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Experts
Gabrielle Adams
Associate Professor of Business Administration
Adams is a behavioral scientist with a joint appointment at two University of Virginia schools: the Darden School of Business and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She also holds a courtesy appointment at UVA’s Department of Psychology. An expert in interpersonal dynamics, social exchange, conflict resolution and decision-making, she studies psychological inefficiencies and what gives rise to ‘good’ decisions, policies and conditions in organizations.
Adams received UVA's All-University Teaching Award in 2021 and was named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under 40 by Poets & Quants. Her work has been published in journals such as Nature, Psychological Science, the Journal of Experimental Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. It has also been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review.
B.A., Colby College; Ph.D., Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Michael Albert
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Assistant Professor Michael Albert teaches Quantitative Analysis courses in Darden’s MBA program, and he has joint appointments in Systems Engineering and Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at UVA. His research focuses on combining machine learning and algorithmic techniques to automate the design of markets. His work has appeared in leading artificial intelligence and machine learning venues such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI).
Prior to joining Darden in 2018, Albert received his PhD in Financial Economics at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He has also worked as a visiting assistant professor of finance at the Ohio State University, as a post-doctoral researcher at the Learning Agents Research Group at the University of Texas at Austin under Peter Stone, and as a post-doctoral researcher in the artificial intelligence group headed by Vincent Conitzer at Duke University.
B.S., James Madison University; M.S., Ph.D., Duke University
Lester F. Alexander III
John Glynn Endowed Professor and Professor of Practice in Business Administration
Les Alexander is the John Glynn Endowed Professor and a Professor of Practice in the Finance and Strategy, Ethics & Entrepreneurship areas at Darden. He is an experienced professor, venture capital and private equity investor, corporate executive, and investment banker. As a partner with Jefferson Capital Partners, he has completed venture capital, growth capital, and control equity investments in a variety of privately owned businesses. Alexander serves on the board of directors of several Jefferson Capital portfolio companies where he is involved in strategic planning and corporate governance. Prior to joining Jefferson Capital, he was an investment professional at Advantage Capital Partners financing private businesses and serving on the boards of several portfolio companies.
Before joining Darden, Alexander was a professor at Tulane University and Loyola University in New Orleans. He has taught graduate, undergraduate, and executive MBA classes in finance and management including Venture Capital and Private Equity, Investment Banking, Cases in Finance, Entrepreneurial Finance, Advanced Financial Management, Investments, and Entrepreneurship.
Alexander served as president of Ferrara Fire Apparatus, a leading fire truck and emergency vehicle manufacturer. At Ferrara, he was responsible for 450 employees producing over 300 vehicles annually for its domestic and international customers.
As an investment banker for 15 years with Howard Weil, Southcoast Capital, and J.C. Bradford, Alexander completed over 50 public offerings, private placements, and merger and acquisition transactions for public and private companies in many different industries.
Alexander is a governing board member of the Small Business Investor Alliance (SBIA) and serves on its executive committee. He founded the Louisiana chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), served as its first chapter president, and remains a board member. He was the ACG Global Chairman of Finance, an executive committee member, a global board member, and Chairman of the 2016 ACG InterGrowth conference. Alexander received the ACG global Meritorious Service Award and the ACG Louisiana Outstanding Service Award. He is a frequent speaker on private equity, venture capital, M&A, and other finance topics at conferences, meetings, and seminars.