From performing arts to chemistry to business to family, Mandy Crane, an alumna of the BYU Marriott School of Business, has forged a variety of paths. “In some ways,” she says, “when you follow a path that no one else is following, you’re creating a better experience for yourself and for your family.”
While Crane was a high schooler in Lāʻie, Hawaii, she loved the performing arts, so she planned on majoring in theater at Northwestern University. But when she took her first organic chemistry class, she fell in love. “Nobody ever says that,” she laughs. That love motivated Crane to switch her major to chemistry. “I loved the discovery aspect of it,” she says. “I loved the fact that it was hard.”
Learning molecular geometry wasn’t Crane’s only challenge as a chemistry major: She also found herself as one of only a few women in her chemistry classes. “I loved that challenge of being somewhere nobody expected me to be,” she says. “I realized within me that I can have a seat at the table in hard conversations in science and math.”
The next shift in Crane’s journey came after an internship when she decided that lab work wasn’t for her. She dropped her plans to pursue a PhD in chemistry and pivoted to the business side of pharmaceuticals, which led her to California. There she met her husband and had her first child—but she knew she wanted to keep progressing in her career. She took the GMAT while she was on maternity leave and applied to the BYU Marriott MBA program.
During the application process, Crane visited campus and observed former Assistant Professor of Strategy David Kryscynski’s class. It was only the third day of the class, but Kryscynski had already used flashcards to memorize the names of each student. “I felt this incredible spirit in the room,” Crane says. “I saw a professor that genuinely loved his students, loved teaching, and was very mission-driven in the work he was doing.”
Another impactful moment came when Crane met with Mike Bond, current associate director of the MBA program, and learned about the program’s efforts to bring more women into the program. “I felt a confirmation that BYU Marriott was where I was supposed to be,” Crane says, “and that I was going to grow the most by going to BYU.”
The MBA program taught Crane more than just business principles. She says she would often learn about a concept in a class, like Mark Widmer’s course on intentionally leading and thriving, and then come home and apply what she learned to her everyday life. “I’d sit down with my husband, and we’d try to plan and think, ‘How do we get more intentional with our family life as well?’”
After Crane graduated with her MBA in 2018, her career moved forward and her family grew: She was six months pregnant with her second child when she headed to Ohio to work for Procter & Gamble. Three years later, her family returned to Utah with her third child, a five-month-old baby, in tow, and Crane worked at Lucid Software for about a year and a half. In January 2023, she landed a job at Vivint NRG, eight months pregnant with her fourth, and currently works there as director of business performance and strategy.
Being a working mom can bring challenges, Crane says, like sometimes needing to leave work to pick up her kids from school or occasionally needing to sit down after dinner to work later at night. Still, she says she loves it. “I’m very passionate about women finding and cultivating what is important for them and their growth while also nurturing and taking care of their families,” Crane says. “It’s not a mutually exclusive situation where it’s all or nothing.”
Just like Crane’s MBA classes helped her in her family life, she says that what she’s learned from motherhood has helped her be more aware of the needs of others at work. “Being a mom has made me significantly more empathetic, considerate, and inclusive than I was beforehand,” Crane says. “Being a mom is a continuous lesson in vulnerability and giving yourself grace. We can all use more grace at work too.”
Crane says that having kids has also helped her gain perspective on what matters most. “It’s easy to get caught up in the highs and lows of my job. I care about my job. I’m going to give it my all, but at the end of the day, it is not the most important thing,” she says. “Looking at my family really anchors me in what it's all for. I want my children to see me pursuing my passions, taking on hard challenges, and growing as both Mandy and as their mother.”
While being a working mom has always been Crane’s goal, she says it hasn’t been an easy journey—but she wants to show others what is possible. She is currently a member of the BYU Marriott Marketing Program Advisory Board, where she hopes to help students find their own paths. “I want to show the joy and the fulfillment that can come when you find what your unique mission is on the earth and how to amplify your unique gifts,” Crane says. “It can look a lot of different ways, and we can all take different paths to get to where we need to go.”
