Srikant Datar becomes dean of Harvard Business School, second consecutive Indian to achieve feat

Srikant Datar, an alumnus of University of Bombay and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been named as the dean of Harvard Business School and will assume charge on January 1.

Srikant Datar is an eminent academician and is currently the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration and the senior associate dean for University Affairs.

Datar received his bachelor’s degree with distinction in 1973 from the University of Bombay and went on to acquire his post-graduation diploma in business management from IIM. He then went on to acquire his masters in statistics and economics before his Ph.D in business from Stanford University.

Datar became an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon Graduate School of Industrial Administration in 1984. In 1989, he left the institution as an associate professor. Between 1989 and 1996, he served on the faculty of Stanford Graduate School of Business rising to become the Littlefield Professor of Accounting and Management and also securing the school’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

From 1996 onwards, Datar served on the faculty of HBS securing varied key positions – as the senior associate dean responsible for faculty recruiting, faculty development, executive education, research and finally for University affairs.

In 2015, Datar became the faculty chair of the Harvard Innovation Labs and is currently engaged in implementing the innovative hybrid teaching and learning model that was adopted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Datar has presented his research and conducted workshops and led discussions around the world. He has also written numerous papers and cases based on enterprises abroad and is the co-chair of the HBS Senior Executive Program – Africa that was launched in 2016.

Datar has been the co-author of several books and has played a key role in launching the M.S.-M.B.A in biotechnology and life sciences and the M.S.-M.B.A. in engineering sciences.

Datar becomes the second consecutive Indian to become dean of HBS taking over from Nitin Nohria. He is also the 11th dean in the School's 112 year history.