Rao Kowtha is fortunate to lead an energetic group of faculty and inspiring students at the School of Business, Science and Humanities. “Rao” had a global academic career in various leadership roles and as a professor of management, teaching and consulting with executives in Singapore, Korea and Tacoma. Before entering academia, he was a marine engineer. He subsequently obtained an MBA and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.
Rao was an associate professor and assistant dean at the National University of Singapore Business School. During his nearly fifteen years at the NUS Business School, he developed and grew the doctoral program in business. He also instituted several changes to the MBA program and spearheaded the MS in Human Resource Management. He consulted with several multi-national firms and was extensively involved as a teacher in the Executive MBA program.
Later, Rao was a member of the founding team of Solbridge International School of Business in Daejeon, Korea which grew to a strength of 1200 students during his tenure as the associate dean. At Solbridge, he led curriculum development, program design, executive education, and AACSB initial accreditation and reaccreditation. Subsequently, as an associate dean at Pacific Lutheran University, he led graduate program rationalization and new program creation besides reaccreditation. Rao has published extensively on organizational processes with awards and recognition from international journals and conferences.
Ph.D. Organizational Theory and Strategy, Texas A&M University