ICMM 2025 Conference Keynote Speaker

Professor Vijaya Venkataramani

Dean's Professor of Leadership and Innovation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Professor Vijaya Venkataramani is Dean's Professor of Leadership and Innovation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. She is a former Associate Editor at the Journal of Applied Psychology. Professor Venkataramani’s research focuses on creativity and innovation in organizations, especially understanding how informal social relationships and social networks at work enable employees’ ability to develop and implement creative ideas. Her recent research has focused on exploring why, although employees may have new ideas, these ideas often go unheard, unrecognized or even prematurely rejected by their managers, and how both employees and managers can address this. Her research has appeared in such journals as the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology and Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes.

Professor Vijaya received her Ph.D. in organizational behavior and human resources from Purdue University in 2008. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked in India as a human resources manager. She is an award-winning researcher and teacher and the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Teacher Award from the University of Maryland.