Imran Chowdhury, Ph.D.

Dean, Ketner School of Business / Saleeby Professor of Business Administration

Education

  • PhD, ESSEC Business School (France)
  • MS, INSEAD (France)
  • BA, Hunter College
  • Regents Diploma, Stuyvesant High School

Profile

Imran Chowdhury, Ph.D., is Dean and Saleeby Professor of Business Administration at the Ketner School of Business at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina.  Dr. Chowdhury previously held the Diana Davis Spencer Chair in Social Entrepreneurship at Wheaton College in Massachusetts and served as a tenured Associate Professor at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business in New York City.  He has held international visiting positions at Freie Universität Berlin (Germany); Montpellier Business School (France); CEFAM Business School (France); and ESSEC Asia-Pacific (Singapore). 

Chowdhury’s teaching encompasses courses in entrepreneurship, strategic management, and international management across undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, online, global, and executive programs. His writing examines the development of ecosystems for entrepreneurs with a social impact focus, and how companies work to balance economic and social demands simultaneously.  He also has a strong interest in management education, particularly as it relates to issues of sustainability and social entrepreneurship.  Dr. Chowdhury’s research has been published in leading outlets including Academy of Management Learning & Education, Advances in Strategic Management, Agriculture and Human Values, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Organization Studies, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, and Social Networks, and has been recognized with invited keynotes both internationally and within the United States.  Along with his colleagues Jordi Vives Gabriel, Wim van Lent, and Hugo van der Merwe, Dr. Chowdhury received the 2023 JBE Best Business Ethics Paper award at the Academy of Management (AOM) annual meetings. 

Chowdhury’s engagement with the business and academic communities builds on both his academic expertise and his early career working at a leading entrepreneurial biotechnology company in New York and in Uganda.  He is a member of the Minority Business Council of the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce and the Strategic Advisory Board for the Mansfield Bio-Incubator, and has been invited to share his expertise at the national level on entrepreneurship- and economic development-related issues.  Dr. Chowdhury was elected as Program Evaluation Coordinator (2023-2026) for the AOM’s Management Education Division and has co-organized the “Social Sciences for the Real World” track at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics annual meetings since 2019.  His editorial work includes service on the Editorial Board of Academy of Management Learning & Education.

After graduating from Stuyvesant High School, Dr. Chowdhury earned his undergraduate degree in anthropology and geography from Hunter College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the recipient of an Athena Scholarship.  He completed graduate studies in France, obtaining a master’s degree at L’Institut européen d’administration des affaires (INSEAD), and a Ph.D. from L’École supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales (ESSEC Business School).