Managing Director, LaCross Institute Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business, Darden Sc

The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia seeks a highly motivated, entrepreneurial, and hands‑on Managing Director to advance the LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business. This position is located in person in Charlottesville, VA.

The LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business (LaCross Institute), launched in 2024, brings together Darden’s strengths in business ethics, stakeholder theory, and enterprise‑wide thinking with capabilities in data analytics and decision science. Its mission is to help leaders harness the potential of AI to create human value and new business models while ensuring that AI use is ethical, inclusive, and socially responsible.

As a recently established Darden Center of Excellence, the Institute is in a formative stage of growth. It advances faculty research and thought leadership, interdisciplinary collaboration across UVA, student engagement through applied research and experiential initiatives, and meaningful engagement with industry and society.

Darden’s Centers for Excellence operate within a shared governance model of senior professional staff and Darden faculty. Faculty Academic Directors for each center or institute provide intellectual and strategic direction. The Managing Director partners closely with faculty leadership while taking primary responsibility and accountability as the institute’s leader for operational execution, program development, external engagement, and day‑to‑day advancement of the Institute’s mission.

The Managing Director plays a central, execution‑focused role in building and operationalizing the LaCross AI Institute during its early growth phase and setting the Institute up for long‑term impact and success.

This is a highly hands‑on position with an entrepreneurial mindset required to ensure success. As the only full‑time staff member for the Institute at this stage, success for the Managing Director will require strong individual initiative, the ability to work across matrixed stakeholders, leadership through collaboration and influence, and comfort translating ideas into visible outcomes.

In partnership with the Institute’s Academic Directors and Darden leadership, the Managing Director will:

• Activate research priorities and support faculty collaboration in the institute’s domain areas
• Advance translation of faculty scholarship related to ethical AI in business into practitioner‑facing outputs
• Develop and manage key Institute initiatives, such as the annual conference, a fellows program, and projects like the AI Index
• Cultivate industry engagement and sponsorship
• Design and execute signature convenings and engagement activities

The Managing Director reports to the Senior Associate Dean, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer and works closely with the Senior Associate Dean for Research, Institute Academic Directors, faculty, university partners, and external stakeholders.

• Partner with Darden and UVA faculty and the Office of Research Services to support research and thought leadership in ethical and applied AI in business.
• Help steward the Institute’s annual research agenda in collaboration with the Senior Associate Dean for Research and the Academic Directors.
• Manage and advance the AI Index report and related Institute research initiatives.
• Design and administer fellowship and grant programs that support faculty scholarship.
• Facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration across UVA (e.g., working groups, research pods).
• Translate faculty research into accessible practitioner‑ and student‑facing outputs (e.g., white papers, summaries, frameworks, case studies, reports, events).
• Partner with Darden Communications and Marketing to extend the Institute’s visibility and impact.
• Commitment to bringing faculty ideas to the forefront of business practice is essential.

• Develop and implement a structured practitioner engagement strategy aligned with Institute priorities.
• Build relationships with industry leaders in AI, analytics, and related sectors.
• Identify and secure…