The Darden School of Business has announced the new leader of its center that promotes Virginia businesses here and abroad.
Professor Gregory B. Fairchild will become the executive director of the Tayloe Murphy Center/Virginia on July 1, 2009.
The Tayloe Murphy Center/Virginia, located on the Darden Grounds, encourages the successful growth of Virginia-based businesses within the state and around the world by developing and implementing educational programs and research projects.
“We’re going to be focused on what actually leads to sustainable economic and social change,” said Prof. Fairchild.
A Darden faculty member who teaches in the areas of strategy, entrepreneurship, and ethics, Fairchild conducts research on entrepreneurship within emerging domestic markets. As the recipient of an $850,000, three-year grant from the MacArthur Foundation, he studies the business models of successful Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs, which help promote access to capital and local economic growth in both urban and rural low-income communities.
As executive director of the Tayloe Murphy Center/Virginia, Fairchild’s goal is to spur economic development in Virginia and to “collaborate with economic development professionals in the creation of innovative programs,” he said.
“Relatively, there are fewer community development financial organizations in Virginia. So, we will take our findings from the national sphere, determine what best works in these organizations and bring that knowledge to the Commonwealth,” he said.
Fairchild will speak around the state about economic competitiveness and the example of entrepreneurs as change agents in low-income communities. The center will create a series of case studies on what leads to successful economic development and will engage the greater University of Virginia community on the best ways to serve the needs of the state’s stakeholders: low-growth communities, low-income people, scholars and practitioners working in economic development, and politicians and government officials, among others.
Working alongside Fairchild will be a board of advisors, approved by The Tayloe Murphy Center/Virginia. They include:
• Joshua P. Darden, Jr., President of Darden Properties, Inc.
• Michael Gurau (MBA ’92), President of Coastal Enterprises Inc. Community Ventures
• Jane Henderson, President and CEO of Virginia Community Capital
• Jim Johnson, Director of Urban Investment Strategies Center at UNC Kenan-Flagler; Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship
• Mark Kilduff (MBA ’66), EDA Director, New Kent County, Virginia
• Lemuel E. Lewis (MBA ’72), Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
To learn more about Fairchild’s work around the state of Virginia, listen to his May 18th radio interview with station WBTM of Danville, Virginia.
Founded in 1955, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business is a professional school that improves society by developing principled leaders for the world of practical affairs.
For comments and/or additional information, contact communication@darden.virginia.edu.