Glen Urban, the previous dean of MIT Sloan, stepped down to dedicate more time to research, following his departure he has given a generous donation of $1 million.
Glen Urban, the David Austin Professor of Marketing and the chairman of the MIT Center for Digital Business, is retiring from teaching at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Urban, who arrived at MIT Sloan in 1966 at the age of 26, has spent 46 years as a professor at the school.
Urban built a reputation as a mentor, with students describing him as energetic, optimistic, and supportive. Fareena Sultan, a graduate of MIT's Operations Research program, credits Urban for guiding her career in marketing and supporting her throughout her academic journey.
Under Urban's leadership, MIT Sloan grew its faculty, scaled up its MBA program, and established partnerships with Tsinghua University and Fudan University in China. Urban's pioneering research on marketing management, product innovation, and consumer choice shaped the marketing curriculum and research at MIT Sloan.
One of Urban's most notable achievements at MIT Sloan was the development of ASSESSOR, a predictive model for packaged goods, which he created in 1978. Urban won a William F. O'Dell Award for ASSESSOR, one of the marketing discipline's highest honors.
Urban's next project will involve a team of researchers, including MIT Sloan PhD students, MIT Sloan MBA candidates, and other students and faculty from across MIT. Urban will continue a career of groundbreaking marketing research by leading a two-year project quantifying the value of new media advertising.
In addition to his work at MIT Sloan, Urban has founded several companies, including Management Decision Systems Inc., Management Science for Health Inc., and Experion Systems Inc. Urban has also received the 1999 Charles Coolidge Parlin Award and the Buck Weaver Award for Marketing.
Urban is interested in abstract art and has worked with metal, stone, marble, and wood. His art is primarily large form, the sort that resides outside. Urban will turn full time to research and will work with General Motors to quantify the value of new media advertising in relation to old media advertising.
Urban's retirement from teaching does not mark the end of his career at MIT Sloan. Urban and his wife, Andrea, announced a $1 million gift to establish the Glen L. and Andrea W. Urban Unitrust, which will support a PhD fellowship at MIT Sloan in the area of marketing.
In 2002, Urban published a personal essay in the Journal of Marketing, predicting the Internet as a major additional channel for marketers. Urban's predictions have come to fruition, and his research on the Internet as a new marketing tool has been influential in the field.
References: [1] Glen Urban - Wikipedia.
- Glen Urban, in his tenure at MIT Sloan School of Management, built a reputation as a mentor, supporting students like Fareena Sultan in their academic and professional journeys.
- Urban's leadership at MIT Sloan led to the growth of the faculty, the expansion of the MBA program, and the formation of partnerships with Tsinghua University and Fudan University in China.
- Urban's research on marketing management, product innovation, and consumer choice significantly shaped the curriculum and research at MIT Sloan.
- Urban created ASSESSOR, a predictive model for packaged goods, in 1978, which earned him a William F. O'Dell Award, one of the marketing discipline's highest honors.
- For his next project, Urban will lead a team of researchers, including MIT Sloan PhD students and MBA candidates, to quantify the value of new media advertising.
- Apart from his academic contributions, Urban has founded several companies in the fields of technology and health, such as Management Decision Systems Inc., Management Science for Health Inc., and Experion Systems Inc.
- Urban's interests extend beyond academia, as he is an abstract artist who works with various materials like metal, stone, marble, and wood, creating large-scale outdoor art pieces.
- Upon retirement from teaching, Urban will continue his career at MIT Sloan, focusing on groundbreaking marketing research and working with General Motors to quantify the value of new media advertising in relation to old media advertising.
- In addition to his work, Urban and his wife, Andrea, announced a $1 million gift to establish the Glen L. and Andrea W. Urban Unitrust for a PhD fellowship in marketing at MIT Sloan.
- Urban predicted in a 2002 personal essay in the Journal of Marketing that the Internet would be a significant additional channel for marketers, a prediction that has since come to fruition.
- Urban's research on the Internet as a new marketing tool has been influential, playing a vital role in the field of marketing, technology, data-and-cloud-computing, education-and-self-development, online-education, and learning.
