In what came as a surprise to many in the academic circles, on Thursday, Prof Ashish Nanda, Director of the Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A) announced that he would be stepping down from the post, well ahead of his five-year term which was to end in September 2018.
In his resignation letter to the chairman of the Board of Governors of the Institute, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Wednesday Nanda had cited family reasons for stepping down. Birla accepted the resignation on Thursday.
Having worked as Robert Braucher Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School, Nanda suceeded Prof Samir Barua as IIM-A director in September 2013. The then chairman of the Board of Governors, Chairman of L&T Group, AM Naik had persuaded Nanda to head the institute and 'convinced him to come to India from the US.'
"Prof Nanda has been a visionary director for the institute. He took remarkable initiatives in the areas of academics and infrastructure to keep the institute thriving and vibrant. He held a meeting with the faculty members and informed them about his decision to step aside," said a source at the Institute. An alumnus of the 1983 batch of IIM-A, Nanda will continue to hold the charge as director till the end of September 1, 2017.
Timing of exit
During his tenure of three-and-half years at the Institute, Nanda undertook several initiatives such as introducing e-PGP courses — an online two-year course targeting working executives and entrepreneurs through an interactive onsite learning platform. Nanda's seven years of experience at Harvard Law School and 13 years of experience of Harvard Business School helped IIM-A gain a new dimension with the introduction of nearly 15 chaired professorships in areas such as leadership, strategic management and societal development.
However, a section of academic circles and IIM-A community members look at the abrupt end of Nanda's tenure as an unusual one and are trying to read between the lines.
Terming the timing of his exit as a 'good time as any for leadership transition at the Institute', Nanda said to the members of the IIM-A Community, in a letter: "Personally, living a long distance from my wife and son has been a challenge. When I joined, I had committed to serving at most one term. On September 1, it will be four years, to the day, since I took charge. It is a good time to step aside and to hand over the responsibility and honour of leading the Institute to the next, fortunate person."
BoG Chairman KM Birla, in a letter to Nanda, said, "In the few months that we have worked together, I have seen your unwavering commitment to IIM-A and the passion and zeal with which you have worked for its holistic progress. You have done a wonderful job in the past three-and-a-half years that you have been heading the Institute, and I am sure that you will remain engaged with the Institute in the future as well."