Soumitra Dutta

Introduction

Soumitra Dutta is an Indian academic, author and entrepreneur whose tenure as dean of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford ended in September 2025, when he stepped down after a five-month university investigation reportedly substantiated multiple harassment complaints made against him by a female colleague. Dutta had led Saïd since June 2022 and was, as Poets&Quants noted, the first dean of Indian origin to head the school. His resignation took effect on 10 September 2025, and he left the university entirely rather than returning to a faculty role. The findings came from an internal disciplinary process, not a court, and Dutta disputes them through his attorney.

Background Information

Born in Chandigarh, India, on 27 August 1963, Dutta earned a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1985, then moved to the University of California, Berkeley, completing an M.S. in computer science in 1987, an M.S. in Business Administration in 1989 and a Ph.D. in computer science in 1990.

He joined the INSEAD faculty in 1989 as an assistant professor of information systems and later held the Roland Berger Professorship of Business and Technology; Poets&Quants notes he also served as INSEAD’s deputy dean. He founded the social-media analytics firm Fisheye Analytics in 2008, acquired by WPP in 2013. In 2012 he became dean of Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and in 2016 the founding dean of its SC Johnson College of Business; he resigned that role abruptly in January 2018, with neither Dutta nor the university providing an explanation, though he stayed on as a professor.

Beyond academia, he co-founded the Portulans Institute, a Washington, DC-based research institute, and founded and co-edited fourteen editions of the Global Innovation Index published with the World Intellectual Property Organization; he has sat on the board of Dassault Systèmes since 2017 and has chaired the board of the Global Business School Network since 2018. He is married to the fellow academic Lourdes Casanova. On 1 June 2022 he took up the Saïd deanship, succeeding interim dean Sue Dopson.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Dutta went on medical leave at the end of May 2025 for health reasons; the leave was later extended to the beginning of September. Bloomberg reported there was no indication that his leave, or the appointment of an interim replacement, was linked to the investigation.

In the month before his departure became public, Oxford concluded a five-month investigation that, according to Bloomberg’s reporting, substantiated three complaints of harassment made by a female academic; the account was based on multiple people familiar with the review who asked not to be named. Times Higher Education reported that the university upheld three allegations against him of breaching its harassment policy. Wikipedia, citing The Times, reports that the inquiry found that on one occasion he “made a romantic advance” towards a female colleague after she had sought protection from him from an incident of sexual assault, and that he is alleged to have said “I feel very attracted to you. Can something happen between us?” — which Dutta denies.

Allegations. The harassment findings described here come from an internal university disciplinary investigation, as reported by Bloomberg and The Times — not from a court. No criminal or civil proceedings against Dutta appear in the sources, and the complaints were never adjudicated in law. Dutta disputes the allegations through his attorney; they should be read as the upheld findings of an employer inquiry, with his denial on record.

For his part, Dutta’s attorney, in a letter to Poets&Quants, disputed the charge in the Bloomberg report, and Dutta did not respond to multiple requests for comment. He told The Times through his lawyer: “I deeply regret causing any distress or offence by anything I said”. Bloomberg’s report also stated there was no indication his resignation was tied to the probe’s findings.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Oxford confirmed the departure through a spokesperson: “Professor Soumitra Dutta has stepped down as dean of Saïd Business School and has now left the university. Professor Mette Morsing, director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, will take up the role of interim dean from 22 September.” The university told Bloomberg that it “does not tolerate harassment or sexual misconduct” and emphasized that staff concerns were handled through established procedures, while declining to comment on individual cases.

The announcement, made by Professor Timothy Power, head of Oxford’s Social Sciences Division, thanked Dutta for his contributions over three years and carried his farewell message: “It has been the greatest privilege of my professional life to serve this extraordinary institution and its remarkable students, faculty, and staff.”

Anna Bull, cofounder of the 1752 Group, which campaigns against sexual harassment in higher education, said the episode raised “serious questions” over Oxford’s handling of the allegations, that the departure sent “mixed messages” about the sanctions universities apply in sexual harassment cases, and that Oxford needed to “undertake a significant programme of work” to protect victims of harassment. The university did not comment further on the allegations.

Current Status

Dutta’s employment with the University of Oxford ended with effect from 10 September 2025. Professor Mette Morsing — director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment — took over as interim dean on 22 September 2025, telling colleagues she looked forward to “working with colleagues and students on the School’s mission of impact from within.” The school, founded in 1996 with a £30 million gift from Wafic Saïd, remains under interim leadership while the university works toward a permanent appointment. Wikipedia currently describes Dutta as an executive director at the SRM Group.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The resignation ended a three-year tenure at one of the world’s most prestigious business schools and marked a second abrupt exit from a deanship for Dutta, following his unexplained January 2018 departure from Cornell; his Wikipedia biography now records the resignation alongside the harassment findings. The case also became part of a wider debate over how universities handle harassment allegations: the 1752 Group has campaigned for institutions to sign up to the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, which commits them to share information on ongoing or upheld disciplinary cases with potential future employers. In his farewell message, Dutta said he and his wife were returning to the USA to spend more time with their grandchildren.