This story was originally published by India West.
Anand S. Desai, a 1975 ISU chemical engineering graduate, has been named dean of the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. He will take up the post in July, after the departure of interim dean James Jordan-Wagner.
The Indian American educator has served for the past 17 years in academic posts. His current position is associate dean for academic administration at Kansas State University.
Prior to joining KSU in 1994, Desai was on the finance faculty at the University of Florida, the University of Michigan and Iowa State University. His teaching fields are corporate finance, investments and derivative markets, and he has taught finance courses in Germany, Italy and France.
His research focuses on capital market efficiency, capital market reactions to corporate acquisitions and market microstructure. Two of his co-authored research papers published in the “Journal of Financial Economics” are widely cited as seminal papers in the area of corporate acquisitions.
“I am honored to be selected to serve as the next dean of the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University,” Desai added in a statement.
As head of the finance department at KSU, Desai recruited high quality faculty, increased private funding for both scholarships and faculty support and grew the department’s advisory board. In 2008, he was appointed associate dean and director of undergraduate programs.
Desai has a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in finance; an MBA from Oklahoma State University, also in finance; an M.S. degree from Iowa State University in chemical engineering; and a B.E. from Maharaja Sayajirao University in chemical engineering.
Married, Desai and his wife, Jayshree, have two grown sons.