CNBC has released its ranking of top states for business and Utah is on the list.

Utah actually ties with Minnesota in the 8th spot but ranked 5th in quality of life and 7th in both workforce and the cost of doing business.

You can see the results for all 50 states, just click here.

courtesy skyguy414/wikimedia

Salt Lake City has been named by Parenting magazine as one of the “Best Cities for the Economy 2010.” Utah’s capital was officially ranked 4th on the list behind  Little Rock, Ark., Billings, Mont. and Sioux Falls, S.D.

The magazine ranked the spots that have the most robust economies, based on “commute times, unemployment rates, property values and more.”

To see what Parenting magazine has to say about SLC click here. The article is also in the issue on news stands now.

Beattie named CEO of the Year from Salt Lake Chamber on Vimeo.

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In a history-making era when CEOs across the country fell by the wayside as quickly as company revenues dropped and unemployment rose, some CEOs found their finest hour. Utah Business magazine is proud to celebrate eight of Utah’s outstanding CEOs, who used their hard-earned experience and roll-up-your-sleeve-and-get-to-it work ethic to not only hold their companies together, but to lead them to exceptional success. Several of our CEO of the Year honorees credit other leaders for setting a standard they could follow. Other CEO honorees made decisions that some might consider risky business. But all of these outstanding leaders share a common belief in not settling for the status quo. Join us as we honor eight of Utah’s top leaders in our 2010 CEO of the Year recognition feature.

Lane Beattie, Salt Lake Chamber

If you ever have an opportunity to listen to Lane Beattie offer business advice, you’re likely to hear something that resembles an Olympic champion’s mantra: work hard, do more than is expected of you, make good decisions and be willing to do the things others are not willing to do.

They are fitting beliefs coming from a leader who helped put Utah on the map as chief Olympic officer for the state from 2000 to 2003, where he oversaw the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. It was after a winning run in that role that Beattie became president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. Today, his goal is to strengthen Utah’s business community and the state’s overall economy.

“Lane Beattie is a pragmatic CEO,” says Marty Carpenter, director of communication and marketing at the chamber. “He’s not afraid to change directions when necessary, but isn’t one to take risks solely to take risks.”

Beattie shifted the chamber’s focus from a primarily networking organization to one that influences public policy to benefit businesses. Since then, health system reform has been a top priority for the chamber, which recently celebrating the passage of HB 188, which expands access to the health insurance market through the Utah Health Exchange. The Salt Lake Chamber also helped the business community understand and concentrate on the importance of transportation infrastructure and education. “We did it by building coalitions, collaborating and educating people about the need,” Beattie says.

Under Beattie’s leadership, the Salt Lake Chamber’s membership grew from 4,200 organizations at the beginning of 2009 to 5,700 by the end of the year, a period when many chambers in the country were losing memberships. The Salt Lake Chamber also had its strongest sales month in the history of the organization in October 2009.

“In today’s world, it is very important to stay focused and prepare for change,” says Beattie. “Through it all you must apply the principles of integrity and common sense and give everything great effort.”

Over the past few weeks, Utah has found a comfortable home at the top, or near the top of several lists.  It seems we’re no longer such a “well-kept secret.”

Forbes magazine ranks the commute to and from Salt Lake City as the best in the nation. According to a study released Tuesday, “20% of workers find a way to get to work besides driving alone, which leaves the roads less jammed. It’s not an accident that commuters in Salt Lake have it better than elsewhere. The state of Utah has poured resources into initiatives that strengthen the city’s infrastructure… and [utilized] special road-construction techniques that minimize interruptions to traffic.” (READ FULL ARTICLE)

Anyone who commuted to Salt Lake City from Davis or Weber County before the debut of UTA’s FrontRunner service and the opening of Legacy Parkway can attest to just how much the trip has improved. We’ve all marveled at the ingenious technique utilized by UDOT to build bridges and move them into place without tying up traffic for months at a time. The addition of the Mountain View Corridor and FrontRunner South will provide similar benefits for Utah County residents.

As a Chamber, we consider transportation a top priority and we’re proud of state leaders and the steps they have made to eliminate gridlock and keep traffic flowing. That means businesses can thrive and workers can make it to the office to work, and home to relax. Utah’s transportation system is a significant element of our unsurpassed quality of life.

Earlier this month, Forbes heaped even more praise on our state, recognizing us as the best in debt management. As Derek Miller, managing director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, pointed out: “the state debt is $447 for every Utahn but the national debt is 100 times than figure–$40,000.” (READ FULL ARTICLE)

The responsible fiscal management exhibited by the State Legislature and our governors should be a source of great pride for all Utahns. We live in the best-managed state in the nation. That has helped us weather these challenging economic times better than the rest of the country and it is a major reason we’ll be the first state to emerge from the recession.

Perhaps most impressively, a Gallup poll released last week ranks Utah near the top of the list when it comes to well-being. We finished second to Hawaii so I can only assume the survey was done in January when most of us would rather be in Hawaii. We finished tops in this poll in 2008. (SEE POLL)

Dig into the numbers and you’ll see we scored highest in the Work Environment category based on “job satisfaction, ability to use one’s strengths at work, supervisor’s treatment and cultivation of an open and trusting work environment.”

I’ve been saying it for years: Utah is the best place to live, work and play.

More and more, we have the numbers to prove it.

“If you live in Salt Lake City, Utah, Buffalo, N.Y., or Rochester, N.Y., your ride to work is probably the smoothest of any big city in the country. Residents of Tampa, Fla., Detroit, Mich. and Atlanta, Ga., on the other hand, endure the most grueling slog to work.”

The commute to and from SLC was ranked tops in the nation, thanks in large part to our first-rate mass transit system. Forbes factored in travel time, road congestion and travel delays for the 60 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S.

READ FULL ARTICLE