Professor Lila Rao Graham has been appointed Acting Executive Director of Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM), UWI, Mona effective August 1, 2026.  She is a Professor of Information Systems and currently holds the GraceKennedy S. Carlton Alexander Chair in Management Studies.  Professor Graham’s appointment is significant, as she is the first woman to head the Business School.

Professor Rao Graham is no stranger to MSBM having served as Academic Director for the MBA Programme between 2008 and 2014 and Deputy Executive Director between 2014 and 2022.

Professor Rao Graham’s research focuses on Strategic Business Intelligence, Big Data for Development, and Decision Support Systems.  She has published in top-tier international journals such as Decision Support Systems and Expert Systems with Applications. She co-authored a book entitled “Business Intelligence For Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: An Agile Roadmap Towards Business Sustainability”.

She has served in various research capacities on several international, multi-institutional studies aligned with these interests. These include research examining the private sector’s data-related contributions to the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); participation in the Global Index on Responsible AI, a multidimensional assessment measuring progress toward responsible AI across 138 countries and jurisdictions; and the Global Data Barometer, which evaluates how effectively countries are enabling healthy, inclusive, and accountable data ecosystems.

Beyond academia, she bridges the gap between research and industry through her service on several corporate boards, including the British Caribbean Insurance Company (BCIC) and VM Building Society. She also serves on the board for the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).  Additionally, Professor Rao Graham actively engages with the business community by facilitating presentations, training sessions, and workshops, in the area of data-driven decision making.

Professor Rao Graham holds a PhD in Information Systems and a BSc. in Computer Science from The University of the West Indies, as well as a Master of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Canada