Global Business Center News 

This spring 25 EMBA students put their jobs on hold in the Western United States to participate in the first-ever EMBA foreign business excursion to the Middle East.

This spring 55 BYU students received the Global Management Certificate from the Whitmore Global Management Center. These graduates join an elite group of more than 300 certificate recipients in the last five years.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded Brigham Young University a four-year $1.55 million grant to continue as a Center for International Business Education and Research school. The grant provides funding for BYU to work with students, faculty, the community and 32 other CIBER schools across the country to improve international business acumen.

A business that turns water into money took the top prize in the global category of the 2010 Brigham Young University Business Plan Competition.

At one of the most elite and grueling information systems competitions in the world, a group of three Brigham Young University undergraduates won first-place at the APEX Global Business IT Case Challenge in Singapore. As newcomers to the competition, the team went up against 24 of the top ISys programs in the world.

Eight Utah high school teams comprised of heritage and non-heritage Spanish speakers gathered at Brigham Young University to compete in the nation's first High School Business Language Competition.

Restless leg syndrome affects nearly 30 million Americans, causing discomfort and keeping them up at night, but three Brigham Young University students hope to provide relief and build a business in the process. The students' innovative product and solid plans gave their company, TranquilMed, a first-place finish the 2010 BYU Business Plan Competition.

The Kay and Yvonne Whitmore Global Management Center at Brigham Young University named five MBA students as the 2010 George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Scholars. Each student received $10,000 to continue his or her Marriott School education and to prepare for a career in international business.

Brigham Young University's basketball team may be out of the running for the NCAA finals, but there's still hope for one bracket of BYU students. This month a team of three MBAs and two undergraduates from BYU's Marriott School of Management won the Americas Investment Research Challenge, sponsored by the CFA Institute. The team will now represent the Americas region at the Global Investment Research Challenge in Hong Kong on April 17.

Non-native Spanish and Portuguese speakers from 11 schools around the nation gathered at Brigham Young University to participate in the nation's only business language case competition, now in its third year. The competition highlights language and cultural skills in an effort to prepare students for international business experience.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and many college students wonder how they'll survive in an increasingly competitive job market. But this summer, hundreds of students at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management equipped themselves with skills to get ahead by interning for some of the biggest names in business.

BYU MBA students from California to Armenia are preparing to flood the globe with business skills and international expertise. To better prepare these students for their future international roles, the Kay and Yvonne Whitmore Global Management Center named six students from the MBA Class of 2010 as George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Scholars. Each student receives $10,000 to further his or her Marriott School education and to prepare them for the world of international business.

The halls of the N. Eldon Tanner Building filled with Spanish and Portuguese conversations as 17 teams from around the United States gathered for the second annual Brigham Young University Business Language Case Competition. Undaunted by communicating in their second language, students spent two weeks synthesizing a complex business case before arriving at Brigham Young University to deliver their recommendations in either Spanish or Portuguese to a panel of native-speaking judges.

Brigham Young University's MBA program is climbing the charts according to BusinessWeek's latest rankings that place BYU at 22nd in the nation - the program's highest ranking since the publication started grading MBA programs twenty years ago.

Former Marriott School Professor Gloria E. Wheeler will teach as a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of Finance and Economics in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Some enterprising students, equipped with scholarships, business contacts and a faculty-inspired challenge, orchestrated the Marriott School of Management’s first foreign business excursion to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

On a recent Marriott School of Management field study trip to Ghana, BYU MPA students teamed with a charity powering rural schools with merry-go-rounds to help alleviate poverty. Empower Playgrounds, which installs playground equipment that converts kid’s energy into real energy, asked BYU MPA students to use their management skills to better place their electricity-generating merry-go-rounds, which are used to power rechargeable lanterns the children can use to study at night.

Brigham Young University Academic Vice President John Tanner announced the appointment of Gary C. Cornia as the new dean of the Marriott School of Management. Cornia, the Stewart Grow Professor of Public Management, has been serving as director of the school’s George Romney Institute of Public Management since 2004.

The Kay and Yvonne Whitmore Global Management Center at Brigham Young University presented 14 MBA candidates with Eccles Scholarships for outstanding achievement in international business. Each Eccles Scholar will receive $10,000 to defray the cost of tuition and international experiences during their enrollment. “This year’s Eccles Scholars carry on the fine tradition of outstanding MBA students who are interested in careers in international business,” says Lee Radebaugh, director of the Whitmore Global Management Center.

Prepared to revolutionize the snow-gear industry by providing warmth on demand, Klymit was named winner of Brigham Young University’s 2008 Business Plan Competition — taking the grand prize of $50,000 in cash and in-kind services. Since the beginning of the competition in October, Klymit distinguished itself from 45 other business plans.