Prof. Alok Kumar Rai is a distinguished academician, researcher, and administrator currently serving as the Director of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM Calcutta) since July 30, 2025. A marketing expert with over two decades of experience in academics, research, and institutional leadership, he specializes in Marketing Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), customer loyalty and satisfaction, service quality, management education, and entrepreneurship development. Prior to joining IIM Calcutta, he served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lucknow (2019–2025), where he successfully led the institution to achieve NAAC A++ accreditation (3.55 CGPA), UGC Category 1 status, and effective implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Prof. Rai has made significant contributions to the field of marketing by developing mathematical models for Customer Lifetime Value and customer satisfaction, standardizing the CRM curriculum across India, and authoring India’s first book on customer loyalty, along with the widely acclaimed textbook *Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Cases*. His scholarly contributions include authoring seven books, editing five volumes, publishing more than 75 research papers in reputed journals, completing three major UGC- and AICTE-funded research projects, supervising nine Ph.D. scholars, and securing five Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). He also serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for leading international publishers, including Elsevier, Sage, and Inderscience, and is a regular contributor to prominent media platforms such as *The Times of India*, *Outlook*, *Firstpost*, and *Business Line*. As Director of IIM Calcutta, Prof. Rai is steering the institute with a visionary framework based on the “5 I’s”—Integration, Inclusion, Innovation, Internationalization, and Indianness—with the goal of strengthening its position as a globally recognized leader in management education.