Industry Briefs - 6-10-24

Industry Briefs are provided as a free service to our readers. Company news information may be sent to brice.w@thecityjournals.com. The submission deadline is one week before publication.

ASSOCIATIONS

• The Park City Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau has appointed Becca Gerberas director of community and government relations, a newly created position. Gerber most recently served as a city council member with Park City Municipal for two terms from 2016-2023. She spent the past 10 years as director of sales and marketing for R&R Sports. She served as president of the Historic Park City Business Alliance from 2014-2015 and was a co-founder of the Wasatch Trails Alliance. Gerber graduated from the University of Utah.

BANKING

• Bank of Utah, based in Ogden, has named Jill Winsor as branch manager at its Heber branch. She succeeds Stacey Mackay, who retired after eight years with Bank of Utah. Winsor has worked at Bank of Utah for the past 3 1/2 years as an account manager. She started as a teller in 2001. Following that, she worked in property management for about 15 years while her family lived in California. She returned to the area in 2018 to continue her banking career. She worked for 1 1/2 years at a community bank in Heber City and then for a short period of time at a credit union before becoming a customer service manager at Bank of Utah’s Heber branch.
• Altabank has hired Kelly Ward as its new Southern Region manager, based in the bank’s Orem branch. She will be responsible for Altabank’s branches and business in mid-to-south Utah County, including Orem, Provo, Spanish Fork, Salem and Springville. Ward has 24 years of experience with Zions Bank, where he was a community bank sales manager, region president, and area president in Utah County.

COMMUNICATIONS

• Comcast has announced it will invest more than $138 million in Utah over the next three years to install several miles of new fiber highways capable of delivering multi-gigabit speed. This year, the fiber network expansion will include communities in Box Elder, Davis, Salt Lake, Summit, Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, Weber and Utah counties, parts of which already have access to Xfinity and Comcast Business services.
• XMission, based in Salt Lake City, has launched fiber services on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation to provide multi-gigabit Internet service to area residents and businesses. XMission offers 250Mb, 1Gb, and 2Gb connections, plus business connections.

CORPORATE

• Waystar Holding Corp., with a headquarters office in Lehi, has launched its initial public offering of 45 million shares of its common stock. Waystar expects to grant the underwriters in the offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 6.75 million shares of common stock at the IPO price, less the underwriting discount. The estimated IPO offering price is between $20 and $23 per share. Waystar has applied to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “WAY.” Waystar said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay outstanding indebtedness. J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Barclays are acting as joint lead book-running managers of the offering and as representatives of the underwriters for the proposed offering. William Blair, Evercore ISI, BofA Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as joint bookrunners for the proposed offering. Canaccord Genuity and Raymond Jamesare acting as co-managers.

DIVIDENDS

• The board of directors of Extra Space Storage Inc., based in Salt Lake City, has declared a second-quarter dividend of $1.62 per share on the company’s common stock. The dividend is payable June 28 to stockholders of record June 14. The company is a real estate investment trust that owns and/or operates 3,793 self-storge properties. It is the largest operator of self-storage properties in the United States.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• The Economic Development Corporation of Utah has named Greg Bisping as vice president of community strategy. Since joining the organization last year, Bisping has undertaken multiple strategic projects in addition to his responsibilities of enhancing EDCUtah’s public-sector investor experience. In his previous role as EDCUtah’s director of community strategy, he led EDCUtah’s community development and Site Ready Utah initiatives. Prior to joining EDCUtah, Bisping worked for the University of Utah, building partnerships among the university, its students, and the real estate and financial services business community.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

