Manu Vora
M.S. in Chemical Engineering, 1970; Ph.D., 1975
Chairman and President, Business Excellence, Inc.
Adjunct Professor, IIT Stuart School of Business
IIT’s "sterling reputation" for exemplary graduate programs influenced Manu Vora, who came from Mumbai, India, to study at IIT. His days at IIT laid the groundwork for his dual passions: quality management/business excellence and fundraising. A class on mass transfer and interfacial phenomena with Professor Darsh Wasan opened up opportunities for Vora’s own experimental research, while memories of late nights working in the labs showed him he could succeed under adverse circumstances. He also credits his analytical and thinking skills learned at IIT to his successful career at AT&T Bell Laboratories for more than 17 years. In 1993, Vora joined the IIT Stuart faculty and in 2000 founded Business Excellence, Inc., a global quality-management consulting service firm.
During his IIT days, Vora discovered the joy of raising money for good causes. Since 1970, Vora has raised more than $6 million working on over 30 campaigns for social and charitable causes. As a founding director and president of the Blind Foundation for India, Vora and his team have raised more than $3.5 million to support over 15 million visually impaired people in India. Vora served on the board of directors of the American Society for Quality for six years. He has delivered more than 200 presentations on business excellence around the world. Since 2006, Vora has volunteered as a chair of the IIT Alumni Awards Judges Team. He has been honored with the IIT Professional Achievement Award and the IIT International Alumni Leadership Award.
