about me

I'm Anand, a researcher living in Montréal, QC, with my wife and daughter. I begin as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Digitalization at the Copenhagen Business School this Fall. I study digitalization in multiprofessional settings: how emerging technologies reconfigure expertise and organizing, particularly in healthcare. I have a PhD in management from the Desautels Faculty of Managment, McGill University. I have a PhD in Disease Ecology from the Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution program, Emory University. Between the two PhDs, I was a technology consultant with Accenture's Applied Intelligence Division, based out of Atlanta, GA.

a brief history

I was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, to Lakshmi and Surya, a couple of young professional tams. We moved to Bangalore (now Bengaluru) a few years later, and I headed off to boarding school in Gwalior. After school, I spent a couple of years as an undergraduate back in Bangalore before transferring at age 20 to Emory University in Atlanta to get a bachelors in biology. I went on to get a doctorate in ecology from Emory, during which I developed an interest in complex systems, mathematical modeling, and computational research methods.

Evolving interests and needs took me away from the academic path. I joined Accenture as an analytics consultant just around the time that corporate data science was emerging as a powerful idea and economic force- early in the hype cycle of Big Data and AI and digital tranformation. Over the years I embedded in a number of large organizations, as my skills were mostly needed in large multi-site/enterprise technology implementations. Initially, my role was that of a data scientist, which involved primary research and construction of production-ready predictive algorithms. I evolved into the role of a "full stack" enterprise digital transformation consultant, taking on more strategic roles in deal-shaping, technology and process design and evaluation in addition to the computational work.

Consulting in the frequently disrupted and therefore constantly changing worlds of communications, media and technology in North America allowed me to observe a wide variety of organizations and settings, in my capacity as a change agent. The PhD after my name and my - dare I say - "easygoing interdisciplinarity" allowed me to blend in to sales/service centers, IT departments, and C-suite offices alike. Curiosity piqued, and with a head full of atheoretical soup, I decided to transition my life back to that of a student, so that I may make sense of it all.

In 2019 I joined the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, where I began to earn my second PhD, this time in management and organizational studies. Seven years, as it turned out. The pandemic, modern AI, the emergence of a multi-polar world order. A departure from positivism, two ethnographies, computational methods in the interpretive stance, and a place in a research conversation at the intersection of information systems and organizational theory.

Which brings us to August 2026 and the Department of Digitalization at the Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, where my daughter and I arrive this summer, with Aditi following in the autumn.

dabbling in many things...

I think of myself as a sort of reference librarian. I have a lifelong obsession with collecting and classifying bits of knowledge. The type of knowledge I enjoy the most is obtained by doing. An so I dabble. I put myself to "works". The making of things.

I have done these things and therefore I know a little about them.

At boarding school, I attempted paper making, printing press, woodworking, and clay sculpture. Upon arriving in the US, I bought a tablet (an oddity in those days), which I used to learn how to draw.

I did work as an editorials illustrator for the Emory Wheel when I was an undergraduate, in addition to the odd commissioned work here and there.

In grad school, I was interested in adding more dimension to my dabbling, and took up woodcarving. Then, as now, I very rarely kept any of my works. The people around me, to whom I could give my works, therefore determined what I worked on. My initial woodworking pieces tended to be derived from Christian, Islamic, Judaic, and Hindu iconography.

Latter work was utilitarian (combs, ladles, furniture). Aditi encouraged me to diversify into carpentry and blacksmithing. We forged wedding rings from titanium for her sister in Calgary.

There was once an arm knitting phase. Behold Aditi, my couture model.

We restored old furniture. I got into carving hobo nickels. I flirted with glazed pottery.

We made a coat for a Very Good Dog out of dyed and waxed canvas and leather.

I found joy and meaning in hand-lettering Devanagari, and revisiting Sanathan scripture.

My other great love is pet puja, a form of culinary worship. I roast my own coffee in small batches in a dedicated cast iron skillet that has seen not soap nor water for 20 years. I have other cast irons for cooking. I enjoy experimenting with French and Japanese cuisine in addition to Indian and American food. I've grown to love Quebec cuisine and the local terroir over the last seven years. I've begun to dabble in smørrebrød.

I like comic books. Or perhaps "graphic novels". Some capes and supes stuff, a couple classic european bande dessinée series, some manga, other weird stuff. Maus. And Saga. Of course.

I'm a history buff. I make esoteric musical choices. I also like to learn languages. I'm currently working on Danish. I climbed mountains, I climbed to the peak of Stok Kangri, and got to 19,000 ft and failed to summit Koteshwar. I did Kilimanjaro, but not in a rhinoceros costume. I love camping and living off the land. I've run a few half marathons, sort of half heartedly, once in vibrams. I love good stationary, particularly good paper (Lalo Verge de France for letters, Clairfontaine for jotting, Tomoe River when I want the ink to sing), fountain pens (frequent EDC is an Kaweco Liliput in Copper), and inks (new favourite is J. Herbin Caroube de Chypre).

Through all these compulsions, these bouts of creative madness, my love and my best friend since I was 10 years old- Aditi. I dont know how she puts up with me.

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