The UVU Foundation operates in support of UVU's current and future needs as a vital component in the community's economic and educational engines. The Foundation is a forward-thinking philanthropic body supporting the vision of the University by contributing expertise, experience, dedication, and financial resources.
Frantz Belot is a co-founder of Tyfoom, an employee engagement platform. He is also a co-founder of Tech Trep Academy, a tuition-free online public school program. Prior to co-founding both Tyfoom and Tech Trep Acadamy, Frantz was the executive vice president of sales marketing for Studies Weekly. Additionally, he held the position of executive director of professional sales and the director of sales operations for Imagine Learning.
Frantz currently sits on the board of directors for the Sutherland Institute. He attended Brigham Young University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership. He and his wife, Brandi, have five sons and currently reside in Mapleton, Utah.
With the Wasatch Front becoming known as Silicon Slopes and a preponderance of technology companies springing up in Utah County, Curtis Blair sees the county as an entrepreneurial incubator. And that makes for a perfect partnership with Utah Valley University. UVU has more potential to produce entrepreneurs than any other school in the west, he says.
“Companies are setting up programs specifically to recruit, train, and cater to the UVU student coming out of the College of Technology and Computer Science,” says Blair. “I think you’ll see internships spin out from that.” He sees opportunities for UVU to join forces with the business community in ways that will improve Utah County’s ability to recruit more businesses. “Employers will find a very skilled, ready-to-work workforce coming out of UVU, and 85 percent of UVU alumni stay in Utah after they graduate.”
In addition to businesses, UVU benefits the local community more than any other school because it draws on business techniques to find solutions to social problems, says Blair. “Social entrepreneurism is alive and well at UVU, more so than at other institutions. And the immediate benefit goes to the community where I live, where I’m hiring, and where my kids go to school,” he says.
With his latest venture, Hoodoo Capital, Blair is fostering entrepreneurship himself. The holding company is an incubator for small businesses, but it differs from the traditional model, which takes control of management and places high expectations on returns in exchange for its involvement and funds. “We are not as aggressive on that side because we’re looking at the next generation of leadership and trying to grow them into being business leaders and CEOs of their own firms. It’s an incubator for ideas and for people,” he says.
Blair is invested in running businesses that have a high level of culture. “I believe that a company takes on the attitudes and behaviors of its shareholders, its owners, and its founders. A healthy climate inside a business is tantamount to making that business succeed,” he says. He loves connecting people with one another, and marketing and branding is the currency with which he does it. It’s more than branding, he says; it’s bonding.
“You can tell I’m a humanist, right? Have you taken the Myers Briggs personality profile? I encourage all business associates and partners to find out what their personality profile yields. It can help establish your foundational strengths, discover your most effective team style, and enhance your company culture. What bonding is to marketing, captivation (attracting the right partners, employees, and customers) is to culture,” he says.
Blair has brought his efforts to empower the next generation to his position on the UVU Foundation Board, as well. When he worked with the Foundation ambassadors to plan an activity for the board’s retreat, he left it to them to do much of the planning: “I wanted to paint the vision and let them paint the steps and strokes on how we get there,” he said. “All too often we underwhelm our UVU students, but they’re very capable.”
Additionally, at Blair’s suggestion, each ambassador was assigned to a Foundation committee and now attends committee meetings. “That way they can get a sense of what it’s like to be in a meeting where resolutions are being passed, where they can hear and participate in meaningful discussions and see the direct impact these meetings have on their University.
The Foundation Board considers everyone’s input, including that of the student body president, says Blair. “It’s a very cohesive group. We all want to add value, and I think our hearts are aligned on growing the University. If there are concerns, questions or dissension, it’s brought forward. You don’t have people saying yes in front of everybody and no behind their backs. There’s an open dialogue and transparency. That’s one of the reasons it’s such a successful board,” he says.
The Foundation has demonstrated its vision for the future by acquiring property that will be needed for future expansion in Vineyard, Thanksgiving Point, and potentially Payson, says Blair, who also serves on the UVU Board of Trustees. “One of the things I like about President [Matthew S.] Holland is that he has enough foresight to see the role UVU is going to play in the Valley. He has a long-term view. In 20 years we’re going to be the major educator in the state for students age 18 to 25,” he says. But that’s in addition to the large number of older and nontraditional students. “At UVU our traditional student is everybody. We embrace our diversity.”
Blair stands 110 percent behind the University’s effort to raise money for an arts building. “I know how important STEM is, I know how important critical thinking is, but there has to be a root deep into the fine arts in our community,” he says. As an indication of the depth of his conviction, at the 2014 Feast on the Fairway, which raises funds for UVU Culinary Arts Institute scholarships, Blair was selected to participate in a hole-in-one competition. Just before hitting the ball, he turned to the camera and declared that if he won the million-dollar prize he’d donate the entire amount to UVU’s arts building campaign.
