Bala V. Balachandran

Bala V. Balachandran (born 5 July 1937) is a Professor Emeritus of Accounting Information & Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Founder and Dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai, India.

Bala V. Balachandran
Prof. Bala V Balachandran
Born (1937-07-05) 5 July 1937
Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, India
NationalityIndia
Other namesBala, V. Balachandran
OccupationAcademician, Professor, Entrepreneur
Known forFounder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management
Spouse(s)Vasantha Balachandran
AwardsPadma Shri

Academic career

Balachandran is the founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management, an independent business school in Chennai, India.[1][2] He is also a professor emeritus at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University, where he has been on the faculty since 1973. Prior to Kellogg, Balachandran has been on the faculty at the University of Dayton, Carnegie Mellon University, and Annamalai University.[3]

Early life and education

Balachandran was born on 5 July 1937 in Pudupatti, Tamil Nadu (a small village near Pudukottai, Tamil Nadu, India) as the oldest of 6 children of Jambakam and A Venkataraman. His maternal uncle was S Satyamurti, renowned Indian independence activist and accomplished leader of the Indian National Congress from the Madras Presidency. His school years were spent at the Kulapathi Balaiya School and the Christian Mission school at Pudukottai followed by the Intermediate education at the Pudukottai Raja's college. He pursued his graduate and post-graduate studies at the Annamalai University.

While a student, he joined the NCC and obtained the rank of a Senior Under Officer and underwent training to become an Army Officer. ‘Service to the nation’ in some form was what he wanted to do. However, on completing his graduation, the Department of Statistics in Annamalai University offered him a teaching position which he took up in 1959. When war broke out between India and China in 1962, he was enlisted to join the Army.  After training he joined as a Commissioned Officer in the Indian Army through the Short Service Commission and was promoted as Captain by the end of the war. He was then posted to serve as Commander (NCC) at Chennai while he continued to teach at Annamalai University.

Early career

In 1966, Bala attended a month-long workshop conducted by Dr. Landis Gephart on Quality Control and Reliability Engineering organized under the aegis of USAID in Chennai. At the end of the workshop, he was offered a full scholarship to pursue his MS/PhD at the University of Dayton, Ohio. He completed his MSE (Engineering) course and was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Dayton, in 1970. Later, he went on to pursue his MBA and PhD in Operations Research at the Carnegie Mellon University and joined the Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University (now Kellogg School of Management) in 1973. His work with Kellogg was recognized by the award of the J. L. Kellogg Distinguished Professorship in Accounting, Information and Management in 1984.

Personal life

Balachandran is married to Vasantha Balachandran. They have two sons, Sudhakar Balachandran (Director of MBA Graduate Studies & Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Illinois, Chicago) and Diwakar Balachandran (Professor, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center).

Publications

Balachandran is the author of numerous papers in Finance and Accounting.[3]

References
  1. https://www.greatlakes.edu.in/faculty-research/faculty-profile-detail?pid=9
  2. Bhargava, Anjuli (23 March 2018). "How Bala swam across oceans to create Great Lakes". Business Standard India. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  3. https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/balachandran_bala.aspx
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