A team of four accounting graduate students from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School won first place in the national Deloitte & Touche Tax Challenge competition. The school’s undergraduate team placed second in a separate division. “We’re extremely proud of our students’ performance,” says Ned C. Hill, dean of the Marriott School.

The National Communication Association honored a Brigham Young University business communications professor with a five-year Best Paper award at the association’s 88th annual convention in New Orleans. The award was presented to Curtis D. LeBaron, Marriott School assistant professor of organizational leadership and strategy, and the late Robert Hopper, former professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Association for Business Communication honored a Brigham Young University business communications professor with its annual 2002 Outstanding Article Award. The award was presented to Kristen DeTienne, Marriott School associate professor of organizational leadership and strategy, and co-authors Karl L. Smart at Central Michigan University, and Matthew E. Whiting of Microsoft Corporation.

The Marriott School of Management and Board of Trustees at Brigham Young University named Patrick G. Ryan, chairman and CEO of Aon Corporation, as the 2002 International Executive of the Year. President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presented the award to Mr.

Brigham Young University's Marriott School has launched a major initiative to improve minority representation in the school's graduate programs. The diversity initiative is designed to recruit a more diverse student body and faculty; provide students and faculty with cultural awareness and sensitivity to diversity issues; and improve the school's internal climate to be more supportive of female, international, and minority students and faculty.

In spite of a tough placement environment and dipping salaries for new graduates, Brigham Young University's MBA program held on to the best buy title in Business Week's 2002 ranking of top business programs. BYU's Marriott School had the best return on investment with only 4.1 years to payback, including the two years at school.

The Strategic Management Society awarded four Brigham Young University Professors the best paper prize last week at the organization’s 22nd annual conference in Paris, France. The best paper prize was awarded to Marriott School strategy professors Mark H. Hansen and Lee T. Perry and BYU statistics professors C. Shane Reese and Gilbert W. Fellingham for their paper, “A Bayesian Application of the Resource-Based View: Narrowing the Gap Between Theory and Practice.” “We had a lot of confidence that the theory and methods we developed were revolutionary,” says Perry.

Brigham Young University's business school moved from 41st to 38th in The Wall Street Journal's 2002 ranking of top business schools worldwide. The BYU Marriott School also rose from fifth to third place in the newspaper's "hidden gems" category, a listing of "schools that produce excellent graduates but aren't typically considered top-tier business schools."

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business has recognized the Business Career Center at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management as one of the most effective undergraduate placement centers in the U.S. The AACSB produced the report as part of its International Effective Practices Series that studies high-performing schools in the area of student satisfaction.

Brigham Young University's President's Council approved the renaming of the Marriott School of Management's Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) as the Global Management Center. The center's name was changed to represent its expanded role beyond the Department of Education's CIBER program and to elevate international business within the school.

For one Brigham Young University student, playing the banjo and a passion for soccer seemed worlds apart—until he was invited to play with his bluegrass band at the World Cup this summer in Seoul, Korea. Jared Peterson, a graduate student in information systems management at BYU’s Marriott School of Management, traveled to the World Cup with his four-man band, Long Gone.

As the subject of taxation on Internet commerce becomes increasingly controversial, one tax expert at Brigham Young University is being called on to search for solutions to the issue cited as one of the major causes for state budget losses across the United States. “The result of lower sales tax collection is seen in the form of up to 15 percent losses in tax revenues in some states,” says Gary C. Cornia, a professor of public management at BYU’s Marriott School of Management and former commissioner of the Utah State Tax Commission.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a four-year Center for International Business Education and Research grant to Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management. The grant provides $355,000 per year through 2006. “The CIBER grant is a strong infusion into our program,” says Brooke Derr, professor of international business and Marriott School CIBER director.

The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals has elected Marriott School of Management professor Paul Dishman as its 2002-2003 president. Dishman, a professor of Competitive Intelligence at Brigham Young University's Marriott School, served as vice president of SCIP from 2001-2002 and has organized several events including the SCIP Annual Conference, the largest gathering of Competitive Intelligence professionals in the world.

Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management has achieved reaccreditation of its undergraduate, master’s and executive degree programs by recent action of the Board of Directors of AACSB International — The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The official announcement was made 7 April in Chicago, Ill.

U.S.News & World Report ranked Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management 29th among the nation’s best business schools. The rankings appear in the magazine’s 15 April Best Graduate Schools issue. “We’re honored by the recognition,” says Ned C. Hill, dean of the Marriott School. “While we prize the character of our graduates above all else, the high ranking speaks to the tremendous quality of our students and the education they receive.” To pick top graduate programs, U.S. News uses surveys of business school deans and directors, placement statistics, and student selectivity measures, such as GMAT scores, grades and the portion of applicants accepted by the school.

The Marriott School of Management's Rollins Center for eBusiness, in connection with LexisNexis and WebCE.com, will stream three business lectures in April to determine the feasibility of making the school's ebusiness, entrepreneurial, executive and MBA lectures available on the Web next fall. "The goal of this project is to make the resources we have at the Marriott School available to as many alumni and friends of the school as we can," said Owen Cherrington, director of the eBusiness Center.

The Romney Institute of Public Management at Brigham Young University named William H. Hansell, executive director of the International City/County Management Association, as its 2002 Administrator of the Year. Hansell has been executive director of ICMA since October 1983. Addressing public-management students and faculty at a banquet held in his honor, Hansell said, "We are the engineers of democracy.

Changing Organizations will be the focus of the Marriott School of Management's annual Master of Organizational Behavior program's spring conference April 4-5. The conference will address such topics as "Managing Knowledge Across Boundaries," "Social Change and the Strategic Development of ‘NON' Organizations" and "Crossing the Line: Research on Expressing Anger in Organizations," in an open forum for practitioners, academicians and students.