Gary Cornia Named Dean of BYU’s Marriott School of Management

Gary C. Cornia, newly appointed dean of BYU’s Marriott School of Management

PROVO, Utah — May 28, 2008 — Brigham Young University Academic Vice President John Tanner announced the appointment of Gary C. Cornia as the new dean of the Marriott School of Management.

Cornia, the Stewart Grow Professor of Public Management, has been serving as director of the school’s George Romney Institute of Public Management since 2004. He will succeed Dean Ned C. Hill on July 1. Hill, who has been dean since 1998, plans to take a one-year leave before returning to full-time teaching.

“Gary received strong support from the Marriott School faculty, the search committee, and the BYU administration and Board of Trustees,” Tanner said. “He has a wonderful combination of experiences that prepare him well for this new responsibility.”

Cornia earned a PhD in public finance 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. He currently serves on the boards of three fixed income funds and one equity fund as well as with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Massachusetts, the Land Reform Training Institute in Taiwan and the Utah Governor’s Tax Review Commission.

“Gary is a professor’s professor — an outstanding researcher with an international reputation for excellence,” Hill says. “He is known across the university for his fairness, high academic standards and his insightful observations. I’m confident he will take the Marriott School to new heights.”

Two other Marriott School faculty — Michael Thompson and Jim Stice — were appointed as associate deans. Thompson, who served as associate dean from 2005 to the present will continue in this role. Stice, who directed the MBA program from 2002 to 2007, will replace Steve Albrecht, who served as associate dean for the past 10 years.

During Hill’s tenure the school added enrollment and gained national and international recognition. BusinessWeek said the school is recruiters’ first choice for hiring undergraduate business students and ranked it No. 7 overall. The Wall Street Journal placed the school’s flagship MBA program first among regional programs in the nation and second as the place to hire graduates with high ethical standards.

“We are deeply grateful to Dean Hill for his effective leadership,” Tanner said. “He has served so well as dean and has brought remarkable insights, skills and good humor to our university councils.”

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.