About Darden - Leadership

Welcome From Dean Scott C. Beardsley

I am honored and grateful to serve the University of Virginia Darden School of Business as its ninth dean.

Darden provides the world’s best educational experience, bar none, and I can’t think of any place I would rather be.

I love the School’s mission: “The University of Virginia Darden School of Business improves the world by inspiring responsible leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences."

I joined the School — after a 26-year career as a senior partner with McKinsey & Company — to pursue my calling: to help outstanding people and organizations achieve their full potential. 

There are many reasons why I was drawn to Darden, and why you should be, too. Here are a few of them:

• Academic excellence. A depth of learning happens at Darden that does not happen anywhere else.
• Unparalleled impact. Our faculty — recognized as the best in the world — creates a variety of transformational learning experiences to accelerate personal development, deliver outstanding career opportunities and improve company performance.
• Vibrant networks. We have one of the most dynamic, passionate, successful and engaged networks and academic communities on the planet.
• A wonderful, fun community. From First Coffee, to an incredible food and music scene, to UVA national championship sports teams and facilities, to global experiential learning, to close connections with Washington, D.C.: Darden students live life fully!
• Responsible, entrepreneurial, global leaders. Our graduates are agile decision-makers. They are lifelong learners. They have what it takes to lead today — and in 2050.
• Preeminence. The University of Virginia is one of the world’s great research universities, connecting business to technology, medicine, law, sciences, education and policy.
• Leading-edge thinking. Darden’s research and thinking in areas such as business in society, ethics, and entrepreneurship and innovation set the bar; the knowledge developed by the faculty improves the world and the practice of management.
• Jeffersonian excellence. Thomas Jefferson, founder and architect of UVA, in 1819 set a standard for global excellence that Darden continues today.

We invite you to learn about our community — including Darden’s 19,000 alumni in 90 countries — and our programs. They will take you and your organization to the next level.

Now is the time to achieve your full potential.