Brett Grow earned a degree in Information Systems from BYU–Hawaii in 2000. Today, he is the Director of Marketing at the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC), where he leads traditional marketing alongside a growing AI team that has changed how the center operates and sells tickets. He believes in work that matters, and in taking the time to really know the people who do it.
Home Sweet School Bus
The seventh of ten children, Grow grew up in a large family in Encinitas, California. He attended Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, where met his wife who was attending Ricks the same summer. The two were engaged after just two weeks and married within a couple of months.
Ricks College was also where Grow had his first real experience with computer technology.
After two years at Ricks, Grow and his wife, Katie were eager to continue their education. They valued attending a Church university, so they set their sights on BYU–Hawaii.
When they arrived in Oahu in 1998, their student housing assignment fell through at the last minute. With their one-year-old son in tow, they made a home out of an emptied school bus parked near the beach.
"Thanks to the help of our Bishop at the time, it wasn't long before we got into TVA, the university's married student housing," Grow said. "That was a real blessing."
Finding Where He Fit
Once on campus, Grow wasn't sure what to study. A summer job digitizing roof truss framing for a sawmill had sparked an interest in construction-related technology, so he asked an advisor whether a similar major existed. When he learned no current major matched his specific interest, computer engineering seemed like the closest fit — but it didn't quite click.
"I wanted a little more interaction with people at the time," Grow said. "So, an advisor suggested information systems instead. That set me on the course of my career at BYU–Hawaii."
He graduated in 2000 with a degree in information systems. While completing his coursework, he worked in campus computer support and networking, troubleshooting machines and running cable around campus. What really caught his attention was something bigger: the early internet itself.
"This whole thing around websites and this new way of building something in one place, and how the whole world gets to see it and use it — that was really fascinating to me," Grow said.
He taught himself web design and graphic design on the side, and it didn't go unnoticed. A department leader, recognizing his true passion, shifted his student role toward building and managing university websites.
From there, he landed an internship with a Honolulu computer company trying to build its own web development services. That internship became a full-time job the moment he graduated, and his family stayed in Oahu another year and a half.
Learning to Pause
Grow is candid about the adjustments Hawaii required of him.
"The cultural shift was a challenge for me,” Grow said. “It's not like go, go, go — it's a slower-paced life. I like to think it's a little bit more of a centered-paced life."
Grow had to learn it in real time: to slow down, and to stop rushing past conversations.
"Part of the culture is sitting down and taking your time and really having a conversation with people," he said. "It's a much more intimate relationship in Hawaii. You're hugging people, you're kissing people on the cheek. All of those were just cultural shifts for me, and I really liked it, but it was still a shift."
Discovering this slower pace came at a time when Grow and his wife were full-time students raising a toddler. Their class schedules often conflicted, and life was stressful. Support from the TVA community helped them get through; it provided a space for people to admit they were struggling.
"It's okay to be totally broke. It's okay to be struggling in school. We understand that," Grow said, describing the message from that community.
"You have to leave how you expect things to be at the door. Just be open to completely new ways of doing things," he added. "You don't have to fit a square peg in a round hole when you come to BYU–Hawaii. It is a different experience than most other universities, and I would say embrace it."
Building Something of His Own
After graduation, the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, shut down the island for weeks and left the young family unsettled, with no relatives nearby. Praying over the decision, Grow and his wife felt directed toward a place that had never been on their radar.
"Wherever the Lord wants us to go, the Lord has a cool plan for us, whatever that is," Grow remembers thinking.
That place turned out to be Utah, where Grow started a marketing technology software company. It ran for fifteen years before it was acquired in 2018. Rather than jumping straight into the next thing, Grow's wife encouraged him to pause and figure out what actually mattered. Laie had always been that place for the family, somewhere to return to and refresh.
"We always felt like it was such a special place," Grow said. "We would come back every once in a while, every like ten years. We just always felt like it was such a special place, and we always felt like maybe we would reevaluate what our real priorities in life were."
A System Reset
The couple took a trip back to Laie to think clearly, away from daily business. There, introductions to BYU–Hawaii faculty raised a question the family hadn't seriously considered: what if they moved back for good?
Over the following months, that idea became a plan. They bought a short-term rental condo in Hauula, hoping the income could eventually support a permanent move, then a house across from PCC. The family relocated back to Oahu in 2019, this time without a job lined up.
"I'm too old just to go work for another company just because it's a form of income.” Grow said. “I really wanted to work for something that matters."
After a month of remote interviews with mainland companies that seemed empty, Grow tried BYU–Hawaii directly, half joking that he would even take a job mowing lawns. A facilities staffer redirected him to PCC instead. Grow walked into PCC's HR office and asked to see every open position on the books.
"As soon as director of digital marketing came up, I was like, that's my job," Grow said. "I don't know if it was the spirit or something. It was like, that is my job. I just knew it."
The hiring manager happened to still be in the building that afternoon, and they had two-hour interview on the spot. After further interviews the next week against other candidates, Grow got the job, starting on September 11, 2019.
Marketing Meets Machine
Today, Grow oversees traditional channels like radio, TV, and billboards, as well as digital marketing, e-commerce, and, since early 2026, a growing AI team.
"Every day we're pushing the envelope with new technology, new ways of doing things,” Grow said. "This is the place where the status quo has been shattered."
The marketing department has roughly a dozen AI projects in motion, including a fully AI-built and AI-tested guest ticket-purchasing experience.
"We are leveraging AI to change how our guests buy tickets," Grow said. "That was all built by AI and continually reiterated and tested using AI. That has significantly enhanced our sales conversion rates, just because we've been able to test so quickly utilizing AI as our backbone for developing."
"There are some students that are pretty advanced, and there are some that just are interested, and they don't know how to get started," Grow said. "If you spend a week, even just a week, and you really dive into AI, you'll learn more and know more about it than most people. That's how fast it is."
He notes that even people who look like AI experts, often haven't written a line of AI-generated code. What matters more, he says, is learning to communicate with the tools well enough to get useful results, and being willing to start small.
To help students network their way in, Grow started a LinkedIn group open to any skill level. PCC's student AI team currently has four members and is expected to grow to seven or eight by year's end, building tools that support the wider marketing department.
Passing It Forward
"I am so glad to work here, because I get to work with [BYUH] students who are just so passionate about learning and being good. I love the fact that I'm here, that I get to be a part of it."
For Grow, he enjoys watching students who are driven and passionate about doing good work move from where they are into their professional futures, and getting to be part of that shift. Grow traces a direct line between being a BYU–Hawaii student and how that work happens today.
What being a student taught him, looking back, was how much untapped potential sits in a room of people who may not feel confident enough to speak up.
"I really want to help the students know how valuable they are, how smart they are, and how their perspective and their ability to have fresh eyes on a problem is extremely valuable and awesome," Grow said. "They all can contribute to amazing collaborative solutions and creative ways of doing things."
Though he now works for PCC rather than the university directly, Grow still teaches an adjunct marketing class on campus and describes the relationship less as something that contributed to his career and more as something woven throughout it.
Grow’s path went from living in an old school bus to building and selling a company, leading AI in tourism, and now mentoring BYU–Hawaii’s next generation.