He came close to being able to fulfill that promise. “At Talons Cove, they have a balcony right on the 18th green, where people can watch. And there’s nothing more exhilarating or deflating than to hear your ball hit the green and the whole crowd rise in anticipation and then deflate as the ball goes right past the hole. A great shot—would have won closest to the pin—but not a hole in one,” he says. That didn’t stop him from making a donation for the arts building. “A school curriculum that embraces the arts not only contributes significantly to a student’s education and development but has the power to inspire, motivate, and educate today’s students in ways that no other program can,” says Blair. “And that includes having a football team,” he adds with a laugh.
Although Blair was born in Provo, his father’s job with a food services company took him to a different state every couple of years. But he returned to Provo to earn a degree from the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University. He and his wife, Lisa, who hails from San Francisco, have four boys and one girl. Their oldest boy recentlyreturned from a mission in Brazil, and the second returned from a mission in Tallahassee, Florida. Their third son is still in high school but is taking concurrent enrollment classes at UVU. Curtis describes his teenage daughter as the princess of the house and the most like him—strong willed, entrepreneurial, and a little stubborn.
Blair’s advice to the next generation? First, relationship capital is the most important capital. Second, you’d better know the reasons you’re in business, because they determine not only the destiny of your company but its culture. And third, fill your social circles with people you want to be like, and you’ll find out that, by the law of association, you become like them and they become like you. “The law of association is as real as the law of gravity,” he adds.
As we get a little older, we start thinking less about how we’re going to get ahead and more about how we’re going to pay it forward, says Blair. In planning his legacy, he puts his family first. Next in line are trust relationships, including serving his community, followed by Hoodoo Capital and education, particularly UVU.
Rob Gardner is the vice president of finance and operations at Barebones Living, an outdoor retailer focused on long-term sustainable solutions. Before joining Barebones Living in 2015, he was vice president of finance and accounting at Goal Zero, a renewable energy company for outdoor lifestyles. Prior to that, he served as CFO for Roberts Arts and Crafts as well as manager at Sorenson Capital, a private equity firm. While residing in Colorado, Gardner was employed as a senior associate with CBIZ/Mayer Hoffman McCann, a national public accounting and consulting firm.
Gardner was a managing partner of Cougar Capital, a student-run venture capital and private equity fund which is run by second-year M.B.A. students at the Marriott School at Brigham Young University. The students conducted due diligence on potential investments and co-invested with the industry partners. Rob is also a founder and former board member of Autism Journeys, a nonprofit company that specializes in treatment and therapy for children with autism and other developmental disorders. He also has served since 2012 as a member of the Utah Valley University Foundation's investment committee.
Gardner received a Master of Business Administration from Brigham Young University with an emphasis in finance, strategy and entrepreneurship. He also holds a Master of Accountancy and a B.S. in Accounting from Brigham Young University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Teresa Harding is an entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, cover feature of several magazines, philanthropist, speaker, and a world life, mindset, and business strategist. She has empowered millions of people from over 50 countries around the world through her audio programs, educational videos, and live seminars. For more than14 years, millions of people have enjoyed the warmth, humor, and transformational power of Teresa’s business and personal development trainings.
Mrs. Harding built a business that, in 8½ years, reached sales of over a billion dollars a year. She has been on the ground helping open markets in over 40 countries. She is a sought after speaker who is invited to train in countries around the world. She shares her business strategies, Speed Systems, and personal development trainings with entrepreneurs and leaders worldwide who are launching and growing their businesses and those who are ready to gain access to higher levels of success in their personal lives. By request, many of her trainings have been translated into several languages.
Mrs. Harding and her husband Roger, have implemented scholarships to support those who are seeking to further their education and better their life. They donate to charities and causes that give a hand up to support independence and financial freedom around the world. She has served on boards for charitable and university organizations, and has acted as President of her local chapter of the largest women’s organization in the world.
Heather Kahlert is the Vice President of The Kahlert Foundation. The Kahlert Foundation is strategically dedicated to improving the quality of life and well-being in the areas of health care, youth programs, education, veterans, and human services. Ms. Kahlert serves on the executive and advisory boards of Make-A-Wish Utah, Alpine School District Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities, the David Eccles School of Business at The University of Utah, Primary Childrens Hospital Foundation, Utah Valley University Foundation, The Woman’s Success Center at Utah Valley University, Chair of Utah Philanthropy Day, and many more. She has made multiple seven figure impact grants in the state of Utah over the past three years, including principal grants for Utah Valley Hospital, University of Utah School of Medicine, Huntsman Cancer Institute, and the David Eccles School of Business. As a graduate of the University of Utah and long term Utah resident, Ms. Kahlert has a particular passion for inspiring others to ‘give more’ in whatever capacity they can in the communities in which they live.
