Longtime professor Ramesh Sharda to lead Watson Graduate School of Management

Friday, December 13, 2013

Longtime Spears School of Business professor Ramesh Sharda has been named to the new position of interim vice dean of the Watson Graduate School of Management. He will coordinate all of the school’s graduate programs, including the Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) and Ph.D. in Business for Executives programs.

Sharda, a member of the Oklahoma State University faculty for 32 years, will begin in his new role immediately. He joins the Spears School executive leadership team of interim dean Ken Eastman and associate deans Mark Weiser and Carol Johnson.

“We are delighted that Dr. Sharda has accepted the position as interim vice dean and look forward to the contributions he will make to the Watson Graduate School and the Spears School,” Eastman said.

Sharda is pleased to be joining the Watson Graduate School, which has received national recognition in the past year for its success stories. The Spears School is one of only four business schools in the United States in which 100 percent of the full-time MBA students received jobs within three months after graduation, according to U.S. News & World Report. The Master’s in Entrepreneurship online program was selected as No. 1 in the nation in the rankings of the 10 Best Online Entrepreneurship Programs, as selected by TheBestSchools.org. Also, the school’s online master’s programs were ranked No. 37 in the nation by U.S. News.

“We have strong graduate programs including our innovative Executive Ph.D. program, a large analytics-focused MS and certificate program, and an MBA program that provides educational opportunities around the world, but our goal is take these to the next level of excellence and prominence. With support from Chuck Watson and other OSU alumni we will be able to launch and support initiatives in the Watson Graduate School of Management that serve our stakeholders well,” Sharda said.

Sharda earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Udaipur in Rajasthan, India before coming to the United States. He earned a master’s degree in engineering from Ohio State University, and an MBA and his doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sharda joined the OSU faculty after completing his education, and he has held several positions during his 32 years in Stillwater– assistant professor, associate professor, and currently Regents Professor of Management Science and Information Systems, ConocoPhillips Chair of Management Technology, and Director of Institute for Research in Information Systems and Management Science and Information Systems.

He is also serving as the director of the Spears School’s Ph.D. in Business for Executives program. This innovative program is preparing to enter its third year as senior executives from across the United States and the world participate in the three-year program. In addition, he is also coordinating the Spears School’s collaborations with universities in India.

The OSU professor has received several awards including the Spears School of Business Greiner Graduate Teaching Awards twice and the University Regents Distinguished Research Award. He also received international recognition in January 2012 at the Jewels of Rajasthan in the World event in which impactful individuals who originate from the state of Rajasthan in northwestern India were honored.