Raghu Tadepalli will replace interim dean Scott Buechler as the next dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business July 1, bringing with him a plan to emphasize entrepreneurship and international partnerships.
“I told the groups that I spoke with (during the selection process) that I had specific interest in implicating a global mindset because I think that is really important,” Tadepalli said.
Tadepalli’s extensive experience in the fields of both business and higher education made him the best candidate for the deanship, said Paul Parsons, dean of the School of Communications and co-chair of the search committee for the position.
“He’s a current dean (at Babson College) and he has a very successful record,” Parsons said. “He is known as an entrepreneur and has a record of establishing new programs and leading faculty in new directions.“
Born in India, Tadepalli learned successful entrepreneurial practices through trial and error in helping run three family businesses. Although his family’s business supply distribution company was run mainly by his father and brothers, Tadepalli was very involved in the management of several movie theaters as well as a chemical processing plant that produced petroleum stabilizers.
“I learned a lot about cash management, how to manage a workforce and how to get something started from the ground up,” he said. “My dad was very opposed to borrowing money, which limited the scope of the (chemical processing) plant. That taught me about planning for growth ... and balancing cash inflow and cash outflow.”
Through his heavy involvement in the two businesses, Tadepalli recognized the importance of marketing to the success of a company. He graduated from Andhra University in India with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in commerce and accounting, then came to the United States in 1982 to earn a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in marketing from Arizona State University. He stayed to complete a doctorate degree in marketing at Virginia Technical Institute.
He then taught at North Dakota State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago before chairing the marketing department at Xavier University. He was soon promoted to dean of the Graduate School and then associate dean in the Williams College of Business.
Tadepalli now teaches marketing at Babson while serving as the Murata Dean of the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business. His rapid ascension in the collegiate realm proved his ability to perform well in any given role, Parsons said.
“(Tadepalli) has history of having positions with increasing levels of responsibility,” he said. “That indicates he does something well at that level that makes others want to promote him.”
Tadepalli said he sought the position in Elon’s School of Business because of its growing prominence in the field.
“There is no denying the university is on a very upward trajectory,” he said. “It’s getting a lot of attention for the way in which it has gone about enhancing its profile … and the Love School of Business is dong very well in keeping with the trajectory. When I visited, I was truly taken by the dedication of the staff and students and how interested they were in making sure the Love School of Business kept moving upwards.”
Parsons said Tadepalli’s genuine interest in the university and its students will aid that trajectory.
“(Tadepalli) came across as very caring and student-oriented,” he said. “At Babson, he has near weekly breakfast with groups of students, which is a wonderful way to stay in touch with students and student issues.”
Under Tadepalli’s leadership, the Love School of Business will likely foster deeper connections with other programs on campus, said Christy Benson, assistant professor of business law and a member of the search committee.
“Tadepalli has a real vision of how Elon can really integrate its commitment to the liberal arts and sciences with the business school using the theme of entrepreneurship and involvement as a bridge (to other programs),” she said. “Having the business school reach out to other programs to find out how (they) engage in innovation and problem solving … can make our great school even stronger.”
Benson said she also expects to see the number of international students within the business school increase over the next several years as a result of Tadepalli’s global initiative, which he communicated clearly during the search process.
“We are going to see a dean who is going to look for ways to build more and more international connections within the school,” Parsons said. “Elon has a strong global mindset, and this new dean certainly does as well.”
But Tadepalli said his first priorities are those of the faculty, which he intends to discover and act upon at the start of his term.
“He strikes me as someone who is highly collaborative,” Benson said. “He will try to engage the faculty and the staff and figure out what our goals are and figure out how he can help us (achieve them). He will reach out to involve people and figure out where our strengths lie and how to better leverage those strengths.”