Focus on Peter Coats

Class Year: 2009
Major at MC: International Business
Minor: Spanish
Senior Thesis Topic: The Recession and Its Effect on Dubai
Current Town/City of Residence: Salt Lake City, Utah
Occupation: Business Development for InsideOut Development, a leadership development company that provides management training solutions to increase engagement and accountability.
Family: Kathryn Coats; mom; Ken Tuck ’54 and Sara Tuck, grandparents

 

One of the biggest reasons I chose Maryville College was because of the emphasis it places on international course work and humanitarian service. While there, I studied, volunteered, and gained invaluable experience in seven developing countries, including thesis research in Dubai. Ultimately, I graduated with a degree in international business and as a Bonner Scholar. Candidly, the opportunities to go abroad at Maryville College changed my life. Prior, I had no experience outside the country and could not imagine living in a foreign country, especially one where English was not spoken. After my first year, I took two years off where I learned Spanish and served a Spanish-speaking mission on the border of Texas and Mexico for my church. Doing so prepared me for studying international business, and it was then that I grew to love working in developing countries. After graduating, I leveraged my experience at Maryville and began working with several nonprofits in a variety of roles: fundraising; shooting documentaries; and leading large expeditions of young and seasoned professionals to Kenya, Guatemala and Peru to provide sustainable humanitarian service in remote communities. In 2009, I worked in Ghana with the Carter Center and Rotary International, shooting documentaries on the eradication of the Guinea Worm Disease in Ghana (it was eradicated from the country the next year) and providing training on water sanitation and well maintenance. I worked with a man named Walter Hughes, a Methodist pastor who worked at AOL until it was bought out and he decided to retire at age 39 to focus on humanitarian projects. The two of us worked in over 30 villages across Ghana, traveling in a UN vehicle and eating nothing but bread and water for weeks at a time. There were some touching moments on the trip: Giving shoes to the shoeless; filling our SUV with 50 soccer balls to give out at each well we worked on; giving medical supplies to the Ghanaian surgeons and completely funding a procedure for a medical student with Hepatitis B so that he could return to school. All of this came about by simply asking friends on Facebook for help. After returning from work with the Carter Center in Ghana, I was recruited by InsideOut Development, a leadership training company focused on helping organizations increase the engagement, accountability, and performance of their teams.  Over the last 5 years, I have seen incredible change in organizations as I have watched leaders learn how to strategically navigate performance conversations with individuals on their teams. It has given me invaluable experience in understanding organizational development as well as phenomenal experience in marketing and selling to Fortune 1000 companies.

The bulk of most days at InsideOut are spent advising large organizations on leadership development strategies and methodologies for their teams. Typical conversations revolve around increasing employee engagement, accountability, retention, performance, and business impact. Everyday, I help change the culture of some of the largest organizations in the world. It’s a lot of fun.rnrnIn my spare time, I volunteer for CHOICE Humanitarian and Singular Humanitarian. These organizations respectively take companies and young professionals (doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, business gurus, etc) to developing countries to provide sustainable humanitarian service. Many evenings are spent marketing and collaborating with teams to plan expeditions. Recently, I was invited to speak at Brigham Young University to discuss our organization, as well as work with some advertising students on strategies to target recent college grads.

Professionally, I’ve seen amazing changes in people and organizations while at InsideOut. One of my favorite experiences was watching a mid-level leader at a large credit card company have a positive experience with our content. She was able to successfully use it to help her kids and her colleagues. Over the course of a year, she shared these experiences with her superiors which led to us training thousands of her colleagues how to coach, give and receive feedback and address difficult conversations. Personally though, the most exciting and enjoyable experiences in my life have come while giving back: Documenting the Guinea Worm Disease prevention effort and seeing cases of the disease reduced from 3,300 to 8; joining other young Americans working on a reforestation project in a small community in the Andes and spontaneously deciding to share our traditional Thanksgiving feast with them.

I cannot say “thank you” enough to the faculty and staff members at Maryville College who lead amazing programs that teach young people crucial skills in life. One of my favorites was Mountain Challenge, which uses outdoor recreation to teach leadership and communication skills. Honestly, it was as a student staff member at Mountain Challenge that I began to understand what it means to be a leader: Serving others and helping people go beyond what they think is possible. If not for Mountain Challenge, I would not have pursued a career in leadership development.rnrnThe Bonner Scholars program not only showed me the world, it changed the way I see it. Bonner Scholars who complete their service hours during the school year receive a stipend to cover travel and living expenses on an international service trip of their choice each summer. I was able to study and complete my volunteer work in Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Dubai, China, and India.rnrnMaryville prepared me for my vocation by giving me experiences to work abroad, serve abroad, study foreign cultures and economies, as well as provided phenomenal resources to make me feel safe leaving the country for the first time. I know for a fact that if I had not gone to Maryville, I would not be involved in so many international development initiatives in Africa, Asia and Latin America, nor would the focus of my career goals center on making a difference in the world.

I’m an expedition leader for a couple NGOs, and I get to meet and work with phenomenal people from all over the United States and around the world. I find incredible joy and excitement working with others to overcome unbelievably difficult problems in developing countries. Watching others get jazzed up when they feel the spirit of giving back invigorates me and keeps me grounded on what is truly important in life.

Sailing, snow skiing, wake surfing and scuba diving.

1. I’d like to get my captain’s license and sail through the Panama Canal.rn2. Go salsa dancing in Cuba.rn3. Start a school or university in a developing country so that more young people can have access to better opportunities.

My favorite memory is likely of riding horseback for 12 hours in a wooden saddle with Dr. Henson as we studied Nomadic Yak Herding Life on the Tibetan plateau. Blake Chasteen ’10 and Blake Vandevender ’10 had the incredible ability to catch flies with chopsticks on our picnic to the camp. Once we arrived, we watched with fascination as the yak herders used every part of the yak to make clothes, leather, food, utensils, and even a fire. I’ll never forget eating a roll stuffed with blue wild flowers and yak cheese cooked over a “yak chip” fire. Best class ever!

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Focus on Alumni, is a Q&A-style profile of an alumnus or alumna of Maryville College. If you have recommendations for alumni on whom we should “focus,” please email those names to Carol Clark in Alumni Affairs. Alumni Profile Archive