GOING GLOBAL

Lately, though, it’s become increasingly difficult to ignore the

inner workings as well. Not only has the high-rise turned out

some of the world’s most powerful captains of industry, it’s home

to the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, one of the West’s

most dynamic new institutions.

Not that the school itself is new. In fact, it’s the oldest university

business school west of the Mississippi, dating back to 1889.

But in 2007, when philanthropist Jon Huntsman announced a

donation of more than $25 million specifically for the College

of Business, it was born again. Since then, the college has

incorporated new technology, brought in even more outstanding

professors, and developed student opportunities like the

Huntsman Scholar Program. (continued ...)

It’s always been hard to ignore the outside of the Eccles Business Building at Utah State University, the tallest building in Cache Valley.

“Our focus centers 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. We also want to be sure our students develop mastery in critical thinking skills, so we’ve added a fourth focus we call analytical rigor.“

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

ALUMNI IN BUSINESS (LEADERSHIP)

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Charlie Denson ’78: President of Nike Brand

You might wonder how one rises from assistant

manager of a local shoe store to become co-

president of its entire $19 billion corporation.

Charlie Denson of

Nike answers that

one quickly: leave

the country.

Soon after grad-

uation from Utah

State, Denson found

work in Portland at

the first retail store

of a young company

called Nike. But the

real turning point in his career didn’t come until

20 years later, when partly out of “curiosity,”

he took a position in Amsterdam as GM of the

company’s European operations.

Upon entering his new conference room for

the first time, Denson was floored. “There were

about 40 people speaking about 25 languages,”

he remembers. As a member of the majority in

America, he had never felt uncomfortable in his

work, he says, but in the Netherlands, he was at

a “significant disadvantage.” Denson’s European

assignment taught him sensitivity to other

cultures and philosophies, which he maintains

as paramount to his further success. “I learned

there’s more than one way to skin the proverbial

cat,” he says. “My way wasn’t always the

right way.”

– James Quigley ‘74: CEO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte), one of the “Big

Four”international auditors/accounting firms

– Jason Lindsey ‘95: President/COO, Co-Founder of Overstock.com

– Scott Watterson ‘79 CEO, and Gary Stevenson ‘79 COO: Founders of ICON

Health and Fitness, world’s largest marketer and manufacturer of fitness

products

– James Sanford ‘75: Chair, Los Angeles Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of

San Francisco; former VP of Treasury, Northrop Grumman

– Lars Peter Hansen ‘74: Economist, University of Chicago; developer of the

GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) technique; Frisch Medal; 2006 Erwin

Plein Nemmers Prize; 2008 CME Group-MSRI Prize

– Ajit Nair ‘96: Founder, CEO of ProV International; finalist for Best Executive in

North America, 2007 International Business Awards

AND NOW

– Morgan Cox ’09: Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission,

Washington, DC; admitted to Stanford University MBA Program

USU BUSINESS LEADER LEGACY:

... continuedThe program is an intensive global education curriculum that

fuses business, politics, and economics. And travel. Each year, the

Huntsman Scholars spend at least three weeks abroad in Europe,

Asia, or South America, gaining first-hand experience in modern

borderless commerce. Recently, business students toured the main

headquarters of the European Union in Brussels, spent time with

high-ranking Swiss executives, and developed a micro-loan program

to encourage small business ventures in Peru.

As decreed by Huntsman himself, the purpose of all that goes on at

the college is to build tomorrow’s corporate leaders, and to impress

upon them the global vision, ethical leadership, entrepreneurial spirit,

and analytical rigor necessary not only to succeed, but to make a

difference. Of course, USU students have accentuated those areas for

decades, which is precisely why they are where they are today.

Jeff Carr, September ‘09

“The international

travel programs in the

School of Business

allow students to

experience first-hand

what students at other

universities merely

read about.”

— Erik Kaltschmidt ‘09

Rosalie Gricius ‘09 traveled to Egypt in 2008 to help USAID accountants standardize their accounting practices.

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