Entrepreneurs Beating Odds in Virginia
Recognized Through New Tayloe Murphy Center
Initiative
March 08, 2010 11:00 AM Eastern Time
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Towns in Virginia have experienced firm closures,
job losses and resulting social dislocations. The public knows about these trends. Less recognized is that within these
communities, a cadre of entrepreneurs has built stable, thriving firms often overlooked by outsiders. That’s about to
change.
The Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards Competition will recognize and support entrepreneurial firms that have
shown sustained economic vitality, high employment and which provide uplift to their communities while operating in
Virginia’s most economically challenged areas.
“We’re going to be focused on what leads to sustainable economic and social change,” said Gregory B. Fairchild,
Executive Director of the Tayloe Murphy Center since July 2009, and Associate Professor of Business
Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Under Fairchild’s leadership, the Tayloe Murphy Center plans to help reshape Virginia's challenged communities into
success stories. Fairchild, who teaches entrepreneurial thinking and business ethics at Darden, believes communities
can and should be grown with local talent.
Tayloe Murphy Center staff will reach out to select communities defined by slow growth and economic hardship, but
which, with Center support – education, leadership, alliances – will be encouraged to reach towards reinvention.
Fairchild’s interest in building futures means Center leadership will work with community leaders to develop local
talent to facilitate change. The Tayloe Murphy Center will also initiate Virginia-based research focusing on
community development.
The Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards Competition represents the Center’s most immediate contribution to
Virginia’s economic development.
Winners will receive a week-long scholarship to Darden’s Executive Educations program and,