• Salt Lake City, Dallas and Pittsburgh are the nation’s top biotech hotspots, according to PharmaVoice. It cited the state’s life sciences industry being one of the fastest-growing in the U.S., with efforts at both the state and city level to bring more biotech companies and jobs to Salt Lake City and beyond; the “Tech Lake City” initiative in Salt Lake City; the public-private agency BioHive to connect and promote the city’s biotech players; state tax incentives; and a proposed $7 million investment initiative to build the state’s life sciences workforce. It noted that Teva Pharmaceuticals has a research and development in Salt Lake City’s Research Park, as well as two manufacturing sites in the state, and Clene Nanomedicine is a clinical-stage company developing nanotherapeutics for ALS, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
• Exactly half of surveyed Utahns believe office romances should be banned, according to DatingAdvice.com. The national average is 52 percent. Forty-three percent of Utahns admit they would trust their manager less if he or she were embroiled in a romantic entanglement with a colleague. Details are at https://www.datingnews.com/industry-trends/office-romance-survey/.
• Salt Lake City is ranked No. 42 on a list of “Most Sustainable Cities,” compiled by LawnStarter. It compared the 500 biggest U.S. cities based on five sustainability categories, with metrics including the number of certified zero-energy buildings, alternative fuel stations, and greenhouse-gas emissions. Salt Lake City is the highest-ranked Utah city on the list. The lowest-ranked is Orem, at No. 444. The highest-ranked overall is New York City. The lowest-ranked is Pharr, Texas. Details are at https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/most-sustainable-cities/.
• Federal Heights in Salt Lake City is ranked No. 92 on a list of “Most Coveted Retirement Destinations,” compiled by MarketBeat.com. It conducted a survey to discover the most desirable locations among retirees and those nearing retirement, to pinpoint neighborhoods that retirees would choose if money were no object. The top location is Wailea, Maui, Hawaii. Details are at https://www.marketbeat.com/infographic/living-the-dream/.
• Salt Lake City is among the top pride celebration destinations in North America among Gen Z, according to Airbnb. It is among the cities that have seen the highest percentage of nights booked on Airbnb by Gen Z during pride celebration weekends across the U.S. and Canada. Details are at https://news.airbnb.com/gen-z-rising-where-the-next-generation-is-celebrating-pride-in-2024/.

EDUCATION

• Joyce University of Nursing and Health Sciences, based in Draper, has hired or promoted Kelly McCullough, Jennifer Ayotte, David Haskell and Mykel Winter. McCullough joins the university as dean of nursing. She has over 30 years of nursing experience and 15 years of experience in nursing education, having served as dean and regional dean for several years at her previous university. Ayotte joins the university as dean of general education and health sciences. Ayotte has more than 15 years of experience in higher education leadership, focusing on effective communication, strategic planning and curriculum development. In this newly created role, she will oversee general education and the Occupational Therapy Assistant program. Haskell has been promoted to associate dean of nursing. Over the past 12 years, he has worked as a program chair and instructor at Joyce University. Before coming to Joyce, he worked in long-term, industrial, acute care and administrative nursing, totaling 30 years of diverse nursing experience. Specializing in critical care nursing with a cardiac emphasis, Haskell was instrumental in implementing and overseeing open heart, cardiac electrophysiology, cardiac catheterization and critical care departments as an assistant chief nursing officer at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. Winter has been promoted to associate dean of nursing. Since joining Joyce University in 2020, Winter has served as assistant director of Capstone and program chair of nursing clinical education.
• Four people have been appointed to Utah Valley University’s College of Science advisory board. They are Ruchika Joshi, manufacturing engineering manager, Texas Instruments’ Lehi Fabrication Facility; Brad Graham, associate director, molecular biology research and development, bioMérieux; Sterling Cornaby, senior scientist, MOXTEK; and Doreen Hamilton, research mathematician, National Security Agency. They will collaborate closely with college leadership to identify opportunities for industry engagement, develop research programs that offer hands-on experience for undergraduate students, and provide mentorship and guidance to help individuals in their academic journeys.

ENERGY

• The Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) at the University of Utah has successfully stimulated wells two wells. A nine-hour circulation test that followed stimulation proved fluid flow and energy transfer from an Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) reservoir in hot dry granite, a breakthrough for the industry. The work undertaken by Utah FORGE shares a goal of de-risking the tools and technologies needed to make commercial-scale EGS affordable and accessible anywhere in the world.

ENVIRONMENT

• Utah Clean Energy, with support of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, is collaborating with local home builders Garbett Homes, Ivory Homes and Sego Homes to make low- and zero-emission homes more accessible in Utah. The builders will soon begin constructing three cutting-edge homes to achieve some of the country’s highest standards for energy performance and reduced emissions. Two of these homes, which are part of a “model village” at Daybreak, will be featured in the Salt Lake Valley Parade of Homes in August, while the other home will be showcased as a model home available for public tour in the Marmalade District in Salt Lake City in August. The homes will demonstrate to fellow builders the potential to build homes for a healthy environment. All will be at least 40 percent more energy efficient than traditional new homes in Utah.

