Gary Gustafson, a 1994 MPA graduate, is a man who just keeps going. His career is full of accomplishments and adventures, but his endurance continues outside the office.
Gustafson has completed twenty-eight marathons and three ultra-marathons of more than fifty miles, including the Boston Marathon eight times and the St. George Marathon for fourteen straight years. He once ran four marathons in eleven days.
Gustafson’s passion for running translates into the zeal he has for his life and career.
After returning home from his mission, Gustafson spent eight years in the Utah National Guard, working his way up to sergeant. He spent time as a linguist and counterintelligence agent, traveling to Hawaii and Japan for exercises with the Japanese military during the Cold War.
“It was like playing a giant game of Risk with maps laid out in a huge warehouse,” he says. “The computers would simulate troop movement and provide various scenarios to which the officers would react.”
When he completed his MPA with emphases in health care and finance, Gustafson joined the Utah Health Policy Commission, where he consulted political leaders on health policy issues. He moved to the private sector a few years later, working as a benefit consultant on health care plans for Fortune 500 companies with William Mercer Incorporated. He simultaneously spent three years as an adjunct faculty member at Mountain West Junior College in Salt Lake City, where he taught a variety of business courses and received the Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award in 1999.
In 2001 Gustafson moved to his current position as a consultant with Fidelity Investments, advising companies on their benefits packages and training junior associates. He says his favorite parts of the job are the opportunities to help clients and the variety of each day.
“The field is always changing, and with health care reform there are many questions in the eyes of employers about how to save money, offer value, and provide employees with the necessary health care coverage they will need to be healthy and productive,” he says, noting how rewarding it is to help companies through these large decisions.
Gustafson’s active lifestyle doesn’t stop when he leaves the office. He is past president of the New Hampshire Chapter of the BYU Management Society. He also serves as vice president of the ISCEBS Boston Chapter and as bishop of his local ward.
Gustafson and his wife, Susan, have four children and live in Merrimack, New Hampshire, where he plans to keep his family-centered life active and movingjust like he does when running a race.
