UMA Members in the News

EnergySolutions Announces New Chief Executive Officer

By Market Wire

SALT LAKE CITY, UT--(Marketwire - February 19, 2010) - EnergySolutions, Inc., a provider of services to the global nuclear industry, announced today that its Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of Steve Creamer as CEO of the Company and has appointed Val John Christensen as its Chief Executive Officer and President, effective immediately. Mr. Christensen was also elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Company.

Mr. Christensen has been serving as President of the Company since December 2008 and previously served as the Company's Executive Vice President and General Counsel.

Mr. Creamer also resigned as Chair of the Board and Steven Rogel, one of the Company's independent directors, and formerly Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Weyerhaeuser Company, has assumed the role of Chair of the Company's Board of Directors.

"Steve Creamer had the unique vision and energy to create a strong public company based in Utah that plays a critical role in America's nuclear industry," said Val Christensen, CEO, EnergySolutions. "Steve will continue to be an important sounding board and a strong supporter of the Company."

Merit Medical Needs More Trained Workers


By Anne-Marie Wright, Vice President of Corporate Communications, Merit Medical Systems, Inc.

Every year, hundreds of students graduate from Utah’s high schools and colleges. And every year, hundreds of Utah manufacturers create jobs. The problem is that few of these graduates are qualified to fill those jobs due to the disconnect between their education and industry needs. So the jobs go elsewhere, or qualified workers come to Utah from other states.

Throughout its history, the United States has achieved success through innovation and making things. Despite health care concerns, currency issues and increased regulatory and compliance costs, U.S. companies – including many Utah companies – continually come up with new products and high-tech innovations, with manufacturing companies leading the way. But we as a state and a nation are not giving manufacturing training and education the attention it deserves, and therefore we are not producing the skilled workers we need to thrive.

As the economic environment becomes more challenging and the world market becomes more competitive, states and countries are competing for jobs. This increased competition will likely last well into the future.

Despite difficult economic times, some businesses are prospering. However, their ability to prosper is directly related to their ability to attract qualified workers. Over the last few decades, the United States and Utah have experienced a general redirection of capital to service-oriented businesses. Consequently, manufacturing-based businesses have suffered. That is unfortunate given the fact that manufacturing jobs pay 143 percent of the average wages of the other three major industries, which are retail, education and health care.

According to some Utah education officials, only 25 percent of Utah’s college students will land the high-skill, high-wage jobs they work at least four years to achieve. That is because Utah’s educational system is not adapting to the dramatic changes in technology and how those changes are affecting occupational skill requirements not only in Utah’s job market, but also in the nation’s and the world’s.

Because secondary education focuses more on college-prep courses and less on vocational exposure, manufacturing suffers from a lack of skilled workers. Dave Sorenson, executive director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, told Utah Business that out of the 3,900 manufacturers in Utah, about 450 go out of business every year for a variety of reasons, including the inability to find adequately trained labor. Of the 20 industry sectors that cover all aspects of Utah’s economy, manufacturing is one of the largest, employing more than 100,000 workers.

With hundreds of manufacturing companies located in Utah, more focus should be given to tooling and technician work to meet their needs. According to a recent New York Times article, the auto industry’s demise has led to a slew of new companies looking to take advantage of the skilled, yet recently unemployed, workers who live in Michigan.

It is hard to believe that Utah, and other states, are competing for jobs with Michigan, but that’s the truth. Businesses locate and expand in areas with qualified potential employees.

Over the years, the United States has experienced real estate bubbles, the Internet’s boom and subsequent bust, and other cyclical events. But in the medical device area, the United States has been able to maintain its innovation and world leadership position. In order to support medical device and other manufacturing, Utah needs more technical high schools and colleges that offer a curriculum relevant to the jobs the industry offers. We need to build engineering, technical and polymer science bases on several levels.

Recently, Merit Medical considered moving one of its business segments to Utah. Despite the higher health care, insurance and tax costs of its current location, Merit was unable to relocate more than 300 jobs to Utah because of the lack of skilled workers in extrusion and polymer science. The business stayed elsewhere. Furthermore, Merit often has to bring people to Utah from other states to fill jobs that pay between $80,000-$120,000/year and offer great benefits. Merit is creating the jobs, but our own citizens cannot fill them because they do not have the skill sets Merit needs.

Merit Medical’s need for skilled employees is not an aberration, but part of a statewide dilemma. There are not enough skilled workers to meet current demand, and there are no plans to produce any more. The gap will grow, especially as thousands of baby boomers retire. Few qualified young workers are available to replace them because our K-12 educational system often leaves graduates ill-equipped for available careers. At the same time, the number of students earning degrees in technical fields is declining. We need better education and training.

With different training offered in Utah schools and different priorities placed on funding, Utah could greatly improve its chances of attracting and securing well-paying manufacturing jobs. Some argue that rising productivity, automation and a growing share of output being made in low-wage countries are responsible for the inattention given to manufacturing jobs in Utah and nationwide. The fact is, many goods, including medical devices, are too high-tech and complicated for a low-wage environment. So the jobs will stay in the United States, specifically, those states with qualified employees.

Future economic opportunity hinges on educational preparedness, particularly in manufacturing. All the job opportunities in the world won’t help our state if our workforce is unprepared for them. Public investment in education that includes high-tech literacy is vital to the kind of sustained economic development we need to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive world.