Ashish Nanda, director of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), resigned on Thursday, a year before his term ends, citing family reasons. Nanda’s five-year term was to end in September 2018.
In his resignation letter to the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Institute and Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, Nanda cited family reasons for stepping down.
“In the few months that we have worked together, I have seen your unwavering commitment to IIM-A and the passion and zeal with which you have worked for its holistic progress. You have done a wonderful job in the past three-and-a-half years that you have been heading the institute, and I am sure that you will remain engaged with the institute in the future as well,” said Birla after acceping the resignation in a statement shared to the media.
Having worked as Robert Braucher Professor of Practice at Harvard law School, Nanda became the successor to Prof Samir Barua as the IIM-A director in September 2013. Then Chairman of the Board of Governors and Chairman of l&T Group, AM Naik had persuaded Nanda to head the institute and convinced him to come to India from the US.
“Prof Nanda has been a visionary director for the institute. He took remarkable initiatives in the areas of academics and infrastructure to keep the institute thriving with vibrancy. He held a meeting with the faculty and informed them about his decision to step aside,” said a source at the institute.
An alumnus of the 1983 batch of IIM-A, Nanda will continue to hold the charge as director till the end of September 1, 2017.
During his three-and-half years of tenure at the institute, Nanda took important initiatives such as introducing e-PGP courses —online two-year course targeting working executives and entrepreneurs through an interactive onsite learning platform. Nanda’s seven-year experience at Harvard law School and 13-year experience of Harvard Business School provided IIM-A a new dimension with introduction of nearly 15 chaired professorships in areas like leadership, strategic management and societal development.
However, a section of academic circles and IIM-A community members look at the abrupt end of the tenure of Nanda as an unusual one and tries to read beyond the words.
Terming the timing of his exit as a ‘good time as any for leadership transition at the institute’, Nanda wrote to the members of the IIMA Community, “Personally, living a long distance from my wife and son has been a challenge. When I joined, I had committed to serving at most one term. On September 1, it will be four years, to the day, since I took charge. It is a good time to step aside and to hand over the responsibility and honor of leading the institute to the next, fortunate person.”