Imran Chowdhury, Ph.D.

Education

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

Profile

Imran Chowdhury, Ph.D., serves as Dean and Professor of Management at the Ketner School of Business, Catawba College. Since becoming dean in 2023, Dr. Chowdhury has worked with students, faculty, staff, alumni, employers, and community partners to strengthen the Ketner School of Business (KSOB) as a distinctive model of business education grounded in the liberal arts — one that combines close faculty mentorship, real-world experiences, ethical leadership, and entrepreneurial thinking.

Under his leadership, KSOB has strengthened its national profile with a focus on sustainability, civic impact, and career-connected business education. In recent years, KSOB has established a new four-year business leadership initiative for high potential students, the Tom Smith Fellows program, and integrated professional development and career preparation into the curriculum for all business students. Dean Chowdhury also established KSOB's Visiting Executive and Executive in Residence programs, bringing accomplished business leaders into the classroom to strengthen student mentorship and networking opportunities. He has worked with the science faculty at Catawba to establish a Life Sciences Entrepreneurship certificate focused on Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), and expanded opportunities for internships, embedded student consulting, and applied learning projects with organizations including Asterism Healthcare, Bürkle North America, F&M Bank, Food Lion, JPMorgan Chase, Skyla Credit Union, SNP Therapeutics, Stapgen LLC, Team Carolinas (Domino’s), and UpLevel Foods.

During Dean Chowdhury’s tenure, the KSOB has been invited to join the ClimateCAP Initiative — a global network of leading business schools focused on climate-conscious business education — earned repeated Level 4 “Transforming School” recognition through the Positive Impact Rating, achieved initial graduate accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), joined the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business’s (AACSB’s) Business Education Alliance, and recognized as a Business College of Distinction in 2024, 2025, and 2026. Students at KSOB participate annually in the College Ethics Symposium in Hilton Head, SC, and worked together with faculty on Life in the Gap, a documentary examining the structural economic challenges faced by Rowan County families which was acquired for broadcast on PBS North Carolina in the summer of 2026.

Dean Chowdhury has partnered with Catawba College’s internationally renowned Center for the Environment to: establish the annual Sustainable Business Conference & Green Jobs Fair; to develop the interdisciplinary Sustainability Leadership concentration within the Ketner MBA program; and to launch a sustainability-focused student managed investment fund. Within the community, he leads Catawba College’s Social Entrepreneurship Lab at the United Way HUB in downtown Salisbury and serves on the Rowan Chamber of Commerce’s Minority Business Council, the Town of Cleveland’s Strategic Planning Committee, and the Advisory Board of the Mansfield Bio-Incubator.

Dr. Chowdhury’s teaching encompasses courses in entrepreneurship, strategic management, and international management across undergraduate, graduate, global, and executive programs.  An internationally recognized scholar in social entrepreneurship, business and society, and management education, his work has appeared 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.

Prior to joining Catawba College, Dr. Chowdhury served as the Diana Davis Spencer Chair of Social Entrepreneurship at Wheaton College (Massachusetts), and 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). Earlier in his career, he worked at a leading entrepreneurial biotechnology company in New York and in Uganda.

After graduating from Stuyvesant High School, Dean 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).