Eric Denna

I grew up in Mendocino County, California and call Redwood Valley my home town. I am married to my best friend, Lyn, we have seven wonderful children, and a growing (14 and counting) number of grandchildren. Two of our children have already passed on - one shortly after birth (Sariah Lyn) and one when he was nearly 24 after a lifelong struggle with heart disease (Benjamin). Lyn was able to get her degree from BYU and then I graduated as well. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I believe a life of faith is the key to happiness in an increasingly unhappy world. Striving to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ challenges me every day of my life to be better, to stand for what is right, to learn to love all people, to live the teachings I believe to be true principles. Lyn and I both served missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Barcelona, Spain in the 1970s. We have been fortunate to have gone back to Spain a few times to visit. Professionally, I have had the good fortune of doing some very interesting and worthwhile work throughout my career. I started as an EDP auditor with Ernst & Whinney in Salt Lake City, Utah. I then was able to obtain a PhD in information systems from Michigan State University. I worked for a brief period of time for Coopers & Lybrand in NYC and then joined the faculty of the Marriott School at Brigham Young University. In 1995 I left the faculty after being awarded tenure to be CIO of Times Mirror Publishing. Since then I have been involved in several startups, have been CIO for BYU, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as COO for The RBL Group, SVP of Global Operations and Process Design at Ascent Media in LA, as CIO for The University of Utah and the University of Maryland-College Park. I then left academe to work for a former student who co-founded Health Catalyst. My last job was working as the acting president of Southern Virginia University. However, I am on the board of trustees for the university. I have written five books and numerous articles. I am now retired and spend my time on a variety of research projects that I hope be submitting for publication in a variety of journals. Life has been very, very good to me. I hope I am showing my gratitude by loving God and neighbor.