Illinois Tech Inaugurates Raj Echambadi as the University’s 10th President

CHICAGO—September 17, 2021—The Illinois Institute of Technology community gathered together with local and national academic, civic, and business leaders on Friday, September 17, to welcome Raj Echambadi as the university’s new president.

The inauguration marks the beginning of a new chapter for Illinois Tech, centered around a renewed push to advance the university’s founding purpose: to liberate the collective power of difference to advance technology and progress for all. 

As a part of his inaugural address, Echambadi laid out four pillars for his vision of future growth. “First, we must recommit ourselves to our role as an engine for opportunity,” said Echambadi. “Secondly, we must embrace this unique moment in time to help reimagine the future of education for all. Third, as always, we must remain laser focused on empowering our students in order to create pathways into good jobs and position them for future success. Lastly, we must dedicate ourselves to fostering a culture of purpose-driven citizenship.”

“The audacious aspiration to be an opportunity engine for all drives everything we do at Illinois Tech,” said Echambadi. “It is what calls us to expand horizons through unparalleled instruction, to tackle real-world challenges through relevance-inspired research, and to inspire our students to become socially-conscious citizens of the world who are committed to changing their communities for the better.”

Echambadi has a long track record of leveraging technology to disrupt and advance higher education to make it more accessible, competitive, and relevant to the needs of our modern economy and society, most recently while serving as the Dunton Family Dean at D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University.

Prior to joining Northeastern, Echambadi served as the Alan J. and Joyce D. Baltz Professor and senior associate dean of strategic innovation at Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a driving force behind the University of Illinois’s scaled online M.B.A. (iMBA) program, Echambadi has been instrumental in helping to provide increased access to an innovative education to students across the globe. The iMBA program has been lauded as a breakthrough in graduate education and one of the best disruptive innovations of the past decade.

“President Echambadi’s sterling track record for developing forward-thinking academic programs at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities speaks for itself,” said Michael P. Galvin (LAW ’78), chairman of the Illinois Tech Board of Trustees. “But his deeply held belief in who we are as a community, and what we can achieve together as a university, makes him a perfect steward of our shared purpose and mission.” 

A leading academic research expert in organizational strategic innovation, Echambadi has developed new and forward-looking academic programs designed to empower student success in a dynamic marketplace. The majority of his academic research has focused on strategic innovation within organizations and how companies should balance current and future opportunities. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Anna University in India and a doctorate in marketing from the University of Houston. His research on employee entrepreneurship won the prestigious Academy of Management Journal Best Paper Award.

At Northeastern, Echambadi created the Office of Student Engagement, Affinity, and Inclusion and helped to launch its Building Belonging Fellows, Pathfinders, and Peer Affinity Cohorts to empower students from diverse backgrounds to utilize entrepreneurial skills to become change makers, while cultivating a more supportive and inclusive on-campus experience for all students.

“Driven by Illinois Tech’s strength as a leader in experiential learning that fuses the rigor of the classroom with the relevance of the real-world, we need to create curricula that marries technology and human-centered skills such as ethical reasoning, entrepreneurship, computational thinking and innovation, and a culture that kindles curiosity, sparks the innovative spirit, and educates our students to be engaged citizens of the world,” says Echambadi. “Empowering our students this way will allow them to be impactful leaders in their communities and help shape a more equitable world.”

Available for Interview

President Raj Echambadi is available for an interview to discuss his plans for the future of Chicago’s only tech university.

To arrange an interview, please contact Jake DiGregorio via email at jdigregorio@iit.edu or via phone 508.414.8853.

Images and Media

Images and video are available for use in publication. Please contact Jake DiGregorio via email at jdigregorio@iit.edu for access to full resolution files.

Illinois Institute of Technology

Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, is a private, technology-focused research university. Illinois Tech is the only university of its kind in Chicago, and its Chicago location offers students access to the world-class resources of a great global metropolis. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, computing, architecture, business, design, science and human sciences, and law. One of 22 institutions that comprise the Association of Independent Technological Universities, Illinois Tech provides an exceptional education centered on active learning, and its graduates lead the state and much of the nation in economic prosperity. Illinois Tech uniquely prepares students to succeed in professions that require technological sophistication, an innovative mindset, and an entrepreneurial spirit.  Visit iit.edu.

Media contact

Jake DiGregorio
Communications Director
Illinois Institute of Technology
Phone: 312-567-3155
Cell: 508-414-8853
jdigregorio@iit.edu