Faculty and Executive Director at Columbia University (Business & Engineering)
R.A. Farrokhnia inhabits the intersection of academia and practice, with global professional experience and residency on three continents.
As a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence, his teaching and research are at Columbia Business and Engineering Schools as well as Columbia Journalism School where he is on the Board of Knight-Bagehot Business Journalism Program. Additionally, he is the founding Executive Director at the Dean’s Office of Advanced Projects and Applied Research in Fintech, centered on innovation, research, and projects on the future of finance and technology.
With a focus on Fintech, ML/AL and Enterprise Software domains, his professional background encompasses innovation-driven principal investments in tech ventures, M&A, operations management, and turnaround/restructuring. Having earned both his graduate and undergraduate degrees from Columbia University in New York, he collaborates often in numerous capacities with buyside and tier-1 multinationals. His programs and commentaries have been featured in best-selling books and leading media outlets such as the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN, and CNBC, to name a few.