UVA Darden Welcomes Seven New Professors to Start 2019–20 Academic Year

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business is welcoming seven new professors to start the 2019–20 academic year.

The new professors will enhance a number of academic areas at the School, including Strategy, Ethics and Entrepreneurship; Global Economies and Markets; Technology and Operations Management; Accounting; and Leadership and Organizational Behavior.

The new professors join a faculty that is routinely ranked among the highest in graduate business education, with Bloomberg Businessweek in June placing the School No. 1 for inspiring and supportive teachers.

The new faculty members include:

Yo-Jud Cheng, who joins the Strategy, Ethics and Entrepreneurship area as an assistant professor. Cheng comes to Darden from Harvard Business School, where she completed her DBA in strategy. Her research examines CEO succession, top management teams and corporate governance. She seeks to understand how executives and board directors shape firm strategy, governance and performance.

Gaurav Chiplunkar, who joins the Global Economies and Markets area as an assistant professor. Chiplunkar recently completed his Ph.D. in economics at Yale University, where his research examined how large industrial policies affect firm behavior and how frictions in the labor market constrain job search, recruitment and hiring practices by workers and firms. He also studies how policy reforms and new technologies can help mitigate these frictions.

Dennie Kim, who joins the Strategy, Ethics and Entrepreneurship area as an assistant professor. Kim recently completed his Ph.D. in business administration from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. His dissertation research examined interorganizational collaboration and performance from a macro perspective, integrating sociology theory with contemporary network perspectives. He is also interested in health care policy and reform.

Vidya Mani, who joins the Technology and Operations area as an associate professor. Mani joined Darden from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, where she taught in the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems. Her research focuses on supply chain management and the impact of operational decisions on performance under changing marketplace conditions. Mani, who holds a Ph.D. in operations management from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, previously taught a variety of operations management classes at Smeal at undergraduate, MBA and master’s levels.

Panayotis Markou, who joins the Technology and Operations area as an assistant professor. Markou comes to Darden from a post-doctoral position at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and earned his Ph.D. in Operations Management at the IE Business School in Madrid. His research seeks to empirically understand how firms may manage disruptive organizational risks. He has taught in the MBA programs at Cambridge Judge.

James Naughton, who joins Darden as an associate professor in the Accounting area from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. His research examines how financial, legal and regulatory institutions shape both financial disclosure and economic choices. He has explored defined benefit pension plans and the reporting and risks associated with the plans. Naughton, who received a doctorate and law degree from Harvard University, has won numerous awards for his teaching.

Laura Morgan Roberts, who joins the Leadership and Organizational Behavior area as a professor of practice. Roberts’ research interests focus on race, work and leadership and how to leverage minority identities at work. She has taught at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and has served on the faculty at Antioch University and Harvard Business School. Roberts earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and received her undergraduate degree from UVA.

In addition, Barbara Millar will take on a more expansive teaching role at Darden for the 2019-20 academic year, transitioning from her position as assistant dean of the Executive MBA program. Millar will teach courses in both formats of the MBA program in the upcoming academic year while supporting the Office of Student Affairs with programming initiatives. In subsequent years, Millar will teach full time at the School.