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Alumni Spotlight Business Management Marketing Strategy
You could say that Gerald “Jerry” Petersen earned his master’s degree in marketing from BYU because he loved to sing.
Rebecca McCarron Greenhalgh is no stranger to smart wordsmithing, so it was unusual when she was suddenly speechless during an important Zoom meeting.
It was a business proposition that would change the life of Stewart R. Walkenhorst. A colleague was closing up shop and asked if Walkenhorst would be interested in taking over some outstanding retail orders.
Tracey Evelyn Haslam, a 2001 BYU Marriott management grad, was shocked when she took her four children to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
Tyler Hardy was one day away from finishing his mission in Veracruz, Mexico, when he got an unexpected phone call. His older brother, Greg, had been seriously injured in a work accident.
Jared Tate, a 2016 strategic management graduate, would rather build ties with his family than put on a tie every morning to go to work.
When Isaac Pettit was 14, his uncle gave him an extremely unusual gift--a unicycle. With the promise of $100 if he could learn how to ride the one-wheeler gracefully, Pettit took off.
When marketing alumna Marinne Pearson was earning her MBA and working part-time, she was also working to rebrand a new company.
When a teacher disciplines a grade school student, it is usually because the student was caught passing notes or talking in class. Unless that student is BYU Marriott alum Nate Gardner.
Jeff Brownlow was recruiting at BYU when BYU recruited him.
Alfred Gantner, cofounder of Partners Group and an MBA alum, shared his insights on a balanced life as the featured speaker at convocation on 28 April.
TRUE Africa provides educational and humanitarian sponsorships to orphans and other vulnerable children. “We operate entirely on volunteer efforts, enabling 95 percent of every dollar donated to go toward program services,” Hite says.
BYU Marriott strategy alum Gentry Davies has made a career out of solving tricky projections and analyzing future business opportunities.
Thanks to his education from BYU Marriott and the example of his father, marketing alum Carlos Valles lives his passion for business working at The Hershey Company.
After realizing his student apartment did not have a recycling program, BYU Marriott strategy alum Ryan Smith went to work to create his gig economy recycling company Recyclops.
Almost everything is a learning curve when you’re starting a business, and Sandy Whitaker, a 2003 business management alum, acknowledges that there can be plenty of bumps and detours along the way. But as she and her husband, Tim, a physical therapist, worked to realize their long-term goal of opening a physical therapy practice, Whitaker found that navigating the curve was easier because of knowledge and skills she had gathered along the way—from her formal education, her past jobs, and even her hobbies.
When Stephen H. Russell reflects on his life, he is struck by the way seemingly small decisions and ordinary situations have blossomed into extraordinary opportunities. “None of this was part of a strategic plan,” he says, “and I feel grateful when I see all the times Heavenly Father has blessed me.”
Four years ago, BYU Marriott alum Stephen Farnsworth wanted to move technology forward. In order to reach his goals, he took a risk—one that has paid off years later.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Thomas Y.K. Fong has long loved learning about the earth’s natural processes. He originally planned to earn a bachelor’s degree in geology at BYU and then pursue graduate studies in oceanography. But during one midwinter geology field trip to St. George, Utah, a sandstorm blew through the group’s campsite, prompting Fong to reconsider whether his studies had brought him too close to nature for comfort. “Halfway through that cold, sand-blown night, I’m thinking, ‘Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?’” Fong recalls.
In 1968 more than 150 students graduated from BYU Marriott with degrees in business management. Kristi Taylor Lawrence was one of the few women in that graduating class.
Not many people can say that they helped build a company from the ground up within a year of graduating from college. However, BYU Marriott marketing alumna Luisa Chil can.

With more than two thousand miles ahead of him, BYU Marriott alum Matthew LeBaron started a bike ride across the country to raise money for diabetes research.

Just before heading to the University of Iowa to join the university’s swim team, John Fellows discovered a copy of the Book of Mormon on a bookshelf in his parents’ home in Boise, Idaho. He packed it in his bags, and before long he called the missionaries wanting to know more. The combination of his baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a swimming-prohibitive injury led him to transfer to BYU, where he joined the Army ROTC and discovered what would become his lifelong career.
BYU Marriott marketing alum Orrin Hancock knows a thing or two about setting goals and following through to reach professional and personal summits.