GOVERNMENT

• Utah Treasurer Marlo M. Oaks has appointed Bong Choi to the Board of Trustees of the School and Institutional Trust Funds Office. Choi will succeed Jason Gull, who is concluding a six-year term. Choi has decades of investment management experience, including over 25 years of experience investing on behalf of institutions and families. Since 2021, Choi has served as the chief investment officer of FJ Management. Prior to that, he held investment roles at Wetherby Asset Management, Stamos Capital Partners, Capricorn Management, Orion Partners and The Beacon Group.
• Blazzard Lumber Co. Inc. and Thompson Sawmill have been awarded over $800,000 from the U.S. Forest Service as a part of the Wood Innovations Program. The two Summit County companies received funding through the Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance Grant. The funding was part of a $73.9 million investment from the USFS to support the wood products economy and healthy forests. This investment is funded through the Inflation Reduction Act as a part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda meant to spark innovation, create new markets for wood products and increase the capacity of wood processing facilities. The Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance grant program provides funding opportunities to private companies to improve, retrofit, establish and expand their facilities. These companies often purchase and process byproducts from forest health and fuel reduction projects from federal and tribal lands. Blazzard Lumber Co was awarded $203,565 to purchase a firewood processor and a package saw to increase their production of cut-to-length lumber. Thompson Sawmill was awarded $619,239 to purchase a horizontal grinder to produce additional wood products, including playground chips, wood pellet material, animal bedding and nursery material. The grinder will allow Thompson Sawmill to hire additional employees, double the capacity to produce chips and shavings, and use more residual from timber.

HEALTHCARE

• Recursion, a clinical-stage techbio company, has appointed Dr. Robert Hershberg as chair of its board. He succeeds Martin Chavez after more than four years of leadership. Hershberg has served as a member of the board since May 2020. He is the CEO, president and chair of the Board of HilleVax Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. Since 2020, he has also been a venture partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners. Hershberg formerly served as the executive vice president and head of business development and global alliances at Celgene and served in several roles at VentiRx Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company which he co-founded in 2006, and was CEO from September 2012 until the company’s acquisition by Celgene in February 2017. Hershberg also is a member of the board of directors of Adaptive Biotechnologies, Scientific Advisory Board of Danaher Corp., Dragonfly Therapeutics, Skyhawk Therapeutics, and the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington.

INDOOR ENTERTAINMENT

• Sky Zone, a Provo-based indoor entertainment company, has announced that franchisee and entrepreneur Usman Raohas acquired three existing parks in Laveen, Arizona, and Palmdale and Vacaville, California, in addition to securing franchise agreements for future development in Tracy and Milpitas, California. Financial terms were not disclosed. Rao has been part of the Sky Zone network since 2015 and will now operate seven parks. The locations in Tracy and Milpitas are set to open in 2025. Sky Zone owns, operates and franchises over 270 parks.

INSURANCE

• Oka, The Carbon Insurance Company, based in Park City, has added David Antonioli to its advisory board. Antonioli previously was CEO of Verra. During his 15-year tenure, he oversaw the Verified Carbon Standard Program and corresponding registry. Prior to Verra, he was a director at carbon project investor and developer EcoSecurities and global climate change advisor to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

INVESTMENT

• Peterson Partners, Salt Lake City, has announced that its private equity business, Peterson Private Equity, closed $265 million in Fund X, which is focused on investing $10 million to $25 million behind entrepreneurs and management teams in profitable and growth-oriented companies. With the close of Fund X, Peterson Private Equity intends to make approximately 12 investments and has already invested in three companies: Dura Software, Packsize and Kelso.
• Videra Health, an Orem-based company offering a mental health assessment platform, has raised $5.6 million in Seed II funding, led by Peterson Ventures. Mercato Partners, Epic Ventures and Philo Ventures also participated in the investment. Videra said the funding will help it expand its reach to help more patients and transform the way mental health conditions are screened and monitored at scale using AI video technology.

