According to a report from Indian Express, Harvard professor Dr Ashish Nanda is set to take over as director of IIM Ahmedabad. It is the first time an academic from an overseas institute will head any of the 13 IIMs.
His appointment is subject to the final approval of the appointments committee of the Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister, the report published on April 24, 2013 added.
An IIM-A alumnus of 1983 batch, Dr Nanda is currently Robert Braucher Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School. Besides this, he is Faculty Director of Executive Education at Harvard Law School and Research Director for Case Development and International Internships at the Program on the Legal Profession and the Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry.
He has a rich academic and industry experience of over 25 years. Before joining Harvard Law School in 2007, Professor Nanda was a Harvard Business School faculty member for 13 years, where he taught ‘Professional Services’ in the MBA program and continues to teach in the school’s executive education courses.
Dr Nanda has a PhD in business economics (Harvard University), AM in Economics (Harvard University), PGDM (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad), and B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi). Before coming to Harvard for his PhD, he worked for five years with the Tata group of companies as Tata Administrative Services (TAS) officer.
A new Director at IIM-Ahmedabad is awaited since November 2012 when Dr Samir Barua completed his tenure. The delay in selection of the new director, however, resulted in two short extensions for Dr Barua.
The search for the new director in IIM-A had begun with advertisements published in national and international media in the month of July-August last year. The advertisement also published in ‘The Economist’, sought application from candidates who could stand up to global challenges.
According to sources privy to the developments, members of the search committee were vertically divided over whether the new director will be an internal candidate or not. While some members were keen on one of around 10 IIM professors lobbying hard for the post, others preferred an outsider, preferably from an overseas institution.
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