Growing up in the heart of Wisconsin’s paper industry, Vince Abney (BBA ’08) always thought a career in consumer packaged goods was in his future.
While the business skills he learned at WSB would lead him to finance roles at Kimberly-Clark and Proctor & Gamble, they’d also facilitate future pivots across job functions, and ultimately, across industries.
He honed many of those skills in the classrooms of WSB instructors like Loren Kuzuhara (MBA ’93, PhD ’94) and Belinda Mucklow. But Vince says it wasn’t just the instructors who made an impact on him.
“I remember being struck by how impressive all of my classmates were,” he says. “It truly was a place where I could bounce ideas off of people and really learn from them.”
Ultimately, Vince would break into the tech industry and spend nearly a decade working at Google in various strategic partnership roles. He then moved to Adobe to work on an emerging technology gaining steam in the industry: artificial intelligence.
“What drew me to this this role was the opportunity to work at the intersection of creativity, productivity, and generative AI,” he says.
His work has implications for Adobe’s flagship products, including Photoshop, Acrobat, and Illustrator. With millions of users relying on these programs, it’s a responsibility he takes seriously—and one he hopes will help users express their creativity more effectively.
“There are people whose entire livelihoods are dependent upon our products,” he says. “That’s pressure, but it’s good pressure. I can draw a very clear line between my work and how it makes a positive impact in someone’s life.”