The Master of Professional Studies in Product Management’s 30-credit, 10-course curriculum can be completed in 15-months, with students enrolling in two 3-credit courses per 12-week term.
Fundamentals of Product Management
BiographyAs the Senior Research Program Director in Program Management for Medtronic, the work that UMD alumni Michael O’Connor does on a daily basis makes positive impacts on the health and wellbeing of people all over the world. Medtronic is a global healthcare solutions company committed to improving the lives of people through medical technologies, services, and solutions. Michael works in their operational headquarters located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
While O’Connor has worked at Medtronic for over 20 years, his academic background is unique. After first pursuing two years of engineering, O’Connor earned his bachelor’s degree in business, while at the same time also attending a vocational school which allowed him to acquire hands-on engineering experience. He went on to earn a Master of Science (M.S) in technology management from the University of St. Thomas engineering school, a second M.S. in project management from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a Doctorate in Project Management from the University of Maryland’s Project Management Center of Excellence.
O'Connor is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Executive Council.
Business Modeling and Customer Validation
BiographyDan Gordon has over 30 years of experience working with technology, as a computer scientist, software developer, manager, analyst, and entrepreneur. As a technology partner with Valhalla Partners, Dan brings together the most respected and successful venture investors in the region. Valhalla Partners' present and past investments have resulted in 27 M&As, 22 IPOs, and over $1 billion in investment proceeds. Prior to joining Valhalla Partners, Dan was a director and senior staff member at the PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Technology Centre, analyzing technology trends and consulting on technology-oriented strategies in the software, e-business, wireless, optical, networking, semiconductor, and life sciences arenas. He worked with clients from North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. Dan was a Contributing Writer and Contributing Editor to the Technology Centre's annual Technology Forecast, and a frequent speaker at industry and general business meetings. Prior to joining PwC, Dan spent 20 years in Silicon Valley as a software technologist, manager, director, and entrepreneur, including senior technical roles at well-known Silicon Valley firms like Symantec, Intuit, and Oracle. Dan has also been involved in startup companies in the applied artificial intelligence and web applications fields. Dan has a BA from Harvard University and an MS from New York University in Computer Science.
Strategies for Managing Innovation
BiographyDr. Flank is an inventor and entrepreneur with experience in innovation leadership that encompasses artificial intelligence, anti-counterfeiting, drug delivery, sensor technology, and 3D printing. As a co-inventor for a defense contractor’s first intellectual property (SRA, now General Dynamics), she created and then managed the patent process and helped create the spinout company (eMotion, funded by Chicago Tribune, Kodak, and GE; now part of OpenText and of Getty Images), which she later joined, eventually as CTO.
For her own venture-backed company, InfraTrac, she secured angel and venture investment, licensed university intellectual property, established a market niche in in-dose pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting, and then pivoted to the more successful 3D printing security market after FDA mandated bar codes on packaging and disrupted the pharma market. InfraTrac has successfully delivered proof-of-concept 3D-printed security taggants as part of a military aerospace program. Dr. Flank continues to innovate, with 3D nanoprinting for precision controlled delivery, jointly developed with University of Maryland faculty.
Dr. Flank holds an A.B. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Data Analysis and Decision Making
BiographyDr. Baecher is a geotechnical engineer by training but has spent much of his career working on risk and reliability of civil infrastructure, and statistical methods for spatial sampling and data visualization. Immediately prior to joining UMCP he was President of ConSolve Inc, an information technology company located in Lexington, MA. Prior to that, he was Professor of Civil Engineering at MIT. He is an active consultant to government and industry on risk and reliability of constructed facilities, especially in water resources development, dam safety, and coastal protection.
Innovative Thinking
BiographyFrankie Abralind is the founder of HTA Design Thinking, a business strategy consulting firm that uses the human-centered process to help companies grow. His expertise is in design thinking, service design, and user experience. Frankie is the director of Design Thinking DC, a 2,200 member community of design thinkers in Washington, DC. He brings together people from business, design, technology and beyond to learn and share best practices and creative solutions. Frankie is a champion of radical collaboration on methodologies, practices, and experiences to facilitate and deliver innovation in the world. Previously, Frankie served as creative director for Branson & Byrne, a creative marketing agency, and in executive operational and marketing roles with manufacturing firms. After studying design at Cornell University, Frankie earned his MBA at the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business.
