The ExecMBA Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Chris Mai. Chris is a second year student in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2025, and we recently caught up with him to talk about his background in the performing arts, his decision to pursue an MBA, what led him to Darden, the impact of his time at Darden, his advice for prospective students and more. For more insights, tips, and stories abou...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Samantha Karp. Samantha is a second year student in Darden’s Part-Time MBA Class of 2026, and she also serves as VP, Academics for the Part-Time MBA Student Association (PSA). We talk with her about her background, her decision to pursue an MBA, what she’s enjoyed about the Part-Time MBA program so far and more. For more insights, tips, and stories...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Stew Neifert. Stew is a second year student in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2025, and in this wide-ranging conversation, Stew reflects upon his decision to pursue an MBA, what led him to Darden, the impact of his time at Darden, his experience as a Batten scholar and more. For more insights, tips, and stories about the Darden experience, be s...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with J.R. Rodrigo. J.R. is a student in UVA Darden’s Part-Time MBA Class of 2025, and we recently connected with him to talk about this decision to pursue an MBA, being part of Darden’s first class of Part-Time MBA students, what he’s enjoyed about the elective portion of the program, his advice for prospective students and more. For more insights, tips,...

In this episode of the podcast, we take a deep dive into the structure and design of UVA Darden’s Part-Time MBA program. We are joined for this conversation by Lauren Lopez-Maurer. Lauren serves as the advisor for Darden’s Part-Time MBA students, and in this conversation, she shares isnights about the Part-Time MBA student experience as well as tips for incoming students. For more insights, tips,...

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 Michael Ho. We talk with Ho about his background, what led him to Darden, his mergers and acquisitions elective, how his work at Fifth Third Bank informs his classes at Darden and more. For more insights, tips, and stories abo...

In this episode of the podcast, we take a deep dive into the structure and design of UVA Darden’s Executive MBA program. We are joined for this conversation by Erin Colwell. Erin serves as the advisor for Darden’s Executive MBA students, and in this conversation, she shares insights about the Executive MBA student experience as well as tips for incoming Executive MBA students.  For more insights,...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with two leaders of the Healthcare Alliance, Uma Subramanian and Louis Chapman. Uma is a recent graduate in the Executive MBA Class of 2024, and Louis is a second year student in the Part-Time MBA Class of 2025. We talk with Uma and Louis about their backgrounds, their decision to pursue an MBA and what led them to Darden. They also reflect upon the heal...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Liza Ketcham. Liza is a recent graduate in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2024, and in this wide-ranging conversation, we talk with her about her decision to pursue an MBA, adjusting to life as an Executive MBA student, her role on the Executive MBA wellness committee, the impact of her time at Darden and more. For more insights, tips, and stor...

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 Ian Appel. His main area of interest is empirical corporate finance, and his recent work studies different types of institutional investors (e.g., index funds, activist hedge funds), corporate environmental behaviors, and gove...

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 Shane Dikolli. Dikolli’s primary research interests focus on the performance evaluation of CEOs spanning both analytical modeling and empirical analysis, and he currently serves as an editor at The Accounting Review. We talk w...

In this episode, we catch up with Chantal Mekhail. Chantal is a first year student in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2025, and she is also a Batten Scholar. We talk with Chantal about her decision to pursue an MBA, what led her to Darden, the impact of her time in the Executive MBA program, her experience as a Batten Scholar and more. For more insights, tips, and stories about the Darden expe...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Madison Mahoney and Kyle Ivester. Madison and Kyle are first year students in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2025, and they also serve as section representatives. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk with Madison and Kyle about their decision to pursue an MBA, what led them to Darden, what they’ve enjoyed about their first year, their adv...

In this podcast episode, we catch up with Dylan Kenney and Haley O’Brien. Dylan and Haley are first year students in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2025, and they also serve as section representatives. We talk with Dylan and Haley about their backgrounds, their decision to pursue an MBA, what led them to Darden, what attracted them to the section representative role and more. For more insight...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with KJ Sloan. KJ is a second year in our Executive MBA Class of 2024, and she currently works as a Senior Field Producer for CNBC. In this conversation, we talk with KJ about her decision to pursue an MBA, the value of an MBA for journalists, how she juggled work, life and school during the Executive MBA program, her advice for prospective students and...

In this special edition of the Darden Admissions podcast, we catch up with Carlos Bortoni. Carlos is an MBA/M.Ed graduate in Darden’s Class of 2019, and he currently serves As Senior Director for the Batten Institute’s new launched “Tech Hub,” a cross-departmental effort to advance Darden’s presence and standing in technology through thought leadership, faculty and student engagement, and stakehol...

In this special episode of the Darden Admissions podcast, we catch up with Jen Coleman. Jen is the Executive Director of the Armstrong Center for Alumni Career Services at Darden, and she also serves as an Executive Coach and Career Consultant. We chat with Jen about her background, what brought her to coaching, how she works with alumni, her advice for prospective students and more. All Darden al...

In this special edition of the podcast, we are excited to share another installment from our ongoing Women@Darden event series featuring Executive Fellow and Professor of Practice Carolyn Miles (MBA ’88). This wide-ranging conversation hosted by Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions Dawna Clarke touches on Miles’ advice and insights for prospective and admitted students, her work as CEO of Save the...

In this special edition of the Darden Admissions podcast, we’re excited to highlight an upcoming event – the University of Virginia Venture Capital Conference taking place at Sands Family Grounds in Arlington, Virginia on Friday, 12 April. In honor of this year’s conference, we recently connected with two second year students in Darden’s Full-Time MBA Class of 2024, Malcolm Stewart and Ellie Jamis...

In this podcast episode, we catch up with Stuart Nystrom and Crescent Islam. Stuart and Crescent are first year students in UVA Darden’s Part-Time MBA Class of 2026, and they also serve as First Year Section Representatives. We talk with Stuart and Crescent about their decision to pursue an MBA, what led them to Darden, how their first year is going, what attracted them to the section representati...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Veronica Gordon. Veronica is a second year student in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2024, and she is also one of the student leaders in Darden’s Black Professional MBA student organization. We talk with Veronica about her MBA journey, her experience at Darden, the impact of the program and more. Veronica also shares highlights from UVA’s upcom...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Anthony Ranghelli! Anthony is a second year student in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2024, and he also recently served as President of Darden’s Executive Student Association (ESA). We talk with Anthony about his decision to pursue an MBA, what led him Darden, what led him to pursue a student leadership role, his advice for prospective students...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Anna Fife (MBA ’14). Anna is the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives for Darden’s Batten Institute, and we recently connected to talk with her about her background, what led her to Darden as an MBA student, and what brought her back to Darden for her role with the Batten Institute. Anna also shares insights about Darden’s Batten Scholars progra...

In this episode, Brett Twitty and Ali Torres discuss the similarities and differences between UVA Darden’s Executive MBA and Part-Time MBA programs. For more insights, tips, and stories about the Darden experience, click the link the description to check out the Discover Darden Admissions blog and follow us on Instagram @dardenmba. https://www.instagram.com/dardenmba/?hl=en https://blogs.darden.vi...

In this episode of the podcast, we catch up with Jimmy Anthony. Jimmy is a first-year student in UVA Darden’s Executive MBA Class of 2025, and we recently connected with him to discuss his background, what led him to Darden, his experience commuting from Arkansas for the program, how Darden has helped him reevaluate how he spends his time and more.