OCR Text |
Show a a I; 'k B-14 The Park Record Saturday, January 26, 2002 Marketplac Gold Standard: from grass roots to high-end hospitality service Transportation business hustles sponsorships spon-sorships and caters to big corporate clients by Jana McQuay OF THE RECORD STAFF On the surface, it wouldn't appear that Alec Donachy's background as a formula race-car driver and his experience running racing teams on the circuit in Canada could have that much to do with managing Gold Standard, a local transportation transporta-tion business. Alter all, Gold Standard drivers aren't paid to speed. Ihey're paid to transport clients safely to their destinations. destina-tions. Hut Donachy, owner and managing director of Gold , Standard, plans to do more than just provide private luxury transportation for tourists, big corporate groups, and icons like K.i;.M.'s Michael Stipe. Just lake a look at the graphics packages wrapped around some of the vehicles in his fleet of Chevrolet Hxprcss Maxi-Vans, Suburbans, and Luxury Motor Coaches. Don't miss some of the Park City buses in the public transit system. Colorful graphics touting product awareness for big corporate corpo-rate giants like Samsung, Bank of America and AT&T can be seen on some public transit system buses, and an action graphic of U.S. Ski Team athlete F.rik Schlopy is wrapped around some of Gold Standard's vehicles. "We have a contract with Schlopy and the U.S. Ski Team to use imaging on transportation vehicles," he said. "It advertises and promotes the teams, and we are proud of the association," Donachy said. (iold Standard generated $250,000 from the wrapping program pro-gram which the city is using to offset Olympic expenditures to fund events like the Main Street it We are delighted to be in our new headquarters. It's the best location in town for the type of business we have -- it's close to everything. " Alec Donachy Owner of Gold Standard Celebration, according to Donachy. "We're using this agreement with Park City as an opportunity for us to provide brand exposure for our clients and other sponsors," spon-sors," Donachy said in a public relations announcement. "I used to run racing teams the lifeblood of that is sponsorship," sponsor-ship," Donachy said. "I had a racing license before I had my road license," Donachy said. Born and reared in Britain, he moved to Canada in 1977 and then to the United States in 1986. His experience in hustling sponsors during his racing days transferred nicely into Gold Standard's services - transportation, transporta-tion, band awareness and event coordination. "It's a constant challenge to get sponsorships," Donachy said.. "Once we secure a sponsorship, sponsor-ship, we use our best efforts to expose their products and provide pro-vide brand awareness." Whether it's a race-car team cr a transportation business, Donachy scouts out clients looking look-ing for advertising opportunities where their name is front and center. Once the sponsorship is established, estab-lished, Donachy has an in-house graphics operator produce the digital digi-tal imaging to promote product awareness. "We can have that image wrapped on a vehicle in 48 hours." mmmmmmmm Once a graphic file has been completed by its in-house graphic graph-ic specialist, Gold Standard subcontracts sub-contracts with an Atlanta, Georgia, company to transfer the digital imaging onto a wrap. The Atlanta company then ships the wrap overnight, and Gold Standard installs it the next day. It sounds easy, but establishing the local business in 1999 and building it from the ground up has been a process. After Donachy moved to Park City, he identified some market opportunities in service-related businesses and narrowed his choices down to transportation, event planning and concierge services. ser-vices. Gold Standard started as a fledgling business with just Donachy and recently grew to approximately 45 employees within 60 days, he said. Where Donachy previously i M ' ' 4 ' ' - fori .'' t iJSr- I- : , tr . -12 ' . wf r- - - .T.i. ' - - -Am - v. ,,mtmr I PHOTO COURTESY OF GOLD STANDARD Alec Donachy, owner and managing director of Gold Standard, a local transportation business, hands a pen to Erik Schlopy to autograph the athlete's graphic image on a fleet