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Good communicators are supposed to work behind the scenes, but sometimes they can't help getting pulled on stage.
The Utah Governor’s Mansion was blanketed in soft, blue light. The occasion was World Autism Awareness Day 2014, and buildings across the country were swapping bulbs to highlight a disorder that affects one in sixty-eight American children.
I keenly remember sitting in my basement apartment in Utah and reviewing with my wife our meager student finances. Given the recent birth of our first son and my heavy academic load, I could only afford to work part time. Even with our combined efforts, money was very tight for my wife and me. We were incredibly grateful for the low tuition, the scholarships, and the financial aid which allowed me to receive such an outstanding degree, and we committed to someday give back what had generously been given to us.
Call it a cruel but fortunate twist of fate: Dan Handy’s companies tend to undergo extreme growth when it comes time for him to hit the books. As an undergrad and a grad student at the Marriott School, the current CEO of Bluehost.com guided two internet start-ups to success, sometimes smashing against current trends with a Ping-Pong paddle.
Alum Mirella Petersen is bold, organized, and driven—the perfect combination for getting autism insurance reform passed in Utah.
As soon as Thaylene Lowe Rogers made her decision to return to school for an Executive MBA, she hit the GMAT prep books. During a trip to Newport Beach, California, vacation time turned into study time as she and her son began plowing through the math section. After a year of brushing up, she was in. By 2015 she’ll be sporting a new Marriott School degree on her office wall.
When Josh Steimle won the BYU business plan competition (now known as the Miller New Venture Challenge) in 2001, he was awarded the $5,000 he needed to make payroll for the week and the confidence to keep his new company, MWI, going for the next twelve years.
In the winter of 1989, the snow and pine trees of Sundance Resort set the backdrop for Doug and Judith Maughan’s second date. Doug, an MBA student at the time, had asked Judith to accompany him to a Valentine’s dinner and dance sponsored by the Marriott School. “He was handsome, smart, and probably the most polite man I had ever met,” says Judith of her date. Doug was also persistent and outdoorsy—during the summers, he caught salmon in Alaska as a commercial fisherman to help pay for school. After Doug worked his charms that evening in the mountains, dates with Judith became increasingly frequent. Sharing space in the Tanner Building, where she was also a Marriott School student, helped fuel their courtship.
Jen sat in the BYU Varsity Theatre eager to learn on her first day of class in the accounting junior core. Rod Hinze was also in class that day, but he found it hard to focus on academics once he saw Jen. When the teacher announced that the students would be forming two-person teams, Rod knew who his partner would be—Jen didn’t have a chance to look around before he was leaping over the seats to get to her. “I looked for the cutest girl in the class and Jen was sitting two rows in front of me, so I literally jumped over the two rows and sat next to her,” Rod says. “She was a little surprised when I asked her to be my partner, but she said yes.”
For Martissa Spencer, patience is definitely a virtue. When Martissa met her now-husband Mike in September 1991, she was busy having her first real romance with the newly returned missionary she had dated in high school. Martissa had plans to serve a mission of her own and was surprised to find out that her boyfriend wasn’t willing to wait. The relationship ended. “I couldn’t change my course,” Martissa says. “I felt very strongly about serving a mission.”
“Citius! Altius! Fortius!” Heralding the commencement of the 2002 Winter Olympics, the 360-member Mormon Tabernacle Choir reverberated John Williams’s “Call of the Champions” across Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Wally works at Wal-Mart. It may sound like a tongue twister, but Wally Potts’s story is all business. In a little more than two years, Potts has brought in millions of dollars of revenue for the corporation.
When Sandy Wight earned a MAcc in 1990 and started her career with Arthur Andersen, she had no idea she would become a partner. “My goal was to get a job and have two years of experience on my résumé,” she says. Twenty years later Wight is still gaining experience for her résumé—as a partner in the human capital practice of Ernst & Young.
On the cutting edge of research and education, Jeff Jenkins is leading the pack. A 2009 master of information systems graduate, Jenkins is now finishing up a doctoral program at the University of Arizona and is set to graduate this spring.
Whether it’s the crisp binding of a book straight off the press or the vibrant design of an e-book, 1999 MAcc graduate Brad Farmer loves all aspects of his job in the publishing industry.
It takes a special kind of person to compare his job to a high school field trip and enjoy it. Such is the case for 1997 masters of accounting graduate Travis Nielsen, whose consulting firm has him on the road every dayyellow school bus not included.
Chances are the origins of your morning omelet were influenced by a BYU grad. After all, Craig Willardson oversees twenty-five million laying hens and is doing all he can for the incredible, edible egg.
A world away from his home in Utah, 1989 master of accountancy graduate Phillip Hutchings is climbing a ladder to global success and sharing his knowledge with Marriott School students.
Sumptuous. Decadent. Delightful. Few words could more adequately describe a box of Lula’s Chocolates. Neatly perched inside each mahogany-colored package await aromatic round crèmes, salted caramels, square truffles, and nuts cloaked with melt-in-your-mouth cocoa.
The idea had always glowed—however faintly—in the back of Steve Oldham’s mind. He jokes about it now, saying that just like every other missionary who returns from Brazil, he came home with dreams of starting his own Brazilian steakhouse.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, employees stay at their jobs for an average of 4.1 years. Like most people, Dennis Malloy never expected to stay at his first auditing firm for more than a few years, let alone thirty, but he found his niche at KPMG and never left.
Most accountants spend their days ensuring financial records are up to standards. But for a handful of BYU MAcc grads, it's a different story.