High Altitude

Weston High’s lead at the dual track meet was razor thin. The 4 x 300-yard relay was all that stood between a five-year undefeated, untied record for Lee Perry’s Wildcats and a disappointing tie with rival Wayland High School.

Running the third leg of the race, Perry was nearly neck-and-neck with his Wayland opponent. Adrenaline surging, he was closing the gap. Then, snap! His left hamstring gave out.

Fighting searing pain, Perry dragged himself to the handoff. In an instant the race was lost, the record blemished, and Perry’s sprinting career slowed.

But that’s not the end of the story. Perry later ran in the high school Millrose Games and Penn Relays with his team, as well as in the Massachusetts State Championships. “It bothered me, however, that my sprinting became less consistent,” he admits. Wanting to make a dependable contribution to help his team get back on top, he focused on a field event.

“I specialized in the high jump,” Perry recalls. “It became my best event.” He was so good at high jumping that he earned the moniker Leeper—a nickname that has stuck with him.
As Perry steps into the role of dean, his many years of experience as a strategy expert, professor, and associate dean promise to propel the school forward. And that drive to compete and contribute? His colleagues say it means only one thing for the Marriott School—an upward trajectory.

Home Team

Despite his athletic roots, it isn’t hard to track Perry down when he’s not sequestered on the Tanner Building’s seventh floor. 

“He’s a pretty good homebody,” says his wife, Carolyn. “When he gets home he’s ready to turn on a Red Sox game or to sit back and have a good conversation.”

Perry good-humoredly agrees. “I’m the most boring person alive,” he says, smiling.

The joke stems in part from Perry’s introverted nature. More inclined to write than to lecture, teaching was an acquired skill. But after years at the front of the class, Perry says it’s the daily interaction with students that means the most to him.

“There’s nothing more important than helping to shape the next generation,” he says. “I get a lot more satisfaction out of my students’ and young colleagues’ accomplishments than I do out of my own. I marvel at how good they are.”

But Perry still had reservations when the selection committee approached him about the deanship, taking time to ruminate on the idea. “Finally I realized I had a secret weapon,” he recalls. Carolyn spent three years working in the Marriott School’s undergraduate advisement center.

“She knows the school so well,” Perry says. “With her by my side I’m a better leader. Moreover, we’re able to share the experience.”

Sky Miles

Not that Perry doesn’t have experience.

He served as associate dean at the Marriott School from 1998 to 2005, prior to his call as president of the California Roseville Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and again from 2012 to 2013. He holds a doctorate in administration sciences from Yale and has thirty-two years as a professor, administrator, and entrepreneur under his belt. Additionally, he’s worked as a consultant for several major corporations, including American Express, Taco Bell, and Exxon USA.

“I’ve been able to learn from the best,” Perry says. “You can study leadership all you want, but it’s really something you absorb from the examples around you.”

One of Perry’s most formative leadership experiences came unexpectedly. Prior to his first tenure in the dean’s office, Perry was invited by a vice president at Merck to chat about his book Real-Time Strategy. The conversation transformed into a consulting position for Perry, who took an eighteen-month leave from the university to help the company with its strategy for a burgeoning European market. 

The role required Perry to spend vast amounts of time overseas. The answer to managing his new role and his church and family commitments was surprisingly simple: become an ultra-commuter. Spending one week in Ukraine, Slovenia, Slovakia, or Latvia, for example, he’d work from home the next. Perry found the mileage surprisingly easy, and he increased his understanding of leadership, strategy, and international business in the process. 

“It was a very broadening experience,” Perry says. “I came back a strong advocate for the Marriott School being more globally minded.”

Up and Away

That international vision has crystalized for Perry as he approaches this new role.
“Is what we’re doing here making the Marriott School, BYU, the Church, and the world a better place?” Perry asks introspectively. “I think that’s the way we have to think about what we’re doing.”

And to illustrate his point, Perry is explaining his plans to colleagues with a humble metaphor—the clothesline.

Members of the Marriott School community—faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends—all pin a contribution on the clothesline. While each hanging item will be different in size, shape, and impact, it’s the summative value that matters.

To focus the contributions, Perry wants to spend a year crafting multiyear strategic objectives with the Marriott School’s key stakeholders. “The process by which we decide how our college will make a difference is a collective one. It’s definitely not a one-person show,” Perry says.

