XLRI, a Jamshedpur based business school conferred a special distinction on Dr. Akshay Rao, alumnus of Business Management Programme of the 1980 batch.  Dr Rao, based in USA and currently holds the ‘General Mills Chair’ in Marketing at Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, US, visited the facility in Jamshedpur and received the alumnus award.

According to Fr. E. Abraham, XLRI Director said, “XLRI is proud to confer the Alumnus Award on Dr. Rao for his achievements in the specialized area of marketing and for his continuing endeavour towards greater heights of success in the field.”  He served as the founding director of the institute for research in marketing, an academic-Industry think tank established with the corporate partnership of 17 multi-national firms, from 2005-2010. He also held various responsible posts including the Director of the Doctoral Programme between 1997-2003, he added.

He was the Chairman of the Marketing & Logistics Management Department from 2003-006. Besides, he served as consultant to numerous organisations including Abbott Laboratories (Germany), Ambrosetti (Italy), Boston Scientific, the Carl son Companies, among others.

XLRI has been conferring the Distinguished Alumnus Award on alumni who have excelled in their profession, both in the corporate world as well as in the field of academics. XLRI was founded in 1949 by Fr Quinn Enright, S.J. in the Steel City of Jamshedpur. Fr. Enright visualized XLRI to be a partner in the liberation and development journey of the independent India