Internationally acclaimed business analyst and artificial intelligence (AI) expert Dr Ravi Bapna, has been appointed the Dean of the prestigious Santa Clara University of California, United States. Bapna, who belongs to Jaipur will assume his role on September 1, 2026.
Bapna comes to Santa Clara from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, where he served as the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Business Analytics and Information Systems, Associate Dean for Executive Education and Academic Director of both the Carlson Analytics Lab and the Analytics for Good Institute.
As Dean, Bapna will serve as the Leavey School's Chief Academic and Executive Officer, overseeing its undergraduate, graduate, and executive education programmes, as well as its faculty and research institutes.
He will lead the school's strategic direction, building upon Leavey's strong national rankings, including top-ranked professional MBA programs, while expanding its visibility, philanthropic engagement, and strategic ties across Silicon Valley and global markets.
He will also serve as Mario L. Belotti Professor of Business and a member of the Leavey faculty, continuing his commitment to student learning and scholarship across all business disciplines.
Pioneer in tech-driven education
Bapna is a pioneer in tech-driven education and executive leadership. At the University of Minnesota, he co-founded the top-ranked Master of Science in Business Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (MSBAi) program and established the Analytics for Good Institute, which leverages data science to address societal challenges, including housing equity. A collaborator across the business and academic sectors, he has designed custom analytics and digital transformation academies for Fortune 500 enterprises and served on executive education faculties globally, including at NYU Stern and the Indian School of Business.
Bapna's honors include the INFORMS ISS Distinguished Fellow Award and Inaugural Practical Impacts Award, Haim Mendelson Teaching Innovation Award, Association of Information Systems Fellow, and Distinguished Fellow of India's National Council for Applied Economic Research. His research on social media, AI economics, and digital transformation has appeared in leading academic journals and in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. His co-authored 2024 book, “Thrive: Maximizing Well-Being in the Age of AI,” won the Axiom Best Business Book Gold Award for Emerging Technology and AI.
“Business education is at an inflection point, and there is no better place to shape its future than right here in Silicon Valley, at one of the world's leading Jesuit universities,” said Bapna.
The Background:
He was educated at Mayo College, Ajmer. He is the grandson of Justice K L Bapna, the former Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court . Dr Ravi's father late Dr Jawahar Singh Bapna was also an internationally known Pharmacologist, who taught at SMS Medical College, JIPMER, Puducherry and at Delhi's Maulana Azad Medical College as Professor of Pharmacology.
Dr Ravi received his doctoral degree in business administration (operations and information management) from the University of Connecticut, a bachelor's in commerce from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, and a bachelor's in computer engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology. Before joining the Carlson School, he held tenured faculty and leadership positions at the Indian School of Business and the University of Connecticut.
Vivek Shukla is a management graduate who has worked in corporate worked for 20 years and is now pursuing his passion — news.
