USU Huntsman Celebrates Opening of New Stephen R. Covey Leadership Center

The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University will officially open the new Stephen R. Covey Leadership Center Friday, Nov. 2. The inaugural ceremony of the new Covey Leadership Center will feature keynote remarks by Steve Young, pro football Hall of Fame quarterback and Superbowl MVP; and John Miller, founder and CEO of JR Miller Enterprises.

Nearly a decade in the making, the new Covey Leadership Center was the brainchild of the late Stephen R. Covey, world-renowned author, educator and businessman, and Jon M. Huntsman, philanthropist, business titan and benefactor of the Huntsman School, who died in February of 2018. The purpose of the center is to design and teach principle-centered leadership in higher education. 

“The Covey Center for Leadership will influence the entire world around principle-centered living and leadership,” Covey said when the center was first announced in 2010 at a ceremony celebrating his appointment as the first Huntsman Presidential Chair in Leadership. “The Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University will produce leaders who will be equal to the greatest challenges of our day.” 

In partnership with the Covey Family and FranklinCovey, the Covey Leadership Center’s focus is to develop students into principle-centered future business leaders. The center plans to offer formal accreditation through a leadership minor that will be open to USU students from any college, as well as a leadership certificate for executive education in the community. 

Additionally, the center will offer coaching, mentoring, a leadership speaker series, orientation for incoming students and service learning opportunities to practice ethical leadership skills. Students will also be able to work with faculty through collaboration on research of principle-centered leadership.

“The lives of Stephen R. Covey and Jon M. Huntsman were defined by their commitment to ethical leadership, which is one of the four pillars of the Huntsman School,” said Douglas Anderson, dean of the Huntsman School. “The principles they endowed to this school and their legacy here will continue to flourish through the knowledge and skills that students will acquire at the Stephen R. Covey Leadership Center.” 

The Center’s Global Advisory Board includes:

• Ken Blanchard, best-selling author and cofounder of Ken Blanchard Companies
• Douglas R. Conant, best-selling author and former CEO of Campbell Soup Company
• Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, Harvard Business School professor and best-selling author
• Lord Dr. Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE, global head of citizenship of KPMG International and chancellor of Regent’s University London
• Frances Hesselbein, president and CEO of Hesselbein Leadership Institute and former CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA
• William H. McRaven, United States Navy admiral (Ret.), ninth commander, U.S. Special Operations and former chancellor of the University of Texas System
• Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration and chair of Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School
• Michael Mullen, United States Navy admiral (Ret.), 17th chairman, joint chiefs of staff
• Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
• John E. Pepper, Jr., former chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble, and former chairman of the board of The Walt Disney Company
• Muhammad Yunus,founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

For more information, or to register to attend the inaugural ceremony, please visit https://huntsman.usu.edu/about/inauguration_covey_leadership_center.