Industry Briefs 1-15-24

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ASSOCIATIONS

• The Utah Manufacturers Association has hired Josh Brown as senior director of government affairs. Brown has manufacturing experience covering a wide variety of industries, including patents in the medical device working in X-ray tubes, catheters, ozonation and optical lens manufacturing; in food processing, including disinfectant patents, packaged foods, poultry and meats; and in mining/manufacturing, where he worked in the creation of high-volume, large-throughput processing equipment as well as in hard rock mining/manufacturing. Brown spent nearly 14 years in multiple states and Washington, D.C., working with and lobbying for legislation to better manufacturing, the environment and energy-related legislation. Brown’s experience with the UMA includes serving on the board of directors for many years and serving as chairman of the association in 2018-19.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

• Utah is ranked No. 9 on a list of “Best States to Start a Business,” compiled by Forbes Advisor. It analyzed 18 key metrics across five categories. Utah was No. 2 for business costs, No. 4 for business climate, No. 9 for financial accessibility, No. 4 for economy and No. 2 for workforce. The study showed that over the past year, Utah has experienced a net 40 percent increase in the number of small businesses, with a business survival rate of 76 percent. California has the highest business survival rate across the nation, at 82 percent, while Washington has the lowest rate, at 59 percent. The top-ranked state for starting a business is North Dakota. The bottom-ranked state is Vermont. Details are at https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/best-states-to-start-a-business/.
• Utah saw pay growth of 6.1 percent between December 2022 to December 2023, according to new payroll data in ADP’s December “National Employment Report.” The state’s median annual salary was $49,600 for workers who stayed in their role for the past 12 months. Pay growth has also slowed from 9.4 percent annual growth in Dec 2022. Nationally, the year-over-year median change in annual pay was 5.4 percent, which has slowed every month since September 2022. For those who switched jobs, median change in annual pay was 8 percent, a rate that has also been cooling for several months. The highest annual pay growth was in Montana, at 8.2 percent. Details are at https://adpemploymentreport.com/.
• Utah is ranked No. 5 on a list of “Best States for Manufacturing,” compiled by Site Selection Group, a location advisory, economic incentives and real estate services firm. Each year, Site Selection Group uses GeoCisionto score and rank states based on their competitiveness for corporate investment. It starts by scoring and ranking every metropolitan and micropolitan area in the lower 48 states based on key variables of interest for a manufacturing project and then it averages the scores of every MSA within each state to produce an overall state score. The top-ranked state is South Carolina. The bottom-ranked state is Minnesota. Details are at https://info.siteselectiongroup.com/blog/best-states-for-manufacturing-in-2023.
• About 391,000 Utahns lived in food-insecure households from 2020 to 2022, according to data from the USDA and analyzed by Hunger Free America. That figure represents 11.8 percent of Utah residents. It includes 14.7 percent of children in the state (137,506), 10.1 percent of employed adults (166,107), and 6.1 percent of older Utah residents (32,811). Hunger Free America attributes the surge in food insecurity to the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit and universal school meals. Many federal benefit increases have either gone away entirely, or are being ramped down, even as prices for food, rent, healthcare, and fuel continue to soar. The state with the highest rate of food-insecure households is Delaware, at 21.4 percent. The lowest rate is in New Hampshire, at 6.1 percent. This year, Hunger Free America also compiled the most recent nonparticipation rates for SNAP, WIC, and school breakfast programs by state. In Utah, 21 percent of individuals eligible for SNAP were not receiving SNAP in 2018. WIC had a higher rate of nonparticipation, with 63 percent of eligible individuals in the state not receiving WIC in 2021. School breakfast had the highest nonparticipation rate, with 68 percent of children who receive school lunch in Utah not receiving school breakfast during the 2021-22 school year. Details are at https://www.hungerfreeamerica.org/en-us/research/2023-annual-survey-report.

ENVIRONMENT

• UCAIR has named its 2023-24 UCAIR grant recipients, with project aimed at reducing emissions from a variety of sources across the state. They will receive a total of $116,500 in grant funds. Recipients are Utah State University Center for Community Engagement, for an electric cargo van for USU gleaning, food recovery, and bicycle and textile repair and reuse; Blue Planet Lawn, for zero-emission lawn care for commercial customers; Triple Bottom Line Foundation (TBL Fund), financing clean energy in Utah’s multifamily affordable housing; University of Utah Facilities, for an electric test cart project; the University of Utah, for multifamily EV readiness for Utah communities; and Utah State University, for working to transform the South Jordan Equestrian Center into the Bastian Agricultural Center, a 120-acre facility focused on agricultural literacy and appreciation of the natural world.

