UVA Darden Dean Scott Beardsley Awarded Sabbatical to Study at Oxford University

Professor Jeanne Liedtka to Serve as Interim Dean

University of Virginia Provost Ian Baucom announced today that Darden School Dean Scott C. Beardsley has been awarded a six-month sabbatical leave to pursue graduate research and coursework at Oxford University’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics with the faculty of philosophy at Pembroke College.

During Beardsley’s brief sabbatical, from 1 July 2023 to 1 January 2024, Jeanne Liedtka, United Technologies Corporation Professor of Business Administration at Darden, will serve as Darden’s interim dean.

The award of sabbatical leave for Beardsley comes on the heels of eight years of outstanding leadership for Darden, which includes achievements such as: establishing a strong and growing presence for Darden in Northern Virginia, which is now home base to the Executive MBA, a new Part-Time MBA program and the MSBA with the UVA McIntire School of Commerce; reaching the first $400 million milestone of the Powered by Purpose campaign; and the recent opening of The Forum Hotel on the Darden Grounds, which provides world-class hospitality to complement Darden’s world-class educational experience.

“Dean Beardsley takes seriously all facets of his role as dean, including scholarship,” said Baucom.

At McKinsey and Company, where he worked for 26 years before joining Darden, Beardsley was the lead global expert on the regulation of technology and stakeholder management. At Oxford’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics with the faculty of philosophy at Pembroke College (where J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings), Beardsley will pursue graduate research and coursework in the ethics of data and artificial intelligence, privacy, research and empirical ethics, and the ethics of well-being and disability enhancement.

Stepping into the role as of 1 July, Liedtka is an experienced senior leader at Darden who has served as executive director of the Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship, Technology and Innovation and as senior associate dean for degree programs and chair of the Program Strategy Committee. A design thinking pioneer, Liedtka has been at Darden for 32 years.

During that time, she has led and contributed to important innovations in Darden’s degree programs to continuously strengthen Darden’s world-class learning experience. Recent examples include exploration of the Part-Time MBA and credit-bearing certificate programs. She has also served as a trustee of the Darden School Foundation and is well-equipped to work with the Foundation’s leadership to carry forward the momentum until Beardsley’s return for the second half of the 2023-24 academic year.

“Darden has accomplished so much through the collaborative efforts of its faculty and staff, and I am confident this will continue throughout Dean Beardsley’s sabbatical,” said Baucom.