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Small Talk: Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Dwyane Pinkney

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Wonder what's trending on Dr. Pinkney's Spotify? Or what he's watching on TV?

Get to know Dr. Pinkney and the administrative enterprise leadership team on a more personal level through the Small Talk. 

Learn more about Dr. Pinkney, his role at Virginia Tech, and the initiatives of the administrative enterprise: svpoa.vt.edu 
- You'd probably find more '90s R&B on my on my Spotify. - So, since we're both vaccinated, do you mind if we take our masks off? - Absolutely! Yes. - Great! - Thanks for sitting down with us. - Thank you. - Enterprise members know all about the initiatives in the enterprise. But I think they want to know a little bit more about you! So, do you mind answering some questions? - I'd be glad to! - Great! What kind of summer plans do you have coming up? Anything exciting? - Well, the thing about summer plans is that you have to make them. And I haven't done that to date. But I have got a lot of encouragement from family members to do that. So, my wonderful assistant has reserved time, a block of time, for me and I would say the plans are underway. - Are there any podcasts or artists taking up your Spotify? - No... So I don't want to suggest that there is no more good music. I would say, I think I'm a bit more traditional. I do really appreciate jazz. John Coltrane, his work. So if there's something trending for me, it would probably be Coltrane. "The Coltrane Essentials." Fellow North Carolinian. So there's that connection. But more importantly, music itself. From my perspective, phenomenal. With respect to popular music, not a whole lot that would be trending on my Spotify list. I would say that if I had to pick a genre, you probably find more 90s R&B. For whatever reason, that particular time really stands out for some really good R&B music. And so that would be the rotation for sure. From a podcast perspective, there are a couple that I listen to. ""The Prof G," Scott Galloway podcast. Jim Cramer, "Mad Money." That might have a little bit to do with my profession and what I do. - What are you binging on TV? - Yeah. So I think there's some of the usual suspects over the last year that we've identified and that we've watched. But I've gone through so many of them! So, "Billions" would be one. "Homeland." And "The Handmaid's Tale." The one that we're watching now is "City on a Hill." It's a crime drama set in Boston in the early 90s. There's something about this 90s thing going on here! - It sounds like it! If you had one, what was your high school superlative? So I don't remember having one. And if I did, I think I was recognized as pretty bookish. So I probably would have been recognized as the one "Most Likely To Write A Book." I haven't written one. - Do you think you would write a book, someday? - I just might, I might make that superlative come true. Oh, now that's the toughest question you've asked! But I'm going to say Chicago Maroon. Memorial Day is often seen as the start of the summer vacation season. And I'll come back to that just in just a moment on why I think that's important in general, and in this moment, especially significant. But the more the historical, the more traditional meaning, obviously, around Memorial Day - it's in the name of the holiday itself - to remember, to memorialize those members of the U.S. Armed Forces who have fought, who made the ultimate sacrifice to this nation's wars and conflicts. Having many members of my family, extended family and my immediate family, who have served in the military, that meaning is never lost on me. That is obviously, I would say, the most significant meaning of Memorial Day. But I mentioned that I will return to the meaning that is probably the more popular meaning or interpretation these days around the the official start of the summer holiday season. While we know that meteorologically, summer is about a month away, it does mark the start of that time of transition for renewal through vacation. And I think that's always important. And I would encourage the members of our respective teams to take full advantage of those opportunities over the summer, to refresh, to really restore. That's always important. It is even more important after the year we have experienced with a global pandemic. For us to take that time to make sure we are at our best when the campus comes back and is engaged in August in all ways. It's really important, I think, that we first take the time and make sure that we have provided that self-care for ourselves and obviously for others as well, to be our best, when that time comes. 108 00:05:53,00 --> 00:05:56,900 - Who would you nominate, of your direct reports, to participate in one of these interviews next? - Absolutely. Well, because I think so favorably of all of them, the easy response is to say all of them. And that would be the accurate response. But I am going to pick on one because we started at roughly the same time. And that would be Bryan Garey.