Yale SOM Home
  1. Yale Center for Customer Insights
  2. Yale Center for Customer Insights Ogilvy Fellowship Announcement

Yale Center for Customer Insights Ogilvy Fellowship Announcement

June 3, 2020

The Yale Center for Customer Insights is excited to announce the creation of a new executive fellowship at the Yale School of Management, in partnership with the leading marketing and advertising agency The Ogilvy Group. 

Made possible by a generous gift, the Yale Center for Customer Insights (YCCI) Ogilvy Fellowship will support research on brand stewardship in a new era of multi-stakeholder capitalism.

“Today, all companies are increasingly expected to be purpose-driven, to serve the needs of a range of stakeholders – employees, supply chain, partners, investors, government, regulators, policy makers, society at large –  and not simply shareholders and consumers,” said John Seifert, Chief Executive of The Ogilvy Group.

“Ogilvy believes that brands matter more today than ever before. We see an ideal opportunity to partner with the Yale Center for Customer Insights and Jon Iwata, former IBM Senior Vice President & Chief Brand Officer, to learn how to build greater trust and value in the corporate brand in this new era of Stakeholder Capitalism.”

The fellowship will also provide Yale School of Management students with an opportunity to work as research fellows, aiding in the discovery and dissemination of vital insights. “Brand stewardship in the age of multi-stakeholder capitalism is well-aligned to the Yale SOM mission. To be purposeful leaders in business, you need to consider its role in society and how it is addressing the needs of employees, investors, communities, and customers alike,” notes Ravi Dhar, YCCI Faculty Director and George Rogers Clark Professor of Management and Marketing at the Yale School of Management. 

Leading this new research will be the inaugural YCCI Ogilvy Fellow, Jon Iwata. Iwata originally joined Yale as an Executive Fellow at the Yale School of Management in 2018 after a long and successful tenure at IBM Corporation, retiring as Senior Vice President and Chief Brand Officer. He is an inductee of the Marketing Hall of Fame, the CMO Club Hall of Fame, and the Page Society Hall of Fame, which honors lifetime achievement in business communications. He was also named a Brand Genius by AdWeek in 2017.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Jon continue to work with the center in this new capacity,” said Dhar. “His experience and tenure in dealing with a range of stakeholders will help push YCCI and Ogilvy towards the frontiers of understanding the role of brands in these rapidly evolving times.”