Indian American Rohit Verma Named Dean of University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business
- He currently serves as the founding provost of VinUniversity in Hanoi, Vietnam, as well as a professor of operations, technology and information management at Cornell.
The University of South Carolina has named Rohit Verma as dean of the Darla Moore School of Business, effective August 1. The Indian American joins the school from VinUniversity in Hanoi, Vietnam, “where he serves as the founding provost of the country’s first private, not-for-profit university based on international standards,” according to a university announcement. Verma is also a professor of operations, technology and information management at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business.
Before his role at VinUniversity, Verma served as dean of external affairs at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business. He also served as the executive director of the Center for Hospitality Research and as the founding executive director of the Institute for Healthy Futures. While on leave from Cornell since 2019, Verma has served in several concurrent leadership positions at VinUniversity in Vietnam.
“As a founding member of an international university, Verma was in a unique position to shape the school’s standard of excellence through innovative and decisive leadership,” the University of South Carolina notes. “During his time with VinUniversity, Verma has been able to recruit highly accomplished and diverse academic leaders and faculty from over 10 countries, establish a fully integrated campus life system, and develop curriculum programs for all degree programs based on active learning and experiential learning,” the university added.
In a university press release, USC President Michael Amiridis described Verma as “an award-winning teacher, a successful researcher, and an innovative leader.” He said the new dean’s “excellent academic record and his international perspective will be great complements to the leading-edge work of the Darla Moore School of Business.”
Verma holds a Ph.D. (Business Administration) and MS (Engineering) from the University of Utah, and his bachelor of technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He has published over 75 articles in prestigious academic journals and has also written numerous reports for the industry audience. He regularly presents his research, participates in invited panel discussions, and delivers keynote addresses at major industry and academic conferences around the world.
He has received several awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Production and Operations Management Society’s College of Service Operations; the Spirit of Inquiry Award, the highest honor for scholarly activities within DePaul University; and the Professional Service Award from the David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah. His research publications have received several awards as well.