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 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.

Darden School of Business

Beth Schmid

Director of Media

Relations

434-924-7502