Marriott School Students Take Top Honors in National Accounting Competition

Front Row: (L to R) John Montgomery, Craig Hoover, Hsin-Yo Wang and Jeff Wilkes. Back Row: (L to R) Arturo Alfaro, Matt Jones and Danny Kofoed

PROVO, Utah — May 13, 2004 — 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.

The BYU team was one of six chosen from regional competitions held last fall to participate in the national competition. The competition was held April 2-3 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Each member of the winning team received a $1,000 scholarship.

Teams were given a case based on facts from a real situation Deloitte’s national audit office has seen in recent years. Each team had two to three weeks to review the facts of the case and formulate an opinion on the appropriate accounting treatment. At the competition, teams presented a formal solution and then answered questions from Deloitte partners who acted as an auditing committee. At the conclusion of the presentations, a group of active and retired partners selected the winners – the group that best identified the relevant accounting issues and effectively presented their case.

“The program challenged not only their thinking on current accounting issues but also their ability to work together as a team and to present complicated issues in a clear way,” explains Wilks. “The intensity of their own preparation and the learning that occurred from watching other teams present made this one of the best college experiences my students could ever have.”

The School of Accountancy and Information Systems is part of Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management. Public Accounting Report recently ranked the school’s programs third in the nation. 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.