Two Marriott School graduates won top honors for their doctoral dissertation research at the Academy of Management’s 2007 conference in Philadelphia.

Alison Mackey won the award for outstanding dissertation research in business policy and strategy for her research on the link between executive salaries and firm performance. Jared Harris won the best dissertation award in the social issues in management division for his dissertation on the causes and effects of misstating financial data. Half of the six finalists in the business policy and strategy division this year were Marriott School graduates—Mackey, Harris, and Robert Jensen , a Marriott School assistant professor of strategy.

“It is remarkable that, of the six finalists for best dissertation in the strategy division, three were BYU alumni,” Harris says. “We were trained at different graduate schools, but there’s something about the experience we had at BYU that prepared us well for that subsequent training. For those interested in academic research, the Marriott School curriculum and professors are very intellectually engaging and lay a good groundwork for future academic success.”

The Academy of Management, the largest and oldest scholarly management association in the world, is divided into twenty-four professional divisions. Each division sponsors its own annual competitions and awards. A panel of distinguished scholars selects a few doctoral dissertations from the previous year for presentation at the annual academy conference, granting promising new scholars international exposure and recognition. The division winners are then announced at the conference.

“At the Marriott School, we had opportunities to engage in research as research assistants prior to starting a PhD program,” Mackey says. “This research experience is important in helping doctoral students hit the ground running.”

Mackey earned her MOB degree from the Marriott School in 2001 before pursuing a PhD at Ohio State University. She is now an assistant professor of management at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Harris completed his MAcc at the Marriott School in 1997 and then earned a PhD from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He is an assistant professor at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. Jensen, a 2000 graduate of the MOB program, earned his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and is now at the Marriott School.

“A disproportionate number of PhD students around the country are Marriott School graduates, and they’re highly sought after,” says Gerry Sanders , chair of the Organizational Leadership and Strategy Department. “We’re developing a reputation for preparing great doctoral students in our master’s programs.”




He’s a video creator, business consultant, web site developer, college professor, choir director, and volunteer concert organizer. As a self-described “polypreneur,” Jon Forsyth is engaged in a wide variety of businesses—and he says he’s happier now than he ever was in the corporate world.

“I had a high-level position at a consulting firm, but I kept thinking about how I didn’t need that much money,” Forsyth says. “What I needed was time and flexibility.”

He earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1990 after graduating with a BS in general business from BYU in 1985. He then started work in marketing research and strategic management.

With a two- to three-hour commute on top of his workday, Forsyth began to feel his kids were growing up without him. He left his consulting job in 1999 and has been mostly self-employed ever since. Now his week includes a wide variety of jobs, businesses, and volunteer activities.

He spends his days as a business consultant, web site developer, and teacher for an online management information systems course for the University of Massachusetts–Lowell. When he found out his daughter’s junior high school had no choir director and no choir, he volunteered for that job. He also volunteered to organize the town’s monthly folk music concert.

His latest venture is videojester.com. Through the site he teaches people how to create online promotional videos and offers his production services. “With the revolution of the internet, the next stage is video,” Forsyth says. “Video has the power to make a greater impact than a standard web site.”

He got started with web video when the hosting company for one of his web sites sponsored a contest through the video sharing web site YouTube. He wrote lyrics, recorded music, filmed his family doing “wacky” things—and beat out more than 140 other contestants to win the grand prize of $10,000.

With newfound confidence, he created a video starring his three-year-old son, Mark, for another web site—and this time he beat more than 130 entrants to win an $8,000 trip to the Alaskan wilderness. “It was like lightning striking twice,” he says.

With so many things on his plate, it’s easy to wonder how he can keep track of everything. “I like to have lots of things going at once,” Forsyth says. “It’s sort of like juggling, but I enjoy that level of diversity in my life.” For someone who calls himself “the video jester,” it seems fitting.

Working for himself gives Forsyth the ability to pursue his passions and spend more time with his family. “Lots of people have a variety of interests but, by choice or necessity, they focus on their job,” he says. “I’ve just been fortunate enough to give more attention to a lot of different things. I would be hard-pressed to return to a regular office.”




With three Super Bowl wins, two USFL championships, two Holiday Bowl wins, and five Pro Bowls under his belt, former Cougar center Bart Oates is an accomplished offensive lineman. He’s reached almost every peak, but it’s his combination of success on and off the field that makes him truly extraordinary.

