Affiliation: University of Minnesota
Bio: Srilata Zaheer (Sri) is the Dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and has been Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis since January 2020.
Sri holds the Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility at the Carlson School. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, and a former Consulting Editor of the Journal of International Business Studies. In 2018, Zaheer received the PwC Strategy & Eminent Scholar Award, for lifetime achievement in scholarship, from the International Management Division of the Academy of Management.
During her tenure as dean of the Carlson School, Sri launched a Military Veterans Initiative to help servicemen and women transition from military to business careers resulting in the school being named the number one military-friendly business school in the nation. Sri has overseen the introduction of several new graduate programs as well as partnerships with Tsinghua and Tongji Universities in China. Recently, Sri spearheaded the school’s Driven fundraising campaign raising $190 million in philanthropic gifts and grants, including $50 million for an innovative Centennial Scholars program to support top students.
Prior to academia, Zaheer worked for multinationals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Sandoz (India) Ltd. She also reported on politics and business from India and Nigeria for Business International.
Sri is a Charter Trustee of Hamilton College, New York and previously served on the boards of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the Guthrie Theater, the Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the Greater Twin Cities United Way.
In 2021, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal honored Sri’s professional achievements, leadership qualities, and contributions to the broader Twin Cities community with its Women in Business Career Achievement Award. In 2020, for her service on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Sri was named an Outstanding Director by Twin Cities Business (TCB).
- PhD, Sloan School of Management at MIT
- MBA, Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad
- B.S. in Physics, Women’s Christian College, Madras University
Last Updated: September 2021