Sushil Vachani, Professor of Strategy and Policy at Boston University School of Management, has been named the new Director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore.

Prof. Vachani, who has a BTech in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group for about a year before joining Boston University as a Professor of Strategy and Innovation. He was a finance manager with Tata Motors in Mumbai between 1977 and 1980, before moving to Boston. He had also been a member of Tata Administrative Service, the core management cadre of the Tata group.

Vachani has been the front-runner for the post. The selection of candidates from abroad was made possible last year after the ministry initiated a move to allow each IIM to shortlist its own candidates for the posts of Director and Chairman.

His name was shortlisted by IIM Bangalore's board of governors and approved by the Union Human Resource Development ministry. "He has many very good publications to his credit. He is well-traveled and well respected, not just in India, but globally," according to a senior academician at IIM-B.

Vachani’s areas of research interest include the impact of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on international business; the role of governments, NGOs and multinational enterprises (MNEs) in reducing poverty; impact of globalisation and global governance on MNEs; MNE-government relations; management of diversified MNEs; management in developing countries and the internationalisation of small firms.
 
Mukesh Ambani, the chairperson of IIM-B's board of governors and chairman of Reliance Industries had suggested Vachani's name after the incumbent director Pankaj Chandra declined to accept the extension offer.  Chandra’s name was recommended along with the names of Vachani and another professor for the top job by the board of IIM Bangalore a few months ago.

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