The Utah Chamber, Salt Lake Chamber and the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute hosted the Utah Economic Outlook & Public Policy Summit on January 16, 2026 at the Grand America Hotel.
As the state’s premier economic forecasting and public policy event, this summit brings together policy and academic thought leaders from across the state to share insights on the future of Utah’s economy and the business community’s policy priorities for the upcoming legislative session. This is an event that no one who is invested in Utah’s economic future should miss.
2026 Utah Economic Outlook & Public Policy Summit
January 16, 2026
7:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
The Grand America Hotel
555 S. Main Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Registration
Location: Grand Ballroom
*Breakfast will be provided.
Welcome
Location: Grand Ballroom
Presenter:
Economic Report & Presentation to Governor
Location: Grand Ballroom
Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute will provide an overview of the 2026 Economic Report to the Governor, which has been a key resource for information on the Utah economy over the past 38 years. The report’s central objective is to enhance economic literacy among readers, enabling decision makers in the public and private sectors to make informed plans, budgets and policy decisions. Following the report, it will be officially presented to the Governor.
Presenter:
Commentary from the Governor
Location: Grand Ballroom
The Governor will provide commentary on the Economic Report and addresses the business community.
Presenter:
Opening Keynote: Policy, Partnership, and Prosperity: A Discussion with Governor Spencer J. Cox & Former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema
Location: Grand Ballroom
Speakers:
Moderator:
This session brings together Governor Spencer J. Cox and former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) for a candid conversation on the policies and partnerships that will shape Utah’s and our country’s economic future. With a focus on pragmatism and problem-solving, they will discuss how collaboration across levels of government and across political differences can strengthen Utah’s business climate, support smart growth and keep the state competitive in a changing economy. Together, their discussion will offer practical insights for business leaders on how principled partnership can strengthen Utah’s future and support long-term prosperity.
Chamber’s Legislative Policy Priorities
Location: Grand Ballroom
Presenter:
The Chamber will unveil the 2026 Public Policy Guide, outlining and framing the key policy priorities that will shape the Chamber’s policy positions entering the legislative session.
Hot Topics for the 2026 Legislative Session Panel Discussion
Location: Grand Ballroom
Panel:
Moderator:
This panel brings together legislative leaders to outline their priorities and objectives for the upcoming legislative session. Panelists will discuss key policy areas, challenges and opportunities as they set the agenda for addressing pressing state needs.
Closing Keynote: The Business Case for Dignity
Location: Grand Ballroom
Speakers:
Tim Shriver’s keynote will focus on why dignity is an essential component of strong organizations, effective leadership and long-term economic success. Drawing on his experience working with leaders across sectors, he will outline how workplaces that treat individuals with dignity see higher trust, better decision-making and stronger teamwork. He will discuss the practical benefits of building cultures where people feel valued and how dignity-based leadership strengthens companies during periods of rapid change and how it can help Utah businesses compete by fostering stability, resilience and shared purpose.
Adjourn
Location: Grand Ballroom
Presenter:
Speaker: Governor Spencer J. Cox
Governor Spencer J. Cox is a husband, father, farmer, recovering attorney, and Utah’s 18th governor. He also served as the 2023-2024 chairman of the National Governors Association.
Governor Cox has a long track record of public service, serving as a city council member, mayor, county commissioner and state legislator before being appointed as Utah’s lieutenant governor in 2013. He was sworn in as governor on Jan. 4, 2021.
During his first term in office, Governor Cox cut $1.1 billion in taxes, implemented landmark changes in water law, water conservation and infrastructure planning, locked in record funding for education and teachers, enacted universal school choice and secured funds for affordable housing. A long-time advocate for suicide prevention and mental health resources, he’s become a national voice on protecting youth from the harms of social media. He also signed early education and workforce program funding, launched the One Utah Health Collaborative and expanded opportunities for women, diverse communities and those living in rural parts of the state.
With a focus on solutions, Governor Cox promotes respect in politics and innovation in government, works across party lines to find common ground and regularly participates in hands-on service projects. These elements were the foundation of his NGA Chair’s Initiative, “Disagree Better: Healthy Conflict for Better Policy.”
A sixth-generation Utahn, Governor Cox was born and raised in Fairview, a town of 1,200 in the center of the state. He met First Lady Abby Palmer Cox at age 16 and they married after he returned from serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. He attended Snow College, Utah State University and the Washington and Lee University School of Law, then clerked for U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart and worked at a Salt Lake City law firm. Several years later, Governor Cox and First Lady Cox moved back to Fairview to raise their four children – Gavin, Kaleb, Adam and Emma Kate – on the family farm. The governor and first lady currently reside in the Kearns Mansion, also known as the Governor’s Mansion, in Salt Lake City.
