When Ethan Kyo Choi wrapped up his LDS mission to South Korea and headed home to Australia, he knew he wasn’t going to stay long. Before his mission, he’d studied technology for two years at the University of Sydney, but during his time in Korea, he decided to pursue business instead. He had heard that BYU Marriott was one of the top business schools in the United States, so within six months of returning home, he purchased a one-way ticket to Utah and headed to Provo.
“I knew I had a lot to learn about the corporate world and finance, and BYU Marriott was where I learned to be successful,” says Choi, who graduated in 2012 with an accounting degree. “Attending BYU was life changing.”
A Talent Pool Unlike Any Other
Like many BYU Marriott students, Choi entered the doors of the Tanner Building with uncommon experience, impressive maturity, and deeply held values. His background as a member of the Church, including his missionary experience, had prepared him to work hard and serve others, and his BYU education built on that foundation.
“Our students bring with them incredible skills and talents that have already been refined to an impressive level,” says Michael Thompson, BYU Marriott associate dean. “We’d like to take credit for all that our students do, both here and after graduation, but they are an outstanding group of individuals to begin with. We work to provide an education and experiences to help them reach the next level.”
That’s certainly what happened to Choi. “At BYU, I gained fundamental knowledge of core principles,” he says. “In addition, BYU Marriott created a fertile environment to explore the career I wanted. I got a great education, and I was also able to identify what I wanted to do with that education, so I didn’t waste a lot of time jumping from job to job trying to figure that out. The clubs, internships, professors, and mentors all helped me make my decision.”
Great Teachers, Exceptional Scholars
Although Choi graduated with an accounting degree, he realized early in his time at BYU that he didn’t want to be an accountant; he was going to pursue a career in management consulting or investment banking, with the ultimate goal of investing in technology companies or even starting one himself someday. He reached that decision, in part, thanks to inspiring professors whom he interacted with on a daily basis.
“I can’t begin to name all the professors who influenced me,” he says. “Michael Thompson, Doug Prawitt, Kim Smith, and Melissa Larson are only a few who made a difference. The consistency of the quality of their teaching, encouragement, and genuine care for students left a strong impression on me.
“For example, I remember when Professor Larson was nominated for a Bateman Outstanding Faculty Student Choice award, which I administered as the student council president,” he says. “She thought that my email letting her know that she was nominated was fake. Her graciousness and humility was inspiring.”
Larson doesn’t feel like she does anything different than other professors. “My commitment to teaching and my students’ individual development is representative of the school’s faculty as a whole,” she observes. “Working here is an honor and privilege. To have our faculty strongly supported and encouraged in both research and teaching is unusual in higher education.”
It is, however, deliberate. In 2014, Purdue University and the Gallup Poll conducted a survey of approximately 30,000 college students that evaluated the relationship between various college experiences and subsequent success at work and overall life well-being. The survey found that one of the key factors that correlated with success in both work engagement and overall well-being was a high-quality relationship with a faculty member. BYU Marriott strives to provide those types of relationships for our students.
Choi enjoyed meaningful relationships with numerous faculty members. At one point while he was preparing for a job interview, Choi dropped by the office of Kim Smith, who had spent twenty-eight years with Goldman Sachs before coming to BYU to serve as managing director of the Peery Institute of Financial Services.
As he talked with Smith, Choi mentioned that he was particularly nervous about a specific aspect of the upcoming interview. Smith contacted a senior-ranked asset manager he knew from his time working in the industry. “He made the intro, and that man spent ten minutes explaining the concept,” says Choi, “and he did it because he respected Kim so much. Kim was available whenever we needed him.”
Collaborating for Impact
Working with other BYU students—through clubs, internships, and other collaborative experiences—ranks high on the list of things that set Choi’s education apart. “It was through these types of opportunities that I learned from other high-caliber students,” he notes.
BYU Marriott’s experiential, team-structured curriculum provides students a wide range of opportunities to work collaboratively and participate in business activities prior to graduating. “Creating real-world experiences is crucial for the school,” Choi observes. “They have to do it—but they do it so well.
“It was in these types of environments that I learned to collaborate with others, even when we didn’t always agree,” he continues. “I learned to work across groups—faculty, administrators, students—identifying what different stakeholders needed and what they cared about, and then how to meet those needs and provide value for everyone involved. Those experiences were critical and translated seamlessly as I moved into my career because I knew how to unify and motivate people to look beyond immediate satisfaction and instead focus on the greater good for everyone involved.”
The students involved on these teams and in these groups inspired Choi. “They were so focused on helping each other, collaborating, working together,” he says. “Some of the most effective instruction I received was in these environments; these types of experiences are one of the most powerful differentiators for the school.”
Alumni mentors also provide valuable collaborative opportunities; in addition to faculty mentors, each year the school has almost one thousand active alumni mentors.
