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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.
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.
“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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
It was 6:30 p.m., and Dora Ho-Ellis was still in her office. “Normally, I’m not that hardworking,” she quips. But when the phone rang with a pivotal opportunity for the entrepreneurship education program she spearheaded at Singapore Polytechnic, she was grateful she was there to answer.
Doug Jackson is bringing sight to tens of thousands around the globe—thanks to a new kind of vision for humanitarian work.
Switching from a degree in accounting and a career in software engineering to life as a full-time artist is strange, admits Karl Hale. But when his after-work detox projects turned out to be works of art, that’s exactly the leap he took.
Three days. Four major events. More than 200 attendees.
At the base of lofty Mount Nebo in rural Utah, Traci Memmott wraps up a conference call with a team in New York City. She jots down a few notes, gathers her things to leave, and closes up shop—she has an important appointment.
The white letters of the Hollywood Sign are framed in Rick Johnson’s office window, along with a city street lined with palm trees. Down one block is the Jimmy Kimmel Live! headquarters, where Johnson once hoisted his nine-year-old daughter atop his shoulders to watch a free Taylor Swift concert hosted by the studio. As a vice president and general manager at Ticketmaster, Johnson thrives as he lives and works in the vibrant live-entertainment industry at the heart of Los Angeles.
Back in 1942, Gale Hammond had no question how he would spend the three months between his high school graduation and his eighteenth birthday—the day he would be drafted into World War II: “My dad said, ‘Go get some education. Get a trade that will help you when you’re in the service.’”
Samuel C. Dunn, former senior vice president for Walmart and 1982 BYU accounting alumnus, was honored with the Marriott School of Management Alumni Achievement Award.
As a twelve-year-old boy, John Southcott started mowing lawns so he could buy paintball equipment. However, before ever firing his hard-earned munition, Southcott habitually took apart each gun he bought, laying out all the pieces in order to understand how the gun worked.
Timing is everything that's just one of his grandfather's lessons accounting alum Greg Drennan has implemented on his career as a successful entrepreneur in the self-storage business.
With the help of a BYU Marriott scholarship and through her own determination, accounting alum Brittany Drury Brown has thrived, including starting a business that provides opportunities for stay-at-home parents.
When Ethan Kyo Choi wrapped up his LDS mission to South Korea and headed home to Australia, he knew he wasn’t going to stay long. Deciding to study business, he soon purchased a one-way ticket to Utah to study at BYU Marriott.
Doug Winters won't say accounting is always exciting. But with the title forensic accountant and the discovery of a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme on his career certainly hasn't been a snooze fest.
Laura Warner Torgesen's heritage in academia, including BYU legend Karl G. Maeser, have led her to blaze a pioneering path of her own.
Accounting alum Jason Graham lost his home during Hurricane Harvey, but he gained stronger relationships with others and a greater appreciation for the unexpected.
As an undeclared freshman at BYU, Susan Parker Sanders was feeling pressure to decide on a major. Her uncle worked for GTE Financial and suggested to his math-savvy niece that she consider accounting; he even set up an appointment for her to meet with a professor in BYU Marriott’s School of Accountancy.
Meg Rodeback didn't even know the Priscilla S. Payne Outstanding Student Performance Award existed before she earned it in August.