Imran Chowdhury, PhD

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 has encompassed courses in entrepreneurship, strategic management, and international management across undergraduate, graduate, online, doctoral, 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, Organization Studies, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, and Social Networks, and has been recognized with invited keynotes in India, South Africa, Taiwan, 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 recently completed a five-year Term Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations, has served in policy-related roles on entrepreneurship-related issues, and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Mansfield Bio-Incubator in Massachusetts.  At the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) annual meetings, Chowdhury has co-organized the “Social Sciences for the Real World Track” since 2019, and serves as a faculty mentor and member of the Organizing Committee for the SASE Early Career Workshop.  Dr. Chowdhury was elected as Program Evaluation Coordinator (2023-2026) for the AOM’s Management Education Division, and 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).