Speaker: Former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema
During her six years in the United States Senate, Kyrsten Sinema developed a proven track record of working across the political spectrum to get things done. She delivered meaningful and measurable results for Arizona and America – including writing and negotiating the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Law, the CHIPS and Science Law, the Electoral Count Reform Law and more. Through her leadership as Arizona’s Independent Senior Senator, Sinema secured the American West’s water future, promoted American leadership in innovative technologies and positioned America’s economy to remain competitive into the future.
Born and raised in Arizona, Sinema has always understood the challenges regular Americans face because she’s faced them too. Growing up, her family struggled to make ends meet, but they got by thanks to family, church and hard work. Sinema’s childhood experience showed her the power of determination, hard work and the importance of helping others.
Over her 20-year career in public service, Sinema served Arizona in the State House and Senate, as a Member of the United States House of Representatives and most recently in the United States Senate. Sinema earned a Masters of Social Work, PhD, J.D. and MBA from Arizona State University.
Sinema currently serves as the President and CEO of the Arizona Business Roundtable, is Senior Advisor at Hogan Lovells and a member of Coinbase’s Global Advisory Council. She is a Distinguished Professor of Practice at the Arizona State University School of Social Work.
Speaker: Dr. Timothy Shriver
Tim Shriver is husband, father, grandfather, educator, best-selling author, Chairman of Special Olympics and Chairman of UNITE.
As Chairman of Special Olympics, a global movement to end discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities, Shriver has driven the largest expansion of the organization in its history — growing the movement from one million athletes to over six million athletes in more than 170 countries around the world.
As he passed the CEO torch in the past few years, he began asking questions like, “How could the example and spirit of the athletes of Special Olympics provide a model for a divided world?” and “How could SEL skills like empathy, self-awareness, and perspective-taking help our whole nation?”
Hundreds of young people, faith leaders, educators, philosophers, scientists, activists and political figures have joined the conversation. Together, they concluded that in spite of the divides, the world is hungry to be reminded of its common humanity.
As Chairman of UNITE, a non-profit that also emerged from this exploration, he has helped to pioneer the Dignity Index — a new tool to help Americans disagree without demonizing each other — and catalyze dozens of moonshots that unite Americans in common purpose to tackle our country’s most intractable challenges.
Shriver earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University, a Master’s degree from Catholic University, and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Connecticut. Before joining Special Olympics in 1996, Shriver co-founded and currently chairs the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the leading school reform organization in the field of social and emotional learning (SEL).
Shriver also has a record of harnessing the power of Hollywood to spread hope and connection across differences as the executive producer of several films — including Amistad, The Loretta Claiborne Story, The Ringer, Front of the Class, As Far as They Can Run and The Peanut Butter Falcon. He is the author of the NYT bestseller Fully Alive – Discovering What Matters Most and co-editor of The Call to Unite: Voices of Hope and Awakening.
President J. Stuart Adams graduated from Layton High and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Utah in business finance. He currently resides in Layton, where he and his wife, Susan, raised their four children. Today they are the proud grandparents to 16 grandchildren.
President Adams owns Terra Strada Real Estate, a real estate construction and development firm in Layton, UT. During his time in real estate, he has been named Builder of the Year by the Northern Wasatch Home Builders Association.
Before being elected to the Senate, President Adams served four and a half years in the Utah House of Representatives and nine years on the Layton City Council. He is the former Chairman of the Utah Transportation Commission and chairs the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA).
During his time representing the 7th District, President Adams passed legislation to address religious freedoms, affordable energy, clean air and transportation.
Mike Schultz has represented Utah’s 12th House District since 2015 and currently serves as Speaker of the House. He has championed policies like increasing funding for Utah students, conserving Utah’s water supply and investing in transportation infrastructure all while balancing the budget and cutting taxes. Speaker Schultz and his wife, Melissa, are the proud parents of six children and three grandchildren. When not busy with work, he can be found in the great outdoors hunting, fishing, snowmobiling or fixing something on the ranch.
Senator Karen Kwan represents Utah Senate District 12, which includes parts of Kearns, Taylorsville and West Valley City.
She was first elected to the Utah State House in 2016 and has been serving in the Utah State Senate since 2023, where she is now the Minority Whip. Sen. Kwan serves on committees such as Rules Review & General Oversight, Executive Appropriations, Higher Education Appropriations, Economic Development and Workforce Services, Legislative Management, the Federalism Commission and many more.
