Varun Nagaraj

Dr. Varun Nagaraj is Dean and Professor of Information Management and Analytics at S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai.

He is a self-styled “pracademic” who moved into management education after a three-decade industry career spanning Silicon Valley and Boston. Before joining academia in 2021, he held senior leadership and C-suite roles at venture-funded start-ups and public companies, with a career focused on product innovation across networking, data-centre computing, IoT and AI.

He was Chief Operating Officer at Bidgely, President and CEO of Sierra Monitor Corporation, GM of IoT and Senior Vice President of Product Management at Echelon Corporation, and CEO of Aprius and NetContinuum. Earlier, he held product management and leadership roles at Extreme Networks, Ellacoya Networks, PRTM Management Consulting and Hewlett Packard.

Alongside his industry career, he taught at Boston University, the University of Notre Dame and Pepperdine University. He joined SPJIMR as Dean and Professor in September 2021.

His academic and research interests centre on wise innovation — purposeful innovation undertaken for the right reasons and in the right way, with a focus on driving societally desirable outcomes. His other areas of interest include product management, design thinking, entrepreneurship and venturing, digital ecosystems and platforms, and innovation.

At SPJIMR, he teaches the mandatory foundational course on wise innovation, along with courses on product management and entrepreneurship, and is a member of the faculty teaching groups on design thinking and systems thinking.

He serves on the Board of Directors of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), representing the Asia Pacific region, with his three-year term commencing in July 2026. He is the first Indian representative on the AACSB Board in its 110-year history, and the first individual representing an India-based institution to serve on the Board. He is also on the Board of Advisors of ESSCA School of Management, is a member of the EFMD Indian Business Council, and serves on the Boards of Advisors of Yuva Parivartan and Case Western Reserve University. He is an Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Annual Conference, CTO Track.

He has a PhD in Management, with an emphasis on Designing Sustainable Systems, from Case Western Reserve University; an MBA in Finance and Strategy from Boston University; an MS in Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University; and a BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay.

A prolific commentator on management education, AI in business, ethical leadership and family enterprise, he has contributed to and been featured in publications including Analytics Insight, Business Today, BusinessWorld, Forbes India, Fortune India, India Today, Mint, Psychology Today, The Economic Times, The Hindu Business Line, The Ken and The Week.

Wise innovation, responsible technology, product innovation, management education, entrepreneurship and the evolving role of business in society are among his key areas of interest.