Prof. Saras D. Sarasvathy

Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia

Saras Sarasvathy is Paul Hammaker Professor at University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business. A leading scholar on the cognitive basis for high-performance entrepreneurship, Sarasvathy serves as advisor to entrepreneurship programs in Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as on boards of companies and accelerators. After founding and running five ventures, Sarasvathy worked with Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon, to discover the effectual elements of entrepreneurial expertise. Her award-winning research explained in Effectuation has engendered new research, education and policy materials from around the world that can be found at www.effectuation.org. 

Sarasvathy’s awards and honors include:

• 2022 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research
• 2019 Legacy Award from Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers
• 2017 Foundational Paper Award from the Academy of Management
• Fortune Small Business magazine’s top 18 entrepreneurship professors
• Honorary doctorates and chaired visiting professorships from universities in Europe and Asia

Sarasvathy passionately advocates for entrepreneurship as a method, to be taught not only to potential entrepreneurs but to everyone, just as we teach science to everyone, not only to potential scientists. The aim is to create a society capable of effectual action to build enduring and robust socio-economic communities based on a middle class of business – not just startups and unicorns.