EMBA - Sponsorships - For Companies

When your company sponsors a Darden student, you can expect concrete benefits that start early, permeate your organization and endure well beyond your employee's time in the program.

Beginning with the very first class, Darden’s case method, top-ranked faculty and high-caliber students combine to offer your employee and your organization unique advantages. In Darden’s challenging and close-knit learning community, your employee is given access to the talents and perspectives of approximately 130 classmates — experienced managers from a broad spectrum of industries — as well as the insights and expertise of Darden professors.

Each time your Darden student returns from class, he or she brings new knowledge, techniques and skills that can be applied on the job. We hear consistently from our students and their employers that over the course of the executive MBA program, the Darden student’s perspective noticeably broadens and their decision making moves toward outcomes that cut across functional silos and provide maximum benefit for the organization as a whole.

As a sponsor you may be concerned about the time away from work that an executive MBA program requires. Darden’s innovative executive MBA formats minimize time away from both work and home, yet deliver the same rigor and relevance as our residential MBA program.

The time commitments for each executive MBA format are as follows:

Executive MBA Format

Across 21 months, EMBA students are required to attend:

• Monthly weekend residencies 
• One week-long global residency
• Distance learning sessions between residencies

Global Executive MBA Format

Across 21 months, GEMBA students are required to attend:

• Monthly weekend residencies (when not participating in a global residency)
• Four week-long global residencies
• Distance learning sessions between residencies

The list below represents a selection of the hundreds of companies that have sponsored employee participation in the executive formats of Darden's MBA degree.

When a company sponsors a student, it acknowledges the student’s leadership, the time commitment the program requires and — most importantly — the significant value that the executive MBA provides for student and employer alike.

Accenture
Affinion Group
Alexandra Economic Development Partnership
Allied Waste Industries
Altria Client Services
AOL, LLC
BAE Systems
Bank of America
BearingPoint
Booz Allen Hamilton
Bureau of National Affairs
CACI International Inc.
Capital One
Capital One Financials Inc
Carilion Heath System
CarMax
Celgene Corporation
CenturyLink
CEXEC, Inc.
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Citrix Systems, Inc.
Clark Realty Builders, LLC
Computer Sciences Corp.
Constellation Energy Group
Core Knowledge Foundation
Corporate Executive Board
Cowan & Associates
CSX Corporation
DaVita Inc.
Deloitte Services LLP
Department of Homeland Security, FEMA
Deutsche Bank
Diamond Healthcare
District of Columbia Govt
Dobro Media Inc. 
Dominion Resources
DuPont
E*TRADE FINANCIAL
ExxonMobil
Filtroil, Inc.
Freddie Mac
Gaffney Homes Inc.
GE
General Dynamics Corporation
General Electric Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
General Motors
Genworth Financial
Goodrich, Inc.
Guidant Corporation
Harman International Industries Inc
IBM
Inova Health System
Interpretive Software
Invitrogen Corp.
John C. Grimberg Co.
Jones Lang LaSalle
Keane Inc.
Klockner Pentaplast
ManTech Int'l Corp.
Marriott Hotels & Resorts
McGuireWoods LLP
MedImmune, Inc.
Medtronic, Inc.
Merck & Co., Inc.
Morgan Stanley
Munters Corporation
MWV
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Novartis Pharmaceuticals
Open Text Corporation
Philip Morris USA
Rae Development Corp
Raytheon
Rolls Royce
Safeco Corp.
SAIC
SAP America
Sapient Corporation
Shenandoah Life Insurance Co.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation
Simmons Bedding Co
Smithfield Packing
SNL Financial LC
Springfield Technology Group
SRA International, Inc.
State Farm Insurance
Strategic Analysis, Inc.
Strategic Staffing Solutions
SunTrust
T. Rowe Price
Tata Consultancy Services
Team Health Inc.
The Boeing Company, Inc.
The Heritage Foundation
The Monitor Group 
The Motley Fool
The Page Valley Bank
The Washington Post
Towers Perrin
U.S. Army
U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. Food & Drug/Drug Eval & Rsrch
U.S. Govt - Dept of Labor
U.S. Marine Corps
U.S. Navy
United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia
Universal Leaf Tobacco Co., Inc.
University of Virginia
UTC
UVA Health System
Verizon Business
VITA
Wachovia
Wetland Studies & Solutions
Whiteboard Entertainment

What is required from a sponsor?

A sponsoring employer must provide a letter of support recognizing that the student will be allowed to take time off from work to attend all residencies. Financial sponsorship is not required, but should be indicated in the same letter if applicable. See Sponsorship Requirements for a complete overview.

Is full financial support required?

No — full financial support is not required of a sponsoring organization, and the level of financial support does not influence the Admissions Committee’s evaluation of an application. The majority of Darden executive MBA students receive some level of financial support from their employers. Sponsoring a student financially sends a strong message to your employee that you are invested in his or her professional growth. Support at any level is valued by students. Some organizations cover tuition only, while others contribute a fixed amount. In some cases, students work out an agreement with their companies to consider financial sponsorship as part of a total compensation package.

How much time away from work is required?

The time commitment for each executive MBA format at Darden is as follows. When not in residency, students have approximately 15–20 hours of coursework per week:

Executive MBA

Across 21 months, EMBA students are required to attend:

• Monthly weekend residencies
• One week-long global residency
• Distance learning sessions between residencies

Global Executive MBA

Across 21 months, GEMBA students are required to attend:

• Monthly weekend residencies (when not participating in a global residency)
• Four week-long global residencies
• Distance learning sessions between residencies

Why should I send an employee to Darden when there are other MBA programs that are closer and/or less expensive?

There are many MBA and executive MBA program offerings around the world. From a sponsor’s point-of-view, Darden stands out for a few key reasons:

• Students are taught by the #1 ranked business school faculty (The Princeton Review and Financial Times), leaders in business education and research who consult in the private and public domain. Our students find that the professors are highly accessible. Faculty are excited to teach and engage with our executive format students.
• Students study through the Darden case method which emphasizes practical and applicable learning and encourages students to think about business problems from an enterprise perspective. Combined with Darden’s integrated general management curriculum, this approach gives you a manager who sees and responds to the big picture.
• Darden's hybrid approach minimizes a student's time away from the office. Executive format students have residencies on average one weekend per month, compared to the two weekends or more of other programs.