Welcome to Soumitra Dutta, Johnson’s Dean Designate

Previous roles Dutta has held during his 22-year tenure at INSEAD include dean of external relations; dean of executive education; and dean of technology and e-learning.

He has served as a visiting professor in the Haas School at Berkeley, Oxford Internet Institute at University of Oxford, and Judge School at University of Cambridge in England. He has lived and worked in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including stints as an engineer with GE in the U.S. and Schlumberger in Japan.

Dutta is an authority on the impact of new technology on the business world, especially social media and social networking, and on strategies for driving growth and innovation by embracing the digital economy.

He is the co-editor and author, respectively, of two influential reports in technology and innovation: the Global Information Technology Report (co-published with the World Economic Forum) and the Global Innovation Index (co-published with the World Intellectual Property Organization). Both reports have been used by governments around the world their technology and innovation policies.

Dutta’s work has been widely published in the Harvard Business Review, European Management Journal, Management Science, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and other journals. He and his ideas have been featured in myriad business magazines, newspapers, and blogs.

Dutta is a member of the Davos Circle, an association of long-time participants in the Annual Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum, and has engaged in a number of multi-stakeholder initiatives to shape global, regional, and industry agendas. He is on the advisory boards of several international business schools. He has co-founded two firms and is on the board of several startups. He received the European Case of the Year from the European Case Clearing House four times.

“Professor Dutta’s appointment is a natural fit with Johnson’s increasingly global outlook,” said Cornell University President David Skorton. “He has expertise in new and emerging media, he has studied the conditions that promote innovation and he has extensive experience on the international stage. Among other qualities, these prepare him well to oversee the education of our next-generation business leaders and entrepreneurs. Johnson students, Cornellians who take courses at Johnson and, in the very near future, aspiring entrepreneurs at our new tech campus in New York City will benefit from this appointment.”

“This appointment is an exciting opportunity for me, in part because of Johnson’s commitment to global perspectives, entrepreneurship and innovation, and business sustainability, but also because as an early adopter of approaches such as performance learning, the school itself exemplifies innovative thinking in business,” said Dutta. “I am excited about the close connections the school has to the broader university and especially the opportunities available through collaboration on the tech campus. I am eager to take up the leadership position building on the strong foundations laid by Dean Thomas.”

“I am delighted that Professor Dutta will be joining us,” said Dean Joe Thomas. “His extensive research on global business and the conditions that encourage innovation make him the right leader to carry forward our strategic plan, and I look forward to working with him as he assumes his new role as dean of Johnson.”

Dutta received a B.Tech. in electrical engineering and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He received an MS in business administration, an MS in computer science, and a PhD in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley. He is married to Lourdes Casanova, a native of Spain who is currently a lecturer in INSEAD’S strategy department, where she specializes in international business with a focus on Latin America and multinationals from emerging markets. The couple has a daughter, currently studying at Oxford University.