Duane Madsen recently spent three weeks discovering his ancestors in Finland, homeland of his maternal grandparents. Now that he’s retired, Madsen’s greatest passion is genealogy, and he generally spends an hour a day on it. In addition to the relatives he discovered through research, the trip produced some unexpected discoveries. “On the boat from Sweden to Finland one night there was a lot of dancing and a lot conversation, and I met another couple that I’m related to,” he says.
Madsen spent his at career Goldman Sachs in San Francisco. “My greatest passion then was making money, and I was very good at it,” he says. He believes in hard work and rose at three a.m. for 25 years to put in long hours. “Those who are fortunate enough to be gifted mathematically have been blessed with a very valuable way of looking at the universe,” he says. “I’m clearly a numbers driven person.”
More recently, as chair of the UVU Foundation’s Investment Committee, Madsen headed up the effort to find a new firm to manage the Foundation’s investments. “I would say that our newest advisor, Meketa out of San Diego, is quite an outstanding firm. I think you will find that verified by the data as we move forward,” he says.
Asked why he would encourage others to join the Foundation Board, Madsen says, “It’s a strong board that’s getting stronger. I think this is going to be a fantastic ride, seeing the University succeed.”
“I think it’s pretty exciting what’s happening here,” says Madson. “The growth that’s occurring at the University is clearly remarkable. I think academically the University is surging.” UVU’s platform is more interesting in many ways than Brigham Young University’s, he says. BYU is more structured and less flexible, where UVU responds to the needs of the community. “I think UVU is a great institution, and I think its president has a vision that is in the process of being fulfilled.”
Madsen also likes the fact that UVU is willing to make an investment in young people even when they haven’t previously demonstrated academic potential. Most universities spend a lot of time evaluating how well a student did in high school, but that’s not necessarily an indicator of how well they will do in college, he says. “UVU will accept a lot of people who did not do well in high school, and some of those people will be huge academic surprises,” he says.
One of Madsen’s sons is currently attending UVU, considering a major in computer science. A second son previously attended, dabbling in a number of programs before heading to the BYU School of Accountancy. “I think he felt it was a good transition and a way to pick up some loose ends academically prior to getting deeply involved in the master’s in accounting program,” says Madsen.
In all, the Madsens have 10 children and 36 grandchildren scattered throughout the country. They also enjoy a six-acre berry farm in Mapleton, which boasts just about every kind of blackberry, raspberry and gooseberry extant.
Madsen’s commitment to higher education extends beyond UVU. He is a trustee of the State of Utah Educational Trust, a $2-billion fund for the public universities in the state—not including UVU, which didn’t exist when the fund was created. He chairs the Center for Law and Religious Studies at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, and he’s a member of the president’s advisory committee at BYU.
Madsen is also an ecclesiastical leader of about 80 young people who run a summer camp at the Aspen Grove Family Camp & Conference Center in Provo. And he recently spent five years at the Missionary Training Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Provo, preparing missionaries to serve in Russia and Ukraine.
Brian P. Murphy is a founder and managing member of Portfolio Advisors, a registered investment advisor and Qualified Professional Asset Manager (QPAM) that specialites in delivering customized private equity, real estate, and credit solutions. Additionally, he is a member of the Portfolio Advisors Management Committee, several investment committees, and co-heads the advisory services practice. Brian has served or is serving as a director of nine client portfolio companies and as an advisory board member of twenty-four private equity partnerships. Additionally, he is a member of UVU's WSB National Advisory Board and BYU's Entrepreneurship Founders Advisory Board.
Brian earned a BA from Brigham Young University, an MBA from Columbia University, and completed a CFA program. He and his wife, Louise, are the parents of four children and grandparents to at least twelve grandchildren. They currently reside in Gilbert, AZ.
Ryan Napierski currently serves as president of global sales and operations. Prior to his current appointment, he served as president of Nu Skin’s North Asia region and president of Nu Skin Japan.
Napierski has also served as vice president of business development and chief operating officer for the North Asia region. He has fulfilled multiple positions for Nu Skin since joining the company in 1995, including vice president of global business development for corporate distributor success, acting general manager for the United Kingdom, vice president of European business development and key account manager for United States executives.
Napierski has a bachelor’s degree in business from Utah Valley University, a master’s degree in business administration from Duke University and a master’s degree in international business from Goethe Universitat in Germany.
Founder of Paul Rogers & Associates, Paul Rogers first entered politics in 1978, when he was elected to the Utah House of Representatives. In 1982 he was elected to the Utah State Senate. After 10 years of elected service, Rogers began his lobby practice. For the past 27 years, he has been influential in the outcome of numerous state issues related to developing Utah's technology sector, economic development, tax policy, insurance, education, and health care.
