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Awards

Bess Cohn Humanitarian of the Year 2019: Brandon Mackay, SnugZ/USA

There isn’t much white space on Brandon Mackay’s calendar.

When he’s not in the office, the president of Top 40 supplier SnugZ/USA (asi/88060) can be found assembling meal kits for neglected children, helping out with Boy Scouts or participating in events benefiting causes like nature conservation and the Red Cross. If you can’t track him down in West Jordan, UT, you better pull out a globe because Mackay’s stewardship knows no borders. He travels to various countries, helping build schools from scratch.

[At left] Mackay, president of Top 40 supplier SnugZ/USA; [At right] Mackay in Bolivia building a schoolhouse for children.

These charitable works have become a family affair over the years, as Mackay has chaperoned a trip to Bolivia with his daughter Addie tagging along, and he’s bringing his oldest son Chance to Peru this summer. Hannah, his oldest daughter, has been so inspired by her father’s altruism that she went to Ecuador to work in an orphanage for two weeks, giving the staff there some much-needed time off.

“Growing up a faith-based person, you just always try to find ways to help and improve the life of others,” Mackay says. “I’ve been very lucky and blessed and have been provided with a lot of opportunities and abundance. You try to put it to good work.”

A proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mackay makes every effort to practice Gospel teachings, especially caring for the impoverished. He and his wife Liz are very involved with the church, volunteering with youth groups and creating opportunities for teenagers to have access to higher education.

Those acts of kindness extend to SnugZ as well. Employees are encouraged to participate in Habitat for Humanity, food drives, Adopt-a-Highway, the Promotional Products Education Foundation and other humanitarian efforts. Whenever they’re providing a service, they don’t have to worry about taking personal days or unpaid leave. Mackay values compassion and generosity over the bottom line.

Mackay’s children have joined him on service trips to South America.

“There’s nothing we say no to,” he adds. “We always try to find a way to fund someone’s need.”

Mackay credits Patti Hicks, his mother-in-law and founder of SnugZ, with inspiring his passion for philanthropy, and does his best to follow her example of constantly helping others. When she passed away in 2004, Mackay and his cousin Charley Johnson, the former vice president of the company, quickly moved to help preserve SnugZ through its acquisition from her estate.

After deciding to move the firm’s manufacturing from Nevada to Utah, they offered relocation to most factory workers, including transporting their families and their possessions to apartments with utilities already set up and refrigerators stocked. According to Mackay, 69 employees relocated and 65 of them moved to Utah sight unseen.

“Growing up a faith-based person, you just always try to find ways to help and improve the life of others.” — Brandon Mackay

“This guy is the most charitable and selfless person I’ve ever met,” says Brittany David, vice president of sales at SnugZ. “Brandon does so much for his family, community, co-workers, church and strangers, and does so with such heart.”

Mackay’s next goal is to build a not-for-profit inside the SnugZ facility that supplies underprivileged children with food kits to take home from school for the weekend. “Kids are taken care of once they’re at school,” Mackay says, “but it’s after-hours that are really underserved in our society right now. If I work hard and do what’s right, it always helps me provide the next thing I want to do.”