photo by: Journal-World

Neeli Bendapudi pictured at the University of Kansas

Kansas University alumna and School of Business Dean Neeli Bendapudi will be KU’s next provost and executive vice chancellor.

The university announced Friday that Bendapudi had been selected for the job.

“A true Jayhawk, her enthusiasm for KU, her creativity and her academic and leadership experience will help us to elevate our stature as a national research university,” Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said in a statement.

Bendapudi is known for being high-energy and a passionate supporter of KU. As business dean, her most publicly visible accomplishment has been leading the initiative to plan and raise money to build Capitol Federal Hall — at $70.5 million, the newly completed facility is the university’s most expensive privately funded academic building to date.

Originally from India, Bendapudi followed in her father’s footsteps to attend KU, earning her doctorate here in 1994.

Besides serving as KU business dean since 2011, she is an H.D. Price Professor of Business at KU.

“I am thrilled for the opportunity to serve my alma mater in a new capacity and look forward to working with people across campus to make it an even better place for our students, our faculty and our staff to learn and to work,” Bendapudi said in a statement from KU. “This is a truly wonderful place that means so much to me and my family, and this opportunity is a dream come true for me.”

Prior to becoming KU’s business dean, Bendapudi was at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, where she started as assistant professor in 1996 and earned the rank of professor in 2008. Previously she was an assistant professor of marketing at Texas A&M University.

In the private sector, Bendapudi worked as executive vice president and chief customer officer of Huntington National Bank. According to KU, she also has consulted for dozens of the world’s largest companies, including Procter & Gamble, Deloitte & Touche and Cessna.

Bendapudi starts the new position July 1.

She was one of three finalists for the position to give campus presentations in April, with the other two candidates coming from outside KU.

Provost search committee chairman Steve Warren, professor of speech-language-hearing and an investigator in the Life Span Institute, said Bendapudi’s familiarity with KU and “distinctive leadership skills” would make her an excellent fit.

Bendapudi will replace former provost and executive vice chancellor Jeff Vitter, who left KU in December to become chancellor at the University of Mississippi. Sara Rosen, senior vice provost for academic affairs, has been serving as interim provost since Jan. 1.