Professor Pankaj Chandra is the Vice Chancellor and Chairman, Board of Management of Ahmedabad University since October 2015. He was the Director of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (2007-2013) and Professor of Operations & Technology Management at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore. He holds a B.Tech. from the Banaras Hindu University and a Ph.D from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has taught at various institutions such as McGill University in Montreal, University of Geneva, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, International University of Japan, Cornell University, Renmin University, Beijing and IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA). He has worked briefly with The World Bank in Washington DC. He was the Chairperson of the Doctoral Programme at IIM Ahmedabad and the first Associate Dean (Academic) at ISB, Hyderabad. He was part of the founding team at the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIMA and its first Chairperson.

Professor Chandra has served as member of the Government of India Committee on Clusters for Development of the Informal Sector. He was a member of the two High Powered Committees – the Government of India Committee on Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee) that relooked at the Indian Higher Education system as well as the Committee on the Autonomy of Central Institutions. He was a member of two Steering Committees constituted by the Planning Commission of India for 12th Plan Development, one on Higher & Technical Education (where he also chaired the Sub-Committee on Student Financial Aid), and the other on Industry. He was a member of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) subcommittee on Teacher Education. Until recently, he was also a member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Professor Chandra’s research and teaching interests include Manufacturing Management, Supply Chain Coordination, Building Technological Capabilities, higher education policy, and hi-tech entrepreneurship. He has published extensively in international refereed journals and has served on the editorial boards of several international journals. His forthcoming book studies issues of Governance, Change & Institution Building in Indian Universities. He has been conducting the national survey on Competitiveness of Indian Manufacturing since the last 20 years.

Professor Chandra has been involved in several startups, has also been a consultant to large Indian and multi-national firms and serves on the Boards & Academic Councils of several firms and institutions (Mindtree, BIRAC, NID, IGIDR, Srishti School of Art, Design &Technology, Film & Television Institute of India, IIT Jodhpur, IIIT Bangalore, IIIT Dharwad, BHU). His upcoming book is titled ‘Building Universities that Matter : Where are Indian Institutions Going Wrong?’ and published by Orient Blaackswan.