After serving a mission in Las Vegas, Oates started as BYU’s center for the 1980, 1981, and 1982 seasons. Playing BYU football runs in the family—he followed in the steps of his brother Brad, an offensive tackle from 1972 to 1975, and joined their brother Barry, a defensive end from 1980 to 1982. During his collegiate career, Oates protected Jim McMahon and Steve Young, helping the Cougars to Holiday Bowl wins in 1981 and 1982. His achievements earned him a spot in the Cougar Football Hall of Fame.

Predicted to be a fourth- or fifth-round draft in the NFL, he joined the USFL instead when the league’s Philadelphia Stars offered him a guaranteed, three-year contract worth $310,000—money that helped him finance law school at Seton Hall University during the next several off-seasons. The team won two USFL championships, but the league was on shaky footings, and when his contract ended, Oates left to join the New York Giants.

After spending the first two games of the 1985 season recovering from an injury sustained during training camp, he started every Giants game for the next nine years, never missing a practice. “As with anything in life, it’s consistency that counts,” he says. “I wasn’t the flashiest guy, but I showed up every day for practice and did my job—and it paid off.”

When the Giants won Super Bowl XXI in 1987, Oates says he felt an amazing sense of team accomplishment. “The Super Bowl represents the pinnacle of what you can achieve in football,” he says. “It’s what you work for as a football player from grade school on. Once you’ve been there, you realize it’s better than you ever imagined.”

That sense of accomplishment motivated Oates throughout his career. He played for the New York Giants for nine years, also winning Super Bowl XXV in 1991. He then signed with the San Francisco 49ers and was part of the team when they won Super Bowl XXIX in 1995.

After thirteen years of playing professional football, Oates decided enough was enough in 1995. “I retired because I couldn’t physically do it anymore,” he says. “Collectively over the years your body takes a pounding, and it was wearing on me.”

But retiring from football didn’t mean walking away from work. He already had a successful career as a lawyer, but he decided to apply his real estate law experience to a career in real estate consulting. He joined Cohn Real Estate, where he advises corporate clients on office locations and other real estate decisions. He also has a real estate development company.

In addition, Oates leads community initiatives such as the New Jersey Hall of Fame and the Teach Our Children Foundation, an organization committed to educating inner-city children. He and his wife, Michelle, have three children and live in Harding, New Jersey.

Whether on the field, in the courtroom, consulting, or volunteering, he has always been motivated by a commitment to do his best. “We all have various talents in varying degrees,” says Oates, who earned his BS in accounting from BYU in 1982. “We shouldn’t be satisfied with only using part of them. The goal is to make yourself better—then use your abilities to help others.”




The partners and advisors of Salt Lake City–based Aptus Advisors have more in common than just their employer. They all have degrees from the same school.

The firm’s founders felt so strongly about the relevance of a Marriott School education to their work that the firm has a team comprised entirely of Marriott School graduates, including all five partners and four associate advisors.

Launched in March 2006 to enable private equity transactions, Aptus Advisors provides tools and technologies that enable investors and private companies to complete business deals more quickly and efficiently. The Marriott School’s focus on entrepreneurship and related financing issues makes its graduates uniquely suited for this job, the firm’s founders say.

“We chose these graduates because we firmly believe that they are the most qualified to meet the specific requirements of our clients—right out of school,” says Gregory A. Peterson , the firm’s managing partner. Peterson earned his MBA from the Marriott School and teaches entrepreneurial finance at the school. “I may be a little biased since many of them are my former students, but our clients agree.”

“We knew it was a perfect fit for getting a team together that had experience in the services we provide,” says Jill Dempsey , one of the firm’s founding partners. She earned a BS in finance from the school in April 2006.

The team’s other Marriott School graduates are Jon Duffy , a partner, who earned a BS in business and finance as well as an MBA; Trent Read , a partner, who earned an MBA; Justin Jory , an associate advisor, who earned a JD/MBA; Jeff Jensen , an associate advisor, who earned an MBA; Eric Nicholson , an associate advisor, who earned a BS in information systems and is currently pursuing a JD/MBA; and Bob Wood, an associate advisor, who earned an MBA.

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.