Pati appointed to Peace initiative board
May 25, 2006
KOKOMO, Ind.—Niranjan Pati, Ph.D., dean of the Indiana University Kokomo School of Business, is serving on a 15-member “Peace Through Commerce” task force for The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AASCB) International.
With a membership base of more than 1,000 member institutions in 70 countries, AACSB launched the “Peace Through Commerce” initiative last fall, and has begun to identify ways that its member schools teach and promote commercial business activities that reduce international tension and civil strife.
Pati said he was honored to join the task force, whose members include business school deans from several reputed schools, as well as executives from the United Nations and the private sector. “Having been invited to join the new initiative, our school and Indiana University in general will be at the cutting edge of knowledge evolution in this area,” he said.
The initiative’s current efforts focus on facilitating education and economic development in regions of the world where poor economic conditions and a lack of access to education create conditions where conflict can thrive. One especially effective effort is demonstrated by the efforts of three students—an Israeli-American, a Palestinian, and an American Jew—who put aside cultural differences to collaborate on a business that provides micro-loans to small Palestinian-owned businesses. The financial support from these loans has led to high-impact job creation programs in the West Bank and Gaza.
In conferences at four U.S. universities, AACSB plans to “use the power of management education” to generate similar projects that encourage peace, cooperation, trust, respect, and tolerance.
AACSB International is the world’s first and largest global business school accrediting association.
