Shailendra Raj Mehta

Shailendra Raj Mehta (born 9 July 1959) is a scholar, educationist, administrator and entrepreneur. Since 2017, he has been the President & Director and a Distinguished Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of MICA (institute) in Ahmedabad.

Formerly, he was the Chairman of the Board of Management at AURO University and Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Ahmedabad University.

He is also a member of the Mission High-Level Committee (MHLC) of the Indian Knowledge System and Vice-Chairman of the Governing Body of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) in Shimla.

He specializes in Entrepreneurship, institution design, Microeconomics theory, experimental economics, and Strategic Management.

Early life
Mehta was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. He studied Bachelor of Arts from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He did his Master of Arts from Delhi School of Economics followed by M. Phil from Balliol College, Oxford and PhD from Harvard University.

Career
From 1990 to 2006, he taught at the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University, first in Economics and later in Strategy. During this period, he also served as the Director of the Krannert School of Management's Entrepreneurship Initiative and of also of the SEAS Simulation Lab. He taught a wide range of courses to undergraduate, MBA, and Ph.D. students, including. He has been awarded one of Purdue University's highest awards, the Class of 1922 Award for Teaching, Innovation, and Helping Students Learn. While at Purdue, he co‐founded Simulex Inc., a high technology company in the Purdue Research Park.

He continues to actively mentor and support startups. After a 16-year stint at Purdue University, he returned to India in 2006–2007 to head the collaboration between Duke University's Corporate Education Arm, Duke CE, and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad as its head for India, West Asia and the Middle East and simultaneously as visiting professor of Business Policy at IIM-Ahmedabad

In 2012, Mehta published a comprehensive paper studying what made US institutions so markedly better than others in the world which was then featured worldwide. In 2014, he was appointed as the Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Ahmedabad University. In 2015, he was appointed as the chairman of the Board of Management at Auro University where he also served as Acting Vice-Chancellor and Distinguished Professor of Strategy.

He has done extensive research in the areas of Entrepreneurship, Industrial Organization, Information Economics, and Experimental Economics. His research was the subject of a full‐length review by the Economist. His work on creating world-class universities has been discussed around the world and profiled in over ten languages including Chinese, Russian, French, German, and Arabic among others.

In 2017, he became the President & Director of MICA (institute) and was also appointed as the Distinguished Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The Ministry of Education has appointed him as the vice-chairman of the Governing Body of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS)

US Patents

 * System and method for analyzing and structuring data records
 * System and method for automated document generation
 * Industry Simulation Environment.

President and director of MICA
Making MICA an ideas-driven institution by getting the best research, teaching, and outreach on board, he has exemplified the pedagogical change, by introducing project-based and simulation-based learning for the students. As president, Mehta partnered the institute with management schools in the United States including Emory University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, University of Southern California and with Chinese varsities.

He has also introduced project-based and simulation-based learning for the students. and under his tenure, MICA earned the 'Great Place to Work' certification, a global authority on workplace culture.

After his term ends at MICA in May 2024, he will join O. P. Jindal Global University.