Most recently, he worked as a managing director at Huntsman Gay Global Capital. Lewis has been with Sorenson Capital since 2008. Prior to joining Sorenson Capital he worked for Bain & Co. as a consultant and case team leader. Macdonald joined Sorenson Capital in 2006 and has worked on a number of the firm’s investments. Prior to joining Sorenson Capital, he was an associate consultant with the Dallas office of Bain & Co., where he served clients in the private equity, construction, airline, consumer products and health care industries. Prior to joining Sorenson Capital in 2006, Sturgeon was an associate with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). While at BCG, he worked in the oil and gas, transportation, and power generation industries.

 

HEALTH CARE

• Regence BlueCross BlueShield affiliated health insurance plans are now offering West Jordan-based TruHearing’s MemberPlus discount hearing services program to members in Idaho, Oregon and Utah. Regence is also the first health plan to offer TruHearing’s new Per Employee Per Month (PEPM) program pricing for large employer groups, which can lower the per-employee cost even further.

• Rocky Mountain Women’s Health Center, which has locations in Layton and West Point, has expanded its services to include primary care for women. Catherine Coles, M.D., an internal medicine specialist, will provide comprehensive primary care management including preventative medicine; diet, nutrition, exercise and weight loss; diabetes and gestational diabetes; headaches/migraines; thyroid disorders and hormone treatments; cancer screenings; heart care; pain management; cholesterol disorders; osteoporosis care; and immunizations. 

• The LASIK Vision Institute has signed a seven-year lease for 3,400 square feet of office space at Creek Road Place, at 7440 S. Creek Road, Sandy. It is slated to open this month. The firm leased its new space with the assistance of CBRE Group Inc.

• Promise Healthcare, a national long-term acute care hospital company, has promoted Linda Hook to vice president of its new Mountain Region. In a dual role, she will continue to serve in her current position as chief executive officer of its Promise Hospital of Salt Lake facility that serves patients who live and work along the Wasatch Front and throughout the state of Utah, and nearby communities in the neighboring states of Nevada, Wyoming and Idaho.

 

HOSPITALITY

• The 100-room Courtyard by Marriott located at 1600 N. Freedom Blvd. in Provo has begun a major renovation that will include a brand new lobby as well as extensive upgrades to guest rooms and meeting space. The hotel will feature the brand’s new Refreshing Business Lobby concept, designed to give travelers the flexibility to work and socialize however they choose while on the road. A signature element of the new lobby is the exclusive GoBoard technology, a 52-inch LCD touch screen offering local information, maps, weather, news, business and sports headlines.  Guests will be able to navigate using the touch screen to find restaurants, local attractions and directions. The Courtyard’s 2,800 square feet of meeting space will also be redesigned and will offer new high tech audio-visual equipment.

 

LAW

• Holland & Hart attorney James Holtkamp was named one of the first senior fellows of the Wallace Stegner Center at the University of Utah. The Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment represents a concrete manifestation of the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law’s commitment to the multidisciplinary study of natural resources and environmental law and policy. As a senior fellow, Holtkamp will be researching, lecturing and publishing in the areas of air pollution control and climate change.

• The Hatch & Associates law firm, the boutique law firm in West Jordan, has hired Tammy Evans and Dean L Offret. Evans joins the firm as marketing and corporate development director after working for over 19 years with several national companies Offret joins the firm as law clerk and new client strategist, with 15 years experience in business assisting companies as they strategize and create marketing plans for new-market entry. 

• John Beckstead, a senior partner of the law firm Holland & Hart, has been selected as a Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers (ACCFL), one of the premier legal associations in the nation. He is the first attorney in Utah to achieve the honor. Membership in the ACCFL is limited to commercial finance lawyers, jurists and academics who have not only achieved preeminence in the field of commercial finance law, but who also have contributed significantly to the education of others in commercial finance law through teaching, lecturing or published writings. Fewer than 250 of the nation’s practicing commercial finance attorneys are ACCFL fellows.

 

MANUFACTURING

• MonaVie, a South Jordan-based direct sales purveyor of health and wellness products, has named Randy Schroeder president of the company’s North America market and Jeff Graham executive vice president of global product strategy. Schroeder adds his new responsibility to his current role as president of MonaVie’s Europe market. Most recently, Graham served as president of MonaVie’s North America market.