Fundamentals of Product Management & Managing Product Development and Operations
BiographyJohn Johnson serves as the Strategic Program Manager at the University of Maryland, College Park, Project Management Center for Excellence. He leads the initiatives that help grow the Project Management Center for Excellence across its three pillars: Academic Excellence, Outreach and Professional Development, and Research. He is primarily responsible for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) program, which currently is educating over 100,000 enrolled learners across the world. Mr. Johnson also teaches graduate courses on Agile and Predictive management at the University of Maryland’s Project Management Program. Mr. Johnson serves as the Strategic Advisor for Softek Enterprises LLC. Established in 2007, Softek specializes in evolving business systems using Agile, DevOps, and Cloud technologies to deliver working solutions faster for the government’s most critical IT challenges. Previously, Mr. Johnson served as CTO of Sotek and worked closely with senior Agency influencers to explore and develop solutions. During his tenure he more than doubled Softek revenue annually, while leading multiple deliveries for clients and partners. Prior to Softek, Mr. Johnson served as Senior Agile Project Manager with IBM, where he led multiple development teams building applications for the National Archives Records Administration (NARA). These applications were built on Amazon’s Gov Cloud (AWS) with cutting-edge cloud technologies to process, store, and search the hundreds of petabytes of government records expected at NARA by 2020. This project won “Project of the Year” across all of IBM globally for its success in project management innovation in 2015. He also worked as a Management Consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led projects for the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy from optimizing site investments and posture for Reserve forces, to developing award-winning project analysis and portfolio management software to optimize billions in shore energy investments.
Negotiation and Problem-Solving
BiographyCynthia M. Gayton, Esq. holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University and a Juris Doctor degree from George Mason University School of Law. Cynthia is a member of both the State Bar of Virginia and the District of Columbia Bar.
She is the owner of Gayton Law, in Arlington, Virginia which concentrates on small business formation, intellectual property, information technology, and business transactions/contracts.
In addition, she has worked for the federal government, in the private sector and for non-profit organizations. Ms. Gayton is the author of “Legal Aspects of Engineering, Design and Innovation” published by Kendall-Hunt in January 2017. She has written several articles on smart contracts, IP and blockchain. She is the co-host of the Art on the Blockchain podcast with Jeff "DJ J Scrilla" Clarkin.
Financing the Product Life Cycle
BiographyMichael Pratt teaches and mentors students in University of Maryland's Minor in Technology Entrepreneurship Program and the General Education Program of the University. His career spans 35 years in management and finance, in both domestic and international organizations, and almost two decades in startups and venture capital, having raised over $100 million for eleven different startup ventures. Michael is the co-founder and Managing Partner in Select Venture Partners LLC, an early stage, post-seed/pre-Series A investment management firm. Prior to co-founding Select, he was co-founder and CEO of SpydrSafe Mobile Security, Inc., a mobile application security management platform that safeguarded enterprise data by controlling apps on smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android). SpydrSafe was acquired in February 2014. Prior to SpydrSafe, he was COO of CardStar, Inc., a mobile loyalty company sold to Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT). From 2006 to 2010, Michael was the CFO/COO of Trust Digital, Inc., a venture-backed Mobile Device Management company sold to McAfee (NYSE: MFE). Prior to Trust, he was CFO of Galt Associates, Inc., a venture-backed software company sold to Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN) in July 2006. His earlier professional experience includes CEO of CrossMedia Networks Corp.; CEO of Point of Care Technologies (sold to Siemens Healthcare in 1999); various senior finance and operating roles with Mobil Corporation, including President and General Manager of three Mobil subsidiaries. Michael began his professional career with Arthur Andersen & Co. He holds a BS in Finance from East Carolina University, an MBA from Massey University in New Zealand, and an MS in Marketing from Johns Hopkins University.
Building and Leading Innovative Organizations
BiographyMr. Rathod currently works with various corporate and government clients. He leads a team of seasoned product management mentors at Northrop Grumman as a Senior Consultant. At the Social Security Administration, he is advising the CIO’s Office, Executive Management, Office of Enterprise Architecture and the office of the Chief Business Officer on scaling Product Management to the enterprise level. He works on defining and aligning Business Architecture, Value Stream Mapping, Product Portfolio Management, Strategy Execution Framework using OKRs & KPIs and alignment of funding models with value driven prioritization. In other assignments, he has been involved with rolling out Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure Automation, Tooling & Security across AWS & Azure. A passion for academics led him to teach Project Management at Towson University (400-series undergraduate level) from 2011 to 2016. He continues to teach the PMP Prep Course at Towson University’s Center for Professional Studies. Mr. Rathod also teaches Agile Project Management & PMP Prep at UMBC Training Centers. In the past, he has taught at Baltimore County Community College, Howard Community College and University of Maryland Global Campus. Mr. Rathod is currently teaching a flipped classroom style full-stack Product Management Certification course at The Product School in Silicon Valley, California. He evaluates start-ups for investor groups such as USM Maryland Momentum Fund, provides organizational transformation consulting to non-profits such as The American Chemical Society in Washington D.C. He conducts corporate trainings in Product Management, Agility, Change Management, etc. for private organizations such as T. Rowe Price & Northrop Grumman, mentors Executive Leadership, and advises large businesses on rolling out and scaling Product Management practices in alignment with their Project Delivery and Operations frameworks to maximize value creation.
