Student Spotlight

Anthony Asare

While in the UMass MBA program, I got bit by the “dotcom bug” and started a company. I graduated as the dotcoms collapsed and joined a business-to-business technology company. The knowledge I gained about customer driven supply chains, marketing channel relationships, and business-to-business technologies is helping me immensely in my current research.

I am currently interviewing business and technology executives to learn more about issues that they face in their efforts to adopt new collaborative b2b technologies. I am hoping to combine my practical expertise in the area with knowledge from my interviews and readings from the academic literature to develop theories and models that will be of value to both practitioners and academics alike.

I always knew that I wanted to go back to school for my Ph.D. I eventually succumbed to my long-term desire to teach and conduct research and decided to return to UMass for my doctorate in marketing. I chose UMass because of the excellent education I received as an MBA and also because of the wonderful relationships that I was able to develop here.

Cory Cromer

Cory Cromer worked in biotechnology industry before coming back for my his doctoral work. Most of his positions dealt with product management. In 11 years, he was a part of over 23 new product launches. He reports that getting to see a product go from an idea to being sold worldwide has always sparked his passion for innovation.

Cory states that he always knew that he would get a Ph.D. He states, “I hope to be able to research my areas of interest; innovation, new product development, knowledge management. In addition, I hope to be able to bring both an academic and practitioner’s point of view to the classroom.”

Cory reports that he has been extremely fortunate to work with Professor George Milne. “From being a friend when dealing with life changes, to giving me an opportunity from my first day to be a part of a real research project, he epitomizes the spirit of the program.”