When BYU Marriott MBA alum Marc Chenn talks about the power of his 2007 MBA degree, he uses the words connections, relationships, and people because, as he says, “That’s what my career, and my life, has boiled down to: a passion for people, meaningful relationships, and deep connections with those who have crossed my path.”
Chenn isn’t the only MBA grad to live a life and build a career on those ideals. Connections, relationships, and people could be adopted as the MBA program’s mantra, a mantra that certainly supports the program’s purposeful effort to prepare its graduates to lead the way forward—in both their careers and their lives. So while BYU Marriott students certainly receive world-class business training during their time on campus, they leave with more than an academic foundation for their future endeavors; they leave understanding that leadership is an act of stewardship and that connecting with people may be the most important work they do.
The following four alumni are great examples of the positive impact a BYU Marriott MBA grad can make.
Making People Feel Special
Wyman Roberts, CEO and President, Brinker International
You might say Wyman Roberts’s path is just as defined by near misses as by bull’s-eyes. Roberts almost didn’t attend BYU. After growing up on Maui, he headed to the US mainland to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. After a year there, he transferred to Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. Finally, he landed in between the two—at BYU in Provo, where he caught a vision he hadn’t found anywhere else.
“When I hit BYU, I thought, ‘This is what a real academic environment feels like,’” recalls Roberts. “I met fellow students and professors who were engaging and challenging, who inspired me in the way they reached out and interacted with each other.” So he stayed at BYU, completing his undergraduate degree in finance and then earning his MBA degree in 1984. By the time he left school, he had a deeper understanding of what he wanted to accomplish in his career—and how he wanted to do it.
“I obviously gained education and knowledge, which is helpful, but you can get that in a lot of places,” Roberts says. “My MBA helped me fine-tune my work ethic and gain real-world experience integral to my future success. My experience at BYU Marriott also taught me how to be a leader who inspires those I work with while caring deeply about them as well. I was so much more prepared to enter the workforce because of my decision to attend BYU Marriott.”
When Roberts initially entered the workforce, he wasn’t looking for a career in the food industry. He had worked in restaurants growing up, and while he hadn’t hated it, it wasn’t the career path he’d imagined for himself. In fact, when a representative from General Mills in Minneapolis called to set up an interview, he already had multiple job offers and didn’t consider it a serious option. “It was a throwaway interview,” Roberts recalls. “Nothing was going to make me take that job.”
But during the interview process, the General Mills CFO told Roberts that he thought an opportunity in Florida rather than Minnesota might be a great fit, and Roberts instinctively knew the CFO was right.
“I always look at that experience as divine guidance,” Roberts says. Accepting the job with General Mills set the new grad on track for a career in the hospitality industry that has involved working closely with several well-known brands, including Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and Universal Studios. Today Roberts is the CEO and president of Brinker International, the Dallas-based parent company of Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy.
Roberts recognizes that while his work may not be of the same caliber as cancer research or humanitarian efforts, it is nonetheless meaningful. “We work to provide places for families and friends to connect, celebrate, and spend time together,” he observes. “Our passion is making people feel special. It’s a simple concept to grasp, but it takes planning and work to make it happen.”
Helping people connect with each other, make memories, and feel good about themselves is also something he wants his own employees to experience. As a CEO, he recognizes that whatever the company is able to accomplish is dependent on what its employees are able—and willing—to do. “Everything we do is a group effort,” Roberts says. “And as a leader, my job is to engage our team and all the people we are responsible for and provide a vision.”
Passion for People
Marc Chenn, Founder and CEO, SaltStack
The first thing Marc Chenn talks about in his life is the people. When asked about his career history, he starts with his immigrant parents and grandparents. When asked about his résumé, he mentions mentors who helped him secure life-changing internship and job opportunities. When asked about his BYU Marriott MBA education, he recalls an influential professor and his fellow students at Cougar Capital. For Chenn, his path to leadership is marked not by events but by people.
Chenn grew up on stories of his entrepreneurial grandparents, who emigrated from China to Taiwan and later to California in the 1940s. His grandfather started a photography business in China, and his grandmother started a bookstore in Taiwan. In California, the enterprising couple opened a photo lab and a restaurant.
Seeing how hard his parents worked, Chenn’s father encouraged his young son to take a more stable route, perhaps as a doctor or a lawyer. Initially Chenn followed his father’s advice, starting out with his eye on a pre-med degree. But his natural interest and passion led the young student toward business and entrepreneurship. After an internship at Cisco Systems in 1998, the deal was sealed. “It was lights out,” Chenn says of being in Silicon Valley during the tech boom. “Connecting with people who shared my interest and enthusiasm in that kind of charged environment and in a position where almost anything seemed possible was intoxicating.” He received his undergrad at BYU in international studies with an emphasis in global economy before returning for his MBA, earned in 2007.
As his career progressed, he went from a small startup in Utah to the financial services industry in New York City. He continued to foster relationships and build his leadership skills at every step, including a stint as president of New York LDS Professionals. “BYU has one of the strongest networks of financial services professionals in the world, outside the Ivy League,” he points out.
But after weathering the financial crisis of 2008, Chenn took a serious look at his life plan. A lifetime of being surrounded by entrepreneurs had convinced him that entrepreneurship was the best way to “control your own destiny—even though control is an elusive thing,” Chenn observes. He decided to return to his passion for tech and invest his efforts and time into building something of his own.
