Prominent former MIT Sloan School dean, Glen Urban, steps down to dedicate his time to research; departs with a generous $1 million donation behind him.
Glen Urban, a prominent figure in the field of marketing, is retiring from his position as the David Austin Professor of Marketing and the chairman of the MIT Center for Digital Business at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Urban has been a professor at the school for 46 years, having first arrived in 1966 at the age of 26.
Throughout his career at MIT Sloan, Urban has made significant contributions in teaching, research, and consulting. He has been honoured ten times for outstanding teaching by students at MIT Sloan and earned recognition from Business Week in 1992 as the "best" professor at Sloan.
Urban's research has focused extensively on consumer behavior, choice modeling, and marketing strategy. He has been involved in the valuation of large, closely held companies and commercial dispute analyses, demonstrating application of his expertise beyond academia into practical business and legal contexts.
One of Urban's most notable achievements is the development of ASSESSOR, a predictive model for packaged goods, which he developed in 1978. For this work, he won a William F. O'Dell Award. He also won another O'Dell Award for a study that compared the ASSESSOR predictions with the actual results a year later.
Urban's influence extends beyond the classroom. He has built a reputation as a mentor, often offering graduate students key spots on research teams. He 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 addition to his academic work, Urban has founded several companies, including Management Decision Systems Inc., Management Science for Health Inc., Marketing Technology Interface Inc., InSite Marketing Technology Inc., and Experion Systems Inc.
David Schmittlein, John C. Head III Dean of MIT Sloan, praised Urban for his support and commitment to MIT Sloan, its students, and marketing science. Urban will continue his career of groundbreaking marketing research by leading a two-year project quantifying the value of new media advertising.
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 will work with General Motors on a project to quantify the value of new media advertising in relation to old media advertising.
Urban views marketing science as a lot like art, stating that both involve finding a breakthrough in conceptual space and structuring unstructured problems. His art is often found in his yard, as he is not afraid of working with metal.
Glen Urban's retirement marks the end of a distinguished career at MIT Sloan School of Management. His contributions to marketing scholarship and practice will continue to be felt long after he steps down from his teaching role.
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