The Foundation

Alan D. Rudd, Chairman

Alan Rudd is the co-founder of the Beit Lehi Foundation along with his brother Gary Rudd. He holds a B.S. degree in Finance and a J.D. degree from Brigham Young University. He is currently the Senior Partner in The Rudd Firm, a law firm he co-founded in 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Alan spent 35 years in various legal and management positions with technology companies. In 1999 and 2004 Rudd was named the Utah Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernest and Young & Microsoft.

He first visited Israel and the Beit Lehi Site in 2007 at the request of Billy Casper and Hartman Rector, Jr. The following year, after spending 28 days at Beit Lehi excavating, he and his brother returned and formed the Beit Lehi Foundation, a Non-Profit Corporation to fund archeology exploration of the site. He travels to Israel twice yearly to oversee the project and to meet with Israel Government officials.

Gary L. Rudd

Gary Rudd was a co-founder of the Beit Lehi Foundation in 2009. His first experience in Israel was participating in a dig for a month at the Beit Lehi site. That experience cemented his commitment to the project. Since that time, he has made more than a dozen trips to Israel to oversee the Beit Lehi project, conduct tours with friends, family, and students and to meet with government officials. Mr. Rudd serves as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Beit Lehi Foundation.
Mr. Rudd graduated from BYU in April of 1968 with a BS in accounting. He was only one of two BYU students to pass the Certified Public Accountants examination in May of 1968. He was employed by Arthur Andersen & Company before joining Schneider & Shuster, a startup Certified Public Accounting firm where he served as a Partner, Head of the Tax Department, and Firm Administrator. Mr. Rudd then established the Certified Public Accounting firm of Rudd, Martin & Brown PC. He retired in June 2019 after nearly 50 years of service.

Douglas E. Witt

Doug Witt was a founding member of the Beit Lehi Foundation Board of Trustees and continues to serve as an officer of the board. His 40 year career in marketing includes technology, communications, advertising, and public relations plus 16 years as Adjunct Faculty teaching marketing at the Brigham Young University Marriott School of Management. Doug has traveled and lived in the Middle East and especially enjoys Mediterranean countries, food and culture. He is married to Mira who was born in the Philippines, then lived in Austria. Mira speaks Tagalog and German as well as English and has travelled extensively throughout Europe and Asia. Doug is currently President and co-owner of an international trading company specializing in exporting American and European products into Japan.

Jerry Christensen

Jerry Christensen, 62, has served on the Beit Lehi board since 2017. A serial entrepreneur, Jerry has co-founded four companies in the IT and psychometric industries. His educational background includes a humanities degree from BYU and an MBA from the University of Utah. Besides skiing, his favorite pastime is teaching Business German at BYU.

Glenn Kimber

For more than 30 years, Dr. Kimber has been involved in several business and educational enterprises. He earned a B.S. degree in Accounting and Business Management from Brigham Young University in 1971. He has also received a Doctorate of Humanities Degree from Coral Ridge Baptist University of Florida in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Education from George Wythe College in 1994. Dr. Kimber is known for his knowledge of the history and cultures of Israel, Egypt and Jordan and has led numerous tour groups to the middle east. Working with his father-in-law, Cleon Skousen, Glenn spent significant and time and energy working with Israeli officials to secure permission to excavate at the ancient site Beit Lehi.

Dr. Kimber’s vocations have included: serving four years in the Air Force, working as a general contractor, assisting in a private school as principal and teacher, conducting tours to the middle east, authoring a non-conventional curriculum, and lecturing on education, religious and areas of the U.S. Constitution. He and his Julianne are the Founders and owners of KimbCO which produces education materials for homeschoolers. Dr. Kimber has published more than 22 textbook study-guides.

Michael Lacey

Mike Lacey, retired, was a Senior Vice President and Financial Adviser with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. He began his career in 1984 with Dean Witter Reynolds in California. Upon moving to Farmington, NM in 1991, he managed offices and served clients for both Edward Jones and Merrill Lynch. He later joining Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in 2008. Mike also serves as a Board Member of the BYU Varsity Club, which is designed as liaison between BYU athletics and past athletes.

Mike earned the Certified Portfolio Manager designation in 2014 from Columbia University. He earned a B.S. in 1981 and Masters of Accountancy from Brigham Young University in 1984, where he also played football. KSL still recognizes a catch Mike made in 1979 as one of the Top 50 plays in BYU football history. Mike served as a missionary in Central America and is fluent in Spanish.

Mike and his wife Diana have six children and nine young grandchildren. The Lacey’s are currently serving on their 2nd mission.

Patrick E Lamb

Patrick “Ed” Lamb is currently an independent director and advisor for various companies in tech, manufacturing, real estate and entertainment. Mr. Lamb has over 30 years of CFO experience in various public, public subsidiary and private entities, specifically in the financial services arena. He has public and private company board experience and has an extensive background with the debt and equity capital markets, acquisitions and divestitures, operations, and various financing and securitization structures – many involving multi-billion dollar transactions.
He has served in CFO roles for the Los Angeles Clippers, Fremont General Corporation and Fremont Financial Corporation. His career started out with Ernst & Young in San Francisco. Mr. Lamb also currently serves on the BYU SOA Advisory Board, as well as several non-profit boards. He also is a member of the Western Audit Committee Network.

Darin Taylor

Darin Taylor has worked in the area of Civil Engineering Design, as well as Construction and Land Surveying, for over 40 years. He has been at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah for 30 of those years. During his teaching career, Darin has received numerous teaching awards, including the Focus on Excellence award by then Governor of Utah, Michael O. Leavitt.
One of the highlights of Darin’s career has been working on the Beit Lehi, Israel Engaged Learning Project. As the Director of this project, Darin takes a team of UVU faculty and students over to Israel each year where they have been surveying, mapping and documenting the Beit Lehi archaeology site south of Jerusalem since 2009. This project has been highlighted on several occasions as one of UVU’s most outstanding Engaged Learning Projects. Because of this endeavor, Darin has given presentations all over the world highlighting UVU’s enrollment in the Beit Lehi project.

Andrew C. Skinner

Andrew C. Skinner was a professor of ancient studies and a prolific author of gospel-related subjects. He retired from Brigham Young University in 2021.
Skinner earned his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Colorado, a master’s degree in Jewish Studies and the Hebrew Bible from the Iliff School of Theology, and his ThM degree in biblical Hebrew from Harvard. He earned his PhD in Near Eastern and European history from the University of Denver, specializing in Judaism. He did graduate work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
He is a member of the international editorial group that translated the Dead Sea Scrolls. He is the author, coauthor, and editor of more than two hundred articles and books on religious and historical topics