BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Dr. Upinder Dhar joined Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya as Vice Chancellor on 29 th June, 2015. Prior to this, he was Group Additional Vice Chancellor & Pro Vice Chancellor (Academics) of Amity University, Noida (2014-15); First Vice Chancellor of JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur (2009-14); Director of Institute of Management, and Dean - Faculty of Management as well as Faculty of Doctoral Studies and Research at Nirma University, Ahmedabad (2006-09); Director of Prestige Institute of Management and Research, Indore (1996-06) and President, Prestige Group of Educational Institutions - constituted of three management institutes, affiliated to three different state universities, and a public school. He has also been Professor and Coordinator (Head) of General Management Group at NITIE, Mumbai - (1993-96), a National Institute established by United Nations through ILO; Reader at Institute of Management, Devi Ahilya University, Indore (1989-1993); Lecturer at Department of Psychology, M.D.University, Rohtak (1984-1989).

He has taught at postgraduate level, designed and conducted faculty and management development programs, undertaken problem-solving consultancy assignments, and guided research at doctoral level for the last 40 years. Before joining M.D. University, he was at Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi (1984); SOS Children’s Villages of India, New Delhi (1983); Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources, New Delhi (1982-83); National Labour Institute, New Delhi (1982); and Central JALMA Institute for Leprosy, Agra (1978-1981). He has attended professional development programs on Case Writing and Case Teaching, Management Research, Entrepreneurship and Strategies for Financing Business and Management Schools in South Asia organised by the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS), Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia (AMDISA), Association of Management Development Institutions in Bangladesh in collaboration with Canadian Consortium of Management Schools (CCMS), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC), Commonwealth Secretariat, London. He was awarded Commonwealth Fellowship twice to present his papers at the South Asian Management Forums held at Royal Institute of Management, Bhutan and Lahore University of Management Science, Lahore.

By training and experience, he is a Behavioural Scientist. He is life member of the Indian Science Congress Association, Kolkata; Indian Psychological Association, New Delhi; Indian Society for Training and Development, New Delhi; Psycho-Linguistic Association of India (PLAI), Agra; Praachi Psycho-Cultural Research Association, Meerut; Indian Society of Technical Education, and National HRD Network. He was invited to attend the Workshops/Conferences for Deans and Directors on Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Ranking of B-Schools organized by various National and International bodies including AICTE and AMDISA at Indore, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Colombo and Lahore.

Dr Dhar has directed more than 45 Three-Day National Case Writing Workshops as a facilitator for the benefit of the faculty of B-Schools. He was invited by American Society for Engineering Management to address the delegates on Case Method during its International Annual Conference at Minneapolis, Minnesota in United States in 2013. He has also conducted number of National Research Methodology Workshops for the benefit of faculty. He has been a Guest Faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee for facilitating the Doctoral students. He has been a member of various Expert and Selection Committees either as Chairman or as Member. Dr Dhar has supervised a large number of Research projects.

As a core faculty in Management Development Programs, he has held sessions in Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Calcutta, Dehradun, Delhi, Goa, Gurgaon, Gwalior, Hazira, Indore, Jaipur, Jaykaypuram, Jodhpur, Kathmandu (Nepal), Mumbai, Mussoorie, Madras, Nagda, Pune, Ranchi, Renukoot, Renusagar, Tirupati, Trivandrum, Udaipur and Vijaipur. He has also been Guest Faculty in the Management Development Programs of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and Indian Institute of Management Indore. He was Principal Investigator of a joint research project on SME Innovation Initiatives with Vice Chancellor of the University of Wales, UK as Co- Principal Investigator. The project was funded by the British Council under UKIERI.

He has been National Coordinator for the project on Empowerment of Women through Enterprise for its implementation in North India (1998-2000). The project was sponsored by Canadian Consortium of Management Schools through Association of Indian Management Schools and funded by Canadian International Development Agency. He has successfully completed consultancy assignments for well known organizations like Indian Rare Earths Limited (a constituent of the Department of Atomic Energy), ONGC Corporation Limited, World Bank, Herdillia Chemicals, Pondicherry University and Aegis School of Telecommunication. He has been on the Panel of Reviewers of number of journals, such as International Journal of Training and Development, AIMS International Journal of Management, Human Resources International, Journal of Global Business and Technology, and South Asian Journal of Management.

Dr. Dhar has presented papers at several National and International conferences/seminars/ symposia and has widely travelled in the country and abroad. He has visited Bangladesh, Bhutan, Egypt, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Pakistan, Srilanka, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom and United States in connection with various professional assignments. He has more than 590 publications to his credit, including Monographs, Psychological Tests and Research Papers in academic and professional journals. He has authored a large number of cases and most of these cases are registered with the European Case Clearing House (The Case Centre) at Cranfield University, United Kingdom.

Thirty (30) scholars have been awarded Ph.D. degree under his supervision. Dr. Dhar has been on the Editorial Board of Praachi Journal of Psycho-Cultural Dimensions, Tatwa, Management Guru, and International Journal of Management Science. He was Chief Editor of the Nirma University Journal of Business Management; Editor of Prestige Journal of Management and Research, Prestige Research Abstracts, Manodarpan and Indian Journal of Training and Development. Currently, he is Chairman of the Editorial Board of the AIMS Journal of Management.

He has been a member on the State Level Counselling Committee constituted by the Government of Madhya Pradesh for admission in M.B.A. program in all university teaching departments and other approved institutions of the State during 1999-00, 2000-01 and 2005-06 respectively. He has also been on the panel of subject experts of National Board of Accreditation of the All India Council of Technical Education, New Delhi; Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi; and South Asian Quality Systems (SAQS), Hyderabad.

Dr. Dhar was conferred Great Achiever of India Award by the Front for National Progress, New Delhi. He was invited to deliver the First N.S. Chauhan Memorial Lecture at Punjabi University, Patiala. He was also conferred Professor N.S. Chauhan Behavioral Scientist Award by the Society of Behavioral Scientists in 2012, Professor A.K.P. Sinha Memorial Best Psychologist Award by Indian Psychometric & Educational Research Association (IPERA) in 2013, Edupreneur Award in 2013 by Engineering Watch, and Dr. Thomas Cangan Management Leadership Award by the Society for Indian Institute of Rural Management in 2014. In recognition of his work, he was conferred National Fellowship by Indian Society for Training and Development, New Delhi in 2002-03, and has been cited in Indo-American Who's Who (2002); Trainers and Training Institutions Directory (1996, 2002 & 2009) of ISTD; and Indo-Asean Who's Who (2003).

He was President of Anthropological and Behavioural Sciences Section of the Indian Science Congress Association (2007-08), Treasurer of the Association of Indian Management Schools (Four Terms), Member of the Council of Management of the All India Management Association, President of the Indian Society for Training and Development (2008-09), Member of the All India Board of Management Studies of AICTE, President of the Indore Chapters of ISTE and NHRD Network, Invitee on the Working Group on Education - State Planning Board of Rajasthan (2013- 14), FICCI Higher Education Committee, Education & Skills Development Panel of CII Rajasthan State, Governing Board of DELNET, Executive Board of AMDISA, and President of the Association of Indian Management Schools (2014-15).