Ten MBA students within the BYU Marriott School of Business received the 2023 Hawes Scholars Award—an honor that carries the highest distinction given to MBA students at the school and a cash award of $10,000.
This year’s Hawes Scholars are Madison Bean, Brodie Bevans, Jared Croft, Cedric Huntington, Sarah Lyman, Coltin Romney, Zachary Rudd, Tracy Smith-van Pelt, Kyle Webster, and Ziyu Wu.
“This year’s Hawes Scholars stand out among their peers for their impactful contributions to the MBA program,” says BYU Marriott MBA director Daniel Snow. “They are all firmly committed not only to academic excellence but also building up their classmates.”
Created in 1998, the award is named after Rodney A. Hawes Jr. and Beverly Hawes and made possible through a $2 million grant called the Hawes Endowment, which facilitates multiple initiatives that help support and grow the MBA program.
About the 2023 Hawes Scholars
Madison Bean, from Coon Rapids, Minnesota, graduated from BYU with a BS in economics and a minor in business management in 2019. She then went to work for Blue Raven Solar as a management trainee and was promoted to operations manager a few months later and then a senior operations manager in 2021. She served as the vice president of service for the MBA Association and is also a recruiting mentor for the MBA finance track. This past summer she interned at Fortive in their general management development program and is returning full time after graduation.
Brodie Bevans served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2015 before attending BYU and earning his bachelor of science in accounting in 2019. He then began his career as a staff business consultant for Ernst & Young in Atlanta. In 2020 Bevans went to work as an auditor for Denny’s in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In returning to BYU Marriott for his MBA, Bevans participated in the student MBA Analytics Association, the Adam Smith Society, and the Graduate Finance Association. Bevans also tutored students and worked as a teaching assistant (TA) for numerous finance and accounting classes.
After serving the people in Houston on a church mission from 2014 to 2016, Jared Croft earned a BS in mechanical engineering from BYU in 2020. Croft worked as a consultant in the energy industry before returning to BYU Marriott to pursue an MBA. He served as the student president of the Product Management Association and interned as a product manager at e-commerce company Pattern. Croft also worked as a TA for the first-year and second-year corporate finance classes. Following graduation, he will be a senior manager in merchandising operations at Walmart.
Cedric Huntington, from Palmer, Alaska, started his college education at BYU–Hawaii, where he met his wife, Brianna. After serving a church mission, Huntington transferred to BYU in Provo and earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing in 2018. He worked for three years in brand management at wellness company Melaleuca before returning to BYU Marriott to earn his MBA. Huntington was selected as his MBA section’s president for two semesters in a row during his first year in the program, and he served as vice president of consumer-packaged goods placement in the MBA Marketing Association. He once competed as a gymnast and now owns a business with his wife, teaching tumbling lessons to cheerleaders, dancers, and gymnasts.
Sarah Lyman, from Biloxi, Mississippi, graduated from BYU with a BS in finance in 2018 after serving a church mission in Denmark from 2014 to 2016. After graduation she worked as a staff consultant at Ernst & Young People Advisory Services. From 2019 to 2021 she worked as an internal analyst for Fifth Partners and their portfolio companies. During her time in the MBA program, Lyman collaborated with Matt Young and Christina Bates in planning the first national Faith in the Workplace case competition. Lyman has placed in multiple case competitions, trained her cohort colleagues in PowerPoint, and served in leadership positions with Kaizen and Women in Management.
After serving the people in the New Zealand Hamilton church mission from 2013 to 2015, Coltin Romney graduated from BYU in 2019 with degrees in biology and bioinformatics. He worked at Spark Marketing as an area manager as well at Taxhawk as a software engineer. While at BYU Marriott, he was a mentor in the MBA program, and he organized athletic events that brought together first-year and second-year students. He served as VP of athletics for the MBA Association and as Co-VP of events and activities for the Graduate Supply Chain Operations Association. Romney also earned the distinction of Savage Scholar.
Zachary Rudd grew up in Boise, Idaho, and served a church mission in Moscow from 2009 to 2011. From 2013 to 2020, Rudd pursued a career in the healthcare industry, ultimately spending seven years in healthcare technology management, including five as the director of clinical engineering for hospitals across the Northwest. In addition to his professional work, Rudd also served for nine years in the United States Army Reserve as a biomedical equipment specialist. Rudd came to BYU Marriott to pursue an MBA, and he participated in the MBA Tech Society as well as the Graduate Entrepreneur Association. He also worked as a TA for the core corporate finance course. Upon graduation, he will move to South Carolina to begin a general management training program with Republic Services in the waste management industry. He and his wife, Megan, are proud parents of three children, with one more on the way.
In 2016 Tracy Smith-van Pelt began working for Phat Panda Corporation in a variety of positions including payroll manager. Originally from Spokane, Washington, Smith-van Pelt graduated with her bachelor’s degree in general studies from BYU in 2020. She completed an internship at Procter & Gamble in 2022, where she will return after graduation. Smith-van Pelt served as the VP of mentorship for Women in Management and the VP of curriculum for the Graduate Finance Association. She also served as a TA for classes in operations management, corporate financial reporting, international finance, mergers and acquisitions, and pricing.
Kyle Webster, from Pine City, Minnesota, earned his bachelor of science in business management with an emphasis in strategy from BYU in 2018. Webster then spent a summer working as a business analyst for the Cambodia Job Foundation, a nonprofit in Phnom Penh. After his time in Cambodia, he went to work as a business analyst for the Cicero Group in Salt Lake City and then as a strategy associate for GoHealth. Webster impacted those around him at BYU Marriott as a peer mentor for first-year MBA students. He served as the VP of finance for the MBA Marketing Association, and he was also named a finalist in BYU’s Student Innovator of the Year competition.
Chinese native Ziyu Wu attended the University of Cambridge where she earned her bachelor of arts in mathematics in 2019. She then went to work in the London office of PwC as a senior associate for Strategy&—PwC’s global strategy consulting business. Wu participated in the Minority Leadership Association, mentored students, and worked as a TA during her time in BYU Marriott’s MBA program. She also worked as a consultant and was the director of business development for Cougar Strategy Group.
About BYU Marriott
The BYU Marriott School of Business aspires to transform the world through Christlike leadership by developing leaders of faith, intellect, and character. Named for benefactors J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott, the school is located at Brigham Young University. BYU Marriott has four graduate and nine undergraduate programs with an enrollment of approximately 3,300 students.