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Alumni Experiences Alumni Spotlight 2010–2014
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.”
During the housing collapse, the sweltering summer heat of Phoenix was no place for a young salesman pushing pest control. But for Adam Keys it was just the kind of pressure needed to get the creative juices flowing. “Nobody had money and nobody liked salesmen,” Keys remembers. It was then that Keys matched the perfect product with its target audience. “I sold No Soliciting signs door-to-door,” Keys says. “Eighty percent of people who would laugh when they opened the door would buy it.” But this wasn’t just funny business: the 2011 finance graduate paid his college bills, learned graphic design, and gained experience running his own company.
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.
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.
Pretty Govindji was always an avid viewer of the Food Network, but when her sons came into the picture, her investment in tasty meals took on new meaning. Dinnertime goals soon centered on organic cooking, and before too long, Govindji realized what she served food on might matter just as much as good fruits and veggies.
Two BYU MPA graduates capitalize on their talents after being named finalists for the Presidential Management Fellows program.
A member of Provo’s Municipal Council will soon expand her role from serving the city to serving her country.
The red Porsche featured clean lines and 390 horsepower, but for fifteen-year-old Eric Watson, it might as well have been the family station wagon. This was the first time the high schooler had slid into the driver’s seat.
The Romney Institute honored alumnus Rulon Stacey as this year's Administrator of the Year for his role in creating an award-winning health care system.
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.
Jeff Holdaway, a 1982 finance graduate, knew there was a way for him to combine his passion for business and law. After graduating from Columbia Law School in 1985 and working at a national law firm, an opportunity arose that he couldn’t turn down. Twenty-four years later Holdaway is still glad he jumped at the chance to work at Marriott International.
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.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Under the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, three Marriott School grads are tackling their MBAs at the West Coast campus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. As part of the 2011 Executive MBA class, Brandon Savage, Mark He, and James Marsh were strangers before classes began. But since last May one thing has brought them together—and it isn’t business.
In the lush Polochic Valley of Guatemala, sleepy villages are nestled along dusty roads and populated with the friendly faces of the Mayan Q’eqchi people. But for eight days in August, the quiet valley burst into life with the arrival of the Singular Humanitarian experience (SHe), a unique service organization for Latter-day Saint singles, which was created by a Marriott School MBA grad and his friends.
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.
BYU alum Peter Harris was profiled on Forbes.com for his work as a social entrepreneur.
Jamie Shaw first caught the travel bug as an MBA student at the Marriott School. She had never left the country before but decided to participate in a new business study abroad program to several Asian countries. From the first stop, she was smitten.
With wet eyelashes, Reachel walked out of her bedroom and found a stranger sitting in her apartment. The guy casually resting his elbow on the couch was Andrew, a friend of her roommates. 
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.
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.
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.
In an ever-expanding digital universe, Brad Rencher and his team at Adobe Systems Inc. navigate the Cloud like rocket men.