The Life of Liam: Student Government Business Manager Maximizes Time at UM

By Cary Shimek, UM New Service

MISSOULA – When Liam Edwards graduates with honors May 9 from the University of Montana, it will be a minor miracle. Not because Edwards was overly challenged by college – quite the contrary for Mr. Summa Cum Laude – but because he packed so much into his time at UM and still managed to finish in only four years.

You see, Edwards is sort of the energetic Teddy Roosevelt of UM – if Teddy was good at math, accounting and finance and got himself elected business manager of student government. Edwards did a lot in Griz Country, and his adventures will undoubtedly continue long after he graduates with two degrees from the UM College of Business.

“Coming to UM was probably the best decision I’ve ever made,” he said. “I’ve definitely gotten so much out of my time here these last four years.”

To understand Edwards, you need to know he was a Sugarbeeter from the small Hi-Line town of Chinook. In fact, he was the Sugarbeeter. In high school, he would dress as the carroty mascot, Shug, which is portrayed in the school logo with an evil grin and metal leg whisks whirling to bloodily grind all foes. Playing the intimidating vegetable, Edwards would get sweaty jumping around the gym, whipping the Chinook faithful into a frenzy. A cheerleader named Allyssa often helped him unzip from the dank, smelly outfit after events.

Somehow, she still married him in 2025.

But let’s not get ahead. Edwards graduated from Chinook High School in 2022. He was attracted to UM by the business program and campus extracurriculars. As a top student, he quickly found a home in UM’s Davidson Honors College, which bonds undergrads into an interdisciplinary community of scholars. DHC students even cluster in their own dormitory, Knowles Hall, where Edwards worked as a resident assistant.

One day, in one of the most Montana incidents imaginable, RA Edwards smelled something spicy in the air. A student knocked on the door and informed him he had accidentally discharged bear spray in the hallway. Outside, Edwards was confronted by a giant brown stain on the wall, and his eyes started hurting a little.

Evidently, one can paint a wall with bear spray.

“The guy was learning how to use the spray from a friend, and I guess he figured it out pretty well,” Edwards said. “In the end, everyone was OK, so it was kind of funny. But I had to fill out this big three-page report about what happened.”

During his time at UM, Edwards loaded up on accounting and finance classes and had a three-year side hustle working at H&R Block.

“People would show up with a big box of receipts,” he said. “I was able to spend an hour with them, give them some advice, get their tax returns prepared and have them leave empowered over their financial situation. Accounting and finance really gave me the tools to help people understand complex systems and their own finances. I was really into that.”

He said the top-notch professors at UM’s College of Business taught him a lot about how to operate in the workplace, while the DHC and its interdisciplinary focus made him push himself and become more open to new experiences.

Edwards became treasurer of the DHC Honors Student Association his sophomore and junior years. This community service group would do river cleanups, write letters to student veterans, send Valentine’s to senior centers and do an October food drive called Trick or Treat so Missoula Eats. He said it was a fun opportunity to get out and help the local community.

His experience in the honors association sparked an interest in student government. As a student group, the HSA would request a budget and special allocations from the Associated Students of UM.

This prompted him to run and serve on the ASUM Senate his junior year. He came to realize they needed a better mechanism to communicate to students about how their ASUM fee dollars were spent. As a senator, he made it a requirement that the ASUM business manager produce an annual comprehensive financial report. Then he ran for business manager and became responsible for producing the first one.

To get Edwards excited, just ask him about this report, the ACFR. It obviously makes his financial soul sing.

“We really didn’t know the long-term trends within our organization with spending,” he said. “So it was a pretty long report – like 30 pages – of just essays and charts and tables, but we found it incredibly useful throughout the year. It just kind of elevated our decision-making and figuring out how to appropriate funds in a way that students get the most bang for their buck.

“So when I was able to present the report to the professional staff who work for ASUM, I think they were surprised we had some structural deficits going on for the past two years,” Edwards said. “They said it was incredibly useful to be able to see all our finances in one place.”

He admits to being touched when ASUM President Buddy Wilson gifted him with a framed copy of the first of the financial report, which Edwards considers one of his greatest accomplishments at UM.

He also spent this spring developing a template for the ACFR, including a one-hour tutorial for the next ASUM business manager.

“So we’ve kind of built a system that will outlive me,” he said with a laugh.

It’s hard to top the ACFR, but the summer after his freshman year at UM, Edwards worked in the U.S. Senate as part of the prestigious Baucus Leader program. For eight weeks he was based in the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

“I learned that sometimes people would complain directly to their senator about their tax returns,” Edwards said. “There was a legislative correspondent who focused on tax policy, so I kind of helped out with drafting initial memos and correspondence with those folks. So it was a really fun experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world.”

Yes, Edwards enjoys working with tax complainers. This may have pointed him toward an internship this past summer with KPMG, one of the world’s largest accounting firms. The Sugarbeater from Chinook found himself working among “the tallest buildings I’ve ever seen in my life” in downtown Denver.

“Yep, I did my tax associate internship with them,” he said. “So I was doing complex tax filings and drafting memos about contemporary tax issues and stuff like that for the entire summer.”

Edwards lived a lot during his four years of college. Now with UM graduation looming, his immediate plans call for returning to his hometown for the summer, where he’ll spend hundreds of hours cramming for his certified public accountant exam.

Then he and his wife Allyssa, the cheerleader from earlier in this story, will hit the road to Denver. She’ll start her full-time job as an educator, and he’ll start his new gig with KPMG. Evidently, he impressed the right people during his internship.

Going forward, the two kids from Chinook will build their lives together.

“I really enjoyed Denver, and we’ll see how it goes, but I’m hesitant to say it will be our final destination,” Edwards said. “I’ve really fallen in love with Montana over the years, and my wife loves rural education. So I might follow her dreams there, back to some small Montana town.

“Because I think good accountants are needed everywhere.”

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Contact: Dave Kuntz, UM director of strategic marketing, 406-243-5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu.