Brand and Product Management

Olivier Toubia is the Glaubinger Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. His research focuses primarily on innovation, customer insights, and creative industries. Specifically, he combines methods from social sciences and data science in order to study human processes such as motivation, choice, and creativity.  He previously served as the Editor-in-Chief at the journal Marketing Science. He teaches Foundations of Innovation, Generative AI for Business and the core marketing course. He received his MS in Operations Research and PhD in Marketing from MIT.

Farah is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. She teaches an a Product Management course with a focus on AI and Data products. Farah is also a founder at Dioptra, a legal tech startup backed by YCombinator.

Before that, she held different ML and PM roles at Spotify, Argo, and ZS Associates. She received her MS in Operations Research from Columbia Engineering School and another MS in Engineering from Centrale Nantes.

Ellen J. Schapps has over 20 years’ experience in the corporate arena, beginning her career in advertising, in both Media and Account Management.  She has extensive product management experience and was the first female Vice President of Marketing at the consumer household products division of American Home Products (now Pfizer), where she had profit responsibility for many well-known national brands such as Woolite, Pam Cooking Spray, Black Flag Insecticides, Wizard Air Freshener, Easy-off Oven Cleaner and Old English Furniture Polish.  Ms.

Len Sherman brings over thirty years of business experience and academic research on growth strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship to Columbia Business School. At CBS, Professor Sherman teaches “Strategy for Long-Term Growth” and "Entrepreneurship in Large Enterprises to MBA and EMBA students, earning the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013.

Chris LaSala joined Columbia Business School in 2022 as a Sr. Lecturer in Discipline at Columbia after nearly two decades at Google, where the common theme across Chris’ tenure at Google was working closely with engineering and product teams from ideation through commercial launch, gaining a reputation for leading cross-functional teams to overcome hurdles and make efficient, well-informed decisions.

Professor Lehmann has taught several different marketing courses. His research focuses on individual and group choice and decision making, the adoption of innovation and new product development, and the management and valuation of marketing assets (brands, customers). He is also interested in knowledge accumulation, empirical generalizations, and information use. Lehmann has published more than 200 articles and books, serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals, and is the founding editor of Marketing Letters.

JP Kuehlwein is principal at Ueber-Brands Consulting, advising large CPG groups and start-ups, alike, on brand strategy and execution – brand elevation, in particular.

Professor Sexton’s research concerns successful global product and brand strategies and is based on both empirical work and his considerable experience with companies throughout the world. A recipient of the School’s Distinguished Teaching Award, Sexton has taught a wide variety of courses in the fields of marketing, international business and management science.

Professor Schmitt is Robert D. Calkins Professor of International Business at Columbia Business School. He researches, teaches, and advises corporations on branding, innovation, creative strategy, and customer experience.

Silvia Bellezza is an Associate Professor of Business in Marketing at Columbia Business School. Her research focuses on status signaling in consumption. Specifically, her work examines traditional status signals (e.g., conventional luxury brands and products) and alternative status signals (e.g., minimalism, vintage, sustainable luxury).

Professor Omoruyi has 20+ years of experience in D2C commerce, digital tech, business development, international operations, and brand marketing. She has delivered transformational growth in various industries (Luxury, Beauty, CPG, Tech, Retail) and for some of the world’s most recognized and trusted brands.

Professor Omoruyi has worked internationally and in the US. She holds a BA in Political Science with a minor in Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Professor Netzer's expertise centers on one of the major business challenges of the data-rich environment: developing quantitative methods that leverage data to gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior and guide firms' decisions. He focuses primarily on building statistical and econometric models to measure consumer preferences and understand how customer choices change over time, and across contexts. Most notably, he has developed a framework for managing firms' customer bases through dynamic segmentation.