Author: Nancy Wise

Learn how Jack Rutledge, BMus’03, MBA’09, a Blair School of Music undergraduate, turned his talent for music and business to become head of catalog and selection for Amazon Music.

Q. What do you do?

My team manages Amazon’s digital supply chain, acquiring audio music files and metadata from record labels, and then presenting those products to customers in ways that make it easy for them to find the music they want to listen to and to discover new music. We have a catalog of more than 35 million tracks, so I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can maintain a high level of quality for our customers across a huge catalog. I also help design the technology platform that enables us to grow our business quickly and have the flexibility to keep up in an industry faced with rapid change and innovation.

Q. What was your first job?

I had lots of first jobs. On the weekends and evenings during high school, I worked at a small hippie grocery store and fruit stand in North Seattle. It was a neighborhood store where we knew all of our customers by name and most customers carried a tab with the store. I spent a lot of rainy Sundays rotating apples, stocking craft beer and refilling the bulk granola containers.

The store had a tiny footprint, so we were always talking with our customers to make sure we carried the products they wanted, in hopes that they wouldn’t get in their cars and drive to one of the larger grocery stores in town.

My first job out of Blair was playing saxophone with a 15-piece salsa band that played nightclubs throughout the Southeast. In 2005, I took my first 9 to 5 job managing the IMAX theater and planetarium at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Q. What’s your educational background? Do you use your degree from Blair in your position?

I finished my undergraduate work in 2003 with a bachelor in musical arts/saxophone performance (with high honors in ethnomusicology) from Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music. Today, I use the knowledge of music, music theory and history I learned at Blair to help design better ways for our customers to discover and explore the Amazon music catalog. From the small task of being able to correctly classify a work as baroque instead of classical to understanding how musicians write, record and perform music, each of these things help me in my daily work.

I graduated from Owen in 2009 with a focus on general management. Not having worked in the business world prior to graduate school, at Owen I wanted to expose myself to as broad a business curriculum as possible. The closest thing to a math class I’d had since high school was music theory, where you learn to count to 12 and then start over again. So I spent as much time as I could exposing myself to new ideas and ways of thinking in classes like Corporate Finance, Business Forecasting, Innovation and Marketing Models. I was also fortunate enough to spend some of my time at Owen with Professor Tim DuBois, developing a better understating of the music business and how technology is influencing that industry. [Note: Tim DuBois, a successful songwriter, music industry executive and major record label head, also taught music business at Owen.]

Q. What drew you to Vanderbilt for your MBA?
After being in Washington, D.C., for almost three years, I was ready to get back to Nashville. I was drawn to and energized by Owen’s small (but mighty) student body and direct access to professors. Also, I had grown up around Nashville and had always regarded the city as a place of opportunity and entrepreneurship, which was a huge attraction. I already knew how special the Vanderbilt community was from my time at Blair and knew that Owen would provide similarly excellent community and opportunities.

Q. How long have you been in your current position?

About eight months. I’ve been with Amazon’s music group since the summer of 2011, initially as a product manager looking after the launches of our Cloud Player recommendations, artist stores, AutoRip and Prime Music services.

Q. How did you get into product management?

I started my work and learning in the music industry as a product manager with Joe Kustelski (BS’93, MBA’08) at Echomusic during my summer internship in 2008, where I was first exposed to the discipline of product management. After graduating Owen, I founded a small business in Nashville called BigData Marketing with a classmate, Rachel Barnhard Whitney (MBA’09). Among my many responsibilities as an entrepreneur, I worked as our product manager. I then moved over to Nashville’s Rockhouse Partners/Etix before finally landing back in Seattle with Amazon. So I really developed my product management chops through a number of startups in the Nashville music and technology space.

Q. What was—or has been—your greatest thrill or accomplishment?

As a product manager, it’s always satisfying to launch a new product to your customers. The launch that’s a highlight for me was our AutoRip service. Now, when you order a CD or vinyl record that has our AutoRip feature, we stick the physical product in the mail to you and for no extra charge, we send the digital version of that album straight to your mobile phone or tablet, saving you the hassle of hours spent on your computer ripping old CDs so you can listen to them on your phone or iPod. Better yet, at launch we added any of your past purchases—all the way back to 1997 when Amazon began selling music—to your Cloud Player locker. Several days after we launched AutoRip, I got a note from a family friend who had bought hundreds of opera CDs from Amazon over the years, but then lost them all in a house fire. We had put all of this music back in his Cloud Player and restored a part of his collection that he had been without for years. I’d spent countless hours over the previous year working with colleagues from around the world trying to launch AutoRip, so getting his note after working so hard was a huge validation and accomplishment.

Q. If you could give other alumni and current students one piece of advice, what would it be?

Listen. So much of our time and effort learning about communication is spent on how to better speak, write, present, post, sell and convince.We often spend so much time on these things that we neglect the other part of communication. Writer Susan Cain said it best: “We have two ears and one mouth and we should use them proportionally.”

