The U.S. Department of Education awarded BYU a four-year grant worth $1.4 million to continue its work as a Center for International Business Education and Research. The grant allows BYU to work with other CIBER schools across the nation to improve international business and language courses. Brooke Derr, director of the Marriott School’s Global Management Center, spent last summer drafting the proposal with help from center staffers and Associate Professor Kristie Seawright. According to Derr, some of the key factors in winning the grant include an extensive offering of business language courses, BYU’s geographic location and several proposed programs.

It is not everyday students hear from someone whose life surpassed their dreams. Dell CEO Kevin Rollins spoke to Marriott School graduates encouraging them to dream big and live even bigger at Friday’s convocation. Rollins, the keynote speaker, told students that in addition to dreaming big they should work hard, give back and maintain balance.

BusinessWeek magazine ranked Brigham Young University’s undergraduate management program eighth overall and first among recruiters in the most comprehensive ranking of U.S. undergraduate business programs to date. The magazine cited the program’s stellar accounting program and ethics-based education as strengths.

A team of Marriott School accounting students earned second place at the 11th Annual National Student Case Study Seminar sponsored by the Deloitte Foundation. Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. took first place. Other national finalist teams represented Pennsylvania State University, University of Notre Dame, University of Illinois and University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Two weeks before Kristen DeTienne moved into her new home, she called the phone company to pre-install a new phone line. The company didn't come through and she had to live for weeks without a phone. "The organization later faced a class-action lawsuit, and I got a rebate check as part of the settlement," said DeTienne, a Brigham Young University professor of organizational leadership and strategy in the Marriott School of Management. "Customer service problems can be very expensive for companies, and a lot of times they don't think about the long-term costs and the loss of loyalty issues they create."

Scott M. Smith, James Passey Professor of Marketing and director of the BYU Institute of Marketing, has been selected as a 2006-2007 Fulbright Scholar to Moldova. The Fulbright Scholar program is sponsoring Smith to develop a marketing and entrepreneurship curriculum in the small, former Soviet-block country.

At the Association of Information Technology Professionals National Collegiate Conference, all four competing BYU information systems teams earned top awards for their computer programming and problem solving skills. The March 30 to April 1 competition, held in Dallas, was the largest in AITP history with more than 500 students participating in 13 categories.

KAM Accelerometer, Inc., a company touting an electronic personal fitness device that measures expended kinetic energy, walked away — make that ran away — with first place at Brigham Young University’s annual Business Plan Competition. A panel of business and venture capital professionals awarded KAM $50,000 in cash and in-kind services for the March 31 victory.

Brigham Young University's business and law schools are among the top 50 in the United States, reports U.S. News & World Report in its "America's Best Graduate Schools" issue, on sale Monday, April 3. Other BYU graduate programs and specialties rank in the top 100 in their categories. The J. Reuben Clark Law School is ranked 34th, and the Marriott School of Management is also ranked 34th.

More than $100,000 in cash and business services are up for grabs Friday as judges pick the most promising new enterprises at Brigham Young University’s Business Plan Competition. The final event, where one of three final teams will walk away with the grand prize valued at $50,000, will take place at 2 p.m. in room 140 of BYU’s Joseph Smith Building.

Who picks up the tab when you go to lunch with a billionaire? Warren Buffett, the world’s second-richest man, treated 22 BYU students to lunch and a 90-minute Q&A session in Omaha, Neb. The students, enrolled in investment classes, and their professors from the Marriott School of Management, jumped at the invitation to meet with Buffett — arguably the world’s greatest investor.

According to U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, Americans are poor at saving, but great at spending and running up debt — and the United States government is not setting a good example. Brigham Young University’s Romney Institute of Public Management named Walker the 2006 Administrator of the year, the top annual honor given by the institute.

BYU’s Center for Economic Self-Reliance will host its ninth annual conference Thursday and Friday, March 9-10, in the Wilkinson Student Center. This year’s conference is also sponsored by the BYU eBusiness Center. The 2006 Economic Self Reliance Conference will host a series of break-out sessions and discussions lead by keynote speakers.

Officials from BYU’s Marriott School of Management announce the naming of the Global Management Center for former Eastman Kodak Company CEO. The late Kay Whitmore, who worked for Kodak for 36 years and led the company for three, was known for his business acumen and integrity. He was supported in his rise to CEO by his wife of 48 years, Yvonne.

A face-off between academics and chief financial officers may not sound like the most electrifying of showdowns, but a new Brigham Young University study that pits generally accepted theories against real-world behavior has important implications for investors considering companies' initial public offerings.

Death and taxes aren’t the only things in life you can count on. xTax Competition judges have added BYU Marriott School students to their list. BYU accounting students again won national honors at the competition — making BYU the only university to win nationally all four years since the competition began.

The Marriott School of Management jumped four spots in the 2006 Financial Times rankings of the top 100 global MBA programs. The London-based paper ranked Brigham Young University’s Marriott School in the top 50 for the second consecutive year. The school, which ranked 45th overall and 27th in the United States, was also listed among the top ten programs for accountancy and the highest percentage salary increase of North American schools.

National best-selling author Stephen R. Covey will address Brigham Young University students Jan. 23 at a lecture hosted by the Marriott School’s Business Strategy Club and the Marriott Undergraduate Student Association. Dr. Covey, named in Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Americans, will speak on leadership as a choice and not a position.

“Buongiorno principessa” may help you get a date, but it probably won’t help you get a job. Taking one of 11 business language classes might. Not only does BYU have one of the most bilingual campuses in the country, it also offers an excellent selection of business language courses (Bus M 596R). These courses add a business dimension to a student’s existing language skills.