Rustom Desai

Senior lecturer at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Business, Global Technology Executive, and Board Director

Rustom Desai joins the Johnson faculty this fall after spending 25 years as a global technology executive with Corning Incorporated. During this time, he has built and led businesses to scale in developed and emerging markets, and across multiple tech markets including semiconductors, consumer electronics, and optical communications. While living and working in the US, China, Taiwan and India, Rustom has had the opportunity to create, and in some cases dismantle, strategic alliances of all flavors. He brings this first-hand experience of the opportunities and challenges that strategic alliances offer to his class.

Rustom is also a skilled board director, having spent 20 years on public, private and advisory boards. Through these and other career experiences, he has developed unique, up-close and personal experience in the area of family owned company governance and management. A 1995 Johnson alum, Rustom has stayed active with the school over the years, as a founding and advisory board member of the Emerging Markets Institute and an occasional guest speaker. He looks forward to this next challenge of fully immersing himself in the success of his students.

Rustom has a master’s degree in business administration from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.