About Us

Making Space for Innovation

The Jim & Bobbie Ukrop Studio for Innovation and Design (or Ukrop Studio) is a space in which students or executives can come together to learn and practice a new set of skills and a different mindset. We focus on skills that enable and promote innovation through collaboration to address complex and ambiguous problems.
Our Mission

To help others think and work more creatively, holistically, and collaboratively—enabling them to identify and solve important problems, and to pursue the great opportunities that define our time.

Students Brainstorming at Whiteboard

Innovation in Education

The Ukrop Studio is also an education laboratory; a place to experiment with new ways of learning and teaching. We recognize the need for innovation in higher education at all levels - from undergraduate to graduate and executive training - and we welcome the challenge of becoming even more relevant, connected, and results-oriented in all that we do.

Learn More About Our Approach
Jim and Bobbie Ukrop

Our Benefactors

The Ukrop Studio was made possible by Jim and Bobbie Ukrop. Jim is a respected entrepreneur and business leader, an active William & Mary alumnus (Class of 1960), and a valued civic leader. He has served as CEO and Chairman of Ukrop's Supermarkets and Chairman of First Market Bank, both of which were sold in 2010. Over the years, he has led many business, arts, and public school initiatives. Jim is currently a partner at the venture capital firm, New Richmond Ventures. His wife, Barbara "Bobbie" Berkeley Ukrop, a member of the Class of 1961, served on the William & Mary Board of Visitors for two terms, from 2002 until 2009.

The Ukrops have generously supported a number of departments and areas of campus, including both men's and women's athletics, the arts, Swem Library, the William & Mary Alumni Association, the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, and the School of Education. They have also embraced countless leadership opportunities at the University.

We are very thankful to both Jim and Bobbie. Beyond the resources they have provided, their ideas and encouragement have been instrumental in enabling what the Ukrop Studio is today, and inspiring the momentum behind our exploration of what is possible tomorrow.