PAC Weekend 2023 a rousing success

The Pamplin Advisory Council (PAC), the senior-level council of volunteers established to promote, support, and improve Pamplin, held its annual fall meeting last week, accompanied by various activities and festivities that celebrated the Pamplin College of Business and its accomplished alumni and friends.

The weekend began early on Thursday, Sept. 28, with a meeting of the Pamplin Community for Leadership and Engagement (PCLE) as well as an orientation for new members of the PAC. The evening concluded with a welcome reception, student showcase, and dinner at the Data and Decision Sciences Building. The 120,000-gross-square-foot Data and Decision Sciences Building is the first of two academic structures to be completed near the northwest end of campus as part of the Global Business and Analytics Complex, often referred to as GBAC. The new building includes specialized labs, dozens of student team rooms, and visualization spaces, and is designed to foster collaboration, especially among Pamplin College of Business, College of Engineering, and the College of Science.

Follow this link to see a gallery of images from the evening.

Friday, Sept. 29, kicked off, appropriately, at the West End Zone Club at Lane Stadium. Here, the fall PAC meeting began with a State of Pamplin address from Saonee Sarker, dean of Pamplin College of Business. A presentation for Beyond Boundaries from France Bélanger, University Distinguished Professor and R.B. Pamplin Professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems, followed.

Bélanger and Donna Wertalik, professor of practice in the marketing department, then gave a presentation to PAC members on Voices of Privacy, an initiative that provides a platform consisting of videos and other resources dedicated to raising awareness, educating individuals across society at large about online privacy, and empowering them with the tools they need to successfully manage their future online privacy. To close the morning session, Jim Hatch ’72 gave an update on the upcoming 2024 Pamplin Engagement Summit.

Following a lunch at the East End Zone Club, the afternoon session moved back to the Data and Decision Sciences Building, where five different committee breakout sessions were held. These sessions focused on alumni engagement, student experience, development, communications, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). After the breakout sessions, the PAC regrouped as Charles Phlegar, senior vice president for advancement at Virginia Tech, spoke to the collection of board members. His comments were followed by a committee reporting session, which included impactful testimony from several students who participated in Pamplin’s first-ever international experiential learning program, DEIB Around the World. The afternoon session concluded with closing remarks from Dean Sarker.

For images from the Friday afternoon sessions, please visit the gallery page.

The weekend concluded with a Pamplin Tailgate at Hahn Pavilion before the Virginia Tech football game against Pittsburgh. The tailgate, which had over 150 Pamplin alumni and friends in attendance, featured entertainment by Pamplin alum DJ Flex and refreshments provided by Professional Catering, Inc.

For pictures from the tailgate, please visit the gallery page.

Pamplin College of Business would like to thank the 100-plus PAC members, PCLE members, faculty, students, family, and friends who attended the weekend’s events and helped make PAC Weekend 2023 a success. Please be on the lookout later this month for the October edition of the Pamplin Pulse, which will include video coverage from the weekend.