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Kilts Steering Committee

The Kilts Steering Committee comprises senior executives and leaders who provide ongoing guidance and support to the center. Members also serve as mentors to student marketing fellows, equipping them with the knowledge and insight to make a bigger impact in the world.

For membership information, please contact Art Middlebrooks.

Committee Members

James M. Kilts, ’74, Founder, Co-chair

Founding Partner, Centerview Capital

Jim Kilts is a founding partner of the private equity firm Centerview Capital and currently chairman of the board of Advantage Solutions, chairman of The Simply Good Foods Company, and a member of the board of directors of Unifi, Inc., and Viatris Inc. He served as chairman of the board, CEO, and President of Gillette before it merged with the Procter & Gamble Company. Prior to Gillette, Mr. Kilts served as President and CEO of Nabisco until its acquisition by the Philip Morris Companies. His book, Doing What Matters, reflects on his business experiences.

Lee S. Hillman, ’79, Co-chair

CEO, Performance Health Systems

When Hillman started his career at Bally Total Fitness in 1991, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. As CFO and later CEO, he successfully turned the company around, driving revenue and growth through strategic marketing and sales. Recognizing that his corporate success was a direct result of his education, he has been an active supporter of the Kilts Center.

Murli Buluswar, ‘01

Head of Analytics, US Consumer Bank, Citi

As Head of U.S. Consumer Analytics, Buluswar leads the execution of the vision to ‘be a critical partner in achieving a quantum leap in customer intelligence’ across Citibank’s 30MM+ customer base. An ‘intrapreneurial’ analytical and strategic C-Suite Financial Services Leader, Buluswar has successfully built alignment and achieved commercial outcomes by challenging conventional processes while harnessing data-driven intelligence. His 25-year career includes innovative advanced analytics roles at the intersection of data and strategy.

Pradeep K. Chintagunta

Joseph T. and Bernice S. Lewis Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing

Chintagunta studies consumer, agent, and firm behavior. The editor of Quantitative Marketing and Economics, he serves on the advisory editorial board of Marketing Science. His research has appeared in several publications, including the Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science. Chintagunta is the recipient of the Hillel J. Einhorn Award for Excellence in Teaching and was named one of Chicago Booth’s top professors by BusinessWeek.

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Tom Doctoroff, ’89

Chief Cultural Insights Officer and Global Executive Advisor, Prophet

Doctoroff is a renowned business leader and global brand builder and one of the world’s foremost experts on culture-driven marketing. In addition to his work at the global brand and marketing consultancy Prophet, Doctoroff is an adjunct associate professor of marketing at Chicago Booth. Previously, he served as CEO of J. Walter Thompson, one of the world’s largest global marketing and communications companies.

M. Carl Johnson III, ’72

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nautilus, Inc.

Johnson is chairman of the board of directors, Nautilus, Inc., the fitness equipment pioneer. He has been a senior business and C-suite executive known for growing high-performing organizations in the competitive consumer products industry. He has delivered profitable growth for multibillion-dollar market leaders, including Del Monte Foods/Big Heart Pet Brands, Campbell Soup, Kraft Foods, Polaroid, and Colgate-Palmolive.

Karen Katen, ’74

Senior Advisor, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, LLC

Katen is senior advisor at Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, a health-care venture capital and investment firm. Previously, Katen spent 33 years at Pfizer, Inc., in several leadership positions, including chair of the Pfizer Foundation, which supports health-care access, education, and community-outreach initiatives around the world.

Heather L Mason, '86

Retired Executive Vice President, Abbott

Mason is a recently retired healthcare executive, having spent the past 27 years with Abbott, where she leveraged her leadership, innovation and talent development skills.
Most recently, she was Executive Vice President of Abbott Nutrition, a $7B global business addressing the nutrition needs of infants through the elderly. Prior to that, Mason engineered a turnaround as Senior Vice President of Abbott’s Diabetes business.

