IIT Kanpur, IIM Ahmedabad alumnus Prof Rishikesha Krishnan takes over as Ashoka University’s VC | Education News
4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jun 15, 2026 07:20 PM IST
Professor Rishikesha T Krishnan, who has led two Indian Institutes of Management and spent nearly three decades as a faculty member at IIM Bangalore, has been appointed as the next Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University. He will succeed Professor Somak Raychaudhury beginning August 1.
Announcing the appointment, Ashoka University said Professor Krishnan was selected following a search and selection process conducted by a committee constituted by the Governing Body. The university cited his experience across academic leadership, research, institution building and public policy. Ashoka University Chancellor Rudrangshu Mukherjee said Professor Krishnan’s record as a scholar and institution builder made him well placed to lead the university at this stage of its development.
The university also highlighted his leadership of both IIM Indore and IIM Bangalore, besides his work on innovation, management and policy.
Krishnan’s academic background
The academic path that eventually led Professor Krishnan to head the private university began at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. In 1986, he completed the institute’s five-year integrated Master of Science programme in Physics. The integrated MSc combines undergraduate and postgraduate training within a single curriculum and places significant emphasis on mathematical methods, laboratory work and scientific research. Established in 1959 with support from a consortium of American universities under the Kanpur Indo-American Programme, IIT Kanpur is among the country’s oldest IITs. In the QS World University Rankings 2025, IIT Kanpur was ranked 263rd globally, placing it among India’s highest-ranked institutions.
After graduating from IIT Kanpur, Krishnan moved to the United States to pursue higher studies at Stanford University. In 1987, he earned a Master of Science degree in Engineering-Economic Systems (EES), a programme that has since evolved into Stanford’s Management Science and Engineering discipline.
Nearly a decade later, he completed the Fellow Programme in Management at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad in 1996. The FPM is IIM Ahmedabad’s doctoral programme and is regarded as equivalent to a PhD.
Soon after completing his fellowship at IIM Ahmedabad in 1996, Professor Krishnan joined the faculty of IIM Bangalore. The association would continue for nearly three decades. He taught in the Strategy area, became a Professor in 2005 and later occupied several academic and administrative positions. Between July 2022 and June 2025, he held the Ram Charan Chair Professorship in Innovation and Leadership.
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His formal education later expanded to include executive training at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he attended the ‘Leadership for the 21st Century’ programme in October 2010. The executive programme focuses on public leadership, governance, institutional change and decision-making in complex environments.
During this period, he also took on leadership responsibilities at other Indian Institutes of Management. He served as Director of IIM Indore from January 2014 to December 2018. Around the same time, he was appointed Mentor Director of IIM Sambalpur between 2015 and 2017, helping oversee the development of the newer institution during its formative years.
He returned to lead his alma mater, IIM Bangalore, as Director on July 20, 2020, and completed a full five-year term in July 2025. During his tenure, the institute initiated a School of Multidisciplinary Studies and moved towards launching undergraduate programmes in Economics and Data Science. His research work has focused on innovation at organisational, industrial and national levels, with publications spanning management, economics, development and science policy.
Last year, IIT Kanpur conferred on him the distinguished alumni award, the institute’s highest recognition for former students. A year later, he is set to move to Ashoka University, where he will become the institution’s next Vice-Chancellor.