Sen. Kwan is passionate about honoring her community and has worked with various civic engagement organizations. She is grateful to the Asian Association of Utah for bringing her to Utah in 1991 as program assistant where she began her service to communities in Utah. Other notable service, she sat on the Governor’s Asian American Council and was a founding member of OCA-Utah (Asian Pacific American advocates). She currently serves on the Board of the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association.
The value of education was instilled as a priority from the time she was a young child. Karen earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a master's degree in clinical psychology both from Pepperdine University and has a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah. She recently retired from Salt Lake Community College as a Professor Emeritus of Psychology.
Sen. Kwan and her husband, Travis, have three daughters, two sons-in-law and two very spoiled granddaughters. She is the daughter of an immigrant (her father) and descendant of a Chinese Transcontinental railroad worker (on her mother's side)
Sen. Kwan avidly works on legislation to support mental health, public safety, invest in quality education, enhance the care of senior communities, preserve family values and advance language access and equality for all Utahns.
Representative Angela Romero represents House District 25 in the Utah State Legislature. She is currently Minority Leader where she led the first all-female House leadership team in Utah’s history. Representative Romero is an enrolled member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, making her the first Native American to serve in the legislature.
At the state legislature, Representative Romero has been a champion for women and children. She focuses on legislation that advances victims’ rights. Her work centers on being a dedicated advocate for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking. One of her most notable accomplishments is the mandate requiring the testing of all sexual assault kits in Utah, supported by $2.4 million in ongoing annual funding. This achievement makes Utah one of the few states with no backlog of untested kits and strengthens reporting requirements for law enforcement in sexual assault cases.
Outside of her legislative capacity, Representative Romero works with local government, overseeing community programs and initiatives in the Division of Youth and Family Programs, including supervising the YouthCity Government Program. Representative Romero is dedicated to ensuring youth have access to the political process and civic engagement.
Phil Dean serves as the chief economist and public finance research fellow at the Gardner Institute. His research focuses on the Utah and U.S. economies and on public finance issues such as state and local taxes and budget management over the business cycle. He also teaches economics and public finance and serves as Co-chair of the Utah Economic Council.
Prior to joining the institute in 2021, Dean served as former Governor Herbert’s State Budget Director and Chief Economist after having worked for the Utah Legislature for nearly a decade. He began his professional career working on the state budget in California.
Dean holds master’s degrees from both BYU (public administration) and the University of Utah (economics).
Natalie Gochnour serves as an associate dean in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, and as director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. She served in the administrations of three Utah governors – Bangerter, Leavitt and Walker – and was a political appointee in the George W. Bush administration. She authors regular columns in Utah Business magazine and the Deseret News and co-hosts the weekly radio program Both Sides of the Aisle on KCPW.
Jeremy Hafen is the President and CEO of Clyde Companies, Inc., a multi-billion-dollar construction materials and services company based in Utah and operating in the Intermountain West & Great Plains regions. Prior to his move to Clyde Companies in April of 2019, he served as President of Suncore (formerly known as Sunroc), a wholly owned subsidiary of Clyde Companies. Before that, he served as President of Sunroc Building Materials (now known as Sunpro), a sister company to Suncore. In his seven plus years as president, Sunroc Building Materials more than doubled its revenue and became a top performing subsidiary of Clyde Companies, Inc. He began his career with Clyde Companies in the fall of 2004 as a Business Development Manager and worked his way up to Vice President of Administration at Clyde Companies, Inc.
Prior to Clyde Companies, Hafen spent several years with Deloitte in Dallas, Texas as a Senior Tax Consultant. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a Master of Accountancy degree in tax accompanied by a Minor in Information Systems Management. He also holds an emeritus CPA license in the State of Utah.
Hafen previously served as the Chair of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Chair of the MTECH Board of Trustees and as a director of the UVU Board of Trustees. He is currently the Utah Chamber Board of Directors Chair and was recently appointed as a director of the Salt Lake City Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, as well as the Utah Board of Higher Education and the Board of the Worker’s Compensation Fund. He is a member of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute Advisory Board and the BYU Marriott National Advisory Council. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Clyde Companies, Inc.
Most of his personal time is spent with his wife and seven children.
Ally Isom is a community leader and strategist where brand, policy and public engagement intersect. Isom is the chief marketing and external affairs officer for Clyde Companies. Previously, she was an executive in nanotech, a Republican candidate for the US Senate, head of global branding and messaging for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Utah Governor’s deputy chief of staff and a state agency leader.
