IIM-Calcutta director resigns amid differences with board, faculty members

New Delhi: Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) director Anju Seth has resigned after months-long differences with the institution's board of governors and faculty members.

IIM-C joins the league of IIM-A and IIM-B that saw premature departure of their directors hired from abroad.

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“Seth has resigned…Acceptance of her resignation and till what time she will continue in the position is yet not clear,” said a source familiar with the development.

Though Mint could not directly get a comment from Seth, her office in IIM-Calcutta said they don’t have any information as of now, and that they might be in a position to comment in the second half of the day.

Seth was the Pamplin professor of management at Virginia Tech in the US before joining IIM-C.

Previously, Ashish Nanda from Harvard had left IIM-Ahmedabad directorship in the middle of his tenure after differences with the government over the drafting of the IIM Act. He ultimately quit citing “personal reasons". IIM Bangalore director Sushil Vachani, who had come from Boston University, too, left after three years in office instead of five, as the government did not extend his term.

Though Nanda and Vachani did not have differences with the faculty, the power struggle at IIM-C started 17 months ago. Last month, the board of IIM-C had curtailed Seth's power, including her authority to indict faculty members. The struggle had started in November-December 2019 when a group of faculty members wrote to the institution board.