Message from the Dean

Douglas D. Anderson
Dean and Professor, Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

Do you think you could use a little positive news for a change?

Douglas D. Anderson

While the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is facing the same stormy financial weather that is impacting state, national and global markets, we have great hope for the future. That’s because we are, right now, training the students who will be reenergizing the economy tomorrow. We are about the business of creating tomorrow’s positive news.

Shortly after I started as dean, we decided our focus would center on developing ethical leaders, inspiring the entrepreneurial spirit within each of our students and helping them gain a global vision of what they can accomplish. In 2007, we decided to add a fourth focus. We want to be sure our students develop mastery in critical thinking skills; we have called this focus “analytical rigor.”

This strategic framework has helped us make important decisions about where to invest our resources at this pivotal time for the Huntsman School of Business.

We are subjecting each and every program and priority to a serious review. We now have the opportunity to show or students how an organization can weather a financial storm and progress while others facing the same circumstances lose ground. If we work together, we can come out of this downturn as a business school that is more innovative and effective than it ever was before.

We are finding many of our students aren’t waiting until graduation to have a positive impact on the business world. Some are starting their own entrepreneurial ventures here in Cache Valley. Others are already at work in the international marketplace.

For example, our Field Studies program sent a team of students to Cairo, Egypt, to develop some vital training materials for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It was an unusual experience that tested our students in all four areas. There, they developed more than 1,200 pages of instructional material in a changing, complex and challenging international environment. Our students are also serving internships in Belgium, Brazil, China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Peru and Sweden. This summer some of our more ambitious students will embark on an intensive five-week academic experience that will take them to Asia or South America.

Students are also working with professors on some impactful research. While many universities have a healthy supply of professors who can talk about going green and developing alternative power sources, two of our professors, Cathy Hartman and Edwin Stafford, played pivotal roles in the launching of a new wind plant in Spanish Fork, Utah. They did so with the help of Sandra Reategui, who was a graduate student at the time. You can read about their wind-power study by clicking here.

It is gratifying to know that so many successful business leaders think our emphasis is in the right place and are willing to visit campus to invest in our students.

This year we invited Larry Gelwix to speak at a Dean’s Convocation. He is the rugby coach who inspired the movie “Forever Strong” and who has guided the Highland Rugby team in Salt Lake City, Utah, to 18 national championships. Gelwix, who is also the CEO of Columbus Travel and the “Getaway Guru” on radio and television, delivered a powerful message about ethical leadership to students who filled the George S. Eccles Business Building auditorium and watched on LCD screens in other parts of the building. His presentation and other Dean’s Convocations are posted online. If you haven’t witnessed them, we invite you to watch them online.

Even our building has changed for the better. Last summer we closed the first three floors of the building and completed a $2.5 million building renovation—half of which was generously funded by the George S. and Dolores Dóre Eccles Foundation. Students used to have to search to find places to study together in small groups, now we see them working together in new study rooms and in a lounge that occupies the same area on the main floor that used to be used by the Dean’s Office.

With your help, we will continue to fuel our momentum despite the sputtering economy. We are teaching our students how to not only cope effectively during tough times, but, even more importantly, how they can make their own weather.