Top Utah industry groups, The Utah Information Technology Association and the Utah Life Science Association plan to merge.

Two of the state’s most prominent industry associations plan to join forces.

The Utah Information Technology Association and the Utah Life Science Association boards of trustees announced Friday that they have unanimously agreed to merge. They will become the Utah Technology Council once a definitive merger agreement and necessary approvals are in place, mostly likely in March.

The combined organization would represent the interests of about 3,100 IT companies and 200 to 300 life sciences companies in the state.

"It’s a rare and fantastic opportunity to further build and unite Utah’s outstanding technology community," said UITA’s president and chief executive officer, Richard Nelson, who will direct UTC. "By broadening our scope to become a full technology council, I’m confident we will become an even stronger advocate for creating many new high-paying tech jobs in Utah. We want to broaden the technology umbrella and better serve both of these extremely important technology sectors."

By Brice Wallace
Deseret Morning News

Full Story: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635185384,00.html