Have you ever wanted to ask someone questions about their career path? How I Did It asks those questions for you. Nancy Abbott, EMBA’91, GE Capital Real Estate’s global human resources leader, shares her story about changing fields, charting her own path and being persistent.

Q. What do you do?

I solve business problems and help GE reach its goals and succeed in the marketplace by having the best team on the field. What it takes to do that covers a lot of territory. I, along with very talented teams, have led major company restructurings, divestitures and acquisitions. I’ve owned development initiatives that spanned the entire GE Company. Right now, I’m the Global Human Resources leader for GE Capital Real Estate. My team and I drive organizational change to mirror the changing strategy of our business. Business decisions always have people implications, and as we change our product mix, we need to help employees either learn skills that meet the new demands of the business or find roles that leverage existing skill sets. In my previous role, I was the organization and talent development leader for all of GE Capital, the strategy side of HR. Having that role during periods of rapid growth, followed by the financial crisis and the recession, and then the recovery drew on all my skills and taught me a lot. In every situation, I’ve had the chance to coach leaders and teams to succeed. I love solving problems and like to “get stuff done.”

Q. How long have you been at GE? Why did you join the company?

Unlike most people, I’ve been at GE for my entire career, more than three decades. I grew up in a town near a major GE location. It was the natural place to go for a summer job. I really didn’t appreciate at the time the amount of opportunity, learning and challenge that would come my way when I joined GE full time. I’ve stayed with GE for so long because of the tremendous variety, the commitment to growing me as a professional and as a leader and because of the constant challenge. Whenever I’ve started wondering what new challenge was around the corner for me, another great role came up. I had the chance to chart my own path and do things that I love.

Q. What has been your career path there?

I started out in information technology roles, not what you’d expect given my current job. After a number of moves and great roles, I was approached about a promotion to a chief information officer role for a GE business. I knew that wasn’t for me—much to everyone’s surprise. I liked solving problems through people and developing people, and I wanted to completely change directions. I spent a lot of time talking to anyone in GE who could help me reach my goal and provide advice and mentorship. The move to human resources was completely right for me. But I had to rebuild my skills and gain credibility in a totally new area.

Q. What would you say was your big break or opportunity that put you on this path?

My big break was the chance to work at GE Company headquarters leading the IT Development Programs for our Leadership Development Center. It was the perfect bridge between my technical background and a future in human resources. I learned about hiring the right people, performance management and leadership development. I got to work with professors from top universities to develop curriculum and work with our IT program members, who constantly challenged the status quo … and me.

Q. What was—or has been—your biggest challenge?
Making a career switch is challenging, even within the same company. It meant a move for me away from my husband to work in another location. The dual career balance was challenging for a while, but we made it work. Since we both work for GE, we’re constantly fighting the urge to talk about work all the time.

Q. What was—or has been—your greatest thrill or accomplishment?

Seeing people who I have hired, coached or promoted growing into huge new roles. And instilling a sense of confidence into someone on my team or people that I coach. After a particularly tough and long acquisition project, someone on my team told me, “If I can do this, I can do anything.”

I’ve loved seeing Vanderbilt people that I recruited to GE grow by leaps and bounds. I get to reconnect with them at recruiting events and the Human Capital Case Competition.

Q. What’s your educational background?

I was a behavioral science major at the State University of New York. I spent a year of that time at the University of Copenhagen. Going to school in Europe was an educational experience on many levels. I came away from that time with a broader worldview, a better appreciation for different cultures and approaches, and learned there are many ways to solve a problem. I also came away with a lifelong interest in travel and a confidence that I could take on new challenges and thrive.

Q. What drew you to Owen?

I was drawn to the intimate scale of Owen … I wouldn’t get lost in the crowd. And I liked the team approach. My time at Vanderbilt continues to stand out as a professional highlight. I’ve made lifelong relationships with the school, with professors and with my study group members.

I’m also the lead GE recruiter at the Owen School for GE’s HR Leadership Program, and I sponsor the Human Capital Case Competition. I’m thrilled to stay connected with Owen students on a regular basis—they’re inspiring and fun.

In addition, I served on the alumni board for almost 10 years and was the president of the board for my final two years—an experience I highly recommend to any alum. I felt plugged into developments and changes at the school and expanded my network of Owen friends.

Q. If you could give other alumni and current students one piece of advice, what would it be?

There’s so much out there on career advice, but I think one overlooked trait is persistence. In life, at work—whether you’re in a startup or a huge company, faced with problems large or small—if you lose confidence in yourself or your plan, if you don’t tough out the naysayers, if you don’t keep chipping away at obstacles, you have no chance of achieving your vision. There are many different ways to be persistent that can fit any personality style, so whether you’re a raging type A or have a more consensus-building style, find a way to keep pushing your agenda.