Now a Professor, Former Save the Children Chief Brings UVA Darden Students ‘Into the Room’ With Top CEOs

When Carolyn Miles retired as president and CEO of Save the Children, it was certainly not the end of her journey making a difference in young people’s lives.

These days, as a professor of practice at her MBA alma mater, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, her focus has shifted from protecting the world’s most vulnerable children to empowering students with the potential to become leaders who improve the world.

A new course she teamed up with Darden Dean Scott Beardsley to teach this January, “CEO Leadership in the 21st Century,” brought Darden Full-Time MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA) students into the same classroom on the School’s Charlottesville Grounds for the first time. Thanks to Miles’ and Beardsley’s connections with senior leaders, it also drew nine current and former CEOs into the room for the one-week J-term course.

“I started this course several years ago and teach it on the Lawn in Pavilion l as a seminar in the original Jefferson classroom. I thought we could expand the opportunity through a J-term offering for executive and residential students. A common shared aspiration is that many Darden students aspire to be CEOs someday,” Beardsley said. “It’s critical they hear the real deal from those in the role, which is why this course was developed to bring CEOs to Darden to share some of their hardest lessons in their role as leaders. This pilot was a success.”

In addition to Miles, CEOs who led class sessions included several Darden alumni and friends of the School, including:

• Darden Dean’s Fellow Rahul “Raj” Bhandari, CEO, Force Multiplier Capital
• Raj Kumar, founding president and editor-in-chief, Devex
• Wick Moorman, former CEO, Amtrak, and former chairman and CEO, Norfolk Southern
• Byrne Murphy (MBA ’86), owner of Kitebrook Partners and founder of DigiPlex
• Frank Sands (MBA ’94), CEO, Sands Capital
• Kevin Sharer, former chairman and CEO, Amgen
• Lee Styslinger III, chairman and former CEO, Altec Inc.
• Lily West (MBA ’12), CEO, UVA Alumni Association

“We brought students into the room with CEO leaders to see real examples of how CEOs deal with challenging issues,” Miles said. “It is a class that focuses on stakeholder management, the decision-making process at the top, and doing the right thing, especially when faced with difficult decisions and trade-offs.”

Murphy, who said he enjoyed the opportunity to cold call students — a Darden classroom tradition, focused his session on the importance of establishing the right culture for long-term success when launching a new venture. He said there’s a value to listening to CEOs and entrepreneurs that simply can’t be captured by case studies or traditional classroom learning.

“Hearing about the living and breathing of having bet one’s life savings, betting even the cash for future tuition payments to their children’s schools — those searing moments are when students achieve absolute clarity on what it takes to transform an idea into a grounded, successful, long-term enterprise,” Murphy said. “That is a lesson learned that can stay with students until the day they face the same circumstances in their own careers.”

With such an expansive array of experience and leadership in the room, Miles said there were numerous “pearls of wisdom” shared by the CEOs, but among her favorites were:

• “The mission or purpose of your organization should be at the heart of all you do.”
• “Culture trumps strategy every time.”
• “Give the people in your organization the problems to solve, give them a little guidance and then get out of the way.”

“It was a great experience for me as a recent CEO to reflect on some of the terrific lessons learned by others and to distill a little of my own learnings to present in a case to the students,” Miles said. “It really made me think about the role of the CEO today and how challenging it can be, especially in these disruptive times.”

Murphy applauded Miles’ ability to serve as an expert teacher and bring her professional experience to bear as a benefit to students. For example, Second Year Full-Time MBA student Johnny Mac Yates said Miles led a case on her time navigating the Ebola crisis as CEO of Save the Children. He said Miles “brought us into the moments where she had to make life-or-death decisions” and create consensus with stakeholders around the world.

In the future, Miles and the Dean hope to add more women, international and minority CEOs into the mix, as well as younger founders who have launched successful startups.

One thing that won’t change, if at all possible, is the mixing of Darden’s EMBA and Full-Time MBA students.

“You could see the learning from both types of students happening in the classroom, Miles said. The more experienced EMBA students really brought a lot of current examples, while the residential students probably were more steeped in some of the concepts like stakeholder management.”

Yates said what he enjoyed most about the class was learning through the stories of their experiences and their personalities that there was no single CEO mold. “Even the CEO presentation styles were markedly different,” Yates said. “But all the speakers emphasized the importance of building trust and listening closely to stakeholders.”

EMBA Second Year Kelly O’Connell, a pediatric nurse practitioner who manages the neurosurgery service at UVA Children’s Hospital, said she came to Darden because she wanted to have a larger impact but was unsure where to start.

She said experiences like the “CEO Leadership” course have been transformational.

“As someone who is passionate about public health and previously worked as a community health nurse, I was thrilled to meet, speak to, and learn from Carolyn,” said O’Connell. “While describing her career path and experience as CEO of Save the Children, Carolyn outlined her personal philosophy for deciding what opportunities to pursue. Her methodology includes asking and answering the following questions: ‘Will I learn something? Will I add value? Am I — or could I be — passionate about this topic?’ As graduation approaches, there are endless opportunities to consider and, as I weigh each one, I plan to ask myself Carolyn’s guiding questions.”