GOVERNMENT

• Salt Lake County has been selected to participate in the 2024 “Clean Energy to Communities Peer Learning Cohorts” program. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and administered in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the World Resources Institute, the program has recognized Salt Lake County as one of 14 local governments nationwide to embark on the journey of “Integrating Community Priorities into Electric Vehicle Plans and Projects.” The program includes a series of six workshops dedicated to enhancing electrified transportation, zero-emissions mobility, and developing comprehensive transportation plans that echo community values and needs. The journey will be supported by a collaboration with the Utah Clean Cities Coalition.

HEALTHCARE

• NuView Life Sciences Inc., a Park City-based radiopharmaceutical company, has appointed Dr. Stanley J. Pappelbaumand A.J. Boechler to its board of directors. Pappelbaum is a La Jolla, California-based strategic healthcare consultant who advises hospitals, medical groups and biomedical research entities across the United States. He began his career as a pediatric cardiologist at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and San Diego Rady Children’s Hospital. As CEO of Scripps Health system, he lead five hospitals in San Diego County and subsequently launch Pappelbaum Turner Healthcare Consulting. Boechler joins the NuView board offering more than 30 years of executive leadership experience at the General Electric Co. He spent 10 years in GE Healthcare and held additional global business roles at GE Plastics, GE Lighting, GE Fanuc Automation and GE Oil and Gas.
• ABS Kids, a Salt Lake City-based provider of services to children with autism spectrum disorder, has opened an applied behavior analysis therapy center in Tooele and another one in Concord, North Carolina. It now has 13 centers. In total, ABS Kids has 31 ABA therapy centers and early autism diagnosis clinics to support families across California, North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. All of the ABS Kids centers provide unique learning and development opportunities for children with ASD. These centers feature themed rooms for specific skill development, socialization and sensory control.

INTERNATIONAL

• World Trade Center Utah has added Danielle (Danni) Wright to its board of directors as the new treasurer. Wright will oversee the development of high-level financial policies for the organization and succeed Rich Lambert of Wells Fargo, who served as treasurer for seven years. Wright is managing director and head of Utah and Idaho for J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Wright has 15 years of experience in J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Denver, Dallas and New York. She most recently served on the U.S. Private Bank Operating Committee as head of business management and a partner to the U.S. Private Bank’s CEO. Wright also spent half a decade on the Global Investment & Advice Management Team, where she provided investment advice and innovative strategies to clients in both Europe and Asia. WTC Utah and JPMorgan Chase have had a decade-long relationship that focuses on supporting Utah companies and spans the bank’s various business lines, beginning with the Global Cities Initiative in partnership with Salt Lake County. JPMorgan Chase also has contributed to WTC Utah’s Export Acceleration Grant, which enabled 36 small companies to receive funding, and J.P. Morgan Private Bank supported WTC Utah’s international trade missions. During the governor-led trade mission to France in June 2023 — which was organized in part by WTC Utah — Wright hosted the Utah delegation at its Paris office.

INVESTMENT

• Tandem Ventures, a Draper-based venture capital firm primarily investing in Utah-based technology companies, has announced a $20 million first close of its debut $30 million early-stage venture fund. The fund will invest in companies at the pre-seed, seed and series A stages. Tandem was founded in 2022. Over the past 15 months, Tandem has invested $30 million via special purpose vehicles and plans to continue to leverage SPVs to invest in later-stage companies alongside this early-stage fund.
• Crew, a Lehi-based financial technology company, has raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding led by Kickstart Seed Fund. Pelion, Sepio, Signal Peak Ventures, Convoi, Spacestation, Influence Ventures and strategic angels also participated in the round.

LAW

• Public finance law firm Gilmore & Bell PC has named Clay Hardman as director of its Salt Lake City office and named Aaron Wade as shareholder in that office. Hardman has extensive experience in a variety of public finance transactions, with an emphasis on multifamily, single family, and government assisted housing, charter and private schools, low-income housing tax credits, secondary market securitizations, 501(c)(3) projects and manufacturing facilities. He represents a variety of governmental entities, housing authorities, underwriters, lenders, credit enhancers, loan servicers, tax credit investors and syndicators, bond investors, charter schools, developers and 501(c)(3) organizations. Hardman earned his B.S. degree from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management in 2011 and his J.D. from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in 2015. Wade has practiced law as a municipal bond attorney since entering the law practice in 2017 with a focus on tax exempt financings for state agencies, municipalities and special districts in Utah and throughout the West and frequently serves as bond, disclosure or underwriter’s counsel. He has developed expertise on the Public Infrastructure District Act and has assisted cities and counties in creating districts and has served as bond and disclosure counsel for numerous public infrastructure districts. Wade received dual B.S. degrees from Utah State University in finance and economics in 2012 and his J.D. from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in 2017. Prior to law school, Wade worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs.