In 1984, Rogers directed the successful Bangerter for Governor Campaign. He served over 12 years as a member of the Utah State Board of Regents. He has received many service awards, including the Distinguished Service Award from the Utah Republican Party in 2009. He and his partner, Jeff Rogers, were recognized by UVU for their volunteer efforts in the creation of Utah Valley University. He also received an honorary degree from UVU in 1987. He and his wife, Susan, are lifelong Utah County residents and have eight children.
Nathan Savage is the environmental sector president for Savage Companies, a supply chain solutions company with over 250 locations in North America and the Middle East. He also serves on the company's board of directors. Before assuming his current position, Nathan worked as the executive vice president and group leader for Savage Companies' oil and gas solutions group. He has been a part of the company's senior leadership since 2006.
Since joining Savage Companies in 1995, Nathan has served in various capacities including as a group leader for the refinery and sulfur solutions group and the commercial development group. He has also worked in operations, finance, and business development. Prior to joining Savage Companies, Nathan worked as an operations manager with a venture capital group for a wireless telecommunications company.
Nathan graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics from Brigham Young University. He went on to earn his master's degree in Business Administration from West Virginia University.
Nathan and his wife, Shannon, are the parents of four daughters and seven grandchildren.
Ms. Sunderland is a Portfolio Manager of the Grandeur Peak Global Reach Fund (GPROX) and the Grandeur Peak Global Micro Cap Fund (GPMCX). She is the Guardian Portfolio Manager of the Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund (GPGOX). She is also a Sr. Research Analyst with a specialty focus on the Consumer sector globally.
Ms. Sunderland was a junior and later senior research analyst at Wasatch Advisors from 2003-2011. She was a general analyst on the Wasatch Small Cap Growth Fund (WAAEX) and the Wasatch Micro Cap Fund (WMICX), as well as a consumer sector specialist. Before Wasatch, Ms. Sunderland worked on the Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management Team.
Ms. Sunderland graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah where she earned a BS in Finance and Business Information Systems. Ms. Sunderland was selected as the Outstanding Finance Scholar of the Year by the dean, and was a Coca-Cola Scholar. She holds the CFA designation.
Ms. Sunderland was born in China and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. She moved to Salt Lake City at age 10, bought her first house at age 12, and build aa successful real estate business. Ms. Sunderland began investing in stocks at age 14 and has been a passionate investor ever since.
Amy currently resides in Salt Lake City. She and her husband Seth, have four children. She enjoys reading, kickboxing, basketball, camping, hiking, and traveling to places that are off the beaten path.
Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez (pronounced too-MEE-nez) was appointed the seventh president of Utah Valley University in 2018, and is the institution’s first female president. Tuminez brings to UVU a broad and rich experience in academia, philanthropy, technology, and business. Born in a farming village in the Philippine province of Iloilo, Tuminez moved with her parents and six siblings to the slums of Iloilo City when she was two years old, her parents seeking better educational opportunities for their children.
Her pursuit of education eventually took her to the United States, to Brigham Young University where she graduated summa cum laude in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Russian literature. She earned a master’s degree from Harvard University in Soviet Studies (1988) and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in political science (1996).
Before assuming her current position, President Tuminez was a world leader in the fields of technology and political science, most recently serving as an executive at Microsoft, where she led corporate, external and legal affairs in Southeast Asia. Tuminez is also the former vice dean of research and assistant dean of executive education at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, the premier school of public policy in Asia. She and her husband, Jeffrey S. Tolk, have three children. In her spare time, she enjoys running, dancing, and martial arts.
Zac Whitlock is a Personal Financial Planning major, minoring in Business Management. Zac enjoys watching and playing all sports, traveling, serving, and listening to music (especially Coldplay). He grew up in Highland, Utah graduating from American Fork High School. Zac’s involvement spans across campus with past experience serving as a UVUSA Senator for the Woodbury School of Business, a UVU recruitment ambassador, and with the LDS Institute Student Council. After receiving his Bachelor’s Degree, Zac plans to continue onto graduate school in pursuit of his dream to start a wealth management firm in Franklin, TN, and then use his skills and experience, to start a non-profit that helps the impoverished
Joshua B. Woodbury is the executive vice president of acquisitions and development at Woodbury Corporation. In this role, he oversees the company's Real Estate Development and Acquisitions Department, which actively sources new investment opportunities and effectuates property business plans and development objectives for Woodbury Corporation and the Woodbury Capital real estate funds. He is a licensed realtor, has served as the State Director of the International Council of Shopping Centers, and is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.
Joshua received a B.A. in History from Brigham Young University with a minor in Business, a J.D. from the University of Utah, and an M.S. in Real Estate Development from Columbia University. He and his wife, Melissa, currently reside in Salt Lake City, UT.
