BYU NewsNet - Business Leaders Enter to Serve

By Ashley Gessel

As an entrepreneurial student from BYU, John Richards sold his lucrative high-tech company for a handsome price, allowing him to retire in his early 40s.

However, instead of retiring and playing golf all day, Richards approached the Marriott School of Management and asked if he could give back to students. Since then he has mentored many students in areas of his expertise, such as the eBusiness Center.

This was one story of many that Dean Ned Hill shared about the professors on the professional track in the Marriott School.

"The professional track is a great way to utilize those who retire at a young age," Hill said.

There are two types of professional track members. One has a one to five year contract, which is renewable. The others are on a tenure track, like regular professor.

The professors on either of these tracks come with recent contacts from the workforce that can help students network to find jobs or internships.

"Without the bridge created by these individuals it would make it more difficult for students to get good jobs," Hill said.

Business students though, Hill said, would not be helped by the professional track professors if it wasn't for the foundation laid by the research track faculty members. Since professional track faculty members focus on application, without basic principles there is not a way students could perform in those classes.

Application is the buzzword among professional track professors. Dave Jennings, who teaches organizational leadership and strategy in the Marriott School, said that his style is to teach by application.

"I want them to take it and use it, not just learn it," Jennings said.

Jennings, who teaches MBA classes, likes to take a mentored approach to helping students excel in his classes.

"People learn most when they are under demand," Jennings said. "I help teach leaders they can succeed in a situation that is beyond their experience.

Jennings, like many other professionals who teach in the Marriott School of Management, does some consulting on the side. Because of the rules about consulting, he said he has balance between the two and helps to keep curriculum relevant in the classroom.

Another form of application learning is through organizations created to help students or to create student run organizations. Associate Director, Gary Williams, has works in both of these areas.

For six years he worked with the Business Plan competition through the Center for Entrepreneurship, where he installed a system so students could be running the competition. Williams is currently working with Cougar Capital, where he mentors MBA candidates on how to invest in start-up companies. He has also just undertaken a professional conference in the fall to bring professionals to BYU, giving students more exposure.

Williams, who worked in the industry for 20 years usually did teaching on the side and said it wasn't a hard transition to being a full time faculty member.

"I enjoy working with students on all levels," Williams said. "When I was in the industry I saw areas that students needed a skill set in and I'm trying to get them better prepared."

One area Williams tries to teach is ethics, an area in which BYU students are highly ranked.

"Ethical dilemmas come up all the time in the work place," Williams said. "By having a class that is application structured, we are always striking up discussions."

Many of the professional faculty members expressed their love of teaching, wanting to mentor and prepare students for the real world. Cassy Budd, associate teaching professor in the School of Accountancy, agreed with all of those things but also said another thing it really boiled down to was schedule flexibility.

"In the work place I always took more on than less," Budd said. "I was working more than I wanted to. This job follows a better pattern for me and my family."

Budd said she hasn't left her profession, but is just living another part of it. Working at PricewaterhouseCoopers she said her senior co-workers were always teaching her, and once she advanced to a senior position she was the one teaching.

"I was a teacher then helping people develop their careers, now I do the same thing full time," Budd said.

Students are helped by many elements that professional faculty bring to the Marriott School of Management, but the rankings, though high, may be hindered by having such professional professors.

Robert Gardner, director of alumni relations who handles the rankings, said it is hard to measure directly their effect on the rankings, but the one that can be measured is in a negative way.

"There are a few rankings that look at faculty in terms of faculty schooling and those publishing, where many professional teachers don't rate high on either." Gardner said. "It would be difficult to quantify what professional faculty do bring such as current curriculum with the industry and application learning."