Strategic Management News 

After decades of leading educational institutions such as the Harvard Business School and BYU–Idaho, Kim B. Clark is still sharing intellectual and spiritual knowledge with students as the NAC Professor of Business at the BYU Marriott School of Business. With a career in education that spans more than forty years, Clark considers his work at BYU Marriott to be the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

A well-known adage states that the one constant is change. As the world continues to change in the coming years, business professionals will continue to adapt to new technologies and norms. Even though students cannot be prepared for all changes that come their way, a new class at the BYU Marriott School of Business aims to familiarize students with the technologies needed to make decisions during their future careers.

If you know Austin Henline, a senior in the strategy program at the BYU Marriott School of Business, then you know you can’t think about him without having the word “connection” come to mind. During his time as a student, Henline has gathered and shared a wealth of knowledge on ways that college students can optimize their use of LinkedIn to connect with employers and recruiters alike. Beyond linking up with those online, Henline also makes an effort to connect with his fellow BYU Marriott students in the classroom.

Case competitions test students’ business skills, work ethic, and stamina, but few people find that case competitions bring out their emotional side. However, Liz Dixon often sheds joyful tears as she watches her students present their solutions and find success at international case competitions. Through her work as an adjunct professor of management communications at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Dixon empowers students to excel in many different areas, and she loves seeing them succeed.

Ben Lewis, an associate professor in the management department at the BYU Marriott School of Business, recently received the Emerging Scholar Award from the Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) division of the Academy of Management. The award was presented at the ONE business meeting at the Annual Conference for the Academy of Management. This virtual meeting was held in August 2020.

With an open road and more than two thousand miles ahead of him, Matthew LeBaron started a bike ride across the country to raise money for juvenile diabetes research. Such a journey would be daunting for even the most experienced cyclist, and LeBaron hadn’t ridden more than twenty miles in a day before he began the journey. However, LeBaron, a BYU Marriott School of Business strategy graduate, remained committed to his goal to bike from California to Florida.

At fifteen years old, BYU Marriott strategy junior Marissa Barlow once failed to find the perfect swimsuit to take on a family vacation, an experience that would help define her young career.

When M’Kenna Breckenridge, a senior in the strategy program at BYU Marriott School of Business, first got an internship offer from CVS Health, she didn’t anticipate that she’d be completing that internship at her kitchen table. For Breckenridge and dozens of other BYU Marriott second-year strategy students, an unanticipated change brought growth and unique skills that they will carry into their future careers.

She might be dealing with a last-minute cancellation or organizing presentations while stuck at a Starbucks in a snowstorm, but Anne Sledd always finds creative ways to make things happen. In her role as a department assistant for the management department at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Sledd also serves as an on-the-spot events coordinator, with a goal of creating moments of connection for everyone associated with the school.

As a high school student, Ashtynne Wade wanted to bring light into the lives of those who faced difficult challenges. So, she organized an event where participants built chains of glow sticks and raised money to support single mothers and children in poverty. Now, as a senior in the strategy program at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Wade continues to add light to the world in a different way—by mentoring others as she builds her future in the consulting industry.

BYU Marriott assistant professor of strategy Timothy Gubler grew up building things. “From a young age and throughout my schooling, I crawled through attics pulling electrical wire, worked into the night installing electrical outlets and switches, and designed electrical circuitry for my family’s electrical contracting business,” he says. While he’s no longer working in the family business, his passion for building today extends to researching and teaching business strategy.   

Whether he's dealing with career changes, family illness, financial struggles, or even "gnarly teeth," BYU Marriott strategy graduate Nathan Winn has been determined to move forward with a smile.

BYU Marriott strategy alum Eli Tucker isn’t afraid to make changes to his life plan as he goes. As an incoming freshman, he was set on studying computer science, but he then changed his career path to business strategy. More recently, he made the decision to step away from his position at one of the world’s biggest companies in order to travel the world. Now that the coronavirus pandemic has delayed his world trip, he’s once again adapting his plan. Through it all, he is learning to find happiness in the moment.

The BYU Marriott School of Business named eleven recent graduates as 2020 Merrill J. Bateman Outstanding Student Award winners.

BYU Marriott School of Business dean Brigitte C. Madrian has announced the appointment of Bonnie Anderson as the school’s newest associate dean. Anderson takes over for previous associate dean Keith Vorkink on 18 May.

While many alumni may have forgotten about the jobs that they held during their undergraduate years, BYU Marriott alumna Michelle Carroll will probably always remember her student job at the BYU Marriott advisement center. That job was a life-changing opportunity that led her to her strategy degree, her future husband, and a career path that took her to Bain & Company in Dallas.

As the descendant and grandson of former BYU administrators Abraham Owen Smoot, L. Douglas Smoot, and Ben E. Lewis, BYU Marriott strategy professor Ben Lewis is carrying on his ancestors’ legacies at BYU while pioneering his own groundbreaking research.

Ben Katzenbach, a senior in the BYU Marriott strategy program, is carving his own path to find a job that will allow him to contribute to people’s lives.

Whether BYU Marriott alumna Kylie Chenn is making three pointers, writing songs, or jumping into the freezing ocean off the coast of Antarctica, she puts her whole heart into everything she does. This attitude, along with the connections she made at BYU Marriott, are what have helped Chenn start a multimillion-dollar travel company with over thirty-seven destinations only four years after graduating.

Much like Tolkien's famed hobbit Bilbo Baggins, James Oldroyd has certainly been there and back again.