Chowfla, who began his career in New Delhi with IBM, joins the league of Indian-Americans ruling the management education sector in the US, including Soumitra Dutta (Cornell University), Nitin Nohria (Harvard B-School), Dipak Jain (Kellogg, INSEAD), Sunil Kumar (University of Chicago's Booth School of Business).
Following this trend of US B-schools plumping for Indian-origin heads, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) appointed Chowfla to helm the prestigious company taking over from David A. Wilson, who served the company as CEO and president for the past 18 years.
Chowfla will take charge as president in September and assume the CEO's role on January 1, 2014.
"I know for myself that taking the GMAT exam and the opportunities it opened up for me were life-changing," said Chowfla, highlighting the significance of the exam, which management aspirants from across the world take to realize their dreams, just as he himself had done.
"My job will be to take the strong foundation — GMAC 2.0, if you will — build on it, shape it for the future and establish a new, even stronger GMAC: GMAC 3.0. I am excited by the challenge and gratified that the board has chosen to entrust me with this great company, its terrific management team and its world-class staff," Chowfla added talking about his challenges.
An Indian by birth, Chowfla is a US citizen currently living in India. He will relocate to Northern Virginia to assume this new responsibilities.
"Sangeet Chowfla is just the kind of chief executive the GMAC board had in mind when we began our CEO search earlier this year," said James Bradford, outgoing chairman of the board of GMAC and dean and Ralph Owen Professor of Management at the Owen School of Management, Vanderbilt University.
After graduating in BA (economics) from St. Stephen's College, he did his MBA with specialization in marketing and finance from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.
Chowfla's career took off in New Delhi with IBM and then he went on to spend 18 years with Hewlett-Packard. His next post was Timeline Ventures where he was a partner in the venture capital firm with experience of both acquisition and post-acquisition management issues.
He left Timeline Partners in 2007 to become the chief strategy officer and executive vice-president of mobile services and global market units of Comviva Technologies, an Indian telecommunications software company.
"Mr Chowfla is joining GMAC at a time of great opportunity as well as change in the graduate management education marketplace," said Dina Dommett, incoming Chair of the GMAC Board (July 2013) and executive director, leadership programs, London Business School.
"The globalization of management education has been a constant, yet today that globalization is occurring at a faster pace and with technology playing an ever greater role. Mr. Chowfla's experience as a technology executive, his international experience as a manager and leader, coupled with his understanding of global markets, are perfectly suited to the challenges facing GMAC, and I look forward to working with him. The London Business School is committed to helping GMAC navigate the changing marketplace, and Mr. Chowfla is a terrific choice to lead that effort," Dommett said.