The ExecMBA Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Lauren Lopez-Maurer. Lauren is the Assistant Director, Academic Advising and Student Affairs for UVA Darden’s Professional Degree Programs, and we talk with her about her background, what led her to Darden and what she enjoys about supporting working professional students. Lauren is the advisor for students in the Part-Time MBA Class of 2026, and we also discuss how she works with these students.

We’re excited to re-share one of our favorite conversations from earlier in the year – our Office Hours interview with Dean Emeritus Bob Bruner. As a financial economist, Bruner is best known for his research on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and financial panics. He served as dean of the Darden School from 2005 to 2015, and, this May, he retired from the Darden School in May after 41 years of service and leadership. In this conversation, we talk with Bruner about what led him to Darden, his passion for the case method, his interest in financial crises, what the panic of 1907 can tell us about financial crises generally, his thoughts on the recent Silicon Valley Bank collapse and more.  

The Executive MBA and Part-Time MBA applications are now live! During this episode, Brett Twitty and Ali Torres highlight the new applications and share tips and insights for applicants targeting our classes enrolling August 2024.

In this special edition of the Darden Admissions podcast, we share a recent installment in our ongoing ‘Office Hours’ faculty spotlight series, a conversation with Professor Tim Laseter (MBA ’94, PhD ’03). Laseter is a member of the Technology and Operations Management faculty, and he teaches courses in operations strategy, innovation and emerging technology at Darden. He maintains his connections with practitioners by serving clients as a senior advisor, speaker, workshop facilitator, and expert witness. In this conversation we talk with Laseter about his background, what led him to Darden for his MBA, what he enjoys about teaching, as well as how he discovered his interest in operations. We also discuss several of his courses, including Operations Strategy, Digital Operations, Emerging Topics in Technology & Operations, his Darden Worldwide Course and a new course he has helped develop for Darden Executive Education, “Unlocking Value of AI, Blockchain and Digital Assets.”

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Ali Torres. Ali recently joined our Admissions team as an Assistant Director, Professional Degree Programs, and we talk with her about her background, what she enjoys about working with students, why she’s so passionate about Darden, her advice for Executive MBA and Part-Time MBA applicants and more.

In this episode, we catch up with two members of Darden’s Center for Global Initiatives (CGI) team, Ladi Carr and Maggie Nelsen. We talk with Ladi and Maggie about recent global residencies, upcoming locations, plans for the Executive MBA Class of 2025 and more. Did you know? The only difference between Darden’s EMBA and GEMBA formats is the number of required global residencies. EMBA format students are required to participate in one global residency. GEMBA students are required to participate in four global residencies.

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Andrew Moore. Andrew is a graduate in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2020 and a repeat guest on The ExecMBA Podcast. We talk with Andrew about his MBA journey, what he enjoyed about his time at Darden, how his Darden experience continues to impact his life and career after business school and more. We also discuss Narrative Public Affairs, a strategic communications and public affairs firm Andrew founded in 2020.

During this episode, we share the audio from a recent webinar featuring several Executive MBA alumni – Meghan Azevedo (EMBA ’18), Skip Calvert (EMBA ’19), Emma Kinnucan (EMBA ’20), Sean Spence (GEMBA ’18) and David Waidelich (EMBA ’20). The panelists reflect upon their decision to pursue an MBA, what led them to Darden, how their career goals evolved during their time at Darden, how they continue to leverage their MBA in their work and more.

In this special edition of the Darden Admissions podcast, we share a recent installment in our ongoing ‘Office Hours’ faculty spotlight series, a conversation with Professor Yiorgos Allayannis. Allayannis is member of the Finance faculty and an expert in corporate finance, risk management, financial institutions and international finance. His work has examined the impact of derivatives on risk and firm value, corporate governance and its influence in a firm's use of derivatives for hedging, as well as firms' financial and operational hedging strategies. Other work has examined volatility and its implications for firm value distinguishing between earnings and cash flow volatility. In this conversation, we talk with Allayannis about what led him to Darden, teaching Finance through the case method as well as his popular elective, Financial Institutions and Markets. We also discuss a number of the cases he has written across a wide range of topics, including crypto, decentralized finance, green bonds, fintech and more.

During this episode, we share an admissions update for applicants interested in joining our Executive MBA class enrolling this August. We talk with two members of our Executive MBA Admissions Committee, Katherine Alford and Ali Torres, about our Executive MBA application process, where things stand with our incoming Executive MBA class, tips for Executive MBA applicants, where to get started if you are looking to move quickly on an Executive MBA application and more.