On June 25th, the appointment ceremony for Dr. Anu Rathninde as Specially-Appointed Professor was held in Room 405 of the School. Professor FAN Tijun, Dean of the School of Business, faculty representatives from the Department of Business Administration and other relevant school members attended the ceremony, witnessing a new milestone in the School‘s development of international-oriented faculty. The ceremony was hosted by Associate Professor ZHU Lina, Deputy Head of the Department of Business Administration.

    Dr. Anu Rathninde previously served as President of Johnson Controls Asia Pacific. He boasts profound theoretical attainments and rich multinational corporate management experience in fields including leadership development and organizational change management. He maintains long-standing close ties with the School. He was appointed Visiting Professor in April 2021, became a member of the School‘s first Strategic Advisory Board in 2023, and took office as Director of the Complex Leadership Laboratory in June 2025. He has long been deeply engaged in the School‘s talent cultivation and integration of industry and education initiatives.

     In his address, Prof. FAN Tijun highly commended Dr. Anu Rathninde’s consistent dedication and support for the School‘s development over the years. He remarked that Dr. Anu Rathninde combines broad international academic vision with hands-on management practice. His formal appointment as Specially-Appointed Professor will strongly drive new breakthroughs for the School in theoretical research on complex leadership and cultivation of interdisciplinary economics and management talents. The School expects him to integrate real-world multinational management experience and cutting-edge management insights into classroom teaching and research projects. This will support the School in fulfilling its mission of “integrating business and technology to cultivate economics and management talents who integrate knowledge and practice”, and further advance the iBEST education philosophy.

     Dr. Anu Rathninde expressed his great honour to continue supporting the development of the School in his new capacity as Specially-Appointed Professor. Looking back on his journey from Visiting Professor, member of the Strategic Advisory Board, Director of the Complex Leadership Laboratory to Specially-Appointed Professor, he noted that the successive role changes testify to deepening academic mutual trust and shared educational commitments between both sides. Moving forward, he will commit himself to bridging management practice and academic research, devoting his efforts to teaching, laboratory development and student mentoring, so as to contribute to nurturing outstanding future-oriented economics and management leaders adaptive to the digital era.

    Following the appointment ceremony, participants held in-depth discussions and took group photos. This appointment marks a new phase of cooperation between the School and Dr. Anu Rathninde. Both sides will further deepen collaboration in complex-leadership research, case development and joint cultivation of high-end talents, jointly serving the national innovation-driven development strategy.