Chenn’s robust network ultimately led him to his current business partner, and in 2012 the two founded SaltStack, a company that develops intelligent automation software to help businesses secure and manage their digital infrastructures. As CEO, Chenn is able to take full advantage of the leadership expertise developed at BYU Marriott and refined through his years of experience.
And as all good leaders do, when he talks about his company, he focuses on people—the people he works alongside and the people the company helps. “We improve lives through intelligent automation,” Chenn says. “Driving efficiency, saving people time and money, getting them home at 5 p.m. so they can see their families.”
From Mentee to Mentor
Miranda Barnard, Vice President of Marketing, Vivint Solar
Her first gig was as the writer, editor, and chief typist (using the electric typewriter she got for Christmas) of her school newspaper. She was in the fourth grade, and her paper had a circulation of ten. But this little self-published periodical foreshadowed Miranda Barnard’s career in communications, marketing, and advertising. Today her reach has grown from ten readers to millions of people around the world.
Barnard currently works as vice president of marketing for Vivint Solar in Lehi, Utah. As a graduate of Southern Utah University with a degree in communications, Barnard had worked for more than a dozen years in both ad agencies and in-house marketing departments. But as her responsibilities increased, she began to see the value of adding to her business management skills. While she was working as the head of marketing for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a couple of BYU Marriott alumni helped her decide that an MBA from BYU would be the best next step in her leadership journey.
“Both my boss and the company’s CEO were BYU Marriott graduates,” Barnard says. “After speaking to them about their experiences, I knew that was where I wanted to study and where I could find the experiences and opportunities to best help me grow and become the leader and person I wanted to be.” So she headed back to school, graduating from BYU Marriott with her Executive MBA in 2016.
Now Barnard has joined the ranks of MBA alumni who are anxious to lead the way forward in their organizations and to mentor and serve others. “Watching people work hard to achieve their personal and professional goals is incredibly fulfilling and by far one of the favorite things I do,” she says.
And her ability to become that kind of leader came, at least partially, from her experience at BYU Marriott. “The group I had as a cohort was filled with high-achieving, competitive people, and yet I watched as they unselfishly and willingly did whatever was necessary to help each other,” Barnard explains. “That is one of the elements of my BYU experience that continues to stay with me: how committed my classmates were to help one another while we were in school and how, years later, that is still true.”
Back to the Mountains
Matthew C. Peterson, entrepreneur
Creating companies comes naturally to Matthew C. Peterson; he started his first company when he was in only the second grade. “I drew pictures for my friends, who would pay for the pictures with leftover change they had from lunch,” he says. He had to work hard to convince his mom that the business was legit. “She thought I was bullying the other kids for money,” Peterson says.
His elementary-school enterprise planted entrepreneurial seeds that would later blossom. During his undergraduate at BYU, Peterson started a software engineering company that built “pretty much whatever people needed,” says Peterson, who has a knack for seeing people’s needs and finding a way to meet those needs.
Even with his experience and instinct, Peterson didn’t plan to continue as an entrepreneur after he earned his bachelor’s degree in management information systems in 2001. Instead, he looked for a place to land where he could connect with people, make a difference in their lives, and be the leader he had learned to be. Unfortunately, in a post-9/11 economy, jobs were scarce, and nothing he found felt like the right fit. He decided to continue working on his tech startups.
Eventually, he went back to BYU for an MBA. “I was interested in the education and the network that a BYU Marriott MBA provides,” says Peterson. He notes that opportunities to connect with others was the best part of his experience. “The academics were challenging, but the real value of BYU’s MBA is the people you get to take with you on your journey.”
After graduation in 2009, Peterson reconnected with his business partner from his undergraduate startup and helped create a new software company called Jive Communications, a company specializing in cloud-based VoIP and unified communication services. Once again, Peterson had found a company that filled a need and created an opportunity for him to lead the way forward in an emerging industry.
“The people I worked with were outstanding, and building Jive into the company we envisioned was an incredible experience and opportunity,” Peterson notes. “The relationships that project closer to his outdoorsy heart: a private ski resort and wildlife preserve in the mounresulted from working together on a shared vision and end goal were greatly enhanced because of the collaborative opportunities and skill set I received at BYU.”
In 2018, Jive Communications was acquired by LogMeIn, and Peterson is now unemployed (“Unemployable,” quips his wife, Andrea). But as all entrepreneurs know, that’s just code for “working on the next big thing.” This time around, Peterson is moving away from tech and starting a project closer to his outdoorsy heart: a private ski resort and wildlife preserve in the mountains of northern Utah. “Our goal is to preserve open space and mountain experiences for future generations,” he says.
“My father took me hunting and fishing and four-wheeling since before I could walk,” explains Peterson, who currently lives in Spanish Fork, Utah. To make this newest venture possible, he has partnered with a group out of Eden, Utah. Once again, he looks forward to connecting with others and making a lasting impact in the world around him.
WHERE CHANGES HAPPEN
Leaders such as the ones who emerge from BYU Marriott are needed out in the corporate and entrepreneurial spaces, points out Barnard. “The world needs leaders more than ever who are not only committed to creating success for their organizations but who are also focused on making positive change to improve the lives of others,” she says.
Roberts adds to that sentiment: “If I were to challenge all of us, it would be to pay it forward in any way possible: Sometimes it’s in the work environment, sometimes it’s in the academic department, and sometimes it’s in your life. But paying it forward in the way we lead, and even just in the way we live our lives, comes through connections, relationships, and people. That’s where changes happen.”
