NEWS OF NOTE No. 5 — Carlyle Acquires a Utah Defense-Tech Firm, College Football, a National Bank Moves its Headquarters to Utah, Plus Executive Moves Across Higher Education, Manufacturing, Venture Capital and More

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

✅ Carlyle Group has acquired Centerville, Utah-based defense-technology firm Secturion Systems, making the Utah company the first investment by Carlyle's new dedicated middle-market Aerospace, Defense / Government and Industrials platform;

✅ Brigham Young University Athletics and Lehi-based Entrata have signed a multi-year agreement making Entrata the first program-specific jersey-patch sponsor for BYU Football, a sponsorship Utah Money Watch estimates could be worth roughly $1.5 million–$2.5 million annually;

✅ B2 Bank has relocated the headquarters of its existing federally chartered national bank to Holladay, Utah from Minnesota ;

✅ Utah Valley University, Utah's largest public university, has named Jon Anderson as its eighth president, succeeding Astrid S. Tuminez;

✅ Quad/Graphics plans to open a new 100,000-square-foot packaging-manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City during the fourth quarter of 2026;

✅ Recursion's co-founder and former CEO, Chris Gibson, has joined venture capital firm Dimension as an operating partner, while continuing as an advisor to Recursion;

✅ A Millcreek, Utah man has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $1.75 million in restitution for orchestrating a multi-year check-fraud conspiracy; and (last but not least),

✅ News of five additional senior-executive changes involving four Utah-linked companies, including a new CEO at Secturion, new CFOs at Waystar and B2 Bank, and a President/COO and a Chief AI Architect at Callegra Technologies.

14 August 2026 — LEHI, Utah — Twelve Utah-linked developments anchor this fifth edition of NEWS OF NOTE writeup from Utah Money Watch, announcements that span private equity, national defense, college football, banking, higher education, manufacturing, venture capital, financial fraud, and senior-executive leadership.

Seven stand on their own, while five additional executive appointments are either embedded within those transactions or bundled together at the end of this writeup.

That said, the most financially consequential development may also be the least familiar to most Utahns, as one of the world's largest private-capital firms has acquired a small Centerville defense-technology company whose hardware helps protect some of America's most sensitive classified information.

Welcome to NEWS OF NOTE No. 5.

1. Carlyle Acquires Centerville-Based Defense-Tech Firm Secturion Systems

Global investment firm Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) has acquired Centerville, Utah-based Secturion Systems, a privately held, defense-technology company that develops high-speed hardware encryption products used to protect classified information. Financial terms were not disclosed.

According to the Carlyle news release, the transaction is the first investment by its dedicated middle-market aerospace, defense / government, and industrials platform.

Through Secturion's multiple filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, we learned that Secturion had raised at least $9.1 million (and perhaps as much as $10.6 million, according to CB Insights) prior to its acquisition.

Secturion builds specialized hardware that allows military and intelligence customers to securely store, process and transmit highly classified information at very high speeds.

Conversely, Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle has nearly 40 years of aerospace, defense and government investing experience, and reported $475 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of 31 March 2026.

Media outlet Semafor writes that the Secturion purchase is the opening acquisition for Carlyle's new middle-market defense and industrial platform, an investment effort reportedly seeking as much as $3 billion to acquire and build medium-sized aerospace, defense, government and industrial businesses.

According to Ian Fujiyama, Chairman of Carlyle’s middle-market Aerospace, Defense & Government and Industrials platform and Head of Aerospace, Defense & Government at Carlyle:

"Secturion has developed industry-leading hardware encryption capabilities that protect some of the nation's most sensitive information. Secturion is a compelling fit as the first investment for the middle-market platform, bringing alignment with long-term industry tailwinds, mission-critical products, and a deeply technical team.”

2. Entrata Buys BYU Football Jersey Space While Preparing to Go Public

A corporate logo is coming to Brigham Young University Football game jerseys for the first time through a program-specific sponsorship.

The company buying that real estate? None other than Lehi-based Entrata, which (as it turns out) is simultaneously preparing for an initial public offering while in the midst of its pre-IPO "Quiet Period."

BYU Athletics and Entrata have signed a multi-year agreement making the property-management software company BYU's first program-specific jersey-patch sponsor.

Beginning with the 2026 season, the Entrata logo will appear on the jersey of every BYU football player on game days.

According to the BYU Athletics announcement, the agreement also includes

🏈 In-venue branding,

🏈 Digital activations,

🏈 Community programs, and

🏈 Fan-engagement opportunities.

