Nitin Nohria, a specialist in leadership and ethics, was named dean of Harvard Business School and charged with transforming management education after financial catastrophes and scandals shook public faith in business.

Nohria (48) a professor of management at the school,u00a0 will begin his tenure in June. Nohria, who will be the 10th dean of the business school, said that he will emphasise responsibility and the positive role companies can play in society.

"Business itself is at an inflection point. Society's trust in business has certainly been shaken," Nohria said, who has taught in Harvard since 1988u00a0 "And as a result some of society's trust in business education has been shaken."

Nohria earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Powaiu00a0 in 1984, and his Ph.D in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, also in Cambridge, in 1988. He has co-written 12 books, most recently the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice which he wrote with Rakesh Khurana, a colleague at the school.

Harvard was hurt as its endowment, the world's biggest academic fund, lost about one-third of its value in the economy.

Business Image

Students are "very concerned about the image of business and its place in American life and the world in general," Faust said.

Harvard has a tradition of selecting deans from within the faculty. Nohria, the Richard P. Chapman professor of business administration and a senior associate dean and director of faculty development at the business school, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, born in Mumbai. He is married and has two daughters.