Books to Read, Speakers to Hear, Salary Records to Break — What to Know Now

Read a collection of the top stories on The Darden Report in September for the latest news from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Salaries, Job Offers for Class of 2019 Break Records

Graduates of Darden’s full-time MBA Class of 2019 took advantage of a strong job market to break multiple employment outcome records. The average base starting salary for the Class of 2019 was a record-breaking $135,168 — up about $7,400 from the Class of 2018’s $127,767 average starting salary. Within 90 days of graduation, 96 percent of Class of 2019 students accepted an offer of full-time employment, a School record. In that same timeframe, 97 percent of graduates received at least one full-time job offer, a percentage last achieved by Darden’s Class of 2005.

Darden Announces Lineups for Leadership Speaker Series, Leadership Unscripted Speaker Series

First, Darden announced the lineup for its annual Leadership Speaker Series, which offers the public the opportunity to hear firsthand from senior business and civic leaders who are creating impact in their fields and in the world. The fall Leadership Speaker Series lineup includes:

• 16 September — Mahendra Siregar, ambassador of Indonesia to the United States
• 3 October — Tom Barkin, president and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
• 31 October — Scott Price (MBA/MA ’90), chief strategy and transformation officer at UPS

Later in the month, Darden announced a new speaker series, Leadership Unscripted, and the inaugural lineup of speakers. The series aims to highlight a wide range of thought-provoking topics related to leadership. In its inaugural year, the series will focus on themes related to women and gender, including the challenges and strengths of women’s leadership. The inaugural Leadership Unscripted Speaker Series includes:

• 10 October — Jean Case, chairman of the board at National Geographic and CEO of the Case Foundation
• 6 November — Carolyn Miles (MBA ’88), CEO of Save the Children

New Books From Darden Professors Explore Critical Role of Race in the Workplace and Strategic Execution

A new book co-edited by Professor Laura Morgan Roberts dives into pressing issues related to race in the workplace. In Race, Work and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019), Roberts and her co-editors, Harvard Business School Professor Anthony Mayo and Morehouse College President David Thomas, bring together groundbreaking research and a multitude of perspectives and methodologies across 23 essays exploring the experiences of black professionals in a broad spectrum of industries. In addition to articles co-authored by Roberts, the volume includes contributions from Darden Professor and Global Chief Diversity Officer Martin Davidson and Postdoctoral Fellow Courtney McCluney.

A new book by Professor Scott Snell demystifies the execution process and offers a clear framework for putting ideas into practice. In Strategic Execution: Driving Breakthrough Performance in Business (Stanford University Press, 2019), Snell and his co-author, former SunTrust Chief Human Resources Officer Kenneth Carrig, address why execution matters, the challenges of execution and why an effective, widespread approach remains elusive.

Announcing 18 Darden Worldwide Courses for 2019–20

Darden announced 18 Darden Worldwide courses for the 2019–20 academic year, including new courses to Australia, India, South Africa and Kenya.

Each year at Darden, global academic opportunities are offered in more than two dozen countries around the world. When the Class of 2019 graduated in May, a record 85 percent of full-time MBA students had participated in at least one global academic program, up from 79 percent for the Class of 2018, and 40 percent of the class participated in more than one offering. Thanks to the Batten Foundation Darden Worldwide Scholarship program, which covers the course fee for a global course for all full-time MBA students, First Year participation in a global course rose to 72 percent from 66 percent the previous year.

One Darden Week in Pictures: Celebrating Diversity and Inclusion at UVA Darden

The recently concluded One Darden Week offered the Darden community the opportunity to discuss and celebrate the School’s diverse community and identify strategies to promote inclusion and diversity at Darden and beyond. It’s a story best told in pictures, and the photos in the story linked above capture highlights from many of the week’s main events.