New Finance Department Announced

Professor Steve Thorley.PROVO, Utah – Dec 15, 2008 – Brigham Young University's board of trustees recently approved the creation of the finance department in the Marriott School of Management, a move that helps the school recruit new finance professors and better address finance students' needs.

Steve Thorley, current faculty director of the Peery Institute of Financial Services and H. Taylor Peery professor of finance at the Marriott School, will become the first finance department chair.

"Steve is highly respected as a scholar, teacher, and leader by all his colleagues," says Michael Thompson, Marriott School associate dean. "We're confident that this new department will enable our outstanding finance faculty to make an even greater contribution to their students and their discipline."

Thorley says the finance department's creation will have little immediate impact on coursework but expects a big, long-term impact in terms of administration and the attention given students specializing in finance.

"We will be better able to serve our students in the MBA and undergraduate programs," Thorley says. "The university's willingness to create this department says a lot about the strengths of the finance faculty and the finance curriculum, including student demand and placement."

The new finance department will begin functioning Jan. 1, 2009 and will include eighteen professors, all previously a part of the business management department. It will become the eighth department housed in the Marriott School. 

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.