AHMEDABAD: Professor Ashish Nanda, the director of premier B-school Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), resigned today citing personal reasons.
Nanda, who has been serving as the director for around 3.5 years, will quit the post in September.
He had quit his post at Harvard Law to return to India and his alma mater, after more than 20 years.
“There are two reasons behind the decision and its time. First, my wife and son are far away from here and I want to spend time with them. Besides, the institute is doing great at this time with support and cooperation of the chairman (Kumar Mangalam Birla) and alumni. So this was the right time to take the decision,” Nanda told.
A letter written by Nanda to the IIM-A community reads:
“Dear members of the IIMA community, these past three and a half years, I have woken up every day feeling fortunate to be working for an institution that has contributed tremendously to me. I feel privileged to have followed the footsteps of people I greatly admire, to have had the opportunity to lead the institute at a crucial time in its trajectory, and to have contributed to the best of my ability to its continuing success.”
“I believe we are at a point when there is alignment among various constituencies of the institute as to the direction we ought to follow and considerable momentum along the path that we are following.”
“Thus, I have requested IIM A chairman Mr Birla that I step aside from the position of director, and he has graciously acceded to my request.”
Nanda’s resignation was accepted by the chairman of the institute Kumar Mangalam Birla.
