From IIM Kozhikode and IIM Raipur to Vice-Chancellor at RV University.
Reflecting on my journey from Professor at IIM Kozhikode (joined May 2019), through the transformative deputation as Director at IIM Raipur (March 2022 to July 2025), and onward to Vice-Chancellor at RV University, I find myself returning, again and again, to gratitude.
The journey at IIM Kozhikode began in May 2019, navigating the unprecedented disruption of COVID-19 while living inside the office to ensure academic and institutional continuity. That was followed by the privilege of leading IIM Raipur through a period of record academic expansion, 80G tax exemptions, major CSR commitments, and national policy partnerships.
An institution is never the work of one person. It is faculty who stayed late, staff who held the place together, students who trusted a young IIM with their ambition, and colleagues who disagreed well. Whatever was built was built by all of them.
Transition is its own discipline. To leave gracefully is to leave the work stronger than you found it, and to trust the people who carry it forward.
To leave gracefully is to leave the work stronger than you found it.