LAW

• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has hired Jess Krannich and Paul Sampson for the firm’s commercial litigation and trial practices as partner and of counsel, respectively. Both will be based in the firm’s Salt Lake City office and join from Kirkland & Ellis, where Krannich led the Salt Lake City litigation team. Krannich focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation. He also has extensive experience in tort and product liability litigation and has represented clients in a variety of regulatory actions. He counsels clients in competitive technology sectors, including the life sciences, medical devices and computer sciences industries. Following clerkships, he joined Kirkland’s Chicago office and was elevated to partner in 2011. In 2012, he moved to Salt Lake City and joined elite boutique litigation firm Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar. In 2021, he returned to Kirkland to help found and manage its Salt Lake City office. Since 2012, he has served as an adjunct professor of law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He received a B.S. from the UofU in 2002 and his J.D. from the UofU in 2005. A litigator, Sampson represents clients in industries including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, consumer products, interstate shipping, energy and financial services. From 2016 to 2021, Sampson worked as an associate and later as counsel for Wilkinson Walsh+Eskovitz LLP. Previously, he was an associate at Sidley Austin LLP. Sampson received both his undergraduate degree and his J.D. from Brigham Young University. Launched in 2021 with three partners, Wilson Sonsini’s Salt Lake City office now has more than 20 attorneys.
• Spencer Fane Snow Christensen & Martineau has hired associates Smith Stubbs and Tyler Talgo for its Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice group in its Salt Lake City office. Stubbs assists businesses and individuals with various litigation matters. He has specific experience in mergers and acquisitions and corporate transactions and has helped several clients navigate the Corporate Transparency Act. His education includes earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Utah. Talgo represents clients in various stages of civil litigation with all aspects of case management. He has represented clients in several areas of law, including mergers and acquisitions disputes, securities, trusts and estates, torts, land boundary issues and family matters. His education includes earning his Juris Doctor at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School.
• Polsinelli has opened an office at 136 Heber Ave., Suite 301, Park City, and named shareholder Marla R. Bell as office managing partner. Bell also is the OMP for the firm’s Salt Lake City office and will continue to lead its strategic efforts in Utah. Rick Jordan, co-chair of the Venture Capital & Emerging Growth Companies Practice, and Jeffrey S. Bell, chair of the Immigration & Global Mobility Practice, will make Park City their primary office location. Marla Bell has been with the firm for more than 20 years and has more than 25 years of experience in commercial real estate finance on a nationwide basis and capital markets. She has experience with all types of commercial real estate finance structures and assets. She also assists lenders with financings pursuant to repurchase facilities and secondary market sales and contributing loans to CLOs and CMBS securitizations.

NONPROFITS

• Huntsman Mental Health Foundation has appointed Mindy B. Young as assistant vice president of giving. She will manage the foundation’s fundraising strategy, development and execution, and lead corporate fundraising efforts in the Mountain West. Young has more than two decades of experience in philanthropy, fundraising, education, advocacy and the arts. She joins HMHF from Equality Utah, where she served as managing director for the past nine years.

OUTDOOR RECREATION

• The U.S. Department of the Interior has designed four new national recreation trails in four states, adding 33.5 miles to the National Trails System. The newly designated trails join a network of more than 1,300 existing national recreation trails, which can be found in every U.S. state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The newly designated trails include Hell’s Revenge Trail, an off-highway vehicle trail near Moab. The 9.7-mile trail is located just outside of town and within the BLM Sand Flats Recreation area.

PARTNERSHIPS

• US Critical Materials Corp., Salt Lake City, has announced an exploration alliance with VerAI Discoveries Inc., a mineral discovery generator, to deploy its AI Targeting Platform technology. This technology enables a higher probability of success to detect minerals under covered terrain and to minimize surface disturbances at US Critical Materials’ Sheep Creek rare earth properties in Montana. With VerAI’s AI-powered targeting technology, US Critical Materials intends to set new industry standards for environmentally conscious mineral exploration activities, providing the unique opportunity to bring rare earth elements to the market in their purest form, which is deemed as vital for the green energy transition.

REAL ESTATE

• L3Harris has agreed to lease extensions for approximately 150,000 square feet of office and laboratory space at Airport Technology Park in Salt Lake City. The lease extensions were announced by Drawbridge Realty, a San Francisco-based real estate investment company.

