Neeli Bendapudi

Neeli Bendapudi (née Dutta) is an Indian-American academic administrator who has been the 19th president of Pennsylvania State University since 2022. From 2018 until 2021, she served as the 18th president of the University of Louisville. In December 2021, Penn State announced Bendapudi as the university's president; she succeeded Eric J. Barron following his retirement. She is the first woman and the first non-white person to serve as Penn State's president.

Early life and education Bendapudi was born in Visakhapatnam, India. Both her parents, T. Ramesh Dutta and Padma Dutta, were professors in English in Andhra University. She attended Andhra University, where she earned an undergraduate and master's degree. She moved to the United States in 1986 to attend graduate school at the University of Kansas, where she earned her Ph.D. in marketing in 1994.

Bendapudi held teaching posts at both Texas A&M University and Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business before returning to the University of Kansas to serve as the dean of the University of Kansas School of Business. From 1 July 2016, until her election as president at the University of Louisville, she served as provost and executive vice chancellor of the University of Kansas.

Bendapudi was named president of the University of Louisville on 3 April 2018, and her first day was 15 May 2018. She replaced James R. Ramsey, who resigned after a 2015 sex scandal that implicated him. She is the first non-white president of the University of Louisville and indicated an intention to develop a culture of openness. On 13 July 2018, in response to Papa John's Pizza founder John Schnatter's use of a racial slur, Bendapudi announced that Schnatter's name would be struck from the U of L's football stadium's name. On 13 December 2021, following Bendapudi's selection as the 19th president of Pennsylvania State University, she resigned as president of the University of Louisville, where she was succeeded by interim president Lori Stewart Gonzalez.

For the 2023–2024 academic year, Bendapudi's base salary as President of Penn State University was $950,000. In September 2025, the Penn State board of trustees voted to increase Bendapudi's base salary by 47% to $1.4 million a year, the highest salary of any president in the Big Ten.