Rate My Professor Madhav Rajan

Madhav Rajan serves as Dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a position he assumed on July 1, 2017, and began his second term in July 2022. In June 2025, he took on the additional role of Chief Global Strategist for the University of Chicago, responsible for shaping global strategy, overseeing UChicago Global, and managing the university's international campuses. Prior to joining Booth, Rajan spent 16 years on the faculty of Stanford Graduate School of Business as the Robert Jaedicke Professor of Accounting, with a courtesy appointment in the Law School, and served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2010 to 2016, overseeing the MBA program. From 1990 to 2001, he was on the faculty at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His academic background includes a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Madras, India, MS degrees in Accounting and Industrial Administration, and a PhD in Accounting from Carnegie Mellon University.

Rajan’s research specializes in the economics-based analysis of management accounting issues, including optimal contracting and incentives, performance measurement, cost analysis and management, and accounting metrics and ratios. He has served as editor of The Accounting Review, the flagship journal of the American Accounting Association, and as associate editor for the accounting and operations sections of Management Science. Key publications include co-authorship of Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis, whose 18th edition was published by Pearson Prentice Hall in 2025, and Managerial Accounting, published by Pearson in 2013. His honors include the Robert T. Davis Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service from Stanford in 2017, the Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature Award in 2004, the David W. Hauck Award for Outstanding Teaching from Wharton in 2000, and the Alexander Henderson Award for Excellence in Economic Theory in 1990. As Dean, Rajan has launched new master’s programs, reshaped Booth’s footprint in Asia and EMEA, bolstered alumni engagement supporting faculty research and scholarships, and deepened ties to the University of Chicago via joint degrees and the Business Economics track, now the largest major in the College. He also serves as a Director of iShares, Inc., Trustee of the iShares Trust, and on the boards of CM Capital Corporation and WellBe Holdings.