GMAC appoints venture capitalist and IT executive as president

Sangeet Chowfla has been appointed president and chief executive of GMAC, the organisation that authors and administers the GMAT, the entry test for the world’s top business schools. He will replace David Wilson, who has held the role for 18 years, in January 2014.

The Indian-born Mr Chowfla, now a US citizen, received his own MBA from Delhi University, where he focused on marketing and finance. “I know for myself that taking the GMAT exam and the opportunities it opened up for me were life-changing,” he says.

Mr Chowfla spent much of his career working in the IT sector, firstly with IBM. He subsequently spent 18 years with the Hewlett-Packard Company in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the US. Mr Chowfla then briefly left the IT sector to become a partner in Timeline Ventures, the venture capital partnership, but in 2007, returned to the sector when he became chief strategy officer at a division of Comviva Technologies, a leading Indian telecommunications software company.

James Bradford, outgoing chairman of the board of GMAC and dean at the Owen school at Vanderbilt University, says Mr Chowfla is exactly the sort of candidate the GMAC board was looking for. “His global business experience, his understanding of technology and its impact on consumers, and his understanding of the way companies must anticipate, plan for and actively engage in the changing global marketplace, are all skills GMAC will need.”

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