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2001, INNOVATORS - 30 Women to Watch

Utah Business

New ideas have power. They fuel political races, religious movements, and scientific breakthroughs. They also fuel successful businesses.

Spotlighting 30 Utah businesswomen who are "innovative," we define the concept as one of creativity, inventive nature, putting a new and successful spin on an old way of doing things. An innovator, in essence, harnesses the power of new ideas.

There are many ways to demonstrate the groundbreaking business savvy required to achieve the status of innovator. Some women we spotlight have created or developed a new product, such as Sanchaita Dattas' invention of RAIL technology, on which she has patents pending; and Nichole Toomey Davis' development of the "do-box."

Others, such as Colleen Loveless-Ash, have taken products created by others - in Colleen's case, specialty vacuums invented by her husband - and developed niche markets for them. Other specialized markets developed by women profiled here include the heating and cooling consulting market, developed by Patti Case; Cindy Pack's upscale specialty baby-clothing market; the giant billboard market, as designed by Kim Griesemer; and Julie Smith's Utah-market-savvy family-vacation-in-Disneyland concept.

Other innovators have created fresh and original marketing strategies, as Lori Chillingworth has at the Women's Financial Center at Zions Bank; and Marva Sadler has with her training and strategic planning programs at Franklin Covey. Matching creative human-resource ideas with a "knowledge" company, as Pat Freston is doing at NPS Pharmaceuticals, is innovative; as is the effort to move "outside the box" in developing a job that embraces many skills, as Amanda Wirth has done at the Utah Healthcare Institute Inc. She combines work as a practicing physician with her work as supervisor of community outreach programs in Midvale and downtown Salt Lake.

Also requiring innovation is creating a number of related, ever-larger businesses, as Barbara Zimandja has done with the resort rental industry, LaRee Waldron with video production and development, and Maxine Turner with catering. Chay Peterson appears on our list as someone who has created an entire cluster of companies serving divergent needs and different markets. Marie Osmond expanded beyond acting and singing to create a highly successful business selling porcelain dolls.

Our list includes not only women from Salt Lake City, but also from smaller cities and towns across Utah. Cathy Bagley of Torrey has grown alongside her town for over 30 years, developing businesses that match and reflect Torrey's development. Likewise, the previously mentioned Cindy Pack is from American Fork, and Colleen Loveless-Ash is from Price.

We include pioneers, such as Georgia Ball, first woman president of the Utah Board of Realtors; and Alicia Bremer, first female owner of a Utah public relations firm. Some of our innovators are young, but on their way up, such as Utah Healthcare Institute's Amanda Wirth, still in her 20s.

Our list includes women who specialize in innovative ideas, business consultants such as Kate Kirkham and Meg Wheatley.

These are only a few of Utah's many innovative women in business, but they illustrate the spectrum of creativity invested in Utah business today.

PAT FRESTON
NPS Pharmaceuticals

Today's "knowledge workers" - scientists and writers - demand special working conditions. After 20 years at Questar as head of personnel, Pat Freston moved to "this little company," NPS Pharmaceuticals, intrigued by the challenge of providing innovative benefits and working conditions to such knowledge workers.

With the support of company president Hunter Jackson, Freston implemented a human resource system that provided stock options for everyone from janitors to senior scientists. The system did away with annual reviews and allows employees to initiate promotion reviews whenever they feel ready. Supervisors, as well as peer review committees, consider promotions. NPS received a Utah Best Practices awardfrom Arthur Andersen in l997 for motivating and retaining employees. "The innovations have worked very well," Freston concedes. "And I now have a new project - structuring benefits for the company which NPS Pharmaceuticals bought in Toronto, Canada."

KIM JONES
Vérité Multimedia

Kim Jones' business cards can be inserted into the CD drive of your computer, where they provide an interactive experience including multimedia, video, and sound. The cards introduce you to Vérité Multimedia, Kim's high tech design and production company. Kim started Vérité in 1993 as a home-based business. Vérité now has 15 employees, revenues of $2 -3 million, and is poised to jump significantly in value with new web-based products being created. Vérité creates design for integrated media campaigns including CD, DVD, print, and film, for such prominent high-tech clients as Novell, Symantec, Intel, Apple, 3-Comm and IBM. Vérité is introducing "e-tools", including a software registration system, testing and certification system, content management system, and e-commerce system.