• West Liberty Foods, an Iowa-based co-packer, private label manufacturer and foodservice supplier of sliced and processed deli meats, has received “landfill free” verification from the National Sanitation Foundation for successfully diverting nearly 3.5 million pounds of waste from the local landfill near its plant in Tremonton. 

 

MEDIA/MARKETING

• Justin Smart has joined Penna Powers Brian Haynes (PPBH), a Salt Lake-based advertising, public relations, public involvement and interactive agency, as director of public involvement. Smart has more than a decade of experience, including posts at the Utah Department of Transportation and Office of the Governor. Most recently, Smart was a public involvement manager at The Langdon Group, where he worked on such major infrastructure projects as I-15 CORE in Utah County, Mountain View Corridor’s 2100 North in Lehi and the Bangerter Highway Design-Build at 7800, 7000 and 6200 South.

 

REAL ESTATE

• Real Property Management, Layton, has hired Lukas Krause as its vice president of operations. In this position, Krause will be responsible for all aspects of franchise operations and support. Krause brings a decade of experience in management, process engineering and building franchising service and support systems for major brands to Real Property Management. Previously, he was responsible for leading Quiznos’ international division. While at Quiznos, he oversaw franchise onboarding and support processes, field operations for over 2,500 locations and developed a comprehensive franchise assistance program to support and grow the company at the franchise level.

• Green River Capital, a West Valley City REO asset management and loss mitigation provider for mortgage servicers, investment firms, credit unions and banking institutions, raised more than $100,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project at its recent Agent Event in Salt Lake City. The Wounded Warrior Project was created to honor and empower veterans who incurred service-connected injuries on or after Sept. 11, 2001. The organization offers a wide variety of programs to assist service men and women with any type of injury.

 

RETAIL

• The King’s English Bookshop is clearing space in its storage room for the delivery of hundreds of books that will never be shelved or sold. Instead, the special-edition paperbacks of 30 different titles, some for adults, some for children, will be distributed to agencies and individuals throughout the Salt Lake valley next month as part of World Book Night 2012 on April 23. A transatlantic celebration of reading and books, World Book Night will take place simultaneously in communities across America and in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it was launched last year. In Spain, on April 23, the date of Cervantes' death (and of Shakespeare’s birth), is celebrated by people who give one another a book and a flower.

• See’s Candies will hold a grand opening at its new shop in Midvale, at The Family Center at Fort Union, on April 20 at 9:30 a.m. See’s will give away free samples, See’s Happy Habit hats and a spin on the prize wheel. Additionally, See’s historic vehicles and famous See’s drag racing vehicles will also be on display. The new store will be located at 940 Fort Union Blvd.

• Mattress Firm Inc., one of the nation’s leading specialty mattress retailers, has opened a new 5,600 square foot location at 10539 S. State St., Sandy. Mattress Firm stores feature more than 55 different models of mattresses from top manufacturers such as Sealy and Simmons. Specialty mattress and bedding products incorporating the latest sleep technology are also on display, including pressure relieving mattresses from Tempur-Pedic.

 

TRAVEL/TOURISM

• The Utah Office of Tourism, part of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, is launching a $2.2 million regional television Utah Life Elevated advertising campaign to promote Utah’s state and national parks and other summer attractions. Television commercials are airing on local and cable stations in Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland and San Francisco. Digital outdoor ads will be seen in Los Angeles, Denver, Las Vegas and San Francisco, including a San Francisco tunnel wrap. Online digital display and social media advertising and promotion will include Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. 

• Visit Salt Lake (VSL) recently acquired its 100,000th Facebook fan after having just 3,500 fans 15 months ago. The rapid audience growth for the tourism marketing efforts were the result of programs designed to build the buzz about Salt Lake as a vibrant destination.VSL utilized both new and existing programs, combining them with social media campaigns designed to build its Facebook fan base as well as its Twitter followers, currently at 10,460. One of the existing programs used was the recent Ski Salt Lake Shootout, whereas a “Facebook Fan Favorite” category was added to the annual photo competition, garnering more than 5,500 new fans for VSL.