An MBA-carrying pop music recording executive? Perhaps some day, but for now Derek Kwan, a first-year MBA student at the UW-Madison School of Business, is thrilled after helping to produce the Grammy Award-winning Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.

Kwan was associate producer for "Bebo De Cuba," featuring Bebo Valdes (Calle 54 Records), which won the award. He also co-produced another album, "Una Noche Inolvidable" featuring the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Arturo O'Farrill (Palmetto Records), which was also nominated in the same category.

"It's exciting, but it's not about me; it's about the artists," Kwan says. "I'm just happy to be along for the ride. That's what I'm hoping to do with my career, to facilitate and provide meaningful opportunities for the artists."

A native of Los Angeles, he earned his undergraduate degree in political science and music at Duke. He worked at Jazz at Lincoln Center as the associate director for programming and concert operations in New York for five years before coming to the School of Business. In addition to producing live concerts, he gained experience producing records, in which he worked closely with the performing artists, helping them choose their repertoire and selecting the best takes during the mixing process.

Kwan hopes that earning his MBA in Arts Administration at UW-Madison will help him develop a career as a producer of a wider variety of art performance, including classical music and dance. As part of his studies with the Bolz Center, he is working as the education and outreach coordinator for UW-Madison's Union Theater.