Srilata (Sri) Zaheer is an Indian academic administrator serving as the 12th and current dean of the Carlson School of Management at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. She holds its Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility in the Department of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship

Early life and education

Zaheer grew up in

Durgapur Durgapur () is a planned tier-II urban agglomeration and a major industrial city in Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the fourth largest urban agglomeration after Kolkata, Asansol and Siliguri in West Bengal ...

in West Bengal, India and attended high school in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. She pursued a Bachelor of Science in physics from the Women’s Christian College at Madras University. She then earned her MBA with a focus on finance and control from the

Indian Institute of Management The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are central government-owned-public business schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of busine ...

and then a PhD in international management from the

Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, a ...

at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Career

After earning her MBA in 1975, Zaheer worked for multinationals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Sandoz (India) Ltd. In 1981, she moved to Nigeria with her husband and began working as a journalist for Business International as well as teaching at a university. She attended the Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1986 to 1992, where she completed a dissertation comparing the role of incentives and culture on risk-taking and performance in U.S. and Japanese banks.

Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

Zaheer accepted a faculty position as assistant professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management in 1992. She has held a number of positions at the school, including as a department chair, PhD coordinator, and the associate dean of faculty and research. Her work has been honored by such organizations as the Academy of International Business and the Academy of Management. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, and a former Consulting Editor of the Journal of International Business Studies. On March 8, 2012, Zaheer was appointed dean of the Carlson School of Management. She is the twelfth person to hold the position, the second woman to do so, and the first person of Indian descent to serve as dean at the University of Minnesota.

Volunteerism, awards, and recognition

On January 1, 2020, Zaheer was appointed as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ board of directors. She has served on the board in other capacities since January 2017.

Personal life

Zaheer is married to Aks Zaheer, who is the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Strategic Management at the Carlson School. They first met on stage in a play in their first year at business school. They have two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaheer, Sri Women's Christian College, Chennai alumni Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad alumni MIT Sloan School of Management alumni People from Durgapur, West Bengal Carlson School of Management faculty Women educators from West Bengal Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American people of Indian descent