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The Challenge of Attracting Top Students

Along with more than 40 other business school deans, Dean Scott Beard-

sley attended a meeting at the White House on 5 August to celebrate Darden’s commitment to a set of best practices to help women thrive in the workplace.

That Darden was among this group of leaders committed to providing a top business educa-tion for women is worth cele-brating. However, there is more to the story.

Darden must do everything — including stepping forward in its commitment to female students — to attract top student talent. In today’s highly competitive education marketplace, Darden must attract students with diverse perspectives and experiences, high intellect, entrepreneurial spirit,

Also Inside:

2 Record-Breaking Year for the Darden Annual Fund

3 Dean’s Message

5 Free Digital Learning for Alumni

6 Top Hiring Companies

8 Darden: Then and Now

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

PILLARSTHE POWER OF PHILANTHROPY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA DARDEN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

ISSUE 14 FALL 2015

ALUMNI PARTICIPATION

100%97% 76%

UNRESTRICTED CASHCONTRIBUTIONS

DARDEN SOCIETYMEMBERS

$5.1M

RECORD-BREAKING GIFT$290K

750 HICKORYCLUB MEMBERS2,745

42%

Class of 2015 Delivers Record Class GiftThe Class of 2015 generously presented a record-breaking class gift to the Darden Annual Fund in April, once again reaching an all-time high to support the School’s essential operating funds.

EMBA, GEMBA Classof 2015 Participation

MBA Class of2015 Participation

GEMBA Gifts at DardenSociety Level

This year’s Darden Annual Fund results are a testament to alumni loyalty, breaking the all-time record level of giving set last year by 3 percent. Alumni participation also increased and was the third-highest participation rate among all U.S. business schools.

Record-Breaking Results

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!

YOUR IMPACT YOUR SUPPORTYour unrestricted gifts to the Annual Fund fuel emerging priorities and provide essential operating funds, enabling the School to seize opportunities and support innovation. They help Darden:

• Create the world’s best education experience. Led by the top teaching faculty in the world, Darden combines the case-study method with experiential learning to immerse students in real-life business situations, preparing them as responsible and entrepreneurial global leaders.

• Provide funding for nearly 25 percent of all merit-based scholarships. Currently, Darden’s ability to recruit the best and brightest students depends on unrestricted giving. Scholarship opportunities allow Darden to compete with the offers elite students receive from other top-tier business schools.

• Ensure top faculty and research. Professors Paul Farris and Dennis Yang won best academic paper awards, and Professor Casey Lichtendahl won a Case Centre award as outstanding case teacher this year. However, a wave of faculty retirements means Darden must continue to recruit the best and brightest faculty, who combine leading research with great teaching in the classroom.

• Support the School’s global experiences. More than half of residential MBA students and every student in Darden’s two executive MBA formats take part in a global learning experience. These experiences require innovative teaching materials that enhance what students learn around the world and are also used in the classroom at home to prepare students to make a global impact.

• Enhance technology in and outside the classroom. To continue delivering a cutting-edge education experience in the 21st century, the Darden School and faculty are developing online learning resources, remote teaching capabilities and technology-driven services that require advanced IT infrastructure and support.

These and other opportunities would not be possible without your support!

For more information, please contact Samantha Hartog, director, Darden Annual Fund, at +1-434-982-2151 or HartogS@darden.virginia.edu.

DARDEN ANNUAL FUND ACHIEVES ALL-TIME HIGH FOR FIFTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

FROM MBA, EMBA AND GEMBA

2 www.darden.virginia.edu

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EMBA Classes GEMBA ClassesReunion ClassesMBA Classes

CLASS STANDING 2015

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FA C U LT Y N E WS

New Professorship Adds to Colley Legacy at Darden

“I’ve always believed if you do a good job, the recognition will come.”Those are not just words from Professor John L. Colley Jr., but a mantra he has lived and seen proven true many times over his long career at Darden.

