With a background with strategic planning, the new president of the Faculty Senate might just be useful in drafting the university’s new five-year plan.

Sanjeev Agarwal, professor of marketing, said being in the business and marketing field makes him think about strategic management and planning of markets and business.

John Wong, associate professor of marketing and Agarwal’s colleague, said Agarwal will be an important asset, especially when the university is under a financial crisis.

“He is the right person at the right time,” Wong said.

Agarwal has a full Faculty Senate agenda this year. As president, he will be intimately involved with the university’s strategic plan, which is set to be approved this fall.

Wong said Agarwal is always asking questions and getting feedback from many aspects of the university.

“We are quite fortunate to have someone like him at this crucial time,” Wong said.

Others have cited Agarwal’s attention to detail as why he makes a good president.

“He is concerned with practical details,” said Jack Girton, former Faculty Senate president and associate professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.

“He looks for the concrete steps to get to where we need to get.”

Wong said Agarwal provides well-trained business disciplines to the Faculty Senate and he also brings a wealth of experience to the classroom as a professor.

Agarwal was born in India and began his career as a chemical engineer after receiving his master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California at Davis. Agarwal went on to earn his Ph.D. in international business from The Ohio State University and taught at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse for three years before coming to Iowa State in 1999.

The opening in international marketing at Iowa State came at the right time, Agarwal said.

“We wanted to be in the Midwest,” he said.

His wife, Rajshri Agarwal, is an ISU lecturer in management and has a business as a diamond dealer.

His daughter is completing an internship in Minneapolis with Cargill, an agricultural trading company, and his son is a sophomore in high school.

For the past five years, Agarwal has taught graduate level courses in international marketing. Agarwal said he enjoys research in international marketing strategies and consumer behavior.

Agarwal published his first major article in 1992, which was then rated as the most influential paper for the next 10 years by the 2002 Journal of International Business Studies Decade Award.

The article examines the independent and joint influences of specific factors on the choice of entry mode to foreign markets, according to the abstract.

He is on the management team for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, which addresses poverty in underprivileged countries. The team is researching Uganda to learn more about farming, nutrition, health and business opportunities for rural areas.

The team is searching for ways in which business can eliminate poverty.Agarwal is also writing a textbook for international marketing, which he hopes will be completed in 2005.