Testimonials

"This is such heartbreaking news. My warmest condolences to Sucheta's family and friends. I worked with Sucheta during her term as Associate Editor at Journal of Management. Not only was she amazing in this role (diligent, thorough, fair, and a highly competent scholar), but she was also a breath of fresh air to interact and work with. She exuded such a positive spirit and genuinely cared about our authors and reviewers. She carried warmth, kindness, and compassion with her wherever she went and I am blessed to have known her. Although her impact will be long lasting, she will be sorely missed by many."
Deborah Rupp

"From the first time I met her (at the PRW micro conference), she was the most gracious and academically humble person. She also was so personable. We exchanged not only scholarly tips but balancing work life tips as well. She would then remember what we talked about the next time we saw each other. Amazing person! I will miss her!"
David Sluss

"I am very sad to learn of this. Sucheta was a person I was always so happy to see at any gathering. She was a safe harbor of positivity -- so upbeat and supportive. And her research was steadfastly precise and comprehensive, yet so innovative, pushing the field forward.
May her essence rest in warmth, peace, and love."
Mary Waller

"Among the many remarkable stories that have surfaced over the past few days of Sucheta’s impact, I was just speaking with one of her PhD students, who noted that she had just received an R&R at AMJ last week and an accepted publication at JOB, both papers co-authored with Sucheta. Her impact will continue to be felt for some time."
Matthew Grimes

"Sucheta was indeed a beloved member of our community and a dear friend and colleague. I met her early in my life with MOC and am very grateful for her friendship as well as her dedicated love for our MOC community and her efforts on our behalf. One of my earliest recollections of Sucheta was a conversation with her and how surprised we were that we had some similar research interests. I also had the pleasure of meeting Sucheta's mother during a conference early in the 2000s and enjoying their company together at that time. Sucheta will be greatly missed but not forgotten."
Andrea Casey

"Co-authoring with Sucheta was one of the fortuitous developments in my career for which I am most grateful. Recognizing our shared interest in cognition, she reached out to me, and our collaboration was very fruitful. I learned a great deal from Sucheta, both content-wise, and process-wise as we navigated data collection, data analysis, and multiple writing drafts. Her passion for research, as well as her initiative and drive, were contagious! I never worked with anyone who turned drafts around faster than Sucheta. I am shocked at her passing. She will be sorely missed. "
Susan Mohammed

"Sucheta and I studied comps (comprehensive doctoral exams) together at the University of Kansas (KU).  It was one of the many benefits I received from my academic interactions with her.  On the other hand, catching up with her was one of the many challenges.  Her area was strategy process, while mine was strategy content, which led to multiple arguments, most of which I lost.  When we were not talking research, we talked and laughed a lot.  Once, over dinner at our apartment, she was going to try a well-known Latin American dessert, "tres leches" (three types of milk).  When she asked about the kinds of milk, I told her: whole, condensed…and Monica's (we recently had had our first baby).  After several assurances and evidence that it was a joke, she finally tried it and even had a second.

Sucheta stayed one more year than I did at KU to write more papers before going to her first job in Nebraska.  We kept in touch by having dinners at academic conferences and over time started working together.  When she was working on her first international paper, she asked me for several friendly reviews, which we always preferred to be as unfriendly as possible.  Once she published it, we decided to work on a follow-up, our first paper together. Later, we collected data in Ecuador and India and published two articles on strategic leadership and personality.  When we could, we took advantage of the short distance and visited each other. I loved the fantastic Indian food of her mother in Nebraska and in Iowa, she had Ecuadorian food, of which she preferred our famous cebiche.

She worked so hard that once I sent her a draft of a paper before going away for one week.  When I returned, she had written another draft from scratch.  After several exchanges, we had to combine the two papers into one, which was certainly better. One day, while I was away on a soccer trip, she called me in her most exciting voice:  "I need to talk to Monica to hear about her experience in Cambridge!  I just accepted a position in the Judge Business School; I will have a great research environment and be and closer to my parents". She dreamed of going back to India when she retired to take care of them. Our dinners at conferences were mainly personal conversations, which she took as islands of friendship in her oceans of research.  We had long walks in many cities all over the world. Over time, she took more and more responsibilities. She kept writing more and more papers.  She kept going higher and higher.  Until one day, she did not return."
Pol Hermann

"I first met Sucheta at the 2001 AoM Meeting at Washington DC. We landed in the same group of junior faculty at a MOC program for the likes of us. I was a non-traditional PhD, she a vastly promising young faculty. After my research projects were savaged, Sucheta gently listened to my frustration and suggested that we converse about our interests and approaches. Over Ethiopian food, she coaxed the beginnings of a research program that yielded three solid academic papers over ten years of work.

The core of our collaboration happened between 2001 and 2005, and during that period I learned that Sucheta was driven and kind, detailed oriented and fun loving, tenacious and patient. I looked forward to our sessions at the AoM meetings (Denver, Seattle, New Orleans, Honolulu) with a bounding mix of anticipation and dread: when Sucheta was on a roll, contribution and participation were expected, and received with joy. Long sessions, too, to which my condition was to combine with succulent lunches or dinners…

Sucheta showed me what formal, valuable academic contributions take and look like. She never despaired, never stopped, never gave up. All reviewer comments were, to her, of extreme value and kindness, and every time I serve as a Journal reviewer I reach again to the back and forth of the “Response to Comments” letters, writing and re-writing, working and re-working, until all objections had been fully addressed, with flexibility most of the times, with unyielding spine when needed. I wish I had learned more, but I am sure that it was not for lack of trying on Sucheta’s part.

Sadly, all good things pass, and our collaboration was no exception. I was more and more drawn to teaching, and eventually stepped aside from the tenure path to become a “Non-Tenure-Track” professor. My last memory of Sucheta recalls a restaurant in Honolulu, where we shared a meal of “mahi” and “ahi” with my family: both Sucheta and my wife are Bombay girls, she was easy company for us! I thought she would join us on a post-conference trip to the Big Island but, alas, there were “academicky” things that needed doings… That was fourteen years ago, and I always rested on the comfort that, someday, our paths would cross again. Sunt lacrimae rerum…"
Pedro David Perez