Thanks to the generous support of donors who wanted to honor Colley for all he has meant to them and Darden in his 48-year career at the School, the latest recognition for Colley is the establishment of the John

L. Colley Jr. Professorship of Business Administration, a chair without term. Previously known as the John L. Colley Jr. Research Professorship, the professorship is now fully endowed, ensuring a permanent position for the member of the faculty who holds it.

Fittingly, Colley will serve as the first Colley Professor. He plans to hold the professorship for two years, until the completion of his 50th year as a full professor at the School, when he plans to retire.

Macfarlane Professorship Established to Draw Top Talent to Mayo CenterWhen the University of Virginia Board of Visi-tors passed a final resolution establishing the John G. Macfarlane Family Professorship of Business Administration at Darden, the moment was celebrated as a major step in the School’s quest to grow its position as a leader in the area of asset management.

The Macfarlane Family Professorship creates a permanent chair for the future aca-demic director of the Richard A. Mayo Center for Asset Management. The professorship is named after John G. Macfarlane III (MBA ’79), whose career spans 35 years in financial ser-vices and asset management with Salomon Brothers, Tudor Investment Corp. and Arrochar Management.

“Our hope is to attract a distinguished scholar who is a thought leader and will raise the profile of the center,” Macfarlane said. “The academic director will interact with students and alumni and attract top minds to Darden to help promote the center on a national and global scale.”

Macfarlane has been one of the instrumen-tal figures establishing Darden’s current standing as a top graduate business school. He served as chair and vice chair of the Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees during a 12-year tenure on the board and received the Charles C. Abbott Award in 2011.

“John has played an important role positioning the School for success with-in an extremely competitive set of peers,” said Locke Ogens, senior executive director of the Darden School Foundation and Strategic Relations. “John has proven his leadership not only for the Foundation, not only for Darden, but for the entire University.”

Alumni Provide Foundation for Darden to Reach New HeightsAs I enter my second month on the job as ninth dean of the Darden School, I have much to look forward to, including meeting you: alumni and friends of the School. Together with the Darden community, we will plot our course for the future.

In my early days thinking about the future of Darden, I realize how much there is to be grateful for in the past. The Darden School is built on a solid foundation, not least of which is the generous continued support for the Darden Annual Fund.

Last year, you donated $5.1 million in unrestricted giving so that Darden could have the flexibility it needs to create the world’s best education experi-ence, attract and retain top faculty, support ground-breaking faculty research, provide merit-based scholarships to top students and much more. Many of your gifts were made in honor of University Professor and Dean Emeritus Bob Bruner for his 10 years of excellent service. The Darden Society reached 750 members, a 4 percent increase in members at this critical giving level over the previous year.

Darden is in a great place. We have great momentum thanks to your un-flappable support. As I travel the country and globe in the coming months, I will call on you — our most ardent supporters — to help Darden capitalize on its momentum so we can seize our opportunity to rise among the elite graduate business schools in the world.

It is my goal to boldly take the University of Virginia Darden School of Business to new heights. To help Darden reach its full potential.

Please accept my invitation to meet with me and many alumni at Darden events around the world this fall. I look forward to shaping the future of our School together.With gratitude,

“Our hope is to attract a distinguished scholar who is a thought leader and will raise the pro-file of the center.” —John G. Macfarlane III (MBA ’79)

Professor John L. Colley Jr., John L. Colley Jr. Professor of Business Administration

D E A N ’ S M E S S AG E

Scott C. BeardsleyDean and Charles C. Abbott Professor of Business AdministrationUniversity of Virginia Darden School of Business

3 pillars Fall 2015

Hitting the Grounds Running

12–13 NOVEMBER CHARLOTTESVILLE

University of Virginia Investing Conference

7 OCTOBER PALO ALTO

Alumni/Admissions Reception

WEEK OF 7 DECEMBER CHARLOTTE All Alumni Reception

13 OCTOBER ATLANTA

Alumni/Admissions Reception

30 SEPTEMBER NEW YORK

Alumni/Admissions Reception

29 APRIL–1 MAY 2016 CHARLOTTESVILLE Darden Reunion

Weekend

13 MAY 2016 SHANGHAI

Shanghai Investing Summit

There will be many opportunities for alumni to meet Dean Beardsley in the coming months as he undertakes his first academic year as the ninth dean of Darden. Stay tuned for invitations to alumni receptions in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston, Houston, Chicago and more.

