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Alumni Experiences Employee Spotlight 2017 2016
Honoree Brett Swigert shared the importance of service before self in his acceptance speech.
Alumni LaDon Linde and Justin Oldroyd have always enjoyed a fast-paced work environment. Prior to their current positions, they both spent time at global strategy consulting firms, and Linde played a key role in a San Francisco-based tech company’s growth from twenty to two-hundred employees. Though their jobs were good, both men felt the need for something more—to use their knowledge and abilities for a work close to their hearts.
“Making a difference.” “Making the world a better place.” Use these phrases enough and they start sounding stale. But backed by real results, the work of MPA alumni is proving the skills developed within the walls of the Marriott School can make meaningful—and real—change.
Within a two-year span, five information systems classmates left BYU to start their careers—only to find themselves working side-by-side once again.
Steve Thacker, city manager of Centerville, Utah, was honored for his legacy of exceptional management in governmental positions for over the past thirty years.
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.
Qualtrics CEO and Marriott School of Management alum Ryan Smith was tabbed in Fortune's annual ranking of the most influential young people in business.
Former department chair and current professor Steven Thorley reflects on the growth of the finance program.
The residential staff could hear the soft crying of Mrs. C. from down the hall. A victim of dementia, the woman would sit alone by her door at Wisteria Place in Abilene, Texas, weeping and longing for her home and her daughter. She remained distant behind her tears—until Leticia Stucki, the resident recreational therapist and a 2014 BYU grad, discovered an astounding way to reach her: Czechoslovakian polka. The music reminded Mrs. C. of when she was a child and watched her parents dance in the kitchen.
Recreation management professor Brad Harris doesn’t want to be one of those people who go through the motions every day. He’s never been the kind of person to just daydream about making a difference—he actually does something about it. This mentality has inspired Harris to work in nonprofits throughout his life.
Liz Wiseman, founder/president of The Wiseman Group and Marriott School alum, delivered the Forum address Tuesday in the Marriott Center.
As a child growing up in South Africa during apartheid, Curtis LeBaron, associate professor of organizational leadership and strategy, was exposed to the circumstances and attitudes that defined the era.
It was 2003 when Erik Lamb’s name was first called in the Marriott Center. Fully suited in his cap and gown, he accepted his diploma and thought his time at BYU was complete.
After forty years at BYU, Marshall Romney speaks of the program that he will be leaving behind in April by quoting the well-known Carpenters’ song, “We’ve only just begun.”
Jeffery Thompson stands before a large crowd once again, delivering the words he has prepared. All eyes are on him, but with eighteen years of teaching under his belt, Thompson remains unfazed. As he finishes speaking, the audience rewards him with a roar of applause for his performance. The curtains close, and Thompson can add another playbill bearing his name to his budding collection.
You know you’re in a class with entrepreneurship professor Michael Hendron when you’re lectured about sailplanes and how they apply to starting and running a business. Hendron would know, since he is highly experienced in both fields.
BYU strategy professor James Oldroyd was flying to Singapore for a job interview when a colleague called and asked him to stop by South Korea. With no expectations, Oldroyd complied and made a pit stop at the Sungkyunkwan Graduate School of Business (SKK GSB). This brief trip changed the course of his life for the next five years.
“I have found that the only thing that does bring you happiness is doing something good for somebody who is incapable of doing it for themselves.” Global supply chain management professor Scott Sampson keeps this quote from David Letterman hanging in his office. In essence, it’s what Sampson is all about.
James Gaskin’s office décor goes way beyond the family photos and desk plants. A homemade jetpack built by his daughters hangs above his desk, and below his window sits a growing model village complete with green hills, an electric train, and a miniature Hogwarts castle.
At five foot two, the petite Lt. Erin Pineda smashes Air Force stereotypes. From jumping out of airplanes to working on a space mission, her experiences are nothing short of remarkable.
No matter where life takes him, global supply chain professor Simon Greathead always seems to find his way back to Provo.
In 1997, Lisa Jones Christensen took a break after a decade of working in business development to travel the world and work on her Spanish. While in Guatemala, she lived with low-income families in their homes. One night, when the father of one of the families came home from work rejected, mistreated, and empty-handed, she realized she needed to re-evaluate the paradigm she had grown to know about the relationship between business and quality of life.
Tom Foster, department chair of marketing and global supply chain at the Marriott School, had never played two truths and a lie—a game in which players share two hard-to-believe truths and one lie about themselves, then the other players must guess which is the lie. But when pressed for three statements, he said:
The summer after high school was transformative for BYU recreation management associate professor Peter Ward. He set off on a six-week European trip—a graduation gift from his grandmother—and learned about himself, others, and problem-solving.