Neither BYU nor Entrata disclosed the price or exact length of the agreement beyond describing it as multi-year deal.

That does not mean there is no way to think about the economics.

For example, Front Office Sports recently reported that University of Illinois Athletics Department had reached a five-year, $30 million agreement with Busey Bank, or $6 million annually.

But that package covers nine UofI sports, including football and men's and women's basketball, making it a poor direct comparison for BYU's football-only arrangement.

Given

🔷 BYU Football's national television reach,

🔷 The global reach of BYU's sponsoring institution, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

🔷 The exclusivity and visibility of the jersey patch, and

🔷 The broader activation rights included in the agreement,

Utah Money Watch estimates the Entrata relationship could be worth between $1.5 million–$2.5 million per year.

So call it $2 million/year (or $6 million for the life of the agreement), without slider clauses that cause the payout to rise or fall depending upon the team's success on the field.

To be clear, that's a U$W estimate, not a disclosed figure.

The wrinkle to this entire news, however, is the Quiet Period Entrata finds itself in with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

As reported by Utah Money Watch at the beginning of June with "Lehi-Based Entrata Files to Go Public, Revealing a Profitable $509 Million Utah Software Platform," Entrata is limited in what it can say or do publicly from a publicity/marketing standpoint exactly because it has notified both the SEC and Wall Street that it plans to sell its shares to the public via an IPO.

That filing revealed a profitable AI-empowered Utah company that generated $509.1 million in 2025 revenue and $58.3 million in net income.

So while Entrata prepares to introduce itself more broadly to public-market investors, its logo is about to receive repeated national television exposure on one of Utah's most visible sports brands.

And virtually all college football prognosticators expect BYU to be in-line for another shot at the BIG-12 Championship Title Game come December.

And if things fall correctly for the Cougars, who knows? Perhaps even a shot at a College Football Playoff berth?

3. B2 Bank Moves its National Bank Headquarters to Holladay, Utah from Minnesota

B2 Bank has moved its headquarters to Holladay, Utah from Mountain Iron, Minnesota.

In describing the company's decision to relocate to Utah, Ryan Jaskiewicz, Chief Executive Officer of B2 Bank said:

“Utah places us at the center of one of the country’s most dynamic financial and technology hubs, with the talent and momentum we need to serve customers coast to coast. This move reflects our ambition to expand B2 Bank nationwide and build the bank we know we can become.”

A nationally chartered community bank formed in 1902, B2 Bank says it is

"... building the next generation of community banking — expanding its commercial lending platform, strengthening relationships with traditional clients, and delivering modern banking infrastructure to digital banking clients."

As of today, B2 Bank plans to maintain its two branches in Buhl, Minnesota and Mountain Iron.

The bank has not announced plans about branch expansion in Utah, although that would not surprise me.

Nor would it surprise me to learn that B2 Bank plans to apply to become an Industrial Loan Company, also known as an ILC, especially because Utah is the top state in the country for ILCs. To be clear, however, such a move has not been announced.

But, then again, we shall see.

4. Jon Anderson Takes Over Utah's Largest Public University

The Utah Board of Higher Education has unanimously selected Jon Anderson, Ph.D., as the eighth president of Utah Valley University, placing him atop the public university with the largest student population in Utah.

Anderson assumed the presidency on 10 August 2026.

President Anderson came to Orem from Pennsylvania Western University, where he served as president.

Earlier in his career, Anderson served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Southern Utah University and Middle Georgia State University.

For context, UVU had nearly 50,000 students enrolled during the 2025 Fall Semester (48,670 students to be exact), making it the largest higher education institution in Utah.

Of these,

✅  41% were first-generation college students,

✅  79% worked while attending school, and (UVU claims),

✅  74% of its alumni remain in Utah a decade after graduation.

Anderson succeeds Astrid S. Tuminez, who stepped down on 1 May after 7.5 years as president.

Her departure followed an unusually difficult final year as her husband of 37 years, Jeffrey Tolk, died unexpectedly in February 2025 after suffering a pulmonary embolism while mountain climbing in Ecuador.

Tuminez subsequently took a brief sabbatical before returning to UVU.

During her presidency, UVU enrollment grew from 39,931 students to 48,670.

Anderson also has longstanding Utah roots. He attended Bingham High School and graduated from Utah State University.

Now he takes responsibility for educating more students than any other public university in Utah.

5. Quad Adds 100,000 Square Feet of Packaging-Manufacturing Capacity in Salt Lake City

Sussex, Wisconsin-based Quad/Graphics (NYSE:QUAD) plans to open a new 100,000-square-foot packaging-manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City during the fourth quarter of 2026.

