Browse All Stories
38 results found
Year Published
Awarded a BYU Homecoming 2023 Alumni Achievement Award, MBA alum Christopher Clason explained how inspired leaders create value in their professional and personal lives.
David Tanner brings the skills he gained through BYU Marriott's MPA program to the state of Georgia, where he consults state leaders, community organizers, and county and city elected officials.
As he reflects on his life journey, emeritus general authority and MOB grad Larry Kacher says the unexpected stops have been most meaningful and the bumps along the way have proved most beneficial.
Clark Pew has learned over the course of his life that persistence pays off. The EMPA alumnus now lives in India working for the Department of State.
EMBA program alumnus Shawn Pace finds and meets people’s real-world needs, whether he’s in a Ukrainian refugee camp or an executive board room.
“Go, Cougs!” is still Adam Vandermyde’s enthusiastic cheer more than a decade after graduating from BYU Marriott’s MBA program in 2008. Through the years, Vandermyde has continued to support his alma mater by cheering for BYU sports and by hiring more than 150 BYU graduates to work at his companies.
In December 2022, BYU Marriott alum Scott Adams retired after 30 years of service as the CEO of Pullman Regional Hospital in Washington state.
When Jackie Saumweber joined the BYU MPA program, she didn't know she would find her niche in corporate social responsibility.
Growing up with a father in foreign services, Reneta Bezerra ventured far beyond her home country of Brazil. Now that she has a family of her own, she’s still on the move.
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.
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.
Randy Judd’s story begins in the Ozarks of Arkansas, where he grew up with no indoor plumbing and went to school in a two-room schoolhouse. His family’s financial situation created what he feels was a truly fortunate opportunity to work full-time during college—a path that led him to the restaurant business.
Working at the Oracle Corporation, alum Liz Wiseman found herself constantly surrounded by intelligent people. But she noticed an ebb and flow—not of intelligence but of how leaders capitalized on or closed off that intelligence. One executive she coached was brilliant but shut down others, leaving their ideas untapped. Wiseman searched for something to share with this leader about the dynamic he was caught in but found nothing. “Someone needed to research how what leaders did either diminished or multiplied the intelligence of the people around them,” Wiseman says. “This seemed like a worthy pursuit, so I just did it.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
Though Provo native Bill Dalebout attended BYU for his undergraduate degree, it wasn’t until the economics student was in Washington, D.C., interning with microfinance organization FINCA International that he seriously considered BYU’s MPA program.
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.
Lynette Hansen has beaten the odds and exceeded expectations throughout her life, from graduating college early to surviving cancer. Now as a health care professional, she works to turn the odds in favor of the people around her.
Growing up in Central Florida, Erik Jacobsen pretty much knew he wanted to be a cowboy by the time he was twelve or thirteen years old.
Gary Gustafson, a 1994 MPA graduate, is a man who just keeps going. His career is full of accomplishments and adventures, but his endurance continues outside the office.
Just four years after completing her joint JD/MPA degree, Kristi Anderson has become a rising star in the Navy JAG Corp. As a prosecuting attorney and a naval officer, Anderson handles a variety of civilian and military cases. She credits her time at the Marriott School for giving her an extra boost in skills and experience to land the job and excel in her responsibilities.
Alison Davis-Blake isn’t one for convention. Her quiet demeanor, questioning mind, and drive to excel have always set her apart.