Marriott School Dean Ned C. Hill named Gary Cornia as the new director of the George W. Romney Institute of Public Management. Cornia, the Stewart Grow Professor of Public Management and former Marriott School associate dean, will replace Robert Parsons, who served four-and-a-half years in that position.

Brigham Young University professor Warner Woodworth and MPA student Shon Hiatt received the Best Paper Award for the Business Division at the 2003 Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters Conference. Their paper, “Socioeconomic Impacts of Microfinance in Mexico and Ecuador,” will be published in an upcoming issue of Utah Academy Journal.

The Financial Times of London advanced Brigham Young University's Marriott School for the second consecutive year in the paper's global ranking of top 100 MBA programs. The Marriott School ranked 51st this year compared to 63rd in 2002 and 75th in 2001. In addition to the overall ranking, the school's alumni placed its finance program among the top 10 worldwide.

Brigham Young University's Marriott School has launched a major initiative to improve minority representation in the school's graduate programs. The diversity initiative is designed to recruit a more diverse student body and faculty; provide students and faculty with cultural awareness and sensitivity to diversity issues; and improve the school's internal climate to be more supportive of female, international, and minority students and faculty.

The Strategic Management Society awarded four Brigham Young University Professors the best paper prize last week at the organization’s 22nd annual conference in Paris, France. The best paper prize was awarded to Marriott School strategy professors Mark H. Hansen and Lee T. Perry and BYU statistics professors C. Shane Reese and Gilbert W. Fellingham for their paper, “A Bayesian Application of the Resource-Based View: Narrowing the Gap Between Theory and Practice.” “We had a lot of confidence that the theory and methods we developed were revolutionary,” says Perry.

Brigham Young University's business school moved from 41st to 38th in The Wall Street Journal's 2002 ranking of top business schools worldwide. The BYU Marriott School also rose from fifth to third place in the newspaper's "hidden gems" category, a listing of "schools that produce excellent graduates but aren't typically considered top-tier business schools."

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a four-year Center for International Business Education and Research grant to Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management. The grant provides $355,000 per year through 2006. “The CIBER grant is a strong infusion into our program,” says Brooke Derr, professor of international business and Marriott School CIBER director.

Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management has achieved reaccreditation of its undergraduate, master’s and executive degree programs by recent action of the Board of Directors of AACSB International — The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The official announcement was made 7 April in Chicago, Ill.

The Romney Institute of Public Management at Brigham Young University named William H. Hansell, executive director of the International City/County Management Association, as its 2002 Administrator of the Year. Hansell has been executive director of ICMA since October 1983. Addressing public-management students and faculty at a banquet held in his honor, Hansell said, "We are the engineers of democracy.

BYU's Marriott School of Management will host the Fifth Annual Microenterprise Conference "Practical Approaches to Ending Poverty" 15-16 March 2002. Grounded in a belief that access to resources is the greatest barrier to ending poverty, speakers at this year's conference will examine the best practices of the past, critique today's organizations and take a pragmatic look at the future of the microenterprise movement. "Microenterprise is an exciting new way for individuals, families and communities to get involved in the fight against poverty," said Donald Adolphson, chairman of the conference's planning committee and Marriott School professor of public management. "Many people are beginning to realize they can help alleviate suffering in the world without leaving home."

The Marriott School at Brigham Young University has announced the appointment of Robert J. Parsons as chair of the Romney Institute of Public Management. He will replace Larry C. Walters, who served as chair of the department for the past four years.

Brigham Young University’s Romney Institute of Public Management has named Carolyn B. Lewis its 1998 Administrator of the Year, honoring her at a banquet held in Provo on September 17. Lewis, president of the CBL Group, a professional services agency to clients in the securities and health care industries, has also been named chair-elect of the American Hospital Association.