Cincinnati Business Courier: Johnny Rungtusanatham to head MBA program
Rungtusanatham brings extensive experience in founding, running MBA offerings
Johnny Rungtusanatham, PhD, has been tapped by the Carl H. Lindner College of Business as the new academic director of the college’s MBA programs.
Rungtusanatham, an Ohio Eminent Scholar in Operations Management and Quantitative Analysis, will also work as a professor in Lindner’s department of operations, business analytics, and information systems. Rungtusanatham arrives from Schulich School of Business at York University (Toronto), where he was a professor of operations management and information systems, and the Canada Research Chair in Supply Chain Management.
Johnny Rungtusanatham, PhD, professor of operations, business analytics, and information systems; academic director, MBA programs; and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Operations Management and Quantitative Analysis.
Previously, Rungtusanatham co-founded Arizona State’s online MBA program and served as the academic director of the executive MBA program at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. According to the Cincinnati Business Courier, Rungtusanatham sees an opportunity for Lindner’s MBA offerings to connect with a larger student pool.
“We don’t think about high school principals or heads of nursing as businesspeople, but they need to do staffing, planning and budgets,” Rungtusanatham told the Business Courier. “They all have business processes to think about, whether they’re in it to make money or make society a better place.”
UC is equipped to welcome these business professionals due to its “unique way of thinking,” notably its top-ranked co-op program that transforms undergraduate students into business leaders.
“When most people think of the MBA, they think of business students,” he said. “But think of why the degree was actually created in the first place. It was created for individuals who do not have business backgrounds but who, for some reason, are in business organizations. So perhaps we’re going back to the original vision of what the MBA is and expanding that.”
Lindner’s full-time and part-time MBA program is ranked No. 1 in the Tristate area and No. 2 among public institutions in Ohio by U.S. News & World Report. The college’s online MBA offering has been designated a “tier 1” program (CEO Magazine) and the No. 11 program in the country (Fortune).
“I look forward to having broad conversations about how to offer the curriculum in a manner that offers individuals from all kinds of backgrounds the ability to successfully acquire the knowledge — and then apply that to have an impact not only in their professional work, but also their community and their personal lives,” Rungtusanatham said.
Read more from the Cincinnati Business Courier.
Featured image at top: The exterior of Lindner Hall. Photo by Gavin Vargas.
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