On July 25, Jeffery R. Morrin, who currently serves as a faculty member in the Business Department, will assume his new position as University Resources Vice President for Brigham Young University-Idaho. Vice President Charles Andersen is leaving the university to serve as the new managing director of the Church's Headquarters Facilities Department in Salt Lake City.
Throughout his career Morrin has been prepared to serve effectively in this position. "I didn't necessarily see that coming. However, it's fairly similar to what I was doing previously as a CFO," Morrin said. "Many of the areas that I'll be supervising are areas of different companies that I've overseen before."
Morrin will supervise University Services, University Operations, University Relations, Human Resources, Information Technology, Internal Audit, and Finance Services. He plans to work hard to get to know more people, and help employees and students better understand their roles.
"I don't know that I'm going to do a lot of things different than President Andersen has done; he has done a great job. I'll adapt-and hopefully help keep the university-where it needs to be to help support the mission of this university," Morrin said.
He said that even though many employees do not teach a class or interact with students as much as others do, their work is critical to helping fulfill the mission of the university.
"I know there are many students out there that are grateful for the sacrifices of others to help them to get the education they are getting here," Morrin said. "It is so much more than just earning a degree. It's learning how to be a better disciple-leader of Christ. Helping each person see that is one of the things I really want to work on."
Morrin hopes he will use the gifts and talents he has been blessed with. He realizes that he does not know it all and that the Spirit plays an essential role in achieving goals of the university.
"The Spirit helps us as faculty members or staff or anyone who serves on this campus to really know how to best serve and help accomplish that great mission that this university has," Morrin said.
Morrin has held management and senior leadership positions for most of his career, with a strong background in finance that qualify him for this responsibility.
Morrin grew up in Ogden, Utah. He served as a full-time missionary in Spain, Portugal and Cape Verde. After his mission he met his wife, Laura, while attending Brigham Young University. He graduated from BYU with both bachelor's and master's degrees in Business Administration. He and his wife have six children.
His professional experience began with Ford Motor Company in Kansas City and Michigan. He went on to work for Honeywell in Arizona, a telecommunications company in New Jersey, and Black & Decker in Southern California.
He then decided he wanted to become a Chief Financial Officer. To do this he gained necessary experience with treasury, when he accepted a position as vice president of finance with Diagnostic Imaging in Southern California. He later became CFO of Vivint in Utah; and then he worked with a technology company and an online marketing company in Utah as well.
Up to that point, he had only talked about potentially teaching at a university. But, when he and his wife brought their oldest daughter to tour the BYU-Idaho campus, they felt the Spirit tug on them, and Morrin began the application process to teach here.
Morrin just finished his second year teaching at BYU-Idaho as a business faculty member. "I love being with students in the classroom, and I will miss not being with them as much in the near future," Morrin said. "However, I'm very excited for this new position. I know that I'll be able to continue to make a difference here on campus, just in a different way."