KENDAL CARLSON (MBA Class of 2016) doesn’t want to take the safe play. Her career aspiration is to take on the challenging, sticky, risky problems of the world — “the interest-ing problems,” in her words.

And scholarships are helping her achieve that goal. Schol-arships are enabling her to pursue the riskier entrepreneurial path she believes is her true calling by allowing her to develop the needed skills at Darden without the accompanying debt that might tempt her into a more conventional career path. However, the greater value of scholarship funding, Carlson says, is how it serves as validation and as a guide for her career vision.

“Even bigger than the money, than the feeling of freedom because I don’t have a big student loan, is the endorsement of the successful people who are behind the scholarships,” Carlson said. “They have worked their way into positions of importance, and for them to say ‘we expect something big out of you’ makes me feel like I have a very strong message telling

merchandising management from the Fashion Institute of Technology and skills developed at Darden to partner with the owner of YAMA Mountain Gear — a Charlottesville-area manufacturer of high-quality, ultra-lightweight camping gear — to grow the brand nationally.

It’s not the safe choice, nor the conventional play for an MBA graduate, but Carlson sees great potential.

“It’s hard for me to say ‘no’ when someone is willing to pair me with a compelling opportunity,” she said.

That’s exactly what scholarships did for Carlson — turned Darden into a compelling opportunity for a top MBA candidate to pursue her vision.

Pillars is a newsletter published by the Darden School Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the Darden School by promoting philanthropic support from alumni, friends and corporations; managing endowment funds for the School’s exclusive benefit; and operating Darden’s top-ranked Executive Education program, the Inn at Darden and Abbott Center hospitality. Questions, comments and address changes should be directed to: communication@darden.virginia.edu or University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Office of Communication & Marketing, P.O. Box 7225, Charlottesville, Virginia 22906 USA.

Executive Director of Communication & Marketing: Juliet Daum Editorial Director: Jay Hodgkins Copy Editor: Catherine Burton Graphic Designer: Susan WormingtonPhotography: Sam Levitan, Jennifer Scheer, Andrew Shurtleff and Susan Wormington

Kendal Carlson (Class of 2016)

ethical character, and leadership to elevate the School’s educational experience. These students help attract top faculty and create closer relationships with the business community and recruiters.

All of this helps Darden rise in the rankings, which makes it possible to attract even better students.

However, numbers show Darden consistently trails its peers when it comes to providing the scholarship support that ensures top MBA applicants enroll at the School. Falling behind in scholarship funding means Darden is hindered in its ability to attract the elite students who are critical to the School’s ability to deliver a quality, transformational learning experience.

Harvard Business School’s annual report reveals that the school spent 50 percent more on financial aid per student than Darden in 2014. While financial aid data is not widely reported, there’s enough evidence to know Darden trails not just Harvard, but many other top business schools in this crucial metric.

The potential consequences of Darden’s lagging position jeopardize the School’s stature as a foremost leader in graduate business education.

“Our success at Darden, as a whole, flows from our ability to attract top students,” said Dean Beardsley. “To continue the School’s momentum as a preeminent graduate business school, Darden must compete in a paradigm in which scholarship money provided by peer schools is increasing dramatically to attract the best, most diverse students and to offset the rising cost of business school for exceptional students of need.”

Survey results consistently show that lower scholarship funding is one of the top reasons why applicants who are admitted to Darden choose to attend another school.

For this reason and to keep up with rising tuition, Darden more than doubled its annual

commitment to scholarships from 2005 to 2015. Generous gifts from alumni and friends during the past 10 years in the form of new endowed scholarships and increased Annual Fund support has helped fund this commitment to scholarships.

The results are clear. Darden is admitting high caliber, more diverse students with the highest average GMAT score in School history. These students are also pursuing more nontraditional career paths like entrepreneurship, which can yield lower salaries initially but often result in tremendous business success later. The correlation between stronger enrolling classes and Darden’s growing momentum is undeniable, and scholarships are a critical component of the engine that keeps the virtuous cycle of improvement spinning.

