Alumni Focus - Margie Kidd
Margie Kidd (ProMBA 2009) doesn’t fit a “typical” student profile in UT’s College of Business Administration. However, she is the perfect fit for UT’s Professional MBA program, the college’s 16-month, weekend executive-level MBA for working professionals.
As the wellness director for Clayton Homes, a Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, Kidd directs wellness initiatives for the corporation’s 14,000 employees, or, as Clayton calls them, team members. The Professional MBA program attracts students from all disciplines and backgrounds. However, some may question what a corporate wellness director (whose undergraduate degree is in exercise science---not business) was seeking when choosing to pursue an MBA.
“With what I’ve learned in the Professional MBA program, I’ve been able to contribute to large-scale projects at Clayton,” says Kidd. “I’ve always been focused on the health of our employees. Now I’m also focused on the health of our business. Anybody in any organization can benefit from a business education. Some would consider a wellness director a strange candidate for an MBA, but it has done great things for me and my company.”
Kidd has been instrumental in the development and implementation of Clayton’s home office wellness initiatives. Her goal is to develop programs that are cost-contained, provide numerous benefits for Clayton, and motivate healthy behaviors in all of Clayton’s team members.
Kidd is responsible for the financial and nutritional health of The Greenway, Clayton’s on-site health-conscious restaurant, and Clayton’s Wellness Center. Since graduation, Kidd has developed a business plan for The Greenway to bring in additional revenue.
“We have been reaching out to other employers that use catering from local restaurants. Our difference is that we only offer healthy options. We are finding that more and more companies are looking for this as an option. It’s a win win….we help area employees eat right, and it is also healthy for The Greenway's bottom line!” says Kidd.
Another project Kidd is working on is the company’s benefit and medical plan with Steve Cook, Clayton’s director of treasury and benefits and another 2009 Professional MBA alum.
“I was here for about two and a half years before I considered the Professional MBA program,” says Kidd. “Prior to enrolling, I had several conversations with Kevin (Clayton) to take wellness to the next level. I thought the MBA program would allow me to take the wellness concept and show the cost savings related to wellness and prevention.”
Kidd’s work with Clayton, and the benefits the company has reaped as a result, has been published in dozens of publications including Executive Financial and Arthritis Today.
Kidd was chosen to speak at a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C. on Clayton’s wellness efforts, and she is regularly asked to lead speaking engagements (both nationally and internationally) to promote healthy lifestyles in corporations. She and her team were presented with the American Cancer Society’s Star of Excellence in 2007; the American Heart Association’s Fit Company Gold Award 2006, 2007, and 2008; Tennessee Governor Bredesen’s Get Fit Tennessee Award in 2008; and Blount County’s Best Corporate Wellness Program in 2009.
In addition to her work with Clayton, Kidd campaigns for increased health awareness throughout the local and state community. She is an active member of the American Cancer Society Corporate Advisory Board and is the community awareness chair of the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital Obesity Steering Committee, established in 2008 to bring awareness and solutions to the community. Her work as co-chair of the University of Tennessee/UT Medical Center Boling Endowment helps coordinate events such as Dr. Kenneth Cooper of the Cooper Clinic’s visit to Knoxville to meet with local business leaders.
In 2010, Kidd was chosen to participate with Leadership Children’s, a small group of young professionals that meets quarterly for the good of East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH). “Keith Goodwin, CEO of ETCH, is an incredible leader. Learning how Children’s Hospital operates as a business to take care of our most precious assets, our children, has been enriching,” continues Kidd.
Most recently, Kidd was honored to be one of 10 individuals asked to serve a three-year term on the Program Board with IDEA Health and Fitness Association, the world’s largest national association for fitness and wellness professionals.
Prior to joining Clayton, Kidd worked throughout the healthcare industry. She was a fitness specialist for the city government of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she submitted business plans that were instrumental in obtaining approval for an underdeveloped special population wellness program. This pioneer program focused on increasing fitness for the obese, mentally/physically challenged, seniors, and children in the lower-income areas of Chattanooga. Prior to her work in Chattanooga, Kidd was an international flight attendant coordinator for Delta Airlines based in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
In Kidd’s free time (though there isn’t much of it!), she is an active volunteer in her children’s schools and is an avid runner. In 2009, in addition to working full-time and raising her two children, Taylor and Hunter, with her husband, Robbie, Kidd ran the Boston Marathon and helped raise money for her nine-year-old niece’s (Hayley Hunter) cancer foundation, CURE Childhood Cancer.
“When people ask how I found time to train and run the Boston Marathon, I told them my niece was my inspiration. No one gave her the choice to have time for cancer, and, while I was training, she was having chemo, radiation and bone marrow transplants. If she can incur all of that with such courage, I can work full time, complete the Professional MBA program, be a mom, and train and raise money for her foundation. The entire Professional MBA class helped with financial gifts, letters, and prayers during all of this, and it added closeness to the entire group. I am happy to report she is in remission.