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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.
After completing his undergraduate degree in environmental science from BYU, Trenton Blair jetted from soil labs to B-52 cockpits and joined the US Air Force.
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.”
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.
As a teenage boy, C. Todd Linton fell in love with airplanes. This moment was the beginning of a lifelong pursuit in the field of aviation.
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.
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.
When marketing alumna Marinne Pearson was earning her MBA and working part-time, she was also working to rebrand a new company.
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, were life changing for 13-year-old Nathan Christiansen. That day would inspire Christiansen to serve his country.
When former BYU ROTC cadet Scott Lovejoy was a newly enlisted medic in the United States Army, he received a surprise visit from his father that changed his life.
Quick transitions between life events have always been part of Merle Allen’s unofficial strategy for most of his life. At BYU’s 1954 graduation dance, the marketing grad, senior class president, and former varsity football player proposed to his sweetheart, Carol Beckstrand. After the MC announced the happy news, Allen says they then rushed to Beckstrand’s parents’ home to “tell her folks so we’d get to them before somebody else did.”
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.
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.
Whether he's flying helicopters across Afghanistan and Iraq or running 100-mile ultramarathons, Jeff Timmons applies lessons that he learned at BYU Marriott.
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.
BYU Marriott marketing alum Orrin Hancock knows a thing or two about setting goals and following through to reach professional and personal summits.
Almost every May, between four hundred and seven hundred people, attend a Norwegian Constitution Day celebration at the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City and enjoy traditional Norwegian lefse flatbread and Solo orange soda. For more than a decade, the chair of the event’s committee has been 1995 business management grad Steve Affleck, who doesn’t have even a bit of Norwegian ancestry.
A fascination with aviation and the bond he had created with his grandfather at a young age would eventually lead BYU Marriott finance alum Trevor Findlay to his future career as an army pilot.
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.