School of Business > UPDATE > Fall 2002 > Article

Product Management Center Launched

Signe Ostby and Scott Cook have made possible the new Center for Product Management.

A unique center in the field of product management was announced in November, as UPDATE went to press.

The Center for Product Management will be the first university-based center in the United States to focus exclusively on training MBAs in product management. Beginning next fall, the Center will enroll top MBA prospects in product management and, upon graduation, place them in positions managing products and launching new ones at innovative companies worldwide.

The School of Business will be the home of the Center for Product Management, thanks to a gift of $6.4 million from Signe Ostby and Scott Cook. Ostby is the former vice president of marketing of Software Publishing Corporation. She earned her bachelor's in business administration from the School of Business in 1975 and her MBA in 1977, both in marketing. Her husband, Scott Cook, co-founded software giant, Intuit.

Ostby said she and her husband decided to make the gift because they recognize the importance of the product management field. "Increasingly in today's corporations, product management is the fast track to reaching the top," Ostby said. "Wisconsin, with its marketing expertise and strong cross functional strengths in engineering and technology, will produce outstanding graduates and take product management education to a level unmatched anywhere in the world."

Cook credits product management as key to the success of Intuit and the firm's continued innovation. "Intuit's future success depends on recruiting great people," he said. "That's why I helped inspire and create the Center for Product Management and why I'll be lecturing and sharing techniques we use in technology."

Those interested in learning more about earning an MBA in Marketing with a concentration in product management, should contact the Graduate Programs Office of the School of Business at 608/262-4000 or visit the Center's website.

Keeping the Center for Product Management on the cutting-edge of the profession is an Executive Advisory Board composed of senior executives from top firms involved in product management.

The Center's Executive Advisory Board. (Degrees are listed for School of Business alumni.)

Dick Antoine
Global Human Resources Officer
Procter & Gamble

Scott Cook
Chairman of the Executive Committee
Intuit

David S. Johnson, BBA '78, MS '80
Group Vice President
President, Operations, Technology, Procurement and Information Systems
Kraft Foods

Signe Ostby, BBA '75, MBA '77
Former Vice President of Marketing
Software Publishing Corporation

Bruce Paynter, BBA '75, MBA '83
President, Adult Care Sector
Kimberly-Clark

Jeffrey J. Rotsch, MBA '74
Senior Vice President,General Mills Inc.
President, Consumer Foods Sales Division

Mark Schar (Board Chair)
Retired from Procter & Gamble