vehicle. facilitated all functions of the business, Gold Standard is now broken down into four departments depart-ments - transportation, event planning, brand awareness and graphic production. The business caters to a list of corporate clients like VISA, Office Depot, the Slamdance Film Festival, Sears Roebuck and Co. and Kelloggs, according to Donachy. Gold Standard prides itself on . Please see Gold touts, B-15 2002 Entrepreneur of the Year to be honored at The Canyons MountainWest Venture Group announced that it will honor Peter D. Meldrum, president and CT-O of Myriad Genetics, Inc., as the 2002 Hntrcpreneur of the Year.. Meldrum will be the keynote speaker at the 15th annual awards ceremony on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2002, at the Grand Summit Hotel at The Canyons Resort in Park City. Myriad Genetics,, located in the University of Utah's Research Park in Salt Lake City, is a leading biopharmaceutical company that has developed a broad pipeline of novel drugs to treat human diseases such as prostate cancer, colon cancer, AIDS and rheumatoid arthritis. Meldrum was instrumental in the founding of Myriad Genetics, and has been involved in the founding of several other biotechnology companies including includ-ing Pharmadigm Biosciences, Sonic Innovations, Cognetix, Inc. and Acacia Biosciences (now Rosetta Inpharmatics). Prior to joining Myriad in 1992, Meldrum was president and CEO of Founders Fund, Inc., a venture capital group, and was a member of the Governor's Council of Science and Technology and chaired the Governor's Advisory Board concerning con-cerning the regulation of the biotechnology industry in Utah. He was awarded the Governor's Medal for 'Science and, Technology in 1998. "In selecting the entrepreneur to be honored, MountainWest Venture Group identifies potential poten-tial nominees, evaluates credentials creden-tials and achievements, and selects one individual who personifies per-sonifies a visionary entrepreneur who has built a Utah-based company," com-pany," said Tom Taylor, chairman , of this year's Entrepreneur of the Year event and a partner in the Salt Lake City office of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. "Meldrum is just such a visionary vision-ary who has inspired others to participate in the risks and rewards of building successful companies and who has remained personally involved in seeing those ventures flourish." MountainWest Venture Group's Entrepreneur of the Year program is held each year in conjunctron with the Wayne Brown Institute's Investor's Choice West Venture Capital Conference. . Past recipients of the Entrepreneur of the Year award include Dr. Hunter Jackson, (NPS Pharmaceuticals); David Evans (Evans & Southerland Computer Corp.); Ray Noorda (Novell); Dale Ballard (Ballard Medical Products); and Dr. Dinesh Patel (TheraTech). Have a business lead? Call ana McQuay at 649-9014, Ext. 113. February 11-23, 2002 Wasatch High School Nightly 6:ca p.m. 'wSy Winter Break Kids Program ai The Canyons The Canyons Resort Perfect Kids" Ski School Program will be offering a fun full-day ski school experience with a special savings for all Park City School District children ages 5-12. This program will be offered Monday through Friday. February 4-22. 2002. TIMES: 9:30am to 3:30pm. (Early drop off and late pick-up option available.) MEETING PLACE: Children's Center in The Canyons Resort Village $65 includes (1) all-day group lesson and lunch (ages 5 -12) $265 for a 5 day program (Monday - Friday) Pre-registratioh and payment required Please call in advance to make a reservation and verify school district status. All lessons are reserved on a space-available basis. For additional information or to make a reservation, please call the Ski & Snowboard School at The Canyons 435.615.3449. Til 12 GVNYONS PARK CITY, UTAH www.thecanyons.com infothecanyons.com WILD WEST FAIR $ UNIttUE WESTERN SOUVENIRS & GIFTS FREE TO THE PUBLIC 12:00 NOON - 10:00PM j ENJOY WORLD FAMOUS EDDIE DFJjXS FAST TEXAS BBQ DINNER 4 ., S If Official Caterer of the 2001 Presidential Inauguration The Official Cowboy Hat of Soldier Hollow Baiieyf Felt Hat Order Now Hats and Seating Are Limited Act Now - Calb mm "gpijfiiiniiiTlii'ii TT ' flllll fl i IT iff"" 1 ''""r ' i 4 I j |