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AGRICULTURE

• Forever Feed Technologies, based in California and American Fork and focused on automated agricultural feed systems, has announced an investment coalition of 15 dairy and beef producers from California, Texas, Indiana and Michigan to accelerate the technology development and complete the world’s largest enterprise scale on-farm feed mill growing Automated Sprouted Grain. As future installations of the technology are complete, the group envisions saving billions of gallons of water and significantly reducing the climate impact from feeding cattle. The first FFT feed mill is under construction in Hanford, California, and is expected to be growing ASG by the fourth quarter of this year. The Forever Feed coalition members together feed over 500,000 head of cattle every year.

ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT

• Euldora Financial, a Salt Lake City-based company focused on wealth creation and entertainment investment, has acquired Wallner Media Group, based in New York and Los Angeles, with Jeff Wallner, founder and CEO of Wallner Media Group, joining Euldora Financial as president of production and a member of the board of directors for both Euldora Financial and its production studio subsidiary, Pantheum Studios. Founded in 2018, Wallner Media Group has produced several films. Jeff Wallner transitioned from a 20-year career in wealth and portfolio management on Wall Street to involvement in the entertainment industry.

BANKING

• WebBank, a Salt Lake City-based industrial bank, has appointed Ken Laudano as senior vice president and head of credit structuring and counterparty risk. Laudano joined WebBank in May. In the newly created role, he will lead the team responsible for managing the credit risk of WebBank’s asset finance lending portfolio. He and his team will also work closely with the Asset Finance team on the due diligence of new deals, the ongoing monitoring and surveillance of existing deals, and the build-out of a robust asset finance lending infrastructure. He will also play a significant role in developing the future strategy of the Asset Finance business at WebBank. Laudano has more than 20 years of asset finance industry experience, including extensive credit structuring, cash flow modeling, and portfolio management expertise. Before joining WebBank, he worked at East West Bank, where he served as senior vice president and deputy chief credit officer for structured finance and private equity. He started his career in the Asset Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service and has held senior positions at several leading asset finance institutions, including Morgan Stanley, BNY Mellon and Credit Suisse.
• Granite Credit Union and Rancho Markets have partnered to bring the first fully Spanish-speaking in-store financial branch to the Salt Lake Valley at the Rose Park Rancho Market, at 140 N. 900 W, Salt Lake City.

E-COMMERCE

• KNS International, a Salt Lake City-based KNS company focused on e-commerce and drop-shipping for footwear brands and with a warehouse in Draper, has announced several brand leadership appointments. Marisa Byrneis president of the Journee women’s division. Her experience includes serving in product and merchandising leadership roles at Deckers (Ugg’s division) and Caleres (Vionic’s division). Mark Higgins has been named vice president of sales for the Journee women’s division. His previous positions in e-commerce and merchandising were at Kohl’s and DSW. Cameron Eggertz has been named president of the Taft and Vance men’s division. His prior roles include chief marketing officer and vice president of sales at KNS, along with other leadership positions. Aubrey King has been appointed vice president of sales for the Taft and Vance men’s division. King’s background includes serving as an operational and e-commerce executive for Wolverine Worldwide. Raquel Langhaim joins the company as marketing director for the Taft and Vance men’s division. She has experience at Prana and Amer Sports. Jason Jones has been selected as a special advisor over product for the Taft and Vance men’s division. Jones previously was head of design and product development for Genesco for the Johnston Murphy and HS Trask brands.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

• Utah is ranked No. 34 in a list of states with residents who are the least-susceptible to online sales tactics, according to a survey by HostingAdvice. It tried to determine places less prone to impulse purchases online. The most susceptible state is California. The least-susceptible is Wyoming. The survey also indicated that almost half of Utahns surveyed barely take a few minutes to go from browsing to buying, with 26 percent of purchases not even included in the original shopping list, meaning they were impulse buys. Forty-four percent of Utahns were lured by discounts and sales. The most-popular time for impromptu buying is 12:57 p.m. People age 18 to 24 are most prone to spontaneous shopping, while only 4 percent of those age 55 to 64 engage in impulse buys. Details are at https://www.hostingadvice.com/blog/ecommerce-impulse-buys-survey/.

EDUCATION/TRAINING

• A new partnership at Weber State University is helping veterans seamlessly transition from military service to fulfilling civilian careers as nurse educators. The Annie Taylor Dee School of Nursing at Weber State is now an industry partner with the U.S. Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program, which gives military personnel the opportunity to gain civilian work experience during their last six months of service. Retiring or separating military nurses with a master’s or doctoral degree can apply for a five-month internship at WSU, which involves working alongside instructors to learn and experience all aspects of nursing education.

