Ruchi M. Watson serves as Managing Director & CEO of the Goff Strategic Leadership Institute, University of Utah’s flagship institute for leadership education and applied strategy. Under her direction, Goff has become a go-to resource for cultivating bold, capable professionals through immersive, research-backed programming.

Watson is also a Professor (Lecturer) in the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy at the David Eccles School of Business. Over the past decade, she has led multiple high-impact initiatives within the college, including a long-term strategic planning process, the founding of the Hope Corps (a student initiative supporting small businesses and nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic), and the creation of the school’s Marketing + Communications and Business Intelligence teams.

Her research focuses on strategy and influence in complex environments, and her work has been published in Harvard Business Review. She was named one of Utah Business magazine’s “30 Women to Watch” in 2021.

Before joining the university, Watson held leadership roles in both corporate and consulting sectors. She served as a Senior Marketing Manager and Enterprise Strategy Lead at Target Corporation in Minneapolis, and as a consultant at Bain & Company in New York. She began her career in R&D at General Mills.

Watson holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a Doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania.