Naomi Cohen Cody

MBA Marketing, Finance, Strategy and Entrepreneurship Class of 2005

Senior Brand Development Manager
Unilever

Simon helped open Naomi Cohen Cody's eyes and mind to a vast new frontier—marketing—taking her from a career as a technology consultant to her current position in brand management. "Simon helped me forge a career turnaround,"  says Naomi, Senior Brand Development Manager for Unilever's Breyers line. "Before Simon, I would never even have considered marketing. I thought it was just all about making TV commercials. My time at Simon helped me choose a career path that I am truly fulfilled by."

Naomi says she regularly refers to her Simon marketing notes and books, especially Pricing and Product Development. "The fundamentals of what we learned in class, I am able to apply on a daily basis," she says. "As a marketer, I am so glad I also did the Finance curriculum. I think about Cliff Smith’s class almost weekly, and relate his risk taking/hedging/options theory in my marketing and product development projects. I am also responsible for a P&L, so knowing all the basic accounting has been a life saver."

Naomi's Simon education prepared her well for her return to the competitive work world, helping her learn how to think independently while also performing within a team. She says the School's quarter system forces a student to be “always on,” much like it is in the business world, and that Simon's small class and team sizes mean students cannot afford to coast. "Everyone is accountable, which is what the real world is like," Naomi says.

"I loved the challenge of the classwork at Simon, the attentiveness of the professors and breadth of subjects I was able to study."