Ryan Bingham says he was just a kid from a small farm in northern Utah who was unsure of what he was capable of. Now as vice president of HR for the United States and Canada at Honeywell, he sees attending the BYU Marriott School of Business as a pivotal point in his journey that opened up opportunities that he would have never thought possible—and he’s working to help current students have those same opportunities.
Bingham came to BYU Marriott as an MBA student for more than just the curriculum. “I loved the heritage that the program had in human resources and organizational behavior,” he says. “I felt secure knowing that if I got an MBA from BYU Marriott, I was going to be part of this alumni group that has done some pretty remarkable things in the world.”
Bingham joined that alumni group in 2009, when he graduated from BYU Marriott and started working at Honeywell as a human resources manager. He’s spent the last 17 years working at Honeywell, leading HR teams on issues such as staffing and performance management. In his current role, he also works on organizational design as Honeywell prepares to separate its automation and aerospace technologies into two separate companies.
As his career has progressed, Bingham continues to stay involved at BYU Marriott, having assisted in the placement of more than 20 BYU Marriott MBA candidates as a recruiter. He also serves on BYU Marriott’s Human Resource Management Advisory Board, where he advises program administrators and professors about placement, recruitment, and curriculum. His most important responsibility on the board, according to Bingham, is being a mentor and a friend to students in the program.
“I feel a responsibility to help students achieve their potential,” Bingham says. “I’m interested in helping them get on a path that hopefully will change their lives and their families’ lives.” Bingham explains that this interest is what motivates him to help out at BYU Marriott however he can.
But Bingham says that he also learns as he mentors. “There are things that are happening on campus today that didn’t happen when I was there,” he says. “There are new classes and ways of thinking and ways technology is being used that I learn greatly from when I have the opportunity to talk to and mentor students.”
Bingham shares an example of a graduate he helped place at Honeywell some years ago. Their relationship didn’t end when the student was hired: Over the years the graduate has worked at Honeywell, the two have continued to exchange feedback and advice. “Mentoring relationships are such a good way to not forget about why you’re here,” he says. “I think it always helps me to be a better leader when I can ground myself and see how my communication style and my decisions are impacting others.”
Alongside the mentoring relationships he’s cultivated, Bingham highlights the friendships he built as a student at BYU Marriott as an important aspect of his current career, nearly 20 years after graduation. “At this point, I know HR leaders all over the place, because I went to school with them,” he says. “It’s like I was making deposits into a bank, and the maturity of those deposits didn’t happen for 15 to 20 years, but it’s turned out to be such a benefit for me.”
Working with and learning from his cohort, Bingham says, established a pattern of learning from others that he still follows today, even as he mentors. “BYU Marriott changed the direction of my life in a lot of ways,” he says. “It was an environment where I could see things differently, elevate my expectations for my life, and help me believe that I could do it.”
