Bruce Money insists that the colorful flags lining the Tanner building’s atrium are not just for show. They represent the Marriott School’s dedication to international business. And as the director of the Global Management Center (GMC), Money takes that mission seriously.
Money first got a sense that he’d end up as an international business professor when he was a young missionary in Nagoya, Japan.
“On my mission I learned a great deal about international business, national culture, the global Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the challenges that all of that entails,” Money says.
When he returned home from his mission in 1980, Japanese business was at its prime, and Money decided to catch the wave. He graduated from BYU with a degree in English and a minor in Japanese and was soon hired by Mitsui, a Japanese bank, working as a loan officer. He continued to use his foreign language skills to his advantage and later worked for a Japanese computer company called Fujitsu in San Diego.
Money worked for three years before he was accepted into the Harvard Business School, a feat he credits largely to his experience with Japanese companies. After receiving an MBA, he went on to receive a PhD from the University of California, Irvine.
Eleven years ago Money came to BYU to teach international marketing and international business. He has led many study abroad programs and has been to nearly sixty-two different countries, including Russia, Cambodia, India, and China. Last year he was appointed director of the Global Management Center. As director, Money oversees all of the international activities of the business school, including the study abroad programs that take hundreds of students around the globe each year.
“You’ve got to get out of this town as a student and study abroad,” Money says. “I never get tired of seeing students amazed by the world out there. That’s what makes it worth it for me.”
One of Money’s goals as director is to see more business students receive the Global Management Certificate by perfecting their business language skills.
“We want to get students speaking more languages at a higher level of proficiency because that’s going to change the business world,” Money says.
Despite his love of travel, there are certain things Money says are the best right here in Utah. Money enjoys biking in Provo Canyon with his wife, spoiling his four grandchildren, and downhill skiing at Brighton Resort.
Last but not least, Money loves working at BYU.
“It’s been eleven years, but I still pinch myself most days,” Money says. “It is my dream job.”