Hosted by the William G. Dyer Institute for Leading Organizational Change, the organizational behavior/human resources faculty group and the Department of Organizational Leadership and Strategy presented Alison Davis–Blake, dean of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, with their 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award.

“Knowing what you love, that’s the hard thing,” Davis–Blake told students, faculty, and guests at an award banquet held in her honor. “Look for your life by knowing yourself and knowing what you love. Attach yourself to great mentors and involve the people that you love in your work, because that will help you make a great career.”

The Distinguished Alumni Award is presented annually to an alumnus or alumna who makes a significant contribution in the field of organizational behavior.

A career academic, Davis–Blake earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1979 and a master’s degree in organizational behavior in 1982 at BYU. Her educational pursuits led her to complete a PhD in organizational behavior at Stanford. After graduation she focused on human resources management, helping create and run an executive master’s degree program in the same field. Her extensive research, highlighted by articles published in numerous business magazines, led to an associate deanship at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

While at Texas, Davis–Blake served as dissertation advisor for Gerry Sanders, chair of the Department of Organizational Leadership and Strategy. In his introductory remarks at the award banquet held 6 April, Sanders said he felt fortunate to have had the opportunity to be mentored by somebody with the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that Davis–Blake possessed.

“She believes in mentorship by example,” he said. “She believes that a good mentor isn’t just somebody who tells you how smart you are, what a good idea is, or what a good person you are, but a good mentor helps you stretch.”

The event also recognized two faculty members, chosen by the Organizational Behavior Student Association, and seven MBA students, chosen by the OB/HR faculty group. Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior Kate Kirkham received the 2007 Mentor of the Year Award. Tim Gardner, associate professor of organizational leadership and strategy, received the 2007 Teacher of the Year Award.

Additionally, MBA students Scott Creer, from Troy, Michigan, received the Culbert Laney Scholarship; Alisha Steere Malcarne, from Provo, was awarded the Stephan G. and Louise Richards Covey Scholarship; Ryan Giles, from Palo Alto, California, received the Gene W. Dalton Scholarship; Nathan Thompson, from Ogden, Utah, was awarded the Paul H. Thompson Scholarship; Howard Haines, from Logan, Utah, received the VitalSmarts Scholarship; Sirish Bob Maddula, from Naraspur, India, received the Bonner Ritchie Scholarship; and Kristin Hawkes, from Salt Lake City, was awarded the Bischoff Scholarship.


After three years as a mission president, Bill Price returned to the Marriott School in July as managing director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. He replaces Don Livingstone, who is now serving as a mission president in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The Center for Entrepreneurship has become a vibrant part of the Marriott School, helping us create a new focus on entrepreneurship in our programs,” says Dean Ned C. Hill. “We look forward to the experience, vision, and energy Bill Price brings.”

Price has nearly forty years of public, private, and educational sector experience. Before leaving to serve as a mission president, he was director of the school’s Institute of Marketing and taught business management. He has worked closely with the California legislature, was president and owner of the Public Research Institute, and spent sixteen years as an executive in the film-developing industry.

Price will work closely with Gary Rhoads, a marketing professor and the center’s director, to educate, encourage, and support students in understanding how to successfully start, operate, and advance new businesses.

Price earned his BS in political science and his master of science in public administration from BYU. He and his wife, Sid, recently returned from the Washington D.C. North Mission. They have three children and eight grandchildren.


Forbes magazine ranks BYU’s MBA program eighteenth in return on investment in its biennial survey of two-year business programs, as reported in the magazine’s 3 September issue.

“We’ve always been a strong value,” says Dean Ned C. Hill. “That’s because we not only attract well-prepared and talented students but also receive tremendous support from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This support enables us to keep the cost of earning an MBA comparatively low.”

Forbes surveyed alumni from 102 MBA programs and compared their post-MBA salaries with both the cost of tuition and their forgone compensation while in school. Schools were ranked by the five-year return on investment received by the Class of 2002, or the graduates’ five-year total income minus tuition and forgone compensation.

On average, BYU MBA graduates earned a $71,000 return on investment in five years, with a break-even point of only three years. The average salary for the Class of 2002 matured from $36,000 before business school to $93,000 five years after graduating—a 158 percent increase.

“This ranking reflects the caliber of MBA students we have at the Marriott School,” says Jim Engebretsen, assistant dean and MBA program director. “It’s an indication by corporate America that BYU MBA graduates are very well appreciated and respected.”

Dartmouth led the ranking with a $115,000 return on investment, followed by Stanford at $102,000, and Harvard at $94,000.


In August 2007 the Marriott School’s Executive Council made the decision to dissolve two institutes—the Institute of Marketing and the William G. Dyer Institute for Leading Organizational Change—and transfer their resources and activities to their respective faculty groups to support student internships, field studies, and placement.

“We extend our gratitude to the faculty directors and managing directors of these two institutes for their excellent service,” says Dean Ned C. Hill. “We plan to build on their pioneering efforts to strengthen faculty research, expand and deepen our connections with advisory boards, and provide our students with even more extensive experiential learning and employment opportunities.”

Founded in 2003, the Dyer Institute educated students and faculty about the reality of change in organizations and helped students develop leadership skills for a dynamic environment. The Institute of Marketing evolved from its original emphasis on retail management in 1976 to promote training in project, market, sales, and client relationship management. Despite their closure, several of the institutes’ programs—including the advisory boards—will continue to operate under the direction of their faculty groups.

David Alcorn, the Institute of Marketing’s former executive director, and Kate Kirkham, former executive director of the Dyer Institute, will oversee the transition of the institutes’ resources until their respective retirements in January and August 2008.

In addition, the managing director from each institute will now serve as a relationship manager, assisting students and faculty by developing and maintaining connections with employers to provide internships, mentoring, recruitment opportunities, and input for research.

“By redeploying the resources from these two institutes, we are now in a position to help all students in the Marriott School improve their opportunities to find influential and meaningful employment,” Hill says. “Students in each functional area will have an advocate in their relationship manager.”


The Marriott School’s accounting program ranked third and its international business program ranked nineteenth in specialty categories in U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” survey, up from fifth and twenty-first respectively in 2006.

“We are extremely pleased by the recognition our program receives in U.S.News & World Report,” says Kevin Stocks, director of the School of Accountancy. “We feel our accounting curriculum is very innovative, our students are bright and willing to work, and our faculty members are among the best in the country.”

Also, the Marriott School’s undergraduate program is numbered among the top fifty in “Best Business Programs,” ranking thirty-eighth overall.

The survey ranks about 1,400 four-year accredited colleges and universities by mission and region. BYU is counted among “national universities” that offer a full range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral degrees.

BYU ranked seventy-ninth overall, twenty-sixth in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category, and sixteenth in the “Least Debt” category.

Princeton topped the overall rankings, followed by Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Caltech.

Published by the Marriott School at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Copyright 2012 by Brigham Young University. All rights reserved. All communications should be sent to Marriott Alumni Magazine, 490 Tanner Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602. Email: marriottmag@byu.edu. Telephone: (801) 422-5083. Fax: (801) 422-0501. The views expressed are those of the various authors and not necessarily the Marriott School. Change your mailing address here.