Moral & Ethical Leadership

In addition to his career as a premier sports and business executive, managing partner of Checketts Partners Investment Management, Dave Checketts, leads a life of community work and church service.  Checketts is a current member of the President’s Leadership Council at Brigham Young University. On behalf of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Church of LDS), Checketts was President of the England London Mission in the United Kingdom from July 2018 to July 2021. He led over 700 full-time volunteers from 54 different countries to help political refugees find jobs and housing. The mission opened many Friendship Centers teaching English and offering care to refugees. Under Checketts’ leadership, the England London mission overcame challenges from COVID-19 and mandatory lockdowns to still accomplish many of its original goals. From 2008 to 2018, Checketts served as Chairman of the Clinical Neurosciences Center at the University of Utah research hospital. He recruited and established an executive board to create a vision and plan for future facilities and hospitals. In Connecticut's Westchester area from 2007-2016, Checketts served as Stake President for the Church of LDS. He was the religious and spiritual leader for over 4,000 church members for those 9 years. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, he organized a substantial recovery effort of 2,000 people assisting with cleanup and aid. During the months following the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Checketts initiated a support system to provide emotional and spiritual help to impacted families. In 2004, Checketts hosted an open house for over 100,000 people who toured the newly constructed Manhattan Temple in New York (Church of LDS). Checketts oversaw the dedication of the building which received international media coverage, largely due to its central location in one of the most influential cities of the world. Checketts was a member of the New York YMCA from 1993-1999. Under his tenure as President of Madison Square Garden in the 1990’s, Checketts established the Cheering for Children Foundation.

Charles Winston Dahlquist II says that his testimony has grown “little by little, just through doing the things the Lord has asked me to do—like going to seminary and responding to Church callings.” He hoped the youth would have a similar experience during his time as Young Men general president. “I would like to help build a generation of young men who not only know who they are, but also have a little inkling of why they were sent here and the part in the plan of salvation they can play,” he says. Brother Dahlquist believes the youth will be blessed in the same way he was if they are faithful. And, he says, because we live in a wicked world “we need the strongest youth that we have ever had, and I believe we have as fine a generation—if not finer—than any we’ve ever had before in the history of the world.” Brother Dahlquist has had experience working with the young men of the Church. A recipient of the Silver Beaver Award, he has been involved in Scouting for most of his life and has been a ward Young Men president. Other Church callings he has fulfilled include president of the Germany Hamburg Mission, full-time missionary in the Swiss Mission, stake president, counselor in a stake presidency, and high councilor. Brother Dahlquist is an attorney and is actively involved in community service. Born in Provo, Utah, to C. Winston and Afton Ahlander Dahlquist, Brother Dahlquist, 56, spent his childhood in Boise, Idaho. Following Brother Dahlquist’s mission, he married Zella B Darley in the Salt Lake Temple on 2 June 1969. They now live in Sandy, Utah. They have five daughters and seven grandchildren. “I married my high school sweetheart,” Brother Dahlquist says. “We were in the same ward in Boise. I was the Sunday School music director, and she was the Sunday School organist. We say we’ve been making music together ever since.”

Elder John H Groberg (born June 17, 1934) was a General Authority Seventy from 1976 to 2005, and in 2005 was designated as an emeritus general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Elder Groberg was born to Delbert V. and Jennie Groberg in Idaho Falls, Idaho in 1934. He grew up in Idaho Falls during and after the Great Depression. Elder Groberg received a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University (BYU) and an MBA from Indiana University.  Elder Groberg served as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tonga. He experienced much difficulty in getting to Tonga: he was prevented from arriving by strikes, visa problems, and transport issues. Elder Groberg served briefly in Los Angeles, Samoa, and Fiji while waiting for his transport to be finalized. When he finally arrived in Tonga, his first assignment was on the remote island of Niuatoputapu, which had had only limited contact with the outside world in the form of an occasional telegraph and a visiting boat. During the year he spent on the island, Elder Groberg suffered from mosquitoes, a typhoon, and starvation. His missionary companion on Niuatoputapu was Feki Po'uha, who would later serve as district president in Niue, while Elder Groberg was president of the church's Tongan Mission (which at that point included Niue).   After a year on Niuatoputapu, Elder Groberg was assigned to more developed islands and served as a district president supervising smaller branch congregations of the church. Elder Groberg later reported that the branches he dealt with lacked unity and morality. He had little contact with his supervising mission president and nearly drowned when pushed out of a boat during a major storm; he also suffered from exhaustion frequently. Elder Groberg was denied an extension to his mission that would have allowed him to accompany a group of church converts to the New Zealand Temple.  Elder Groberg wrote a book about his mission from his memoirs called In the Eye of the Storm, which was adapted into the 2001 Disney film The Other Side of Heaven.  A sequel to the film, The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith, was made in 2018.  Elder Groberg married Jean Sabin and they have 11 children.  