SANCHAITA DATTA
FatPipe Networks

Sanchaita Datta emigrated from India determined to become a successful engineer and someday run her own business. She achieved that dream when she became co-founder and vice president of engineering at FatPipe Networks, a company developing an innovative product called RAIL technology on which she has three patents pending. RAIL (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Lines) technology will provide stable, reliable connections to the Internet and Wide Area Networks. FatPipe Networks was selected by the Utah Venture Capital Conference as one of the promising companies in Utah, and is gaining recognition nationally for its flagship product, FatPipe Xtreme. Datta formerly worked with Megahertz, where she led development of a complex remote access server with a budget of $ l.3 million.

She has supported women of her native India for the last eight years through her contributions to the Foundation for Women's Education, which supports education for women in Benares, India.

MARIE OSMOND
Marie Osmond Fine Porcelain Collector Dolls

Everyone knows Marie Osmond as an actress, singer and talk show host. But not everyone knows this savvy businesswoman turned her lifelong love of dolls into a national business with $100 million in sales.

One of her fondest childhood memories was sharing her passion for doll collecting with her mother, Olive. As the Osmond Family traveled on world tours, Marie and Olive collected dolls from many countries. In 1991, a businessman read of Marie's enthusiasm for dolls and asked her to partner with him in creating the Marie Osmond Fine Porcelain Collector Dolls line. Marie agreed on the basis that she be fully involved in every step of the business, from concept to manufacturing to marketing, as an innovator, rather than as a token celebrity. The doll line is marketed on QVC, with frequent appearances by Marie, the company's president, to show collectors that she, too, is an avid doll collector. "Being a collector myself," says Marie, "I know what other collectors look for in dolls ... memorable faces, the finest porcelain, creative concepts, high quality wigs, eyes and costumes ... so that's how I make my dolls."

MARVA SADLER
Franklin Covey Company

When Franklin Quest and Covey Leadership Center merged several years back, the newly formed company reeled from a series of blows to its bottom line. Turn-around expert Marva Sadler, an innovator in re-creating businesses and increasing their profitability, was brought in as executive vice president of business-plan implementation, charged with streamlining operations across company divisions.

One of her projects is a training program for 80 top executives, coaching them to bring projects in on time, on budget, and on spec. She has had ample experience making companies more profitable. Sadler and her husband bought Baron's Rocky Mountain Wool Corporation, a blanket-manufacturing mill, out of bankruptcy several years ago, took it to profitability within 18 months, then sold it. She also handled a turn-around for AchieveGlobal, one of Franklin Covey's training competitors, where as CFO and COO of the Client Services Group, in three years she helped bring the company from zero profit to a 12 percent profit margin.

JULIE SMITH
Get Away TodayVacations

It's common knowledge that families want low-cost vacations to Disneyland. As an innovative businesswoman, Julie Smith turned that common knowledge into $15 million in annual sales for her business, Get Away Today Vacations. Founded in l989, the Ogden-based company specializes in low-cost family vacations and specifically in package trips to southern California and Florida.

"We can cut prices through volume discounts," says Smith, the company's CEO, "and we market our tours through organizations, such as credit unions and educational groups." Get Away Today Vacations sends more than 120,000 people to southern California on vacation each year, and was recognized by Disneyland as the second-largest provider to Disneyland worldwide.

MAXINE TURNER
Cuisine Unlimited

Stuffed leg of lamb with spinach and feta cheese was always a family favorite with Maxine Turner and her family. That dish is now a favorite with hundreds, or even thousands of other Utahns, through Maxine's innovative leveraging of her cooking skills into a $2.5 million per year catering and deli business.

The founder of Cuisine Unlimit-ed, Maxine's company owns three delis in Utah under the name Maxi's Deli, as well as a catering division, through which 80 percent of the company's income is produced. Cuisine Unlimited specializes in Mediter-ranean food, with many dishes inspired by the Greek cooking of Maxine's forbears. "I come from a long line of fabulous cooks," Maxine explains. She is now expanding her business nationally and internationally. In 1999, she founded Culinary Expressions International to cater for Olympic events and to bid on catering for other large, national and international events. She was recently named to the eight-member National Caterers' Association President's Council, which represents thousands of catering companies in the United States and abroad.