However, peer institutions have not stood still, driving a dramatic increase in the amount of scholarship money being awarded by business schools. Hence, Darden is seeking to substantially increase its scholarship endowment and will set an official goal for new scholarship support. A larger scholarship endowment will also enable Darden to implement a longer-term strategy to pursue top students and free unrestricted funds for other key initiatives.

At that level, Darden will be able to close the gap with top peer institutions in offering scholarship support to the student body.

Whereas additional scholarship funding in the past decade has allowed Darden to reach the upper echelon of MBA candidates, a substantial increase in scholarship endowment will allow the School to yield a higher percentage of top students and secure its place among the most elite business schools.

Focus on DiversityIn a recent feature on the fight to attract a shrinking pool of female MBA applicants, The Wall Street Journal reported that top business

schools are now trying to outbid each other with scholarship offers in order to attract the best women. Women represent more than half of the workforce and businesses want to increase the number of women in leadership positions, but the Journal reported that only about 35 percent of graduate business school applicants are women.

As they begin their journey at Darden, the residential MBA Class of 2017 is also roughly 35 percent female. However, other top schools enrolled more than 40 percent women in the Class of 2017, according to Darden data. The School’s goal is for women to comprise a higher percentage of each class, in line with other top schools.

By increasing the endowed scholarships specifically designated for women, Darden has the potential to be a leader, helping create gender parity in the highest ranks of corporate management and increase their representation at the School.

In order to remain a top business school, Darden must also increase its diversity overall with regard to career background and international and minority students.

“For us to deliver the world’s best educational experience, we need the top of the talent pool to come to Darden, and we need a diverse class so that everyone learns from their differences and feels comfortable and inspired to succeed,” said Professor Peter Rodriguez, senior associate dean for degree programs and chief diversity officer.

With a dedicated commitment to endowed scholarship funding, Darden can reach its student enrollment goals and keep its virtuous cycle spinning to the top.

Darden students receiving scholarship funding in 2015

Aspirational goal for Darden students receiving scholarship funding 50%+

“To continue the School ’s momentum as a preeminent graduate busi-ness school, Darden must compete in a paradigm in which scholarship money provided by peer schools is increasing dramatically to attract the best, most diverse students and to offset the rising cost of business school for exceptional students of need.” — DEAN SCOTT C. BEARDSLEY

ST U D E N T P R O F I L E

(Cover Story, from page 1)

Free to Take Risksme to go for it.”

Before enrolling, Carlson worked as an equities trader for UBS Securities in New York and was one of 40 individuals na-tionwide to be recognized as a McKinsey & Company Emerging Scholar, which helped her earn an offer of admission to Darden and a Penelope W. and E. Roe Stamps Fellowship Award. Before the end of her First Year, Carlson was named one of three recipi-ents of the Frank E. Genovese Second Year Fellowship.

“Roe Stamps was in private equity and Frank Genovese was an entrepreneur and manager, which are my areas of interest. So I say to myself: Go try to be Stamps; go try to be Genovese,” Carlson said. “If I ever start feeling more risk averse, it is so help-ful to step back and say there’s a reason these people expect me to go forward and make a difference.”

Interning last summer at luxury fashion company Coach in New York City, Carlson worked with the finance group and on the integration of recently acquired shoemaker Stuart Weitzman. She hopes to combine that experience, her degree in fashion

34%

Contact Susan Coogan at +1-434-924-4992 or CooganS@darden.virginia.edu for more information on scholarships.

4 www.darden.virginia.edu

DarDen IDeas to actIon Visit www.ideas.darden.virginia.edu for practical business knowledge — research, analysis and commentary —

from faculty and partners of the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Thanks to big data, business analytics has become a critical area of focus for the next generation of business leaders and a red-hot field for innovation.SAMUEL E. BODILY (left), the John Tyler Professor of Business Administration in Darden’s Quantitative Analysis area, is helping lead the School’s effort to ride the wave of big data innovation to the forefront of business education in analytics. Darden is seeking to raise a $1 million endowment to fund the new Bodily Research Prize, awarded for contributions made toward methodology and practice of business analytics and decision analysis.

