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Good communicators are supposed to work behind the scenes, but sometimes they can't help getting pulled on stage.
Curtis Bedont thought he knew what it meant to be in the military. Though he spent his formative years on bases in foreign outposts, his fighter-pilot father never faced deployment.
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.
Fifty-six years and 1.3 million birthday parties may seem impossible, but it sums up John Huish’s career. He’s had a hand in facilitating cake-and-candle celebrations across five states and has provided jobs for more than one hundred thousand people.
It only took five seconds for Ryan Judkins’s boss to approve his beard plan. Surprised, Judkins, a sales representative for Callaway Golf and a normally clean-cut guy, asked, “You do realize I might have a beard that’s five, six, or seven inches long at one point?”
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.
In the area of market research, Cathy Chamberlain is a one-woman political powerhouse. Her influence, as well as the results of her studies, has been spread across the country from Washington, DC, back to the West Coast, and overseas as well. Since graduating from BYU in 1973 with a degree in business education, she’s tallied up more than thirty years of experience in market research and is still going strong.
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.
Cameron Moll knew he wanted to give something back to the customers who made his entrepreneurial venture a success, but he had no idea it would take him halfway around the world with an international celebrity.
Cameron Moll knew he wanted to give something back to the customers who made his entrepreneurial venture a success, but he had no idea it would take him halfway around the world with an international celebrity.
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.
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.
Matthew Bowman likes leading the pack. His salesmanship has landed him a prestigious award and created a career leading fast-growing sales and customer service companies.
Jerry Koenig knows a thing or two about working in the trenches. In his more than sixty-six years of job experience, Koenig has been no stranger to challenging tasks, as he has used his dedicated work ethic to achieve great success.
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.
Matt Jarvis is a sports fan who doesn’t have to separate business from pleasure. After growing up playing a number of sports, he now has a job many young boys dream of working for the National Football League.
Kristen Hill knows that an opportunity missed may never return, so she takes them when she can. This year she had the chance to change not only her job but also her residency as she took a position in Paris as a senior financial analyst for Disneyland Paris corporate business planning group.
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.
As a foreign exchange student thousands of miles from home, Thomas Hung didn’t realize living in Utah would put his future career in finance on the fast track.
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.