John D'Ottavio, EMTM’03

An undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Bucknell University led John to a variety of roles in compliance and engineering at companies like York Chemical and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., before he arrived at Adhesives Research in 1998 as an R&D scale-up engineer for specialty polymers production. While there, he decided to pursue a long-term goal of getting an advanced degree, which he thought might help him take steps toward his ultimate ambition: To become a COO. "I knew I wanted to move more toward the commercial side of business, but I always had a technology orientation and I needed more of the management basics."

Why EMTM?
John wanted to go back to school, but ruled out full-time executive MBA programs, which he felt wouldn't meet his specific needs. A colleague, Peter Gabriele EMTM '03, suggested he look into EMTM. "I went to campus for a visit and I liked the blend of technology management along with business core classes. It seemed like a good fit for the way I saw my career progressing." John also liked the structure of the program. "It was more palatable to block out time for the program every other weekend than a few nights each week. I liked that it offered the flexibility to complete it in two or four years, though I chose to do it in two."

Career Impact
The EMTM experience was an enriching one for John. "Being immersed in the environment of EMTM, you're absorbing the wealth of knowledge both from fellow classmates and from faculty. It can't help but build one's confidence to have that exposure."

As he neared the end of the program, John knew he wanted to apply his knowledge to a different area. He was promoted into the commercial development group responsible for investigating emerging markets for Adhesives Research products. Shortly after his promotion, John changed jobs again: Gabriele brought him into the process of developing a whole new business unit focused on a microtext technology that would, among other things, allow pharmaceutical companies to label their pills as an anti-counterfeit assurance.

Together with Gabriele and other colleagues, John helped develop and build the new division, ARmark, from the ground up, doing everything from marketing and facilitating sales growth, to augmenting production and working with customers to minimize barriers to adoption. "It's taking a very wide skill set to bring the idea to a commercial reality. We're a small group doing something that's never been done before, so responsibilities span product development to process engineering to financial analysis to marketing."

In this capacity, John draws from the marketing concepts he learned at EMTM to research and learn about the other competitive offerings in place, and help differentiate their new product to create value for customers. Marketing also helped him sell the technology internally to get the proper backing for ARmark. "EMTM was an invaluable experience in terms of promoting my career and giving me a better understanding of key concepts. I'm now more adept with financial analysis and projections, which I was not comfortable with before."

John feels that the program has benefited his company immensely. "Overall, it's helped me communicate more effectively and understand things important to each function within the company. We are now able to prioritize areas of focus and help the business model as a whole evolve."

EMTM has not only advanced his own position in the company but it has also helped him think about the bigger picture of his career trajectory. "The most important insight I took away was to think bigger, rather than constrain myself to the limits of the day-to-day. EMTM expands the horizon of available resources and possibilities for your career."

Top of Page