Darden’s vision is a $50,000 annual prize, which will reward thought leaders from academia or management practice around the world for their contributions to business analytics and also grow the School’s reputation in the field. With increased focus on business analytics, big data and decision analysis, Darden will strengthen its mission to advance business knowledge.

With six full-time and two adjunct members dedicated to the area, Darden is already a leader in

quantitative analysis. However, the revolution in using big data to make better decisions is a new frontier for global business, at which the School must stand at the leading edge. Investing, consumer purchasing, strategy, energy, warfare, artificial intelligence, risk management and supply-chain management are just a few of the sectors in which big data is leading to disruptive change.

The leaders of tomorrow must be able to apply these new tools to manage the uncertainty of real-world problems in the era of big data. This prize will encourage and share transformative business analytics.

By supporting the School’s effort to fund the prize, donors will ensure Darden’s position as a leader helping practicing managers and researchers drive innovation in this brave new era. Contact Carter Hoerr at +1-434-243-5871 or HoerrC@darden.virginia.edu to discuss ways to support the Bodily Research Prize.

A SMARTER WAY TO BUILD YOUR PROFESSIONAL NETWORK with McIntire Professor Rob Cross

Leaving Darden doesn’t mean leaving

learning behind.

The Darden School offers free lifetime learning opportunities

to alumni through webinars from Alumni Services and Darden

Executive Education.

Visit the Darden alumni andExecutive Education websites

regularly for free access to webinars and lectures from Darden faculty.

Prizing the Possibilities in Business Analytics

Available from Alumni Servicesalumni.darden.edu

Available from Darden Executive Education

www.darden.virginia.edu/executive-education

CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS with Professor Yiorgos Allayannis

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ALUMNI with Professor Michael Lenox

THIS IS THE END OF DIVERSITY AS WE KNOW IT with Professor Martin Davidson

Free Digital Learning for Alumni

LEADING FOR CREATIVITY: CHANGING THE CONVERSATION with Executive Education Instructor David Newkirk

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR EXECUTIVES: THE STRATEGIC AGENDA with Professor Yael Grushka- Cockayne and Senior Associate Dean Gerald Starsia

5 pillars Fall 2015

Samuel E. Bodily, John Tyler Professor of Business Administration

S C H O O L N E WS

Darden Scholarship Students Attend Third Annual Stamps Scholars National ConventionWhen the Stamps Foundation transitioned from a small program helping a few students to one that would sup-port a growing group of diverse young people from schools around the country, Darden was a natural partner to help diversify the pool of Stamps Leadership Scholars.

In fall 2013, Penny and Roe Stamps IV partnered with Darden to create 26 full-tuition scholarships to support ex-ceptional students.

“Darden’s program, with its balance of entrepreneur-ship and ethics, is excellent preparation for our next generation of business leaders,” said Randy McDow, the executive director of the Stamps Foundation, one of the nation’s largest merit-based scholarship programs.

Darden students selected as Stamps Scholars are also a key part of a growing network of scholars who are work-ing together to find solutions to the major issues facing the world today. From 10–12 April, 10 of Darden’s Stamps Leadership Scholars traveled to the Georgia Institute of Technology for the third Stamps Scholars National Con-vention. In total, about 500 scholarship recipients from 41 universities around the country convened in Atlanta to dis-cuss current challenges in various academic fields.

During the convention, Darden’s Senior Associate Dean for Degree Programs Peter Rodriguez presented a case study written by Stamps Leadership Scholar Matthew Graham (MBA ’15) concerning the future of the Stamps Scholars program to undergraduate scholars.

“It was incredibly encouraging for me to see the tal-ented and intelligent Stamps Scholars engage in a rich and meaningful conversation around the future of the pro-gram,” Graham said. “In particular, I enjoyed seeing stu-dents from various backgrounds and majors attempt to tackle what we at Darden would consider a ‘strategy’ prob-lem by bringing their unique perspectives to the group and coming to a consensus with peers.”

