When Robert Neer decided to join the inaugural MBA mentorship program at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, little did he know that he’d still be a key mentor more than a decade later.
Already a leader in product management while attending UW Foster’s Technology Management MBA program, Neer graduated in 2004 then continued to develop his skillset at Fortune 100 companies including Disney, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and Walgreens.
Neer also continued to stay connected with the Foster School of Business, joining the Foster Alumni Advisory Board then receiving a Foster Alumni Professional Achievement Award in 2006. “I was always interested in staying connected to the Technology Management MBA program and the University of Washington,” he said, “but I don’t think I saw it in myself to be a mentor.”
That all changed when Susie Buysse, Director of Career Management, invited Neer to share his insight as a leader in product management and help build the Foster MBA mentorship program that launched in 2014.
“Robert is a thoughtful, decisive executive leader with broad, diverse expertise across multiple disciplines, including product management and engineering,” Buysse said. “He genuinely cares about supporting others’ growth and success in their careers and generously shares his time and expertise. Robert was a natural choice for our inaugural group of mentors.”
Students in the Technology Management MBA (TMMBA) Class of 2025 shown with their TMMBA alumni mentors before graduation in May 2025 include, left to right, Abel Charrow (2025), Erik Logan (2016), Peter Lee (2025), Shaili Guru (2018), Brian Johnson (2014), Ajith Prabhakara (2014), Christopher Garcia (2025), Kruti Gosalia (2019), Chandini Bhambhani (2025), Oanh (Olivia) Tran (2025), Gloria Bosson (2025), Shwetal Mokashi (2018) and Robert Neer (2004).
Foster MBA Mentorship Program ‘Built on Trust and Authenticity’
Each October, the Foster MBA mentorship program pairs students with alumni who help them navigate career decisions and leadership challenges through one-on-one mentoring relationships. The nine-month mentorship program is open to students from the Foster School’s Technology Management MBA, Hybrid MBA, Executive MBA and Global Executive MBA programs.
“We have seen this over time that a one-to-one mentoring relationship really works best when it’s viewed as a true partnership, built on trust and authenticity, so that both people feel comfortable sharing advice and ideas openly,” Buysse said at an information session to Foster MBA students interested in joining the opt-in mentorship program in 2025. “We believe it’s very important to set a clear, realistic goal for what you want to achieve in the program.”
Students are expected to drive the engagement and discussion, from setting up the initial outreach and suggesting the cadence of meetings, to co-creating an agenda and maintaining correspondence between meetings.
“This is a special, unique opportunity for our mentees to really have direct engagement with industry leaders who have walked the walk,” Mikaela Boyd, Associate Director of Career Management, told students at the information session. “These alumni have made some really successful career transitions and career growth opportunities post-MBA, so they can speak directly to their individual experiences on how they’ve leveraged their Foster MBA, and how they’ve made critical decisions at certain junctures in their career.”
Through the Foster MBA Mentorship program, mentee Gloria Bosson (MBA 2025) was paired with mentor Robert Neer (MBA 2004).
Leadership, Relationships and Adaptability
The mentorship program was an “invaluable experience” for Gloria Bosson, a 2025 alumna of the Technology Management MBA who is also a Senior Product Manager and entrepreneur. “It has really helped me with my career growth and also built my confidence.”
She and Neer joined the student information session to share their unique experience as mentee and mentor.
“The top three things I have taken from Robert’s engagement are the importance of leadership,” Bosson said, “the value of strong relationships, and the need to stay adaptable in today’s fast-changing technology landscape.”
These are lessons Neer also had the opportunity to sharpen with his experience in the Technology Management MBA (TMMBA) program. Early in his career, he navigated difficult decisions as departments around him dissolved, all while stepping into the unexpected challenge of taking over leadership of a large organization.
“I took what I learned in the Technology Management MBA program – from my peers, professors, leadership courses – and navigated a tough career moment where I was thrust into something I was completely unprepared for,” Neer said.
Foster mentor Robert Neer has held influential leadership roles at Fortune 100 companies including Disney, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and Walgreens.
Early Leader in Product Management
Though challenging, Neer quickly realized the value of sharing this experience as a mentor.
“When Susie (Buysse) asked me to be a mentor, she sparked introspection into the trajectory of my career,” Neer said. “Being a few steps ahead of a lot of the students then, I thought maybe I could help them learn through their own challenges.”
Since then, Neer has continued to build world-class product management, design and engineering teams, and has leveraged his core product management leadership skills across diverse industries. He has held influential leadership roles including Vice President of Product at Walgreens in both Pharmacy and Healthcare business units, Vice President of Product & Engineering at Best Buy and general manager of their Seattle Technology Development Center, Principal Product Manager at Amazon, Director of Product at T-Mobile, and Director of Product Development at The Walt Disney Company.
Now he adds entrepreneurship to the mix as co-founder of Goods, a product transformation and development agency that helps organizations accelerate their product model and maximize the effectiveness of their teams.
“Prior to working with Robert, I’d had a narrow set of experiences and exposure to technology careers,” said David Reid (MBA 2022), who mentored with Neer while in the UW Foster Hybrid MBA program and is now a Principal Customer Success Consultant at Qualtrics. “Robert helped me to understand a broader scope of roles and companies and prepared me to approach my application and interview processes with those companies.”
Neer’s mentorship approach also helped Jennifer Einberg, a 2019 alumna of the Technology Management MBA program, navigate tech without having a traditional tech background. “Robert filled in my knowledge gaps on how the big companies hire and operate, preparing me to interview,” said Einberg, who is now Lead Technical Program Manager at Mastercard.
“Robert is someone I can always reach out to when I have questions,” she said. “He is still my mentor, more than five years after graduation.”
Robert Neer, shown with UW Foster School of Business Dean Frank Hodge, is an inaugural member of the Foster MBA mentorship program that launched in 2014.
Opening Doors to New Industries
Over the years, Neer has noticed that many of the students he’s mentored are seeking to make a career transition, often into product management or to narrow in on tech.
He recently checked in with all his mentees “and found that in almost every single case, the time we spent together seemed to coincide with a pretty big career pivot,” Neer said. “That’s gratifying to see that I was maybe able to help nudge a little bit and make people successful.”
Because Neer finds so much value in the networking and connections that are formed through a Foster MBA, he also passes that approach on to his mentees.
“Robert took time to help me map out what companies and careers I’d be interested in and helped connect me with leaders in those companies for informal conversations,” Reid said. “Those conversations with Robert’s peers were deeply impactful for me, they helped to shape the way I think about leadership, self-development, and gave me the confidence to believe I could make a career change.”
Product leader Robert Neer says there are “unexpected benefits” of being a mentor to students in the Foster School of Business Executive MBA, Global Executive MBA, Hybrid MBA and Technology Management MBA programs.
Mutual Benefits of Mentorship
As much as he enjoys working with Foster MBA mentees, Neer says there are “unexpected benefits” that are just as valuable for him as a mentor. “It helps me hone my skills in terms of being coach at work and helping build talent in my own professional context,” he said.
Remaining active with the program also helps him understand the motivations that drive new students to pursue an MBA and what different challenges they face in the evolving workforce. “TMMBA in particular brings people with a history of work experience that just feed my curiosity about the business world,” Neer said.
“Everyone is in this program for their own individual career growth and business leadership. I see the mentorship program as this great harness between helping people accelerate what they’re learning and activating it out in the world.”
Learn more about the mentorship program and Career Management programs for the UW Foster Executive MBA, Global Executive MBA, Hybrid MBA and Technology Management MBA programs.