BYU MBA Prepared Student Team for National Competition

PROVO, Utah – Feb 07, 2019 – Four BYU Marriott School of Business MBA students took first place at the 12th Annual National Case Competition in Ethical Leadership hosted at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The competition, held 8-9 November, 2018, is designed to advance the development of ethical leaders through experiential learning. Event organizers wanted to also recognize and promote MBA students and their programs.

A cash prize of $5,000 was awarded to the winning team from BYU Marriott. Team members included Sara Picard from Greenacres Washington; Reenu Raj from Bangalore, India; David Tensmeyer from Houston, Texas; and Kyle Woodhouse from Denver, Colorado.

This student team from BYU Marriott competed against MBA programs from twelve other universities, including the University of Georgia, which took second place, and Auburn University, which took third place.

During the competition, teams were given the opportunity to present their analyses for ethical leadership in response to a case created specifically for the event. A panel of Baylor University executive MBA program graduates judged the presentations.

“I was encouraged to see how many bright and talented people from across the country are interested in issues about business ethics,” says Tensmeyer. “I am confident that these students will go on to be strong leaders of integrity in their organizations.”

The MBA ethics class at BYU Marriott, taught by Dave Hart, an associate professor in the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics, was the most important preparation for these students says Bradley Owen, the faculty advisor over this case competition. “We also met with these students and discussed ethical frameworks and strategies that had worked for previous competitions to help prepare them even further,” he says.

 “I loved getting to heavily integrate ethical principles and theories into a traditional business solution,” says Picard. “Being able to creatively do that integration was fun, and it stretched us to do our best work.”

BYU Marriott’s MBA program provides classes and opportunities to students to help prepare for these kind of competitions as well as to study about real ethical issues that they could potentially face. “This program has given me the necessary tools to think through a business problem correctly,” says Woodhouse. “Our team was able to come up with deep and well-thought-out recommendations because of what we've learned from the MBA program.”

The BYU Marriott School of Business prepares men and women of faith, character, and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Named for benefactors J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott, the school is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. BYU Marriott has four graduate and ten undergraduate programs with an enrollment of approximately 3,300 students.