Coding and Creativity, C-Suite Communication and Compensation, Career Pivots - What to Read Now

An expert in executive compensation, managerial performance evaluation and corporate performance measurement, Dikolli’s research focuses on the performance evaluation of CEOs. His work has been featured in both practitioner-oriented and peer-reviewed academic publications, and he is a member of the editorial boards of numerous academic journals. Additionally, he has served as the president of the American Accounting Association’s Management Accounting Section.

Prior to joining Darden, Dikolli was a member of the Accounting faculty at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business, where he also served as associate dean of faculty engagement. The recipient of a number of teaching awards, he was recognized by Bloomberg Businessweek for being among the Top 5 Most Popular Business Professors across all disciplines in the Top 30 U.S. business schools.

B.Bus., P.Grad Dip.Bus., Curtin University of Technology; Ph.D., University of Waterloo

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Davidson is an expert on global leadership with an emphasis on how to manage diversity to generate superior performance — an approach he pioneered called Leveraging Difference. He wrote the book on diversity in business, The End of Diversity as We Know It: Why Diversity Efforts Fail and How Leveraging Difference Can Succeed. He’s experienced in helping senior leaders develop the skills they need to thrive in global environments.

Davidson consults with a host of Fortune 500 firms, government agencies and social profit organizations. He has served as chief diversity officer for the Darden School, and as the national chair of the Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division of the Academy of Management. Davidson writes a blog called “In My Opinion,” found at www.leveragingdifference.com.

A.B., Harvard College; Ph.D., Stanford University

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Cowan is an expert in digital innovation, agile and lean methodologies, and entrepreneurship. He teaches multiple courses in Darden’s Technology and Operations Management area, as well as the massive open online course specialization “Agile Development” (one of Coursera’s Top 15 specializations) and “Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals.”

Author of the book Starting a Tech Business: A Practical Guide for Anyone Creating or Designing Applications or Software, Cowan is also an experienced entrepreneur and intrapreneur who now divides his time between instructing, advising and consulting. He delves into venture design, his systematic approach to developing new products and businesses, on www.alexandercowan.com.

Cowan studied industrial engineering and economics at Stanford University.

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West is an expert on organizational communication, particularly during times of change.

West was instrumental in the 2003 inception of the Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education (PLE) to strategically combine the most innovative thinking in business and education to provide education leaders with skills necessary for managing schools. West served as the academic director and continues to be active in the PLE’s School Turnaround Specialist Program, now the most established turnaround program in the country.

She is the university faculty liaison to the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. West also directs a Darden faculty team that teaches in the summer orientation program for the Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellows program that places active-duty military officers in corporations for a one-year fellowship.

West has consulted for many organizations, including the Louisiana Department of Education and Mississippi State University Colleges of Business and Education.

B.S.Ed., The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; M.Ed., Kent State University; Ed.D., Lehigh University

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Harder’s research interests encompass leadership, organizational change and reward systems. In particular he studies procedural justice in organizations, the effects of perceived injustice on individual performance, perceptions and effects of leadership, and pay-for performance systems; his dissertation topic was “Pay and Performance in Professional Sports.” 

Active in Executive Education as well as the MBA program, he has taught all over the world. Prior to joining the Darden faculty, Harder taught at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Santa Clara University. 

He is a passionate baseball fan and has attended 11 San Francisco Giants fantasy camps. 

B.S., Bethel College; MBA, Santa Clara University; Ph.D., Stanford University

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