Marriott School information systems students recently placed at a national competition and technology conference. The students placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th in a Java programming contest and 3rd and 4th place in a database design contest during the National Collegiate Conference (NCC) in Omaha, Neb. The six Marriott School students were part of six hundred attending the NCC. During the three-day conference, the students participated in events from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. “It was definitely a packed schedule, but I thought we were well prepared and able to show other colleges that our program is competitive,” says Kurt Kirkam, a senior from Pittsburg, Texas.

A team of Marriott School accounting students earned first-place at the National Student Case Study Seminar sponsored by the Deloitte Foundation -- beating out other top accounting schools including University of Southern California, University of Notre Dame and Indiana University. T. Jeffrey Wilks, assistant professor of accounting, advised the team comprised of Arturo Alfaro, from Caracas, Venezuela; Craig Hoover, from Woodinville, Wash.; Matt Jones, from Norfolk, England; Danny Kofoed, from Salt Lake City; John Montgomery, from Miami; and Hsin-Yo Wang, from Tainan, Taiwan.

BYU undergraduate startup Property Solutions was announced as the winner of $250,000 in funding from the National Institute for Entrepreneurship’s Venture Bowl 2004. Venture Bowl is the nation’s largest college business plan competition. Despite their undergraduate status, the BYU team placed first runner-up among more than 300 competing teams from national graduate and doctoral programs.

Marriott School professor Paul Godfrey received the Civic Engagement Award for Brigham Young University from the Utah Campus Compact April 6. Godfrey, associate professor of strategy, was honored for his work designing and implementing financial literacy programs for elementary, junior high and high schools. “The MBA practicum provides Marriott School students an excellent way to use their emerging professional skills to better the community,” Godfrey says. “Our hope is that our students leave with a richer understanding of the ways in which they can contribute to the communities where they live and work.” One faculty member and student were recognized from each of the 13 universities in Utah in a ceremony at the 2004 Utah Conference on Service at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. For the last two years, Godfrey has worked with first- and second-year MBA st

Brigham Young University’s Romney Institute of Public Management named Charles E. Johnson the 2004 Administrator of the Year. Johnson was also recently nominated by President George W. Bush to become the chief financial officer of the Environmental Protection Agency. “I just want to change a few people’s lives,” Johnson told the audience at a banquet in his honor April 2. “I’m having a new opportunity in Washington D.C. to bring people and their opinions together for the common good.” Recently, Johnson was president of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation and vice president of Huntsman LLC. He also serves as a member of the Utah State Board of Regents. He was chair of the Board of Regents from 1997 through 2002. Johnson graduated from BYU in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy. The Romney Institute has presented the award annually since 1972. Institute

Superoots USA captured first place at Brigham Young University’s nationally recognized business plan competition April 2. Brant Walker, owner and president of Superoots USA, beat out two other finalists to claim this year’s title with his plan to manufacture and distribute Air-Pot plant containers. The team won $25,000 in cash and $25,000 in in-kind support services for their business. In addition to winning the business plan competition, Walker was named BYU Student Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003. Walker, a senior from Canby, Ore., majoring in business management, was joined by Brian Farnsworth, a second-year MBA student from Pocatello, Idaho, and Christopher Call, a JB/MBA candidate at University of Utah from Irvine, Calif. The innovative Air-Pot design allows plant roots to grow directly away from the trunk without wrapping around it. Air-Pots help simulat

Ninety fifth and sixth graders from Provo's Timpanogos Elementary School will be testing their business acumen during the first-of-its-kind mini-business fair at Brigham Young University Friday, April 4, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. on the plaza between the BYU Bookstore and Harold B. Lee Library. For several weeks, the students have been working in teams of six to select products, determine prices and create posters for marketing.

Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management honored Dave N. Stewart with its 2004 Outstanding Faculty Award, the highest faculty distinction given by the school. The award was presented at a banquet March 30 where the school also recognized eight other faculty members for contributions in teaching, research and citizenship. “Dave Stewart is wonderfully balanced in research, teaching and service,” says Ned C. Hill, Marriott School dean.

The Marriott School’s Department of Organizational Leadership and Strategy named Kerry Patterson the 2004 William G. Dyer Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient. The Dyer Award is presented annually to an alumnus who makes a significant contribution in the field of organizational behavior. He wrote the New York Times bestseller, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High . Patterson addressed BYU faculty, students, alumni and guests of the Organizational Behavior/Human Resources programs at a banquet March 26.

