Marriott School News

According to finalists at the 2011 Social Venture Competition, solving a few of the world's problems is possible — use tutoring, technology and tilapia. The competition, hosted by the Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance, challenged students to create innovative solutions to social concerns, such as those in education, volunteering and agriculture, and honored finalists with more than $50,000.

Social entrepreneurship is cropping up on campuses everywhere. And Brigham Young University's Students for Social Entrepreneurship internship program is among the best in the field.

Brigham Young University's Executive MBA program recently presented alumna Carine Clark with its first-ever Executive MBA Honored Alumni Award and also recognized associate professor Burke Jackson with a special faculty award. The EMBA program paid tribute to these two at a banquet in their honor last March.

It all started with a box of Oatmeal Squares. Kalood, a company that hopes to use its innovative social deal platform to revolutionize how consumers receive bargains and shop, won first place and $50,000 in prizes at the 2011 Brigham Young University Business Plan Competition.

The Romney Institute of Public Management at Brigham Young University honored the late John W. Keys III as its 2011 Administrator of the Year. Keys was the former commissioner for the Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation, which manages, develops and protects the water resources in the western United States.

The Kay and Yvonne Whitmore Global Management Center at Brigham Young University recently named five first-year MBA students as Eccles Scholars and awarded each $10,000 toward tuition and travel — encouraging the world to be their campus.

It's not every day a professor is asked to collaborate with a Fortune 500 company, let alone report to its top executives. Brigham Young University assistant professor of marketing Sterling Bone will get a chance to do just that as he becomes a research faculty member of Arizona State University's Center for Services Leadership, bringing him into a community of thought leaders in the field of services marketing.

The Marriott School of Management presented Michael Swenson, Ford Motor Company Professor of Marketing, with its highest distinction — the 2011 Outstanding Faculty Award — at the annual Marriott School Awards Night held March 9. In addition to Swenson, 14 others were recognized for their dedicated service to the school.

Seven Brigham Young University MBA finance students have been named recipients of the George E. Stoddard Jr. Prize, giving them each an opportunity to apply their financial savvy to the honor's $2,000 cash award.

Candy apple red balloons floated overhead as hundreds crowded into the Pardoe Theater for the first TEDxBYU conference. Eight engaging speakers, one gifted violinist and an energetic audience of students, faculty and alumni gathered to celebrate social innovation.

Good communicators are supposed to work behind the scenes, but sometimes they can't help getting pulled on stage for a successful effort. Such was the case when the Marriott School of Management won multiple awards for communications excellence from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management has announced eight MBA students as its 2011 Hawes Scholars. The honor, which carries a cash award of $10,000, is the highest distinction given to MBA students at the school.

BYU's business and law schools are again among the top 50 in the United States, reports U.S.News & World Report in its latest annual edition of "Best Graduate Schools." Other BYU graduate programs and specialties rank in the top 100 in their categories.

When former Marriott School of Management Dean Ned Hill leaves this summer to serve as mission president in Romania and Moldova, his contributions in this hemisphere will not be forgotten. This January a professorship in his name, funded by Brent and Bonnie Jean Beesley, was created to honor and recognize Hill's influence on students in Provo.

Taxes probably wouldn't place very high on most people's lists of extreme activities. But five BYU students took accounting to the next level as they won the national xTREME Taxation Competition in Washington, D.C.

Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management announced the naming of the Peery Social Entrepreneurship Program, the flagship program of the Melvin J. Ballard Center for Economic Self Reliance, on Friday, Feb. 11. The naming honors Richard and Mimi Peery and their family's passion for social entrepreneurship.

James Brau, a professor of finance in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, will be speaking about "Spiritual Thoughts in the Classroom" at the weekly campus devotional Tuesday, March 1, at 11:05 a.m. in the Marriott Center.

Marriott School alumna Alison Davis-Blake was recently named dean of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She will become the first female dean in the top-10 business school's storied history.

An impoverished woman learns a trade to pay for her child's college education. An orphan receives therapy for his speech impediment. A homeless teen has daily meals and a bed of his own. As participants in the new Innovation in Social Entrepreneurship Case Competition at Brigham Young University can attest, the finer things in life often don't come with a dollar sign.

Some entrepreneurs plan their businesses from behind desks. But a new wave of thought, captured in the first international Business Model Competition, challenges entrepreneurs to test their assumptions in the field before committing them to a business plan.