Course Instructors:

Gene Slowinski is the Director of Strategic Alliance Research at the Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University and Managing Partner of the Alliance Management Group, a consulting firm devoted to the formation and management of strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions.  Prior to forming the Alliance Management Group, he held management positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and Novartis Corporation.  In addition to a Ph.D. in Management, Gene holds an MBA, and a Masters Degree in the sciences.  He is a member of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Technology Commercialization Advisory Board.

For the last 25 years Dr. Slowinski has consulted and conducted research on the formation and management of strategic alliances, joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions.  His clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, Ethicon, ExxonMobil, General Mills, Eastman Chemical, Kraft, Becton Dickinson, and many other Fortune 500 firms.  An author and lecturer, Gene has presented his work to The Conference Board, the Licensing Executives Society, The Industrial Research Institute, and The American Electronics Association.  His articles on managing strategic alliances can be found in Business Horizons, Research*Technology Management, Mergers and Acquisitions, Economic Development Quarterly, Les Nouvelles, Cooperative Strategies in International Business, The Journal of Advanced Management, and Managing the High Technology Firm.  With Matt Sagal, he co-authored the book The Strongest Link.  His new book, Reinventing Corporate Growth is the leading book on growing the corporation.

Gene is active in the technology management community.  He is a member of the Industrial Research Institute's Research-on-Research Committee, and the Technology Management Research Center at Rutgers University.  In addition, he is on the Board of Directors of Advanced Adjuvants LLC.

Matthew W. Sagal is a Senior Partner of the Alliance Management Group and co-author (with Gene Slowinski) of the book The Strongest Link: Forging a Profitable and Enduring Corporate Alliance.

Dr. Sagal has been a scientist and an R&D executive at Bell Laboratories, as well as a product management and manufacturing executive, and Vice President of Business Development for Lucent Microelectronics (now Agere Systems). As a scientist at Bell Laboratories, he contributed to advances in thin firm and semiconductor materials. He held senior R&D and product management positions and managed the expansion of Lucent’s semiconductor manufacturing in the US, Europe and Asia.

As a business development executive, he led the start-up of Lucent Microelectronics’ R&D, marketing, sales and manufacturing activities in Europe and Asia. He played a central role in the formation of Lucent’s strategic alliances in those regions and in the U.S.

Currently Dr. Sagal's consulting clients include U.S. and foreign based firms in telecommunications, communications software, electronic components and systems, medical devices, scientific instruments, power tools, automotive parts, consumer products, energy, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Sagal holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Cornell and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from MIT. [Full Bio]

Guest Presenters:

Stan Lech is currently Vice President of Global Innovation R&D. In this capacity, he has the responsibility to build and drive a robust pipeline of innovative and consumer relevant products. Stan began his career in 1984 with the Block Drug Company, working in the area of Denture Cleanser and Adhesive formulation. In 1989, he was recruited by Unilever to work as an Advertising Support and Development Chemist in laundry detergents and bleach development. In 1991, Stan joined Warner-Lambert to initially work in Respiratory and GI New Product Development. He later moved into a variety of more senior roles supporting the Oral Care, Anti-infective and GI categories. Stan joined SmithKline Beecham in 1997 as Associate Director, Modified Release Products, where he led the development of environmentally-friendly, aqueous based polymer delivery systems for the Contac capsule franchise. In 2001, Stan was promoted to Head of New Product Development, North America. In January 2004, Stan joined Dental Care Futures R&D as Vice President, and then again promoted in January 2005 to Vice President of Global Innovation for Research and Development.

Stan holds a B.Sc in Chemistry from New Jersey City University and an M.B.A. (Masters in Business Administration) from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Mark Deck is a Director at PRTM Management Consultants, playing a leadership role in PRTM’s Product And Cycle-time Excellence® (PACE®) practice worldwide for the past 10 years, specializing in driving client growth and market position through superior innovation and development strategy and implementation.  Mark is also responsible for PRTM’s practice management, knowledge management, and alliance management.

Mark has over 25 years of consulting experience focused principally on the management and development of new products and services. He now concentrates on formulating and implementing operational strategies that integrate the development chain with the supply chain and the customer chain.

Mark is the 2002 Past President of the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA). He is a regular contributor to forums on product development and project management, making presentations and conducting workshops on product development at conferences sponsored by the AMA, the Advertising Research Foundation, the Conference Board, the Strategic Leadership Forum, and the PDMA. Mark has also published articles on product development in Research-Technology Management, The PDMA ToolBook of Product Development, and PRTM’s Setting the PACE in Product Development.

Prior to joining PRTM, Mark was a Vice President at Mercer Management Consulting and led the firm’s practice in High Performance New Product Development. He holds a M.S. in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in mathematics from Syracuse University.