VP of Academic Affairs

Each Tuesday, for the month of May, we will be introducing you to the new student body officers. Today we are excited to introduce our student body vice president of academic affairs. Enjoy.
-Blog Staff

I have three women to thank for my being in the MBA program right now: my mom, my wife, and my daughter Fiona. Back in 2000, my Mom, who hadn't earned her Associate's degree until after she already had 5 children, handed me her graduation tassel from a Master's program in nursing and said, "Now it's your turn." At the time I had not even completed a Bachelor's degree, and her request seemed like a tall order. However, her example and that conversation planted a seed that would sprout up years later.

Enter Natalie, my wife. At the time I met her, I had finished my Finance degree at the University of Texas and I was working for a small mortgage company. We met, fell in love, and married, and only after I was fully committed did she reveal that she wanted to move to New York City. Of all the places that in the world that I didn't want to live, NYC was at the top. But wives have a way of making things happen, and I eventually found myself selling most of my belongings, including a new car I'd received for graduation, and loading a Penske moving truck bound for the Big Apple.

I learned the value of networking while looking for my first job in New York. A friend of Natalie's helped me make a connection with Fidelity Investments, where I worked until entering the MBA program last fall. I ended up loving New York more than I would have ever imagined, and I had important career achievements while I was there. Life was good, but one day we found out that we would soon have another member coming to join our family. While we could support ourselves comfortably in expensive Manhattan when both of us were working, we knew that with Natalie quitting work to become a full time mom, we would need to make some changes. So Fiona, my daughter, became the final influence that led us to come back to school.

It turns out that there is one male who figures largely in this story. I had been accepted into another MBA program and was intent on going to school there when Paul McKinnon, VP of HR at Citibank, convinced me to take a closer look at BYU. I took his advice and found that BYU was the right place for me, especially considering my intentions to pursue a career in HR. Just last week he came out to the 2010 OB/HR conference held just outside of Provo. In the middle of his presentation, he paused, said, "Hi Victor! How are you?" and went back to his conversation as if nothing had ever happened. Besides being an entertaining aside for the audience, it reminded me of just how small the world becomes when you join the BYU MBA program. For me the program has delivered far more than I ever expected, and it is only halfway finished! I am excited to see what next year brings.

Victor Monreal, OB/HR, Class of 2011

Interning at: Procter and Gamble