ENERGY

• Ionic Mineral Technologies, a company focused on nano-silicon battery anode technology, has announced an expansion of its production facility in Provo. The newly developed space will include 37,000 square feet of advanced manufacturing facilities, 7,000 square feet of Class 1 office space, and 5,000 square feet of research and development laboratories. It brings the company’s total facility footprint to over 74,000 square feet. It is scheduled for completion by September.
• Resman Energy Technology, a Norwegian company with regional headquarters in Houston, has announced that its tracer technology is being used in the Utah FORGE geothermal project, set to become a test case for scaling geothermal technology globally. Located at Milford, the international field laboratory is managed by the Energy & Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Resman will provide data on fluid movements and connection integrity within the geothermal system.

ENVIRONMENT

• Hexcel Corp., a lightweight composites technology company, and Fairmat, a carbon fiber recycler, have announced a 10-year agreement to recycle carbon fiber composite materials from Hexcel Salt Lake City for reuse in composite materials sold into various commercial markets. An international carbon fiber recycler and material manufacturing company, Fairmat recently opened a new 15,000-square-foot recycling facility near the Hexcel Salt Lake City site, which is home to the largest high-performance carbon fiber manufacturing facility in North America. Under the companies’ agreement, Fairmat will recycle Hexcel composite material scrap at the new site. Hexcel has established several long-term sustainability goals and targets to be achieved by 2030, including a reduction of 30 percent of waste to landfill.

GOVERNMENT

• The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced grants for the Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Institute and Altitude Lab. Both are Stage One winners of the 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, with each receiving $50,000. UAMMI, instrumental in driving innovation and economic prosperity in Utah’s advanced materials and manufacturing sector, will use the grant to enable it to continue supporting Utah’s small manufacturers and fostering an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem. Altitude Lab has launched the Horizon program, a commercialization initiative connecting startups with distributors, biopharma partners and investors nationwide. With the grant, Altitude Lab aims to bridge the gap for biotech startups, helping them establish partnerships and advance their innovations to market. Many biotech startups require commercial partnerships to bring their therapies and innovations to patients and customers. The Horizon program aims to assist Utah entrepreneurs to established biotech hubs and develop lasting relationships with national partners. The Growth Accelerator Fund Competition awarded grants to more than 50 organizations. Since its inception, it has awarded 427 prizes totaling over $26 million to 314 unique winners across the U.S. and U.S. territories.
• The Central Wasatch Commission, an inter-governmental entity that seeks to engage the public, build consensus, and coordinate action in the Central Wasatch Mountains, has approved funding for 14 project proposals that resulted from the call for ideas opened to the public in March. The goal was to identify projects for possible funding that implement transportation and transit solutions, protect the ecosystems and watershed that originate in the Central Wasatch, steward recreational access, and sustain the economic viability of the Cottonwood Canyons. The CWC will partner on projects that include the maintenance of Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest bathrooms at trailheads located in the tri-canyons; the newly formed Central Wasatch Commission Youth Council, which was awarded two grants to plan and host a youth-oriented outdoor film festival and to build a community gear shed located at the Mobile Moon Co-op on the west side of Salt Lake City; the Summit Community Gardens Environmental Education program; the maintenance of aging fixed rock anchor hardware on climbing routes across the Central Wasatch, as part of the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance’s ongoing work to steward climbing access in the Wasatch; support for Salt Lake Climbers Alliance’s “Alpenbock” documentary film; support for Cottonwood Canyons Foundation’s Tri-Canyon Trail Deferred Maintenance and Invasive Weed Control Project; continuation of its partnership with Wasatch Backcountry Alliance to provide a free Saturday backcountry ski shuttle in Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons; partial support of Save Our Canyons’ Wilderness Stewardship Project through the organization’s Conservation Program; two grants for Trails Utah to support the extension of the Pipeline Trail and the maintenance of the White Pine Trail bridge; support for Utah Open Lands’ Transit to Trails Shuttle program; funding for Utah Open Lands to support the construction of an accessible trail at Bonanza Flat; and support of the year-round abatement of graffiti tags across the Central Wasatch in partnership with the Wasatch Graffiti Busters. All of the projects will take place in 2024 and 2025.

MEDIA

• Radio station KUUB has named Edgar Zuniga as program director. The new bilingual radio station owned by the University of Utah will lead the former KCPW beginning July 1. Sister stations PBS Utah and KUER, also licensed to the university, acquired the 88.3 frequency from Wasatch Public Media last October. Zuniga is finishing an 18-month assignment in Europe as the Ukraine communications delegate for the American Red Cross. He worked as a journalist for NBCUniversal for 11 years, at both NBC News and Telemundo, before returning to Utah in 2020. He earned a degree at the University of Utah. Zuniga also served on the board of West View Media, a journalism nonprofit that covers the majority-minority neighborhoods of Salt Lake City’s West Side, and on the advisory board of PBS Utah, where he provided a voice to the state’s Latino communities.

