Associate Professor of Management and McCray Professor of Business, Dr. Rahul Chauhan, joined the College of Business at West Texas A&M University in 2015. He graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor’s in psychology and a minor in business. He later went on to obtain his master’s degree and Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma in industrial/organizational psychology with a management concentration in 2015.

Dr. Chauhan developed a keen interest in psychology following his exposure to the field during a past relationship.

“The one that resonated the most with me is the one that I have a Ph.D. and master’s in, which is industrial/organizational psychology, which is essentially business psychology,” Dr. Chauhan said. “It’s empowering businesses to maximize profits through their people.”

Outside the classroom, Dr. Chauhan harbors a passion for powerlifting, competing at the national level.

“I’ve been doing that for about 12 years; I just never stopped,” said Dr. Chauhan. “I competed every three to four months and still do to this day. I just completed my 30th competition.”

His interest in powerlifting first sparked during high school and college, where he excelled as a wrestler.

“The beauty of wrestling and powerlifting is they’re weight-class based,” Dr. Chauhan said. “You can be very competitive within your weight class. I was always a strength-oriented wrestler, so I think pound for pound, I have always had a little bit of an advantage when it comes to strength.”

Dr. Chauhan discussed how he dishes out on the principles and lessons learned from the sport that shape his approach to life outside the gym.

“Excuses don’t really matter,” Dr. Chauhan said. If you want to do something bad enough, you can always find a way to do it. I think it’s really easy to come up with an infinite amount of excuses to do something you don’t want to do.”