Whittemore School honors professor for distinguished career in research

By Lori Wright, Media Relations

The UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics has honored a long-time professor and department chair for his distinguished career as a researcher.

A.R. “Venky” Venkatachalam

A.R. “Venky” Venkatachalam was named “Outstanding Researcher” earlier this year for his distinguished career in research. Venkatachalam is a professor of information systems and chairperson of the Decision Sciences Department. He has been at UNH since 1992.

He received a bachelor’s with honors in mechanical engineering from the University of Madras, India, MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. He has also worked in the industry for five years as a corporate planning manager.

“Venky is a highly skilled researcher whose contributions have substantially benefited the business community as well as his students. He has demonstrated excellence at every level of his distinguished career, and we are pleased to have selected him as the recipient of our first Outstanding Researcher Award,” said Steven Bolander, dean of the Whittemore School.

Venkatachalam pioneered the design and development of a procurement, marketing and communications network, PRO-Net, for the U.S. Small Business Administration. Under his leadership, the Internet-based system was implemented in a four-month period for a budget of less than $150,000 and replaced multiple systems that had been under development in the federal government for a number of years, costing $10 million and yet unsuccessful.

PRO-Net has more than 195,000 companies listed to permit federal, state, local and private procurement officers to find and solicit proposals from small businesses interested in government, prime- and sub-contractor procurements.

For his leadership role in the creation of PRO-Net, Venkatachalam was honored by Vice President Al Gore at the White House in 1997.

From 1995 to 2002, Venkatachalam was the project leader for ACE-Net (Angel Capital Electronic Network), an Internet-based angel capital network that brings together entrepreneurs seeking equity capital and self-accredited investors on a national basis. ACE-Net is the only national Internet-based system permitted by SEC and state regulators. The system is used by venture capital agencies in 45 states. In 2000, ACE-Net reached the $1 billion milestone in raising equity financing for entrepreneurs in the nation.

Venkatachalam was one of the leaders of a team that participated in a pilot study funded by Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) involving use of the Internet for transfer of defense technologies to the private industry. This pilot program, completed in 1998, successfully demonstrated a technology transfer process involving two defense laboratories and several private industries in two Northeastern states.

In July 2003 UNH and National Infrastructure Institute’s Center for Infrastructure Expertise launched a Web-based library portal ( www.ni2ciel.org), a project headed by Venkatachalam. The portal is a one-stop shop for all pertinent information related to the protection of built infrastructure and key assets.