NONPROFITS

• The Elizabeth Smart Foundation, Fight the New Drug and the Malouf Foundationhave come together under a new umbrella organization, the PHASE Alliance, to make a greater impact in the fight against sexual exploitation and trafficking. The Prevention and Healing and Against Sexual Exploitation (PHASE) Alliance exists to radically reduce victimization through a network of prevention and healing programs. The three organizations have more than 30 years of combined experience in the fight against sexual exploitation. Under the new model, PHASE will lead strategy and help manage administration, operations and fundraising, so each organization can focus on creating and sustaining high-impact initiatives. Clay Olsen, co-founder of Fight the New Drug and co-founder of PHASE, has been named as CEO of PHASE. Kacie Malouf, co-founder of the Malouf Foundation and co-founder of PHASE, will serve as the first board chair of PHASE.

PARTNERSHIPS

• Lakeside Software, a Boston-based IT data intelligence company, and Qualtrics, a Provo-based experience management company, have announced a partnership designed to revolutionize the employee experience. The combination aims to empower organizations to comprehensively understand their employees’ digital experiences with technology and drive meaningful improvements across their workforce. Shared customers will get a broader view of the employee experience, resulting in enhanced employee digital experience and sentiment as well as more efficient evaluation of experience data, leading to IT help-desk efficiencies and reduced mean time to resolution. Enhancements driven by these insights will improve employee satisfaction, productivity and retention, the partners said.

PHILANTHROPY

• The USANA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Salt Lake City-based USANA Health Sciences, and 30 USANA distributors from seven countries recently built 100 “Garden Towers” on the island of Malapascua, Cebu, in pursuit of providing sustainable and accessible sources of nutrition. Founded in 2012, the USANA Foundation’s mission is to eliminate hunger and malnutrition globally. Garden Towers offer a solution that provides sustainable, nutritious food for people. Each tower is made of material that lasts up to five years, can hold up to 120 plants, and uses 30 percent less water. Aside from being a nutritional source, the Garden Towers can also generate income for families through selling excess vegetables, promoting self-reliance, and fostering community collaboration.
• Tranont, a Lehi-based company that markets health and financial wellness products, in May donated money to build 30 beds for Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an organization dedicated to ensuring that no child sleeps on the floor. Thirty Tranont employees built 19 of the 30 beds in one day, and the remainder will be built on another date. The beds were expected to be delivered to children during the first week of June. The activity is part of the company’s “Lift Where You Live” campaign, which itself is part of the company’s mission to impact 1 billion lives for good.

REAL ESTATE

• UtahRealEstate.com, a multiple listing service providing software and services to approximately 20,000 real estate professionals, has joined the partnership program of RentSpree, a California-based provider of rental software in the U.S. RentSpree’s full integration on the URE platform will facilitate an instant ApplyLink for rental listings that are aimed at cutting down transaction time spent on processing rental applications and therefore helping increase returns. The new integration, free to URE members, makes it easy to manage the entire rental process while also supporting lead generation.

RECOGNITIONS

• The University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business is ranked No. 12 overall and No. 5 among public schools in the latest 2024 MBA rankings for entrepreneurship released recently by U.S. News and World Report. In related rankings released earlier, the Eccles School ranked No. 7 for undergraduate entrepreneurship and No. 4 among public schools for 2024.

SCHOLARSHIPS

• Havenpark Communities, an Orem-based operator and developer of manufactured home communities across the U.S., has awarded academic scholarships to 42 residents nationwide as part of its Education Success Program, which includes mentoring and ongoing academic support in addition to scholarship funds. The recipients, representing 24 different Havenpark communities, will receive up to $10,000 annually to cover higher education expenses. Since starting the program in 2021, Havenpark has awarded scholarships to 101 students and celebrated six who completed their studies last year. The company awarded $162,000 in new scholarships this year and will continue to invest at least $500,000 a year.

TECHNOLOGY

• Nearmap, a Lehi-based location intelligence and aerial imagery provider, has appointed Ray Savona as chief revenue officer. Savona will lead the development of the company’s revenue strategy and oversee Nearmap global marketing and sales, including sales engineering and enablement. Savona has over 28 years of experience in enterprise software, where he has driven strategy, built and run enterprise and channel sales, and marketing and customer success programs for organizations globally. Most recently, he served as chief revenue and customer officer at Mural. Prior to that, for more than 13 years, he served in various leadership roles at Autodesk.