RECOGNITIONS

• David Shiembob, manager of ARUP Healthcare Advisory Services, has been honored with the Clinical Laboratory Scientist Achievement Award from the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine (formerly the American Association for Clinical Chemistry). The award recognizes clinical laboratory scientist professionals who have made significant contributions to the CLS community, their respective institutions, and the field of laboratory medicine. Shiembob began working at ARUP as a technologist trainee after graduating from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in biology. After 10 years of various technical and management roles in ARUP’s chemistry laboratories, Shiembob earned his MBA and transferred to work for ARUP Healthcare Advisory Services. With this group, he helps clients elevate their laboratory stewardship programs, expand outreach operations, implement data analytics solutions, and tackle the challenges unique to their systems.
• Sorenson, a Salt Lake City-based company providing communication services for deaf, deafblind and hard-of-hearing people, is on a list of “America’s Most Innovative Companies,” compiled by Fortune. It is the second consecutive year for the company to make the list. The award, announced by Fortune and Statista Inc., recognizes the most innovative companies in the United States across various industries. By combining employee feedback, industry expert opinions and intellectual property, Statista identified the 200 most innovative companies.
• Jonyce Bullock, CEO of Squire, based in Salt Lake City, has been named to the inaugural America’s Top 200 CPAs list, compiled by Forbes. The list was curated by Forbes’ editorial staff. It represents a compilation of the finest CPAs engaged in public practice, selected from a pool of candidates sourced through independent nominations and commendations from various societies and CPA associations. Evaluation criteria encompassed a diverse array of factors, including expertise, innovation, thought leadership, experience, community service, professional contributions, and insightful responses to specific inquiries.

RETAIL

• Outlets Park City has announced that four new local retailers will be added to the shopping center this summer: Blue Sky Nomads Jewelry & Accessories, with Park City artisans Diane and Bill Newland, will open its first brick-and-mortar store, called Blue Sky Nomads, after years of exhibiting at local markets. Cecelia New York will offer women’s shoes as shoes and accessories designer Ashley Cole opens her first boutique near her family home at Outlets Park City. Locals is a Utah family-owned artisan collective. Entrepreneur Darren Dunford, who’s family business started in Draper with the Quilted Bear, is developing his fifth location in a 9,000-square-foot space that will feature a selection of products such as beautiful home décor, seasonal wonders, and one-of-a-kind gifts and toys. Summit Exchange, operated by the Christian Center of Park City. The upscale resale boutique will offer new and gently used clothing, furniture, home goods and recreational gear. All proceeds are used to support CCPC programs. All of the stores are expected to open in June, except Locals, which is expected to open in late summer.
• BO Beauty Studio by MizzJ has opened at City Creek Mall in Salt Lake City. It offers beauty services including bridal makeup, manicures, pedicures and waxing. It is the first shop at the mall owned by a black woman, Heather Jefferson. She hopes to ultimately franchise the business to women of color across the country.
• GoldATM, which launched Golfback bill kiosks in Utah and Nevada in the first quarter, has added a new online e-commerce store, called Autm. The store will offer Goldbacks and other gold products for purchase with a debit or credit card, with the products then shipped to the home.
• Swig, a Lehi-based soda company, has named Daniel Batty as chief development officer. Batty has more than 20 years of experience in the QSR segment and involvement in more than 2,000 development projects. For the past five years, he was vice president of design and construction at Dutch Bros. Coffee. Prior to that, Batty worked at McDonald’s, CKE Restaurants and Dunkin Brands. Founded in 2010, Swig has 81 stores open in seven states and 500 franchise units signed across the U.S. and Canada.
• The River Crossing shopping center in St. George will add three tenants. Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream will move from its current location at 291 N. Bluff St. to River Crossing where it will have a larger space with more seating, including both interior and outdoor patio seating. Handel’s has over 130 locations in 14 states. Radiant Waxing and Peace Love Nails Salon will have their first Southern Utah locations at River Crossing. Radiant Waxing offers a variety of waxing services. It has more than 60 locations in 15 states. Peace Love Nails Salon is a nail, lash and facial salon. This will be their first location. Brandon Price of NAI Excel represented Peace, Love Nails Salon in the transaction. Neil Walter and Roy Barker at NAI Excel, together with Joe Mills and Tanner Olsen with Legend Partners, have been retained to market and lease River Crossing.

TECHNOLOGY

• Qualtrics, based in both Provo and Seattle and focused on experience management software, has hired Lynn Girottoas chief marketing officer. She will lead Qualtrics’ global marketing organization, including brand, communications, demand generation, field marketing, product marketing, and pricing and packaging. Girotto has more than 25 years of experience in senior marketing roles at technology and consumer brands, most recently serving as chief marketing officer of Vimeo. Previously, she served in senior marketing roles at Microsoft, Starbucks, Tableau and Getty Images.