Top 10 Marriott School Stories of 2016

PROVO, Utah – Dec 28, 2016 – The BYU Marriott School had another year full of achievements in 2016. Here's a list of our top stories of the year:

10) SHRM: Bigger and Better Than Ever
With BYU's Society of Human Resource Management’s student OBHR chapter struggling, former student Kelly Andrews' vision helped turn the club around and resulted in a spike in applications to the OBHR program. This story was highlighted by SHRM president and CEO Henry G. Jackson in his 2016 State of the Society remarks.

9) #MarriottLecture
Liz Wiseman, founder/president of The Wiseman Group and a Marriott School alum, and Stephen Liddle, academic director of the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology and Marriott School professor of information systems, gave campus-wide devotional addresses this past year. In addition, NFL executive Brian Rolapp and CharityVision International​ president Josh Romney were two of many top leaders to speak to students in the Tanner Building as part of the school's various executive lecture series.

8) MISM Students Tag the Beef Business
Three MISM students took their capstone class and turned it into an innovative startup. Their device, called CattleGuard, improves herd management for ranchers, allowing them to see where all of their livestock is at any given moment. 

7) BYU Students Receive Top Exam Scores
Around 15,000 people around the world sat for the Certified Management Account exam this year. All the more impressive that two of the top ten scorers on the test are products of the BYU School of Accountancy. Cory Hinds, an April 2016 MAcc graduate, won the CMA Silver Medal for earning the second-highest score overall while Kim Chi Pham, a current MAcc student, joined him in the top ten. 

6) Changes in MBA Leadership
After John Bingham admirably led the MBA program for the past three years, Grant McQueen was named his successor as the newest MBA director. McQueen and new associate director Dan Snow offered their thoughts on the future of the program, ranked among the best in the nation. 

5) Scoop Squad Wins Strategy Competition
A three-minute video and presentation about a potential Ben & Jerry’s brand won three BYU students, coined the Scoop Squad, first place and $7,000 in the 2016 Unilever Unigame competition.

4) Marriott School Professor Studies "Crunch Effect" 
Featured by numerous top publications in the country (and even Jimmy Fallon), marketing professor Ryan Elder's research into the “Crunch Effect” had professionals all ears. Elder and his colleagues found that people are likely to eat less if they’re more conscious of the sound their food makes while they're eating. 

3) Making a Splash on Shark Tank
“What’s going on in Provo?” So asked Mark Cuban, a member of the tribunal of investors on ABC’s hit reality series Shark Tank, when yet another BYU entrepreneur arrived to bait the sharks. This article touched on just seven of the many to appear on the hit show.

2) Top Rankings for Marriott School Programs
Around the country the BYU Marriott School is known for its excellent programs thanks to its dedicated students, alumni and faculty. Various publications agreed, ranking Marriott School programs with the best in their fields. The school's undergraduate programs were placed No. 18 by Businessweek with a No. 17 ranking for its undergraduate international business program. On the graduate level, the BYU MBA program was ranked No. 23 by Businessweek and No. 31 by U.S. News. The School of Accountancy's undergraduate and MAcc program stayed in the top three nationally. Finally, the entrepreneurship program maintained its highest undergraduate ranking ever from The Princeton Review by coming in at No. 2 in the country while the graduate program stayed at No. 7 in the nation.

1) BYU Claims Venture Capital World Title
A team of BYU MBA students showcased how the program has become one of the best educational venture capitalist opportunities in the country by winning the 2016 Venture Capital Investment Competition, the world’s premier VC student contest. Thanks to their experiences tackling real-world challenges through their Cougar Capital coursework, the team defeated thirteen of the globe’s top MBA programs and cement BYU's place on the VC map.