Karan Girotra

Karan Girotra is Charles H. Dyson Family Professor of Management and Professor of Operations, Technology and Innovation at Cornell-Tech and the Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. Girotra’s research has focused on identifying and refining business models enabled by new technologies and enabling the digital transformation of companies and industries. Girotra has collaborated with companies building new business models in the areas of urban living, smart transportation and e-commerce, helping them build rigorous research-based solutions.

As one of the first business faculty at Cornell Tech, Girotra is helping build a unique new educational institution that fuses technology with business and creative thinking. He leads the flagship studio-based education programs at Cornell Tech and is applying his research on innovation to help build a new model for graduate education.

Girotra’s and his research collaborators have been recognized with multiple best paper awards and his research contributions were recognized with prestigious Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Award. His research on new business models (at the time) was summarized in the best-selling book, “The Risk Driven Business Model”. He has also won over 20 teaching awards for his teaching on entrepreneurship and new business models and was featured in the Poets and Quant’s Best 40 under 40 business professors lists.

In addition to his academic work, Girotra was one of the founders of TerraPass Inc., which the New York Times identified as one of the most noteworthy ideas of 2005. Since then, TerraPass has helped businesses and individuals reduce over hundred million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Prior to joining Cornell Tech, Girotra held the Paul Dubrule Chair at INSEAD, earned a doctorate at the Wharton School and a bachelor degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.