No matter where life takes him, global supply chain professor Simon Greathead always seems to find his way back to Provo.
Originally from Lancashire, England, Greathead was called to serve an LDS mission in Provo. After returning to Great Britain for a short time following the completion of his two years preaching the gospel, Greathead returned to attend BYU where he received his bachelor’s degree in business management in 2003 and married his wife, Brooke.
Seven years later, he returned to Provo after stints running Melaleuca’s European operations, receiving his MBA from the Henley Business School in 2008, and starting his own boutique consulting firm called Vis Veritas.
But even when he was working in the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands, Greathead knew he wanted to teach. He returned once again in 2010 to the Marriott School where he says, working is “not a job, it’s a joy.”
“I’m back here just living the dream,” Greathead says. “I know the benefits of working internationally, and I want to share that with students.”
Greathead views his relationships with students as collaborative rather than transactional. He loves meeting with students and keeping in touch with them after they graduate. His main goal is to help students understand who they can be, not just what they can do.
“Do can be taught in class, but be is taught through personal connection,” Greathead says. “You can talk about doing–doing finance or doing accounting or doing supply chain–but being is a different story that’s more personal in nature. That’s what I love to do.”
Reaching this goal really does start in the home for Greathead, where he and Brooke take their four children out of their usual environment to help them appreciate their blessings and learn about others. Recently the couple took their children, who are all under the age of nine, back to his home country to experience another way of living.
“The trip gave them a deeper gratitude for everything that we have here in America from the types of food we have, the car we drive, the space in our home, to all the things that we have that make life easier,” Greathead says. “That’s been one of the best experiences that I’ve shared with my kids.”
When he’s not working with students at the Marriott School, Greathead follows BYU and English rugby, a habit he picked up after a brief rugby career at the University of Central Lancashire before he transferred to BYU. He also enjoys playing board games, hiking, and traveling with his family.