Skip to main content
Intellect

Gary C. Cornia new dean of BYU's Marriott School of Management

Brigham Young University Academic Vice President John Tanner announced the appointment of Gary C. Cornia as the new dean of the Marriott School of Management.

Cornia, the Stewart Grow Professor of Public Management, has been serving as director of the school’s George Romney Institute of Public Management since 2004. He will succeed Dean Ned C. Hill on July 1. Hill, who has been dean since 1998, plans to take a one-year leave before returning to full-time teaching.

“Gary received strong support from the Marriott School faculty, the search committee, and the BYU administration and Board of Trustees,” Tanner said. “He has a wonderful combination of experiences that prepare him well for this new responsibility.”

Cornia earned a PhD in public finance from Ohio State University in 1979. In 2006, the National Tax Association presented him with its prestigious Stephen D. Gold Award. From 2002 to 2003 he served as president of the National Tax Association. From 1990 to 1998 he was associate dean of the Marriott School. In 1998, Cornia was named the Marriott School Outstanding Faculty member, the highest award given by the school. He currently serves on the boards of three fixed income funds and one equity fund as well as with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Massachusetts, the Land Reform Training Institute in Taiwan and the Utah Governor’s Tax Review Commission.

“Gary is a professor’s professor — an outstanding researcher with an international reputation for excellence,” Hill says. “He is known across the university for his fairness, high academic standards and his insightful observations. I’m confident he will take the Marriott School to new heights.”

Two other Marriott School faculty — Michael Thompson and Jim Stice — were appointed as associate deans. Thompson, who served as associate dean from 2005 to the present will continue in this role. Stice, who directed the MBA program from 2002 to 2007, will replace Steve Albrecht, who served as associate dean for the past 10 years.

During Hill’s tenure the school added enrollment and gained national and international recognition. BusinessWeek said the school is recruiters’ first choice for hiring undergraduate business students and ranked it No. 7 overall. The Wall Street Journal placed the school’s flagship MBA program first among regional programs in the nation and second as the place to hire graduates with high ethical standards.

“We are deeply grateful to Dean Hill and his remarkable associates for their effective leadership,” Tanner said. “Dean Hill has served so well as dean and has brought exceptional insights, skills and good humor to our university councils.”

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school’s mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School’s graduate and undergraduate programs.

For this and other Marriott School press releases, visit the online newsroom at marriottschoool.byu.edu/news.

Writer: Alexis Plowman

Cornia.jpg
Photo by Jaren S. Wilkey/BYU Photo

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

How loud is life behind the glass? BYU study measures sound in shark tanks

January 13, 2026
Sharks at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah, glide silently behind glass walls — but just how silent is their world? A team of BYU researchers set out to discover how much of the aquarium’s daily bustle filters into the shark tank, and whether that noise is affecting the animals who call it home.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Top 10 stories of 2025: BYU celebrates 150 years with high-impact research, national rankings and new construction

January 07, 2026
BYU’s Sesquicentennial year started off with great momentum as BYU’s professional programs earned high rankings and the location for the BYU School of Medicine building was announced. Alongside breaking ground on major campus projects — including a brand new Creamery on Ninth — BYU also led groundbreaking research on sugar, generative AI, and wildfires. Here are the top ten BYU news stories of 2025.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

BYU ranks ahead of Princeton, Yale with one of the top admission yield rates in the country

December 17, 2025
Data recently released from the National Center for Education Statistics show that when it comes to yield rate — the percentage of admitted students who go on to enroll — BYU is elite. The Cougs’ 78% rate is good enough for No. 5 in the country, placing it just behind Harvard and Stanford and ahead of Princeton and Yale.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=