Brandon Sanderson is an American author of epic fantasy and science fiction, and also a Professor at BYU. He is a 15-time New York Times bestselling author and is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time and has created several graphic novel fantasy series including the White Sand and Dark One. He created Sanderson's Laws of Magic and popularized the idea of "hard magic" and "soft magic" systems. In 2008, Sanderson started a podcast with author Dan Wells and cartoonist Howard Tayler called Writing Excuses, involving topics about creating genre writing and webcomics. In 2016, the American media company DMG Entertainment licensed the movie rights to Sanderson's entire Cosmere universe. Sanderson's March 2022 Kickstarter campaign became the most successful in history, finishing with 185,341 backers pledging over $40 million dollars. He is strong in his faith and served a mission to Seoul, Korea for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Amy Antonelli is the CEO of Humanitarian Experience, Inc, (HXP, previously known as HEFY) an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This summer, HXP will send over 5,000 teenagers out on sustainable humanitarian trips to 47 emerging locations around the world. Prior to her work with HXP, Amy acted as a spokesperson for Apple's executive officers, including CEO Steve Jobs, and was instrumental in building PowerSchool, Inc., leading up to its acquisition by Apple. She subsequently led an initiative with the leadership team at Facebook to develop a more mission-driven internal community, and another initiative with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to develop a global self-reliance mentoring strategy.  Amy received a B.A. from BYU and a Master’s degree from Harvard. She served a mission in Italy and Malta, and as the first Executive Director of Rising Star Outreach, she spent seven of the best years of her life living and working among the people of the leprosy colonies in rural India.

SCOTT O’NEIL is one of the most recognized, connected and dynamic executives in the sports and entertainment industry today. He has more than 25 years of experience leading NBA, NHL and NFL teams and leagues, including the National Basketball Association, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. His mission to build innovative, inspiring, socially impactful and high-performing teams and business organizations has earned him a reputation as a “leader of leaders.” A Harvard Business School-educated CEO, O’Neil contends that fostering a corporate culture founded in respect, diversity, employee development and corporate social responsibility is what drives the success of the award-winning sports teams and businesses he oversees. These awards include Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Company,” Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top 50 Cultures,” Sports Innovation Lab’s “Top 25 Most Innovative Professional Teams in the World” and many others. The “Most Innovative Executive in Sports” (SportTechie) and “Most Admired CEO” (Philadelphia Business Journal) has been named to lists that include the “100 People of Power and Influence” (#37, The Hockey News/Sports Illustrated), multiple “Power 100” lists (NJ Biz, Philadelphia Business Journal, Philadelphia Magazine) and more. A decade-long Member of the NBA and NHL Board of Governors, O’Neil’s insights on the sports industry’s ability to move the global market has made him a prominent, regular voice Bloomberg, FOX Business, CNBC, CNN and across global business media. A man of faith and father of three, O’Neil’s conviction to lead a perpetually present life as he famously “runs to work” and “runs home,” guides his commitment to helping others realize their full potential. 

David Butler's greatest love is people. He had adopted as a life motto: "Stuff no mattah, people mattah." His favorite people are his wife, Jenny, and their six darling children. Some of his other loves include good food, spontaneous adventures, Christmas morning, and the sea. David cohosts the popular YouTube scripture study channel Don't Miss This with Emily Belle Freeman and is the author of many religious books, including Ites: An Illustrated Guide to the People in the Book of Mormon; The Peter Potential; and Almighty: How the Most Powerful Being in the Universe Is Also Your Loving Father. Follow him on Instagram @mrdavebutler.