FAYE VAN WAGONER
Vanco Warehouse & Vanco Trucking

Faye Van Wagoner's niche businesses were born of her husband's frustrations as a furniture rep. Larry sold furniture to retail stores and couldn't get shipments transported quickly and at reasonable rates for smaller furniture dealers in Utah and surrounding states.

Seeing an opportunity, in 1975 Faye and Larry developed a warehouse in which to pool furniture and a specialty trucking company to transport it. Faye later bought Larry out and expanded the business until, today, it handles freight coast to coast. Vanco's freight revenue equates to $120 million in retail furniture sales by dealers per year. In 1995, the company built a 45,000 square foot warehouse just off the I-215 freeway minutes from the airport and downtown Salt Lake, and began storing other items in addition to furniture. "We make exceptional use of our 24-foot ceilings when 120 truckloads of telephone books hit us each September," says Faye.

BARBARA ZIMANDJA
Premier Resorts

Barbara Zimandja, president of Premier Resorts, a condominium rental management company handling resorts in Utah, California, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho and Hawaii, says her empire was not always so vast. In the early days, it was simply a cleaning business in Park City.

Zimandja had no qualms about chipping in when necessary to help her cleaning crew prepare condos for renters. One day while scrubbing with a scarf around her head, a renter appeared demanding to see the company owner. "I am the owner," said Zimandja with aplomb. She has owned and managed several companies since that 1979 beginning. Among those are Deer Valley Lodging and Park City Resort Lodging, which were eventually sold to Premier Resorts. Zimandja has been innovative in recognizing and seizing opportunities to parlay her small cleaning business into a number of related, ever-larger businesses in the resort industry employing 1,700. UB

CATHY BAGLEY
Boulder Mountain Realty

Cathy has developed businesses for 30 years in the Capitol Reef area. Ventures include a livestock company, the first real estate brokerage, and an art gallery that features Wayne County artists she encouraged to settle in the area. She is a member of the Utah Open Lands Commission and part Native American.

LYNN BAIR
Intermountain Health Care

As IHC Physician Group operations director for Cache Valley, Lynn integrated Budge Clinic, the second oldest multi-specialty group practice west of the Mississippi, into the IHC system. The effort included accounting, collections, and lab systems, also integrating a culture of previously independent physicians with a community of physicians working for a large corporation. Lynn manages 150 physicians.

GEORGIA BALL
Ramsey Group

A pioneer in the real estate industry, holding top leadership positions traditionally filled by men, Georgia was the founder of the all-women Ramsey Group brokerage in 1984. She was the first woman president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors and Utah Association of Realtors, also a former Salt Lake Board of Realtors and Utah Association of Realtors Realtor of the Year. She has developed a second business leading sailing charters.

SHAUNA BONA, KATE REDDY
McKinnon-Mulherin

Shauna and Kate developed a niche business based on the outsourcing of writing and training by large companies. Clients have included IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co., Compaq Comp-uter Corp., Intel Corp., Iomega Corp., Raytheon Co., and Texaco Inc. They produce online training manuals, in-house training programs, and websites.

ALICIA BREMER
Bremer Public Relations

Alicia developed the first woman-owned public relations firm in Salt Lake, now specializing in professional services, high-tech, and leisure and recreational services companies. She is involved in Salt Lake community affairs, including board of director seats on the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and Red Cross.

PATTI CASE
ETC Group Inc.

Patti provides state-of-the-art technical analysis of heating and cooling requirements for buildings, and is assisting with heating and cooling systems for the new mostly-glass Salt Lake Public Library. She partners with Utah and regional industry to provide energy efficiency through Utah Industries of the Future, funded by the Department of Energy and Utah Department of Community and Economic Development.

LORI CHILLINGWORTH
Zions Bank

Lori developed the Women's Fin-ancial Group at Zions Bank, comprising a group of female bankers with divergent specialties to service the various financial needs of women. In 2000, the group more than doubled the number of loans made to women-owned businesses in Utah, compared to 1999 figures. Loans of more than $ 6 million were made to more than 70 businesses.

