Indiana University has announced that M.A. Venkataramanan, associate dean of academic programs at the Kelley School of Business, has been named vice provost for strategic initiatives on the Bloomington campus.

Venkataramanan, also the Jack R. Wentworth Professor and a professor of decision sciences known to many around the university as "Venkat," will be involved in several important campus initiatives, including online education, international affairs, and academic and professional advising.

"I am thrilled to begin working with Venkat on these critical initiatives," said Lauren Robel, IU executive vice president and provost of the Bloomington campus. "Venkat's experience at Kelley will bear directly on issues of deep importance to the campus. He has already been providing advice on issues of online education, for example, and as vice provost for strategic initiatives, his expertise will benefit the entire campus in a more formal way."

"I've always enjoyed the culture of collaboration at IU," said Venkataramanan, who has been on the IU faculty since 1987. "This collaborative culture will help us overcome all challenges we'll face both with implementing online and global initiatives. That is our biggest asset, in addition to all of the individual talent we have here.

The India native in 2005 became the first person from that nation to lead a 3,000-student undergraduate program at a major U.S. business school. Four years later, he became associate dean for academic programs at Kelley.

He also was chairman of the school's Operations and Decision Technologies Department from 1998 to 2004. He repeatedly has been recognized for his teaching, winning nearly a dozen teaching awards from the Kelley School.

His research interests have included technology management, decision support systems, supply chain management, computer simulation and enterprise resource planning. He helped to develop Kelley Direct, the school's highly successful online MBA program and, more recently, its Institute for Business Analytics.