Biography

Philip Kotler was born in Chicago and his intellectual career began with an emphasis on economics – the subject in which he obtained a BA from DePaul in 1950, and an MA at Chicago University under the direction of Milton Friedman. He then transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from where he received a PhD under the supervision of Paul Samuelson, who exposed him to contrasting ideas on economics compared to Friedman.

From 1959-1961 he was Associate Professor of Economics at Roosevelt University, with the last year spent as a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard. He was then invited to join the Northwestern University Management Faculty, where he chose to teach marketing rather than economics. By 1969 he was appointed professor, and he is now the Distinguished Professor of International Marketing.

As the acknowledged doyen of the academic international marketing community, he is recognised as the successor to Levitt and Drucker on marketing.

He disseminates his ideas worldwide through his 20 or so books and papers in a clear, easy-to-understand style with listings that aid memory retention.

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