NICOLE-TOOMEY DAVIS
DoBox Inc.

Nicole is co-founder, president and CEO of a company developing a "home server gateway" that will coordinate computer services in the home. The "do-box" will include a security system, calendar, and coordination of various appliances and e-mail. The privately-held company has completed a $2 million round of funding.

KIM GRIESEMER
Impact Imagery

Kim developed an international business that produces giant billboards and employs 50 to 70 people worldwide.

SHERRI GRIFFITH
Sherri Griffith Expeditions Inc.

Sherri created a touring company in Moab in the 1980s that expanded from offering local to worldwide tours to such destinations as Nepal. Sherri recently partnered with Abercrombie & Company, one of the world's premier tour companies, for tours in southeastern Utah.

KATE KIRKHAM
Brigham Young University

Kate is presently the director of BYU's master's of organizational behavior program, the first woman to hold that position. She consults with businesses in integrating diversity into business performance. She has created innovative videos on diversity education and developed "live cases" for her university classes, integrating business leaders from the community into business education.

COLLEEN LOVELESS-ASH
Loveless-Ash Company

Colleen developed a Price-based company that holds four patents, with a fifth patent pending, selling specialty vacuums worldwide with annual revenues of approximately $1.5 million. Vacuums include an ash vacuum and a drywall vacuum for contractors.

MARY MARKS
Mary H. Mark & Associates

Mary began her career as a paralegal before developing a niche business employing from six to 40 independent paralegals who provide paralegal and computer-support services to law firms and businesses like BMW and Blue Cross Blue Shield. She is a former Salt Lake City councilwoman and now heads the Pay Equity Subcommittee for the Governor's Commission on Women and Families.

CINDY PACK
Little Things Mean a Lot

Cindy began creating baby blessing outfits in her basement in 1984. With annual sales of $1.3 million and 30 employees, she now sells specialty baby clothing to clients such as Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and ZCMI. She designs and manufactures a private label for the Vatican, with proceeds benefiting preservation of art and books in the Vatican Library.

CHAY PETERSON
Chay's Formalwear and Apparel Heber Valley RV Park

A Korean immigrant and former Delta Air Lines flight attendant, Chay has developed multiple Utah businesses, including a clothing manufacturing company, fast-food franchises and mobile home park in Heber Valley. SLOC has encouraged the development of Heber Valley RV Park as a way to provide low-income housing for the Olympics. She is now developing convenience stores for hotel lobbies.

KAREN NOBLE
Birch Creek International

Karen partners with companies from Latin America in distributing plastic key cards manufactured by U.S. companies. She targets countries such as Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil. Chrysler, Ford and GM dealers in Latin America have purchased her key cards.

LaREE WALDRON
Firefly Productions and Global Media Concepts

LaRee started her career as a still photographer for Morton Thiokol, before moving into video production. She is now developing a $20 million audio/CD replication facility. Her company has produced videos for such women-oriented events as the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce/ NAWBO Celebrating Wom- en in Business lunch and Athena award.

KAYLEEN SIMMONS
People Helping People and The Simmons Group

Kayleen is a business and government programs consultant who developed a successful mentorship program (People Helping People) to help single mothers achieve self-sufficiency by teaching them to become successfully employed. Some 400 Utah women are involved as mentors. She also serves as a business consultant to Fortune 500 companies (The Simmons Group).

MEG WHEATLEY
Berkana Institute

Meg is the author of "Leadership and the New Science," a book that creates a paradigm of change for business and other organizations based on new discoveries in physics. She lectures and consults through the Berkana Institute, helping organizations incorporate change. The Berkana Institute is a charitable scientific, educational and research foundation founded in l99l dealing with the future of organizing.

AMANDA WIRTH
Utah Healthcare Institute Inc.

A former ballerina who graduated from medical school, Amanda now sees patients as a Utah Healthcare Insitute family practice physician as well as supervises outreach programs for low-income and minority clients in Midvale and downTown Salt Lake City.

Gretta Spendlove (gspendlove@parrylaw.com) is a shareholder with Parry Anderson & Mansfield and president of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Salt Lake chapter.

Nancy Mitchell (nmitchell@saltlakechamber.org) is the executive director of the Women's Business Center at the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.