Harvard Business School names Indian-origin Srikant Datar as new Dean

Harvard University in an official statement on Friday named Srikant Datar the dean of its business school. Datar, the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration and the senior associate dean for Harvard Business School (HBS), will become the second consecutive dean hailing from India to lead the most prestigious 112-year-old institution. Datar will begin his service on January 1, 2021, replacing Nitin Nohria, who will leave in December after a decade in the job.

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Harvard names Srikant Datar the dean of Harvard Business School 

Srikant Datar has spent almost 25 years in HBS and also contributed to Harvard's creative response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The official statement released by President Larry Bacow quoted by The Harvard Gazette said that Datar is an innovative educator and distinguished scholar. 

Statement in The Harvard Gazette read, "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. He has served with distinction in a range of leadership positions over his nearly 25 years at HBS, while also forging novel collaborations with other Harvard Schools." 

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Datar joined Harvard Business School in 1996 and since then has held a series of key positions including School's senior associate dean who is in-charge of faculty recruitment and development, executive education, and at present for University affairs. Humbled and honoured to take on this new role, he said,  "Harvard Business School is an institution with a remarkable legacy of impact in research, education, and practice. Yet the events of the past year have hastened our passage to an unforeseen future. I look forward to working with colleagues and friends of the School -- including throughout Harvard, in our Boston community, and around the world -- to realize our mission in what undoubtedly will be an exciting new era." 

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Datar completed his bachelor's degree from the University of Bombay in 1973. Being a chartered accountant, he later completed a postgraduate diploma in business management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahemdabad. He has received his mater's degree in statistics (1983) and economics (1984) and PhD in business (1985), all from Standford University. He served as an assistant professor and associate professor at the Carnegie Mellon Graduate School of Industrial Administration from 1984 to 1989. Datar was also honoured with the George Leland Bach Teaching Award during these years. After this, from 1989 to 1996 he served as a faculty of Standford Graduate School of Business, where he became the Littlefield Professor of Accounting and Management and also received school's distinguished teaching Award. 

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(With agency inputs, Image: The Harvard Gazette)