Isom also has broad civic experience with numerous boards and commissions. Currently, she is the Utah Behavioral Health Commission chair, Primary Children’s Board member, Weber State Trustee (co-chairing the presidential search committee) and Enbridge Gas Utah Advisory Council member. Isom has a Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University. She and her husband, Eric, have four children and six grandchildren. When she finds free time, she relishes historical fiction and biographies, preferably on a beach, and mole poblano, pretty much anywhere.
Troy Keller is a partner in the Salt Lake City Office of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. Before joining Dorsey, Troy was Vice President of Law at Huntsman Corporation. Previous to Huntsman, he was securities counsel at Qwest Communications, and he began his career as an attorney at the New York office of Sidley Austin.
In Utah, Keller serves as World Trade Center Utah’s International Trade and Commercial Policy Advisor and is a member of the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors. He also serves on the Board of Directors of 47G and several other non-profits in Utah. He is admitted to practice law in New York, Colorado and Utah.
Derek Miller is the president and CEO of the Utah Chamber and the Salt Lake Chamber. The Chamber is the state's oldest business association that "stands as the voice of business." In this role, Derek leads the business community in advocating and leading Utah's continued economic prosperity.
Previously, Derek served as the president and CEO of the World Trade Center Utah, helping to “Promote prosperity across the state by attracting investment and increasing exports.” He also served as Chief of Staff to Gov. Herbert and as Managing Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development for Gov. Huntsman.
Recognizing his leadership, Gov. Herbert lauded Derek as, “an architect of economic opportunity and innovation,” and “instrumental in transforming Utah into one of the most competitive and fastest growing economies in the country.”
Derek began his career in Washington, D.C. as a management consultant with Arthur Andersen and as legal counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He is a graduate of the J. Reuben Clark Law School and holds a Master of Public Administration from the Romney Institute of Public Management at Brigham Young University.
Derek and his wife, Laura, live in Salt Lake City with their three children. They enjoy spending time together exploring Utah’s countless natural wonders.
Mary Catherine Perry is the executive vice president of government affairs and public policy for the Utah Chamber and Salt Lake Chamber.
Previously, she was the former director of policy and government affairs for The Policy Project. In that capacity, Perry helped unanimously pass The Period Project, which she drafted, advocated for and implemented legislation that requires all of Utah’s public and charter schools to offer free period products to K-12 students. Perry also helped secure a $15 million legislative appropriation with the Teen Center Project to create spaces inside Utah high schools to offer vulnerable and at-risk students a place to do laundry, shower and access food resources. She helped draft and unanimously pass legislation with The Safe Child Project that offers child abuse prevention education in Utah elementary schools with historic ongoing funding. She has also advocated for policies involving public education and affordable home ownership.
Perry began her career as a policy analyst with the Utah Legislature at the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, where she worked for several years researching and developing policy and drafting legislation primarily in Business, Labor and Economic Development. Perry received a B.A. in English and a Master of Public Administration from Brigham Young University, where she developed a love for advocacy and sound policy.
Perry has spent over 25 years volunteering in many capacities including the Salt Lake City School District and on nonprofit boards in Utah including the Board of Directors of the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics, Utah Women Run, Junior League of Salt Lake City, Tanner Dance at the University of Utah, and she was appointed by Governor Cox to serve on the Utah Marriage Commission. Mary Catherine and her husband, Jason Perry, reside in Salt Lake City with their children.
Taylor Randall is the 17th president of the University of Utah, the state’s flagship institution of higher education. He joined the U in 1998 as a professor of accounting and led the nationally ranked David Eccles School of Business for 12 years prior to his appointment as the president in 2021. The first alum in 50 years to hold this position, President Randall has an infectious energy and passion for his alma mater. He has set a bold goal for the University of Utah to become a top 10 public university with unsurpassed societal impact. He believes the U can revolutionize the student experience, change the world through research and serve our state to improve the lives of all 3.6 million Utahns (updated census from Gardner Institute). Some of the highlights of his tenure thus far include re-pledging the U’s commitment to serve the state of Utah, opening centers for climate policy and fintech investment, building several new living-learning housing projects, announcing the University of Utah Eccles Health Campus and Eccles Hospital in West Valley, initiating a comprehensive strategic academic planning process and launching the Responsible AI Initiative. President Randall is proud to lead a university that is one of the nation’s leading research institutions, the state’s largest employer, a member of the Association of American Universities and home to University of Utah Health, the only academic medical center in the state of Utah. In short, you won’t meet a bigger fan of the University of Utah than Taylor Randall. He has big plans for this place, and he intends to make them happen.