MANUFACTURING

• FireFly Automatix Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company focused on turfgrass mowing technology, has announced that Paul Richardson will join its board of directors. He will assist in the execution of capital formation and growth strategies that will help to propel FireFly’s continued growth. Richardson is a former chief financial officer and board member at WPP Group. Prior to WPP, Richardson served as non-executive director of two companies associated with WPP Group: Chime Communications PLC and STW Communications Group Limited in Australia. He also served on the board of Ceva Group PLC as chairman of the Audit Committee. Prior to that, he worked for Beecham Finance as assistant treasurer of Beecham Group (now GlaxoSmithKline) and as deputy treasurer at Hanson Trust.

NONPROFITS

• The board of the Chartway Promise Foundation, Chartway’s charitable arm, has approved $1 million in grants for use in 2024 for medically fragile children and their families. Among the grant recipients in Utah are Ability Found, Best Seat in the House, Children’s Miracle Network, Eyecare for Kids, Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital and Make-A-Wish Utah. The Utah grants total more than $300,000. The foundation has awarded nearly $15 million for charitable grants since 2005. Chartway is a $2.8 billion credit union serving more than 200,000 members with branches in Utah, Texas and Virginia.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

• The St. George Marathon infused an estimated $10.4 million into the local economy, according to a study by Utah Tech University’s College of Business. The October event is the nation’s 15th-largest marathon. The study included surveying athletes, supporters, volunteers and vendors. Surveying occurred during the Marathon Expo and at the marathon finish line. The study showed that in addition to those registered for the marathon races, an estimated additional 21,000 supporters visited the area for an average of two and a half days. The economic impact figure considers the number of attendees, whether they traveled from outside the region to attend the event, and includes estimates of amounts spent on lodging ($3.4 million), transportation ($1.6 million), food and beverage ($1.3 million), shopping in stores ($811,000) and other activities in the area ($1.1 million).

PARTNERSHIPS

• Recursion, a Salt Lake City-based techbio company focused on drug discovery, has announced a partnership with Enamine, a Ukraine-based provider of novel molecules and contract research services. The partnership is expected to generate enriched screening libraries with insights from Recursion’s protein-ligand interaction predictions spanning Enamine’s massive library of 36 billion compounds. To begin the partnership, Enamine and Recursion will mutually agree upon up to 100 biological targets around which they will build screening libraries.

PHILANTHROPY

• Kona Bikes has donated 500 bicycles to the Utah High School Cycling League, a nonprofit organization committed to the development of high school mountain biking in Utah. The bikes are designed to cater to diverse riding styles and skill levels. Kona’s parent company, Kent Outdoors, recently announced the movement of its headquarters to the league’s back yard of Park City.

RESTAURANTS

• Construction has begun on The Cheesecake Factory, an upscale casual dining restaurant, at University Place, a 120-acre, mixed use development in Orem. Located next to Dillard’s and Itto Sushi, The Cheesecake Factory will be roughly 8,500 square feet. The Cheesecake Factory opened its first restaurant in 1978 in Beverly Hills, California. There are now 210 restaurants in the United States and one in Canada.
• Mountain Mike’s Pizza, based in California, has opened its seventh Utah restaurant at 4026 W. Real Vista Drive in the newly built Academy Village in Herriman. The 2,600-square-foot location is owned and operated by Lydia Faulkner, Katie Hanson and Dave Wilcox, who have also signed an agreement to expand the pizza chain’s presence in Arizona. Founded in 1978, Mountain Mike’s Pizza has nearly 300 locations.

SERVICES

• Economic Partners has completed its full integration following its 2018 acquisition by Ryan LLC. Trenton Readand Bryson Lord, based in Salt Lake City, will lead Ryan Business Valuation, with specific expertise focus in tax valuation and transfer pricing. Read has been the CFO of two venture/growth equity-backed companies. He began his career as an analyst in investment banking with Deutsche Bank and then was a senior financial analyst for a $200 million business unit of Honeywell. He then returned to investment banking as an associate and then vice president at Wachovia Securities and Sagent Advisors, respectively. Read also was the chief financial officer online marketing business OrangeSoda. Read received his B.A. and MBA from Brigham Young University. Lord is a partner of Economics Partners. He leads the firm’s valuation practice and is actively involved in business valuations for strategic, partnership buy/sell situations, income tax, gift & estate and financial reporting purposes. Lord has accounting and finance experience, having been involved with the implementation of two Sarbanes-Oxley certification programs at public companies, advising clients on raising public and private capital offerings, and valuing companies and investment securities.

SPORTS

• Skijoring Utah, a combination of skiing and cowboy heritage, will take place Feb. 16-17 at the Wasatch County Events Center rodeo grounds, 415 Southfield Road, Heber. Horse-and-rider teams will tow skiers and boarders through a course complete with gates, jumps and rings. Details are at gohebervalley.com/skijoring-event.