Meet Tim Ogden

Tim is currently a second-year student at EMTM.

Background

Tim graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1995 with a BS in General Engineering, then served in the Marine Corps for five years. While in the Marine Corps, Tim first managed a group of 35 Marines who provided tactical communications support for a reconnaissance battalion of 750 Marines. He was then assigned to the "Marine Corps Warfighting Lab," a strategic initiative that was the Marines Corps version of a start-up company in Quantico, Virginia. At the Lab, Tim was charged with evaluating existing commercial technology for future application by Marines in the field. Tim worked on overall communications architecture and became very familiar with wireless LANs.

When Tim's tour of duty was up, he wanted to continue to build on the leadership and technical experiences he had gained in the military. Knowing that he wanted to work with a leading technology company, Tim accepted Cisco's job offer as a Systems Engineer. In this new role, Tim became the Subject Matter Expert for wireless communications in the DC Metropolitan Region. Tim designs networks for large Fortune 500 enterprise accounts. During his five years with Cisco, Tim has been promoted several times within the systems engineering ranks.

Why EMTM?

Tim was eager to expand his role at Cisco beyond the purely technical. He was confident that he had a sound engineering background, but wanted to round it out with more business fundamentals. He realized that he also needed to understand the business drivers for his clients' decision making, and not solely consider the technical justifications.

Tim started out looking at Executive MBA programs. He knew he wanted a top ten school, which would require that he commute from the DC area. While visiting Wharton, he became aware of the EMTM program. "I loved the flexibility built into EMTM — knowing that I could alter my schedule from full-time to half-time, based on what's going on at work or with my family." As the father of two young children, Tim also preferred a program that did not hold summer classes. Tim ultimately picked EMTM for Penn's reputation, Wharton's top ten ranking, the ability to stay current in technology, and its scheduling flexibility.

Benefits to Cisco

Tim has found EMTM extremely valuable back on the job, with some immediate applications at work. "The cases and role playing we worked on in my Negotiations course involved complex, multi-party scenarios with widely divergent interests. That's helped shape my own strategy for crafting deals with customers that create the best outcomes for everyone."

Tim also considers finance a new passion. As a follow-up to the core Finance course, he took Case Studies in Finance, which examined other technology firms like AOL and Dell. "Professor John Percival makes the subject fascinating. Now that I have a better understanding of the various levers of corporate finance, I can design and sell networks more effectively across the range of customer decision-makers. Because I see how different functional players evaluate the investment, I can bridge the conversation to address all of their considerations."

Tim's supervisor, Blake Sallé, Director of Cisco's Mid-Atlantic Enterprise Operation, has been impressed with the difference EMTM has made. "As a result [of joining EMTM], Tim has significantly and exponentially evolved his technical systems design role into a trusted advisor status for providing functional business solutions. His education and a pplication of learned practices has allowed Tim to provide business-impacting solutions and processes, which have direct correlation to the success of our organization and our clients. In doing so, Tim has also reshaped and elevated the expected performance for all System Engineers within Cisco."

How Tim Manages His Time

Tim follows the rubric of former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz: "WIN — What's Important Now?" During the work day, Tim focuses on his customers, with increased attention to their business requirements as drivers for their technical requirements. Getting home to be with his family for dinner is a high priority, and after his children are in bed, he spends 2-3 hours on EMTM studies. The support and cooperation of his wife Becky, as well as Cisco policies that enable occasional work at home, are also key factors in his successful EMTM experience.

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