Governor Glenn Youngkin (Red Team) filled the University of Virginia Board of Visitors with his appointees as of July 2025. Youngkin is the former co-CEO for the Carlyle Group, a politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU). Youngkin has but weeks left in office as Virginia Governor. He will be replaced by Governor Elect Abigail Spanberger (Blue Team).
The UVA Board of Visitors named a new President, Scott Beardsley, who himself is a private equity underwriter (albeit on the side of his Darden Graduate Business School Deanship). Beardsley's CV shows him to be a Senior Advisor for the Carlyle Group as well as Sands Capital.
Politicians Red and Blue love PEU. Increasingly, more are one.
Update 12-20-25: Senator Elizabeth Warren said "private equity guts everything." UVA Today neglected to mention Beardsley's PEU role with Carlyle in their story on his Presidential appointment. It is also absent from the Board of Visitor letter regarding his appointment. Beardsley also omitted it in his remarks.