  Taylor R. Randall was selected by the Utah Board of Higher Education to serve as the 17th president of the University of Utah on August 5, 2021. He comes to the position after serving as both dean of and an accounting professor in the David Eccles School of Business. In the first week of his presidency, Randall established a campus-wide transition team to set about the task of developing a strategic plan to help the university thrive under his leadership. Randall charged the transition team to be bold, quoting Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, “If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.” The president and the transition team determined that four cross-cutting objectives would serve as the bedrock of his administration: equity, diversity, and inclusion; campus safety; sustainability; and academic freedom. From these objectives Randall seeks to launch a series of initial programmatic areas of presidential focus that include: Research innovation and creativity—continue the U’s momentum as a leader in research scholarship, and generation of knowledge that seeks to solve major challenges. Student experiences—identify areas to expand and deepen all dimensions of the student experience. One U—work across disciplines and boundaries to maximize the university’s effectiveness and in turn better serve the community, state, and beyond. Randall assumes the presidency of the University of Utah at an inflection point in the nation’s history, as colleges and universities implement plans to return to campus 18 months into the COVID-19 global pandemic. He hopes to bring to the U’s COVID-19 response the experience he gained recently as Utah’s economic lead on the Unified Command for COVID-19 recovery. While serving as dean from 2009-2021, Randall worked to earn the David Eccles School of Business (DESB) a national reputation as a place of innovation. His efforts dramatically increased the value of a DESB education: The school now holds top 10 entrepreneurship rankings for both undergraduate and graduate programs, and seven of the school’s programs are currently ranked in the top 25 in the nation. Under his leadership, the business school also expanded experiential learning opportunities with the creation of the Goff Strategic Leadership Center, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, the Marriner S. Eccles Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis, and the Sorenson Impact Center, offering students unique experiential opportunities in fields ranging from finance to social impact to policy creation. Randall began his career at the U as a professor of accounting from 1999-2009. He received awards for the best teacher in the MBA, Executive MBA, and undergraduate programs, as well as the Brady Superior Teaching Award, which is a career achievement award. Under his guidance as faculty director, the University Venture Fund (a real-world investing learning experience) became the largest student-run venture fund in the country. His academic research has examined the interactions between strategy, technology, products, and value chain structure, with an emphasis on how these interactions affect financial performance in organizations. His professional experience includes consulting positions with Arthur Andersen & Co., General Motors Corporation, Dupont, MPM/Speedline Technologies, O.C. Tanner Company, Vista Staffing Solutions, and American Investment Bank. He graduated from the University of Utah in 1990 with honors in accounting and earned an MBA and a doctorate in operations and information management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He follows in the footsteps of both his father and grandfather as a third-generation U alumnus and professor. His father, Reed Randall BA’63, was also a professor of accounting, and his grandfather Clyde Randall BA’32 JD’53 served as dean of the DESB from 1958-68. Randall and his wife, Janet, have four children, one daughter-in-law, and one son-in-law. He loves spending family time playing games, relaxing in the backyard, mountain biking, road biking, golfing, and all things sports-related.

Sharon Eubank was born in Redding, California, she is the oldest of Mark and Jean Eubank’s seven children. She served as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Finland Helsinki Mission and received a bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University. After graduation, she taught English as a second language in Japan, worked as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate and owned a retail education store in Provo, Utah. Since 1998, she has been employed by the Church’s Welfare Department, helping establish LDS employment offices in Africa and Europe before directing the  Latter-day Saint Charities wheelchair initiative. In 2008, she was also asked to oversee humanitarian work in the Middle East as the regional director of Latter-day Saint Charities. In 2011, Sister Eubank was employed as the director of Latter-day Saint Charities, the humanitarian organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and she has since been named President, Latter-day Saint Charities. a role she fills concurrently while serving in the Relief Society. In April of 2017, Sister Eubank was called as a general officer of the church and the first counselor to President Jean B. Bingham in the general Relief Society presidency. The presidency helps provide leadership and resources for 7.2 million Relief Society members in 162 countries. In 2021, she was asked to serve as the Executive Director for the JustServe organization; a worldwide non-profit organization that helps link community volunteer needs with volunteers. She has a strong testimony of the happiness that comes from following Christ.    She believes ministering to others is “the very DNA of being a member of Christ's Church” and the heart and soul of Relief Society.