Ravina Aggarwal Named Director of Mumbai Center

Ravina Aggarwal will become the new director of Columbia Global Centers | South Asia on April 1, 2015.

March 01, 2015

Ravina Aggarwal will become the new director of Columbia Global Centers | South Asia on April 1, 2015.

The announcement from Professor Safwan M. Masri, executive vice president for Global Centers and Global Development, culminates a search process that began in July 2014.

Aggarwal’s experience and qualifications, Professor Masri commented, make her a perfect fit for the position, and lend themselves to further significant engagement by the University in South Asia, under her leadership.

Aggarwal has been at the New Delhi office of the Ford Foundation since 2007 and was previously a tenured faculty member at Smith College, where she also served as chair of the department of Anthropology. She holds a PhD in anthropology from Indiana University, a Masters of Science from Purdue University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai.

Aggarwal will succeed Nirupam Bajpai, who had served until September 2014 in two roles – director of the Mumbai Center and senior research scholar for the Earth Institute – since the Center opened in March 2010. Bajpai maintains his role at the Earth Institute and serves as a special advisor to the global centers network.

In addition to Professor Masri, members on the search committee included Vishakha Desai, special advisor for Global Affairs to President Lee C. Bollinger and special advisor for Asia to Executive Vice President Masri; Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy; Gita Johar, Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business and chair of the Faculty Steering Committee for the Mumbai Center; and Anjali Bansal, an alumna of Columbia University, managing partner of Indian Business at Spencer Stuart, and a member of the advisory board of the Mumbai Center. The committee was assisted by the search firm, Spencer Stuart.