Kicking off the conversation, Perry has several initiatives he’d like to see on the clothesline, starting with alumni. “We can make a real difference by expanding our outreach,” he says. “The Marriott School should facilitate networking and also help recharge alumni careers by sharing the latest management news and research.”

Placement is a special priority for Perry, who intends to leverage the networks of BYU Management Society chapters to help recent graduates. He also wants to emphasize the importance of the Whitmore Global Management Center, aiming to triple the center’s current endowment to sustain the school’s international emphasis. 

“In my field we distinguish between enterprise- and business-level strategies,” he explains. “The associate deans and I want to treat departments and programs like business units. This means we provide some guidance, but we also expect them to become uniquely excellent in ways they choose.” 

Many of Perry’s goals capitalize on work started by the previous deans.

“I think it is important coming into this position to understand that you stand on the shoulders of many great people,” Perry says. “I am grateful to Ned Hill and Gary Cornia for their examples, friendship, and everything they taught me.”

And the praise doesn’t just flow in one direction. “Lee has a great mind for strategy,” says former dean Gary Cornia. “I’m confident he will have a significant and very positive impact on the future of the Marriott School.”

Alongside Perry will be Michael Thompson, Steve Glover, and Keith Vorkink as associate deans. “Michael is one of the wisest men I know,” Perry says. “Steve always has the right thing to say, and I’m more impressed by him with every interaction we have. Keith represents the young faculty and all the good we’re doing here at the Marriott School.”

With a nationally ranked b-school to manage, Perry recognizes the immensity of the task ahead of him. But he’s not shirking. “As a mission president I learned you have to get comfortable moving outside your realm of experience.”

You might say it’s a leap of faith. 

Lee  Perry

• Dean
• Born:  Logan, Utah.
• Family:  Married thirty-six years to Carolyn; six children; two grandchildren.
• Education: PhD, administration sciences, Yale; MA, organizational behavior, BYU; BS, university studies, BYU.
• Accolades: Outstanding Faculty Award, Marriott School (2005); Strategic Management Society Best Conference Paper Prize (2002); Outstanding Faculty Award, Pennsylvania State University College of Business Administration (1985).
• Favorite authors:  Ernest Hemingway and 
• John Steinbeck.
• Social network: LinkedIn.
• Favorite film: Chariots of Fire.
• Must-order dish: Sushi.

Michael Thompson 

• Associate Dean
• Born:  La Jolla,  California.
• Family:  Wife, Jennifer; five children.
• Education: PhD, rhetoric and organizational communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic
• Institute: MA, technical communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; BA, classical Greek, BYU.
• Accolades: Citizenship Award, Marriott School (2006); Outstanding Teacher Award, OBHR
• Track Students (2004); Outstanding Teacher Award, Marriott School (1995).
• Favorite destination: San Francisco.
• Pet peeve: Car alarms.
• Worst idea: Buying a 1980 Oldsmobile diesel. “My worst decision was acting on that idea,” Thompson quips.

Steve Glover

• Associate Dean
• Born:  Bellingham, Washington.
• Family:  Wife, Tina; four children.
• Education: PhD, business, University of Washington; BS, accounting, University of Washington.
• Accolades: Deloitte Wildman Medal, American Accounting Association (2013); Best Paper Award, American Accounting Association (2013); Research Award, Center of Audit Quality (2012); Outstanding Teacher Award, Marriott School (2009).
• Mission: California Ventura, Spanish speaking.
• Favorite spot on campus: Marriott Center.
• Most overused saying:  “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”

Keith Vorkink

• Associate Dean
• Born:  Provo,  Utah.
• Family: Wife, Marcie; four children.
• Education: PhD and MA, economics, University of Rochester; BA, economics, BYU.
• Accolades: Douglas Driggs Professorship, Marriott School (2012–present); Teaching
• Excellence Award, Marriott School (2012); Young Scholar Award, BYU (2007); Top Research Award, Marriott School (2005).
• Go-to breakfast: Peanut butter on wheat toast.
• Worst vacation: Any vacation is a good vacation.
• Favorite song: “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic. “It was the most listened-to song on our latest family trip,” Vorkink says.

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Photography by Bradley Slade