Philip Kotler is the SC Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, in the United States. He received his master’s degree at the University of Chicago and his PhD at MIT, both in economics. Dr Kotler is author of Marketing Management (Pearson Prentice Hall), now in its 14th edition and the most widely used marketing textbook in graduate schools of business worldwide. He has authored dozens of other successful books and has written more than 100 articles in leading journals. He is the only three-time winner of the coveted Alpha Kappa Psi award for the best annual article in the Journal of Marketing.

Professor Kotler was named the first recipient of two major awards: the Distinguished Marketing Educator of the Year Award given by the American Marketing Association, and the Philip Kotler Award for Excellence in Health Care Marketing presented by the Academy for Health Care Services Marketing. His numerous other major honours include the Sales and Marketing Executives International Marketing Educator of the Year Award; the European Association of Marketing Consultants and Trainers Marketing Excellence Award; the Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award and the Paul D Converse Award, given by the American Marketing Association to honour ‘outstanding contributions to science in marketing’. In a recent Financial Times poll of 1000 senior executives across the world, Professor Kotler was ranked as the fourth ‘most influential business writer/guru’ of the 21st century.

Dr Kotler has served as chairman of the College on Marketing of the Institute of Management Sciences, a director of the American Marketing Association and a trustee of the Marketing Science Institute. He has consulted with many major US and international companies in the areas of marketing strategy and planning, marketing organisation and international marketing. He has travelled and lectured extensively throughout Europe, Asia and South America, advising companies and governments about global marketing practices and opportunities.