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Show Phone: 626-7624 - Employment m banking busslraess Business Editor: Carolyn Losee By Alexiss Memmott business writer The Signpost The president of the Bank of Utah said they look heavily to Weber State University for the future of its business. James Anderson, Bank of Utah president, visited WSU to speak to business students Thursday as part of the Ralph Nye lecture series. He emphasized that the "pool of talent" is running out and that the Bank of Utah needs some solid employees. "We need good, professional, friendly people in our bank," Anderson said. "Our employees are the bank." There are 320 people that work for Bank of Utah and 26 are WSU graduates. Anderson brought three of his employees with him, all WSU alumni. Each of them took a turn to introduce themselves and talk about their jobs. Jason Tonioli is employed as a marketing management trainee. He graduated from WSU in December with a degree in marketing. Before being hired by the Bank of Utah, he worked as an intern doing marketing for them in the mortgage department. "If you get a chance to do an internship, do it," Tonioli said. "That's how I got this job." Menah Strong has a master's in accounting. She is the vice president controller and has the responsibility to make sure the customers' money is safe. Jared Anderson graduated in 1997 with a bachelor's in business. Throughout college, he worked at a bank and hated it. "It was just something to do until I was done with school," Jared Anderson said. Now, Jared Anderson works as the vice president of commercial lending. He said sometimes he forgets he is at work because there is not a boring moment in the day. The Bank of Utah is the largest community bank in Utah even though it is mostly known to Weber and Davis county residents. Bank of Utah specializes in commercial lending and also does first home mortgages. The bank averages a return of 15 percent on their assets each year. Anderson claims that growth is not what is important. "That's not part of our goal at all ," Anderson said. "Our goal is to be good, be profitable and serve the customer. But if you do that, growth is inevitable." Anderson also talked about how community banks are more personalized than national banks. He said that is one of the reasons they prosper. As banks get big, they outgrow the community aspect of the business and become less responsive. That is the challenge for Bank of Utah: to make sure that they continue GO 23dlCGEGF25 By Spencer Hilton correspondent The Signpost Every Friday night, Cory Dixon and 15 other individuals, ranging in age from 20 to 45 years old, are brought together by a common bond: Xbox. Across the United States gatherings like this, known as a "Halo party" are rapidly gaining popularity. Dixon, Weber State University student, was invited to his first Halo party in summer of 2002. "It started out with four people,' Dixon said. The group played Halo, a first-person game developed for Xbox by Microsoft that allows up to 16 players. The television screen is divided up between the players and each player wanders with the goal of gathering weapons in order to find and kill the other players. "It's the most advanced game I've seen," Dixon said. Friday night Halo parties became a tradition for him. They now average between 10-16 players each Friday. Gaming begins at 9:30 p.m. and often goes until 4 a.m. Saturday. "Some of the guys are 35 years old and have to work the next morning," Dixon said. "My wife works the graveyard shift, so I can get away with it." The players are divided between fourXboxes networked between four televisions. "We affectionately call the day after the Halo hangover' Cory Dixon WSU student Xbox is Microsoft's latest in home video gaming. It features an Intel 733MHz processor, which Microsoft claims to be the fastest in any console. Its NVIDIA graphics processing unit has more than three times the graphics performance of any other console, according to xbox.com. Video games have come a long ways since games such as Computer Space and Pong in 1972. "Your calculator is more powerful than the old mainframes," said Greg Anderson, assistant professor in the computer science department at WSU. Anderson's first memory of video games dates back to 1977. "I remember sitting on my orange shag carpet, right after I'd raked it," he said. He spent many hours sitting on that carpet playing Pong as a sophomore in high school. As a married adult, Anderson remembered playing video games with co-workers on his lunch break and at home until 2 a.m. See Addictions page 6 to be responsive to their existing and prospective customers as they continue to grow. In his concluding remarks, Anderson returned to the original emphasized point of needing employees and revealed the real reason for his visit: to recruit. 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