Jim Breen, MBA, EMTM’07

From Baby Shampoo to Biotechnology on a Global Scale

With a bachelor's degree in engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, Jim began a career in engineering before branching out into real estate project management. He received his MBA from Drexel University in 1992, and in 1997 he began working for Johnson & Johnson, developing new production facilities around the world. During his tenure at J&J, Jim has enjoyed the diversity of work at a major corporation and the ability to grow into new areas. "The beauty of working for J&J is you could work in baby shampoo one day and the next day work in biotechnology."

Why EMTM?

The same flexibility that continues to provide Jim with new opportunities also requires that he have a working knowledge of a variety of technologies. While his engineering and business education gave him a solid foundation for his work, Jim was looking for a more extensive understanding of specific technologies. "I wanted to learn more about how technology influences the world and how other industries are using it," he says.

He was drawn to EMTM because it attracted students from a host of different industries, including but not limited to biotechnology. The reputations of both Penn Engineering and Wharton gave him confidence that the program would deliver the cutting-edge education he was looking for. Location and the scheduling of the program were also major factors in his decision. Because Jim spends 60 percent of the year on the road for his work, he wanted a school that was close enough to his home in New York and a course schedule that would leave room for business travel.

Career Impact

From the outset, Jim was surprised at the many ways in which EMTM offered him practical, day-to-day knowledge. In a biotechnology class he found that much of the discussion, such as the emergence of transgenics and company case studies, was also occurring in the national news media at the time. "The faculty has a good handle on what is going on out there. I've seen that there's an application for just about everything I study at EMTM."

Classes in decision models have given Jim new tools like simulation and modeling for analyzing future scenarios, sales forecasts and priorities for reordering product portfolios. "When you're designing plants, there are many variables that aren't fixed. How good sales are for a given product is a factor that is going to change the output." As an engineer, he has also enjoyed studying organizational leadership, which is helping him better manage his team.

Jim believes that through exposure to other industries, the program is giving him broader business perspective as well as some valuable lessons that may be applicable to the biotech sector. "I've found that between students there's quite a bit of interdependent partnering and sharing information. I'm constantly coming across information I hadn't been exposed to before, and now I have a much better working vocabulary for discussing it."

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