{"id":515176,"date":"2025-05-02T14:17:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T18:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/magazine\/?p=515176"},"modified":"2025-05-08T10:56:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:56:06","slug":"poole-pack-profiles-meet-vikas-anand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/magazine\/poole-pack-profiles-meet-vikas-anand\/","title":{"rendered":"Poole Pack Profiles: Meet Vikas Anand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
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Vikas Anand has been with Poole College since 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite a long career working with diverse groups in academia and international business, Vikas Anand<\/a> has gained some of his sharpest insights on humans in unlikely settings: watching animals in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a trip this summer to his native India, Anand \u2014 Poole College\u2019s associate dean for academic programs \u2014 visited lakes and mountains, where the soaring elevations inspired down-to-earth thoughts about people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a jungle safari, he observed nature\u2019s melting pot at a small pool of water where monkeys, deer, peacocks and other birds gathered.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cMy reflection was that those wild animals have no problems coexisting peacefully, even in the desert where water is scarce.”<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy reflection was that those wild animals have no problems coexisting peacefully, even in the desert where water is scarce. To me that was a very moving picture \u2014 you can have peace with creatures very different from you,\u201d Anand says. \u201cHumans keep creating differences among themselves. And there we were looking at different species that coexisted.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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During a jungle safari on his summer trip to India, Vikas Anand photographed monkeys, peacocks, and various other wildlife gathered together at a pool.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anand himself has excelled at coexisting among different groups, moving among varied fields in his career \u2014 engineering to business to academia \u2014 and from India to the U.S. in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The analytical thinking skills he developed through engineering and physics were an advantage when he worked for a Mitsubishi subsidiary and traveled around the world to large companies. He was an exports manager and global trader before focusing on marketing and strategic planning.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud of my engineering background,\u201d Anand says. \u201cIt gave me a way of thinking\u2026and helped me quickly make judgment-based decisions, which has helped throughout my career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anand eventually pursued an advanced degree focused on international business with the goal of becoming a CEO for a big organization. \u201cBut somewhere along the way, I thought I could make a better impact in academics,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, he\u2019s made an impact as a researcher, professor and administrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo taken by Vikas Anand on India trip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He came to the U.S in 1994 \u2014 his first time in the country, where opportunities were most promising \u2014 to earn a doctorate in management at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was really worried about whether I would fit in. Culturally, the U.S. is very different from many other parts of the world\u2026There was some discomfort. At the same time, the sheer joy of learning made everything else less relevant,\u201d Anand says.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His eagerness for learning drove him to work up to 16 hours a day as a doctoral student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo taken by Vikas Anand on India trip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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\u201cThere was some discomfort. At the same time, the sheer joy of learning made everything else less relevant\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just had a blast. I was very poor as a graduate student, but other than that, I would call that one of the best parts of my life,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI had some extraordinarily good faculty whose main focus was that you were doing good work and developing in your thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anand continued to develop his thinking \u2014 and to lead students and colleagues to do so \u2014 for 22 years at the University of Arkansas\u2019 Sam M. Walton College of Business. There he taught, managed MBA programs and headed the management department before becoming executive director of MBA programs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo taken by Vikas Anand on India trip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Vikas Anand traveling in India.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

When he accepted the Poole position in 2021, he was an empty-nester, and the timing was good to relocate. \u201cFor me, one of the drivers always is not just what is, but what can be. And I saw a lot of potential at NC State,\u201d Anand says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a role that oversees undergraduate and graduate programs, career services, executive education, global programs and marketing, he has broadened the potential for Poole students. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cLooking at ways we can serve the students better is a passion for me. It begins with programs that add value for them in terms of career placement.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI work with a really good group of people. Looking at ways we can serve the students better is a passion for me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt begins with programs that add value for them in terms of career placement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and his colleagues have added value in these and other ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n