Nirmal Chhabria
Professor of the Practice and Director of the EMBA-Dubai Program
Nirmal Chhabria is a Professor of Practice and Academic Director at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business in Dubai, where he teaches finance, entrepreneurship, and accounting across the Executive MBA and Master in International Business & Policy programs in Dubai, as we l as on the ful-time MBA program in Washington, D.C. Previously, alongside his fu l-time professional career, he served as an adjunct faculty member for over eleven years at leading business schools across the United Kingdom, consistently bridging corporate practice with academic rigor.
His entrepreneurial journey began early, building his first startup at seventeen, which ignited a lifelong commitment to fostering innovation and supporting founders through every stage of their growth trajectory. With over 23 years of C-suite and senior leadership experience across global organizations including HSBC, TATA, Rio Tinto, and Alvarez & Marsal, Nirmal brings rare depth as both practitioner and builder. He spent a decade specializing in mergers and acquisitions and private equity, where he worked on flagship acquisition and buyout deals across multiple sectors, developing deep expertise in deal origination, structuring, due diligence, and value creation strategies.
Deeply embedded in the startup ecosystem for decades, Nirmal has designed and delivered entrepreneurship programs for the Barclays and NatWest incubator and accelerator networks. Throughout his career, he has advised numerous startups on capital raising strategies, scaling operations, and navigating successful exits, while coaching founders on stakeholder management, governance frameworks, and leadership transitions during critical growth phases.
As a member of the Forbes Coaches Council and strategic policy advisor to the UN SecretaryGeneral, Nirmal bridges private sector innovation with public policy implementation. His advisory experience extends to institutional leadership, having previously served on the Executive Advisory Council of Cardiff Business School, the South Wales Chamber of Commerce, and the Confederation of British Industry, where he contributed strategic insights on business transformation, trade policy, and economic development.