College of Management Dean Steve Salbu recently promoted two faculty members to serve as associate deans.

As of June 1, information technology management professor Sridhar Narasimhan is senior associate dean for the business school. Goutam Challagalla, associate professor of marketing, will assume the new position of associate dean for executive education by October 1 (possibly before).

Salbu says he's delighted that both men are eager to advance the College's mission in these key roles. "Sri Narasimhan brings a fine intellect, judgment, common sense, hard work, experience, and widespread respect and admiration both within the College and beyond," he says.

Narasimhan, who joined the College's faculty in 1987, is widely published in premier journals for his research on information technology infrastructure design. He also serves on the editorial boards of several journals.

His extensive contributions to the College over the years include serving as area coordinator for Information Technology Management and as a member of the Faculty Advisory Board. He chaired the College's Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee from Fall 2003 through Spring 2007.

Narasimhan replaces Nathan Bennett, who began serving as senior associate dean in late 2002. Bennett announced earlier this year that he wanted to return to focusing on his research as a professor of organizational behavior on the College's faculty. "Nate's contributions to the College generally, and to our MBA programs specifically, have had a great impact at Georgia Tech," Salbu says. "Sri was my first-choice candidate as Nate's successor, and we are very lucky that he was ready at this time to take on a new challenge in service to the College."

Accounting professor Eugene Comiskey has also elected to conclude his five-year tenure as associate dean for faculty and research in order to focus on teaching and his research. "I'm certain I'm among many here who feel like they are a better person for having the privilege of working with Gene," Salbu says. "He knows higher education better than anyone I know, and he has served as a valued advisor and mentor for the faculty."

The senior associate dean position has been restructured so that Narasimhan will serve as both chief operating officer and dean of the faculty. Previously the senior associate dean oversaw the full-time MBA program, but that responsibility will be transferred to a faculty director now being selected. The senior associate dean will also no longer supervise executive education. That area will be the responsibility of the new associate dean position filled by Challagalla.

"Goutam Challagalla's experience and expertise in the executive education area are very impressive," Salbu says. "As you know, vibrant and successful executive education programs are an essential component of a top business school, and I am very confident that Goutam will help us take our excellent programs to new heights of success."

Challagalla joined the College's faculty in 1994 and previously served as area coordinator for Marketing at the College. Over the past year, he has been on leave from the College, serving as principal at Monitor Executive Education Development, the learning and development unit of the Monitor Group. Challagalla has managed Fortune 500 clients in technology, biotech, pharmaceutical, and agribusiness sectors.

With research published in top journals, Challagalla has also worked with companies such as IBM, McKinsey, Microsoft, GE, HSBC, 3M, Texas Instruments, Applied Materials, UPS, BellSouth, Prudential, and Kanbay on education, research, and consulting projects related to sales performance, marketing strategy, pricing, channel design, customer relationship management, and marketing plan development.