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Mountain West Capital Network (MWCN) selected Alan E. Hall to be its Entrepreneur of the Year for 2009, calling him the "Johnny Appleseed" of Utah business.

"We are so pleased to recognize Alan as this year's Entrepreneur of the Year," said Mark Lehman of Parsons Behle & Latimer and chair of Entrepreneur of the Year. "He epitomizes business in Utah. Alan is like Johnny Appleseed-he's out there every day tossing business seeds wherever he goes-helping Utah businesses grow."

A Utah business stalwart, Hall is the founder, former CEO and chairman of MarketStar Corporation, an outsourced global marketing and sales organization with several thousand employees in 100 countries. He is the founder and chairman of Grow Utah Ventures, a non-profit organization fostering entrepreneurial development, which has several incubation facilities for entrepreneurs, seven new angel investor organizations from Logan to St. George. He is supervising the statewide rollout of Seed Utah, a private initiative to increase entrepreneurism. He also plans to invest in 100 emerging Utah companies through Island Park Investments, a personal fund managed by Iomega founder, Dave Norton.

Mr. Hall is also the managing director of Mercato Partners, a new growth equity venture capital firm that he recently launched with partner Greg Warnock, which invests in fast growing technology companies that need additional funds for marketing and sales acceleration.

He is chairman of the Utah Technology Council, a member of Wells Fargo's community advisory board and a founding board member of World Trade Center Utah. He also serves as a member of the Intermountain Healthcare Foundation, is a member of the board of trustees of Weber State University and was Utah co-chair of Romney for President. He and his wife Jeanne are chairman and president of the Hall foundation-a not-for-profit organization whose theme is, "no poor among us." Mr. Hall is also chairman of Ogden's 75th Pioneer Days Celebration scheduled for July 2009. In 1997 Mr. Hall was the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of Year in the State of Utah. He has six children and 13 grandchildren
"Alan embodies the spirit that the Entrepreneur of the Year recognizes," said Lex W. Watterson, MWCN president. "He has achieved great economic success and continually desires to give back to business. He is emblematic of the innovation and productivity that makes Utah more prosperous than the rest of the U.S."

Each year, MWCN recognizes a Utah business executive who has built a successful Utah-based company and who has inspired others to participate in the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship.

"I am very pleased to be honored by MWCN," said Hall. "It's a wonderful organization with a keen focus on assisting Utah companies to become viable and successful. I am pleased to be associated with them."