According to Quad, the Salt Lake City plant will join existing U.S. packaging operations in Franklin, Wisconsin, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, giving the publicly traded company strategically positioned packaging-production capacity in the West, Midwest and East.

This new SLC-based facility will include

▪️ A high-speed printing press,

▪️ Sheeter,

▪️ Die cutters, and

▪️ Folding gluers while providing customers with

— Printing,

— Finishing,

— Converting, and

— Related packaging services.

Quad, which employs approximately 10,000 people across 10 countries, has not disclosed the investment amount, anticipated Utah employment or expected production volume for the Salt Lake City facility.

6. Recursion Co-Founder Chris Gibson Formally Moves into Venture Capital

Chris Gibson, Co-founder and former CEO of Salt Lake City-based Recursion (NASDAQ:RXRX), has joined venture-capital firm Dimension as an operating partner.

So reports Kyle LaHucik on LinkedIn, a Biotech Correspondent with Endpoints News.

For Utah, this is more interesting than another executive changing jobs.

Gibson spent more than a decade building Recursion from a University of Utah-rooted startup into one of Utah's highest-profile publicly traded Life Sciences companies, one centered on using artificial intelligence, automation and large-scale biological data to discover drugs.

He stepped down as CEO at the end of 2025 and became chairman of Recursion's board on 1 January 2026 (a role that has since ended), although he remains an advisor to Recursion.

Contextually, it's helpful to understand that Dimension co-founder Zavain Dar served on Recursion's board years before launching the venture firm.

For Utah's Life Sciences ecosystem, that transition may be important as experienced founders who become investors can recycle not only capital, but

🔺 Operating judgment,

🔺 Contacts,

🔺. Recruiting credibility, and

🔺 Lessons learned into the companies that follow them.

In other words, potentially good news for Utah, BioUtah, BioHive, and the entire Life Sciences industry of the state, whether from Dimension's HQ in New York City or in its San Francisco, California location.

7. Nine Years in Federal Prison for $1.7 Million-Plus Utah Check-Fraud Scheme

A Millcreek, Utah man has been sentenced to 108 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1,749,158.73 in restitution for orchestrating a multi-year check-fraud conspiracy.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah, Pitshou Yunga Kafuku, 43, ran the scheme from 2022–2025, working with individuals in South Africa to obtain checks stolen from the mail and directing a Utah network that opened bank accounts using fraudulent identification documents.

The stolen funds were withdrawn as cash, transferred among fraudulent accounts, or used to purchase heavy equipment bound for Africa.

Kafuku pled guilty on 21 April 2026 to bank-fraud conspiracy, bank fraud, theft of government funds and money laundering.

He was also sentenced to five years of supervised release.

Federal prosecutors say the scheme stole upwards of $1.7 million from banks.

8. Executive Roundup: Five Senior Leadership Changes Across Four Utah-Linked Companies

Five additional senior-executive changes have surfaced across four Utah-linked companies.

A. Secturion Systems

As part of its acquisition of Secturion (noted in the lede of this writeup), Carlyle has named Sean Berg Chief Executive officer of the Centerville defense-tech company. Berg previously led Everfox and brings more than 25 years of technology experience spanning military and private-sector roles.

B. Waystar

In Lehi, healthcare-payments software company Waystar (NASDAQ:WAY) has named Alpana Wegner its Chief Financial Officer, effective 1 August 2026.

Wegner succeeds Steve Oreskovich, Waystar's CFO for the past eight years, who will remain with the company as an advisor through June 2027.

C. B2 Bank

Meanwhile, B2 Bank named Melissa Atkins CFO and Executive Vice President as part of the same 28 July announcement accompanying its headquarters relocation to Holladay.

Atkins brings more than 25 years of finance experience to B2 and most recently served as EVP, CFO and COO of Waterfall Bank.

D. Callegra Technologies

And Sandy-based Callegra Technologies has made two senior additions within weeks of one another.

Specifically, Callegra announced that it has named Duane Harris as its President and Chief Operating Officer. In its announcement, Callegra stated that Harris would "... lead the company’s expansion in cloud-native communications, AI, Edge AI, cybersecurity and FedRAMP-ready solutions."

Separately, Callegra also named Reiley Snowden as its Chief AI Architect.

In its news release, Callegra stated that Snowden will help "... accelerate the company’s next generation of AI-powered software, cloud platforms, and intelligent enterprise solutions."

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