“We can talk about fate. We can talk about the road less traveled. But sometimes what you plan for is not what happens.” If you’d asked Salman Amin ’85 MBA about his plans when he arrived at Kellogg in 1982, he would have confidently told you he was pursuing a career in banking, while adjusting the calculator clipped to his belt. More than 40 years later, Salman has cemented his place in history as a world-class consumer product marketer, all because of an accidental interview at Procter & Gamble.
Originally from Pakistan, Salman followed in his father’s footsteps and pursued civil engineering in his undergraduate studies. While building tunnels under the city of Chicago, he realized he wanted to find a way to bridge the gap between the engineers like himself and the financiers organizing these large-scale infrastructure projects.
He enrolled at Kellogg with his sights set on a career in banking. In the fall of his second year, Salman received a letter inviting him to interview for a marketing position with Procter & Gamble. Thinking it would be good practice for an interview he had a few days later with Goldman Sachs, he accepted.
“Within the first five minutes, the person interviewing me said, ‘You don’t know the first thing about marketing, do you?’” Salman recalls. He had only taken a few required marketing courses and admitted this to the interviewer, then offered to leave, but the interviewer told him to stay. “I spent the hour just chatting with him, shook hands and left, and I said, ‘Well, I’ll never hear from them again.’”
But a few weeks later, after more interviews and a test, P&G offered Salman a job — one that would change the course of his life and eventually lead him to senior roles at PepsiCo and SC Johnson and the CEO position at Pladis.
“Business school inspired me to think way more broadly than my very narrow frame was leading me toward,” Salman says. “I took the job with P&G, and I never looked back.”
Embracing ambiguity
Salman credits his success in the consumer goods space to a lesson he learned from Professor of Management Liam Fahey at the beginning of his Kellogg journey: embrace ambiguity. Though initially skeptical of the concept thanks to his engineering background, this first message from Kellogg stays fresh in his mind more than 40 years later. “Virtually every decision that I made, whether I was a young brand manager or the CMO or CEO, required a level of ambiguity because the world moves in mysterious ways and markets are changing all the time,” Salman says.
By building a tolerance for ambiguity — and championing consumer needs — Salman has launched new brands, reinvigorated struggling ones and set global standards for consumer marketing that continue to influence the industry today.
“He’s inspired a generation of marketers,” says Raza, Salman’s son. “Wherever he’s been, he’s left a legacy of organizational change. He’s led the charge of what it means to be a modern-day marketer — someone that understands not just advertising, but also how to connect with the consumer.”
A Lifelong Lesson in Understanding each other
Salman’s ability to connect with consumers stems from being a good listener, a skill he learned at Kellogg that has been a cornerstone of his approach to leadership over the past 40-plus years. To Salman, leadership is a perpetual journey and one he plans to continue into his recent retirement. “I have always called [leadership] a journey because I don’t think there’s a destination in mind,” he says. “It’s about becoming better and better and understanding when I’m not at my best as a leader.” Salman is an embodiment of the school's values. “For as long as I can remember, my dad has talked about Kellogg, and about Northwestern, in the highest regard,” says Yawer Amin ’15, Salman’s younger son. In 2025, Salman was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Service Award. “It’s been really meaningful for me to be recognized because I know how high the bar is for Kellogg alumni,” Salman says.
Watch on YouTube
Hear from Salman’s friends and family about this year’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award winner.