The Dean's Office is committed to making the Marriott School the very best it can possibly be. Its goals are to raise the visibility of the school's programs, help improve instruction, make more resources available, and place students in key positions where they can influence the world for good. To obtain these goals, the Marriott School relies greatly on the administrative leadership and business expertise of its dean and associate deans.

Gary Cornia, Dean

On 1 July 2008 Gary C. Cornia began his tenure dean of the Marriott School of Management. Cornia, the Stewart Grow Professor of Public Management, served as director of the school’s George W. Romney Institute of Public Management since 2004. He succeeded Ned C. Hill, who served as dean from 1998 to 2008.

Cornia earned his PhD from Ohio State University in 1979. In 2006 the National Tax Association presented him with its prestigious Stephen D. Gold Award. From 2002 to 2003 he served as president of the National Tax Association. From 1990 to 1998 he was associate dean of the Marriott School. In 1998 Cornia was named the Marriott School Outstanding Faculty member, the highest award given by the school.

Cornia currently serves on the boards of three fixed income funds and one equity fund as well as with the Land Reform Training Institute in Taiwan and the Utah Governor’s Tax Review Commission.

James Stice, Associate Dean

James D. Stice is associate dean and the Distinguished Teaching Professor of Accounting. He served as director of the school’s MBA program from 2002 to 2007. He earned his BS and MS from BYU and his PhD from the University of Washington, all in accountancy.

Stice has been on the BYU faculty since 1988. He has been selected by graduating accounting students as Teacher of the Year on numerous occasions; he received the Outstanding Teaching Award in 1995; and in 1999 he received the Maeser Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2000 BYU’s MBA students voted him Professor of the Year.

Stice has articles in The Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Decision Sciences, Issues in Accounting Education, The CPA Journal, and in other journals. In addition, he is co-author of three textbooks. Stice has been involved in executive education for such companies as IBM, Bank of America, and Ernst   Young.

Michael Thompson, Associate Dean

Michael Thompson is associate dean of the Marriott School, where he has been a faculty member since 1988. He teaches graduate courses in leadership and knowledge management. Before joining the faculty at BYU, he was executive director of the Public Service Training Program for the State of New York. During its operation, this was the largest professional development program in the nation’s public sector.

In 1988 Thompson left his administrative post in the state university system in New York and joined the faculty in the Marriott School as a forty-year-old rookie professor. He considers this one of the best decisions of his life.

Thompson earned his PhD in rhetoric and organizational communication and his MA in communications from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his BA in classical Greek from BYU. He received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the Marriott School in 1995 and the Outstanding Teacher Award from the OBHR students in 2004.

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