Rajendra Desai graduated with  B.Tech from IIT Delhi in Chemical Engineering (1984) and went on to acquire a Masters in Operations Research from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA (1988).  Subsequently, he completed a Management Program for Entrepreneurs and Family Business from IIM, Bangalore.(2008).

He has over 20 years of experience as an Entrepreneur in founding and scaling up a Leather Accessories Manufacturing Firm. He has spent over 10 years in academics - as Dean (Management Development Programs, AIMIT Mangalore),  Assistant and Associate Professor positions at St. Joseph’s Institute of Management and XIME, Bangalore and Research Associate (Virginia Tech), He has been teaching quantitative subjects - Statistics, Operations Research and Business Analytics as well as courses in Marketing and Entrepreneurship for PGDM and Executive Courses.

He has presented papers on the practice side of Business Analytics at the Annual International Conferences on Business Analytics and Intelligence at IIM Bangalore and IISC Bangalore in 2011 - 2018. He has published in Annals of Operations Research. He has been a resource person in Management Development Programs on Analytics. He has been part of consulting projects at the academic institutes he has been associated with.