On Saturday, IIMA’s board of governors (BoG) met for around an hour-and-a-half at the institute and discussed the qualities that the new director should have.
The post of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) director will fall vacant when the current director, Prof Samir Barua, retires in October this year. The process for the selection and appointment of Barua’s successor has already been initiated.
On Saturday, IIMA’s board of governors (BoG) met for around an hour-and-a-half at the institute and discussed the qualities that the new director should have.
The members of the board finally decided that the new director should be relatively young, have experience in academic administration, should emphasise and boost research and is competent to lead the institute to the international level. The IIMA board of governors, perhaps for the first time, is also thinking of considering for the director’s job, candidates of Indian origin who are working in reputed foreign universities.
These qualities are in addition to academic qualifications such as the research done by the candidate and papers published by him in international journals, his institution-building capabilities and expertise in management.
The decision to consider having a director from outside the IIMA — especially from a foreign university or institution — was taken after senior members of faculty emphasised this during a recent interaction with the chairman of the board of governors, L&T chief AM Naik. The agenda of Saturday’s meeting was to discuss and finalise the process for short-listing of candidates. Sources who attended the meeting suggested that no discussion took place on individual applications or specific candidates for the post. “The search and selection panel, headed by AM Naik, has received a large number of applications. The agenda of the meeting was to know the board’s views on the qualities expected in the new IIMA director. Many suggestions were made and considered.
Members suggested that the new director should be somebody who can lead the institute efficiently, especially in the face of fierce competition from foreign institutes coming to India,” one of the sources said. Sources at IIMA said that among the senior members of faculty considered for the top job at the institute are Prof Ravindra Dholakia, Prof Sebastian Morris, Prof Rekha Jain and Prof Arvind Sahay. The sources claimed that contrary to speculation, the current director Prof Samir Barua has not applied for a second term. The search and selection panel could also look for candidates outside the list of applicants for the post, the sources added. The board was also briefed at Saturday’s meeting about the plagiarism case of former professor Rajanish Dass.
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