Mainak Mazumdar

Chief Data and Research Officer, Global Media, Nielsen

Mazumdar is a Data Science executive with 23+ years experience in consumer, media, and marketing tech. As the Chief Data and Research Officer, Global Media of Nielsen Company, Mazumdar leads the Data Science organization and AI initiatives. He is responsible for Nielsen’s AI deployment for product development and business transformation.

Siddharth N. (Bobby) Mehta, ’81

Retired President and CEO, TransUnion

Mehta has held leadership positions at HSBC North America, the Boston Consulting Group, and TransUnion. Today, he devotes his time to education, serving on the boards of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the Field Museum, and the Chicago Public Education Fund. He helped facilitate the groundbreaking relationship between the Kilts Center and TransUnion, enabling faculty and PhD students to study consumer credit behavior.

David Neenan, '95

President, TransUnion International

Neenan has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry working across multiple geographies. At TransUnion, he is responsible for the management, growth, and business strategy of the company’s international operations, which span five continents. Previously, he held a number of leadership roles at HSBC, including global head of sales and marketing for insurance.

Henry Rak, '70

Founder and CEO, HJR Associates, LLC

Rak spent nearly 30 years at Kraft Foods, contributing to the company’s growth with the development of leading-edge information systems, analytic applications, and processes. He went on to found a business strategy consulting firm, which he sold to McKinsey & Company in 2011. As a marketing fellow mentor for the Kilts Center, he offers students insights on business strategies and practices.

Kurt T. Schmidt, ’90 (XP-59)

CEO, Cronos Group

Schmidt is the CEO of Cronos Group. He previously served as a director and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Buffalo Company, Ltd. from 2012 through 2016. Prior to joining Blue Buffalo, Schmidt was Deputy Executive Vice President at Nestlé S.A., where he was responsible for the Nestlé Nutrition division and served as a member of the company’s Executive Committee.

Andrew Sugerman, ‘97

President, SketchyMedical

Sugerman is a senior executive with a track record of success building both new and evolving existing global businesses across media/entertainment, technology and learning. In 2019, he co-founded entertainment studio Invisible Narratives, and in 2020, became President at SketchyMedical. Sugerman’s breadth of management experience includes strategy, operations, content/product development and sales/marketing from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies.

Ted Wright, '00

Chief Executive Officer, Fizz

Wright is the author of Fizz: Harness the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing to Drive Brand Growth, and has been at the forefront of word-of-mouth marketing since he helped reignite the Pabst Blue Ribbon brand in 2000. Over the past decade his company, Fizz, has become a global leader in word-of-mouth marketing, with clients on every continent in all major categories. Wright started his career at the information-technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

David Yates, '87

Visiting Scholar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Yates is a Visiting Scholar at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. In 2016, he was a fellow in the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative. Previously, he was President of Nestlé HealthCare Nutrition, Inc. He joined Nestlé through the acquisition of Novartis Medical Nutrition by Nestlé S.A. David joined Novartis with the Gerber Products Business Unit as Marketing Director and advanced to the position of Senior Vice President, North American Region Head.

Ex Officio Members

Starr Marcello

Deputy Dean for MBA Programs

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Madhav Rajan

Dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting

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Douglas Skinner

Deputy Dean for Faculty and Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting

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Pietro Veronesi

Deputy Dean for Faculty and Chicago Board of Trade Professor of Finance

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Chicago Booth

Kilts Steering Committee

Committee Members

James M. Kilts, ’74, Founder, Co-chair

Lee S. Hillman, ’79, Co-chair

Murli Buluswar, ‘01

Pradeep K. Chintagunta

Tom Doctoroff, ’89

M. Carl Johnson III, ’72

Karen Katen, ’74

Heather L Mason, '86

Mainak Mazumdar

Siddharth N. (Bobby) Mehta, ’81

David Neenan, '95

Henry Rak, '70

Kurt T. Schmidt, ’90 (XP-59)

Andrew Sugerman, ‘97

Ted Wright, '00

David Yates, '87

Ex Officio Members

Starr Marcello

Madhav Rajan

Douglas Skinner

Pietro Veronesi

Connect with Kilts

Leverage Your Social Network

Contact the Kilts Center