Headaches are mounting as people struggle to make sense of their taxes with April 15 fast on their heels. But taxes are no headache for five BYU accounting students whose tax knowledge recently earned them a substantial return at the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ xTAX competition. A team of students from BYU’s Marriott School of Management won $10,000 as one of five national winners of the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ xTAX competition.

Students at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management selected two of their classmates and a professor to receive the 2004 Merrill J. Bateman Awards. These honors, now in their third year, are the only awards chosen solely by business school students. Students awarded Karren Thomas and Scott Porter with Merrill J. Bateman Outstanding Student Awards and Professor Robert J. Parsons with the Merrill J. Bateman Student Choice Award. Scott Porter, a 2nd year MBA student from Las Vegas, will receive the outstanding graduate student award. Scott’s emphasis is marketing, international business and corporate social responsibility. In 2003, Scott conducted primary marketing research and developed a marketing plan for a USAID-sponsored, community-based ecotourism project in Guatemala. He previously worked for a start-up high tech public relations agency

Six MBA students from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University won first place in the Daniels Ethics Case & Race in Denver. The competition, hosted by the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, included a business ethics case competition and a downhill ski challenge.

Marriott School students, faculty and administrators are challenged to race the stairs for the BYU Annual Fund. The event will take place in the Tanner Building on March 13 from 8 a.m. to noon. Participants can run themselves or join a relay team. Individual runners are requested to give a $15 donation to the Annual Fund.

MBA and MPA students from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management teamed with students from New York University on a pilot project to help with the United Nation’s Global Compact develop a worldwide program for MBA students. Students from both universities contributed analysis of corporate citizenship activities for participating companies.

Quanto costa inserire pubblicità nel giornale? Learning how much an advertisement costs in a foreign language is only the beginning of what students can experience in business Italian and Arabic classes, now offered for the first time through the Global Management Center at BYU. Added for the Winter 2004 semester, business Italian and Arabic join nine other business Language classes, more than any other Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) in the United States. “This class will be helpful for students who want to feel comfortable using Arabic in a business setting or environment and will basically get the students acquainted with the business culture in the Arab world,” says Ayoub Sunna, the business Arabic instructor. The newly added classes will follow formats similar to business Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portugues

All it took was a simple challenge for Lisa and Jack Williams to get involved. After attending a BYU microcredit conference in 2000, Lisa and Jack started their own action group in Elk Grove, Calif. The group meets bi-monthly, educating themselves on microenterprise and discussing their goals and progress in collecting money for a microcredit bank. “What especially appealed to us was the idea of loaning money to people so they had a tool to lift themselves out of poverty by their bootstraps, preserving their dignity and self-respect in the process,” says Lisa Williams. The Williams are not alone in their desire to help those less fortunate. Hundreds of participants each year participate in the conference’s action fair. This year, the fair will be held 13 March, in conjunction with the Seventh Annual Microenterprise Conference at Brigham Young University. The conferen

Students, faculty and staff at Brigham Young University can receive free on-campus income tax preparation assistance through March 26, a service that is also available to local community members who earned below $35,000 in 2003. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program will be open weekdays from Feb. 2 through March 26 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in 316 Tanner Building on the BYU campus. The office will close Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to noon for devotionals and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to noon. The VITA program is sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service and Beta Alpha Psi, an on-campus fraternity of accounting, finance and information system students. Participants wishing to receive tax filing help must bring the following (if applicable): —All W-2(s) for each employer (job) —1098-T (if you paid tuition, provided by your University) —All 1099 forms (if you had any), such as:

Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management will host the inaugural insyte conference 6 February 2004 for information systems and technology executives. Sponsored by BYU’s Master of Information Systems Management program faculty in conjunction with the Rollins eBusiness Center at BYU and the Utah Information Technology Association, this conference will provide educational and networking activities in a vendor-free setting.

Marriott School Dean Ned C. Hill named Gary Cornia as the new director of the George W. Romney Institute of Public Management. Cornia, the Stewart Grow Professor of Public Management and former Marriott School associate dean, will replace Robert Parsons, who served four-and-a-half years in that position.

Latin American Studies major James Hawkes from Payson, Utah, was awarded the “Best Overall Photo” in the first International Business Photo Contest sponsored by the Global Management Center. His photo of a Peruvian boy in Cuzco selling llamas earned Hawkes $50 and some recognition on the GMC Web site where his winning entry is displayed.