Click here for this week's Newsletter (Mar 31, 2008).

Archive List

Bill Giauque Retires in Summer 2007

Bill Giauque has retired from the Marriott School after teaching at BYU for twenty-nine years. Giauque taught both undergraduate and MBA classes, some of which included introduction to operations/supply chain management, spreadsheets, introduction to statistics, field consulting, product development, simulation, business strategy, and advanced production systems. Giauque has truly been influential in the supply chain program here at BYU, particularly in the MBA program where for six years he served as MBA program director.

Retirement will not necessarily mean slowing down for Giauque. In the coming years he plans to focus on service and fill his time with temple work, family history research and service, and volunteer assignments at the MTC. He also plans on a great deal of travel, particularly to the places where he has children and grandchildren. These include such locations as South Carolina, Ohio, and Dubai.

Giauque will truly be missed in the Marriott School where he has come to be known for his achievements and experiences and where his students have coined the nickname “Spreadsheet Jedi Class” for his popular Excel class. Other supply chain professors mention him and his successes in their lectures, and it is clear he will always hold a place here in the Marriott School. “It has been a privilege to associate with such great students and colleagues,” Giauque says. “I’ll miss it.”

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Kaye Hanson Retires in August 2008

The MBA program will be sad to lose Kaye Hanson when she retires at the end of the summer. Hanson has taught at BYU for twenty-seven years in a variety of departments. Classes she has taught during these years have been mainly written and oral communications classes within the MBA program, including competitive edge and the newsletter practicum. Hanson has also taught New Testament, Book of Mormon, and theater history.

Hanson has served in multiple positions here in the Marriott School, including director of public relations and associate director of the MBA program. She also served for three years as the associate director of the BYU Jerusalem Center. Hanson’s post-retirement days will continue to be busy, as she plans to fill her time with writing, visiting and spending time with grandchildren, and serving a mission.

The Marriott School and MBA program will miss Hanson, and the hundreds of students who have learned and benefited from her professional wisdom and etiquette will continue to be grateful for her service, dedication, and example. “Being at BYU has been a fascinating, delightful assignment full of activity with interesting colleagues and fine students,” Hanson says. “It’s been a pleasure and a blessing to be here.”

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Kristin Adair Assumes Director Role of MBA Student Recruiting

The BYU MBA recruiting team welcomed Kristin Adair back to campus this fall as the new director of MBA student recruiting. Tad Brinkerhoff, the former director of MBA student recruiting, recently assumed a role working exclusively with the EMBA program. Adair is no stranger to academic administration, having worked in administration for two different colleges before pursuing an MBA. After completing her MBA from BYU in 2006, Adair went to work for GE Money as an HR generalist at their Burbank, California, and Kettering, Ohio, locations.

As director of MBA student recruiting, Adair works with current MBA students, faculty, staff, and administration to find and recruit key talent to enter BYU’s MBA program. Adair has several goals and initiatives in her new position, one of which is to increase the number of qualified students who can bring a unique perspective to BYU’s MBA program. As BYU’s MBA program has typically been more homogenous than the average MBA program, Adair and Kevin Giddins, director of diversity recruiting, are putting tremendous effort into increasing diversity and the number of diverse students who both apply and attend. Adair says, “I would like to help populations who are underrepresented in the MBA program realize that there is a spot for them here and that we are interested in what they have to bring to the table.”

A particular focus of Adair’s diversity push is increasing the number of female MBA students at BYU. Adair planned and carried out a dinner winter semester, which was exclusively for potential female MBA students and featured speakers as well as both career and informational break-out sessions. Another program Adair and Giddins are piloting is the MBA Academy, a program designed to prepare undergraduate students for the MBA program by aiding them with GMAT preparation, job placement, and mentoring. “I would like to help females recognize they can be successful in this program and that there is no reason to feel inadequate or concerned about being a female business student here at BYU,” Adair says. “It’s an amazing education that will make a tremendous difference in a person’s life.”

More information about the MBA Academy can be found at marriottschool.byu.edu/diversity/mba_academy.cfm.

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Kate Kirkham to Retire in Fall 2008

After thirty years teaching at BYU, Kate Kirkham will retire from the Marriott School’s Organizational Leadership and Strategy Department in fall 2008. Kirkham began teaching in the master of organizational behavior (MOB) program in 1978. She has influenced the lives of hundreds of students who have attended her classes and lectures on diversity, group dynamics, systems change, and organizational behavior. She has had a profound impact on the development of the program as the organizational behavior and human resources faculty group leader and as executive director of the Dyer Institute for Leading Organizational Change. She has also served as the MOB program director and the executive MBA program director.

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