Harvard Business School gets its first Indian-origin Dean

I / Chicago May 05, 2010, 9:45 IST

Harvard Business School has appointed Indian-origin Nitin Nohria as its 10th Dean, making him the first member from the community to occupy the post in the prestigious institution's 102-year old history.

Nohria, the Richard P Chapman Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS), will take up his new role on July 1, President Drew Faust said today.

A scholar of leadership and organisational change, Nohria has previously been the School's senior associate dean for faculty development and chair of its organisational behaviour unit.

A current co-chair of the HBS Leadership Initiative and member of the HBS faculty since 1988, Nohria succeeds Jay Light, who in December announced his plans to retire at the end of the 2009-10 academic year after five years as dean and four decades of service on the HBS faculty.

"At a pivotal moment for Harvard Business School and for business education more generally, I'm delighted that Nitin Nohria has agreed to lead HBS forward. He's an outstanding scholar, teacher and mentor, with a global outlook and an instinct for collaboration across traditional boundaries," Faust said.

On his appointment as Dean, Nohria said: "I feel a profound sense of responsibility for continuing Harvard Business School's proud legacy of groundbreaking ideas and transformational educational experiences. With business education at an inflection point, we must strive to equip future leaders with the competence and character to address emerging global business and social challenges."

He said as the school enters its second century, he is looking forward to working with the faculty and students "to forge a vision for Harvard Business School that will enable it to remain a beacon for business education for the next 100 years".

Nohria received his bachelor of technology degree in chemical engineering in 1984 from the IIT Mumbai, which awarded him its distinguished alumnus medal in 2007.

He received his Ph.D In management in 1988 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, where he earned the outstanding doctoral thesis award in behavioral and policy sciences.

He joined the HBS faculty as an assistant professor in 1988, was appointed associate professor in 1993, was promoted to tenure in 1997, and became the Richard P Chapman Professor of Business Administration in 1999.

"Nohria will be a wonderful dean of Harvard Business School," said Light.

"He is widely respected within our extended community as a perceptive scholar of leadership and as a thoughtful and able academic leader.