Professor G 'Anand' Anandalingam is saying goodbye after three years as Dean of the Business School, as he looks to new horizons in the US.

Laura Singleton caught up with him to ask about his time at Imperial and his plans for the future.

How has Imperial College Business School changed in the three years since you’ve been Dean?

The Business School has made huge strides in the past three years. When I arrived in 2013 many people outside of Imperial didn’t even know that the College had a business school, but I’m delighted to see that we’re now on the global map and that our reputation has dramatically increased among our international competitors. We’ve done a lot over the past three years to increase our profile, including our successful marketing campaign earlier this year which has really helped bring our name to new audiences both in the UK and worldwide.

As the profile of the Business School has increased, we’ve been able to attract more students from around the world and a significant number of high profile academics from other international business schools. We now boast global expertise in a number of disciplines including finance, healthcare, operations, marketing and economics to supplement our own traditional strengths in innovation and entrepreneurship.

The culture of the Business School has always been supportive towards its staff, but we’ve done a lot more in the past three years to make sure we remain transparent and that professional staff are acknowledged and supported.

What has been your proudest moment at the Business School?

I was incredibly proud to see Imperial’s ranking for its Full-Time MBA programme significantly increase both in the UK and global rankings, which is a fantastic achievement for the Business School.

I was also delighted with the launch of the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis, which opened in 2014 and Imperial Business Analytics with KPMG, which opened in 2015. The Brevan Howard Centre is designed to study financial crises and market contagion and was made possible through a £20.1 million donation from hedge fund Brevan Howard, on behalf of its co-founder and Imperial alumnus Alan Howard.

Imperial Business Analytics with KPMG is a research centre dedicated to demystifying big data for business leaders, that received over £10 million in funding from KPMG.

Another key moment was persuading senior management across Imperial to help with the creation of the Enterprise Lab, which is a space to support the entrepreneurship activities of students, staff and alumni across Imperial. The Lab will feature the enterprises of several Imperial students and is intended to provide inspiration to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced during your time at Imperial?

One of the biggest challenges has been to raise the profile of the Business School, both in the wider world and across our College community. We’ve also worked to ensure our brand remains unique and reflective of Imperial’s technology heritage through the launch of several new degree programmes including the new MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance programme. As we continue to attract more students and high profile academics, we’ve also had to expand to find new facilities for our teaching and research.

What will you miss most about the Business School?

I’ll miss working with all the fantastic staff, both academics and professional teams, who are working incredibly hard to help us continue building a top notch business school.

I’ll also miss living in London and the social scene that results from living and working in this amazing city.

Can you tell me more about your plans after Imperial?

I’m taking up a new post as Professor of Operations Management and Information Technology at the University of Maryland. I’ll also be working to support Hilary Clinton’s campaign for the US Election later this year.

Finally, do you have any words of advice for the future Dean of Imperial College Business School?

You will need to take a key role in helping drive our fundraising activity and the work of the alumni relations teams and continue building our expanding executive education programmes. Above all, I would advise continuing to collaborate openly and transparently with staff across the whole College and build on our good work in creating a supportive culture for our students, academics and  professional staff.