Georgia native Roe Stamps and his wife, Penny, start-ed the Stamps Scholars program to support students in their academic pursuit and have forged a national net-work of scholars through the program.

COMPANY OFFERS ACCEPTED

McKinsey & Company .................................14Boston Consulting Group ...........................13Accenture ....................................................... 9Amazon .......................................................... 9Microsoft ........................................................ 9Bain & Company ........................................... 7JPMorgan Chase & Co. ................................ 7Goldman Sachs ............................................. 6PricewaterhouseCoopers ............................. 6Parthenon-EY ................................................. 6Deloitte ........................................................... 6Deutsche Bank .............................................. 5Danaher .......................................................... 5Citigroup ......................................................... 5Harris Williams .............................................. 5

Matthew Graham (MBA ’15), standing, at the Stamps Scholars National Convention in Georgia.

Top Companies Hiring at Darden (Class of 2015)

SOME OF THE MOST

PRESTIGIOUS COMPANIES IN

THE WORLD ARE HIRING DARDEN

STUDENTS.

“Darden’s program, with its balance of

entrepreneurship and ethics, is excellent

preparation for our next generation of

business leaders.”

— Randy McDow, executive director of

the Stamps Foundation

6 www.darden.virginia.edu

Rooms With a ViewMcLean and Voorhees families pay homage to the Darden education experience

Supporting Darden has become a tradition for the Voorhees family, with father Steve (MBA ’80) and son Paul (MBA ’14) both seeking

to give back to the School that provided them the best education experience in the realm of graduate business school.

It’s only fitting, then, that the Darden learning team room that now carries the Voorhees family name is the very one Paul’s First Year learning team used extensively in his first months at the School.

“In Honor of the Case Method and the Darden Learning Experience,” reads the plaque honoring the support of Celia, Steve and Paul Voorhees by the door of the Voorhees Study Group Room, a testament to the family’s earnest belief in the value of the Darden education.

Just down the hall on the first floor of the Classroom Building, students will also now find the McLean Classroom with a plaque commemorating the “Gift of Emmett E. McLean (MBA ’84) and Catherine W. McLean.”

“The Darden experience was instrumental in the success of my career, and the classrooms are at the center of learning,” said Emmett McLean. “When we looked at finding a way to show our apprecia-tion, the classroom was the most logical choice for us. It is there that the professors work their magic and make the learning experience challenging and rewarding. People are what make a place special, and it is because of the engaging professors, bright students and dedicated staff that Darden is one of the top business schools. Giving back is our way of saying thank you for all that Darden has meant to us.”

Both rooms were officially dedicated under their new names during ceremonies this spring. The power of the unrestricted giving provided by the McLeans and Voorheeses directly supports Darden’s areas of greatest need, making the respec-tive rooms named in their honor symbols of the School’s continuing effort to provide a world-class MBA education.

Paul Voorhees (MBA ’14) with Celia and Steve (MBA ’80) Voorhees in front of the learning team room that carries their name.

Dean Emeritus Bob Bruner with Emmett E. (MBA ’84) and Catherine McLean at the dedication of the McLean Classroom last spring.

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IDEA and Darden Academy Highlight MBA Enhancements

Several enhancements to the Darden School’s flagship residential MBA program launched at the start of the 2015–16 academic year, including the introduction of a new, required experiential course.

“Each year, we enhance the MBA program in small ways based on student feedback and innovations in business and higher education, but this past year has been a period of more substantial review and innovation,” said Professor Marc Lipson, associate dean for the residential MBA.

A Live Field Project“In response to the changing landscape of skills required to be a successful leader, we are introducing to incoming First Years a new, required course: ‘Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship in Action,’ or IDEA,” said Pro-fessor Mike Lenox, associate dean for innovation programs and academic director of Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The course further enables students’ ability to work on real-world, global projects of consequence, which have a high degree of ambiguity and un-certainty. Students are organized in teams and tackle live field projects over seven weeks. The challenges can be sponsored by corporations, government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

IDEA is grounded in the methodologies of design thinking, an innovative approach to problem-solving; agile project management; data analytics; effec-tuation, a logic of thinking used by expert entrepreneurs to build successful ventures; and lean startup.

