Spencer Eccles, Executive Director, Governor's Office of Economic Development
Spencer Peterson Eccles has strong ties to Utah's urban and rural communities as well as international markets. He was formerly affiliated with the Salt Lake City office of Wells Capital Management (Wells Fargo Bank), which had approximately $2 billion under management. Most recently, he has been involved with web-based software and materials technology companies in the U.S. and abroad. In that role, he chairs the board of the Utah-based company COMPLETExRM (also known as PlanPlusOnline), and serves as a board member for Swarmbuilder, Inc. (formerly 3Point5) and d3o, a materials technology development firm headquartered in the United Kingdom.
In 1997, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games tapped Eccles to manage the development of its Snow Basin venue and oversee the premier Olympic downhill event as well as all of the alpine Paralympic competitions held there - a post he held for five years. Currently, in addition to his venture capital projects, Eccles' business interests include managing three ranching operations in Idaho and Wyoming, and serving on the boards of The Goldener Hirsch Inn & Restaurant at Deer Valley, the Naked Fish Japanese Restaurant, the Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative and Longbow Holding Company.
Eccles' involvement with Utah's non-profit community includes his chairmanship of the Salt Lake Chamber's International Committee and service on its Board of Governors and Executive Committee. He is also a board member of the Alf Engen Ski Museum and the Ogden Pioneer Heritage Foundation. Further, he serves as president of the First Security Foundation, and advises with The George S. and Dolores Dor'e Eccles Foundation. At the University of Utah, he is a member of the advisory boards of the Tanner Humanities Center's World Leaders Lecture Forum and the David Eccles School of Business.
Eccles received his MBA from BYU's Marriott School of Management and his BA in history from the University of Utah. As a student-athlete at the U, he was a member of its Alpine Ski Team, and for a number of years thereafter, he competed internationally in the sport and later coached one season with the US Ski Team.
Born in Boise, Idaho in 1967, Eccles spent most of his life in Utah and has strong ties not only to Salt Lake City but throughout the state including Ogden and Sanpete County. He is married to the former Kristine Lifferth and they have two young children.