Darden School of Business: “Along with new students, we are welcoming an exciting group of new professors to Darden Grounds in Charlottesville and Rosslyn this year.

Eleven new and returning scholars have joined the University of Virginia Darden School of Business ahead of the 2025-26 academic year. They bring valuable knowledge in key areas such as finance, data analytics, decision sciences, strategy, entrepreneurship, communications, ethics, accounting and more.

Let’s meet them:

Shuaiyu Chen, Assistant Professor, Finance Area

Before Darden: Most recently Shuaiyu was on the business school faculty at Purdue University. He earned his PhD in finance from the University of Rochester, his MS in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from Johns Hopkins and his BS in mathematical economics from Central University of Finance and Economics, China.

Research: His research interests include empirical asset pricing, asset management, short selling and securities lending, financial news, and return predictability.

Classroom: At Darden he will be teaching in the FY finance core and an elective on Quantitative Portfolio Management.

Learn more about Shuaiyu on his personal website.”

To read bios of 10 more new Darden professors, click on this link to the Darden website.

DON’T MISS: WHY DARDEN’S PROFESSORS ARE THE BEST MBA TEACHERS ON THE PLANET

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Investigation into Columbia Business School Professor Leaves More Questions Than Answers

Columbia Spectator: “More than two hours into the “Columbia in Crisis” congressional hearing in April 2024, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) lobbed one last question to then-University President Minouche Shafik before her five-minute questioning period ended.

“Before I run out of time, I wanted to ask, what do your rules say about professors that harass students online, like Professor Shai Davidai has done and professors who directly attack you as the president, as a coward and a liar?” Omar said.

“So as president, I’m used to being attacked,” Shafik responded. “But attacking our students is unacceptable, and in that case, we’ve had more than 50 complaints about that professor, and he’s currently under investigation for harassment and intimidation.”

Over a year later, a University official told Spectator on July 9 that Davidai, an assistant professor, was departing the Business School in a mutual agreement with the University, now helmed by acting University President Claire Shipman, CC ’86, SIPA ’94. Since Shafik testified before Congress in April 2024, the investigation against Davidai shifted between multiple entities within and outside the University, deviated from procedures enshrined in institutional policy, and persisted for 17 months before ending abruptly with no determination or disciplinary action.

Spectator spoke to four different complainants and reviewed dozens of emails and materials sent during the course of the University’s investigation into Davidai, parsing the prolonged timeline of the case and the circumstances of its termination.”

To read the full article from The Columbia Spectator, click here.

DON’T MISS: FIREBRAND PROFESSOR LEAVES COLUMBIA AFTER CLASHING OVER PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS

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Washington Olin Receives $10-Million Gift to Support Leadership and Health Programming

Washington University: “Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis has received a landmark $10 million dual-purpose gift from longtime university benefactors Jerry Kent, BSBA ’78, MBA ’79, and his wife, Judy Kent, to create an endowed deanship and to propel the school’s Business of Health initiative. It is the largest gift to Olin in the past decade.

The Kents also pledged $5 million to create the Judy and Jerry Kent Business of Health Catalyst Fund, which will provide spendable resources to rapidly scale Olin’s Business of Health initiative — a top strategic priority aimed at making Olin the premier institution for the business of health and an engine for innovation at WashU.

Chancellor Andrew D. Martin praised the Kents’ vision and steadfast commitment to Olin.

“Jerry and Judy have shaped the trajectory of Olin through their decades of partnership and support,” Martin said. “This gift is not just generous, it is strategic. It empowers Olin leaders to take swift, bold action and solidifies Olin’s future as a leader in business education.”

To read more, click here.

DON’T MISS: WASHU OLIN BUSINESS SCHOOL MAKES A BIG BET ON THE BUSINESS OF HEALTH

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Harvard Business School Names New Goldsmith Fellows

Harvard Business School: “Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced the 2025 recipients of its Horace W. Goldsmith Fellowships. Established in 1988 by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and Richard L. Menschel (MBA 1959), a former director of the foundation and a limited partner at Goldman Sachs, to encourage students from the nonprofit and public sectors to attend HBS, these fellowships enable the School to award $10,000 to a select number of incoming MBA students for each of the two years of the MBA program.

Beginning with the Class of 1990, 276 incoming students have received the fellowship. Recipients of the award have served in leadership roles in nonprofit and public sector organizations and demonstrate a strong commitment to continued career paths in these areas. New recipients are invited to participate in events with current and former recipients as well as local social enterprise leaders in an effort to create a network of individuals committed to working in social enterprise.”

To read bios of the 2025 Goldsmith Fellows, click on this link from Harvard Business School.

DON’T MISS: MEET HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL’S MBA CLASS OF 2026

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A Fake Harvard MBA on LinkedIn Produces Job Leads…and Criticism

NDTV: “A LinkedIn user faked a Harvard MBA on his profile “just for fun” and shared the experiment online, sparking widespread discussion. In the post, the user noted that the fake credential instantly boosted his credibility with recruiters and connections. However, his tongue-in-cheek experiment drew serious criticism from lawyer SMB Attorney, who warned against attempting similar deception.

“Master’s degrees are useless. I gave myself one on LinkedIn just for fun (there’s no verification process). Since adding this to my profile, the DMs have been flowing in. Every other message mentions how “impressive” my academic background is. So instead of spending $100K+ and wasting years of your life on a degree, just add it to your LinkedIn. No one checks. No one questions. Fake it till you make it has never been easier,” the LinkedIn user wrote.”

To read more from NDTV, click here.

DON’T MISS: AI DETECTION TOOLS ON MBA ESSAYS: FALSE POSITIVES? FAKES?

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ADDITIONAL STORIES:

BAYLOR BUSINESS LAUNCHES NATION’S FIRST AI-ENTREPRENEURSHIP CHALLENGE

NON-ENGINEERS STORM INDIA’S TOP BUSINESS SCHOOLS

UVA DARDEN CLOSES POWERED BY PURPOSE CAMPAIGN WITH $632 MILLION IN TOTAL IMPACT

HILDEBRAND MBA PROGRAMS TO GET NEW LEADER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS’ MCCOMBS SCHOOL

UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA BUSINESS DEAN TO STEP DOWN AFTER 18 YEARS

 

 

 

 

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