“Our goal here is to make Darden students the best prepared in the world to make effective decisions when facing real-world ambiguity,” said Lenox.

Darden AcademyIn August, Darden launched the Darden Academy, a learning enrichment program in the First Year experience. The Academy offers a changing, weekly suite of opportunities that — though not required — explores topics of interest to students, faculty and the broader Darden community. Academy sessions include meaningful discussions, analyses of global current events, reflections on our purpose as leaders, opportunities to build skills that enhance the ability of all students to engage meaningfully in class conversations, and events that explore the links between classroom learning and business practice.

Building on the tradition of student leadership at Darden, the Academy seeks inspiration from student proposals and draws from the resources of the Darden community and its 10 research Centers of Excellence.

“At the end of the day, we are here to present opportunities that help our students realize their full potential as responsible, entrepreneurial, and global leaders and learners,” said Rodriguez. “These two enhancements to the MBA experience were developed in collaboration with Darden students. We know that if we listen carefully to our students and co-create with them, we will deliver on our goal to continue delivering the most compelling graduate management education experience available today.”

“At the end of the day, we are here to present opportunities that help our students realize their full potential as respon-sible, entrepreneurial, and global leaders and learners.”— PETER RODRIGUEZ, senior associate dean for degree programs and chief diversity officer

Darden, Monticello Announce Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Global InnovationThe University of Virginia Board of Visitors and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello recently announced the cre-ation of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Global Innovation, which will be hosted by the Darden School.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Global Innovation will join med-als jointly awarded by the University and the foundation in architecture, law and cit-izen leadership. The medals, struck for the occasion, are the highest external honors conferred by U.Va., which awards no hon-orary degrees, at Jefferson’s behest.

Previous medal recipients have includ-ed I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Sandra Day O’Con-nor and John Lewis.

“This medal will make an important statement about the commitment of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and the Uni-versity of Virginia Darden School of Busi-ness to broaden awareness of Jefferson’s legacy and to celebrate the role of inno-vation in improving our lives,” said Leslie Greene Bowman, president and CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Global Innovation will recognize an individual for his or her role in guiding a significant global innovation that creates value for humanity. The award will honor

responsible lead-ers who extend Jefferson’s com-mitment to global commerce and the creation and commercialization of inventions and ideas that improve society.

“Thomas Jefferson is the father of in-novation and progress in America,” said Locke Ogens, senior executive director of the Darden School Foundation and Stra-tegic Relations. “Jefferson relentlessly pur-sued knowledge for the benefit of society. He famously said, ‘I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.’”

The first Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Global Innovation will be conferred in 2016. The recipient will be selected by a committee chaired by Darden School Dean Scott Beardsley.

The awards are presented annually on Jefferson’s birthday, 13 April.

Contact Carter Hoerr at +1-434-243-5871 or HoerrC@darden.virginia.edu to discuss supporting the endowment for the Thom-as Jefferson Foundation Medal in Global Innovation.

In Bob Bruner’s Honor

When he announced his plan to return to the faculty, Robert F. Bruner named his biggest wish to accomplish before the end of his second term as the Darden School’s eighth dean: Support the

School’s faculty by helping the Dean’s Fund for Faculty Excellence reach a $10 million goal.

He asked, and Darden’s alumni, friends and family delivered.On 23 April, a special event was held to honor Bruner’s decade of leader-

ship. University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan kicked off the evening by naming Dean Bruner a University Professor, an honor bestowed on only about 20 of more than 2,000 U.Va. faculty members. Jim Cooper, chair of the Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees, and Locke Ogens, senior executive director of the Darden School Foundation and Strategic Relations, then broke the news that the Dean’s Fund had far exceeded its goal, with donors generous-ly contributing $11.6 million to the fund.

