Gary Rhoads
Adjunct Professor in Marketing and Emeritus Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Department(s):- Marketing and Strategy
Education
Education: PhD, Marketing, Texas Tech University
MBA, Idaho State University
BS, Zoology, Idaho State University
Biography
Gary K. Rhoads has been with Utah State University since 2022 where he has served as an adjunct professor. He is the Emeritus Stephen Mack Covey Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Brigham Young University. He holds a B.S. in Zoology and an M.B.A. from Idaho State University, and earned his Ph.D. in Marketing from Texas Tech University. Widely recognized for his engaging teaching style, Professor Rhoads has received multiple "Teaching Excellence" awards and has taught at universities and for companies across the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Before entering academia, Rhoads worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative for Bristol Laboratories. He later became a trusted consultant on sales and customer engagement, advising major firms such as DuPont, AT&T, Prudential, American Express, Chevron, 3M International, and Lucky Goldstar Corporation. His insights have taken him around the globe as a keynote speaker, focusing on how companies can strengthen employee and customer engagement.
As a researcher, Rhoads specializes in salesperson effectiveness, exploring systems that drive performance, engagement, retention, and burnout prevention. His work appears in top-tier journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and Journal of Retailing.
He is co-author of Managing Awkward Conversations Through Emotional Intelligence Strategies (2023), which equips leaders with emotional intelligence strategies for navigating tough conversations through a Stop-Think-Lead process. He also co-authored Startup Marketing Essentials and Marketing Fundamentals (2022), which outline key practices for growing successful ventures. These books are available online through MyEducator.com.
An entrepreneur as well as an academic, Rhoads is currently Co-founder and Chair of Skavengerz.com, an experiential marketing platform that gamifies brand engagement. He previously co-founded Allegiance, a pioneering platform for managing employee and customer engagement, which was acquired by MaritzCX in 2015. In both 2007 and 2009, he was honored as one of Utah’s Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs by VSpring Capital.