AM Naik, Chairman of engineering major L&T, on Thursday announced his resignation from the post of Chairman of the Indian Institute of Management — Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
“It took me six months to take this decision. It was becoming impossible to take time out of my schedule (to look after the affairs at IIM-A). L&T is a giant work. It has 78 businesses under 21 companies. And I am an active Chairman. The resignation is purely out of over-work and time constraint and nothing else,” Naik told BusinessLine over phone.
Naik held the post since 2012 after he took charge from Vijaypath Singhania, Chairman of the Raymond Group.
On completion of his first three-year term, Naik was reappointed for a second term early this year, and was to hold office till 2018.
During his term as Chairman, Naik has been credited with bringing some of the top brains to spearhead management education at the premiere institute. “I did my best while being at IIM-A. I got the best Director for IIM-A [Ashish Nanda] from Harvard. I reconstituted the board and brought senior Harvard professor Srikant Datar on it. I am content for having been able to change the concept of management teaching,” Naik said.
It was during Naik’s tenure, that IIM-A’s Board of Governors underwent rationalisation and its size was reduced to 15 members, from 25. Naik was considered the most vocal of IIM Chairmen, speaking and expressing strong views on the draft IIM Bill.