Product Management, Nielsen Centers Have New Directors

Amy L. Schmidt joined the School of Business as the first director of the Center for Product Management. The Center was launched in December 2002 with a $6.4 million gift from Signe Ostby and Scott Cook. Schmidt comes from S.C. Johnson in Racine, where she was senior research services manager. She earned her M.S. in marketing with a concentration in marketing research through the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research in 1994.

Prior to joining S.C. Johnson in 2001, Schmidt held a series of analyst and research manager positions with Kraft Foods, Inc., in Glenview, Ill. She will be working with Marketing Professor Jack Nevin, who is interim executive director of the Center for Product Management.

Monika Wingate is the new director of the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research. She joined the School of Business from Lindsay, Stone and Briggs, a Madison-based advertising and public relations agency, where she was vice president of brand discovery. Her previous marketing research experience includes positions at General Mills and Pillsbury.

Wingate graduated from the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research in 1995. Over the past eight years, she has been actively involved with the Nielsen Center as a teacher and External Advisory Board member. Wingate will be working with Associate Professor Neeraj Arora, who is executive director of the Nielsen Center.