Charles Dhanaraj

Professor and Chair, Management

  • Faculty

What I do

Evelyn & Jay G. Piccinati Endowed Chair Professor
Professor of Management
Chair, Department of Management

Professional Biography

Charles Dhanaraj is Evelyn & Jay G. Piccinati Endowed Chair in Teaching Excellence, Professor and Chair of the Management Department at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver. Dhanaraj comes from Temple University where he was the H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest Professor of Strategy at Fox School of Business, Executive Director of the Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (EDBA) Program, and the Founding Director of Translational Research Center, Dhanaraj has previously served at IMD Switzerland, Indiana University Kelley School of Business, Western University Ivey Business School (Canada), and Temasek Polytechnic (Singapore). He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), Indian School of Business (India), Foundation Dom Cabral (Brazil), and Kellogg School of Management (USA).

Dhanaraj’s research focuses on strategy and leadership in a global context and explores three questions:
(1) How do leaders craft and execute winning strategies that are purpose driven?
(2) how do organizations create sustained value from global partnerships? and
(3) how do entrepreneurs and business leaders orchestrate global networks for growth?
Dhanaraj has published in several top journals including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management Journal. He has also written over 50 teaching cases, several of which have received international awards.

Dhanaraj serves on the editorial boards of several major academic journals. He has served as a deputy editor at Cross Cultural Strategic Management and a guest editor at Leadership Quarterly and Management International Review. In 2017, he was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), a distinction held by elite researchers for outstanding contributions to scholarly development in international business.

Dhanaraj has taught across the programs – undergraduate, MBA, Executive MBA, PhD, and Executive PhDs. He has worked with several global organizations such as Eli Lilly, Sanofi, Cummins, Danske Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Saudi Arabia British Bank (SABB), UniCredit, Pernod Ricard, Maersk Drilling, Arla, Dekra, Valmet, Deloitte, Sika, Hilti, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Aditya Birla Group.

An engineer from IIT Madras (India), with Masters degrees in robotics engineering and business, Charles earned his Ph.D. in business from Ivey Business School, Canada. Prior to entering academia, Dhanaraj worked with the Tata group for several years specializing in strategic management and advanced manufacturing.dddddd