Closing Banquet Honors 2019 Achievements

PROVO, Utah – Apr 25, 2019 – More than five hundred students, faculty, and alumni gathered at the Provo Marriott Hotel for the annual presentation of the Bateman Awards, which honor the students and professors who best exemplify the values of the BYU Marriott School of Business.

The best and brightest of BYU Marriott cheered as nominated recipients received their awards and shook hands with Merrill J. Bateman, former president of BYU and former dean of BYU Marriott.

For the 2018–2019 academic year, the outstanding undergraduate-student and graduate-student awards went to Becca Daun and Spencer Adkins. Daun is a marketing senior from Cincinnati, Ohio, who serves as co-president of the Women in Business club and director of events for the Marketing association. Adkins, an MBA candidate from Tulare, California, previously worked in the geographic information systems (GIS) field at both NASA and a software company called Azteca Systems. With a passion for brand management, Adkins will work as an associate brand manager for General Mills in Minneapolis this summer.

The outstanding faculty/staff award was presented to international business and global supply chain professor Simon Greathead for his commitment to teaching global supply chain, operations, negotiations, and international business courses. The Marketing Association won the outstanding student club/organization award for providing students with a superior marketing skillset and a professional network to move forward in their careers.

In addition to the Bateman awards, the winners of the Interdisciplinary Case Competition were announced at the event. For this year’s competition, students were asked to identify what BYU Marriott could do to support students in creating a personal definition of success. The winning team consisted of Cinthya Garibay, a marketing management senior from Selah, Washington; Ching Ching Tong, an information systems senior from Sandy, Utah; Lauren Sam, a pre-graphic design major from South Jordan, Utah; and Senah Park, a pre-management core major from Herriman, Utah.

After the award presentations, Bateman addressed the audience, speaking about his prior acceptance of the position as dean of BYU Marriott and the vision he saw for students many years ago. Bateman described the inner conflict he felt when turning down a job promotion to be an executive of Mars, Inc., and accept the role as dean of BYU Marriott, a decision he ultimately never regretted. While sitting in a devotional as the new dean of the business school, Bateman saw missionaries in white shirts and nametags seated and envisioned the impact of all BYU students—at that time and in the future.

“I thought, ‘These missionaries are going to be scattered all over the earth, preaching the gospel to people who will listen,’” said Bateman. “Then I looked at all of the BYU students in the devotional and thought, ‘In one year, two years, or four years, they are going to be scattered all over the earth.’”

As the keynote speaker of the closing banquet, BYU Marriott Dean Brigitte C. Madrian gave an alternative interpretation of the biblical parable of the talents to help students understand how to move forward after successful completion of their studies.

Madrian explained that the process of multiplying talents is not instantaneous. “An important key missing in the parable of the talents is that there’s not a lot of description about the process that was used to turn two talents to four talents or five into ten,” Madrian said. “I want to highlight that this process, in the real world, involves taking risks.”

Madrian shared how due diligence, soliciting feedback from others, and stepping out of one’s comfort zone are part of the progression towards making a meaningful contribution in the world, no matter the status or salary received.

“I hope and pray that when you leave BYU Marriott, you will be wise stewards with all of those talents,” said Madrian. “I hope that you will take appropriate risks—that you will learn and grow and bless the kingdom of God in everything that you do.”