Tim Calkins
Tim Calkins helps people use marketing strategy and branding to build strong, profitable
businesses.
Calkins is clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg
School of Management. He teaches marketing strategy, the most popular marketing
elective in the Kellogg MBA program, and bio-medical marketing, one of the few courses
available in the world focused on marketing in the pharmaceutical and medical device
industries.
Calkins teaches in a number of Kellogg's executive education programs, including
the Executive Development Program and the Kellogg Management Institute. He is co-academic
director of Kellogg's branding program.
He is the author of
Breakthrough Marketing Plans and co-editor of
Kellogg on Branding.
He has written teaching cases including
Crestor, MedImmune: FluMist Introduction
and
Eli Lilly: Xigris.
Calkins has received numerous teaching awards. He received the Top Professor Award
from the Kellogg Executive MBA Program in 2007 and 2009 and the Sidney J. Levy Teaching
Award in 2008. In 2006, he received the Lawrence G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor
of the Year Award, the top teaching award at Kellogg.
He joined the Kellogg faculty in 1998 as adjunct assistant professor of marketing.
He became clinical associate professor of marketing in 2002 and assumed his current
position in 2006.
In addition to teaching at Kellogg, Calkins works directly with major corporations
around the world on marketing strategy and branding issues. His recent clients include
Abbott Laboratories, Baxter, Eli Lilly and Northwestern Mutual Life. He is managing
director of Class 5 Consulting, a marketing strategy firm.
Calkins is frequently cited by the media; he has been quoted in
BusinessWeek,
Newsweek,
the
Financial Times,
The Wall Street Journal and
The New York Times. He has appeared
on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and CNBC.
He is on the board of the Alliance Française de Chicago and the Lycée Français de
Chicago.
Calkins began his career at consulting firm Booz Allen and Hamilton, where he worked
on strategy and marketing projects. He joined the marketing team at Kraft Foods
in 1991. During his almost 11 years at Kraft, he led businesses including A.1. steak
sauce, Miracle Whip, Taco Bell, Seven Seas and DiGiorno. While at Kraft, he was
responsible for the launch of more than two dozen new products.
Calkins received his BA from Yale in 1987 and his MBA from Harvard Business School
in 1991.