UMD’s Dr. Praveen Aggarwal Advances to Dean of Labovitz School of Business and Economics
Dean Praveen Aggarwal in his office. Photo courtesy of Praveen Aggarwal
Dr. Praveen Aggarwal was appointed dean of UMD’s Labovitz School of Business and Economics (LSBE) in September of 2025 after serving as the interim dean for the past four years.
His vision is centered around providing students with the opportunity to excel and to develop into a better version of themselves.
According to Aggarwal, an important question to ask in regards to students is, “at the end of the day, do they have meaningful lives to live?”
Aggarwal has the expertise to make that vision a reality. Before becoming a professor at UMD in 1988, he graduated from two masters programs in Rural Management and in Economics as well as getting his PHD at Syracuse University in New York.
This expertise has led Aggarwal to do research for 29 years, with 25 published papers via Google Scholar which were co-authored with his colleague Dr. Rajiv Vaidyanathan.
Vaidyanathan has been working at UMD for 35 years in various roles such as a Professor of Marketing, Director of Graduate Studies, and a Department Head. Vaidyanathan thinks of Aggarwal highly and was the head of the search committee when Aggarwal was hired.
Vaidyanathan describes Aggarwal as a deep, methodical, and detailed thinker that is always very prepared.
For example, when he has to get feedback from the faculty at the request of the school administration, he prepares exhaustively ahead of time to come up with a draft plan he can get feedback on. After feedback is given, Aggarwal provides the group an updated plan, including the input provided from stakeholders.
Vaidyanathan has seen the opposite on many committees inside and outside the University system, and has replicated this approach.“He (Aggarwal) is an incredible asset to the school as a dean,” Vaidyanathan said. “I don’t know if we would be able to find someone of his caliber if he left.”
Some of the most important research they have done, in Vaidyanathan's opinion, is about the perception of price fairness and brand alliances, which occur when brands from different industries collaborate.
Aggarwal stated that it is important for students to become global citizens, because we all come from different cultures and make decisions in different ways based on how we grew up.
Aggarwal plans to give students an international experience without needing to go abroad. Every major discipline has an international course associated with it. Additionally, there are events where speakers are brought from around the world to speak at UMD. Recently, Ashish Agrawal from Bridge4Change and Swayam Panigrahi, a Fullbright Scholar studying at the University of Connecticut(UCONN).
Aggarwal believes that studying abroad is a great experience and should be incorporated into every student's journey. He adds that LSBE is starting an initiative that will help decrease the financial barrier for students to go abroad.
His advice to students would be to get involved in the campus community while prioritizing school work as well.
A hat pictured on a bookshelf in Dean Praveen Aggarwal’s office. Photo by Star Gump
“You have 48 hours in your day, given everything that you are trying to do,” Aggarwal said. “I was involved in a lot of activities, and for me, that was life changing.”
A professor’s job is to be “paid to think.” In a similar sense, he wants students to develop critical thinking skills to help them achieve their goals. Aggarwal encourages students to take all the opportunities that they have to meet professors who would be glad to chat and develop a relationship with them, including through the Take a professor to Lunch Program.
Speaking of hard work, Aggarwal acknowledges that it can be hard to reach out to a professor or an advisor but it pays off in the long run. By reaching out to others there will be “something more exciting, more fun, and more challenging,” according to Aggarwal. By conquering these challenges, you will be able to find your purpose, that will lead you to be fulfilled in your life.
Switching into more technical gears, Aggarwal believes that AI is a good supplement to us as students but that we shouldn’t heavily rely on it either.
“AI will have its place and we need to keep working with it. At the same time, It is creating a vacuum. It's creating a void that we can fill,” Aggarwal said. “As the synthetic grows, the desire and demand for authenticity will also grow.” A university experience in his mind is full of “curious, engaging, and authentic human interactions.”
According to data from Gallup, “more than half (57%) of U.S. college students are using artificial intelligence in their coursework at least weekly.’
Overall, he believes that “the vision here is to excel through our students.” In their collegiate journeys, his “dream is to see a transformation” in each student.