“That alumni network is incredible,” says Choi. “I have friends who have gone to some of the best-known schools in the nation, and they say our alumni network is the strongest they’ve ever seen. You meet and collaborate with people who make time for you and sacrifice to help you. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I have leaned on that network throughout my career, and now I’m thrilled to be part of that network as I look for opportunities to give back.”
Signature Leadership Style
One of the most valuable components of Choi’s BYU Marriott education was the abundant opportunities to lead. He served as vice president of training for the management consulting club, as a marketing officer for the BYU Student Association, as a representative to the President’s Leadership Council, and as the BYU Marriott student council president. While at BYU Marriott, Choi played an integral role in making several schoolwide policy changes, raising money for the annual Sub for Santa drive, and organizing key events.
“These types of leadership opportunities where students can step up and make an impact on others is invaluable,” Choi observes. “And those opportunities are all presented with a focus on trying to serve. BYU’s challenge of going forth to serve was instilled in everything I did. I learned a lot from the leaders I interacted with at the school and in clubs and in other ways, and I try to always think of myself as a servant. Those experiences I had paid great dividends.”
After graduation, Choi accepted an offer to become an investment analyst at Citigroup—an intense, grueling job. After only seven months, he was snatched up by Spectrum Equity, a $7 billion, tech-focused growth equity firm based in San Francisco that had invested in companies such as Ancestry.com, Grubhub, Headspace, Lucid Software, Lynda.com, Prezi, and SurveyMonkey.
“I’ve been at the firm for just under five years and have been given amazing opportunities,” says Choi. “I started as an associate, where my job was to identify unique entrepreneurs working on compelling products and solutions, network with them, and build relationships to provide the best opportunity for Spectrum to invest. I already had great entrepreneurial contacts from my time at BYU, so that was a great place to start.”
Currently a vice president, Choi was promoted rapidly at Spectrum. “I’ve been fortunate and blessed with opportunities to work with innovative teams and companies,” he says. “In my current position, I help lead investments and work with the management teams post-investment to accelerate growth and scale the businesses. We seek to provide valuable strategic and operational support by helping our companies recruit senior executives and world-class board members, define product road maps and company strategies, scale operational infrastructure, and expand internationally on their paths to going public or being acquired. Spectrum has a helpful hands-on mentality that I have enjoyed and that has enabled me to learn not only the investing side of a business but also what it takes operationally to scale software and internet companies. We focus on building long-term, sustainable businesses—not just investing money and letting it ride.”
Choi’s leadership abilities are evident in other ways as well. He works with a local program to mentor high school students, participates regularly in service projects, has helped place BYU alums at Spectrum as well as other firms, and has returned to BYU on several occasions as a mentor himself. “Last year I organized a panel with some other alumni to speak to the private equity and venture capital club,” he explains. “I gained so much from those types of interactions when I was there. I want to provide the same kind of support moving forward.”
In addition, Choi is hoping to start an education-related nonprofit. “I was the first college graduate in my family. I funded my own education and worked hard to support my family at the same time,” says Choi, who married his wife, Rachel, his first year at BYU. (The couple now have three children, ages seven, four, and one.)
The nonprofit will aim at helping immigrants who are the first in their families to attend college. “Hopefully, we can help provide funding and invaluable guidance and support as they navigate through college as well as their careers.”
In the meantime, Choi is grateful for the continued experience he is gaining at Spectrum, including serving on the boards of Lucid Software and PicMonkey, as well as working with Ancestry.com, Headspace, and Prezi, among others. “During my time at Spectrum, I’ve worked on seven investments and one billion-dollar-plus exit and helped invest $325 million in capital, personally originating more than $110 million of that,” he says. “I have been given the opportunity to take a leading role at the firm. It’s been phenomenal, and I know I wouldn’t be here today without BYU Marriott.”
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Inspiring Learning
By focusing on providing education, scholarship, and service, BYU Marriott strives to offer our students a life-changing experience. BYU president Kevin J Worthen explains it this way: “We inspire our students to learn. And . . . that learning leads to inspiration. When both things happen, inspiring learning occurs, and we can then know [that BYU is] on the right track.
“I like to think of inspiring learning as the spark that ignites a student’s passion for learning and illuminates a life course,” he continues. “Inspiring learning encompasses many things: mentoring, experiential learning, and innovative teaching.”
Opportunities for inspiring learning at BYU Marriott are broad and far-reaching. Our students participate in programs such as Cougar Capital, a private equity fund run by second-year MBA students; the Miller Competition Series, one of the largest single-university startup competitions in the nation; and Grantwell, a program that allows students to lead in and work with real nonprofits and foundations.
“We embrace President Worthen’s call for more inspiring learning opportunities at BYU,” says BYU Marriott dean Lee T. Perry. “We strive to foster an environment that is spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, and character building, leading to lifelong learning and service. Our faculty, staff, and supporters are changing lives as we work to attract, develop, place, and continue to engage men and women of faith, character, and professional ability.”
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This story was featured in BYU Marriott's 2017 Annual Report.
