Charles L. Harper, Distinguished Scholar
Charles Harper is an executive strategist, consultant, and project manager in the conceptualization, design and execution of high-impact and innovative projects in philanthropy. He is responsible for launching hundreds of initiatives at the interface of education, philanthropy, the humanities, scientific research, public service and enterprise.
As the founder and President of Vision-Five Consulting, Harper has also worked with the entrepreneur, private equity investor and philanthropist, Randy Best, as Chancellor for International Distance Learning and SVP for Global Programs for Best’s Whitney International University System. He led a project of the Philanthropy Roundtable focused on developing strategy for philanthropists and business leaders seeking to advance the quality, impact and accessibility of graduate business education worldwide with special focus on innovation in entrepreneurship education. He is presently engaged in a major project to design new academic institutions focused on hyper-productivity in technology innovation entrepreneurship.
Vanita Yadav, Fullbright / Visiting Scholar
Vanita Yadav is an assistant professor of strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship at IRMA, India. She holds a doctorate in management from MDI Gurgaon, India. Her doctoral research work won the ‘Best Paper Award’ at Indian Institute of Science (IISc)¸ Bangalore. She has worked on research projects funded by the European Union (supported by NASSCOM, India) and other institutional funded projects. Vanita is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Rural Management (IJRM) by Sage publications and the International Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy (IJIDE). Additionally, she is serving as a reviewer for various research journals and conferences like AoM and ICIS.
She has more than six years of work experience in research, academia and industry. Vanita has published research papers in refereed journals and presented in conferences like AoM and OUI at MIT and HBS. She has published two case studies at the Harvard Business School publications online. Her case study on outsourcing was ranked as the ‘Most Popular Case’ by ACRC and is taught in various business schools across the globe. Vanita’s current research interests are in the areas of sustainability-driven entrepreneurship, user innovation and entrepreneurship at grassroots, and social innovation.