Saikat Chaudhuri Named STVP Faculty Director and Professor in MS&E
Saikat Chaudhuri (MS ’98), a distinguished leader in technology management and entrepreneurship education, has been named a Faculty Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) and a Professor (Teaching) of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E), beginning July 1, 2026.
Chaudhuri will join STVP’s faculty leadership team, partnering with long-serving Faculty Director Tom Byers as well as Faculty Directors Chuck Eesley and Riitta Katila to guide the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering. The appointment marks a return to the university for Chaudhuri, who earned his master’s degree in manufacturing systems engineering at Stanford.
“As a globally recognized expert on technology entrepreneurship and innovation as well as a Stanford Engineering alum, Saikat Chaudhuri brings both expertise and a deep, personal understanding of our unique culture of innovation,” said Ashish Goel, Chair of the Management Science and Engineering department. “His vision for educating the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders makes him the ideal choice to help guide entrepreneurship education at Stanford Engineering into its next chapter.”
Chaudhuri was a Stanford graduate student in 1997 as STVP was founded and the dot-com era was beginning to reshape the world. He credits his time at Stanford – including mentorship by MS&E’s faculty and attending STVP’s early Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders talks by luminaries like John Doerr – as a pivotal moment that defined his entire career path.
"Saikat's vision for educating the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders makes him the ideal choice to help guide entrepreneurship education at Stanford Engineering into its next chapter."
Ashish Goel, Chair, Management Science and Engineering
“It is an incredible honor to return to the place that so profoundly shaped my professional journey,” Chaudhuri said. “STVP is an amazing platform that played an instrumental role in my own development, and the chance to now join its leadership team is a special privilege. In many ways, my entire career – from my research on how companies innovate to my doctoral work on high-tech acquisitions – was born at Stanford.”
“Saikat embodies the spirit of STVP – rigorous in thought, entrepreneurial in action, and deeply committed to our students,” Byers said. “The world is at another pivotal moment, just as when STVP began. Saikat’s expertise in how both new ventures and large corporations navigate profound technological change is exactly the leadership we need to prepare our students for the future. I am thrilled to partner with him.”
“Saikat’s expertise in how both new ventures and large corporations navigate profound technological change is exactly the leadership we need to prepare our students for the future.”
Tom Byers, Faculty Director, STVP
Chaudhuri will join Stanford from the University of California, Berkeley, where he is the inaugural Faculty Director of the Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (M.E.T.) Program and holds the Grimes M.E.T. Chancellor’s Chair. He also serves as the inaugural Faculty Director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Hub, is on the Faculty Executive Committee of the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, and is a Teaching Professor in both the Haas School of Business and the College of Engineering. Prior to Berkeley, he was a faculty member at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he held several leadership positions, including Executive Director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management.
Chaudhuri’s research focuses on corporate growth and innovation strategies, particularly high-tech mergers and acquisitions and technological innovation in dynamic environments. An award-winning educator, his work has been cited by global press, and he advises corporations and governments worldwide. In addition to his Stanford degree, he holds bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and multinational management from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctoral degree in technology and operations management from Harvard University.
“As AI and other breakthrough technologies dramatically change how we live and work, STVP is the perfect place to prepare the leaders who will harness these technologies to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. We have an incredible foundation to build on, and exciting plans ahead.”
Saikat Chaudhuri, Incoming Faculty Director, STVP
Chaudhuri said he is excited by how STVP can address the new frontier of challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs today.
“While many entrepreneurship centers focus on producing startups, STVP is dedicated to educating principled entrepreneurial leaders, whether in new ventures or established enterprises,” Chaudhuri said. “As AI and other breakthrough technologies dramatically change how we live and work, STVP is the perfect place to prepare the leaders who will harness these technologies to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. We have an incredible foundation to build on, and exciting plans ahead.”
About STVP
Founded in 1997, the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) is the entrepreneurship center within the Stanford School of Engineering. STVP empowers aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations. As one of the few entrepreneurship centers situated in an engineering school, STVP has played a central role in defining how entrepreneurship is taught, advancing groundbreaking research on technology entrepreneurship and innovation, and catalyzing entrepreneurship ecosystems around the world. Grounded in scholarly research by faculty in Management Science & Engineering, STVP courses and programs include student fellows programs on entrepreneurial leadership, a doctoral program, the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders speaker series, and the Stanford Initiative on Entrepreneurs’ Resilience and Well-Being, a collaboration with the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign.
