By Amanda Lenox

Editorial Assistant

Dr. Rajnandini Pillai is a leader and inspiration for College of Business Administration students both in and out of the classroom.

She received her undergraduate degree in Microbiology and Chemistry but changed her career course when she earned her MBA from the University of Bombay. Dr. Pillai has always been passionate about studying leadership, so her master’s thesis focused on the leadership styles of bank managers. She received a scholarship to attend the university at Buffalo, The State University of New York, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior.

Professor Pillai explains her decision in choosing her field of study saying, “Ever since I was a teenager my mother exposed me to the autobiographies of great leaders…and so I read about Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi and Churchill. And one of the reasons why I’m so interested in charismatic leadership is because I always wanted to study leaders who made a difference, especially when a company or a country is in crisis and along comes this person that everybody looks up to.”

Professor Pillai was recommended by her advisor to Glen Brodowsky, fellow SUNY, Buffalo graduate and COBA faculty member, when CSUSM was looking for teachers to teach organizational behavior and leadership.

“I interviewed here, loved the place, loved the fact that it was very entrepreneurial and it had miles to go in 1998,” said Dr. Pillai.

The courses she teaches at the undergraduate level include Leadership and Organizations and the popular course, In the Executives Chair. The class brings in a new CEO each week to talk to students about the “stories of their successes and failures.” At the MBA level she teaches Leadership and Business Ethics. She also supervises Senior Experience teams.

Dr. Pillai is also one of the co-founders of the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Mentorship Building (CLIMB). CLIMB is a resource “for both external and internal communities: students, faculty, administrators, staff, as well as the business community and other members of the community.”

“I get to share my passion with my students. I hope in some way I can make a difference in students’ lives,” said Professor Pillai when asked what she likes most about teaching.

She also loves meeting new students each semester and keeping in touch with them after they graduate. Dr. Pillai hopes that students “recognize that leaders have a major impact. And even if they cannot change the leaders that they currently have…they can go out and make a difference with the people that they lead in the future.”

She encourages all students to “try to take a business class if you can because you learn a lot of things about how to be an effective employee in an organization.”