Student using AI headset in VR

About the LaCross AI Institute

About the LaCross AI Institute

Respect for People, Practice & Technology

Our Approach

We don’t know what the future of AI will be.

We do know that siloed thinking won’t provide answers.

Darden prepares responsible leaders for business. The business of artificial intelligence needs this leadership more than ever.

With the LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business, Darden strives to ensure that the good of all stakeholders — a signature of the School’s research, teaching and engagement — is factored into how AI’s enormous potential is applied in business contexts.

The Institute also serves as a connector for UVA, uniting other AI initiatives, centers and units. For instance, Darden and UVA School of Data Science's flourishing partnership focuses on the intersection of data science and business. The institute will empower UVA to coordinate and magnify its research, pedagogy, teaching and engagement in AI across UVA schools, institutes and research centers.
 

Our Values

At Darden, we’re on a mission to develop responsible leaders.  

Our unparalleled, transformational learning experiences, delivered by faculty ranked the best in the world for bringing out the best in students, puts purpose in motion and leads to a lifetime of career advancement and impact.
 

About the LaCross Gift

One of the Largest AI Gifts to Any Business School in the World

In October 2023, Dave (MBA '78) and Kathy LaCross announced an historic gift of $101 million to Darden, indicating their aspiration to earmark $50 million to establish a Darden-led AI institute that would collaborate with UVA schools and initiatives working in a similar vein. The LaCross' investment in AI has since expanded to over $62 million to fund professorships in ethical AI in business, including a University Professorship and a practitioner chair in AI that will enable Darden to build on existing faculty strengths by recruiting additional world-leading faculty and professors of practice to advance teaching and research.

The new LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business extends the work of Darden's AI Initiative, which was created in 2022 through an initial gift from the LaCrosses, with support from Darden's Institute for Business in Society and Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology, and the Collaboratory for Applied Data Science in Business, launched in partnership with the UVA School of Data Science in 2021.

 

100+
publications about AI by Darden Faculty
175
Students in the Darden AI Club
9
AI-focused courses across academic and certificate programs

Academic Directors

Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Yael Grushka-Cockayne

Academic Director, and, by Courtesy, Data Science

Rajkumar Venkatesan

Rajkumar Venkatesan

Academic Director

Our Experts

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Gabrielle (Gabe) Adams

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Business Administration and, by Courtesy, Psychology (Social)

Michael Albert

Michael Albert

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

RB

Rahul Bhandari

Lecturer and Dean's Fellow

Luca Cian

Luca Cian

Killgallon Ohio Art Professor of Business Administration

Lillien Ellis

Lillien Ellis

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

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Rupert Freeman

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Alex Gates headshot

Alex Gates

Assistant Professor of Data Science, UVA School of Data Science

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Terence Johnson

Assistant Professor of Data Science, UVA School of Data Science

Dennie Kim

Dennie Kim

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

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Anton Korinek

Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Professor, Darden School of Business

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Timothy M. Laseter

Professor of Practice

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Benjamin D. Leiner

Adjunct Lecturer

Michael Lenox

Michael Lenox

University Professor, Tayloe Murphy Professor of Business Administration

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Anthony Palomba

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Bobby Parmar

Bidhan L. Parmar

Associate Dean for Faculty Development , Shannon G. Smith Bicentennial Professor of Business Administration

Michael D. Porter headshot

Michael D. Porter

Associate Professor of Data Science, UVA School of Data Science

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Roshni Raveendhran

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Administrative Leadership

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Marc Ruggiano

Special Advisor for AI Initiatives

Staff

Gosia Glinska

Gosia Glinska

Associate Director of Thought Leadership, Batten Institute

Megan Juelfs

Megan Juelfs

Senior Associate Director of Research, Office of Research Support

Asif Mehedi

Asif Mehedi

Associate Director for Research and Faculty Support, Office of Research Support

Maryelizabeth Point

Research Assistant

Derry Wade

Director of Communications & Outreach and Shared Services, Centers of Excellence

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