Newswise — Professor Vijay (VG) Govindarajan has been named the inaugural holder of the Coxe Distinguished Professorship of Management.

The Coxe Distinguished Professorship of Management is a new Dartmouth-wide faculty chair dedicated to bringing the tools of scientific management to nonprofit and non-governmental organizations focused on social goals such as improving health, education, humanitarian care, and the environment. It was established in 2012 by Tench Coxe D’80, managing director at Silicon Valley technology venture capital firm Sutter Hill Ventures.

"I can think of no one better suited or more deserving of this honor than VG, whose work on how companies, governments, and other social institutions can innovate to solve complex problems has had tremendous impact in both the academy and broader world," said Dean Danos.

Vijay Govindarajan is widely regarded as one of the world’s top scholars of strategy and management. Currently the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of Management, he has had numerous articles published in both peer-reviewed academic journals and prestigious practitioner publications. He has co-written or co-edited 11 books, including the recent New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, “Reverse Innovation.”

In the classroom, generations of students have had the good fortune to be challenged and inspired by VG’s infectious curiosity and quick intellect. His MBA elective, Implementing Strategy, has long been one of Tuck's most popular elective courses. His world-renowned thinking has infused many of Tuck's executive education programs, including those he created such as Global Leadership 2030 and the Smith-Tuck Global Leaders Program for Women.

“This honor is not only a testament to VG’s reputation as one of the world’s greatest business thinkers but also to his powerful impact on the Dartmouth community. He continues to set a distinguished example of what it means to make the world a better place through expertise and innovation,” said Dartmouth president Phil Hanlon.

"For someone born and brought up in a lower middle class family in a small town in India, this is a huge honor," said VG. "Tench Coxe's generosity highlights an important intellectual agenda for management scholars: How to innovate to solve the world's toughest problems?"

Founded in 1900, Tuck is the first graduate school of management in the country and consistently ranks among the top business schools worldwide. Tuck remains distinctive among the world's great business schools by combining human scale with global reach, rigorous coursework with experiences requiring teamwork, and valued traditions with innovation.