Business Notes for Feb. 25, 2024

The Gazette’s Business Notes is a compendium of the week’s promotions, new hires, certifications, added business lines and business events, among other items, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and the rest of the Corridor.

Information and photos can be submitted to Business Notes by email to businessnotes@thegazette.com, or on our site at thegazette.com/businessnotes.

Promotions

Design Engineers of Cedar Rapids has promoted Polly Forinash to director of administration and Tim Lentz to senior sustainability engineer.

Kudos

Betty C. Andrews of Des Moines, president of the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP, has been elected to the NAACP’s 64-member national board of directors to represent the 10-state Midwestern region. She succeeds Dedric Doolin of Cedar Rapids, who she thanked for his nearly 14 years of service on the board, saying he “has been an unwavering beacon of persistence, integrity and advocacy.”

Other news

Collins facility 100% renewable energy: A Collins Aerospace facility in Tanauan City, Philippines, is now operating on 100 percent renewable electricity through a geothermal power plant, the company announced last week. The site manufactures galleys, lavatories, seats and oxygen systems for commercial aircraft. The switch to renewable energy will lower Collins’ greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 25,000 metric tons a year, according to LeAnn Ridgeway, chief sustainability officer for Collins.

Fast, Fun & Furious: Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa is looking for student and corporate teams for its fifth annual JA Stock Market Challenge, presented by RSM. The event will be held April 25 at the Olympic Southside Theater in Cedar Rapids. The challenge is a simulation of the stock market in which every 60 seconds represents a day of trading. Each team starts with $500,000 of mock stock and buys and sells shares in fictitious companies. The high school student competition runs from 9 to 11 am., with a corporate competition from 5 to 8 p.m. The registration deadline is April 12. Students compete for free, corporate teams pay $750. For information and to register, go to https://easterniowa.ja.org/events/corridor-ja-stock-market-challenge or call (319) 862-1100.

Iowa’s nonprofits: A new study shows Iowa ranks third in the nation in the percent of nonprofits operating in the state. West Virginia ranked first, with 13.04 percent of all registered businesses being nonprofits. Vermont was second at 12.41 percent, and Iowa was third at 10.86 percent, according to the study by business QR code generator QRFY. In Iowa, 9,014 nonprofits are among 82,997 registered businesses. Nevada had the lowest percentage of nonprofits, at 3.56 percent. “Nonprofit organizations often help to fill the gaps in services that haven't been provided for by for-profit organizations or the government,” said Marc Porcar, CEO of QRFY.

Small business of the week: U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst last week named Wells Hometown Drug of Davis County as small business of the week. Mylo Wells grew up in Bloomfield in south-central Iowa where he often assisted his mother in her work as a pharmacist. After earning a doctorate of pharmacy at the University of Iowa, he opened Wells Hometown Drug in Bloomfield in 2018, then opened a second store in Keosauqua, both small cities needing local access to a pharmacy. Ernst, the ranking member of the Senate’s Small Business Committee, is naming a small business of the week in each of Iowa’s 99 counties.