‘First Coffee’ launches Scott Beardsley’s first full week as UVA’s 10th president
By Jane Kelly
The aroma of coffee filled the lobby of Madison Hall Monday morning as new University of Virginia President Scott Beardsley brought the Darden School of Business’s longstanding “First Coffee” tradition to the Office of the President.
Faculty and staff mingled, sampled pastries and caught up with one another following the winter break.
“The First Coffee tradition just brings the community together to share thoughts around something informal … and try to be nonhierarchical,” Beardsley said.
“At Darden, we bring faculty, staff and students together. Anybody can just come over and have a free cup of coffee, so I thought, ‘Try it out,’” Beardsley said. “If people like it, we’ll keep doing it.”
The president said he wants to keep “the good momentum of the University going. I love everything we do.”
“I look forward to meeting faculty, staff and students, going to some games, meeting the stakeholders in Richmond, all the alumni … basically channeling the love of UVA toward good things,” he said.
Monday afternoon, Beardsley returned to the Darden School to visit a January term course, The CEO in the 21st Century, that he taught for years. Speakers included Wick Moorman, a former president and chief executive officer of Amtrak, and Lily West, president and CEO of UVA’s Alumni Association.
Beardsley meets Presidential Fellow Jane Sun, who graduated from UVA in 2023 with degrees in speech communication disorders and computer science.
The new president holds a pastry, drawing the full attention of his dog, Lawnie. He and Dufourenet welcomed the 6-year-old golden retriever into their Lawn pavilion just before the pandemic. “She’s part of the family,” Beardsley said. “I view UVA as a family, so I thought everyone would want to get to know her.”
Beardsley says doing something as simple as getting together for coffee can build community. “I think … everybody likes to have a cup of coffee, or a cup of tea, or just get together and chat,” he said.
Beardsley remains the Charles C. Abbott Professor of Business Administration. Monday afternoon, he returned to the Darden School of Business to visit the course, The CEO in the 21st Century, that he has taught for years.
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, Executive 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 20,000 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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Darden School of Business
University of Virginia
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