UVA Darden Class of 2020 Names Graduation Speakers, Offers Spring Awards
By Dave Hendrick
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business community came together for a virtual spring awards presentation on 22 April, with the full-time MBA Class of 2020 offering citations for outstanding contributions by faculty, staff and students and naming graduation speakers and faculty marshals.
The annual event comes less than one month before a graduation weekend dramatically altered by the coronavirus pandemic, and while the originally planned in-person ceremony has been canceled, UVA and Darden plan to proceed with a virtual ceremony to confer degrees. An in-person UVA Final Exercises and Darden graduation for the Class of 2020 is tentatively planned for October.
The full-time MBA Class of 2020 voted Professors Jacquie Doyle and Elena Loutskina as faculty marshals at graduation, and due to a tie vote, elected both Max Linden and Morolake Thompson as graduation speakers.
The Executive MBA Class of 2020 voted Professor Shane Dikolli as faculty marshal and elected Chris Adams as speaker.
The morning’s virtual celebration included a number of additional awards for students and faculty, including:
The Theo Herbert International Award: Julie Calderon Benavente (Class of 2020)
The Kitty Smiley Friend of the Student Award: Ed Warwick
The Executive MBA Friend of the Student Award: Kathy Masloff
The Faculty Diversity Award: Professor Peter Belmi
The Outstanding Faculty Award: Professor Shane Dikolli
The Executive MBA Transformational Faculty Award: Professor Shane Dikolli
The Club Prize for Excellence: Darden Partners Association
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (MBA, MSBA and Ph.D.) and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning programs offered by the Darden School Foundation set the stage for a lifetime of career advancement and impact. Darden’s top-ranked faculty, renowned for teaching excellence, inspires and shapes modern business leadership worldwide through research, thought leadership and business publishing. Darden has Grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C., area and a global community that includes 18,000 alumni in 90 countries. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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