2019 Year in Photos at UVA Darden

It was another amazing year at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, with the graduating Class of 2019 securing record employment outcomes, the Class of 2021 joining in August with a record percentage of women and a bevy of amazing events and moments around Grounds throughout the year.

Check out the year in photos below, and the School wishes every member of the Darden community past, present and future a Happy New Year.

In August, the School welcomed the full-time MBA and Executive MBA Class of 2021 and the Master of Science in business analytics Class of 2020 to Grounds.

UVA President Jim Ryan, center in orange, helped welcome Darden students at the beginning of the academic year by leading a community run starting and ending at the School.

The Class of 2019 graduated in May and secured the best employment outcomes in the history of the School, including a record average salary of more than $135,000 and 97 percent earning a job offer within 90 days of graduation, the highest mark since 2005.

In October, The Economist ranked Darden as home to the best education experience in the United States for the ninth year in a row.

Frank M. Sands Sr. (MBA ’63), accompanied above by Darden Dean Scott C. Beardsley to his right and UVA President Jim Ryan to his left, made the largest gift in the history of the School in May: $68 million, which was matched by $14 million from the UVA Bicentennial Professors Fund for a total philanthropic impact of $82 million. The gift will support Darden in various ways, including a $20 million endowment to create the Sands Institute for Lifelong Learning, a $35 million fund to support 12 new faculty chairs, a $20 million fund to jumpstart construction of a new UVA Inn at Darden and Conference for Lifelong Learning and $7 million in matching funds to spur renovation of Darden’s C. Ray Smith Alumni Hall.

Sands Sr.’s gift brought together five generations of Darden deans, past and present. From left to right: Professor Bob Harris, Beardsley, Professor Bob Bruner, Professor Emeritus C. Ray Smith and John Rosenblum.

Darden played host to or was part of several major events during 2019, including hosting Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian for a The New York Times Get With the Times event.

Professor Ed Freeman, left, and Professor Bobby Parmar, center, participated in a panel after the premier of the film Fishing With Dynamite during the Virginia Film Festival. The documentary was directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Wagner, right, and produced by Parmar, Wagner and Senior Researcher Jenny Mead with support from Darden’s Institute for Business in Society.

In October, Darden launched the most ambitious fundraising campaign in its history, Powered by Purpose, in support of the University of Virginia’s $5 billion Honor the Future campaign. Powered by Purpose Chair Jim Cooper (MBA ’84) helped launch Darden’s $400 million campaign on 12 October at a gala event held on Grounds.

Darden officially commemorated the opening of the UVA Darden Sands Family Grounds in February, and UVA Darden DC Metro has quickly become an integral part of the life of the School as home to the Executive MBA formats, Master of Science in business analytics, and countless alumni and thought leadership events. In October, Case Foundation CEO and National Geographic Chairman Jean Case headlined the inaugural Leadership Unscripted speaker series event at UVA Darden DC Metro with Professor Mary Margaret Frank.

The UVA men’s basketball team’s historic and magical run to a national championship captivated the Darden and UVA communities for much of 2019, through the final game in April. When ESPN sought to tell the tale of the team’s unlikely run through March Madness, the network came calling on Darden and featured Professor Robert Carraway prominently in its documentary, “Unbelievable: Virginia’s Improbable Path to a Title.”

Darden is known as home to the best business school faculty in the world, and a bevy of new rankings drove that superlative home in 2019. First, Bloomberg Businessweek revealed in June that a survey of graduating students of full-time MBA programs rated Darden’s faculty No. 1 for most “inspiring and supportive” professors.

Then it happened again in October when The Economist revealed that the School was No. 1 in the world for student rating of faculty for the third year in a row.

And then it happened a third time when The Princeton Review ranked Darden No. 1 for best professors for the third year in a row.

Capping off a beautiful and successful fall at the School, Bloomberg Businessweek announced in November that Darden rose to be ranked the No. 5 MBA program in the United States and No. 1 in the U.S. among public universities, not to mention a No. 2 ranking in the category of Learning and No. 4 in the category of Networking.

From everyone at Darden to every member of the Darden community, present and future: Have a Happy New Year!