IIM-Calcutta gets its first woman director as Anju Seth takes charge

Anju Seth's academic career spans for over 25 years

Anju Seth, an alumnus of the oldest Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the country – IIM Calcutta (IIMC), on Friday took over as director of her alma mater thereby becoming the first woman director to lead this prestigious institute.

This is the third instance in the country when a woman has taken the charge as a director in any IIM.

Prior to this, Seth held the position of Pamplin Professor of Management at Virginia Tech, USA. Her key interest areas are corporate strategy, acquisitions, restructuring, strategic alliances and joint ventures, corporate governance and ethics, and globalisation and strategy in emerging economies. 

“I look forward to working with faculty, staff, students, Governors and all other stakeholders to build on the Institute’s strong foundations and accomplish new heights of eminence”, Seth said in a statement.

Her profile on the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University states that her research projects examine the motives and value consequences of cross-border acquisitions, the causes and effects of cross-national corporate governance systems, contract design in strategic alliances and joint ventures, and corporate strategy in business groups.

In the same statement, Shrikrishna Kulkarni, chairperson at the board of IIMC said, “We are indeed delighted that Seth will be the first woman Director of IIMC. She was the unanimous choice of the Search Cum Selection Committee”.

She completed her PhD from the University of Michigan in 1988 while completed her MBA from IIMC a decade earlier. A B.Sc (Honours) from the University of Delhi in the 1976 batch, her academic career spans for over 25 years.

Previously, Seth held the positions of professor and director of Graduate Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and associate professor at the University of Houston. 

Seth also spent several years with the Management Consultancy Division of A.F Ferguson and Co in India prior to receiving her PhD in corporate strategy from the University of Michigan

Many of her scholarly papers have appeared in Strategic Management Journal and Journal of International Business Studies and Seth has also published papers in Review of Economics and Statistics, Managerial and Decision Economics, Journal of Management Studies, California Management Review and several others.

During the past several years she has maintained strong connections with academic and professional organizations in India such as Vedica Scholars Program and many others.