Grow Utah Ventures

Dr. David G. Norton Norton has 43 years of industrial experience in high-tech companies. His industrial career began with IBM. After 16 years with IBM, Norton left to become a co-founder of IOMEGA. He then founded and served as Director of Utah Research Institute, a division of Utah State Univers... More

Dr. David G. Norton Norton has 43 years of industrial experience in high-tech companies. His industrial career began with IBM. After 16 years with IBM, Norton left to become a co-founder of IOMEGA. He then founded and served as Director of Utah Research Institute, a division of Utah State University Research Foundation. Norton then became a co-founder of Automated Solutions (currently iArchives) where he was CEO and Vice President for Research and Development. Following this, he became President and CEO of Utah State University Research Foundation which engages in federal contracts and the university’s Technology Commercialization. Norton is now working with Island Park Investments. Norton has been involved with entrepreneurial ventures for the past 33 years. This has been as a technical and business advisor, as a member of Advisory Boards and Board of Directors or as a co-founder. He has served on and as Chairman for several Boards of both for-profit and non-profit corporations. Norton received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Utah State University and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering, with emphasis on applied mechanics and optics, from the University of Colorado. He has had five patents and ten technical disclosures published in the IBM Technical Disclosures Bulletin. Norton is married to RoJean Reeves Norton. They have four children with spouses and sixteen grandchildren.

Craig has provided senior level management advice and council on strategy, marketing and management to hundreds of emerging and expanding businesses throughout the western United States. He directed Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneurial Management consulting services and owned and operated his own succe... More

Craig has provided senior level management advice and council on strategy, marketing and management to hundreds of emerging and expanding businesses throughout the western United States. He directed Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneurial Management consulting services and owned and operated his own successful consulting business for many years. He has served in a variety of senior operational positions at such companies as Franklin Covey, MarketStar as well as the Utah Governor’s Office. He has operated and led numerous companies in the areas of software technology, consumer electronics, services, and most recently wireless broadband. He has helped numerous businesses raise investment capital, design product and operational strategies and implement successful marketing and sales campaigns. He has advised and consulted with numerous civic and community leaders on how best to strengthen and grow their economic and business base and achieve job growth. He has directly advised the Utah Governor’s Office on strategies to strengthen and expand the Information Technology and Aerospace industries of the state. He is a nationally published author, and as acted as an adjunct professor at Weber State and Brigham Young Universities. He has a degree from Weber State University and a Masters in Management from Brigham Young University.

Mr. Hall is the founder, former CEO and chairman of MarketStar Corporation an outsourced global marketing and sales organization, which helps thirty of the world’s largest high technology companies generate billions of dollars in revenues from the small to medium business space. The company has seve... More

Mr. Hall is the founder, former CEO and chairman of MarketStar Corporation an outsourced global marketing and sales organization, which helps thirty of the world’s largest high technology companies generate billions of dollars in revenues from the small to medium business space. The company has several thousand employees with operational capabilities in one hundred countries. He was the 1997 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the State of Utah. Alan is also the founder and chairman of Grow Utah Ventures, a non profit organization which fosters entrepreneurial development. Under Mr. Hall’s direction, Grow Utah has established several incubation facilities for entrepreneurs, encouraged the formation of seven new Angel Investor organizations from Logan to St. George and is supervising the state-wide rollout of Seed Utah, a private initiative to increase entrepreneurism. An Angel himself, Alan has sixty personal investments in early stage Utah technology companies. Last year, Alan and Greg Warnock launched Mercato Partners, a multi-million dollar venture capital firm that will focus on investing in the marketing and sales growth of US high technology companies. Alan is chairman of the Utah Technology Council; a member of Wells Fargo’s community advisory board and a founding board member of World Trade Center Utah. He also sits on the board of the Intermountain Healthcare Foundation. In addition, Alan is a member of the board of trustees of Weber State University. He was the Utah co-chair of Romney for President. He and his wife Jeanne are chairman and president of the Hall Foundation. Its purpose is to fund not for profit organizations that help the needy. Its theme is that there be no poor among us.