Marion T. Bentley is an Extension Business and Economic Development Specialist and faculty member in the Department of Applied Economics where he is also Director of the state-wide Extension Business and Economic Development Services. He has extensive experience in consulting and training in local economic development in the US and abroad. With Gary Hansen, a former colleague at USU, he developed the Integrated Community Development Model which has been successfully introduced and implemented in the Central Eastern European countries of Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo and Ukraine. He has also developed training and teaching materials in use throughout the US in entrepreneurship (Revitalizing Rural America; Getting Down to Business; Rural Entrepreneurship), home based business (Getting Started; Keeping it Going), and economic renewal (Hard Times; Coping With Decline; Know Your Region). He has also been an examiner for the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing at more 20 major manufacturing operations in the US, Mexico and Canada. His wife Carolyn is an accomplished harpist. They have four children scattered around the world.
Articles
Cultivating and Nurturing an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, eXtension: A New Information Resource for American Consumers (2007)
Entrepreneurial Communities: A Profile, eXtension: A New Information Resource for American Consumers (2007)
Measuring Entrepreneurial Efforts, eXtension: A New Information Resource for American Consumers (2007)
What is an Entrepreneurial Community?, eXtension: A New Information Resource for American Consumers (2007)
Developing and Implementing Labor Redeployment Programs to Help Displaced Workers Find New Jobs (with G. B. Hansen), Serbia Employment Promotion Project (2005)
Books
Live Well Utah: A Multi-Media, Web-Based Guide to Sustainable Living (with Mike Whitesides), Live Well Utah: A Multi-Media, Web-Based Guide to Sustainable Living (2011)
Live Well Utah: a Multi-Media, Web-Based Guide to Sustainable Living (with Susan Haws), Live Well Utah: A Multi-Media, Web-Based Guide to Sustainable Living (2010)
Stronger Economies Together: A Guide for Local Practitioners (with Sharon Gulick), Stronger Economies Together: A Guide for Local Practitioners (2010)
Contributions to Books
Regional Economic Development 101 (with Sharon Gulick), Stronger Economies Together: Strategies for Building New Economic Opportunities (2011)
Business Visitations, Keeping Business Healthy, Happy, and Local: A Business Retention and Expansion Primer (2002)
Diagnostic and Analytical Tools to Identify and Solve Enterprise Competitiveness Problems, Enterprise Restructuring and Competitiveness (2002)
Evaluating Business Retention and Expansion Programs, Keeping Business Healthy, Happy, and Local: A Business Retention and Expansion Primer (2002)
Evaluating Business Retention and Expansion Projects, Business Retention and Expansion Primer (1998)
Presentations