Indian Origin Professor Srikant Datar Named As Next Dean Of Harvard Business School; Know More About Him

Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced he name of Professor Srikant Datar as the next Dean of the institution. He will succeed Nitin Nohria who served as the dean for the last 10 years.

Image (The Harvard Gazette)

New Delhi: Harvard Business School (HBS) on Friday announced the name of the Indian origin professor Srikant Datar as its next dean. He will succeed Indian American professor Nitin Nohria whose term ended in June this year. Datar will not only be the 11^th Dean of the business school but is also the second consecutive Indian origin Dean to lead the 112-year-old institution. Datar who will begin his term from January 1, 2021, is currently the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration and the senior associate Dean for University Affairs. "Srikant Datar is an innovative educator, a distinguished scholar, and a deeply experienced academic leader. He is a leading thinker about the future of business education, and he has recently played an essential role in HBS's creative response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic," said President Larry Bacow in a report by the university news website, The Harvard Gazette. The 66-year-old who is a Chartered Accountant, graduated from the University of Mumbai in 1973 with distinction in mathematics and economics. He completed his postgraduate diploma in business management from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. He also holds two two master's degrees and a doctorate from Stanford University. According to information in the university website, Datar is considered as a dedicated and innovative teacher. He has even received awards for teaching such as the George Leland Bach Award for Excellence in the Classroom at Carnegie Mellon University where he taught as Associate Professor and the Distinguished Teaching Award at Stanford University where he was also part of the faculty from 1989 to 1996. "He is also a warm, generous, and thoughtful colleague and mentor — someone whose leadership experience, intimate knowledge of HBS, deep devotion to the institution, and talent for catalyzing constructive change all promise to serve the School and the University," said Bacow in the Harvard Gazette. He joined HBS  in 1996 and at the university he teaches MBA, and his interest also lies in design thinking, innovation, big data, and strategy implementation. He has also started new courses on 'Developing Mindsets for Innovative Problem Solving' and 'Managing with Data Science' at the university. He also serves on the Board of Directors of seevral corportaes such as ICF International, Novartis AG, Stryker Corporation, and T-Mobile US.