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Ashby Taylor (McIntire '08) Receives Prestigious Faculty Award

Described by McIntire faculty members as demonstrating “initiative, creativity, and a capacity to motivate,” Ashby Taylor (McIntire ’08) was granted the prestigious Faculty Award at the May 15, 2008, faculty meeting.

The Faculty Award is presented to a graduating Commerce student whom the faculty believes displays a capacity for leadership, sense of social responsibility, and level of academic achievement that reflect positively on the School, University, and Commonwealth. The award, which is both granted and funded by McIntire faculty members, is given only in cases of extraordinary contribution. Since its inception in 1963, the Faculty Award has been presented eight times.

An outstanding student and active member of the McIntire, University, and Charlottesville communities, Taylor’s crowning accomplishment was the founding of the Socially Responsible Investment Organization (SRIO). Designed to introduce University students to socially responsible investing (SRI) and to explore the role of corporate social responsibility in the business world today, the SRIO seeks to create a forum through which students and SRI professionals can interact.

“The SRIO emerged out of an assignment to simply propose and implement a leadership experience,” says McIntire Professor Tom Bateman, who heads the U.Va. LEAD program from which the SRIO emerged. “Ashby took that assignment to a level that stands above the crowd.”

On April 8, 2008, the SRIO sponsored a hugely successful forum titled “Valuing Change: The New Challenges and Opportunities of Socially Responsible Investing.” The event featured the thoughts and comments of SRI superstars Rob Berridge, Program Manager of Investor Programs at Ceres; Justin Conway, Relationship Officer at the Calvert Foundation; Julie Gorte, Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing at Pax World Management; and Paul Hilton, Director of Advanced Equities Research at the Calvert Group.

“I was thrilled to be able to bring together such an outstanding group of SRI professionals,” Taylor said. “SRI is a global phenomenon, and it’s growing at an incredible rate—it certainly merits this sort of thoughtful discussion and consideration.”

This year’s forum was the first of what will become an annual event. In addition, Taylor worked with the University to establish the SRIO as a Contracted Independent Organization, thereby laying the groundwork for students to raise awareness about SRI and network with SRI professionals for years to come. “Ashby’s SRIO initiative was not only a tremendous success, but the very model of inspirational student leadership,” says McIntire Professor Peter Maillet.
 

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