Thanks to the immense outpouring of support, future deans at Darden will now have a versatile means of developing and retaining the School’s top-ranked faculty, recruiting outstanding professors and strengthening research capabil-ities. Already in 2015, the Dean’s Fund has provided critical startup funding support for the Asia Iniative.

Many donors to the fund gave in Bruner’s honor, so the surprise that Coo-per and Ogens unveiled next at the Dean of the Decade event was only fitting. They announced that the fund had a new name. To honor Bruner’s indelible mark on the Darden School, the fund is now known as the Robert F. Bruner Dean’s Fund for Faculty Excellence.

Learn more about the valuable impact of giving to the Robert F. Bruner Dean’s Fund for Faculty Excellence at alumni.darden.edu/invest.

7 pillars Fall 2015

Jim Cooper (MBA ’84), chair of the Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees, and Locke Ogens, senior executive director of the Darden School Foundation and Strategic Relations, present Dean Bruner with a framed certificate honoring the renaming of the Dean’s Fund.

Amid a busy weekend of Darden Reunion festivities last April, Hickory Club members were treated to a special lunch and discussion about how Darden has evolved over the years, with Professors E. Richard Brownlee, R. Edward Freeman and Mary Margaret Frank, as well as Senior Associate Dean for Degree Programs Peter Rodriguez.

The Hickory Club is Darden’s loyalty giving society and recognizes Darden alumni who have contributed consistently each year to Darden for three years or more.

About 3,000 Darden alumni demonstrate their loyalty through membership in the Hickory Club.

So what has changed at Darden? Brownlee, a professor emeritus who has spent 38 years at Darden, said what is more important is what has stayed the same — the School’s philosophy. He said Darden is just as committed to a cul-ture of shared learning and teaching through the case method as it was when he arrived on Grounds.

Freeman, who arrived at Darden in the 1980s, echoed Brownlee’s sentiments about the culture at Darden, noting that the School remains student-centered and that professors truly care about the students.

Brownlee did joke about one change, though, which he had a hard time getting used to: staring at the back of laptop computers in class instead of students’ faces. Brownlee taught through the transition to technology and said he witnessed how it ultimately improved the learning experience as its use was integrated into the classroom.

Darden: Then and NowA special look back at Darden over the years, presented by the Hickory Club

Darden students have changed, importantly, in terms of their diversity. Recent classes have been comprised of more than 35 percent international students from countries all over the world, whereas Darden’s earliest classes were mostly from the United States.

“You hear a lot more languages in the halls,” Brownlee quipped.

Similarly, women make up more than a third of the student body today, too, whereas early classes were predominantly male.

Frank and Freeman noted that the biggest changes have perhaps occurred within the faculty.

“The success of the female faculty is what is most different,” Frank said. “We have four female facul-ty members teaching who have won all-University awards. We have female faculty in every teaching area but one, and they are consistently hitting it out of the ballpark.”

When Freeman arrived at Darden, the School was known for excellent teaching in the classroom, but faculty members were not viewed as thought leaders. Now, he said, the faculty has prominent thought leaders in every field, which is important if Darden wants to be a global leader in business education.

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“The success of the female faculty is what is most different,” Professor Mary Margaret Frank said. “We have four female faculty mem-bers teaching who have won all-univer-sity awards. We have female faculty in every teaching area but one, and they are consistently hitting it out of the ballpark.”

Hickory Club members: Watch for invitations to special events this fall, including Hickory Club-sponsored football game events and more.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA INVESTING CONFERENCE

PRESENTED IN COLLABORATION WITH

at the Darden School of Business

The Richard A. Mayo Center for Asset Management presents the

REGISTER NOW for special early rates www.darden.virginia.edu/uvic

Speakers Include:Roger W. Ferguson Jr. President and Chief Executive Officer, TIAA-CREFTobias M. Levkovich Chief U.S. Equity Strategist, Citi Investment ResearchWilliam Poole Senior Fellow, Cato InstituteThomas K. Brown Founder and CEO, Second Curve CapitalScott Sleyster Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Prudential Financial Inc.

Check the website for up-to-date lists of speakers and sessions.

12 – 13 November 2015

#uvainvest15