Through a collaborative effort between Chicago Booth Admissions and the Kilts Center, the Kilts Fellowship offers financial and programming support to select admitted students pursuing careers in marketing-related fields such as tech product management, product marketing management, and brand management. Moreover, it provides them with access to a curated alumni mentor network and exclusive opportunities to engage with Booth faculty members and senior alumni.
To date, more than 150 Booth students have benefited from the Fellowship. Past Fellows have pursued marketing-related roles in sectors including technology, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, finance, and entrepreneurship. Many now occupy senior leadership positions at prominent companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, PayPal, and PepsiCo.
To delve deeper into the significance of the Fellowship and its impact, we sat down with current Fellows Allison Chiang, Greg Lanese, and Komala S Madineedi to hear about the role of the Kilts Center in shaping their Booth experience.
Komala: Currently, I work as a Hardware Technical Product Manager at Intel Corporation, focusing on the product line of data centers and server processors. My enduring career goal is to serve as a Chief Product Officer, guiding diverse teams in developing emerging technology products and expanding their impact.
Greg: My professional background has primarily been in data analytics and finance. When I started at Booth, I was working as a financial analyst, and since starting, I have been promoted into a manager role where I oversee our financial planning and analysis (FP&A) team as we produce a variety of reports and forecasts. My long-term career goal is to take a larger role in the overall strategy of a company with a role in management, leveraging both my existing background in finance and my future experiences in marketing.
Allison: I have a background in consumer packaged goods (CPG); I joined Booth from Nestlé, where I did corporate finance. I really enjoyed working with CPG brands because the products are so tangible—I can see the product of my work and also see how consumers connect with it. One thing I've enjoyed in my classes is our discussions on how to be a responsible marketer, and I want to take those lessons into my career to become a strategic partner and build brands responsibly.
Komala: As a Kilts Fellow, I’ve been given access to industry leaders and experts in the field of marketing, and the opportunity to hear and learn from their experiences has been invaluable. I’ve enjoyed engaging with faculty and gaining insights into the research of top-notch academics continues to fuel the intellectually curious part of me. I’ve been introduced to a community of like-minded peers, and building friendships with other Kilts fellows has been amazing.
Allison: It’s given me direct access to amazing business leaders through events like the Kilts Speaker Series and the annual Ann Mukherjee Marketing Summit. Meeting prominent alumni has helped me connect classroom learning with future career challenges and understand the marketing industry at a deeper level. Also, the impact of the scholarship cannot be overstated. It allows me to focus less on the financial component of my MBA and more on the fulfilling parts of the Booth experience, like challenging myself academically, connecting with my fellow classmates, and paying it forward as a second-year.
Greg: The strong network and additional learning opportunities the fellowship has given me, including opportunities to speak with a wide variety of faculty and alumni who I may not have otherwise met, has been a huge benefit. I’ve had in-depth discussions with faculty outside of the classroom and learned valuable career advice from alumni in a diverse set of fields, all at Kilts Center events.
Komala: For me, the opportunity to attend the annual Ann Mukherjee Marketing Summit has been the biggest benefit of the Fellowship. It has been an enriching experience to interact with alumni who are senior leaders and C-suite executives across various industries, such as CPG and tech, in a small-group setting and continue to build on relationships after the summit.
Allison: I try to attend as many events and connect with as many people as possible! This has helped me to expand upon classroom learning, whether it's hearing from marketing leaders in different industries (ex: tech and CPG) or seeing how professors are applying research methods to help marketers. Being a part of the Kilts community and having access to the alumni network has helped me have a better understanding of what a career in marketing can look like, especially as a career-switcher.
Komala: Being a Kilts Fellow is an esteemed designation, and I’ve experienced increased success in my outreach to industry professionals by emphasizing this fellowship.
Greg: It has helped grow my confidence and allowed me to build a stronger understanding of where I would like to go in my career. The additional networking opportunities that the Kilts Fellowship presents have allowed me to speak with and hear from so many alumni and industry experts who I otherwise would not have been able to meet.
Allison: The fellowship has contributed to my professional growth in two ways. First, being able to connect with alumni and other marketing leaders has helped me understand what a career in marketing might look like and the skills I should work on while at Booth. Secondly, I enjoyed participating in Kilts events that helped me build those skills, like the Kilts Marketing Case Competition.
Komala: The alumni mentor network has been extremely beneficial by offering valuable constructive feedback and guidance in navigating my career path. I work in product management, which presents its own set of challenges, contingent upon the stakeholders involved and the current stage of the product life cycle. Engaging in objective brainstorming sessions and utilizing mentors as a sounding board has been a valuable resource in addressing various situations I’ve encountered.
Greg: The mentorship component has been a valuable opportunity to build connections outside my existing industry. It has been a great experience getting to meet and converse with alumni from a broader range of backgrounds, particularly those with marketing experience. This has provided me with new perspectives and given me the opportunity to learn more about how I can improve in my current role as well as future directions that my career may take.
Greg: The Kilts Fellowship has been a networking multiplier by providing additional ways to make new connections. In-person opportunities like the Marketing Summit have allowed me to meet a number of industry leaders who have passed on valuable experiences from their own careers and have offered to speak more in the future. On top of that, being able to mention the Kilts Fellowship when contacting alumni helps provide an additional connection opportunity. The Kilts Center has been a valuable resource for so many people, so the mention of the name adds a further level of familiarity.
Allison: Being a Kilts Fellow has given me a community of other students who are also interested in marketing and ways to connect with alumni in marketing. Both networks are very useful while recruiting and preparing for interviews, and I found the alumni network very helpful for crafting my long-term goals.
Komala: For me, being a Kilts Fellow means so much more than just access to resources and opportunities. It is an internal shift in my level of confidence that’ll stay with me for this lifetime. I feel grateful and honored to be a Kilts Fellow. Once a Kilts Fellow, always a Kilts Fellow!
Greg: It means I am part of a community of leaders and innovators. I strive to continue to learn from this community throughout my career, as well as contribute to the continued growth and development of the Kilts Fellowship and Chicago Booth as a whole.
Allison: Being a Kilts Fellow means taking an interdisciplinary approach to marketing and business. It's being analytical and data-driven and understanding that marketing affects many different functions in business. I share that perspective while collaborating with my classmates and will continue to share Booth's approach to marketing as an alumna.
To learn more about the Kilts Fellowship, click here.
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