David B. Montgomery’s prestigious career in marketing science spans decades, continents, and disciplines. A consistent thread has been his dedication to applying scientific methods to marketing challenges, with the goal of deciphering consumer behavior and advancing business strategy. Another constant has been his enduring connection to Stanford University, where he earned four degrees and later served as the GSB’s Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing Strategy, Emeritus. There, along with Dick Wittink, he organized the first Marketing Science Conference in 1979. “This conference has continued to be the major quantitative marketing conference ever since,” say Walt Payne and Paul Violich, both MBA ’62.
Before joining the GSB faculty, David helped advance quantitative approaches to marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management. During this time, he also helped establish the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, now one of India’s premier business schools. Returning to Stanford in 1970, David rose quickly through the ranks to become a full professor in just seven years — an achievement he had aspired to early in his career. He earned a reputation as a generous mentor, encouraging students to test bold ideas and translate theory into practice. Along the way, he wrote several books and hundreds of articles on consumer behavior, competitive strategy, and global markets, and served on the editorial boards of seven leading journals.
David’s influence extends far beyond Stanford. From 2003 to 2005, he served as dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University. Today, he lives in Colorado, where his influence endures through the students he mentored, the fields he shaped, and the lasting relevance of his scholarship in understanding how markets and organizations work. His work has earned him numerous honors and distinctions, including the American Marketing Association Foundation’s Vijay Mahajan Award, which recognizes career contributions to marketing strategy literature.
