ISB gets a new Dean

After having served as the Dean of Indian School of Business for five years since January 2009, Ajit Rangnekar retired on December 31, 2015. He is succeeded by Professor Rajendra Srivastava, who is the fifth Dean of the premier B-school. He is also the full professor of Business in Marketing and the Novartis Chair Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation.

Previous experiences

Prior to joining ISB, Professor Srivastava was the Provost and Deputy President (Academic Affairs), and LKC Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing Strategy and International Business, at the Singapore Management University (SMU). His experience as an academic and administrator spans over 30 years across North America, Europe and Asia. He has held distinguished research chairs and senior management positions at the University of Texas at Austin and Emory University in Atlanta. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, he holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and an MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Rhode Island.

On-board

Welcoming him, Adi Godrej, Chairman of the ISB Board, said, “Professor Rajendra Srivastava’s appointment as the new Dean of ISB marks a significant step towards our mission of consolidating and strengthening the B-school’s position as a world-class business school. I wish him success with the confidence that ISB will achieve new heights of success in the years to come.”

He went on to thank Ajit Rangnekar for his contributions to ISB over the last decade — first as the Deputy Dean and then as the Dean.

Commenting on his new role, Professor Rajendra Srivastava said, “It is indeed with a sense of immense anticipation and confidence that I take up this very role. ISB has made a mark for itself as a premier B-school in a short span, and has the advantage of having the best of insights from India and Asia that are valued the world over.”

Outgoing Dean Ajit Rangnekar said, “It has been a great personal and professional privilege to have been associated with this wonderful institution. We have been ranked consistently among the top global B-schools and are the first in India to be globally top ranked for research, first to get the AACSB accreditation in South Asia, and the first to innovate with industry specific institutes to address issues of national importance. I am delighted that ISB will be led by a renowned academician and an able administrator like Raj Srivastava.”

A highly published and cited scholar, Professor Srivastava is well-known globally for his work examining the impact of marketing investments on business performance, business model innovation and marketing metrics.

The recipient of several awards and honours, he has been actively involved in setting up several postgraduate and doctoral programmes and research centres and initiatives in close collaboration with industry bringing a unique blend of experiences integrating academic and business perspectives from the west and the east.