If you frequent the halls of the WSB, then you’ve probably seen our new associate dean. He’s easily recognized as the guy ducking under doors because of his height, which served him well when he played basketball at the University of San Diego. Don Capener comes to us after spending just under eight years as the dean of the Davis College of Business at Jacksonville University in Florida. Prior to that, he was the CMO at Monmouth College in Illinois for 11 years. Don started several companies and had a whirlwind career in marketing and advertising. He’s married, has eight kids, and grew up in the Seattle area. “I’m an avid 3-on-3 basketball player and I’m at the very senior tier now,” Don shared. “I love lifting weights and being out in nature. I love the Park City area and spend as much time there as I can. I really love the cottonwood and aspen tree network that runs through that area. I recently went four-wheeling for the first time and I loved that experience—I hope to do a lot more of that, and maybe even go snowmobiling. Having been in Florida for so long, the idea of having seasons and mountains is super appealing to us."

“I got into academics because I was teaching part-time at San Diego State and running my own advertising and marketing firm, and I loved the energy I felt from the students. Back then, I was young and only a decade older than my students, and I always thought that if I could afford to be a full-time faculty member, I would love to do that. I wanted my focus to be helping students transition to professional life, get jobs, launch their careers, and get promotions. That’s what made me whistle to work. I started teaching marketing and international business as an assistant professor at Monmouth College and learned the life of a fulltime faculty member. About three or four years into it, I persuaded myself to go back and earn my Ph.D. It took four and a half years of dedicated time in the summers, mornings, nights, and everything else. I proudly completed my Ph.D. in international business. My focus is on Japan, China, Korea, the Far-East, and marketing and entrepreneurism.”

“I get asked why I came to UVU a lot, especially because I was the dean of the Davis College of Business. I came out here because I thought some innovative things were happening. From a student’s perspective, UVU offers a lot to a student based on their time and resource commitment vis-a-vis some of the other options they have. Being both a student advocate and a representative of the business school to students in the recruitment process, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a great value proposition.’ There was also an opportunity to help with graduate programs, which was something I was doing at Jacksonville. When I started at Jacksonville, there were about 130 graduate students in total, and when I left, there were over 450 in the college of business at any one time. That significant growth came in areas guided by industry, not by trying to create some program. My goal at UVU is to get connected to industry and with the people who have helped UVU and the Woodbury School get to where we are today. I want to use that as the foundation to take our current programs to new heights.”

“One thing that has impressed me in my first four months is the high level of skills and abilities that a lot of the staff and faculty members demonstrate every day. I see a real opportunity for UVU and the Woodbury School to take a greater leadership role in driving economic development in and out of the state of Utah. We also have a placement opportunity in terms of encouraging students to apply for internships through Handshake and take things to the next level. I’m super happy to be a part of the Woodbury leadership team and ready to make a contribution.”

“My desire is for every student to have the opportunity to work in their chosen field while they’re going to school—now that’s an audacious dream! Our students would be better prepared having both professional experience and classroom learning, and it’s the kind of thing that’s been happening here for the last 20 years. When you tie the classroom to workplace experiences being on the job, it’s a magical thing. It also helps our students succeed at a faster and greater rate from our competitors because they have a real dose of reality, in addition to relevant skills and a sense of where the industry is going.”

“’Relevancy’ is a term I use with faculty a lot of times, and to maintain our relevancy, we have to stay on top of what current companies are doing today. From a leadership standpoint, there are still tried and true principles that people want to follow based on an inspiring mission or values. The basis of the Woodbury School is that the teaching here will be second to none. They call it T1, but the idea is that faculty will be promoted not only based on staying relevant in their scholarship, but in doing great teaching, and that creates a very different environment than in other schools. Some of our competition such as BYU, the University of Utah, and even Western Governors designate faculty promotions based mainly on publishing in top journals or simply ‘coaching students’. As a result, some of the faculty students engage with at our competitors may be excellent researchers, but without any industry experience or direct lifeline to those practicing today.

“We expect Woodbury faculty to aspire to thought leadership in their respective areas. We don’t just mentor or coach our students using a textbook. Here in the Woodbury School, many of my colleagues are like me. I’m someone who came from industry and then taught marketing, international business, and entrepreneurism based on years of marketing consulting, starting three companies, and doing business extensively in Asia. I made the transition to academia in the early 2000’s, but maintain my ties to current practice. At top agencies like the Leo Burnett Company in Chicago and their Frankel subsidiary in San Francisco, I led large teams and was responsible for business development. I ran my own agency—which was the third-largest agency in San Diego at the time. I started Above the Rim with my brother, and we sold it to Reebok in 1994. It became their global basketball brand. I was instrumental—along with the co-founders—in taking Netcentives, a marketing technology-focused firm, public. I share all of those experiences with the students I teach. I love working with faculty to take all of their great experiences in professional and consulting businesses into the classroom.”

“We have an amazing opportunity in our school, and specifically with our graduate programs, to partner with Silicon Slopes and the various organizations in the valley. We have a number of companies willing and excited to be charter members of this effort to make Woodbury a primary talent pipeline. In addition to our professional MBA students who already work fulltime, there’s a lot of talent walking through our hallways gaining skills in analysis and communication that these companies can effectively leverage; both post-graduation, and while they pursue their degree in paid internships.”

Don’s Book Recommendations:

 “One book that I use in my class is the “Lean Startup”. I really love that one. Another one that I would recommend to people is the Simon Sinek book “Start with Why”. For faculty-specific or people who want to do peer-reviewed, I use a very practical book called “The Case Writing Workbook” by Gina Vega. This is a handbook on how you can put together a case that can be published and then used by other schools. I have taught doctoral students using this, and I hope that this is something that can become as important as peer-reviewed journal articles, which are subscription-based and have a very limited readership. Cases can be used in practically every undergrad situation. You can write them for not only classroom use, but for publication in LinkedIn and other business periodicals. My goal is to raise the level of cases and the case method here at Utah Valley.”

Learn More About Dr. Capener Here