The University’s Darden School of Business announced Monday that Yael Grushka-Cockayne, current vice dean and professor at the Darden School of Business, will serve as the school’s 10th dean beginning Aug. 1 and succeed Scott Beardsley, former dean and University President.
Grushka-Cockayne will also become the first woman appointed to lead Darden in the school’s 70-year history. She began her role as senior associate dean for the full-time Master of Business Administration program in 2020 and currently serves as academic co-director of the University’s LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business — which focuses on integrating AI into business education with an emphasis on ethics, stakeholder impact and use of AI systems in decision-making contexts. She also currently holds a courtesy appointment — a secondary and typically unpaid appointment for a faculty member with an academic affiliation outside their primary school — in the School of Data Science.
Grushka-Cockayne joined the Darden faculty in 2009 and has taught across the school’s MBA and executive education programs. Before entering academia, she worked in the technology sector and later served as a visiting associate professor at the Harvard Business School and a visiting scholar at New York University Stern School of Business.
In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, Grushka-Cockayne outlined her priorities as she prepares to assume the role as dean.
“Darden has been my professional home for 17 years, and I am deeply honored by the opportunity to serve this extraordinary community as Dean,” Grushka-Cockayne wrote. “As I prepare to begin, my first priority will be to listen closely to our students, faculty, staff and alumni and build on the School’s tremendous momentum.”
Grushka-Cockayne’s appointment succeeds Beardsley — who stepped down as Darden dean when he assumed the University presidency Jan. 1. Darden Prof. Mike Lenox was then appointed as interim dean while the University conducted a formal search for Beardsley’s successor.
At the time of the search launch, search committee co-chairs Brie Gertler, interim executive vice president and provost, and Darden Prof. Ronald Wilcox said in a statement released in March to The Darden Report that the committee would seek a leader who could build on Darden’s academic momentum while responding to changes in business education, including the growing influence of AI and data analytics.
Wilcox also said to The Darden Report in March that the committee would rely on community feedback gathered from listening sessions held in spring 2026 to gather input on leadership qualities needed to the next dean of Darden. The committee included faculty, administrators, students and members of the Darden School Foundation Board of Trustees.
In her statement to The Cavalier Daily, Grushka-Cockayne emphasized the growing role of AI in shaping business education and leadership development.
“Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing business and education, but it does not diminish the importance of human judgment — it elevates it,” Grushka-Cockayne wrote. “Darden has an important opportunity to prepare leaders not simply to use AI fluently, but to question its outputs, understand its limitations and take responsibility for the decisions they make.”
In the announcement of Grushka-Cockayne’s appointment, Beardsley said in a statement to The Darden Report that she combines “continuity and forward-looking leadership” and is well-positioned to lead Darden. He also said that Grushka-Cockayne represents a leader who is deeply grounded in Darden’s educational model while also prepared to address future challenges.
“Yael is exactly the kind of leader this moment calls for,” Beardsley said in a statement to The Darden Report. “She believes deeply in Darden’s student-centered learning model and understands how business education must evolve in a world shaped by data, artificial intelligence and global complexity.”
Grushka-Cockayne will formally begin her role as dean Aug. 1.
Jaylynn Perez is a third-year College student from Chesapeake, Va., majoring in Government and minoring in Public Policy and Leadership in the Batten School. She currently serves as news senior associate editor and video staffer. She frequently covers topics such as student self-governance organizations, University governance and local politics.
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