Poonam Arora Named Dean of the Undergraduate School at Babson 

Dr. Poonam Arora has been named the new dean of the Undergraduate School at Babson College.

“Dr. Arora brings a wealth of thought leadership and experience across academia and the corporate world to this new role,” Provost and Executive Vice President Ariel Armony said. “Her student-first approach to academic leadership will ensure that Babson remains the top destination for learners seeking to make the world a better place for generations to come.”  

Arora currently is the associate dean of faculty affairs and strategic initiatives and professor of management at Quinnipiac University, where she has led strategic planning efforts within the School of Business aimed at promoting sustainable growth amid a shifting higher education landscape. She first joined Quinnipiac as the associate dean of faculty affairs in 2022. In her time at the university, Arora supported reaccreditation efforts, undertook the restructuring of the School of Business’s assurance of learning processes and standards, curriculum innovation and mapping, and updated scholarly contribution standards and support.

“Dr. Arora has proven to be a passionate supporter of faculty excellence and interdisciplinary approaches to the integration of liberal arts and business education,” Armony said. “That support and philosophy will pair well with proven Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought & Action^® framework.”   

Prior to joining Quinnipiac, Arora served as the Capalbo Professor of Business Administration and department chair of management and marketing at Manhattan College. Her experience at Manhattan spans scholarship and academic leadership, including roles as co-director of the Center for Ethics, chair of the O’Malley School of Business Strategic Priorities Committee, and faculty representative for the Shared Governance Working Group.  

Arora brings extensive experience beyond academia to Babson’s Undergraduate School. She held corporate and nonprofit leadership roles that span industries, including as acting executive director and CFO of Working Today Inc., vice president of U.S. securitization at Citicorp Securities, senior associate at McKinsey & Company, and junior economist at the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development.  

Arora earned her bachelor of business administration (BBA) degree, summa cum laude, in business economics from John Cabot University in Rome, Italy, her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a PhD in psychology from Columbia University. 

Posted in Babson Briefs

Tagged Campus, Leadership, Undergraduate, Entrepreneurship Education

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